They still sleep in my cave; their dream still
drinketh
at my drunken
songs.
songs.
Thus Spake Zarathustra- A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
And who could divine what thoughts then passed through
Zarathustra's soul? Apparently, however, his spirit retreated and fled
in advance and was in remote distances, and as it were "wandering on
high mountain-ridges," as it standeth written, "'twixt two seas,
--Wandering 'twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud. " Gradually,
however, while the higher men held him in their arms, he came back to
himself a little, and resisted with his hands the crowd of the honouring
and caring ones; but he did not speak. All at once, however, he turned
his head quickly, for he seemed to hear something: then laid he his
finger on his mouth and said: "COME! "
And immediately it became still and mysterious round about; from
the depth however there came up slowly the sound of a clock-bell.
Zarathustra listened thereto, like the higher men; then, however, laid
he his finger on his mouth the second time, and said again: "COME! COME!
IT IS GETTING ON TO MIDNIGHT! "--and his voice had changed. But still
he had not moved from the spot. Then it became yet stiller and more
mysterious, and everything hearkened, even the ass, and Zarathustra's
noble animals, the eagle and the serpent,--likewise the cave of
Zarathustra and the big cool moon, and the night itself. Zarathustra,
however, laid his hand upon his mouth for the third time, and said:
COME! COME! COME! LET US NOW WANDER! IT IS THE HOUR: LET US WANDER INTO
THE NIGHT!
3.
Ye higher men, it is getting on to midnight: then will I say something
into your ears, as that old clock-bell saith it into mine ear,--
--As mysteriously, as frightfully, and as cordially as that midnight
clock-bell speaketh it to me, which hath experienced more than one man:
--Which hath already counted the smarting throbbings of your fathers'
hearts--ah! ah! how it sigheth! how it laugheth in its dream! the old,
deep, deep midnight!
Hush! Hush! Then is there many a thing heard which may not be heard
by day; now however, in the cool air, when even all the tumult of your
hearts hath become still,--
--Now doth it speak, now is it heard, now doth it steal into
overwakeful, nocturnal souls: ah! ah! how the midnight sigheth! how it
laugheth in its dream!
--Hearest thou not how it mysteriously, frightfully, and cordially
speaketh unto THEE, the old deep, deep midnight?
O MAN, TAKE HEED!
4.
Woe to me! Whither hath time gone? Have I not sunk into deep wells? The
world sleepeth--
Ah! Ah! The dog howleth, the moon shineth. Rather will I die, rather
will I die, than say unto you what my midnight-heart now thinketh.
Already have I died. It is all over. Spider, why spinnest thou around
me? Wilt thou have blood? Ah! Ah! The dew falleth, the hour cometh--
--The hour in which I frost and freeze, which asketh and asketh and
asketh: "Who hath sufficient courage for it?
--Who is to be master of the world? Who is going to say: THUS shall ye
flow, ye great and small streams! "
--The hour approacheth: O man, thou higher man, take heed! this talk is
for fine ears, for thine ears--WHAT SAITH DEEP MIDNIGHT'S VOICE INDEED?
5.
It carrieth me away, my soul danceth. Day's-work! Day's-work! Who is to
be master of the world?
The moon is cool, the wind is still. Ah! Ah! Have ye already flown high
enough? Ye have danced: a leg, nevertheless, is not a wing.
Ye good dancers, now is all delight over: wine hath become lees, every
cup hath become brittle, the sepulchres mutter.
Ye have not flown high enough: now do the sepulchres mutter: "Free the
dead! Why is it so long night? Doth not the moon make us drunken? "
Ye higher men, free the sepulchres, awaken the corpses! Ah, why doth the
worm still burrow? There approacheth, there approacheth, the hour,--
--There boometh the clock-bell, there thrilleth still the heart, there
burroweth still the wood-worm, the heart-worm. Ah! Ah! THE WORLD IS
DEEP!
6.
Sweet lyre! Sweet lyre! I love thy tone, thy drunken, ranunculine
tone! --how long, how far hath come unto me thy tone, from the distance,
from the ponds of love!
Thou old clock-bell, thou sweet lyre! Every pain hath torn thy heart,
father-pain, fathers'-pain, forefathers'-pain; thy speech hath become
ripe,--
--Ripe like the golden autumn and the afternoon, like mine anchorite
heart--now sayest thou: The world itself hath become ripe, the grape
turneth brown,
--Now doth it wish to die, to die of happiness. Ye higher men, do ye not
feel it? There welleth up mysteriously an odour,
--A perfume and odour of eternity, a rosy-blessed, brown,
gold-wine-odour of old happiness,
--Of drunken midnight-death happiness, which singeth: the world is deep,
AND DEEPER THAN THE DAY COULD READ!
7.
Leave me alone! Leave me alone! I am too pure for thee. Touch me not!
Hath not my world just now become perfect?
My skin is too pure for thy hands. Leave me alone, thou dull, doltish,
stupid day! Is not the midnight brighter?
The purest are to be masters of the world, the least known, the
strongest, the midnight-souls, who are brighter and deeper than any day.
O day, thou gropest for me? Thou feelest for my happiness? For thee am I
rich, lonesome, a treasure-pit, a gold chamber?
O world, thou wantest ME? Am I worldly for thee? Am I spiritual for
thee? Am I divine for thee? But day and world, ye are too coarse,--
--Have cleverer hands, grasp after deeper happiness, after deeper
unhappiness, grasp after some God; grasp not after me:
--Mine unhappiness, my happiness is deep, thou strange day, but yet am I
no God, no God's-hell: DEEP IS ITS WOE.
8.
God's woe is deeper, thou strange world! Grasp at God's woe, not at me!
What am I! A drunken sweet lyre,--
--A midnight-lyre, a bell-frog, which no one understandeth, but which
MUST speak before deaf ones, ye higher men! For ye do not understand me!
Gone! Gone! O youth! O noontide! O afternoon! Now have come evening and
night and midnight,--the dog howleth, the wind:
--Is the wind not a dog? It whineth, it barketh, it howleth. Ah! Ah!
how she sigheth! how she laugheth, how she wheezeth and panteth, the
midnight!
How she just now speaketh soberly, this drunken poetess! hath she
perhaps overdrunk her drunkenness? hath she become overawake? doth she
ruminate?
--Her woe doth she ruminate over, in a dream, the old, deep
midnight--and still more her joy. For joy, although woe be deep, JOY IS
DEEPER STILL THAN GRIEF CAN BE.
9.
Thou grape-vine! Why dost thou praise me? Have I not cut thee! I am
cruel, thou bleedest--: what meaneth thy praise of my drunken cruelty?
"Whatever hath become perfect, everything mature--wanteth to die! " so
sayest thou. Blessed, blessed be the vintner's knife! But everything
immature wanteth to live: alas!
Woe saith: "Hence! Go! Away, thou woe! " But everything that suffereth
wanteth to live, that it may become mature and lively and longing,
--Longing for the further, the higher, the brighter. "I want heirs,"
so saith everything that suffereth, "I want children, I do not want
MYSELF,"--
Joy, however, doth not want heirs, it doth not want children,--joy
wanteth itself, it wanteth eternity, it wanteth recurrence, it wanteth
everything eternally-like-itself.
Woe saith: "Break, bleed, thou heart! Wander, thou leg! Thou wing, fly!
Onward! upward! thou pain! " Well! Cheer up! O mine old heart: WOE SAITH:
"HENCE! GO! "
10.
Ye higher men, what think ye? Am I a soothsayer? Or a dreamer? Or a
drunkard? Or a dream-reader? Or a midnight-bell?
Or a drop of dew? Or a fume and fragrance of eternity? Hear ye it not?
Smell ye it not? Just now hath my world become perfect, midnight is also
mid-day,--
Pain is also a joy, curse is also a blessing, night is also a sun,--go
away! or ye will learn that a sage is also a fool.
Said ye ever Yea to one joy? O my friends, then said ye Yea also unto
ALL woe. All things are enlinked, enlaced and enamoured,--
--Wanted ye ever once to come twice; said ye ever: "Thou pleasest me,
happiness! Instant! Moment! " then wanted ye ALL to come back again!
--All anew, all eternal, all enlinked, enlaced and enamoured, Oh, then
did ye LOVE the world,--
--Ye eternal ones, ye love it eternally and for all time: and also unto
woe do ye say: Hence! Go! but come back! FOR JOYS ALL WANT--ETERNITY!
11.
All joy wanteth the eternity of all things, it wanteth honey, it
wanteth lees, it wanteth drunken midnight, it wanteth graves, it wanteth
grave-tears' consolation, it wanteth gilded evening-red--
--WHAT doth not joy want! it is thirstier, heartier, hungrier, more
frightful, more mysterious, than all woe: it wanteth ITSELF, it biteth
into ITSELF, the ring's will writheth in it,--
--It wanteth love, it wanteth hate, it is over-rich, it bestoweth, it
throweth away, it beggeth for some one to take from it, it thanketh the
taker, it would fain be hated,--
--So rich is joy that it thirsteth for woe, for hell, for hate, for
shame, for the lame, for the WORLD,--for this world, Oh, ye know it
indeed!
Ye higher men, for you doth it long, this joy, this irrepressible,
blessed joy--for your woe, ye failures! For failures, longeth all
eternal joy.
For joys all want themselves, therefore do they also want grief! O
happiness, O pain! Oh break, thou heart! Ye higher men, do learn it,
that joys want eternity.
--Joys want the eternity of ALL things, they WANT DEEP, PROFOUND
ETERNITY!
12.
Have ye now learned my song? Have ye divined what it would say? Well!
Cheer up! Ye higher men, sing now my roundelay!
Sing now yourselves the song, the name of which is "Once more," the
signification of which is "Unto all eternity! "--sing, ye higher men,
Zarathustra's roundelay!
O man! Take heed!
What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?
"I slept my sleep--,
"From deepest dream I've woke, and plead:--
"The world is deep,
"And deeper than the day could read.
"Deep is its woe--,
"Joy--deeper still than grief can be:
"Woe saith: Hence! Go!
"But joys all want eternity-,
"-Want deep, profound eternity! "
LXXX. THE SIGN.
In the morning, however, after this night, Zarathustra jumped up from
his couch, and, having girded his loins, he came out of his cave glowing
and strong, like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains.
"Thou great star," spake he, as he had spoken once before, "thou deep
eye of happiness, what would be all thy happiness if thou hadst not
THOSE for whom thou shinest!
And if they remained in their chambers whilst thou art already awake,
and comest and bestowest and distributest, how would thy proud modesty
upbraid for it!
Well! they still sleep, these higher men, whilst _I_ am awake: THEY are
not my proper companions! Not for them do I wait here in my mountains.
At my work I want to be, at my day: but they understand not what are the
signs of my morning, my step--is not for them the awakening-call.
They still sleep in my cave; their dream still drinketh at my drunken
songs. The audient ear for ME--the OBEDIENT ear, is yet lacking in their
limbs. "
--This had Zarathustra spoken to his heart when the sun arose: then
looked he inquiringly aloft, for he heard above him the sharp call of
his eagle. "Well! " called he upwards, "thus is it pleasing and proper to
me. Mine animals are awake, for I am awake.
Mine eagle is awake, and like me honoureth the sun. With eagle-talons
doth it grasp at the new light. Ye are my proper animals; I love you.
But still do I lack my proper men! "--
Thus spake Zarathustra; then, however, it happened that all on a sudden
he became aware that he was flocked around and fluttered around, as if
by innumerable birds,--the whizzing of so many wings, however, and the
crowding around his head was so great that he shut his eyes. And verily,
there came down upon him as it were a cloud, like a cloud of arrows
which poureth upon a new enemy. But behold, here it was a cloud of love,
and showered upon a new friend.
"What happeneth unto me? " thought Zarathustra in his astonished heart,
and slowly seated himself on the big stone which lay close to the exit
from his cave. But while he grasped about with his hands, around him,
above him and below him, and repelled the tender birds, behold, there
then happened to him something still stranger: for he grasped thereby
unawares into a mass of thick, warm, shaggy hair; at the same time,
however, there sounded before him a roar,--a long, soft lion-roar.
"THE SIGN COMETH," said Zarathustra, and a change came over his heart.
And in truth, when it turned clear before him, there lay a yellow,
powerful animal at his feet, resting its head on his knee,--unwilling to
leave him out of love, and doing like a dog which again findeth its old
master. The doves, however, were no less eager with their love than the
lion; and whenever a dove whisked over its nose, the lion shook its head
and wondered and laughed.
When all this went on Zarathustra spake only a word: "MY CHILDREN ARE
NIGH, MY CHILDREN"--, then he became quite mute. His heart, however,
was loosed, and from his eyes there dropped down tears and fell upon
his hands. And he took no further notice of anything, but sat there
motionless, without repelling the animals further. Then flew the doves
to and fro, and perched on his shoulder, and caressed his white hair,
and did not tire of their tenderness and joyousness. The strong lion,
however, licked always the tears that fell on Zarathustra's hands, and
roared and growled shyly. Thus did these animals do. --
All this went on for a long time, or a short time: for properly
speaking, there is NO time on earth for such things--. Meanwhile,
however, the higher men had awakened in Zarathustra's cave, and
marshalled themselves for a procession to go to meet Zarathustra, and
give him their morning greeting: for they had found when they awakened
that he no longer tarried with them. When, however, they reached the
door of the cave and the noise of their steps had preceded them, the
lion started violently; it turned away all at once from Zarathustra, and
roaring wildly, sprang towards the cave. The higher men, however, when
they heard the lion roaring, cried all aloud as with one voice, fled
back and vanished in an instant.
Zarathustra himself, however, stunned and strange, rose from his seat,
looked around him, stood there astonished, inquired of his heart,
bethought himself, and remained alone. "What did I hear? " said he at
last, slowly, "what happened unto me just now? "
But soon there came to him his recollection, and he took in at a glance
all that had taken place between yesterday and to-day. "Here is indeed
the stone," said he, and stroked his beard, "on IT sat I yester-morn;
and here came the soothsayer unto me, and here heard I first the cry
which I heard just now, the great cry of distress.
O ye higher men, YOUR distress was it that the old soothsayer foretold
to me yester-morn,--
--Unto your distress did he want to seduce and tempt me: 'O
Zarathustra,' said he to me, 'I come to seduce thee to thy last sin. '
To my last sin? " cried Zarathustra, and laughed angrily at his own
words: "WHAT hath been reserved for me as my last sin? "
--And once more Zarathustra became absorbed in himself, and sat down
again on the big stone and meditated. Suddenly he sprang up,--
"FELLOW-SUFFERING! FELLOW-SUFFERING WITH THE HIGHER MEN! " he cried out,
and his countenance changed into brass. "Well! THAT--hath had its time!
My suffering and my fellow-suffering--what matter about them! Do I then
strive after HAPPINESS? I strive after my WORK!
Well! The lion hath come, my children are nigh, Zarathustra hath grown
ripe, mine hour hath come:--
This is MY morning, MY day beginneth: ARISE NOW, ARISE, THOU GREAT
NOONTIDE! "--
Thus spake Zarathustra and left his cave, glowing and strong, like a
morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains.
APPENDIX.
NOTES ON "THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA" BY ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
I have had some opportunities of studying the conditions under which
Nietzsche is read in Germany, France, and England, and I have found
that, in each of these countries, students of his philosophy, as if
actuated by precisely similar motives and desires, and misled by the
same mistaken tactics on the part of most publishers, all proceed in the
same happy-go-lucky style when "taking him up. " They have had it said to
them that he wrote without any system, and they very naturally conclude
that it does not matter in the least whether they begin with his first,
third, or last book, provided they can obtain a few vague ideas as to
what his leading and most sensational principles were.
Now, it is clear that the book with the most mysterious, startling, or
suggestive title, will always stand the best chance of being purchased
by those who have no other criteria to guide them in their choice
than the aspect of a title-page; and this explains why "Thus Spake
Zarathustra" is almost always the first and often the only one of
Nietzsche's books that falls into the hands of the uninitiated.
The title suggests all kinds of mysteries; a glance at the
chapter-headings quickly confirms the suspicions already aroused,
and the sub-title: "A Book for All and None", generally succeeds in
dissipating the last doubts the prospective purchaser may entertain
concerning his fitness for the book or its fitness for him. And what
happens?
"Thus Spake Zarathustra" is taken home; the reader, who perchance may
know no more concerning Nietzsche than a magazine article has told him,
tries to read it and, understanding less than half he reads, probably
never gets further than the second or third part,--and then only to feel
convinced that Nietzsche himself was "rather hazy" as to what he was
talking about. Such chapters as "The Child with the Mirror", "In the
Happy Isles", "The Grave-Song," "Immaculate Perception," "The Stillest
Hour", "The Seven Seals", and many others, are almost utterly devoid of
meaning to all those who do not know something of Nietzsche's life, his
aims and his friendships.
As a matter of fact, "Thus Spake Zarathustra", though it is
unquestionably Nietzsche's opus magnum, is by no means the first of
Nietzsche's works that the beginner ought to undertake to read. The
author himself refers to it as the deepest work ever offered to the
German public, and elsewhere speaks of his other writings as being
necessary for the understanding of it. But when it is remembered that
in Zarathustra we not only have the history of his most intimate
experiences, friendships, feuds, disappointments, triumphs and the like,
but that the very form in which they are narrated is one which tends
rather to obscure than to throw light upon them, the difficulties which
meet the reader who starts quite unprepared will be seen to be really
formidable.
Zarathustra, then,--this shadowy, allegorical personality, speaking in
allegories and parables, and at times not even refraining from relating
his own dreams--is a figure we can understand but very imperfectly if we
have no knowledge of his creator and counterpart, Friedrich Nietzsche;
and it were therefore well, previous to our study of the more abstruse
parts of this book, if we were to turn to some authoritative book on
Nietzsche's life and works and to read all that is there said on the
subject. Those who can read German will find an excellent guide, in this
respect, in Frau Foerster-Nietzsche's exhaustive and highly interesting
biography of her brother: "Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's" (published
by Naumann); while the works of Deussen, Raoul Richter, and Baroness
Isabelle von Unger-Sternberg, will be found to throw useful and
necessary light upon many questions which it would be difficult for a
sister to touch upon.
In regard to the actual philosophical views expounded in this work,
there is an excellent way of clearing up any difficulties they may
present, and that is by an appeal to Nietzsche's other works. Again and
again, of course, he will be found to express himself so clearly that
all reference to his other writings may be dispensed with; but where
this is not the case, the advice he himself gives is after all the best
to be followed here, viz. :--to regard such works as: "Joyful Science",
"Beyond Good and Evil", "The Genealogy of Morals", "The Twilight of
the Idols", "The Antichrist", "The Will to Power", etc. , etc. , as the
necessary preparation for "Thus Spake Zarathustra".
These directions, though they are by no means simple to carry out, seem
at least to possess the quality of definiteness and straightforwardness.
"Follow them and all will be clear," I seem to imply. But I regret to
say that this is not really the case. For my experience tells me that
even after the above directions have been followed with the greatest
possible zeal, the student will still halt in perplexity before certain
passages in the book before us, and wonder what they mean. Now, it is
with the view of giving a little additional help to all those who find
themselves in this position that I proceed to put forth my own personal
interpretation of the more abstruse passages in this work.
In offering this little commentary to the Nietzsche student, I should
like it to be understood that I make no claim as to its infallibility or
indispensability. It represents but an attempt on my part--a very feeble
one perhaps--to give the reader what little help I can in surmounting
difficulties which a long study of Nietzsche's life and works has
enabled me, partially I hope, to overcome.
. . .
Perhaps it would be as well to start out with a broad and rapid sketch
of Nietzsche as a writer on Morals, Evolution, and Sociology, so that
the reader may be prepared to pick out for himself, so to speak, all
passages in this work bearing in any way upon Nietzsche's views in those
three important branches of knowledge.
(A. ) Nietzsche and Morality.
In morality, Nietzsche starts out by adopting the position of the
relativist. He says there are no absolute values "good" and "evil";
these are mere means adopted by all in order to acquire power to
maintain their place in the world, or to become supreme. It is the
lion's good to devour an antelope. It is the dead-leaf butterfly's
good to tell a foe a falsehood. For when the dead-leaf butterfly is in
danger, it clings to the side of a twig, and what it says to its foe is
practically this: "I am not a butterfly, I am a dead leaf, and can be
of no use to thee. " This is a lie which is good to the butterfly, for
it preserves it. In nature every species of organic being instinctively
adopts and practises those acts which most conduce to the prevalence
or supremacy of its kind. Once the most favourable order of conduct is
found, proved efficient and established, it becomes the ruling morality
of the species that adopts it and bears them along to victory. All
species must not and cannot value alike, for what is the lion's good is
the antelope's evil and vice versa.
Concepts of good and evil are therefore, in their origin, merely a means
to an end, they are expedients for acquiring power.
Applying this principle to mankind, Nietzsche attacked Christian
moral values. He declared them to be, like all other morals, merely
an expedient for protecting a certain type of man. In the case of
Christianity this type was, according to Nietzsche, a low one.
Conflicting moral codes have been no more than the conflicting weapons
of different classes of men; for in mankind there is a continual war
between the powerful, the noble, the strong, and the well-constituted
on the one side, and the impotent, the mean, the weak, and the
ill-constituted on the other. The war is a war of moral principles.
The morality of the powerful class, Nietzsche calls NOBLE- or
MASTER-MORALITY; that of the weak and subordinate class he calls
SLAVE-MORALITY. In the first morality it is the eagle which, looking
down upon a browsing lamb, contends that "eating lamb is good. " In the
second, the slave-morality, it is the lamb which, looking up from the
sward, bleats dissentingly: "Eating lamb is evil. "
(B. ) The Master- and Slave-Morality Compared.
The first morality is active, creative, Dionysian. The second is
passive, defensive,--to it belongs the "struggle for existence. "
Where attempts have not been made to reconcile the two moralities, they
may be described as follows:--All is GOOD in the noble morality which
proceeds from strength, power, health, well-constitutedness, happiness,
and awfulness; for, the motive force behind the people practising it is
"the struggle for power. " The antithesis "good and bad" to this
first class means the same as "noble" and "despicable. " "Bad" in the
master-morality must be applied to the coward, to all acts that spring
from weakness, to the man with "an eye to the main chance," who would
forsake everything in order to live.
With the second, the slave-morality, the case is different. There,
inasmuch as the community is an oppressed, suffering, unemancipated, and
weary one, all THAT will be held to be good which alleviates the
state of suffering. Pity, the obliging hand, the warm heart, patience,
industry, and humility--these are unquestionably the qualities we shall
here find flooded with the light of approval and admiration; because
they are the most USEFUL qualities--; they make life endurable, they are
of assistance in the "struggle for existence" which is the motive force
behind the people practising this morality. To this class, all that is
AWFUL is bad, in fact it is THE evil par excellence. Strength, health,
superabundance of animal spirits and power, are regarded with hate,
suspicion, and fear by the subordinate class.
Now Nietzsche believed that the first or the noble-morality conduced to
an ascent in the line of life; because it was creative and active. On
the other hand, he believed that the second or slave-morality, where
it became paramount, led to degeneration, because it was passive and
defensive, wanting merely to keep those who practised it alive. Hence
his earnest advocacy of noble-morality.
(C. ) Nietzsche and Evolution.
Nietzsche as an evolutionist I shall have occasion to define and discuss
in the course of these notes (see Notes on Chapter LVI. , par. 10, and on
Chapter LVII. ). For the present let it suffice for us to know that he
accepted the "Development Hypothesis" as an explanation of the origin of
species: but he did not halt where most naturalists have halted. He
by no means regarded man as the highest possible being which evolution
could arrive at; for though his physical development may have reached
its limit, this is not the case with his mental or spiritual attributes.
If the process be a fact; if things have BECOME what they are, then, he
contends, we may describe no limit to man's aspirations. If he struggled
up from barbarism, and still more remotely from the lower Primates,
his ideal should be to surpass man himself and reach Superman (see
especially the Prologue).
(D. ) Nietzsche and Sociology.
Nietzsche as a sociologist aims at an aristocratic arrangement of
society. He would have us rear an ideal race. Honest and truthful in
intellectual matters, he could not even think that men are equal. "With
these preachers of equality will I not be mixed up and confounded. For
thus speaketh justice unto ME: 'Men are not equal. '" He sees precisely
in this inequality a purpose to be served, a condition to be exploited.
"Every elevation of the type 'man,'" he writes in "Beyond Good and
Evil", "has hitherto been the work of an aristocratic society--and so
will it always be--a society believing in a long scale of gradations of
rank and differences of worth among human beings. "
Those who are sufficiently interested to desire to read his own detailed
account of the society he would fain establish, will find an excellent
passage in Aphorism 57 of "The Antichrist".
. . .
PART I. THE PROLOGUE.
In Part I. including the Prologue, no very great difficulties will
appear. Zarathustra's habit of designating a whole class of men or a
whole school of thought by a single fitting nickname may perhaps lead to
a little confusion at first; but, as a rule, when the general drift
of his arguments is grasped, it requires but a slight effort of the
imagination to discover whom he is referring to. In the ninth paragraph
of the Prologue, for instance, it is quite obvious that "Herdsmen" in
the verse "Herdsmen, I say, etc. , etc. ," stands for all those to-day
who are the advocates of gregariousness--of the ant-hill. And when our
author says: "A robber shall Zarathustra be called by the herdsmen," it
is clear that these words may be taken almost literally from one whose
ideal was the rearing of a higher aristocracy. Again, "the good and
just," throughout the book, is the expression used in referring to the
self-righteous of modern times,--those who are quite sure that they
know all that is to be known concerning good and evil, and are satisfied
that the values their little world of tradition has handed down to them,
are destined to rule mankind as long as it lasts.
In the last paragraph of the Prologue, verse 7, Zarathustra gives us a
foretaste of his teaching concerning the big and the little sagacities,
expounded subsequently. He says he would he were as wise as his serpent;
this desire will be found explained in the discourse entitled "The
Despisers of the Body", which I shall have occasion to refer to later.
. . .
THE DISCOURSES.
Chapter I. The Three Metamorphoses.
This opening discourse is a parable in which Zarathustra discloses the
mental development of all creators of new values. It is the story of
a life which reaches its consummation in attaining to a second
ingenuousness or in returning to childhood. Nietzsche, the supposed
anarchist, here plainly disclaims all relationship whatever to anarchy,
for he shows us that only by bearing the burdens of the existing law and
submitting to it patiently, as the camel submits to being laden, does
the free spirit acquire that ascendancy over tradition which enables him
to meet and master the dragon "Thou shalt,"--the dragon with the values
of a thousand years glittering on its scales. There are two lessons in
this discourse: first, that in order to create one must be as a little
child; secondly, that it is only through existing law and order that
one attains to that height from which new law and new order may be
promulgated.
Chapter II. The Academic Chairs of Virtue.
Almost the whole of this is quite comprehensible. It is a discourse
against all those who confound virtue with tameness and smug ease, and
who regard as virtuous only that which promotes security and tends to
deepen sleep.
Chapter IV. The Despisers of the Body.
Here Zarathustra gives names to the intellect and the instincts; he
calls the one "the little sagacity" and the latter "the big sagacity. "
Schopenhauer's teaching concerning the intellect is fully endorsed here.
"An instrument of thy body is also thy little sagacity, my brother,
which thou callest 'spirit,'" says Zarathustra. From beginning to end it
is a warning to those who would think too lightly of the instincts
and unduly exalt the intellect and its derivatives: Reason and
Understanding.
Chapter IX. The Preachers of Death.
This is an analysis of the psychology of all those who have the "evil
eye" and are pessimists by virtue of their constitutions.
Chapter XV. The Thousand and One Goals.
In this discourse Zarathustra opens his exposition of the doctrine of
relativity in morality, and declares all morality to be a mere means
to power. Needless to say that verses 9, 10, 11, and 12 refer to the
Greeks, the Persians, the Jews, and the Germans respectively. In the
penultimate verse he makes known his discovery concerning the root of
modern Nihilism and indifference,--i. e. , that modern man has no goal, no
aim, no ideals (see Note A).
Chapter XVIII. Old and Young Women.
Nietzsche's views on women have either to be loved at first sight
or they become perhaps the greatest obstacle in the way of those who
otherwise would be inclined to accept his philosophy. Women especially,
of course, have been taught to dislike them, because it has been
rumoured that his views are unfriendly to themselves. Now, to my mind,
all this is pure misunderstanding and error.
German philosophers, thanks to Schopenhauer, have earned rather a bad
name for their views on women. It is almost impossible for one of them
to write a line on the subject, however kindly he may do so, without
being suspected of wishing to open a crusade against the fair sex.
Despite the fact, therefore, that all Nietzsche's views in this respect
were dictated to him by the profoundest love; despite Zarathustra's
reservation in this discourse, that "with women nothing (that can be
said) is impossible," and in the face of other overwhelming evidence
to the contrary, Nietzsche is universally reported to have mis son
pied dans le plat, where the female sex is concerned. And what is the
fundamental doctrine which has given rise to so much bitterness and
aversion? --Merely this: that the sexes are at bottom ANTAGONISTIC--that
is to say, as different as blue is from yellow, and that the best
possible means of rearing anything approaching a desirable race is to
preserve and to foster this profound hostility. What Nietzsche strives
to combat and to overthrow is the modern democratic tendency which is
slowly labouring to level all things--even the sexes. His quarrel is not
with women--what indeed could be more undignified? --it is with those who
would destroy the natural relationship between the sexes, by modifying
either the one or the other with a view to making them more alike. The
human world is just as dependent upon women's powers as upon men's. It
is women's strongest and most valuable instincts which help to determine
who are to be the fathers of the next generation. By destroying these
particular instincts, that is to say by attempting to masculinise woman,
and to feminise men, we jeopardise the future of our people. The general
democratic movement of modern times, in its frantic struggle to mitigate
all differences, is now invading even the world of sex. It is against
this movement that Nietzsche raises his voice; he would have woman
become ever more woman and man become ever more man. Only thus, and
he is undoubtedly right, can their combined instincts lead to the
excellence of humanity. Regarded in this light, all his views on woman
appear not only necessary but just (see Note on Chapter LVI. , par.
Zarathustra's soul? Apparently, however, his spirit retreated and fled
in advance and was in remote distances, and as it were "wandering on
high mountain-ridges," as it standeth written, "'twixt two seas,
--Wandering 'twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud. " Gradually,
however, while the higher men held him in their arms, he came back to
himself a little, and resisted with his hands the crowd of the honouring
and caring ones; but he did not speak. All at once, however, he turned
his head quickly, for he seemed to hear something: then laid he his
finger on his mouth and said: "COME! "
And immediately it became still and mysterious round about; from
the depth however there came up slowly the sound of a clock-bell.
Zarathustra listened thereto, like the higher men; then, however, laid
he his finger on his mouth the second time, and said again: "COME! COME!
IT IS GETTING ON TO MIDNIGHT! "--and his voice had changed. But still
he had not moved from the spot. Then it became yet stiller and more
mysterious, and everything hearkened, even the ass, and Zarathustra's
noble animals, the eagle and the serpent,--likewise the cave of
Zarathustra and the big cool moon, and the night itself. Zarathustra,
however, laid his hand upon his mouth for the third time, and said:
COME! COME! COME! LET US NOW WANDER! IT IS THE HOUR: LET US WANDER INTO
THE NIGHT!
3.
Ye higher men, it is getting on to midnight: then will I say something
into your ears, as that old clock-bell saith it into mine ear,--
--As mysteriously, as frightfully, and as cordially as that midnight
clock-bell speaketh it to me, which hath experienced more than one man:
--Which hath already counted the smarting throbbings of your fathers'
hearts--ah! ah! how it sigheth! how it laugheth in its dream! the old,
deep, deep midnight!
Hush! Hush! Then is there many a thing heard which may not be heard
by day; now however, in the cool air, when even all the tumult of your
hearts hath become still,--
--Now doth it speak, now is it heard, now doth it steal into
overwakeful, nocturnal souls: ah! ah! how the midnight sigheth! how it
laugheth in its dream!
--Hearest thou not how it mysteriously, frightfully, and cordially
speaketh unto THEE, the old deep, deep midnight?
O MAN, TAKE HEED!
4.
Woe to me! Whither hath time gone? Have I not sunk into deep wells? The
world sleepeth--
Ah! Ah! The dog howleth, the moon shineth. Rather will I die, rather
will I die, than say unto you what my midnight-heart now thinketh.
Already have I died. It is all over. Spider, why spinnest thou around
me? Wilt thou have blood? Ah! Ah! The dew falleth, the hour cometh--
--The hour in which I frost and freeze, which asketh and asketh and
asketh: "Who hath sufficient courage for it?
--Who is to be master of the world? Who is going to say: THUS shall ye
flow, ye great and small streams! "
--The hour approacheth: O man, thou higher man, take heed! this talk is
for fine ears, for thine ears--WHAT SAITH DEEP MIDNIGHT'S VOICE INDEED?
5.
It carrieth me away, my soul danceth. Day's-work! Day's-work! Who is to
be master of the world?
The moon is cool, the wind is still. Ah! Ah! Have ye already flown high
enough? Ye have danced: a leg, nevertheless, is not a wing.
Ye good dancers, now is all delight over: wine hath become lees, every
cup hath become brittle, the sepulchres mutter.
Ye have not flown high enough: now do the sepulchres mutter: "Free the
dead! Why is it so long night? Doth not the moon make us drunken? "
Ye higher men, free the sepulchres, awaken the corpses! Ah, why doth the
worm still burrow? There approacheth, there approacheth, the hour,--
--There boometh the clock-bell, there thrilleth still the heart, there
burroweth still the wood-worm, the heart-worm. Ah! Ah! THE WORLD IS
DEEP!
6.
Sweet lyre! Sweet lyre! I love thy tone, thy drunken, ranunculine
tone! --how long, how far hath come unto me thy tone, from the distance,
from the ponds of love!
Thou old clock-bell, thou sweet lyre! Every pain hath torn thy heart,
father-pain, fathers'-pain, forefathers'-pain; thy speech hath become
ripe,--
--Ripe like the golden autumn and the afternoon, like mine anchorite
heart--now sayest thou: The world itself hath become ripe, the grape
turneth brown,
--Now doth it wish to die, to die of happiness. Ye higher men, do ye not
feel it? There welleth up mysteriously an odour,
--A perfume and odour of eternity, a rosy-blessed, brown,
gold-wine-odour of old happiness,
--Of drunken midnight-death happiness, which singeth: the world is deep,
AND DEEPER THAN THE DAY COULD READ!
7.
Leave me alone! Leave me alone! I am too pure for thee. Touch me not!
Hath not my world just now become perfect?
My skin is too pure for thy hands. Leave me alone, thou dull, doltish,
stupid day! Is not the midnight brighter?
The purest are to be masters of the world, the least known, the
strongest, the midnight-souls, who are brighter and deeper than any day.
O day, thou gropest for me? Thou feelest for my happiness? For thee am I
rich, lonesome, a treasure-pit, a gold chamber?
O world, thou wantest ME? Am I worldly for thee? Am I spiritual for
thee? Am I divine for thee? But day and world, ye are too coarse,--
--Have cleverer hands, grasp after deeper happiness, after deeper
unhappiness, grasp after some God; grasp not after me:
--Mine unhappiness, my happiness is deep, thou strange day, but yet am I
no God, no God's-hell: DEEP IS ITS WOE.
8.
God's woe is deeper, thou strange world! Grasp at God's woe, not at me!
What am I! A drunken sweet lyre,--
--A midnight-lyre, a bell-frog, which no one understandeth, but which
MUST speak before deaf ones, ye higher men! For ye do not understand me!
Gone! Gone! O youth! O noontide! O afternoon! Now have come evening and
night and midnight,--the dog howleth, the wind:
--Is the wind not a dog? It whineth, it barketh, it howleth. Ah! Ah!
how she sigheth! how she laugheth, how she wheezeth and panteth, the
midnight!
How she just now speaketh soberly, this drunken poetess! hath she
perhaps overdrunk her drunkenness? hath she become overawake? doth she
ruminate?
--Her woe doth she ruminate over, in a dream, the old, deep
midnight--and still more her joy. For joy, although woe be deep, JOY IS
DEEPER STILL THAN GRIEF CAN BE.
9.
Thou grape-vine! Why dost thou praise me? Have I not cut thee! I am
cruel, thou bleedest--: what meaneth thy praise of my drunken cruelty?
"Whatever hath become perfect, everything mature--wanteth to die! " so
sayest thou. Blessed, blessed be the vintner's knife! But everything
immature wanteth to live: alas!
Woe saith: "Hence! Go! Away, thou woe! " But everything that suffereth
wanteth to live, that it may become mature and lively and longing,
--Longing for the further, the higher, the brighter. "I want heirs,"
so saith everything that suffereth, "I want children, I do not want
MYSELF,"--
Joy, however, doth not want heirs, it doth not want children,--joy
wanteth itself, it wanteth eternity, it wanteth recurrence, it wanteth
everything eternally-like-itself.
Woe saith: "Break, bleed, thou heart! Wander, thou leg! Thou wing, fly!
Onward! upward! thou pain! " Well! Cheer up! O mine old heart: WOE SAITH:
"HENCE! GO! "
10.
Ye higher men, what think ye? Am I a soothsayer? Or a dreamer? Or a
drunkard? Or a dream-reader? Or a midnight-bell?
Or a drop of dew? Or a fume and fragrance of eternity? Hear ye it not?
Smell ye it not? Just now hath my world become perfect, midnight is also
mid-day,--
Pain is also a joy, curse is also a blessing, night is also a sun,--go
away! or ye will learn that a sage is also a fool.
Said ye ever Yea to one joy? O my friends, then said ye Yea also unto
ALL woe. All things are enlinked, enlaced and enamoured,--
--Wanted ye ever once to come twice; said ye ever: "Thou pleasest me,
happiness! Instant! Moment! " then wanted ye ALL to come back again!
--All anew, all eternal, all enlinked, enlaced and enamoured, Oh, then
did ye LOVE the world,--
--Ye eternal ones, ye love it eternally and for all time: and also unto
woe do ye say: Hence! Go! but come back! FOR JOYS ALL WANT--ETERNITY!
11.
All joy wanteth the eternity of all things, it wanteth honey, it
wanteth lees, it wanteth drunken midnight, it wanteth graves, it wanteth
grave-tears' consolation, it wanteth gilded evening-red--
--WHAT doth not joy want! it is thirstier, heartier, hungrier, more
frightful, more mysterious, than all woe: it wanteth ITSELF, it biteth
into ITSELF, the ring's will writheth in it,--
--It wanteth love, it wanteth hate, it is over-rich, it bestoweth, it
throweth away, it beggeth for some one to take from it, it thanketh the
taker, it would fain be hated,--
--So rich is joy that it thirsteth for woe, for hell, for hate, for
shame, for the lame, for the WORLD,--for this world, Oh, ye know it
indeed!
Ye higher men, for you doth it long, this joy, this irrepressible,
blessed joy--for your woe, ye failures! For failures, longeth all
eternal joy.
For joys all want themselves, therefore do they also want grief! O
happiness, O pain! Oh break, thou heart! Ye higher men, do learn it,
that joys want eternity.
--Joys want the eternity of ALL things, they WANT DEEP, PROFOUND
ETERNITY!
12.
Have ye now learned my song? Have ye divined what it would say? Well!
Cheer up! Ye higher men, sing now my roundelay!
Sing now yourselves the song, the name of which is "Once more," the
signification of which is "Unto all eternity! "--sing, ye higher men,
Zarathustra's roundelay!
O man! Take heed!
What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?
"I slept my sleep--,
"From deepest dream I've woke, and plead:--
"The world is deep,
"And deeper than the day could read.
"Deep is its woe--,
"Joy--deeper still than grief can be:
"Woe saith: Hence! Go!
"But joys all want eternity-,
"-Want deep, profound eternity! "
LXXX. THE SIGN.
In the morning, however, after this night, Zarathustra jumped up from
his couch, and, having girded his loins, he came out of his cave glowing
and strong, like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains.
"Thou great star," spake he, as he had spoken once before, "thou deep
eye of happiness, what would be all thy happiness if thou hadst not
THOSE for whom thou shinest!
And if they remained in their chambers whilst thou art already awake,
and comest and bestowest and distributest, how would thy proud modesty
upbraid for it!
Well! they still sleep, these higher men, whilst _I_ am awake: THEY are
not my proper companions! Not for them do I wait here in my mountains.
At my work I want to be, at my day: but they understand not what are the
signs of my morning, my step--is not for them the awakening-call.
They still sleep in my cave; their dream still drinketh at my drunken
songs. The audient ear for ME--the OBEDIENT ear, is yet lacking in their
limbs. "
--This had Zarathustra spoken to his heart when the sun arose: then
looked he inquiringly aloft, for he heard above him the sharp call of
his eagle. "Well! " called he upwards, "thus is it pleasing and proper to
me. Mine animals are awake, for I am awake.
Mine eagle is awake, and like me honoureth the sun. With eagle-talons
doth it grasp at the new light. Ye are my proper animals; I love you.
But still do I lack my proper men! "--
Thus spake Zarathustra; then, however, it happened that all on a sudden
he became aware that he was flocked around and fluttered around, as if
by innumerable birds,--the whizzing of so many wings, however, and the
crowding around his head was so great that he shut his eyes. And verily,
there came down upon him as it were a cloud, like a cloud of arrows
which poureth upon a new enemy. But behold, here it was a cloud of love,
and showered upon a new friend.
"What happeneth unto me? " thought Zarathustra in his astonished heart,
and slowly seated himself on the big stone which lay close to the exit
from his cave. But while he grasped about with his hands, around him,
above him and below him, and repelled the tender birds, behold, there
then happened to him something still stranger: for he grasped thereby
unawares into a mass of thick, warm, shaggy hair; at the same time,
however, there sounded before him a roar,--a long, soft lion-roar.
"THE SIGN COMETH," said Zarathustra, and a change came over his heart.
And in truth, when it turned clear before him, there lay a yellow,
powerful animal at his feet, resting its head on his knee,--unwilling to
leave him out of love, and doing like a dog which again findeth its old
master. The doves, however, were no less eager with their love than the
lion; and whenever a dove whisked over its nose, the lion shook its head
and wondered and laughed.
When all this went on Zarathustra spake only a word: "MY CHILDREN ARE
NIGH, MY CHILDREN"--, then he became quite mute. His heart, however,
was loosed, and from his eyes there dropped down tears and fell upon
his hands. And he took no further notice of anything, but sat there
motionless, without repelling the animals further. Then flew the doves
to and fro, and perched on his shoulder, and caressed his white hair,
and did not tire of their tenderness and joyousness. The strong lion,
however, licked always the tears that fell on Zarathustra's hands, and
roared and growled shyly. Thus did these animals do. --
All this went on for a long time, or a short time: for properly
speaking, there is NO time on earth for such things--. Meanwhile,
however, the higher men had awakened in Zarathustra's cave, and
marshalled themselves for a procession to go to meet Zarathustra, and
give him their morning greeting: for they had found when they awakened
that he no longer tarried with them. When, however, they reached the
door of the cave and the noise of their steps had preceded them, the
lion started violently; it turned away all at once from Zarathustra, and
roaring wildly, sprang towards the cave. The higher men, however, when
they heard the lion roaring, cried all aloud as with one voice, fled
back and vanished in an instant.
Zarathustra himself, however, stunned and strange, rose from his seat,
looked around him, stood there astonished, inquired of his heart,
bethought himself, and remained alone. "What did I hear? " said he at
last, slowly, "what happened unto me just now? "
But soon there came to him his recollection, and he took in at a glance
all that had taken place between yesterday and to-day. "Here is indeed
the stone," said he, and stroked his beard, "on IT sat I yester-morn;
and here came the soothsayer unto me, and here heard I first the cry
which I heard just now, the great cry of distress.
O ye higher men, YOUR distress was it that the old soothsayer foretold
to me yester-morn,--
--Unto your distress did he want to seduce and tempt me: 'O
Zarathustra,' said he to me, 'I come to seduce thee to thy last sin. '
To my last sin? " cried Zarathustra, and laughed angrily at his own
words: "WHAT hath been reserved for me as my last sin? "
--And once more Zarathustra became absorbed in himself, and sat down
again on the big stone and meditated. Suddenly he sprang up,--
"FELLOW-SUFFERING! FELLOW-SUFFERING WITH THE HIGHER MEN! " he cried out,
and his countenance changed into brass. "Well! THAT--hath had its time!
My suffering and my fellow-suffering--what matter about them! Do I then
strive after HAPPINESS? I strive after my WORK!
Well! The lion hath come, my children are nigh, Zarathustra hath grown
ripe, mine hour hath come:--
This is MY morning, MY day beginneth: ARISE NOW, ARISE, THOU GREAT
NOONTIDE! "--
Thus spake Zarathustra and left his cave, glowing and strong, like a
morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains.
APPENDIX.
NOTES ON "THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA" BY ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
I have had some opportunities of studying the conditions under which
Nietzsche is read in Germany, France, and England, and I have found
that, in each of these countries, students of his philosophy, as if
actuated by precisely similar motives and desires, and misled by the
same mistaken tactics on the part of most publishers, all proceed in the
same happy-go-lucky style when "taking him up. " They have had it said to
them that he wrote without any system, and they very naturally conclude
that it does not matter in the least whether they begin with his first,
third, or last book, provided they can obtain a few vague ideas as to
what his leading and most sensational principles were.
Now, it is clear that the book with the most mysterious, startling, or
suggestive title, will always stand the best chance of being purchased
by those who have no other criteria to guide them in their choice
than the aspect of a title-page; and this explains why "Thus Spake
Zarathustra" is almost always the first and often the only one of
Nietzsche's books that falls into the hands of the uninitiated.
The title suggests all kinds of mysteries; a glance at the
chapter-headings quickly confirms the suspicions already aroused,
and the sub-title: "A Book for All and None", generally succeeds in
dissipating the last doubts the prospective purchaser may entertain
concerning his fitness for the book or its fitness for him. And what
happens?
"Thus Spake Zarathustra" is taken home; the reader, who perchance may
know no more concerning Nietzsche than a magazine article has told him,
tries to read it and, understanding less than half he reads, probably
never gets further than the second or third part,--and then only to feel
convinced that Nietzsche himself was "rather hazy" as to what he was
talking about. Such chapters as "The Child with the Mirror", "In the
Happy Isles", "The Grave-Song," "Immaculate Perception," "The Stillest
Hour", "The Seven Seals", and many others, are almost utterly devoid of
meaning to all those who do not know something of Nietzsche's life, his
aims and his friendships.
As a matter of fact, "Thus Spake Zarathustra", though it is
unquestionably Nietzsche's opus magnum, is by no means the first of
Nietzsche's works that the beginner ought to undertake to read. The
author himself refers to it as the deepest work ever offered to the
German public, and elsewhere speaks of his other writings as being
necessary for the understanding of it. But when it is remembered that
in Zarathustra we not only have the history of his most intimate
experiences, friendships, feuds, disappointments, triumphs and the like,
but that the very form in which they are narrated is one which tends
rather to obscure than to throw light upon them, the difficulties which
meet the reader who starts quite unprepared will be seen to be really
formidable.
Zarathustra, then,--this shadowy, allegorical personality, speaking in
allegories and parables, and at times not even refraining from relating
his own dreams--is a figure we can understand but very imperfectly if we
have no knowledge of his creator and counterpart, Friedrich Nietzsche;
and it were therefore well, previous to our study of the more abstruse
parts of this book, if we were to turn to some authoritative book on
Nietzsche's life and works and to read all that is there said on the
subject. Those who can read German will find an excellent guide, in this
respect, in Frau Foerster-Nietzsche's exhaustive and highly interesting
biography of her brother: "Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's" (published
by Naumann); while the works of Deussen, Raoul Richter, and Baroness
Isabelle von Unger-Sternberg, will be found to throw useful and
necessary light upon many questions which it would be difficult for a
sister to touch upon.
In regard to the actual philosophical views expounded in this work,
there is an excellent way of clearing up any difficulties they may
present, and that is by an appeal to Nietzsche's other works. Again and
again, of course, he will be found to express himself so clearly that
all reference to his other writings may be dispensed with; but where
this is not the case, the advice he himself gives is after all the best
to be followed here, viz. :--to regard such works as: "Joyful Science",
"Beyond Good and Evil", "The Genealogy of Morals", "The Twilight of
the Idols", "The Antichrist", "The Will to Power", etc. , etc. , as the
necessary preparation for "Thus Spake Zarathustra".
These directions, though they are by no means simple to carry out, seem
at least to possess the quality of definiteness and straightforwardness.
"Follow them and all will be clear," I seem to imply. But I regret to
say that this is not really the case. For my experience tells me that
even after the above directions have been followed with the greatest
possible zeal, the student will still halt in perplexity before certain
passages in the book before us, and wonder what they mean. Now, it is
with the view of giving a little additional help to all those who find
themselves in this position that I proceed to put forth my own personal
interpretation of the more abstruse passages in this work.
In offering this little commentary to the Nietzsche student, I should
like it to be understood that I make no claim as to its infallibility or
indispensability. It represents but an attempt on my part--a very feeble
one perhaps--to give the reader what little help I can in surmounting
difficulties which a long study of Nietzsche's life and works has
enabled me, partially I hope, to overcome.
. . .
Perhaps it would be as well to start out with a broad and rapid sketch
of Nietzsche as a writer on Morals, Evolution, and Sociology, so that
the reader may be prepared to pick out for himself, so to speak, all
passages in this work bearing in any way upon Nietzsche's views in those
three important branches of knowledge.
(A. ) Nietzsche and Morality.
In morality, Nietzsche starts out by adopting the position of the
relativist. He says there are no absolute values "good" and "evil";
these are mere means adopted by all in order to acquire power to
maintain their place in the world, or to become supreme. It is the
lion's good to devour an antelope. It is the dead-leaf butterfly's
good to tell a foe a falsehood. For when the dead-leaf butterfly is in
danger, it clings to the side of a twig, and what it says to its foe is
practically this: "I am not a butterfly, I am a dead leaf, and can be
of no use to thee. " This is a lie which is good to the butterfly, for
it preserves it. In nature every species of organic being instinctively
adopts and practises those acts which most conduce to the prevalence
or supremacy of its kind. Once the most favourable order of conduct is
found, proved efficient and established, it becomes the ruling morality
of the species that adopts it and bears them along to victory. All
species must not and cannot value alike, for what is the lion's good is
the antelope's evil and vice versa.
Concepts of good and evil are therefore, in their origin, merely a means
to an end, they are expedients for acquiring power.
Applying this principle to mankind, Nietzsche attacked Christian
moral values. He declared them to be, like all other morals, merely
an expedient for protecting a certain type of man. In the case of
Christianity this type was, according to Nietzsche, a low one.
Conflicting moral codes have been no more than the conflicting weapons
of different classes of men; for in mankind there is a continual war
between the powerful, the noble, the strong, and the well-constituted
on the one side, and the impotent, the mean, the weak, and the
ill-constituted on the other. The war is a war of moral principles.
The morality of the powerful class, Nietzsche calls NOBLE- or
MASTER-MORALITY; that of the weak and subordinate class he calls
SLAVE-MORALITY. In the first morality it is the eagle which, looking
down upon a browsing lamb, contends that "eating lamb is good. " In the
second, the slave-morality, it is the lamb which, looking up from the
sward, bleats dissentingly: "Eating lamb is evil. "
(B. ) The Master- and Slave-Morality Compared.
The first morality is active, creative, Dionysian. The second is
passive, defensive,--to it belongs the "struggle for existence. "
Where attempts have not been made to reconcile the two moralities, they
may be described as follows:--All is GOOD in the noble morality which
proceeds from strength, power, health, well-constitutedness, happiness,
and awfulness; for, the motive force behind the people practising it is
"the struggle for power. " The antithesis "good and bad" to this
first class means the same as "noble" and "despicable. " "Bad" in the
master-morality must be applied to the coward, to all acts that spring
from weakness, to the man with "an eye to the main chance," who would
forsake everything in order to live.
With the second, the slave-morality, the case is different. There,
inasmuch as the community is an oppressed, suffering, unemancipated, and
weary one, all THAT will be held to be good which alleviates the
state of suffering. Pity, the obliging hand, the warm heart, patience,
industry, and humility--these are unquestionably the qualities we shall
here find flooded with the light of approval and admiration; because
they are the most USEFUL qualities--; they make life endurable, they are
of assistance in the "struggle for existence" which is the motive force
behind the people practising this morality. To this class, all that is
AWFUL is bad, in fact it is THE evil par excellence. Strength, health,
superabundance of animal spirits and power, are regarded with hate,
suspicion, and fear by the subordinate class.
Now Nietzsche believed that the first or the noble-morality conduced to
an ascent in the line of life; because it was creative and active. On
the other hand, he believed that the second or slave-morality, where
it became paramount, led to degeneration, because it was passive and
defensive, wanting merely to keep those who practised it alive. Hence
his earnest advocacy of noble-morality.
(C. ) Nietzsche and Evolution.
Nietzsche as an evolutionist I shall have occasion to define and discuss
in the course of these notes (see Notes on Chapter LVI. , par. 10, and on
Chapter LVII. ). For the present let it suffice for us to know that he
accepted the "Development Hypothesis" as an explanation of the origin of
species: but he did not halt where most naturalists have halted. He
by no means regarded man as the highest possible being which evolution
could arrive at; for though his physical development may have reached
its limit, this is not the case with his mental or spiritual attributes.
If the process be a fact; if things have BECOME what they are, then, he
contends, we may describe no limit to man's aspirations. If he struggled
up from barbarism, and still more remotely from the lower Primates,
his ideal should be to surpass man himself and reach Superman (see
especially the Prologue).
(D. ) Nietzsche and Sociology.
Nietzsche as a sociologist aims at an aristocratic arrangement of
society. He would have us rear an ideal race. Honest and truthful in
intellectual matters, he could not even think that men are equal. "With
these preachers of equality will I not be mixed up and confounded. For
thus speaketh justice unto ME: 'Men are not equal. '" He sees precisely
in this inequality a purpose to be served, a condition to be exploited.
"Every elevation of the type 'man,'" he writes in "Beyond Good and
Evil", "has hitherto been the work of an aristocratic society--and so
will it always be--a society believing in a long scale of gradations of
rank and differences of worth among human beings. "
Those who are sufficiently interested to desire to read his own detailed
account of the society he would fain establish, will find an excellent
passage in Aphorism 57 of "The Antichrist".
. . .
PART I. THE PROLOGUE.
In Part I. including the Prologue, no very great difficulties will
appear. Zarathustra's habit of designating a whole class of men or a
whole school of thought by a single fitting nickname may perhaps lead to
a little confusion at first; but, as a rule, when the general drift
of his arguments is grasped, it requires but a slight effort of the
imagination to discover whom he is referring to. In the ninth paragraph
of the Prologue, for instance, it is quite obvious that "Herdsmen" in
the verse "Herdsmen, I say, etc. , etc. ," stands for all those to-day
who are the advocates of gregariousness--of the ant-hill. And when our
author says: "A robber shall Zarathustra be called by the herdsmen," it
is clear that these words may be taken almost literally from one whose
ideal was the rearing of a higher aristocracy. Again, "the good and
just," throughout the book, is the expression used in referring to the
self-righteous of modern times,--those who are quite sure that they
know all that is to be known concerning good and evil, and are satisfied
that the values their little world of tradition has handed down to them,
are destined to rule mankind as long as it lasts.
In the last paragraph of the Prologue, verse 7, Zarathustra gives us a
foretaste of his teaching concerning the big and the little sagacities,
expounded subsequently. He says he would he were as wise as his serpent;
this desire will be found explained in the discourse entitled "The
Despisers of the Body", which I shall have occasion to refer to later.
. . .
THE DISCOURSES.
Chapter I. The Three Metamorphoses.
This opening discourse is a parable in which Zarathustra discloses the
mental development of all creators of new values. It is the story of
a life which reaches its consummation in attaining to a second
ingenuousness or in returning to childhood. Nietzsche, the supposed
anarchist, here plainly disclaims all relationship whatever to anarchy,
for he shows us that only by bearing the burdens of the existing law and
submitting to it patiently, as the camel submits to being laden, does
the free spirit acquire that ascendancy over tradition which enables him
to meet and master the dragon "Thou shalt,"--the dragon with the values
of a thousand years glittering on its scales. There are two lessons in
this discourse: first, that in order to create one must be as a little
child; secondly, that it is only through existing law and order that
one attains to that height from which new law and new order may be
promulgated.
Chapter II. The Academic Chairs of Virtue.
Almost the whole of this is quite comprehensible. It is a discourse
against all those who confound virtue with tameness and smug ease, and
who regard as virtuous only that which promotes security and tends to
deepen sleep.
Chapter IV. The Despisers of the Body.
Here Zarathustra gives names to the intellect and the instincts; he
calls the one "the little sagacity" and the latter "the big sagacity. "
Schopenhauer's teaching concerning the intellect is fully endorsed here.
"An instrument of thy body is also thy little sagacity, my brother,
which thou callest 'spirit,'" says Zarathustra. From beginning to end it
is a warning to those who would think too lightly of the instincts
and unduly exalt the intellect and its derivatives: Reason and
Understanding.
Chapter IX. The Preachers of Death.
This is an analysis of the psychology of all those who have the "evil
eye" and are pessimists by virtue of their constitutions.
Chapter XV. The Thousand and One Goals.
In this discourse Zarathustra opens his exposition of the doctrine of
relativity in morality, and declares all morality to be a mere means
to power. Needless to say that verses 9, 10, 11, and 12 refer to the
Greeks, the Persians, the Jews, and the Germans respectively. In the
penultimate verse he makes known his discovery concerning the root of
modern Nihilism and indifference,--i. e. , that modern man has no goal, no
aim, no ideals (see Note A).
Chapter XVIII. Old and Young Women.
Nietzsche's views on women have either to be loved at first sight
or they become perhaps the greatest obstacle in the way of those who
otherwise would be inclined to accept his philosophy. Women especially,
of course, have been taught to dislike them, because it has been
rumoured that his views are unfriendly to themselves. Now, to my mind,
all this is pure misunderstanding and error.
German philosophers, thanks to Schopenhauer, have earned rather a bad
name for their views on women. It is almost impossible for one of them
to write a line on the subject, however kindly he may do so, without
being suspected of wishing to open a crusade against the fair sex.
Despite the fact, therefore, that all Nietzsche's views in this respect
were dictated to him by the profoundest love; despite Zarathustra's
reservation in this discourse, that "with women nothing (that can be
said) is impossible," and in the face of other overwhelming evidence
to the contrary, Nietzsche is universally reported to have mis son
pied dans le plat, where the female sex is concerned. And what is the
fundamental doctrine which has given rise to so much bitterness and
aversion? --Merely this: that the sexes are at bottom ANTAGONISTIC--that
is to say, as different as blue is from yellow, and that the best
possible means of rearing anything approaching a desirable race is to
preserve and to foster this profound hostility. What Nietzsche strives
to combat and to overthrow is the modern democratic tendency which is
slowly labouring to level all things--even the sexes. His quarrel is not
with women--what indeed could be more undignified? --it is with those who
would destroy the natural relationship between the sexes, by modifying
either the one or the other with a view to making them more alike. The
human world is just as dependent upon women's powers as upon men's. It
is women's strongest and most valuable instincts which help to determine
who are to be the fathers of the next generation. By destroying these
particular instincts, that is to say by attempting to masculinise woman,
and to feminise men, we jeopardise the future of our people. The general
democratic movement of modern times, in its frantic struggle to mitigate
all differences, is now invading even the world of sex. It is against
this movement that Nietzsche raises his voice; he would have woman
become ever more woman and man become ever more man. Only thus, and
he is undoubtedly right, can their combined instincts lead to the
excellence of humanity. Regarded in this light, all his views on woman
appear not only necessary but just (see Note on Chapter LVI. , par.
