Are we not yet ripe
for the contrary conception?
for the contrary conception?
Nietzsche - v09 - The Dawn of Day
(#252) ################################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 199 (#253) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. -—Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdadı on,
kpadin. kaì kúvtepov allo tot' &tams . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 200 (#254) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 201 (#255) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
We ARE Nobler. —Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic ; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, " Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! " As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, "Strike, but listen to me. " (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: "TtrXatfi 5>j,
K/moirj■ Kai KVVTfpov SKKo ■nor ? rA)js . . . " etc. Kvvi-fpor, from
«cu«o! >, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —Tr.
## p. (#256) ################################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 197 (#257) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdabi on,
kpadin. Kai kúvtepov ärlo tot'étans . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kúwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 198 (#258) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 199 (#259) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdadi sń,
kpadin. kai kúvtepov ärlo tor' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 200 (#260) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, the comprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 201 (#261) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18 : “Térda, on,
kpaðin. Kai Kúvtepov állo hot'étans . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. -TR.
## p. 202 (#262) ############################################
202 THE DAWN OF DAY.
epoch, who was just the man at the moment of
disgrace to address to his " dear heart" that verse
of comfort and affliction. )
The Greeks were far from making light of life
and death because of an insult, as we, influenced
by a hereditary spirit of chivalric adventurousness
and self-devotion, are in the habit of doing; or
from looking for opportunities of honourably risking
life and death, as in duels; or from valuing the
preservation of an unstained name (honour) more
than the acquirement of an evil reputation, when the
latter was compatible with glory and the feeling of
power; or from remaining faithful to the prejudices
and the articles of faith of a caste, when these could
prevent them from becoming tyrants. For this is
the ignoble secret of the good Greek aristocrat: out
of sheer jealousy he treats every one of the members
of his caste as beingon an equal footing with himself,
but he is ready at every moment to springlike a tiger
on his prey—despotism. What matterlies,murders,
treason, or the betrayal of his native city to him!
Justice was an extremely difficult matter for people
of this kind to understand—nay, justice was almost
something incredible. "The just man " was to the
Greeks what "the saint" was to the Christians.
When Socrates, however, laid down the axiom,
"The most virtuous man is the happiest," they could
not trust their ears; they thought they had heard
a madman speaking. For, as a picture of the
happiest man, every nobleman had in his mind the
cheeky audacity and devilry of the tyrant who
sacrifices everything and every one to his own
exuberance and pleasure. Among people whose
## p. 203 (#263) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 203
imagination secretly raved about such happiness,
the worship of the State could not, of course, have
been too deeply implanted—but I think that men
whose desire for power does not rage so blindly as
that of the Greek noblemen no longer stand in
need of such idolatry of the State, by means of
which, in past ages, such a passion was kept with-
in due bounds.
200.
Endurance of Poverty. —There is one great
advantage in noble extraction: it makes us endure
poverty better.
201 ^
The Future of the Nobility. —The bearing
of the aristocratic classes shows that, in all the
members of their body the consciousness of power
is continually playing its fascinating game. Thus
people of aristocratic habits, men or women, never
sink worn out into a chair; when every one else
makes himself comfortable, as in a train, for ex-
ample, they avoid reclining at their ease; they do
not appear to get tired after standing at Court for
hours at a stretch; they do not furnish their houses
in a comfortable manner, but in such a way as to
produce the impression of something grand and im-
posing, as if they had to serve as a residence for
greater and taller beings; they reply to a provoking
speech with dignity and clearness of mind, and not
as if scandalised, crushed, shamed, or out of breath
in the plebeian fashion. As the aristocrat is able
to preserve the appearance of being possessed of a
## p. 204 (#264) ############################################
204 THE DAWN OF DAY.
superior physical force which never leaves him, he
likewise wishes by his aspect of constant serenity
and civility of disposition, even in the most trying
circumstances, to convey the impression that his
mind and soul are equal to all dangers and
surprises. A noble culture may resemble, so far
as passions are concerned, either a horseman who
takes pleasure in making his proud and fiery animal
trot in the Spanish fashion,—we have only to
recollect the age of Louis XIV. ,—or like the rider
who feels his horse dart away with him like the
elemental forces, to such a degree that both horse
and rider come near losing their heads, but, owing
to the enjoyment of the delight, do keep very clear
heads: in both these cases this aristocratic culture
breathes power, and if very often in its customs
only the appearance of the feeling of power is
required, nevertheless the real sense of superiority
continues constantly to increase as the result of the
impression which this display makes upon those
who are not aristocrats.
This indisputable happiness of aristocratic cul-
ture, based as it is on the feeling of superiority, is
now beginning to rise to ever higher levels; for
now, thanks to the free spirits, it is henceforth
permissible and not dishonourable for people who
have been born and reared in aristocratic circles
to enter the domain of knowledge, where they
may secure more intellectual consecrations and
learn chivalric services even higher than those of
former times, and where they may look up to that
ideal of victorious wisdom which as yet no age
has been able to set before itself with so good a
## p. 205 (#265) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 205
conscience as the period which is about to dawn.
Lastly, what is to be the occupation of the nobility
in the future if it becomes more evident from day
to day that it is less and less indecorus to take
any part in politics?
202.
TheCare of the Health. —We have scarcely
begun to devote any attention to the physiology of
criminals, and yet we have already reached the in-
evitable conclusion that between criminals and mad-
men there is no really essential difference: if we
suppose that the current moral fashion of thinking
is a healthy way of thinking. No belief, however,
is nowadays more firmly believed in than this one,
so we should not therefore shrink from drawing the
inevitable conclusion and treating the criminal like
a lunatic—above all, not with haughty pitiful-
ness, but with medical skill and good will. He
may perhaps be in need of a change of air, a
change of society, or temporary absence: perhaps
of solitude and new occupations—very well! He
may perhaps feel that it would be to his advantage
to live under surveillance for a short time in order
thus to obtain protection from himself and from a
troublesome tyrannical impulse—very well! We
should make clear to him the possibility and the
means of curing him (the extermination, transfor-
mation, and sublimation of these impulses), and also,
in the worst cases, the improbability of a cure; and
we should offer to the incurable criminal, who has
become a useless burden to himself, the opportunity
of committing suicide. While holding this in re-
## p. 206 (#266) ############################################
206 THE DAWN OF DAY.
serve as an extreme measure of relief, we should
neglect nothing which would tend above all to restore
to the criminal his good courage and freedom of
spirit; we should free his soul from all remorse, as
if it were something unclean, and show him how he
may atone for a wrong which he may have done
some one by benefiting some one else, perhaps the
community at large, in such a way that he might
even do more than balance his previous offence.
All this must be done with the greatest tact!
The criminal must, above all, remain anonymous
or adopt an assumed name, changing his place of
residence frequently, so that his reputation and
future life may suffer as little as possible. At the
present time it is true that the man who has been
injured, apart altogether from the manner in which
this injury might be redressed, wishes for revenge
in addition, and applies to the courts that he may
obtain it—and this is why our dreadful penal laws
are still in force: Justice, as it were, holding up a
pair of shopkeeper's scales and endeavouring to
balance the guilt by punishment; but can we not
take a step beyond this? Would it not be a great
relief to the general sentiment of life if, while getting
rid of our belief in guilt, we could also get rid of
our old craving for vengeance, and gradually come
to believe that it is a refined wisdom for happy men
to bless their enemies and to do good to those who
have offended them, exactly in accordance with the
spirit of Christian teaching! Let us free the world
from this idea of sin, and take care to cast out with
it the idea of punishment. May these monstrous
ideas henceforth live banished far from the abodes
## p. 207 (#267) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 207
of men—if, indeed, they must live at all, and do
not perish from disgust with themselves.
Let us not forget also, however, that the injury
caused to society and to the individual by the
criminal is of the same species as that caused by
the sick: for the sick spread cares and ill-humour;
they are non-productive, consume the earnings of
others, and at the same time require attendance,
doctors, and support, and they really live on the
time and strength of the healthy. In spite of this,
however, we should designate as inhuman any one
who, for this reason, would wish to wreak vengeance
on the sick. In past ages, indeed, this was actually
done: in primitive conditions of society, and even
now among certain savage peoples, the sick man is
treated as a criminal and as a danger to the com-
munity, and it is believed that he is the resting-place
of certain demoniacal beings who have entered into
his body as the result of some offence he has com-
mitted—those ages and peoples hold that the sick
are the guilty!
And what of ourselves?
Are we not yet ripe
for the contrary conception? Shall we not be
allowed to say, "The guilty are the sick "? No;
the hour for that has not yet come. We still lack,
above all, those physicians who have learnt some-
thing from what we have hitherto called practical
morals and have transformed it into the art and
science of healing. We still lack that intense
interest in those things which some day perhaps
may seem not unlike the "storm and stress" of
those old religious ecstasies. The Churches have
not yet come into the possession of those who look
## p. 208 (#268) ############################################
208 THE DAWN OF DAY.
after our health; the study of the body and of
dietary are not yet amongst the obligatory subjects
taught in our primary and secondary schools; there
are as yet no quiet associations of those people
who are pledged to one another to do without the
help of law courts, and who renounce the punish-
ment and vengeance now meted out to those who
have offended against society. No thinker has as
yet been daring enough to determine the health of
society, and of the individuals who compose it, by
the number of parasites which it can support; and
no statesman has yet been found to use the plough-
share in the spirit of that generous and tender
saying, "If thou wilt till the land, till it with the
plough ; then the bird and the wolf, walking behind
thy plough, will rejoice in thee—all creatures will
rejoice in thee. "
203.
Against Bad Diet. —Fie upon the meals which
people nowadays eat in hotels and everywhere else
where the well-offclasses of society live! Even when
eminent men of science meet together their tables
groan under the weight of the dishes, in accordance
with the principle of the bankers: the principle of
too many dishes and too much to eat. The result
of this is that dinners are prepared with a view to
their mere appearance rather than the consequences
that may follow from eating them, and that
stimulating drinks are required to help in driving
away the heaviness in the stomach and in the brain.
Fie on the dissoluteness and extreme nervousness
## p. 209 (#269) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 209
which must follow upon all this! Fie upon the
dreams that such repasts bring! Fie upon the arts
and books which must be the desert of such meals!
Despite all the efforts of such people their acts will
taste of pepper and ill-temper, or general weariness!
(The wealthy classes in England stand in great
need of their Christianity in order to be able to
endure their bad digestions and their headaches. )
Finally, to mention not only the disgusting but also
the more pleasant side of the matter, these people
are by no means mere gluttons: our century and its
spirit of activity has more power over the limbs than
the belly. What then is the meaning of these ban-
quets? They represent! What in Heaven's name
do they represent? Rank ? —no, money! There is
no rank now! We are all "individuals"! but money
now stands for power, glory, pre-eminence, dignity,
and influence; money at the present time acts as
a greater or lesser moral prejudice for a man in
proportion to the amount he may possess. No-
body wishes to hide it under a bushel or display
it in heaps on a table: hence money must have
some representative which can be put on the table
—so behold our banquets!
204
U
Dakje and the God of Gold. — Whence
arises this excessive impatience in our day which
turns men into criminals even in circumstances
which would be more likely to bring about the
contrary tendency? What induces one man to use
false weights, another to set his house on fire after
o
## p. 210 (#270) ############################################
2IO THE DAWN OF DAY.
having insured it for more than its value, a third
to take part in counterfeiting, while three-fourths
of our upper classes indulge in legalised fraud, and
suffer from the pangs of conscience that follow
speculation and dealings on the Stock Exchange:
what gives rise to all this? It is not real want,
—for their existence is by no means precarious;
perhaps they have even enough to eat and drink
without worrying,—but they are urged on day and
night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth
pile up so slowly, and by an equally terrible long-
ing and love for these heaps of gold. In this im-
patience and love, however, we see re-appear once
more that fanaticism of the desire for power which
was stimulated in former times by the belief that we
were in the possession of truth, a fanaticism which
bore such beautiful names that we could dare to be
inhuman with a good conscience (burning Jews,
heretics, and good books, and exterminating entire
cultures superior to ours, such as those of Peru
and Mexico). The means of this desire for power
are changed in our day, but the same volcano is
still smouldering, impatience and intemperate love
call for their victims, and what was once done
"for the love of God" is now done for the love of
money, i. e. for the love of that which at present
affords us the highest feeling of power and a good
conscience.
205.
The People of Israel. —One of the spectacles
which the next century will invite us to witness is
## p. 211 (#271) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 211
the decision regarding the fateof the European Jews.
It is quite obvious now that they have cast their
die and crossed their Rubicon: the only thing that
remains for them is either to become masters of
Europe or to lose Europe, as they once centuries ago
lost Egypt, where they were confronted with similar
alternatives. In Europe, however, they have gone
through a schooling of eighteen centuries such as
no other nation has ever undergone, and the ex-
periences of this dreadful time of probation have
benefited not only the Jewish community but, even
to a greater extent, the individual. As a conse-
quence of this, the resourcefulness of the modern
Jews, both in mind and soul, is extraordinary.
Amongst all the inhabitants of Europe it is the
Jews least of all who try to escape from any deep
distress by recourse to drink or to suicide, as other
less gifted people are so prone to do. Every Jew
can find in the history of his own family and of his
ancestors a long record of instances of the greatest
coolness and perseverance amid difficulties and
dreadful situations, an artful cunning in fighting
with misfortune and hazard. And above all it is
their bravery under the cloak of wretched submis-
sion, their heroic spemere se sperni that surpasses
the virtues of all the saints.
People wished to make them contemptible by
treating them contemptibly for nearly twenty cen-
turies, and refusing them access to all honourable
positions and dignities, and by pushing them further
down into the meaner trades—and under this
process indeed they have not become any cleaner.
But contemptible? They have never ceased for a
## p. 212 (#272) ############################################
212 THE DAWN OF DAY.
moment from believing themselves qualified for the
very highest functions, nor have the virtues of the
suffering ever ceased to adorn them. Their manner
of honouring their parents and children, the ration-
ality of their marriages and marriage customs, dis-
tinguishes them amongst all Europeans. Besides
this, they have been able to create for themselves a
sense of power and eternal vengeance from the very
trades that were left to them (or to which they were
abandoned). Even in palliation of their usury we
cannot help saying that, without this occasional
pleasant and useful torture inflicted on their
scorners, they would have experienced difficulty in
preserving their self-respect for so long. For our
self-respect depends upon our ability to make
reprisals in both good and evil things. Neverthe-
less, their revenge never urges them on too far, for
they all have that liberty of mind, and even of soul,
produced in men by frequent changes of place,
climate, and customs of neighbours and oppressors,
they possess by far the greatest experience in all
human intercourse, and even in their passions they
exercise the caution which this experience has
developed in them. They are so certain of their
intellectual versatility and shrewdness that they
never, even when reduced to the direst straits, have
to earn their bread by manual labour as common
workmen, porters, or farm hands. In their manners
we can still see that they have never been inspired
by chivalric and noble feelings, or that their bodies
have ever been girt with fine weapons: a certain ob-
trusiveness alternates with a submissiveness which
is often tender and almost always painful.
## p. 213 (#273) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 213
Now, however, that they unavoidably inter-marry
more and more year after year with the noblest
blood of Europe, they will soon have a considerable
heritage of good intellectual and physical manners,
so that in another hundred years they will have a
sufficiently noble aspect not to render themselves,
as masters, ridiculous to those whom they will have
subdued. And this is important! and therefore a
settlement of the question is still premature. They
themselves know very well that the conquest of
Europe or any act of violence is not to be thought
of; but theyalso know that some dayorother Europe
may, like a ripe fruit, fall into their hands, if they
do not clutch at it too eagerly. In the meantime,
it is necessary for them to distinguish themselves
in all departments of European distinction and
to stand in the front rank: until they shall have
advanced so far as to determine themselves what
distinction shall mean. Then they will be called
the pioneers and guides of the Europeans whose
modesty they will no longer offend.
And then where shall an outlet be found for this
abundant wealth of great impressions accumulated
during such an extended period and representing
Jewish history for every Jewish family, this wealth of
passions, virtues, resolutions, resignations, struggles,
and conquests of all kinds—where can it find an
outlet but in great intellectual men and works! On
the day when the Jews will be able to exhibit to us
as their own work such jewels and golden vessels
as no European nation, with its shorter and less
profound experience, can or could produce, when
Israel shall have changed its eternal vengeance into
## p. 214 (#274) ############################################
214 THE DAWN OF DAY.
an eternal benediction for Europe: then that seventh
day will once more appear when old Jehovah may
rejoice in Himself, in His creation, in His chosen
people—and all, all of us, will rejoice with Him!
206.
The Impossible Class. —Poverty,cheerfulness,
and independence—it is possible to find these three
qualities combined in one individual; poverty,
cheerfulness, and slavery—this is likewise a possible
combination: and I can say nothing better to the
workmen who serve as factory slaves; presuming
that it does not appear to them altogether to be
a shameful thing to be utilised as they are, as the
screws of a machine and the stopgaps, as it were,
of the human spirit of invention. Fie on the
thought that merely by means of higher wages the
essential part of their misery, i. e. their impersonal
enslavement, might be removed! Fie, that we
should allow ourselves to be convinced that, by an
increase of this impersonality within the mechanical
working of a new society, the disgrace of slavery
could be changed into a virtue! Fie, that there
should be a regular price at which a man should
cease to be a personality and become a screw
instead! Are you accomplices in the present
madness of nations which desire above all to
produce as much as possible, and to be as rich as
possible? Would it not be your duty to present
a counter-claim to them, and to show them what
large sums of internal value are wasted in the
pursuit of such an external object?
## p. 215 (#275) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 215
But where is your internal value when you no
longer know what it is to breathe freely; when you
have scarcely any command over your own selves,
and often feel disgusted with yourselves as with some
stale food; when you zealously study the newspapers
and look enviously at your wealthy neighbour, made
covetous by the rapid rise and fall of power, money,
and opinions: when you no longer believe in a phil-
osophy in rags, or in the freedom of spirit of a man
who has few needs; when a voluntary and idyllic
poverty without profession or marriage, such as
should suit the more intellectual ones among you,
has become for you an object of derision? On
the other hand, the piping of the Socialistic rat-
catchers who wish to inspire you with foolish hopes
is continually sounding in your ears: they tell you
to be ready and nothing further, ready from this
day to the next, so that you wait and wait for
something to come from outside, though living in
all other respects as you lived before—until this
waiting is at length changed into hunger and thirst
and fever and madness, r. nd the day of the bestia
triumphans at last dawns in all its glory. Every
one of you should on the contrary say to himself:
"It would be better to emigrate and endeavour to
become a master in new and savage countries, and
especially to become master over myself, changing
my place of abode whenever the least sign of slavery
threatens me, endeavouring to avoid neither ad-
venture nor war, and, if things come to the worst,
holding myself ready to die : anything rather than
continuing in this state of disgraceful thraldom, this
bitterness, malice and rebelliousness! " This would
## p. 216 (#276) ############################################
2i6 THE DAWN OF DAY.
be the proper spirit: the workmen in Europe ought
to make it clear that their position as a class has
become a human impossibility, and not merely, as
they at present maintain, the result of some hard
and aimless arrangement of society. They should
bring about an age of great swarming forth from the
European beehive such as has never yet been seen,
protesting by this voluntary and huge migration
against machines and capital and the alternatives
that now threaten them either of becoming slaves
of the State or slaves of some revolutionary
party.
May Europe be freed from one-fourth of her
inhabitants! Both she and they will experience a
sensation of relief. It is only far in the distance, in
the undertaking of vast colonisations, that we shall
be able to observe how much rationality, fairness,
and healthy suspicion mother Europe has incor-
porated in her sons—these sons who could no
longer endure life in the home of the dull old woman,
always running the danger of becoming as bad-
tempered, irritable, and pleasure-seeking as she
herself. The European virtues will travel along
with these workmen far beyond the boundaries of
Europe; and those very qualities which on their
native soil had begun to degenerate into a danger-
ous discontent and criminal inclinations will, when
abroad, be transformed into a beautiful, savage
naturalness and will be called heroism; so that at
last a purer air would again be wafted over this
old, over-populated, and brooding Europe of ours.
What would it matter if there was a scarcity of
"hands "? Perhaps people would then recollect
## p. 217 (#277) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 217
that they had accustomed themselves to many wants
merely because it was easy to gratify them—it
would be sufficient to unlearn some of these wants!
Perhaps also Chinamen would be called in, and
these would bring with them their modes of living
and thinking, which would be found very suitable
for industrious ants. They would also perhaps
help to imbue this fretful and restless Europe with
some of their Asiatic calmness and contemplation,
and—what is perhaps most needful of all—their
Asiatic stability.
207.
The Attitude of the Germans to
Morality. —A German is capable of great things,
but he is unlikely to accomplish them, for he obeys
whenever he can, as suits a naturally lazy intellect.
If he is ever in the dangerous situation of having
to stand alone and cast aside his sloth, when he
finds it no longer possible to disappear like a cipher
in a number (in which respect he is far inferior to
a Frenchman or an Englishman), he shows his true
strength: then he becomes dangerous, evil, deep, and
audacious, and exhibits to the light of day that
wealth of latent energy which he had previously
carried hidden in himself, and in which no one, not
even himself, had ever believed. When in such a
case a German obeys himself—it is very exceptional
for him to do so—he does so with the same heavi-
ness, inflexibility, and endurance with which he
obeys his prince and performs his official duties:
so that, as I have said, he is then capable of great
## p. 218 (#278) ############################################
218 THE DAWN OF DAY.
things which bear no relation to the "weak dis-
position" he attributes to himself.
As a rule, however, he is afraid of depending
upon himself alone, he is afraid of taking the in-
itiative: that is why Germany uses up so many
officials and so much ink. Light-hearted ness is a
stranger to the German; he is too timid for it:
but in entirely new situations which rouse him from
his torpor he exhibits an almost frivolous spirit—
he then delights in the novelty of his new position
as if it were some intoxicating drink, and he is,
as we know, quite a connoisseur in intoxication.
It thus happens that the German of the present
day is almost always frivolous in politics, though
even here he has the advantage and prejudice
of thoroughness and seriousness; and, although he
may take full advantage of these qualities in nego-
tiations with other political powers, he nevertheless
rejoices inwardly at being able for once in his life
to feel enthusiastic and capricious, to show his
fondness for innovations, and to change persons,
parties, and hopes as if they were masks. Those
learned German scholars, who hitherto have been
considered as the most German of Germans, were
and perhaps still are as good as the German soldiers
on account of their profound and almost childish
inclination to obey in all external things, and on
account of being often compelled to stand alone in
science and to answer for many things: if they
can only preserve their proud, simple, and patient
disposition, and their freedom from political madness
at those times when the wind changes, we may
yet expect great things from them—such as they
## p. 219 (#279) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 219
are or such as they were, they are the embryonic
stage of something higher.
So far the advantages and disadvantages of the
Germans, including even their learned men, have
been that they were more given to superstition and
showed greater eagerness to believe than any of the
other nations; their vices are, and always have
been, their drunkenness and suicidal inclinations
(the latter a proof of the clumsiness of their intellect,
which is easily tempted to throw away the reins).
Their danger is to be sought in everything that
binds down the faculties of reason and unchains
the passions (as, for example, the excessive use of
music and spirits), for the German passion acts
contrarily to its own advantage, and is as self-
destructive as the passions of the drunkard. Indeed,
German enthusiasm is worth less than that of other
nations, for it is barren. When a German ever did
anything great it was done at a time of danger, or
when his courage was high, with his teeth firmly
set and his prudence on the alert, and often enough
in a fit of generosity. —Intercourse with these
Germans is indeed advisable, for almost every one
of them has something to give, if we can only
understand how to make him find it, or rather
recover it (for he is very untidy in storing away
his knowledge).
Well: when people of thistype occupy themselves
with morals, what precisely will be the morality
that will satisfy them? In the first place, they will
wish to see idealised in their morals their sincere
instinct for obedience. "Man must have something
which he can implicitly obey "—this is a German
## p. 220 (#280) ############################################
220 THE DAWN OF DAY.
sentiment, a German deduction; it is the basis of
all German moral teaching. How different is the
impression, however, when we compare this with
the entire morality of the ancient world! All those
Greek thinkers, however varied they may appear to
us, seem to resemble, as moralists, the gymnastic
teacher who encourages his pupils by saying,
"Come, follow me! Submit to my discipline!
Then perhapsyou may carry off the prize fromall the
other Greeks. " Personal distinction: such was the
virtue of antiquity. Submission, obedience, whether
public or private: such is German virtue. Long
before Kant set forth his doctrine of the Categorical
Imperative, Luther, actuated by the same impulse,
said that there surely must be a being in whom man
could trust implicitly—it was his proof of the exist-
ence of God; it was his wish, coarser and more
popular than that of Kant, that people should im-
plicitly obey a person and not an idea, and Kant
also finally took his roundabout route through
morals merely that he might secure obedience for
the person. This is indeed the worship of the
German, the more so as there is now less worship
left in his religion.
The Greeks and Romans had other opinions on
these matters, and would have laughed at such
"there must be a being ": it is part of the boldness
of their Southern nature to take up a stand against
"implicit belief," and to retain in their inmost
heart a trace of scepticism against all and every
one, whether God, man, or idea. The thinker of
antiquity went even further, and said nil admirari:
in this phrase he saw reflected all philosophy. A
## p. 220 (#281) ############################################
THE BA*5 ~2 ZA-
ris as to say
bk it is recces icw inn'
adittain to tisi se "J -
si Mm to power jj&rtcr^
Erton cooes, itiar s =*
aJuikSchoperfcaiE-1 ^^r -
'i airataj: ic
abcsistJatthtK arc anc
atlsewhee; tali
JemnndB tae sac ~ vzc ^ ~■ -*-»-" '»
at firings, k isanarr sets- ^iJ*t-
snls! And whr ssntr. « iff -'
searing nor to zc-tl.
Mothers'. Bot^iE
"aught fciDT t
iabea fergatei e r. S-
tl
? e
e
■:
i
## p. 220 (#282) ############################################
218
THE DAWN OF DAY.
things <
positioi
As .
upon h
itiativc
official
stram
but in
his to
he th'
as if
as w
It th
day
even
oft!
ma)
tiat
rej'
to
fo
P
k
c'
n
<
i
-—«ii- J Jennan deduction; it is thebi
3Kra! teaching. How different
en. Jo'i-ever. when we compare this
Doraohr of the ancient world! Ail
srxas. hewever varied they may ap?
» » ressnbJe. as moralists, the gynu
encourages his pupils by sa
1-w me. ' Submit to my discif
~*Tse <a2wayru mv carry off the prize froma
-Jtr . awss* ^rsonaJ distinction: such n
^«sr- . xc. rr-. Submission, obedience■ «fct
■av~. ■„ * an org: sach is German virtue. I
r id iitft his doctrine of the Catego
L-Kac actuated by the same imp
26nr t-arcsy aiust be a being in whom1
■<*. -i>» SBr-icfcy—it was his proof of thee. '
■*. _- ■ _\w c *x? Sis wish, coarser and a
. . _: -si- ^ac :t Kant that people should
- ifc* i :w*rn ami not an idea, and K
-. • x *us roundabout route throt
:nsr le aright secure obedience
t s. ^. . . r>> s- indeed the worship of I
-e s««r so ^ rfrere b now less worsl
%, . . -v> «x . vjmaos had other opinions (
« ■». r >* i-c t-^ald bare laughed at sue
: v i*^ t i -»:■;*. ft £s part of the boldne;
- . >,^ -■•«? - MQtR to take up a stand again,
x v. -uni 3? retain in their inmos
- »cr - * >«xjjdc=3n against all and everj
. v . •*,, J<v. ism. jt idea. The thinker o:
-, »t-v -r«et itrtner. and said nilodmiran
. «»»B5. * ^** reffected adi philosophy. A
## p. 221 (#283) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 221
German, Schopenhauer, goes so far in the contrary
direction as to say: admirari id est philosophari.
But what if, as happens now and then, the German
should attain to that state of mind which would
enable him to perform great things? if the hour of
exception comes, the hour of disobedience? I do
not think Schopenhauer is right in saying that the
single advantage the Germans have over other
nations is that there are more atheists among them
than elsewhere; but I do know this: whenever the
German reaches the state in which he is capable of
great things, he invariably raises himself above
morals! And why should he not?
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 199 (#253) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. -—Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdadı on,
kpadin. kaì kúvtepov allo tot' &tams . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 200 (#254) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 201 (#255) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
We ARE Nobler. —Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic ; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, " Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! " As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, "Strike, but listen to me. " (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: "TtrXatfi 5>j,
K/moirj■ Kai KVVTfpov SKKo ■nor ? rA)js . . . " etc. Kvvi-fpor, from
«cu«o! >, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —Tr.
## p. (#256) ################################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 197 (#257) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdabi on,
kpadin. Kai kúvtepov ärlo tot'étans . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kúwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 198 (#258) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 199 (#259) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Térdadi sń,
kpadin. kai kúvtepov ärlo tor' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.
## p. 200 (#260) ############################################
200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, the comprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this
## p. 201 (#261) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18 : “Térda, on,
kpaðin. Kai Kúvtepov állo hot'étans . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. -TR.
## p. 202 (#262) ############################################
202 THE DAWN OF DAY.
epoch, who was just the man at the moment of
disgrace to address to his " dear heart" that verse
of comfort and affliction. )
The Greeks were far from making light of life
and death because of an insult, as we, influenced
by a hereditary spirit of chivalric adventurousness
and self-devotion, are in the habit of doing; or
from looking for opportunities of honourably risking
life and death, as in duels; or from valuing the
preservation of an unstained name (honour) more
than the acquirement of an evil reputation, when the
latter was compatible with glory and the feeling of
power; or from remaining faithful to the prejudices
and the articles of faith of a caste, when these could
prevent them from becoming tyrants. For this is
the ignoble secret of the good Greek aristocrat: out
of sheer jealousy he treats every one of the members
of his caste as beingon an equal footing with himself,
but he is ready at every moment to springlike a tiger
on his prey—despotism. What matterlies,murders,
treason, or the betrayal of his native city to him!
Justice was an extremely difficult matter for people
of this kind to understand—nay, justice was almost
something incredible. "The just man " was to the
Greeks what "the saint" was to the Christians.
When Socrates, however, laid down the axiom,
"The most virtuous man is the happiest," they could
not trust their ears; they thought they had heard
a madman speaking. For, as a picture of the
happiest man, every nobleman had in his mind the
cheeky audacity and devilry of the tyrant who
sacrifices everything and every one to his own
exuberance and pleasure. Among people whose
## p. 203 (#263) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 203
imagination secretly raved about such happiness,
the worship of the State could not, of course, have
been too deeply implanted—but I think that men
whose desire for power does not rage so blindly as
that of the Greek noblemen no longer stand in
need of such idolatry of the State, by means of
which, in past ages, such a passion was kept with-
in due bounds.
200.
Endurance of Poverty. —There is one great
advantage in noble extraction: it makes us endure
poverty better.
201 ^
The Future of the Nobility. —The bearing
of the aristocratic classes shows that, in all the
members of their body the consciousness of power
is continually playing its fascinating game. Thus
people of aristocratic habits, men or women, never
sink worn out into a chair; when every one else
makes himself comfortable, as in a train, for ex-
ample, they avoid reclining at their ease; they do
not appear to get tired after standing at Court for
hours at a stretch; they do not furnish their houses
in a comfortable manner, but in such a way as to
produce the impression of something grand and im-
posing, as if they had to serve as a residence for
greater and taller beings; they reply to a provoking
speech with dignity and clearness of mind, and not
as if scandalised, crushed, shamed, or out of breath
in the plebeian fashion. As the aristocrat is able
to preserve the appearance of being possessed of a
## p. 204 (#264) ############################################
204 THE DAWN OF DAY.
superior physical force which never leaves him, he
likewise wishes by his aspect of constant serenity
and civility of disposition, even in the most trying
circumstances, to convey the impression that his
mind and soul are equal to all dangers and
surprises. A noble culture may resemble, so far
as passions are concerned, either a horseman who
takes pleasure in making his proud and fiery animal
trot in the Spanish fashion,—we have only to
recollect the age of Louis XIV. ,—or like the rider
who feels his horse dart away with him like the
elemental forces, to such a degree that both horse
and rider come near losing their heads, but, owing
to the enjoyment of the delight, do keep very clear
heads: in both these cases this aristocratic culture
breathes power, and if very often in its customs
only the appearance of the feeling of power is
required, nevertheless the real sense of superiority
continues constantly to increase as the result of the
impression which this display makes upon those
who are not aristocrats.
This indisputable happiness of aristocratic cul-
ture, based as it is on the feeling of superiority, is
now beginning to rise to ever higher levels; for
now, thanks to the free spirits, it is henceforth
permissible and not dishonourable for people who
have been born and reared in aristocratic circles
to enter the domain of knowledge, where they
may secure more intellectual consecrations and
learn chivalric services even higher than those of
former times, and where they may look up to that
ideal of victorious wisdom which as yet no age
has been able to set before itself with so good a
## p. 205 (#265) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 205
conscience as the period which is about to dawn.
Lastly, what is to be the occupation of the nobility
in the future if it becomes more evident from day
to day that it is less and less indecorus to take
any part in politics?
202.
TheCare of the Health. —We have scarcely
begun to devote any attention to the physiology of
criminals, and yet we have already reached the in-
evitable conclusion that between criminals and mad-
men there is no really essential difference: if we
suppose that the current moral fashion of thinking
is a healthy way of thinking. No belief, however,
is nowadays more firmly believed in than this one,
so we should not therefore shrink from drawing the
inevitable conclusion and treating the criminal like
a lunatic—above all, not with haughty pitiful-
ness, but with medical skill and good will. He
may perhaps be in need of a change of air, a
change of society, or temporary absence: perhaps
of solitude and new occupations—very well! He
may perhaps feel that it would be to his advantage
to live under surveillance for a short time in order
thus to obtain protection from himself and from a
troublesome tyrannical impulse—very well! We
should make clear to him the possibility and the
means of curing him (the extermination, transfor-
mation, and sublimation of these impulses), and also,
in the worst cases, the improbability of a cure; and
we should offer to the incurable criminal, who has
become a useless burden to himself, the opportunity
of committing suicide. While holding this in re-
## p. 206 (#266) ############################################
206 THE DAWN OF DAY.
serve as an extreme measure of relief, we should
neglect nothing which would tend above all to restore
to the criminal his good courage and freedom of
spirit; we should free his soul from all remorse, as
if it were something unclean, and show him how he
may atone for a wrong which he may have done
some one by benefiting some one else, perhaps the
community at large, in such a way that he might
even do more than balance his previous offence.
All this must be done with the greatest tact!
The criminal must, above all, remain anonymous
or adopt an assumed name, changing his place of
residence frequently, so that his reputation and
future life may suffer as little as possible. At the
present time it is true that the man who has been
injured, apart altogether from the manner in which
this injury might be redressed, wishes for revenge
in addition, and applies to the courts that he may
obtain it—and this is why our dreadful penal laws
are still in force: Justice, as it were, holding up a
pair of shopkeeper's scales and endeavouring to
balance the guilt by punishment; but can we not
take a step beyond this? Would it not be a great
relief to the general sentiment of life if, while getting
rid of our belief in guilt, we could also get rid of
our old craving for vengeance, and gradually come
to believe that it is a refined wisdom for happy men
to bless their enemies and to do good to those who
have offended them, exactly in accordance with the
spirit of Christian teaching! Let us free the world
from this idea of sin, and take care to cast out with
it the idea of punishment. May these monstrous
ideas henceforth live banished far from the abodes
## p. 207 (#267) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 207
of men—if, indeed, they must live at all, and do
not perish from disgust with themselves.
Let us not forget also, however, that the injury
caused to society and to the individual by the
criminal is of the same species as that caused by
the sick: for the sick spread cares and ill-humour;
they are non-productive, consume the earnings of
others, and at the same time require attendance,
doctors, and support, and they really live on the
time and strength of the healthy. In spite of this,
however, we should designate as inhuman any one
who, for this reason, would wish to wreak vengeance
on the sick. In past ages, indeed, this was actually
done: in primitive conditions of society, and even
now among certain savage peoples, the sick man is
treated as a criminal and as a danger to the com-
munity, and it is believed that he is the resting-place
of certain demoniacal beings who have entered into
his body as the result of some offence he has com-
mitted—those ages and peoples hold that the sick
are the guilty!
And what of ourselves?
Are we not yet ripe
for the contrary conception? Shall we not be
allowed to say, "The guilty are the sick "? No;
the hour for that has not yet come. We still lack,
above all, those physicians who have learnt some-
thing from what we have hitherto called practical
morals and have transformed it into the art and
science of healing. We still lack that intense
interest in those things which some day perhaps
may seem not unlike the "storm and stress" of
those old religious ecstasies. The Churches have
not yet come into the possession of those who look
## p. 208 (#268) ############################################
208 THE DAWN OF DAY.
after our health; the study of the body and of
dietary are not yet amongst the obligatory subjects
taught in our primary and secondary schools; there
are as yet no quiet associations of those people
who are pledged to one another to do without the
help of law courts, and who renounce the punish-
ment and vengeance now meted out to those who
have offended against society. No thinker has as
yet been daring enough to determine the health of
society, and of the individuals who compose it, by
the number of parasites which it can support; and
no statesman has yet been found to use the plough-
share in the spirit of that generous and tender
saying, "If thou wilt till the land, till it with the
plough ; then the bird and the wolf, walking behind
thy plough, will rejoice in thee—all creatures will
rejoice in thee. "
203.
Against Bad Diet. —Fie upon the meals which
people nowadays eat in hotels and everywhere else
where the well-offclasses of society live! Even when
eminent men of science meet together their tables
groan under the weight of the dishes, in accordance
with the principle of the bankers: the principle of
too many dishes and too much to eat. The result
of this is that dinners are prepared with a view to
their mere appearance rather than the consequences
that may follow from eating them, and that
stimulating drinks are required to help in driving
away the heaviness in the stomach and in the brain.
Fie on the dissoluteness and extreme nervousness
## p. 209 (#269) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 209
which must follow upon all this! Fie upon the
dreams that such repasts bring! Fie upon the arts
and books which must be the desert of such meals!
Despite all the efforts of such people their acts will
taste of pepper and ill-temper, or general weariness!
(The wealthy classes in England stand in great
need of their Christianity in order to be able to
endure their bad digestions and their headaches. )
Finally, to mention not only the disgusting but also
the more pleasant side of the matter, these people
are by no means mere gluttons: our century and its
spirit of activity has more power over the limbs than
the belly. What then is the meaning of these ban-
quets? They represent! What in Heaven's name
do they represent? Rank ? —no, money! There is
no rank now! We are all "individuals"! but money
now stands for power, glory, pre-eminence, dignity,
and influence; money at the present time acts as
a greater or lesser moral prejudice for a man in
proportion to the amount he may possess. No-
body wishes to hide it under a bushel or display
it in heaps on a table: hence money must have
some representative which can be put on the table
—so behold our banquets!
204
U
Dakje and the God of Gold. — Whence
arises this excessive impatience in our day which
turns men into criminals even in circumstances
which would be more likely to bring about the
contrary tendency? What induces one man to use
false weights, another to set his house on fire after
o
## p. 210 (#270) ############################################
2IO THE DAWN OF DAY.
having insured it for more than its value, a third
to take part in counterfeiting, while three-fourths
of our upper classes indulge in legalised fraud, and
suffer from the pangs of conscience that follow
speculation and dealings on the Stock Exchange:
what gives rise to all this? It is not real want,
—for their existence is by no means precarious;
perhaps they have even enough to eat and drink
without worrying,—but they are urged on day and
night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth
pile up so slowly, and by an equally terrible long-
ing and love for these heaps of gold. In this im-
patience and love, however, we see re-appear once
more that fanaticism of the desire for power which
was stimulated in former times by the belief that we
were in the possession of truth, a fanaticism which
bore such beautiful names that we could dare to be
inhuman with a good conscience (burning Jews,
heretics, and good books, and exterminating entire
cultures superior to ours, such as those of Peru
and Mexico). The means of this desire for power
are changed in our day, but the same volcano is
still smouldering, impatience and intemperate love
call for their victims, and what was once done
"for the love of God" is now done for the love of
money, i. e. for the love of that which at present
affords us the highest feeling of power and a good
conscience.
205.
The People of Israel. —One of the spectacles
which the next century will invite us to witness is
## p. 211 (#271) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 211
the decision regarding the fateof the European Jews.
It is quite obvious now that they have cast their
die and crossed their Rubicon: the only thing that
remains for them is either to become masters of
Europe or to lose Europe, as they once centuries ago
lost Egypt, where they were confronted with similar
alternatives. In Europe, however, they have gone
through a schooling of eighteen centuries such as
no other nation has ever undergone, and the ex-
periences of this dreadful time of probation have
benefited not only the Jewish community but, even
to a greater extent, the individual. As a conse-
quence of this, the resourcefulness of the modern
Jews, both in mind and soul, is extraordinary.
Amongst all the inhabitants of Europe it is the
Jews least of all who try to escape from any deep
distress by recourse to drink or to suicide, as other
less gifted people are so prone to do. Every Jew
can find in the history of his own family and of his
ancestors a long record of instances of the greatest
coolness and perseverance amid difficulties and
dreadful situations, an artful cunning in fighting
with misfortune and hazard. And above all it is
their bravery under the cloak of wretched submis-
sion, their heroic spemere se sperni that surpasses
the virtues of all the saints.
People wished to make them contemptible by
treating them contemptibly for nearly twenty cen-
turies, and refusing them access to all honourable
positions and dignities, and by pushing them further
down into the meaner trades—and under this
process indeed they have not become any cleaner.
But contemptible? They have never ceased for a
## p. 212 (#272) ############################################
212 THE DAWN OF DAY.
moment from believing themselves qualified for the
very highest functions, nor have the virtues of the
suffering ever ceased to adorn them. Their manner
of honouring their parents and children, the ration-
ality of their marriages and marriage customs, dis-
tinguishes them amongst all Europeans. Besides
this, they have been able to create for themselves a
sense of power and eternal vengeance from the very
trades that were left to them (or to which they were
abandoned). Even in palliation of their usury we
cannot help saying that, without this occasional
pleasant and useful torture inflicted on their
scorners, they would have experienced difficulty in
preserving their self-respect for so long. For our
self-respect depends upon our ability to make
reprisals in both good and evil things. Neverthe-
less, their revenge never urges them on too far, for
they all have that liberty of mind, and even of soul,
produced in men by frequent changes of place,
climate, and customs of neighbours and oppressors,
they possess by far the greatest experience in all
human intercourse, and even in their passions they
exercise the caution which this experience has
developed in them. They are so certain of their
intellectual versatility and shrewdness that they
never, even when reduced to the direst straits, have
to earn their bread by manual labour as common
workmen, porters, or farm hands. In their manners
we can still see that they have never been inspired
by chivalric and noble feelings, or that their bodies
have ever been girt with fine weapons: a certain ob-
trusiveness alternates with a submissiveness which
is often tender and almost always painful.
## p. 213 (#273) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 213
Now, however, that they unavoidably inter-marry
more and more year after year with the noblest
blood of Europe, they will soon have a considerable
heritage of good intellectual and physical manners,
so that in another hundred years they will have a
sufficiently noble aspect not to render themselves,
as masters, ridiculous to those whom they will have
subdued. And this is important! and therefore a
settlement of the question is still premature. They
themselves know very well that the conquest of
Europe or any act of violence is not to be thought
of; but theyalso know that some dayorother Europe
may, like a ripe fruit, fall into their hands, if they
do not clutch at it too eagerly. In the meantime,
it is necessary for them to distinguish themselves
in all departments of European distinction and
to stand in the front rank: until they shall have
advanced so far as to determine themselves what
distinction shall mean. Then they will be called
the pioneers and guides of the Europeans whose
modesty they will no longer offend.
And then where shall an outlet be found for this
abundant wealth of great impressions accumulated
during such an extended period and representing
Jewish history for every Jewish family, this wealth of
passions, virtues, resolutions, resignations, struggles,
and conquests of all kinds—where can it find an
outlet but in great intellectual men and works! On
the day when the Jews will be able to exhibit to us
as their own work such jewels and golden vessels
as no European nation, with its shorter and less
profound experience, can or could produce, when
Israel shall have changed its eternal vengeance into
## p. 214 (#274) ############################################
214 THE DAWN OF DAY.
an eternal benediction for Europe: then that seventh
day will once more appear when old Jehovah may
rejoice in Himself, in His creation, in His chosen
people—and all, all of us, will rejoice with Him!
206.
The Impossible Class. —Poverty,cheerfulness,
and independence—it is possible to find these three
qualities combined in one individual; poverty,
cheerfulness, and slavery—this is likewise a possible
combination: and I can say nothing better to the
workmen who serve as factory slaves; presuming
that it does not appear to them altogether to be
a shameful thing to be utilised as they are, as the
screws of a machine and the stopgaps, as it were,
of the human spirit of invention. Fie on the
thought that merely by means of higher wages the
essential part of their misery, i. e. their impersonal
enslavement, might be removed! Fie, that we
should allow ourselves to be convinced that, by an
increase of this impersonality within the mechanical
working of a new society, the disgrace of slavery
could be changed into a virtue! Fie, that there
should be a regular price at which a man should
cease to be a personality and become a screw
instead! Are you accomplices in the present
madness of nations which desire above all to
produce as much as possible, and to be as rich as
possible? Would it not be your duty to present
a counter-claim to them, and to show them what
large sums of internal value are wasted in the
pursuit of such an external object?
## p. 215 (#275) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 215
But where is your internal value when you no
longer know what it is to breathe freely; when you
have scarcely any command over your own selves,
and often feel disgusted with yourselves as with some
stale food; when you zealously study the newspapers
and look enviously at your wealthy neighbour, made
covetous by the rapid rise and fall of power, money,
and opinions: when you no longer believe in a phil-
osophy in rags, or in the freedom of spirit of a man
who has few needs; when a voluntary and idyllic
poverty without profession or marriage, such as
should suit the more intellectual ones among you,
has become for you an object of derision? On
the other hand, the piping of the Socialistic rat-
catchers who wish to inspire you with foolish hopes
is continually sounding in your ears: they tell you
to be ready and nothing further, ready from this
day to the next, so that you wait and wait for
something to come from outside, though living in
all other respects as you lived before—until this
waiting is at length changed into hunger and thirst
and fever and madness, r. nd the day of the bestia
triumphans at last dawns in all its glory. Every
one of you should on the contrary say to himself:
"It would be better to emigrate and endeavour to
become a master in new and savage countries, and
especially to become master over myself, changing
my place of abode whenever the least sign of slavery
threatens me, endeavouring to avoid neither ad-
venture nor war, and, if things come to the worst,
holding myself ready to die : anything rather than
continuing in this state of disgraceful thraldom, this
bitterness, malice and rebelliousness! " This would
## p. 216 (#276) ############################################
2i6 THE DAWN OF DAY.
be the proper spirit: the workmen in Europe ought
to make it clear that their position as a class has
become a human impossibility, and not merely, as
they at present maintain, the result of some hard
and aimless arrangement of society. They should
bring about an age of great swarming forth from the
European beehive such as has never yet been seen,
protesting by this voluntary and huge migration
against machines and capital and the alternatives
that now threaten them either of becoming slaves
of the State or slaves of some revolutionary
party.
May Europe be freed from one-fourth of her
inhabitants! Both she and they will experience a
sensation of relief. It is only far in the distance, in
the undertaking of vast colonisations, that we shall
be able to observe how much rationality, fairness,
and healthy suspicion mother Europe has incor-
porated in her sons—these sons who could no
longer endure life in the home of the dull old woman,
always running the danger of becoming as bad-
tempered, irritable, and pleasure-seeking as she
herself. The European virtues will travel along
with these workmen far beyond the boundaries of
Europe; and those very qualities which on their
native soil had begun to degenerate into a danger-
ous discontent and criminal inclinations will, when
abroad, be transformed into a beautiful, savage
naturalness and will be called heroism; so that at
last a purer air would again be wafted over this
old, over-populated, and brooding Europe of ours.
What would it matter if there was a scarcity of
"hands "? Perhaps people would then recollect
## p. 217 (#277) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 217
that they had accustomed themselves to many wants
merely because it was easy to gratify them—it
would be sufficient to unlearn some of these wants!
Perhaps also Chinamen would be called in, and
these would bring with them their modes of living
and thinking, which would be found very suitable
for industrious ants. They would also perhaps
help to imbue this fretful and restless Europe with
some of their Asiatic calmness and contemplation,
and—what is perhaps most needful of all—their
Asiatic stability.
207.
The Attitude of the Germans to
Morality. —A German is capable of great things,
but he is unlikely to accomplish them, for he obeys
whenever he can, as suits a naturally lazy intellect.
If he is ever in the dangerous situation of having
to stand alone and cast aside his sloth, when he
finds it no longer possible to disappear like a cipher
in a number (in which respect he is far inferior to
a Frenchman or an Englishman), he shows his true
strength: then he becomes dangerous, evil, deep, and
audacious, and exhibits to the light of day that
wealth of latent energy which he had previously
carried hidden in himself, and in which no one, not
even himself, had ever believed. When in such a
case a German obeys himself—it is very exceptional
for him to do so—he does so with the same heavi-
ness, inflexibility, and endurance with which he
obeys his prince and performs his official duties:
so that, as I have said, he is then capable of great
## p. 218 (#278) ############################################
218 THE DAWN OF DAY.
things which bear no relation to the "weak dis-
position" he attributes to himself.
As a rule, however, he is afraid of depending
upon himself alone, he is afraid of taking the in-
itiative: that is why Germany uses up so many
officials and so much ink. Light-hearted ness is a
stranger to the German; he is too timid for it:
but in entirely new situations which rouse him from
his torpor he exhibits an almost frivolous spirit—
he then delights in the novelty of his new position
as if it were some intoxicating drink, and he is,
as we know, quite a connoisseur in intoxication.
It thus happens that the German of the present
day is almost always frivolous in politics, though
even here he has the advantage and prejudice
of thoroughness and seriousness; and, although he
may take full advantage of these qualities in nego-
tiations with other political powers, he nevertheless
rejoices inwardly at being able for once in his life
to feel enthusiastic and capricious, to show his
fondness for innovations, and to change persons,
parties, and hopes as if they were masks. Those
learned German scholars, who hitherto have been
considered as the most German of Germans, were
and perhaps still are as good as the German soldiers
on account of their profound and almost childish
inclination to obey in all external things, and on
account of being often compelled to stand alone in
science and to answer for many things: if they
can only preserve their proud, simple, and patient
disposition, and their freedom from political madness
at those times when the wind changes, we may
yet expect great things from them—such as they
## p. 219 (#279) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 219
are or such as they were, they are the embryonic
stage of something higher.
So far the advantages and disadvantages of the
Germans, including even their learned men, have
been that they were more given to superstition and
showed greater eagerness to believe than any of the
other nations; their vices are, and always have
been, their drunkenness and suicidal inclinations
(the latter a proof of the clumsiness of their intellect,
which is easily tempted to throw away the reins).
Their danger is to be sought in everything that
binds down the faculties of reason and unchains
the passions (as, for example, the excessive use of
music and spirits), for the German passion acts
contrarily to its own advantage, and is as self-
destructive as the passions of the drunkard. Indeed,
German enthusiasm is worth less than that of other
nations, for it is barren. When a German ever did
anything great it was done at a time of danger, or
when his courage was high, with his teeth firmly
set and his prudence on the alert, and often enough
in a fit of generosity. —Intercourse with these
Germans is indeed advisable, for almost every one
of them has something to give, if we can only
understand how to make him find it, or rather
recover it (for he is very untidy in storing away
his knowledge).
Well: when people of thistype occupy themselves
with morals, what precisely will be the morality
that will satisfy them? In the first place, they will
wish to see idealised in their morals their sincere
instinct for obedience. "Man must have something
which he can implicitly obey "—this is a German
## p. 220 (#280) ############################################
220 THE DAWN OF DAY.
sentiment, a German deduction; it is the basis of
all German moral teaching. How different is the
impression, however, when we compare this with
the entire morality of the ancient world! All those
Greek thinkers, however varied they may appear to
us, seem to resemble, as moralists, the gymnastic
teacher who encourages his pupils by saying,
"Come, follow me! Submit to my discipline!
Then perhapsyou may carry off the prize fromall the
other Greeks. " Personal distinction: such was the
virtue of antiquity. Submission, obedience, whether
public or private: such is German virtue. Long
before Kant set forth his doctrine of the Categorical
Imperative, Luther, actuated by the same impulse,
said that there surely must be a being in whom man
could trust implicitly—it was his proof of the exist-
ence of God; it was his wish, coarser and more
popular than that of Kant, that people should im-
plicitly obey a person and not an idea, and Kant
also finally took his roundabout route through
morals merely that he might secure obedience for
the person. This is indeed the worship of the
German, the more so as there is now less worship
left in his religion.
The Greeks and Romans had other opinions on
these matters, and would have laughed at such
"there must be a being ": it is part of the boldness
of their Southern nature to take up a stand against
"implicit belief," and to retain in their inmost
heart a trace of scepticism against all and every
one, whether God, man, or idea. The thinker of
antiquity went even further, and said nil admirari:
in this phrase he saw reflected all philosophy. A
## p. 220 (#281) ############################################
THE BA*5 ~2 ZA-
ris as to say
bk it is recces icw inn'
adittain to tisi se "J -
si Mm to power jj&rtcr^
Erton cooes, itiar s =*
aJuikSchoperfcaiE-1 ^^r -
'i airataj: ic
abcsistJatthtK arc anc
atlsewhee; tali
JemnndB tae sac ~ vzc ^ ~■ -*-»-" '»
at firings, k isanarr sets- ^iJ*t-
snls! And whr ssntr. « iff -'
searing nor to zc-tl.
Mothers'. Bot^iE
"aught fciDT t
iabea fergatei e r. S-
tl
? e
e
■:
i
## p. 220 (#282) ############################################
218
THE DAWN OF DAY.
things <
positioi
As .
upon h
itiativc
official
stram
but in
his to
he th'
as if
as w
It th
day
even
oft!
ma)
tiat
rej'
to
fo
P
k
c'
n
<
i
-—«ii- J Jennan deduction; it is thebi
3Kra! teaching. How different
en. Jo'i-ever. when we compare this
Doraohr of the ancient world! Ail
srxas. hewever varied they may ap?
» » ressnbJe. as moralists, the gynu
encourages his pupils by sa
1-w me. ' Submit to my discif
~*Tse <a2wayru mv carry off the prize froma
-Jtr . awss* ^rsonaJ distinction: such n
^«sr- . xc. rr-. Submission, obedience■ «fct
■av~. ■„ * an org: sach is German virtue. I
r id iitft his doctrine of the Catego
L-Kac actuated by the same imp
26nr t-arcsy aiust be a being in whom1
■<*. -i>» SBr-icfcy—it was his proof of thee. '
■*. _- ■ _\w c *x? Sis wish, coarser and a
. . _: -si- ^ac :t Kant that people should
- ifc* i :w*rn ami not an idea, and K
-. • x *us roundabout route throt
:nsr le aright secure obedience
t s. ^. . . r>> s- indeed the worship of I
-e s««r so ^ rfrere b now less worsl
%, . . -v> «x . vjmaos had other opinions (
« ■». r >* i-c t-^ald bare laughed at sue
: v i*^ t i -»:■;*. ft £s part of the boldne;
- . >,^ -■•«? - MQtR to take up a stand again,
x v. -uni 3? retain in their inmos
- »cr - * >«xjjdc=3n against all and everj
. v . •*,, J<v. ism. jt idea. The thinker o:
-, »t-v -r«et itrtner. and said nilodmiran
. «»»B5. * ^** reffected adi philosophy. A
## p. 221 (#283) ############################################
THE DAWN OF DAY. 221
German, Schopenhauer, goes so far in the contrary
direction as to say: admirari id est philosophari.
But what if, as happens now and then, the German
should attain to that state of mind which would
enable him to perform great things? if the hour of
exception comes, the hour of disobedience? I do
not think Schopenhauer is right in saying that the
single advantage the Germans have over other
nations is that there are more atheists among them
than elsewhere; but I do know this: whenever the
German reaches the state in which he is capable of
great things, he invariably raises himself above
morals! And why should he not?
