On his way
Zarathustra
meets two more higher men
of his time; two kings cross his path.
of his time; two kings cross his path.
Nietzsche - v11 - Thus Spake Zarathustra
"
Nietzsche tells us in the introduction to the "Birth
of Tragedy. " Even to call life " activity," or to define
it further as "the continuous adjustment of internal
relations to external relations," as Spencer has it,
Nietzsche characterises as a "democratic idiosyncracy. "
He says to define it in this way, "is to mistake the
true nature and function of life, which is Will to
Power. . . . Life is essentially appropriation, injury,
conquest of the strange and weak, suppression,
severity, obtrusion of its own forms, incorporation
and at least, putting it mildest, exploitation. " Adapta-
tion is merely a secondary activity, a mere re-activity
(see Note on Chap. LVII. ).
Pars. 11, 12. These deal with Nietzsche's principle of the
desirability of rearing a select race. The biological
## p. 435 (#657) ############################################
NOTES. 435
and historical grounds for his insistence upon this
principle are, of course, manifold. Gobineau in his
great work, "L'Inegalite des Races Humaines," lays
strong emphasis upon the evils which arise from
promiscuous and inter-social marriages. He alone
would suffice to carry Nietzsche's point against all
those who are opposed to the other conditions, to
the conditions which would have saved Rome, which
have maintained the strength of the Jewish race,
and which are strictly maintained by every breeder
of animals throughout the world. Darwin in his
remarks relative to the degeneration of cultivated
types of animals through the action of promiscuous
breeding, brings Gobineau support from the realm of
biology.
The last two verses of par. 12 were discussed in
the Notes on Chaps. XXXVI. and LIII.
This, like the first part of "The Soothsayer," is Par. 13.
obviously a reference to Schopenhauerian Pessimism.
These are supplementary to the discourse "Back- Pars. 14, 15,
world's-men. " l6> «7-
We must be careful to separate this paragraph, Par. 18.
in sense, from the previous four paragraphs. Nietz-
sche is. still dealing with Pessimism here; but it is
the pessimism of the hero—the man most susceptible
of all to desperate views of life, owing to the obstacles
that are arrayed against him in a world where men of
his kind are very rare and are continually being
sacrificed. It was to save this man that Nietzsche
wrote. Heroism foiled, thwarted, and wrecked, hoping
and fighting until the last, is at length overtaken by
despair, and renounces all struggle for sleep. This
is not the natural or constitutional pessimism which
proceeds from an unhealthy body—the dyspeptic's
lack of appetite; it is rather the desperation of the
## p. 436 (#658) ############################################
436 APPENDIX.
netted lion that ultimately stops all movement, because
the more it moves the more involved it becomes.
Par. 20. "All that increases power is good, all that springs
from weakness is bad. The weak and ill-constituted
shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one
shall also help them thereto. " Nietzsche partly
divined the kind of reception moral values of this
stamp would meet with at the hands of the effeminate
manhood of Europe. Here we see that he had
anticipated the most likely form their criticism would
take (see also the last two verses of par. 17).
Par. 21. The first ten verses, here, are reminiscent of "War
and Warriors" and of "The Flies in the Market-
place. " Verses 11 and 12, however, are particularly
important. There is a strong argument in favour of
the sharp differentiation of castes and of races (and
even of sexes; see Note on Chap. XVIII. ) running
all through Nietzsche's writings. But sharp differentia-
tion also implies antagonism in some form or other—
hence Nietzsche's fears for modern men. What
modern men desire above all, is peace and the
cessation of pain. But neither great races nor great
castes have ever been built up in this way. "Who
still wanteth to rule? " Zarathustra asks in the
"Prologue. " "Who still wanteth to obey? Both are
too burdensome. " This is rapidly becoming every-
body's attitude to-day. The tame moral reading of
the face of nature, together with such democratic
interpretations of life as those suggested by Herbert
Spencer, are signs of a physiological condition which
is the reverse of that bounding and irresponsible
healthiness in which harder and more tragic values
rule.
Par. 24. This should be read in conjunction with, "Child
and Marriage. " In the fifth verse wc shall recognise
## p. 437 (#659) ############################################
NOTES. 437
our old friend "Marriage on the ten-years system,"
which George Meredith suggested some years ago.
This, however, must not be taken too literally. I
do not think Nietzsche's profoundest views on
marriage were ever intended to be given over to the
public at all, at least not for the present. They
appear in the biography by his sister, and although
their wisdom is unquestionable, the nature of the
reforms he suggests render it impossible for them to
become popular just now.
See Note on "The Prologue. " Pars. 26, 27.
Nietzsche was not an iconoclast from predilection. Par. 28.
No bitterness or empty hate dictated his vitupera-
tions against existing values and against the dogmas of
his parents and forefathers. He knew too well what
these things meant to the millions who profess them,
to approach the task of uprooting them with levity
or even with haste. He saw what modern anarchists
and revolutionists do not see—namely, that man is in
danger of actual destruction when his customs and
values are broken. I need hardly point out, there-
fore, how deeply he was conscious of the responsibility
he threw upon our shoulders when he invited us to
reconsider our position. The lines in this paragraph
are evidence enough of his earnestness.
We meet with several puzzles here. Zarathustra Chapter
calls himself the advocate of the circle (the Eternal LVII.
Recurrence of all things), and he calls this doctrine :,
his abysmal thought. In the last verse of the first
paragraph, however, after hailing his deepest thought,
he cries: "Disgust, disgust, disgust! " We know
Nietzsche's ideal man was that "world-approving,
exuberant, and vivacious creature, who has not only
learnt to compromise and arrange with that which
was and is, but wishes to have it again, as it was and
## p. 438 (#660) ############################################
438 APPENDIX.
is, for all eternity insatiably calling out da capo, not
only to himself, but to the whole piece and play"
(see Note on Chap. XLIL). But if one ask oneself
what the conditions to such an attitude are, one will
realise immediately how utterly different Nietzsche
was from his ideal. The man who insatiably cries
da capo to himself and to the whole of his misc-tn-
scene, must be in a position to desire every incident
in his life to be repeated, not once, but again and
again eternally. Now, Nietzsche's life had been too
full of disappointments, illness, unsuccessful struggles,
and snubs, to allow of his thinking of the Eternal
Recurrence without loathing—hence probably the
words of the last verse.
In verses 15 and 16, we have Nietzsche declaring him-
self an evolutionist in the broadest sense—that is to
say, that he believes in the Development Hypothesis
as the description of the process by which species have
originated. Now, to understand his position correctly
we must show his relationship to the two greatest
of modern evolutionists—Darwin and Spencer. As
a philosopher, however, Nietzsche does not stand or
fall by his objections to the Darwinian or Spencerian
cosmogony. He never laid claim to a very profound
knowledge of biology, and his criticism is far more
valuable as the attitude of a fresh mind than as that
of a specialist towards the question. Moreover, in
his objections many difficulties are raised which are
not settled by an appeal to either of the men above
mentioned. We have given Nietzsche's definition of
life in the Note on Chap. LVI. , par. 10. Still, there
remains a hope that Darwin and Nietzsche may some
day become reconciled by a new description of the
processes by which varieties occur. The appearance
of varieties among animals and of "sporting plants"
## p. 439 (#661) ############################################
notes. 439
in the vegetable kingdom, is still shrouded in
mystery, and the question whether this is not
precisely the ground on which Darwin and Nietzsche
will meet, is an interesting one. The former says
in his "Origin of Species," concerning the causes of
variability: ". . . there are two factors, namely, the
nature of the organism, and the nature of the con-
ditions. The former seems to be much the more im-
portant,* for nearly similar variations sometimes arise
under, as far as we can judge, dissimilar conditions;
and on the other hand, dissimilar variations arise
under conditions which appear to be nearly uniform. "
Nietzsche, recognising this same truth, would ascribe
practically all the importance to the "highest func-
tionaries in the organism, in which the life-will
appears as an active and formative principle," and
except in certain cases (where passive organisms
alone are concerned) would not give such a prominent
place to the influence of environment. Adaptation,
according to him, is merely a secondary activity, a
mere re-activity, and he is therefore quite opposed to
Spencer's definition: "Life is the continuous adjust-
ment of internal relations to external relations. "
Again in the motive force behind animal and plant
life, Nietzsche disagrees with Darwin. He trans-
forms the "Struggle for Existence "—the passive and
involuntary condition—into the "Struggle for Power,"
which is active and creative, and much more in
harmony with Darwin's own view, given above, con-
cerning the importance of the organism itself. The
change is one of such far-reaching importance that
we cannot dispose of it in a breath, as a mere play
upon words. "Much is reckoned higher than life
* The italics are mine.
## p. 440 (#662) ############################################
440 APPENDIX.
itself by the living one. " Nietzsche says that to
speak of the activity of life as a "straggle for
existence," is to state the case inadequately. He
warns us not to confound Malthus with nature. There
is something more than this struggle between the
organic beings on this earth; want, which is supposed
to bring this struggle about, is not so common as is
supposed; some other force must be operative. The
Will to Power is this force, "the instinct of self-
preservation is only one of the indirect and most
frequent results thereof. " A certain lack of acumen
in psychological questions and the condition of affairs
in England at the time Darwin wrote, may both,
according to Nietzsche, have induced the renowned
naturalist to describe the forces of nature as he did
in his "Origin of Species. "
In verses 28, 29, and 30 of the second portion of
this discourse we meet with a doctrine which, at first
sight, seems to be merely "k manoir a fenvers,"
indeed one English critic has actually said of Nietz-
sche, that "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is no more
than a compendium of modern views and maxims
turned upside down. Examining these heterodox
pronouncements a little more closely, however, we
may possibly perceive their truth. Regarding good
and evil as purely relative values, it stands to reason
that what may be bad or evil in a given man, relative
to a certain environment, may actually be good if
not highly virtuous in him relative to a certain other
environment. If this hypothetical man represent the
ascending line of life—that is to say, if he promise all
that which is highest in a Greco-Roman sense, then
it is likely that he will be condemned as wicked if
introduced into the society of men representing the
opposite and descending line of life.
## p. 441 (#663) ############################################
NOTES. 44I
By depriving a man of his wickedness—more
particularly nowadays—therefore, one may unwittingly
be doing violence to the greatest in him. It may be
an outrage against his wholeness, just as the lopping-
off of a leg would be. Fortunately, the natural so-
called "wickedness" of higher men has in a certain
measure been able to resist this lopping process which
successive slave-moralities have practised; but signs
are not wanting which show that the noblest wicked-
ness is fast vanishing from society—the wickedness
of courage and determination—and that Nietzsche
had good reasons for crying: "Ah, that [man's]
baddest is so very small! Ah, that his best is so
very small. What is good? To be brave is good!
It is the good war which halloweth every cause! "
(see also par. 5, "Higher Man ").
This is a final pa? an which Zarathustra sings to Chapter LX.
Eternity and the marriage-ring of rings, the ring of The Seven
the Eternal Recurrence. Seals-
In my opinion this part is Nietzsche's open avowal PART IV.
that all his philosophy, together with all his hopes,
enthusiastic outbursts, blasphemies, prolixities, and
obscurities, were merely so many gifts laid at the feet
of higher men. He had no desire to save the world.
What he wished to determine was: Who is to be
master of the world? This is a very different thing.
He came to save higher men;—-to give them that
freedom by which, alone, they can develop and
reach their zenith (see Note on Chap. LIV. , end). It
has been argued, and with considerable force, that
no such philosophy is required by higher men, that,
as a matter of fact, higher men, by virtue of their
constitutions always, do stand Beyond Good and
## p. 442 (#664) ############################################
442 APPENDIX.
Evil, and never allow anything to stand in the way
of their complete growth. Nietzsche, however, was
evidently not so confident about this. He would
probably have argued that we only see the successful
cases. Being a great man himself, he was well aware
of the dangers threatening greatness in our age. In
"Beyond Good and Evil" he writes: "There are
few pains so grievous as to have seen, divined, or
experienced how an exceptional man has missed
his way and deteriorated. . . . " He knew "from
his painfullest recollections on what wretched ob-
stacles promising developments of the highest rank
have hitherto usually gone to pieces, broken
down, sunk, and become contemptible. " Now in
Part IV. we shall find that his strongest temptation
to descend to the feeling of "pity" for his con-
temporaries, is the "cry for help" which he hears
from the lips of the higher men exposed to the
dreadful danger of their modern environment.
Chapter LXI. In the fourteenth verse of this discourse Nietzsche
The Honey defines the solemn duty he imposed upon himself:
Sacrifice. « Become wnat thou art. " Surely the criticism which
has been directed against this maxim must all fall to
the ground when it is remembered, once and for all, that
Nietzsche's teaching was never intended to be other
than an esoteric one. "I am a law only. for mine
own," he says emphatically, "I am not a law for all. "
It is of the greatest importance to humanity that its
highest individuals should be allowed to attain to their
full development; for, only by means of its heroes
can the human race be led forward step by step to
higher and yet higher levels. "Become what thou
art" applied to all, of course, becomes a vicious
maxim; it is to be hoped, however, that we may learn
in time that the same action performed by a given
## p. 443 (#665) ############################################
NOTES. 443
number of men, loses its identity precisely that
same number of times. —" Quod licet Jovi, non licet
bovi. "
At the last eight verses many readers may be
tempted to laugh. In England we almost always
laugh when a man takes himself seriously at anything
save sport. And there is of course no reason why the
reader should not be hilarious. —A certain greatness
is requisite, both in order to be sublime and to have
reverence for the sublime. Nietzsche earnestly be-
lieved that the Zarathustra-kingdom—his dynasty of
a thousand years—would one day come; if he had
not believed it so earnestly, if every artist in fact had
not believed so earnestly in his Hazar, whether of
ten, fifteen, a hundred, or a thousand years, we should
have lost all our higher men; they would have become
pessimists, suicides, or merchants. If the minor poet
and philosopher has made us shy of the prophetic
seriousness which characterised an Isaiah or a Jeremiah,
it is surely our loss and the minor poet's gain.
We now meet with Zarathustra in extraordinary Chapter
circumstances. He is confronted with Schopenhauer LXII.
and tempted by the old Soothsayer to commit the sin . e Cry of
of pity. "I have come that I may seduce thee to
thy last sin ! " says the Soothsayer to Zarathustra. It
will be remembered that in Schopenhauer's ethics, pity
is elevated to the highest place among the virtues, and
very consistently too, seeing that the Weltanschauung
is a pessimistic one. Schopenhauer appeals to Nietz-
sche's deepest and strongest sentiment—his sympathy
for higher men. "Why dost thou conceal thyself? "
he cries. "It is the higlier man that calleth for thee! "
Zarathustra is almost overcome by the Soothsayer's
pleading, as he had been once already in the past;
but he resists him step by step. At length he can
## p. 444 (#666) ############################################
444
APPENDIX.
Chapter
LXIII.
Talk with
the Kings.
Chapter
LXIV.
The Leech.
withstand him no longer, and, on the plea that the
higher man is on his ground and therefore under his
protection, Zarathustra departs in search of him,
leaving Schopenhauer—a higher man in Nietzsche's
opinion—in the cave as a guest.
On his way Zarathustra meets two more higher men
of his time; two kings cross his path. They are
above the average modern type; for their instincts
tell them what real ruling is, and they despise the
mockery which they have been taught to call " Reign-
ing. " "We are not the first men," they say, "and have
nevertheless to stand for them: of this imposture have
we at last become weary and disgusted. " It is the
kings who tell Zarathustra: "There is no sorer
misfortune in all human destiny than when the
mighty of the earth are not also the first men. There
everything becometh false and distorted and mon-
strous. " The kings are also asked by Zarathustra to
accept the shelter of his cave, whereupon he proceeds
on his way.
Among the higher men whom Zarathustra wishes to
save, is also the scientific specialist—the man who
honestly and scrupulously pursues his investigations,
as Darwin did, in one department of knowledge. "I
love him who liveth in order to know, and seeketh
to know in order that the Superman may hereafter
live. Thus seeketh he his own down-going. " "The
spiritually conscientious one," he is called in this
discourse. Zarathustra steps on him unawares, and
the slave of science, bleeding from the violence he
has done to himself by his self-imposed task, speaks
proudly of his little sphere of knowledge—his little
hand's breadth of ground on Zarathustra's territory,
philosophy. "Where mine honesty ceaseth," says
the true scientific specialist, "there am I blind and
## p. 445 (#667) ############################################
NOTES. 445
want also to be blind. Where I want to know, how-
ever, there want I also to be honest—namely, severe,
rigorous, restricted, cruel, and inexorable. " Zarathus-
tra greatly respecting this man, invites him too to the
cave, and then vanishes in answer to another cry for
help.
The Magician is of course an artist, and Nietzsche's Chapter LXV.
intimate knowledge of perhaps the greatest artist ofThe Magician,
his age rendered the selection of Wagner, as the type
in this discourse, almost inevitable. Most readers
will be acquainted with the facts relating to Nietzsche's
and Wagner's friendship and ultimate separation. As
a boy and a youth Nietzsche had shown such a
remarkable gift for music that it had been a question
at one time whether he should not perhaps give up
everything else in order to develop this gift, but he
became a scholar notwithstanding, although he never
entirely gave up composing, and playing the piano.
While still in his teens, he became acquainted with
Wagner's music and grew passionately fond of it.
Long before he met Wagner he must have idealised
him in his mind to an extent which only a profoundly
artistic nature could have been capable of. Nietzsche
always had high ideals for humanity. If one were
asked whether, throughout his many changes, there
was yet one aim, one direction, and one hope to
which he held fast, one would be forced to reply in
the affirmative and declare that aim, direction, and hope
to have been "the elevation of the type man. " Now,
when Nietzsche met Wagner he was actually casting
about for an incarnation of his dreams for the German
people, and we have only to remember his youth (he
was twenty-one when he was introduced to Wagner),
his love of Wagner's music, and the undoubted power
of the great musician's personality, in order to realise
## p. 446 (#668) ############################################
446 APPENDIX.
how very uncritical his attitude must have been in the
first flood of his enthusiasm. Again, when the friend-
ship ripened, we cannot well imagine Nietzsche, the
younger man, being anything less than intoxicated by
his senior's attention and love, and we are therefore
not surprised to find him pressing Wagner forward as
the great Reformer and Saviour of mankind. "Wagner
in Bayreuth " (English Edition, 1909) gives us the best
proof of Nietzsche's infatuation, and although signs
are not wanting in this essay which show how clearly
and even cruelly he was sub-consciously "taking
stock" of his friend—even then, the work is a record
of what great love and admiration can do in the way
of endowing the object of one's affection with all
the qualities and ideals that a fertile imagination can
conceive.
When the blow came, it was therefore all the more
severe. Nietzsche at length realised that the friend
of his fancy and the real Richard Wagner—the com-
poser of Parsifal—were not one; the fact dawned
upon him slowly; disappointment upon disappoint-
ment, revelation after revelation, ultimately brought
it home to him, and though his best instincts were
naturally opposed to it at first, the revulsion of feeling
at last became too strong to be ignored, and Nietzsche
was plunged into the blackest despair. Years after
his break with Wagner, he wrote "The Case of
Wagner," and "Nietzsche contra Wagner," and these
works are with us to prove the sincerity and depth of
his views on the man who was the greatest event
of his life.
The poem in this discourse is, of course, reminiscent
of Wagner's own poetical manner, and it must be
remembered that the whole was written subsequent
to Nietzsche's final break with his friend. The
## p. 447 (#669) ############################################
NOTES. 447
dialogue between Zarathustra and the Magician reveals
pretty fully what it was that Nietzsche grew to loathe
so intensely in Wagner,—viz. , his pronounced histrionic
tendencies, his dissembling powers, his inordinate
vanity, his equivocalness, his falseness. "It honoureth
thee,"says Zarathustra, "that thou soughtest for great-
ness, but it betrayeth thee also. Thou art not
great. " The Magician is nevertheless sent as a guest
to Zarathustra's cave; for, in his heart, Zarathustra
believed until the end that the Magician was a higher
man broken by modern values.
Zarathustra now meets the last pope, and, in a Chapter
poetical form, we get Nietzsche's description of the LXVL
course Judaism and Christianity pursued before they _ u .
reached their final break-up in Atheism, Agnosticism,
and the like. The God of a strong, warlike race—
the God of Israel—is a jealous, revengeful God. He
is a power that can be pictured and endured only by
a hardy and courageous race, a race rich enough to
sacrifice and to lose in sacrifice. The image of this
God degenerates with the people that appropriate it,
and gradually He becomes a God of love—" soft and
mellow," a lower middle-class deity, who is "pitiful. "
He can no longer be a God who requires sacrifice,
for we ourselves are no longer rich enough for that.
The tables are therefore turned upon Him; He must
sacrifice to us. His pity becomes so great that he
actually does sacrifice something to us—His only
begotten Son. Such a process carried to its logical
conclusions must ultimately end in His own destruc-
tion, and thus we find the pope declaring that God
was one day suffocated by His all-too-great pity.
What follows is clear enough. Zarathustra recognises
another higher man in the ex-pope and sends him
too as a guest to the cave.
## p. 448 (#670) ############################################
448 APPENDIX.
Chapter This discourse contains perhaps the boldest of
LXVII. Nietzsche's suggestions concerning Atheism, as well
The Ugliest u some extremely penetrating remarks upon the
sentiment of pity. Zarathustra comes across the
repulsive creature sitting on the wayside, and what
does he do? He manifests the only correct feelings
that can be manifested in the presence of any great
misery—that is to say, shame, reverence, embarrass-
ment. Nietzsche detested the obtrusive and gushing
pity that goes up to misery without a blush either on
its cheek or in its heart—the pity which is only
another form of self-glorification. "Thank God that I
am not like thee ! "—only this self-glorifying sentiment
can lend a well-constituted man the impudence to
show his pity for the cripple and the ill-constituted. In
the presence of the ugliest man Nietzsche blushes,—
he blushes for his race; his own particular kind of
altruism—the altruism that might have prevented the
existence of this man—strikes him with all its force.
He will have the world otherwise. He will have a
world where one need not blush for one's fellows—
hence his appeal to us to love only our children's
land, the land undiscovered in the remotest sea.
Zarathustra calls the ugliest man the murderer of
God! Certainly, this is one aspect of a certain kind
of Atheism—the Atheism of the man who reveres
beauty to such an extent that his own ugliness, which
outrages him, must be concealed from every eye lest
it should not be respected as Zarathustra respected it.
If there be a God, He too must be evaded. His pity
must be foiled. But God is ubiquitous and omniscient.
Therefore, for the really great ugly man, He must not
exist. "Their pity is it from which I flee away," he says
—that is to say: "it is from their want of reverence
and lack of shame in presence of my great misery! »
"N
## p. 449 (#671) ############################################
NOTES. 449
The ugliest man despises himself; but Zarathustra
said in his Prologue: "I love the great despisers
because they are the great adorers, and arrows of
longing for the other shore. " He therefore honours
the ugliest man: sees height in his self-contempt, and
invites him to join the other higher men in the cave.
In this discourse, we undoubtedly have the ideal Chapter
Buddhist, if not Gautama Buddha himself. Nietzsche LXVIII.
had the greatest respect for Buddhism, and almost ^he
wherever he refers to it in his works, it is in terms of B ary
praise. He recognised that though Buddhism is un-
doubtedly a religion for decadents, its decadent values
emanate from the higher and not, as in Christianity,
from the lower grades of society. In Aphorism 20 of
"The Antichrist," he compares it exhaustively with
Christianity, and the result of his investigation is very
much in favour of the older religion. Still, he recog-
nised a most decided Buddhistic influence in Christ's
teaching, and the words in verses 29, 30, and 31 are
very reminiscent of his views in regard to the Christian
Saviour.
The figure of Christ has been introduced often
enough into fiction, and many scholars have under-
taken to write His life according to their own lights,
but few perhaps have ever attempted to present Him
to us bereft of all those characteristics which a lack
of the sense of harmony has attached to His person
through the ages in which His doctrines have been
taught. Now Nietzsche disagreed entirely with
Renan's view, that Christ was "le grand maltre en
ironie " ; in Aphorism 31 of " The Antichrist," he says
that he (Nietzsche) always purged his picture of the
Humble Nazarene of all those bitter and spiteful out-
bursts which, in view of the struggle the first Christians
went through, may very well have been added to the
2 F
## p. 450 (#672) ############################################
450 APPENDIX.
original character by Apologists and Sectarians who,
at that time, could ill afford to consider nice psycho-
logical points, seeing that what they needed, above all,
was a wrangling and abusive deity. These two con-
flicting halves in the character of the Christ of the
Gospels, which no sound psychology can ever reconcile,
Nietzsche always kept distinct in his own mind; he
could not credit the same man with sentiments some-
times so noble and at other times so vulgar, and in
presenting us with this new portrait of the Saviour,
purged of all impurities, Nietzsche rendered military
honours to a foe, which far exceed in worth all that
His most ardent disciples have ever claimed for Him.
In verse 26 we are vividly reminded of Herbert
Spencer's words: "'Le mariage de convenatue' is
legalised prostitution. "
Chapter Here we have a description of that courageous and
wayward spirit that literally haunts the footsteps of
every great thinker and every great leader; sometimes
with the result that it loses all aims, all hopes, and all
trust in a definite goal. It is the case of the bravest
and most broad-minded men of to-day. These liter-
ally shadow the most daring movements in the science
and art of their generation; they completely lose their
bearings and actually find themselves, in the end,
without a way, a goal, or a home. "On every surface
have I already sat! . . . I become thin, I am almost
equal to a shadow! " At last, in despair, such men
do indeed cry out: "Nothing is true; all is permitted,"
and then they become mere wreckage. "Too much
hath become clear unto me: now nothing mattereth
to me any more. Nothing liveth any longer that I
love,—how should I still love myself? Have I still a
goal? Where is my home? " Zarathustra realises the
danger threatening such a man. "Thy danger is not
The Shadow.
## p. 451 (#673) ############################################
NOTES. 451
small, thou free spirit and wanderer," he says. "Thou
hast had a bad day. See that a still worse evening
doth not overtake thee! " The danger Zarathustra
refers to is precisely this, that even a prison may seem
a blessing to such a man. At least the bars keep him
in a place of rest; a place of confinement, at its worst,
is real. "Beware lest in the end a narrow faith
capture thee," says Zarathustra, "for now everything
that is narrow and fixed seduceth and tempteth thee. "
At the noon of life Nietzsche said he entered the Chapter
world; with him man came of age. We are now LXX.
held responsible for our actions; our old guardians, Noon-tlde-
the gods and demi-gods of our youth, the superstitions
and fears of our childhood, withdraw; the field lies
open before us; we lived through our morning with but
one master—chance—; let us see to it that we make
our afternoon our own (see Note XLIX. , Part III. ).
Here I think I may claim that my contention in Chapter
regard to the purpose and aim of the whole of LXXI.
Nietzsche's philosophy (as stated at the beginning 0f The Greeting,
my Notes on Part IV. ) is completely upheld. He
fought for "all who do not want to live, unless
they learn again to hope—unless they learn [from him]
the great hope! " Zarathustra's address to his guests
shows clearly enough how he wished to help them:
"/ do not treat my warriors indulgently" he says:
"how then could ye be fit for my warfare? " He
rebukes and spurns them, no word of love comes from
his lips. Elsewhere he says a man should be a hard
bed to his friend, thus alone can he be of use to him.
Nietzsche would be a hard bed to higher men. He
would make them harder; for, in order to be a
law unto himself, man must possess the requisite
hardness. "I wait for higher ones, stronger ones,
more triumphant ones, merrier ones, for such as are
## p. 452 (#674) ############################################
452
APPENDIX.
Chapter
LXXII.
The Supper.
Chapter
LXXIII.
The Higher
Man.
Par. I.
Par. 3.
Par. 4.
built squarely in body and soaL" He says in par.
6 of "Higher Man":—
"Ye higher men, thiuk ye that I am here to put
right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished
henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers?
Or show you restless, miswandering, rriisclimbing
ones new and easier footpaths? "
"Nay! Nay! Three times nay! Always more,
always better ones of your type shall succumb—for
ye shall always have it worse and harder. "
In the first seven verses of this discourse, I cannot
help seeing a gentle allusion to Schopenhauer's habits
as a bon-vivant. For a pessimist, be it remembered,
Schopenhauer led quite an extraordinary life. He
ate well, loved well, played the flute well, and I
believe he smoked the best cigars. What follows
is clear enough.
Nietzsche admits, here, that at one time he had
thought of appealing to the people, to the crowd in
the market-place, but that he had ultimately to
abandon the task. He bids higher men depart from
the market-place.
Here we are told quite plainly what class of men
actually owe all their impulses and desires to the
instinct of self-preservation. The struggle for existence
is indeed the only spur in the case of such people.
To them it matters not in what shape or condition
man be preserved, provided only he survive. The
transcendental maxim that "Life per se is precious"
is the ruling maxim here.
In the Note on Chap. LVII. (end) I speak of
Nietzsche's elevation of the virtue, Courage, to the
highest place among the virtues. Here he tells
higher men the class of courage he expects from
them.
## p. 453 (#675) ############################################
NOTES. 453
These have already been referred to in the Notes Pars. 5. 6.
on Chaps. LVII. (end) and LXXI.
I suggest that the last verse in this paragraph Par. 7.
strongly confirms the view that Nietzsche's teaching
was always meant by him to be esoteric and for
higher man alone.
In the last verse, here, another shaft of light is Par. 9.
thrown upon the Immaculate Perception or so-called
"pure objectivity " of the scientific mind. "Freedom
from fever is still far from being knowledge. " Where
a man's emotions cease to accompany him in his
investigations, he is not necessarily nearer the truth.
Says Spencer, in the Preface to his Autobiography:—
"In the genesis of a system of thought, the emotional
nature is a large factor: perhaps as large a factor as
the intellectual nature" (see pp. 134, 141 of Vol. L,
"Thoughts out of Season," in this edition).
When we approach Nietzsche's philosophy we must Pars. 10, 11.
be prepared to be independent thinkers; in fact, the
greatest virtue of his works is perhaps the subtlety
with which they impose the obligation upon one of
thinking alone, of scoring off one's own bat, and of
shifting intellectually for oneself.
"I am a railing alongside the torrent; whoever is Par. 13.
able to grasp me, may grasp me! Your crutch,
however, I am not. " These two paragraphs are an
exhortation to higher men to become independent.
Here Nietzsche perhaps exaggerates the import- Par. 15.
ance of heredity. As, however, the question is by no
means one on which we are all agreed, what he says
is not without value.
A very important principle in Nietzsche's philo-
sophy is enunciated in the first verse of this para-
graph. "The higher its type, always the seldomer
doth a thing succeed" (see p. 82 of "Beyond Good
## p. 454 (#676) ############################################
454
APPENDIX.
Pars. 16, 17,
18, 19, 20.
Chapter
LXXIV.
The Song of
Melancholy.
Chapter
LXXV.
Science,
and Evil," in this edition). Those who, like some
political economists, talk in a business-like way about
the terrific waste of human life and energy, deliber-
ately overlook the fact that the waste most to be
deplored usually occurs among higher individuals.
Economy was never precisely one of nature's leading
principles. All this sentimental wailing over the
larger proportion of failures than successes in human
life, does not seem to take into account the fact that
it is the rarest thing on earth for a highly organised
being to attain to the fullest development and activity
of all its functions, simply because it is so highly
organised.
Nietzsche tells us in the introduction to the "Birth
of Tragedy. " Even to call life " activity," or to define
it further as "the continuous adjustment of internal
relations to external relations," as Spencer has it,
Nietzsche characterises as a "democratic idiosyncracy. "
He says to define it in this way, "is to mistake the
true nature and function of life, which is Will to
Power. . . . Life is essentially appropriation, injury,
conquest of the strange and weak, suppression,
severity, obtrusion of its own forms, incorporation
and at least, putting it mildest, exploitation. " Adapta-
tion is merely a secondary activity, a mere re-activity
(see Note on Chap. LVII. ).
Pars. 11, 12. These deal with Nietzsche's principle of the
desirability of rearing a select race. The biological
## p. 435 (#657) ############################################
NOTES. 435
and historical grounds for his insistence upon this
principle are, of course, manifold. Gobineau in his
great work, "L'Inegalite des Races Humaines," lays
strong emphasis upon the evils which arise from
promiscuous and inter-social marriages. He alone
would suffice to carry Nietzsche's point against all
those who are opposed to the other conditions, to
the conditions which would have saved Rome, which
have maintained the strength of the Jewish race,
and which are strictly maintained by every breeder
of animals throughout the world. Darwin in his
remarks relative to the degeneration of cultivated
types of animals through the action of promiscuous
breeding, brings Gobineau support from the realm of
biology.
The last two verses of par. 12 were discussed in
the Notes on Chaps. XXXVI. and LIII.
This, like the first part of "The Soothsayer," is Par. 13.
obviously a reference to Schopenhauerian Pessimism.
These are supplementary to the discourse "Back- Pars. 14, 15,
world's-men. " l6> «7-
We must be careful to separate this paragraph, Par. 18.
in sense, from the previous four paragraphs. Nietz-
sche is. still dealing with Pessimism here; but it is
the pessimism of the hero—the man most susceptible
of all to desperate views of life, owing to the obstacles
that are arrayed against him in a world where men of
his kind are very rare and are continually being
sacrificed. It was to save this man that Nietzsche
wrote. Heroism foiled, thwarted, and wrecked, hoping
and fighting until the last, is at length overtaken by
despair, and renounces all struggle for sleep. This
is not the natural or constitutional pessimism which
proceeds from an unhealthy body—the dyspeptic's
lack of appetite; it is rather the desperation of the
## p. 436 (#658) ############################################
436 APPENDIX.
netted lion that ultimately stops all movement, because
the more it moves the more involved it becomes.
Par. 20. "All that increases power is good, all that springs
from weakness is bad. The weak and ill-constituted
shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one
shall also help them thereto. " Nietzsche partly
divined the kind of reception moral values of this
stamp would meet with at the hands of the effeminate
manhood of Europe. Here we see that he had
anticipated the most likely form their criticism would
take (see also the last two verses of par. 17).
Par. 21. The first ten verses, here, are reminiscent of "War
and Warriors" and of "The Flies in the Market-
place. " Verses 11 and 12, however, are particularly
important. There is a strong argument in favour of
the sharp differentiation of castes and of races (and
even of sexes; see Note on Chap. XVIII. ) running
all through Nietzsche's writings. But sharp differentia-
tion also implies antagonism in some form or other—
hence Nietzsche's fears for modern men. What
modern men desire above all, is peace and the
cessation of pain. But neither great races nor great
castes have ever been built up in this way. "Who
still wanteth to rule? " Zarathustra asks in the
"Prologue. " "Who still wanteth to obey? Both are
too burdensome. " This is rapidly becoming every-
body's attitude to-day. The tame moral reading of
the face of nature, together with such democratic
interpretations of life as those suggested by Herbert
Spencer, are signs of a physiological condition which
is the reverse of that bounding and irresponsible
healthiness in which harder and more tragic values
rule.
Par. 24. This should be read in conjunction with, "Child
and Marriage. " In the fifth verse wc shall recognise
## p. 437 (#659) ############################################
NOTES. 437
our old friend "Marriage on the ten-years system,"
which George Meredith suggested some years ago.
This, however, must not be taken too literally. I
do not think Nietzsche's profoundest views on
marriage were ever intended to be given over to the
public at all, at least not for the present. They
appear in the biography by his sister, and although
their wisdom is unquestionable, the nature of the
reforms he suggests render it impossible for them to
become popular just now.
See Note on "The Prologue. " Pars. 26, 27.
Nietzsche was not an iconoclast from predilection. Par. 28.
No bitterness or empty hate dictated his vitupera-
tions against existing values and against the dogmas of
his parents and forefathers. He knew too well what
these things meant to the millions who profess them,
to approach the task of uprooting them with levity
or even with haste. He saw what modern anarchists
and revolutionists do not see—namely, that man is in
danger of actual destruction when his customs and
values are broken. I need hardly point out, there-
fore, how deeply he was conscious of the responsibility
he threw upon our shoulders when he invited us to
reconsider our position. The lines in this paragraph
are evidence enough of his earnestness.
We meet with several puzzles here. Zarathustra Chapter
calls himself the advocate of the circle (the Eternal LVII.
Recurrence of all things), and he calls this doctrine :,
his abysmal thought. In the last verse of the first
paragraph, however, after hailing his deepest thought,
he cries: "Disgust, disgust, disgust! " We know
Nietzsche's ideal man was that "world-approving,
exuberant, and vivacious creature, who has not only
learnt to compromise and arrange with that which
was and is, but wishes to have it again, as it was and
## p. 438 (#660) ############################################
438 APPENDIX.
is, for all eternity insatiably calling out da capo, not
only to himself, but to the whole piece and play"
(see Note on Chap. XLIL). But if one ask oneself
what the conditions to such an attitude are, one will
realise immediately how utterly different Nietzsche
was from his ideal. The man who insatiably cries
da capo to himself and to the whole of his misc-tn-
scene, must be in a position to desire every incident
in his life to be repeated, not once, but again and
again eternally. Now, Nietzsche's life had been too
full of disappointments, illness, unsuccessful struggles,
and snubs, to allow of his thinking of the Eternal
Recurrence without loathing—hence probably the
words of the last verse.
In verses 15 and 16, we have Nietzsche declaring him-
self an evolutionist in the broadest sense—that is to
say, that he believes in the Development Hypothesis
as the description of the process by which species have
originated. Now, to understand his position correctly
we must show his relationship to the two greatest
of modern evolutionists—Darwin and Spencer. As
a philosopher, however, Nietzsche does not stand or
fall by his objections to the Darwinian or Spencerian
cosmogony. He never laid claim to a very profound
knowledge of biology, and his criticism is far more
valuable as the attitude of a fresh mind than as that
of a specialist towards the question. Moreover, in
his objections many difficulties are raised which are
not settled by an appeal to either of the men above
mentioned. We have given Nietzsche's definition of
life in the Note on Chap. LVI. , par. 10. Still, there
remains a hope that Darwin and Nietzsche may some
day become reconciled by a new description of the
processes by which varieties occur. The appearance
of varieties among animals and of "sporting plants"
## p. 439 (#661) ############################################
notes. 439
in the vegetable kingdom, is still shrouded in
mystery, and the question whether this is not
precisely the ground on which Darwin and Nietzsche
will meet, is an interesting one. The former says
in his "Origin of Species," concerning the causes of
variability: ". . . there are two factors, namely, the
nature of the organism, and the nature of the con-
ditions. The former seems to be much the more im-
portant,* for nearly similar variations sometimes arise
under, as far as we can judge, dissimilar conditions;
and on the other hand, dissimilar variations arise
under conditions which appear to be nearly uniform. "
Nietzsche, recognising this same truth, would ascribe
practically all the importance to the "highest func-
tionaries in the organism, in which the life-will
appears as an active and formative principle," and
except in certain cases (where passive organisms
alone are concerned) would not give such a prominent
place to the influence of environment. Adaptation,
according to him, is merely a secondary activity, a
mere re-activity, and he is therefore quite opposed to
Spencer's definition: "Life is the continuous adjust-
ment of internal relations to external relations. "
Again in the motive force behind animal and plant
life, Nietzsche disagrees with Darwin. He trans-
forms the "Struggle for Existence "—the passive and
involuntary condition—into the "Struggle for Power,"
which is active and creative, and much more in
harmony with Darwin's own view, given above, con-
cerning the importance of the organism itself. The
change is one of such far-reaching importance that
we cannot dispose of it in a breath, as a mere play
upon words. "Much is reckoned higher than life
* The italics are mine.
## p. 440 (#662) ############################################
440 APPENDIX.
itself by the living one. " Nietzsche says that to
speak of the activity of life as a "straggle for
existence," is to state the case inadequately. He
warns us not to confound Malthus with nature. There
is something more than this struggle between the
organic beings on this earth; want, which is supposed
to bring this struggle about, is not so common as is
supposed; some other force must be operative. The
Will to Power is this force, "the instinct of self-
preservation is only one of the indirect and most
frequent results thereof. " A certain lack of acumen
in psychological questions and the condition of affairs
in England at the time Darwin wrote, may both,
according to Nietzsche, have induced the renowned
naturalist to describe the forces of nature as he did
in his "Origin of Species. "
In verses 28, 29, and 30 of the second portion of
this discourse we meet with a doctrine which, at first
sight, seems to be merely "k manoir a fenvers,"
indeed one English critic has actually said of Nietz-
sche, that "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is no more
than a compendium of modern views and maxims
turned upside down. Examining these heterodox
pronouncements a little more closely, however, we
may possibly perceive their truth. Regarding good
and evil as purely relative values, it stands to reason
that what may be bad or evil in a given man, relative
to a certain environment, may actually be good if
not highly virtuous in him relative to a certain other
environment. If this hypothetical man represent the
ascending line of life—that is to say, if he promise all
that which is highest in a Greco-Roman sense, then
it is likely that he will be condemned as wicked if
introduced into the society of men representing the
opposite and descending line of life.
## p. 441 (#663) ############################################
NOTES. 44I
By depriving a man of his wickedness—more
particularly nowadays—therefore, one may unwittingly
be doing violence to the greatest in him. It may be
an outrage against his wholeness, just as the lopping-
off of a leg would be. Fortunately, the natural so-
called "wickedness" of higher men has in a certain
measure been able to resist this lopping process which
successive slave-moralities have practised; but signs
are not wanting which show that the noblest wicked-
ness is fast vanishing from society—the wickedness
of courage and determination—and that Nietzsche
had good reasons for crying: "Ah, that [man's]
baddest is so very small! Ah, that his best is so
very small. What is good? To be brave is good!
It is the good war which halloweth every cause! "
(see also par. 5, "Higher Man ").
This is a final pa? an which Zarathustra sings to Chapter LX.
Eternity and the marriage-ring of rings, the ring of The Seven
the Eternal Recurrence. Seals-
In my opinion this part is Nietzsche's open avowal PART IV.
that all his philosophy, together with all his hopes,
enthusiastic outbursts, blasphemies, prolixities, and
obscurities, were merely so many gifts laid at the feet
of higher men. He had no desire to save the world.
What he wished to determine was: Who is to be
master of the world? This is a very different thing.
He came to save higher men;—-to give them that
freedom by which, alone, they can develop and
reach their zenith (see Note on Chap. LIV. , end). It
has been argued, and with considerable force, that
no such philosophy is required by higher men, that,
as a matter of fact, higher men, by virtue of their
constitutions always, do stand Beyond Good and
## p. 442 (#664) ############################################
442 APPENDIX.
Evil, and never allow anything to stand in the way
of their complete growth. Nietzsche, however, was
evidently not so confident about this. He would
probably have argued that we only see the successful
cases. Being a great man himself, he was well aware
of the dangers threatening greatness in our age. In
"Beyond Good and Evil" he writes: "There are
few pains so grievous as to have seen, divined, or
experienced how an exceptional man has missed
his way and deteriorated. . . . " He knew "from
his painfullest recollections on what wretched ob-
stacles promising developments of the highest rank
have hitherto usually gone to pieces, broken
down, sunk, and become contemptible. " Now in
Part IV. we shall find that his strongest temptation
to descend to the feeling of "pity" for his con-
temporaries, is the "cry for help" which he hears
from the lips of the higher men exposed to the
dreadful danger of their modern environment.
Chapter LXI. In the fourteenth verse of this discourse Nietzsche
The Honey defines the solemn duty he imposed upon himself:
Sacrifice. « Become wnat thou art. " Surely the criticism which
has been directed against this maxim must all fall to
the ground when it is remembered, once and for all, that
Nietzsche's teaching was never intended to be other
than an esoteric one. "I am a law only. for mine
own," he says emphatically, "I am not a law for all. "
It is of the greatest importance to humanity that its
highest individuals should be allowed to attain to their
full development; for, only by means of its heroes
can the human race be led forward step by step to
higher and yet higher levels. "Become what thou
art" applied to all, of course, becomes a vicious
maxim; it is to be hoped, however, that we may learn
in time that the same action performed by a given
## p. 443 (#665) ############################################
NOTES. 443
number of men, loses its identity precisely that
same number of times. —" Quod licet Jovi, non licet
bovi. "
At the last eight verses many readers may be
tempted to laugh. In England we almost always
laugh when a man takes himself seriously at anything
save sport. And there is of course no reason why the
reader should not be hilarious. —A certain greatness
is requisite, both in order to be sublime and to have
reverence for the sublime. Nietzsche earnestly be-
lieved that the Zarathustra-kingdom—his dynasty of
a thousand years—would one day come; if he had
not believed it so earnestly, if every artist in fact had
not believed so earnestly in his Hazar, whether of
ten, fifteen, a hundred, or a thousand years, we should
have lost all our higher men; they would have become
pessimists, suicides, or merchants. If the minor poet
and philosopher has made us shy of the prophetic
seriousness which characterised an Isaiah or a Jeremiah,
it is surely our loss and the minor poet's gain.
We now meet with Zarathustra in extraordinary Chapter
circumstances. He is confronted with Schopenhauer LXII.
and tempted by the old Soothsayer to commit the sin . e Cry of
of pity. "I have come that I may seduce thee to
thy last sin ! " says the Soothsayer to Zarathustra. It
will be remembered that in Schopenhauer's ethics, pity
is elevated to the highest place among the virtues, and
very consistently too, seeing that the Weltanschauung
is a pessimistic one. Schopenhauer appeals to Nietz-
sche's deepest and strongest sentiment—his sympathy
for higher men. "Why dost thou conceal thyself? "
he cries. "It is the higlier man that calleth for thee! "
Zarathustra is almost overcome by the Soothsayer's
pleading, as he had been once already in the past;
but he resists him step by step. At length he can
## p. 444 (#666) ############################################
444
APPENDIX.
Chapter
LXIII.
Talk with
the Kings.
Chapter
LXIV.
The Leech.
withstand him no longer, and, on the plea that the
higher man is on his ground and therefore under his
protection, Zarathustra departs in search of him,
leaving Schopenhauer—a higher man in Nietzsche's
opinion—in the cave as a guest.
On his way Zarathustra meets two more higher men
of his time; two kings cross his path. They are
above the average modern type; for their instincts
tell them what real ruling is, and they despise the
mockery which they have been taught to call " Reign-
ing. " "We are not the first men," they say, "and have
nevertheless to stand for them: of this imposture have
we at last become weary and disgusted. " It is the
kings who tell Zarathustra: "There is no sorer
misfortune in all human destiny than when the
mighty of the earth are not also the first men. There
everything becometh false and distorted and mon-
strous. " The kings are also asked by Zarathustra to
accept the shelter of his cave, whereupon he proceeds
on his way.
Among the higher men whom Zarathustra wishes to
save, is also the scientific specialist—the man who
honestly and scrupulously pursues his investigations,
as Darwin did, in one department of knowledge. "I
love him who liveth in order to know, and seeketh
to know in order that the Superman may hereafter
live. Thus seeketh he his own down-going. " "The
spiritually conscientious one," he is called in this
discourse. Zarathustra steps on him unawares, and
the slave of science, bleeding from the violence he
has done to himself by his self-imposed task, speaks
proudly of his little sphere of knowledge—his little
hand's breadth of ground on Zarathustra's territory,
philosophy. "Where mine honesty ceaseth," says
the true scientific specialist, "there am I blind and
## p. 445 (#667) ############################################
NOTES. 445
want also to be blind. Where I want to know, how-
ever, there want I also to be honest—namely, severe,
rigorous, restricted, cruel, and inexorable. " Zarathus-
tra greatly respecting this man, invites him too to the
cave, and then vanishes in answer to another cry for
help.
The Magician is of course an artist, and Nietzsche's Chapter LXV.
intimate knowledge of perhaps the greatest artist ofThe Magician,
his age rendered the selection of Wagner, as the type
in this discourse, almost inevitable. Most readers
will be acquainted with the facts relating to Nietzsche's
and Wagner's friendship and ultimate separation. As
a boy and a youth Nietzsche had shown such a
remarkable gift for music that it had been a question
at one time whether he should not perhaps give up
everything else in order to develop this gift, but he
became a scholar notwithstanding, although he never
entirely gave up composing, and playing the piano.
While still in his teens, he became acquainted with
Wagner's music and grew passionately fond of it.
Long before he met Wagner he must have idealised
him in his mind to an extent which only a profoundly
artistic nature could have been capable of. Nietzsche
always had high ideals for humanity. If one were
asked whether, throughout his many changes, there
was yet one aim, one direction, and one hope to
which he held fast, one would be forced to reply in
the affirmative and declare that aim, direction, and hope
to have been "the elevation of the type man. " Now,
when Nietzsche met Wagner he was actually casting
about for an incarnation of his dreams for the German
people, and we have only to remember his youth (he
was twenty-one when he was introduced to Wagner),
his love of Wagner's music, and the undoubted power
of the great musician's personality, in order to realise
## p. 446 (#668) ############################################
446 APPENDIX.
how very uncritical his attitude must have been in the
first flood of his enthusiasm. Again, when the friend-
ship ripened, we cannot well imagine Nietzsche, the
younger man, being anything less than intoxicated by
his senior's attention and love, and we are therefore
not surprised to find him pressing Wagner forward as
the great Reformer and Saviour of mankind. "Wagner
in Bayreuth " (English Edition, 1909) gives us the best
proof of Nietzsche's infatuation, and although signs
are not wanting in this essay which show how clearly
and even cruelly he was sub-consciously "taking
stock" of his friend—even then, the work is a record
of what great love and admiration can do in the way
of endowing the object of one's affection with all
the qualities and ideals that a fertile imagination can
conceive.
When the blow came, it was therefore all the more
severe. Nietzsche at length realised that the friend
of his fancy and the real Richard Wagner—the com-
poser of Parsifal—were not one; the fact dawned
upon him slowly; disappointment upon disappoint-
ment, revelation after revelation, ultimately brought
it home to him, and though his best instincts were
naturally opposed to it at first, the revulsion of feeling
at last became too strong to be ignored, and Nietzsche
was plunged into the blackest despair. Years after
his break with Wagner, he wrote "The Case of
Wagner," and "Nietzsche contra Wagner," and these
works are with us to prove the sincerity and depth of
his views on the man who was the greatest event
of his life.
The poem in this discourse is, of course, reminiscent
of Wagner's own poetical manner, and it must be
remembered that the whole was written subsequent
to Nietzsche's final break with his friend. The
## p. 447 (#669) ############################################
NOTES. 447
dialogue between Zarathustra and the Magician reveals
pretty fully what it was that Nietzsche grew to loathe
so intensely in Wagner,—viz. , his pronounced histrionic
tendencies, his dissembling powers, his inordinate
vanity, his equivocalness, his falseness. "It honoureth
thee,"says Zarathustra, "that thou soughtest for great-
ness, but it betrayeth thee also. Thou art not
great. " The Magician is nevertheless sent as a guest
to Zarathustra's cave; for, in his heart, Zarathustra
believed until the end that the Magician was a higher
man broken by modern values.
Zarathustra now meets the last pope, and, in a Chapter
poetical form, we get Nietzsche's description of the LXVL
course Judaism and Christianity pursued before they _ u .
reached their final break-up in Atheism, Agnosticism,
and the like. The God of a strong, warlike race—
the God of Israel—is a jealous, revengeful God. He
is a power that can be pictured and endured only by
a hardy and courageous race, a race rich enough to
sacrifice and to lose in sacrifice. The image of this
God degenerates with the people that appropriate it,
and gradually He becomes a God of love—" soft and
mellow," a lower middle-class deity, who is "pitiful. "
He can no longer be a God who requires sacrifice,
for we ourselves are no longer rich enough for that.
The tables are therefore turned upon Him; He must
sacrifice to us. His pity becomes so great that he
actually does sacrifice something to us—His only
begotten Son. Such a process carried to its logical
conclusions must ultimately end in His own destruc-
tion, and thus we find the pope declaring that God
was one day suffocated by His all-too-great pity.
What follows is clear enough. Zarathustra recognises
another higher man in the ex-pope and sends him
too as a guest to the cave.
## p. 448 (#670) ############################################
448 APPENDIX.
Chapter This discourse contains perhaps the boldest of
LXVII. Nietzsche's suggestions concerning Atheism, as well
The Ugliest u some extremely penetrating remarks upon the
sentiment of pity. Zarathustra comes across the
repulsive creature sitting on the wayside, and what
does he do? He manifests the only correct feelings
that can be manifested in the presence of any great
misery—that is to say, shame, reverence, embarrass-
ment. Nietzsche detested the obtrusive and gushing
pity that goes up to misery without a blush either on
its cheek or in its heart—the pity which is only
another form of self-glorification. "Thank God that I
am not like thee ! "—only this self-glorifying sentiment
can lend a well-constituted man the impudence to
show his pity for the cripple and the ill-constituted. In
the presence of the ugliest man Nietzsche blushes,—
he blushes for his race; his own particular kind of
altruism—the altruism that might have prevented the
existence of this man—strikes him with all its force.
He will have the world otherwise. He will have a
world where one need not blush for one's fellows—
hence his appeal to us to love only our children's
land, the land undiscovered in the remotest sea.
Zarathustra calls the ugliest man the murderer of
God! Certainly, this is one aspect of a certain kind
of Atheism—the Atheism of the man who reveres
beauty to such an extent that his own ugliness, which
outrages him, must be concealed from every eye lest
it should not be respected as Zarathustra respected it.
If there be a God, He too must be evaded. His pity
must be foiled. But God is ubiquitous and omniscient.
Therefore, for the really great ugly man, He must not
exist. "Their pity is it from which I flee away," he says
—that is to say: "it is from their want of reverence
and lack of shame in presence of my great misery! »
"N
## p. 449 (#671) ############################################
NOTES. 449
The ugliest man despises himself; but Zarathustra
said in his Prologue: "I love the great despisers
because they are the great adorers, and arrows of
longing for the other shore. " He therefore honours
the ugliest man: sees height in his self-contempt, and
invites him to join the other higher men in the cave.
In this discourse, we undoubtedly have the ideal Chapter
Buddhist, if not Gautama Buddha himself. Nietzsche LXVIII.
had the greatest respect for Buddhism, and almost ^he
wherever he refers to it in his works, it is in terms of B ary
praise. He recognised that though Buddhism is un-
doubtedly a religion for decadents, its decadent values
emanate from the higher and not, as in Christianity,
from the lower grades of society. In Aphorism 20 of
"The Antichrist," he compares it exhaustively with
Christianity, and the result of his investigation is very
much in favour of the older religion. Still, he recog-
nised a most decided Buddhistic influence in Christ's
teaching, and the words in verses 29, 30, and 31 are
very reminiscent of his views in regard to the Christian
Saviour.
The figure of Christ has been introduced often
enough into fiction, and many scholars have under-
taken to write His life according to their own lights,
but few perhaps have ever attempted to present Him
to us bereft of all those characteristics which a lack
of the sense of harmony has attached to His person
through the ages in which His doctrines have been
taught. Now Nietzsche disagreed entirely with
Renan's view, that Christ was "le grand maltre en
ironie " ; in Aphorism 31 of " The Antichrist," he says
that he (Nietzsche) always purged his picture of the
Humble Nazarene of all those bitter and spiteful out-
bursts which, in view of the struggle the first Christians
went through, may very well have been added to the
2 F
## p. 450 (#672) ############################################
450 APPENDIX.
original character by Apologists and Sectarians who,
at that time, could ill afford to consider nice psycho-
logical points, seeing that what they needed, above all,
was a wrangling and abusive deity. These two con-
flicting halves in the character of the Christ of the
Gospels, which no sound psychology can ever reconcile,
Nietzsche always kept distinct in his own mind; he
could not credit the same man with sentiments some-
times so noble and at other times so vulgar, and in
presenting us with this new portrait of the Saviour,
purged of all impurities, Nietzsche rendered military
honours to a foe, which far exceed in worth all that
His most ardent disciples have ever claimed for Him.
In verse 26 we are vividly reminded of Herbert
Spencer's words: "'Le mariage de convenatue' is
legalised prostitution. "
Chapter Here we have a description of that courageous and
wayward spirit that literally haunts the footsteps of
every great thinker and every great leader; sometimes
with the result that it loses all aims, all hopes, and all
trust in a definite goal. It is the case of the bravest
and most broad-minded men of to-day. These liter-
ally shadow the most daring movements in the science
and art of their generation; they completely lose their
bearings and actually find themselves, in the end,
without a way, a goal, or a home. "On every surface
have I already sat! . . . I become thin, I am almost
equal to a shadow! " At last, in despair, such men
do indeed cry out: "Nothing is true; all is permitted,"
and then they become mere wreckage. "Too much
hath become clear unto me: now nothing mattereth
to me any more. Nothing liveth any longer that I
love,—how should I still love myself? Have I still a
goal? Where is my home? " Zarathustra realises the
danger threatening such a man. "Thy danger is not
The Shadow.
## p. 451 (#673) ############################################
NOTES. 451
small, thou free spirit and wanderer," he says. "Thou
hast had a bad day. See that a still worse evening
doth not overtake thee! " The danger Zarathustra
refers to is precisely this, that even a prison may seem
a blessing to such a man. At least the bars keep him
in a place of rest; a place of confinement, at its worst,
is real. "Beware lest in the end a narrow faith
capture thee," says Zarathustra, "for now everything
that is narrow and fixed seduceth and tempteth thee. "
At the noon of life Nietzsche said he entered the Chapter
world; with him man came of age. We are now LXX.
held responsible for our actions; our old guardians, Noon-tlde-
the gods and demi-gods of our youth, the superstitions
and fears of our childhood, withdraw; the field lies
open before us; we lived through our morning with but
one master—chance—; let us see to it that we make
our afternoon our own (see Note XLIX. , Part III. ).
Here I think I may claim that my contention in Chapter
regard to the purpose and aim of the whole of LXXI.
Nietzsche's philosophy (as stated at the beginning 0f The Greeting,
my Notes on Part IV. ) is completely upheld. He
fought for "all who do not want to live, unless
they learn again to hope—unless they learn [from him]
the great hope! " Zarathustra's address to his guests
shows clearly enough how he wished to help them:
"/ do not treat my warriors indulgently" he says:
"how then could ye be fit for my warfare? " He
rebukes and spurns them, no word of love comes from
his lips. Elsewhere he says a man should be a hard
bed to his friend, thus alone can he be of use to him.
Nietzsche would be a hard bed to higher men. He
would make them harder; for, in order to be a
law unto himself, man must possess the requisite
hardness. "I wait for higher ones, stronger ones,
more triumphant ones, merrier ones, for such as are
## p. 452 (#674) ############################################
452
APPENDIX.
Chapter
LXXII.
The Supper.
Chapter
LXXIII.
The Higher
Man.
Par. I.
Par. 3.
Par. 4.
built squarely in body and soaL" He says in par.
6 of "Higher Man":—
"Ye higher men, thiuk ye that I am here to put
right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished
henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers?
Or show you restless, miswandering, rriisclimbing
ones new and easier footpaths? "
"Nay! Nay! Three times nay! Always more,
always better ones of your type shall succumb—for
ye shall always have it worse and harder. "
In the first seven verses of this discourse, I cannot
help seeing a gentle allusion to Schopenhauer's habits
as a bon-vivant. For a pessimist, be it remembered,
Schopenhauer led quite an extraordinary life. He
ate well, loved well, played the flute well, and I
believe he smoked the best cigars. What follows
is clear enough.
Nietzsche admits, here, that at one time he had
thought of appealing to the people, to the crowd in
the market-place, but that he had ultimately to
abandon the task. He bids higher men depart from
the market-place.
Here we are told quite plainly what class of men
actually owe all their impulses and desires to the
instinct of self-preservation. The struggle for existence
is indeed the only spur in the case of such people.
To them it matters not in what shape or condition
man be preserved, provided only he survive. The
transcendental maxim that "Life per se is precious"
is the ruling maxim here.
In the Note on Chap. LVII. (end) I speak of
Nietzsche's elevation of the virtue, Courage, to the
highest place among the virtues. Here he tells
higher men the class of courage he expects from
them.
## p. 453 (#675) ############################################
NOTES. 453
These have already been referred to in the Notes Pars. 5. 6.
on Chaps. LVII. (end) and LXXI.
I suggest that the last verse in this paragraph Par. 7.
strongly confirms the view that Nietzsche's teaching
was always meant by him to be esoteric and for
higher man alone.
In the last verse, here, another shaft of light is Par. 9.
thrown upon the Immaculate Perception or so-called
"pure objectivity " of the scientific mind. "Freedom
from fever is still far from being knowledge. " Where
a man's emotions cease to accompany him in his
investigations, he is not necessarily nearer the truth.
Says Spencer, in the Preface to his Autobiography:—
"In the genesis of a system of thought, the emotional
nature is a large factor: perhaps as large a factor as
the intellectual nature" (see pp. 134, 141 of Vol. L,
"Thoughts out of Season," in this edition).
When we approach Nietzsche's philosophy we must Pars. 10, 11.
be prepared to be independent thinkers; in fact, the
greatest virtue of his works is perhaps the subtlety
with which they impose the obligation upon one of
thinking alone, of scoring off one's own bat, and of
shifting intellectually for oneself.
"I am a railing alongside the torrent; whoever is Par. 13.
able to grasp me, may grasp me! Your crutch,
however, I am not. " These two paragraphs are an
exhortation to higher men to become independent.
Here Nietzsche perhaps exaggerates the import- Par. 15.
ance of heredity. As, however, the question is by no
means one on which we are all agreed, what he says
is not without value.
A very important principle in Nietzsche's philo-
sophy is enunciated in the first verse of this para-
graph. "The higher its type, always the seldomer
doth a thing succeed" (see p. 82 of "Beyond Good
## p. 454 (#676) ############################################
454
APPENDIX.
Pars. 16, 17,
18, 19, 20.
Chapter
LXXIV.
The Song of
Melancholy.
Chapter
LXXV.
Science,
and Evil," in this edition). Those who, like some
political economists, talk in a business-like way about
the terrific waste of human life and energy, deliber-
ately overlook the fact that the waste most to be
deplored usually occurs among higher individuals.
Economy was never precisely one of nature's leading
principles. All this sentimental wailing over the
larger proportion of failures than successes in human
life, does not seem to take into account the fact that
it is the rarest thing on earth for a highly organised
being to attain to the fullest development and activity
of all its functions, simply because it is so highly
organised.
