No More Learning

When led out and called to account, he always gave
the reply: "What are these churches now, if they
are not the tombs and monuments of God ? "—
126.
Mystical Explanations. —Mystical explanations
are regarded as profound; the truth is that they do
not even go the length of being superficial.
127.
After-Effect of the most Ancient Religiousness. —
The thoughtless man thinks that the Will is the
only thing that operates, that willing is something
simple, manifestly given, underived, and comprehen-
sible in itself. He is convinced that when he does
anything, for example, when he delivers a blow,
it is he who strikes, and he has struck because
he willed to strike. He does not notice any-
thing of a problem therein, but the feeling of
willing suffices to him, not only for the acceptance
of cause and effect, but also for the belief that he
understands their relationship. Of the mechanism
of the occurrence and of the manifold subtle opera-


## p. 170 (#214) ############################################

170 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
tions that must be performed in order that the
blow may result, and likewise of the incapacity
of the Will in itself to effect even the smallest part
of those operations—he knows nothing. The Will
is to him a magically operating force; the belief
in the Will as the cause of effects is the belief in
magicallyoperating forces. In fact, whenever he saw
anything happen, man originally believed in a Will
as cause, and in personally willing beings operating
in the background,—the conception of mechanism
was very remote from him. Because, however, man
for immense periods of time believed only in
persons (and not in matter, forces, things, &c),
the belief in cause and effect has become a funda-
mental belief with him, which he applies every-
where when anything happens,—and even still uses
instinctively as a piece of atavism of remotest origin.
The propositions, " No effect without a cause," and
"Every effect again implies a cause," appear as
generalisations of several less general propositions:
—"Where there is operation there has been willing"
"Operating is only possible on willing beings. "
"There is never a pure, resultless experience of
activity, but every experience involves stimulation
of the Will" (to activity, defence, revenge or retalia-
tion). But in the primitive period of the human
race, the latter and the former propositions were
identical, the first were not generalisations of the
second, but the second were explanations of the
first. —Schopenhauer, with his assumption that all
that exists is something volitional, has set a primi-
tive mythology on the throne; he seems never to
have attempted an analysis of the Will, because


## p. 171 (#215) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 171
he believed like everybody in the simplicity and
immediateness of all volition:—while volition is
in fact such a cleverly practised mechanical process
that it almost escapes the observing eye. I set the
following propositions against those of Schopen-
hauer :—Firstly, in order that Will may arise, an
idea of pleasure and pain is necessary. Secondly,
that a vigorous excitation may be felt as pleasure
or pain, is the affair of the interpreting intellect,
which, to be sure, operates thereby for the most part
unconsciously to us, and one and the same excita-
tion may be interpreted as pleasure or pain. Thirdly,
it is only in an intellectual being that there is
pleasure, displeasure and Will; the immense
majority of organisms have nothing of the kind.
128.
The Value of Prayer. —Prayer has been devised
for such men as have never any thoughts of their
own, and to whom an elevation of the soul is un-
known, or passes unnoticed; what shall these
people do in holy places and in all important situa-
tions in life which require repose and some kind of
dignity? In order at least that they may not dis-
turb, the wisdom of all the founders of religions, the
small as well as the great, has commended to them
the formula of prayer, as a long mechanical labour
of the lips, united with an effort of the memory,
and with a uniform, prescribed attitude of hands
and feet—and eyes! They may then, like the
Tibetans, chew the cud of their "om mane padme
hum" innumerable times, or, as in Benares, count the
name of God Ram-Ram-Ram (and so on, with or


## p. 172 (#216) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light. All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#217) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133.
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#218) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup.
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#219) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more pozverful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
[not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#220) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#221) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131.
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#222) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#223) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133.
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134.
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#224) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#225) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#226) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, HI
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/ie Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but " God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#227) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
{not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#228) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup.
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
T/i e Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#229) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more powerful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom.
Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 173 (#230) ############################################

172 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
without grace) on their fingers; or honour Vishnu
with his thousand names of invocation, Allah with
his ninety-nine; or they may make use of the
prayer-wheels and the rosary: the main thing is
that they are settled down for a time at this
work, and present a tolerable appearance; their
mode of prayer is devised for the advantage of
the pious who have thought and elevation of their
own. But even these have their weary hours when
a series of venerable words and sounds and a
mechanical, pious ritual does them good. But sup-
posing that these rare men—in every religion the
religious man is an exception—know how to help
themselves, the poor in spirit do not know, and
to forbid them the prayer-babbling would mean
to take their religion from them, a fact which
Protestantism brings more and more to light . All
that religion wants with such persons is that they
should keep still with their eyes, hands, legs, and
all their organs: they thereby become temporarily
beautified and—more human-looking!
129.
The Conditions for God. —" God himself cannot
subsist without wise men," said Luther, and with
good reason; but "God can still less subsist with-
out unwise men,"—good Luther did not say that!
130.
A Dangerous Resolution. —The Christian resolu-
tion to find the world ugly and bad has made the
world ugly and bad.


## p. 173 (#231) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 173
131-
Christianity and Suicide. —Christianity made use
of the excessive longing for suicide at the time of
its origin as a lever for its power: it left only two
forms of suicide, invested them with the highest
dignity and the highest hopes, and forbade all
others in a dreadful manner. But martyrdom and
the slow self-annihilation of the ascetic were
permitted.
132.
Against Christianity. —It is now no longer our
reason, but our taste that decides against
Christianity.
133-
Axioms. —An unavoidable hypothesis on which
mankind must always fall back again, is, in the
long run, more pozverful than the most firmly
believed belief in something untrue (like the
Christian belief). In the long run: that means
a hundred thousand years from now.
134-
Pessimists as Victims. —When a profound dislike
of existence gets the upper hand, the after-effect
of a great error in diet of which a people has been
long guilty comes to light. The spread of Buddhism
(not its origin) is thus to a considerable extent
dependent on the excessive and almost exclusive
rice-fare of the Indians, and on the universal
enervation that results therefrom. Perhaps the
modern, European discontentedness is to be looked


## p. 174 (#232) ############################################

174 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
upon as caused by the fact that the world of our
forefathers, the whole Middle Ages, was given to
drink, owing to the influence of German tastes in
Europe: the Middle Ages, that means the alcoholic
poisoning of Europe. —The German dislike of life
(including the influence of the cellar-air and stove-
poison in German dwellings), is essentially a cold-
weather complaint.
135-
Origin of Sin. —Sin, as it is at present felt
wherever Christianity prevails or has prevailed, is
a Jewish feeling and a Jewish invention; and in
respect to this background of all Christian morality,
Christianity has in fact aimed at "Judaising" the
whole world. To what an extent this has suc-
ceeded in Europe is traced most accurately in the
extent of our alienness to Greek antiquity—a world
without the feeling of sin—in our sentiments even
at present; in spite of all the good will to approxi-
mation and assimilation, which whole generations
and many distinguished individuals have not
failed to display. "Only when thou repenttst is
God gracious to thee"—that would arouse the
laughter or the wrath of a Greek: he would say,
"Slaves may have such sentiments. " Here a
mighty being, an almighty being, and yet a re-
vengeful being, is presupposed; his power is so
great that no injury whatever can be done to him,
except in the point of honour. Every sin is an
infringement of respect, a crimen lessee majestatis
divinee—and nothing more! Contrition, degrada-
tion, rolling-in-the-dust,—these are the first and


## p. 175 (#233) ############################################

THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 175
last conditions on which his favour depends: the
restoration, therefore, of his divine honour! If
injury be caused otherwise by sin, if a profound,
spreading evil be propagated by it, an evil which,
like a disease, attacks and strangles one man after
another—that does not trouble this honour-craving
Oriental in heaven; sin is an offence against him,
not against mankind! —to him on whom he has
bestowed his favour he bestows also this indiffer-
ence to the natural consequences of sin. God
and mankind are here thought of as separated,
as so antithetical that sin against the latter cannot
be at all possible,—all deeds are to be looked upon
solely with respect to their supernatural consequences,
and not with respect to their natural results: it is
thus that the Jewish feeling, to which all that is
natural seems unworthy in itself, would have things.
The Greeks, on the other hand, were more familiar
with the thought that transgression also may have
dignity,—even theft, as in the case of Prometheus,
even the slaughtering of cattle as the expression of
frantic jealousy, as in the case of Ajax; in their
need to attribute dignity to transgression and
embody it therein, they invented tragedy,—an art
and a delight, which in its profoundest essence
has remained alien to the Jew, in spite of all his
poetic endowment and taste for the sublime.
136.
The Chosen People. —The Jews, who regard them-
selves as the chosen people among the nations, and
that too because they are the moral genius among
the nations (in virtue of their capacity for despising


## p. 176 (#234) ############################################

176 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
the human in themselves more than any other
people)—the Jews have a pleasure in their divine
monarch and saint similar to that which the French
nobility had in Louis XIV. This nobility had
allowed its power and autocracy to be taken from
it, and had become contemptible: in order not to
feel this, in order to be able to forget it, an un-
equalled royal magnificence, royal authority and
plenitude of power was needed, to which there was
access only for the nobility. As in accordance
with this privilege they raised themselves to the
elevation of the court, and from that elevation saw
everything under them,—saw everything con-
temptible,—they got beyond all uneasiness of con-
science. They thus elevated intentionally the
tower of the royal power more and more into the
clouds, and set the final coping-stone of their own
power thereon.
137-
Spoken in Parable. —A Jesus Christ was only
possible in a Jewish landscape—I mean in one
over which the gloomy and sublime thunder-cloud
of the angry Jehovah hung continually. Here only
was the rare, sudden flashing of a single sunbeam
through the dreadful, universal and continuous
nocturnal-day regarded as a miracle of "love,"
as a beam of the most unmerited "grace. " Here
only could Christ dream of his rainbow and
celestial ladder on which God descended to man;
everywhere else the clear weather and the sun
were considered the rule and the commonplace.


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 177
138.
The Error of Christ. —The founder of Christianity
thought there was nothing from which men suffered
so much as from their sins:—it was his error, the
error of him who felt himself without sin, to whom
experience was lacking in this respect! It was
thus that his soul filled with that marvellous,
fantastic pity which had reference to a trouble that
even among his own people, the inventors of sin,
was rarely a great trouble! But Christians under-
stood subsequently how to do justice to their master,
and to sanctify his error into a "truth. "
139-
Colour of the Passions. —Natures such as the
apostle Paul, have an evil eye for the passions;
they learn to know only the filthy, the distorting,
and the heart-breaking in them,—their ideal aim,
therefore, is the annihilation of the passions; in the
divine they see complete purification from passion.
The Greeks, quite otherwise than Paul and the
Jews, directed their ideal aim precisely to the
passions, and loved, elevated,embellished and deified
them: in passion they evidently not only felt them-
selves happier, but also purer and diviner than
otherwise. —And now the Christians? Have they
wished to become Jews in this respect? Have
they perhaps become Jews?
140.
Too Jewish. —If God had wanted to become an
object of love, he would first of all have had to
12


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178 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
forgo judging and justice:—a judge, and even a
gracious judge, is no object of love. The founder
of Christianity showed too little of the finer feelings
in this respect—being a Jew.
141.
Too Oriental. —What? A God who loves men,
provided that they believe in him, and who hurls
frightful glances and threatenings at him who does
not believe in this love! What? A conditioned
love as the feeling of an almighty God! A love
which has not even become master of the sentiment
of honour and of the irritable desire for vengeance!
How Oriental is all that! " If I love thee, what does
it concern thee ? " * is already a sufficient criticism
of the whole of Christianity.
142.
Frankincense. —Buddha says: "Do not flatter
thy benefactor! " Let one repeat this saying in a
Christian church:—it immediately purifies the air
of all Christianity.
H3-
The Greatest Utility of Polytheism. —For the
individual to set up his own ideal and derive from
it his laws, his pleasures and his rights—that has
perhaps been hitherto regarded as the most mon-
strous of all human aberrations, and as idolatry in
itself; in fact, the few who have ventured to do this
have always needed to apologise to themselves,
* This means that true love does not look for reciprocity.
—Tr.
N


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 179
usually in this wise: "Not I! not I! but a God,
through my instrumentality! " It was in the mar-
vellous art and capacity for creating Gods—in poly-
theism—that this impulse was permitted todischarge
itself, it was here that it became purified, perfected,
and ennobled; for it was originally a commonplace
and unimportant impulse, akin to stubbornness, dis-
obedience and envy. To be hostile to this impulse
towards the individual ideal,—that was formerly the
law of every morality. There was then only one
norm, "the man "—and every people believed that
it had this one and ultimate norm. But above
himself, and outside of himself, in a distant over-
world, a person could see a multitude of norms: the
one God was not the denial or blasphemy of the
other Gods! It was here that individuals were first
permitted, it was here that the right of individuals
was first respected. The inventing of Gods, heroes
and supermen of all kinds, as well as co-ordinate
men and undermen—dwarfs, fairies, centaurs,
satyrs, demons, devils—was the inestimable pre-
liminary to the justification of the selfishness
and sovereignty of the individual: the freedom
which was granted to one God in respect to other
Gods, was at last given to the individual himself
in respect to laws, customs and neighbours.
Monotheism, on the contrary, the rigid consequence
of the doctrine of one normal human being—con-
sequently the belief in a normal God, beside whom
there are only false, spurious Gods—has perhaps
been the greatest danger of mankind in the past:
man was then threatened by that premature state
of inertia, which, so far (as we can see, most of the


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180 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
other species of animals reached long ago, as
creatures who all believe in one normal animal
and ideal in their species, and definitely trans-
lated their morality of custom into flesh and blood.
In polytheism man's free-thinking and many-sided
thinking had a prototype set up: the power to
create for himself new and individual eyes, always
newer and more individualised: so that it is for
man alone, of all the animals, that there are no
eternal horizons and perspectives.
144.
Religious Wars. —The greatest advance of the
masses hitherto has been religious war, for it proves
that the masses have begun to deal reverently with
conceptions of things. Religious wars only result,
when human reason generally has been refined by
the subtle disputes of sects; so that even the popu-
lace becomes punctilious and regards trifles as
important, actually thinking it possible that the
"eternal salvation of the soul" may depend upon
minute distinctions of concepts.
145.
Danger of Vegetarians. — The immense pre-
valence of rice-eating impels to the use of opium
and narcotics, in like manner as the immense
prevalence of potato - eating impels to the use
of brandy:—it also impels, however, in its more
subtle after-effects to modes of thought and feeling
which operate narcotically. This is in accord with
the fact that those who promote narcotic modes of
thought and feeling, like those Indian teachers,


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III l8l
praise a purely vegetable diet, and would like to
make it a law for the masses: they want thereby
to call forth and augment the need which they are
in a position to satisfy.
146.
German Hopes. — Do not let us forget that
the names of peoples are generally names of
reproach. The Tartars, for example, according
to their name, are "the dogs"; they were
so christened by the Chinese. "Deutschen"
(Germans) means originally "heathen ": it is thus
that the Goths after their conversion named
the great mass of their unbaptized fellow-tribes,
according to the indication in their translation
of the Septuagint, in which the heathen are
designated by the word which in Greek signifies
"the nations. " (See Ulfilas. )—It might still be pos-
sible for the Germans to make an honourable name
ultimately out of their old name of reproach, by
becoming the first non-Christian nation of Europe;
for which purpose Schopenhauer, to their honour,
regarded them as highly qualified. The work of
Luther would thus be consummated,—he who
taught them to be anti-Roman and to say: "Here
/ stand! / cannot do otherwise! "—
147-
Question and Answer. —What do savage tribes
at present accept first of all from Europeans?
Brandy and Christianity, the European narcotics. —
And by what means are they fastest ruined ? —By
the European narcotics.


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182 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
148.
Where Reformations Originate. —At the time of
the great corruption of the church it was least of
all corrupt in Germany: it was on that account
that the Reformation originated here, as a sign
that even the beginnings of corruption were felt to
be unendurable. For, comparatively speaking, no
people was ever more Christian than the Germans
at the time of Luther; their Christian culture was
just about to burst into bloom with a hundred-fold
splendour,—one night only was still lacking; but
that night brought the storm which put an end
to all.
149.
The Failure of Reformations. —It testifies to the
higher culture of the Greeks, even in rather early
ages, that attempts to establish new Grecian
religions frequently failed; it testifies that quite
early there must have been a multitude of dis-
similar individuals in Greece, whose dissimilar
troubles were not cured by a single recipe of faith
and hope. Pythagoras and Plato, perhaps also
Empedocles, and already much earlier the Orphic
enthusiasts, aimed at founding new religions; and
the two first-named were so endowed with the
qualifications for founding religions, that one can-
not be sufficiently astonished at their failure: they
just reached the point of founding sects. Every
time that the Reformation of an entire people
fails and only sects raise their heads, one may
conclude that the people already contains many
types, and has begun to free itself from the gross


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 183
herding instincts and the morality of custom,—a
momentous state of suspense, which one is accus-
tomed to disparage as decay of morals and
corruption, while it announces the maturing of
the egg and the early rupture of the shell. That
Luther's Reformation succeeded in the north, is a
sign that the north had remained backward in com-
parison with the south of Europe, and still had
requirements tolerably uniform in colour and kind;
and there would have been no Christianising of
Europe at all, if the culture of the old world of the
south had not been gradually barbarized by an
excessive admixture of the blood of German
barbarians, and thus lost its ascendency. The
more universally and unconditionally an individual,
or the thought of an individual, can operate, so
much more homogeneous and so much lower must
be the mass that is there operated upon; while
counter-strivings betray internal counter-require-
ments, which also want to gratify and realise them-
selves. Reversely, one may always conclude with
regard to an actual elevation of culture, when
powerful and ambitious natures only produce a
limited and sectarian effect: this is true also for the
separate arts, and for the provinces of knowledge.
Where there is ruling there are masses: where
there are masses there is need of slavery. Where
there is slavery the individuals are but few, and
have the instincts and conscience of the herd
opposed to them.
150.
Criticism of Saints. —Must one then, in order to
have a virtue, be desirous of having it precisely


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184 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
in its most brutal form ? —as the Christian saints
desired and needed ;—those who only endured life
with the thought that at the sight of their virtue
self-contempt might seize every man. A virtue
with such an effect I call brutal.
151.
The Origin of Religion. — The metaphysical
requirement is not the origin of religions, as
Schopenhauer claims, but only a later sprout from
them. Under the dominance of religious thoughts
we have accustomed ourselves to the idea of
"another (back, under, or upper) world," and feel
an uncomfortable void and privation through the
annihilation of the religious illusion;—and then
"another world" grows out of this feeling once
more,, but now it is only a metaphysical world, and
no longer a religious one. That however which in
general led to the assumption of " another world,"
in primitive times, was not an impulse or require-:
ment, but an error in the interpretation of certain
natural phenomena, a difficulty of the intellect.
152.
The greatest Change. —The lustre and the hues
of all things have changed! We no longer quite
understand how earlier men conceived of the most
familiar and frequent things,—for example, of the
day, and the awakening in the morning: owing to
their belief in dreams the waking state seemed to
them differently illuminated. And similarly of the
whole of life, with its reflection of death and its
significance: our "death" is an entirely different


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 185
death. All events were of a different lustre, for
a God shone forth in them; and similarly of all
resolutions and peeps into the distant future:
for people had oracles, and secret hints, and be-
lieved in prognostication. "Truth " was conceived
in quite a different manner, for the insane could
formerly be regarded as its mouthpiece—a thing
which makes us shudder, or laugh. Injustice made
a different impression on the feelings: for people
were afraid of divine retribution, and not only of
legal punishment and disgrace. What joy was
there in an age when men believed in the devil
and tempter! What passion was there when
people saw demons lurking close at hand! What
philosophy was there when doubt was regarded as
sinfulness of the most dangerous kind, and in fact
as an outrage on eternal love, as distrust of every-
thing good, high, pure, and compassionate! —We
have coloured things anew, we paint them over
continually,—but what have we been able to do
hitherto in comparison with the splendid colouring
of that old master! —I mean ancient humanity.
153.
Homo poeta. —" I myself who have made this
tragedy of tragedies altogether independently, in
so far as it is completed; I who have first entwined
the perplexities of morality about existence, and
have tightened them so that only a God could
unravel them — so Horace demands ! — I have
already in the fourth act killed all the Gods—
for the sake of morality! What is now to be
done about the fifth act? Where shall I get the


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186 THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III
tragic denouement! Must I now think about
a comic denouement? "
154.
Differences in the Dangerousness of Life. —You
don't know at all what you experience; you run
through life as if intoxicated, and now and then
fall down a stair. Thanks however to your intoxi-
cation you still do not break your limbs: your
muscles are too languid and your head too confused
to find the stones of the staircase as hard as we
others do! For us life is a greater danger: we are
made of glass—alas, if we should strike against
anything! And all is lost if we should fall!
155-
What we Lack. —We love the grandeur of Nature
and have discovered it; that is because human
grandeur is lacking in our minds. It was the
reverse with the Greeks: their feeling towards
Nature was quite different from ours.
156.
The most Influential Person. —The fact that a
person resists the whole spirit of his age, stops it
at the door, and calls it to account, must exert an
influence! It is indifferent whether he wishes to
exert an influence; the point is that he can.
157.
Mentiri. —Take care! — he reflects: he will
have a lie ready immediately. This is a stage in


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THE JOYFUL WISDOM, III 187
the civilisation of whole nations. Consider only
what the Romans expressed by mentiri!
iS8.
An Inconvenient Peculiarity. —To find everything
deep is an inconvenient peculiarity: it makes one
constantly strain one's eyes, so that in the end
one always finds more than one wishes.
159-
Every Virtue has its Time. — The honesty of
him who is at present inflexible often causes
him remorse; for inflexibility is the virtue of a time
different from that in which honesty prevails.
160.
In Intercourse with Virtues. —One can also be
undignified and flattering towards a virtue.
161.
To the Admirers of the Age. —The runaway priest
and the liberated criminal are continually making
grimaces; what they want is a look without a past.
—But have you ever seen men who know that their
looks reflect the future, and who are so courteous to
you, the admirers of the "age," that they assume a
look without a future.