No More Learning

The adoption of guiding principles without reasons
is called faith.
227.
Conclusions drawn from the Conse-
quences AND TRACED BACK TO REASON AND
UN-REASON. —All states and orders of society,
professions, matrimony, education, law: all these
find strength and duration only in the faith which
the fettered spirits repose in them,—that is, in
the absence of reasons, or at least in the averting
of inquiries as to reasons. The restricted spirits
do not willingly acknowledge this, and feel that


## p. 212 (#284) ############################################

212 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
it is a pudendum. Christianity, however, which
was very simple in its intellectual ideas, remarked
nothing of this pudendum, required faith and
nothing but faith, and passionately repulsed the
demand for reasons; it pointed to the success
of faith: "You will soon feel the advantages
of faith," it suggested, "and through faith shall
ye be saved. " As an actual fact, the State
pursues the same course, and every father brings
up his son in the same way: "Only believe
this," he says, " and you will soon feel the good
it does. " This implies, however, that the truth
of an opinion is proved by its personal usefulness;
the wholesomeness of a doctrine must be a
guarantee for its intellectual surety and solidity.
It is exactly as if an accused person in a court
of law were to say, "My counsel speaks the
whole truth, for only see what is the result of
his speech: I shall be acquitted. " Because the
fettered spirits retain their principles on account
of their usefulness, they suppose that the free
spirit also seeks his own advantage in his views
and only holds that to be true which is profitable
to him. But as he appears to find profitable
just the contrary of that which his compatriots
or equals find profitable, these latter assume that
his principles are dangerous to them; they say
or feel, " He must not be right, for he is injurious
to us. "
228.
The Strong, Good Character. — The
restriction of views, which habit has made instinct,


## p. 213 (#285) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 213
> leads to what is called strength of character.
? When any one acts from few but always from
the same motives, his actions acquire great
energy; if these actions accord with the principles
of the fettered spirits they are recognised, and
i they produce, moreover, in those who perform
them the sensation of a good conscience. Few
♦ motives, energetic action, and a good conscience
compose what is called strength of character.
The man of strong character lacks a knowledge
-, of the many possibilities and directions of action;
his intellect is fettered and restricted, because
in a given case it shows him, perhaps, only two
* possibilities; between these two he must now
of necessity choose, in accordance with his whole
nature, and he does this easily and quickly
. because he has not to choose between fifty
possibilities. The educating surroundings aim
at fettering every individual, by always placing
. » before him the smallest number of possibilities.
The individual is always treated by his educators
as if he were, indeed, something new, but should
become a duplicate. If he makes his first appear-
ance as something unknown, unprecedented, he
must be turned into something known and
,* precedented. In a child, the familiar manifesta-
. tion of restriction is called a good character;
in placing itself on the side of the fettered
spirits the child first discloses its awakening
common feeling; with this foundation of common
sentiment, he will eventually become useful to
\* his State or rank.


## p. 214 (#286) ############################################

214 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
229.
The Standards and Values of the
Fettered Spirits. —There are four species of
things concerning which the restricted spirits say
they are in the right. Firstly: all things that last
are right; secondly: all things that are not burdens
to us are right; thirdly: all things that are advan-
tageous for us are right; fourthly: all things for
which we have made sacrifices are right. The last
sentence, for instance, explains why a war that
was begun in opposition to popular feeling is
carried on with enthusiasm directly a sacrifice
has been made for it. The free spirits, who
bring their case before the forum of the fettered
spirits, must prove that free spirits always existed,
that free-spiritism is therefore enduring, that it
will not become a burden, and, finally, that on
the whole they are an advantage to the fettered
spirits. It is because they cannot convince the
restricted spirits on this last point that they
profit nothing by having proved the first and
second propositions.
230.
Esprit Fort. —Compared with him who has
tradition on his side and requires no reasons
for his actions, the free spirit is always weak,
especially in action; for he is acquainted with
too many motives and points of view, and has,
therefore, an uncertain and unpractised hand.
What means exist of making him strong in spite


## p. 215 (#287) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 215
of this, so that he will, at least, manage to
survive, and will not perish ineffectually?
What is the source of the strong spirit {esprit
forf)? This is especially the question as to the
production of genius. Whence comes the energy,
the unbending strength, the endurance with which
the one, in opposition to accepted ideas,
endeavours to obtain an entirely individual
knowledge of the world?
231.
The Rise of Genius. —The ingenuity with
which a prisoner seeks the means of freedom,
the most cold-blooded and patient employment
of every smallest advantage, can teach us of
what tools Nature sometimes makes use in order
to produce Genius,—a word which I beg will be
understood without any mythological and religious
flavour; she, Nature, begins it in a dungeon and
excites to the utmost its desire to free itself.
Or to give another picture: some one who has
completely lost his way in a wood, but who
with unusual energy strives to reach the open
in one direction or another, will sometimes dis-
cover a new path which nobody knew previously,
—thus arise geniuses, who are credited with
originality. It has already been said that mutila-
tion, crippling, or the loss of some important
organ, is frequently the cause of the unusual
development of another organ, because this one
has to fulfil its own and also another function.
This explains the source of many a brilliant


## p. 216 (#288) ############################################

2l6 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
talent. These general remarks on the origin of
genius may be applied to the special case, the |
origin of the perfect free spirit.
232.
Conjecture as to the Origin of Free-
Spiritism. —Just as the glaciers increase when in
equatorial regions the sun shines upon the seas
with greater force than hitherto, so may a very
strong and spreading free-spiritism be a proof
that somewhere or other the force of feeling has v. ,
grown extraordinarily. . ,
233-
The Voice of History. —In general, history
appears to teach the following about the production
of genius: it ill-treats and torments mankind— -J
calls to the passions of envy, hatred, and rivalry—-
drives them to desperation, people against people,
throughout whole centuries! Then, perhaps, like
a stray spark from the terrible energy thereby
aroused, there flames up suddenly the light of
genius; the will, like a horse maddened by the «3
rider's spur, thereupon breaks out and leaps over
into another domain. He who could attain to a
comprehension of the production of genius, and
desires to carry out practically the manner in
which Nature usually goes to work, would have
to be just as evil and regardless as Nature itself. <]
But perhaps we have not heard rightly.
'


## p. 217 (#289) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 217
234-
The Value of the Middle of the Road.
—It is possible that the production of genius is
reserved to a limited period of mankind's history.
For we must not expect from the future every-
thing that very defined conditions were able to
produce; for instance, not the astounding effects
of religious feeling. This has had its day, and
much that is very good can never grow again,
because it could grow out of that alone. There
will never again be a horizon of life and culture
that is bounded by religion. Perhaps even the
type of the saint is only possible with that certain
narrowness of intellect, which apparently has com-
pletely disappeared. And thus the greatest height
of intelligence has perhaps been reserved for a
single age; it appeared—and appears, for we are
still in that age—when an extraordinary, long-
accumulated energy of will concentrates itself, as
an exceptional case, upon intellectual aims. That
height will no longer exist when this wildness and
energy cease to be cultivated. Mankind probably
approaches nearer to its actual aim in the middle
of its road, in the middle time of its existence
than at the end. It may be that powers with
which, for instance, art is a condition, die out
altogether; the pleasure in lying, in the undefined,
the symbolical, in intoxication, in ecstasy might fall
into disrepute. For certainly, when life is ordered
in the perfect State, the present will provide no
more motive for poetry, and it would only be those
persons who had remained behind who would ask


## p. 218 (#290) ############################################

218 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
for poetical unreality. These, then, would as-
suredly look longingly backwards to the times of
the imperfect State, of half-barbaric society, to our
times.
235-
Genius and the Ideal State in Conflict.
—The Socialists demand a comfortable life for the
greatest possible number. If the lasting house of
this life of comfort, the perfect State, had really
been attained, then this life of comfort would have
destroyed the ground out of which grow the great
intellect and the mighty individual generally, I
mean powerful energy. Were this State reached,
mankind would have grown too weary to be still
(. . capable of producing genius. Must we not hence
wish that life should retain its forcible character,
and that wild forces and energies should continue
to be called forth afresh? But warm and sympa-
thetic hearts desire precisely the removal of that
wild and forcible character, and the warmest hearts
we can imagine desire it the most passionately of
all, whilst all the time its passion derived its fire, its
warmth, its very existence precisely from that wild
and forcible character; the warmest heart, therefore,
desires the removal of its own foundation, the des-
truction of itself,—that is, it desires something
illogical, it is not intelligent. The highest intelli-
gence and the warmest heart cannot exist together
in one person, and the wise man who passes
judgment upon life looks beyond goodness and
only regards it as something which is not without
value in the general summing-up of life. The


## p. 219 (#291) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 219
wise man must oppose those digressive wishes of
unintelligent goodness, because he has an interest
in the continuance of his type and in the eventual
appearance of the highest intellect; at least, he
will not advance the founding of the "perfect
State," inasmuch as there is only room in it for
wearied individuals. Christ, on the contrary, he
whom we may consider to have had the warmest
heart, advanced the process of making man stupid,
placed himself on the side of the intellectually
poor, and retarded the production of the greatest
intellect, and this was consistent. His opposite,
the man of perfect wisdom,—this may be safely
prophesied—will just as necessarily hinder the pro-
duction of a Christ. The State is a wise arrange-
ment for the protection of one individual against
another; if its ennobling is exaggerated the indi-
vidual will at last be weakened by it, even effaced,
—thus the original purpose of the State will be
most completely frustrated.
236.
The Zones OF Culture. —It may be figura-
tively said that the ages of culture correspond to
the zones of the various climates, only that they
lie one behind another and not beside each other
like the geographical zones. In comparison with
the temperate zone of culture, which it is our
object to enter, the past, speaking generally, gives
the impression of a tropical climate. Violent con-
trasts, sudden changes between day and night,
heat and colour-splendour, the reverence of all


## p. 220 (#292) ############################################

220 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
that was sudden, mysterious, terrible, the rapidity
with which storms broke: everywhere that lavish
abundance of the provisions of nature ; and opposed
to this, in our culture, a clear but by no means
bright sky, pure but fairly unchanging air, sharp-
ness, even cold at times; thus the two zones are
contrasts to each other. When we see how in
that former zone the most raging passions are
suppressed and broken down with mysterious force
by metaphysical representations, we feel as if wild
tigers were being crushed before our very eyes in
the coils of mighty serpents; our mental climate
lacks such episodes, our imagination is temperate,
even in dreams there does not happen to us what
former peoples saw waking. But should we not
rejoice at this change, even granted that artists
are essentially spoiled by the disappearance of the
tropical culture and find us non-artists a little too
timid? In so far artists are certainly right to deny
"progress," for indeed it is doubtful whether the
last three thousand years show an advance in the
arts. In the same way, a metaphysical philosopher
like Schopenhauer would have no cause to acknow-
ledge progress with a regard to metaphysical philo-
sophy and religion if he glanced back over the last
four thousand years. For us, however, the existence
even of the temperate zones of culture is progress.
237-
Renaissance and Reformation. — The
Italian Renaissance contained within itself all the
positive forces to which we owe modern culture.


## p. 221 (#293) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 221
Such were the liberation of thought, the disregard
of authorities, the triumph of education over the
darkness of tradition, enthusiasm for science and
the scientific past of mankind, the unfettering of
the Individual, an ardour for truthfulness and a
dislike of delusion and mere effect (which ardour
blazed forth in an entire company of artistic charac-
ters, who with the greatest moral purity required
from themselves perfection in their works, and
nothing but perfection); yes, the Renaissance
had positive forces, which have, as yet, never
become so mighty again in our modern culture.
It was the Golden Age of the last thousand years,
in spite of all its blemishes and vices. On the
other hand, the German Reformation stands out as
an energetic protest of antiquated spirits, who were
by no means tired of mediaeval views of life, and
who received the signs of its dissolution, the extra-
ordinary flatness and alienation of the religious
life, with deep dejection instead of with the
rejoicing that would have been seemly. With
their northern strength and stiff-neckedness they
threw mankind back again, brought about the
counter-reformation, that is, a Catholic Christianity
of self-defence, with all the violences of a state of
siege, and delayed for two or three centuries the
complete awakening and mastery of the sciences;
just as they probably made for ever impossible
the complete inter-growth of the antique and the
modern spirit. The great task of the Renaissance
could not be brought to a termination, this was
prevented by the protest of the contemporary
backward German spirit (which, for its salvation,


## p. 222 (#294) ############################################

222 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
had had sufficient sense in the Middle Ages to
cross the Alps again and again). It was the
chance of an extraordinary constellation of politics
that Luther was preserved, and that his protest
gained strength, for the Emperor protected him in
order to employ him as a weapon against the Pope,
and in the same way he was secretly favoured
by the Pope in order to use the Protestant princes
as a counter-weight against the Emperor. With-
out this curious counter-play of intentions, Luther
would have been burnt like Huss,—and the
morning sun of enlightenment would probably
have risen somewhat earlier, and with a splendour
more beauteous than we can now imagine.
238.
Justice against the Becoming God. —
When the entire history of culture unfolds itself to
our gaze, as a confusion of evil and noble, of true
and false ideas, and we feel almost seasick at the
sight of these tumultuous waves, we then under-
stand what comfort resides in the conception of a
becoming God. This Deity is unveiled ever more
and more throughout the changes and fortunes of
mankind; it is not all blind mechanism, a senseless
and aimless confusion of forces. The deification
of the process of being is a metaphysical outlook,
seen as from a lighthouse overlooking the sea of
history, in which a far-too historical generation of
scholars found their comfort. This must not
arouse anger, however erroneous the view may be.
Only those who, like Schopenhauer, deny develop-


## p. 223 (#295) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 223
ment also feel none of the misery of this historical
wave, and therefore, because they know nothing
of that becoming God and the need of His supposi-
tion, they should in justice withhold their scorn.
239-
The Fruits According to their Seasons.
—Every better future that is desired for mankind
is necessarily in many respects also a worse
future, for it is foolishness to suppose that a
new, higher grade of humanity will combine in
itself all the good points of former grades, and
must produce, for instance, the highest form
of art. Rather has every season its own
advantages and charms, which exclude those of
the other seasons. That which has grown out
of religion and in its neighbourhood cannot grow
again if this has been destroyed; at the most,
straggling and belated off-shoots may lead to
deception on that point, like the occasional out-
breaks of remembrance of the old art, a condition
that probably betrays the feeling of loss and
deprivation, but which is no proof of the power
from which a new art might be born.
240.
The Increasing Severity of the World.
—The higher culture an individual attains, the
less field there is left for mockery and scorn.
Voltaire thanked Heaven from his heart for the
invention of marriage and the Church, by which


## p. 224 (#296) ############################################

224 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
it had so well provided for our cheer. But he
and his time, and before him the sixteenth
century, had exhausted their ridicule on this
theme; everything that is now made fun of on
this theme is out of date, and above all too cheap
to tempt a purchaser. Causes are now inquired
after; ours is an age of seriousness. Who cares
now to discern, laughingly, the difference between
reality and pretentious sham, between that which
man is and that which he wishes to represent;
the feeling of this contrast has quite a different
effect if we seek reasons. The more thoroughly
any one understands life, the less he will mock,
though finally, perhaps, he will mock at the
"thoroughness of his understanding. "
241.
The Genius of Culture. —If any one wished
to imagine a genius of culture, what would it
be like? It handles as its tools falsehood, force,
and thoughtless selfishness so surely that it
could only be called an evil, demoniacal being;
but its aims, which are occasionally transparent,
are great and good. It is a centaur, half-beast,
half-man, and, in addition, has angel's wings
upon its head.
242.
The Miracle-Education. —Interest in Edu-
cation will acquire great strength only from
the moment when belief in a God and His care
is renounced, just as the art of healing could


## p. 225 (#297) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 225
only flourish when the belief in miracle-cures
ceased. So far, however, there is universal belief
in the miracle-education; out of the greatest
disorder and confusion of aims and unfavourable-
ness of conditions, the most fertile and mighty
men have been seen to grow; could this happen
naturally? Soon these cases will be more closely
looked into, more carefully examined; but
miracles will never be discovered. In similar
circumstances countless persons perish constantly;
the few saved have, therefore, usually grown
stronger, because they endured these bad con-
ditions by virtue of an inexhaustible inborn
strength, and this strength they had also exercised
and increased by fighting against these circum-
stances; thus the miracle is explained. An
education that no longer believes in miracles
must pay attention to three things: first, how
much energy is inherited? secondly, by what
means can new energy be aroused? thirdly, how
can the individual be adapted to so many and
manifold claims of culture without being dis-
quieted and destroying his personality,—in
short, how can the individual be initiated into the
counterpoint of private and public culture, how
can he lead the melody and at the same time
accompany it?
243-
The Future of the Physician. —There
is now no profession which would admit of such
an enhancement as that of the physician; that
is, after the spiritual physicians the so-called
VOL. 1. P


## p. 226 (#298) ############################################

226 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
pastors, are no longer allowed to practise their
conjuring tricks to public applause, and a
cultured person gets out of their way. The
highest mental development of a physician has
7" not yet been reached, even if he understands
the best and newest methods, is practised in
them, and knows how to draw those rapid
conclusions from effects to causes for which
the diagnostics are celebrated; besides this, he
must possess a gift of eloquence that adapts
itself to every individual and draws his heart out
\ of his body; a manliness, the sight of which alone
! drives away all despondency (the canker of all
sick people), the tact and suppleness of a
diplomatist in negotiations between such as have
need of joy for their recovery and such as, for
reasons of health, must (and can) give joy; the
acuteness of a detective and an attorney to
divine the secrets of a soul without betraying
them,—in short, a good physician now has need
of all the artifices and artistic privileges of every
other professional class. Thus equipped, he is
then ready to be a benefactor to the whole of
society, by increasing good works, mental joys
and fertility, by preventing evil thoughts, projects
and villainies (the evil source of which is so
often the belly), by the restoration of a mental
and physical aristocracy (as a maker and hinderer
of marriages), by judiciously checking all so-
called soul-torments and pricks of conscience.
Thus from a "medicine man" he becomes a
saviour, and yet need work no miracle, neither
v is he obliged to let himself be crucified.


## p. 227 (#299) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 227
»
244.
In the Neighbourhood of Insanity. —
* The sum of sensations, knowledge and ex-
periences, the whole burden of culture, therefore,
has become so great that an overstraining of
nerves and powers of thought is a common
» danger, indeed the cultivated classes of European
countries are throughout neurotic, and almost
* every one of their great families is on the verge
of insanity in one of their branches. True, health
is now sought in every possible way; but in
the main a diminution of that tension of feeling,
'^1 of that oppressive burden of culture, is needful,
. which, even though it might be bought at a
heavy sacrifice, would at least give us room for
the great hope of a new Renaissance. To
Christianity, to the philosophers, poets, and
musicians we owe an abundance of deeply
*; emotional sensations; in order that these may
not get beyond our control we must invoke the
spirit of science, which on the whole makes us
V somewhat colder and more sceptical, and in
particular cools the faith in final and absolute
truths; it is chiefly through Christianity that
>! it has grown so wild.
j
245.
The Bell-founding of Culture. —Culture
has been made like a bell, within a covering of
coarser, commoner material, falsehood, violence,
the boundless extension of every individual "I,"
\


## p. 228 (#300) ############################################

T
™
228 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
of every separate people—this was the covering.
Is it time to take it off? Has the liquid set,
have the good and useful impulses, the habits
of the nobler nature become so certain and so 1
general that they no longer require to lean on j
metaphysics and the errors of religion, no longer
have need of hardnesses and violence as powerful
bonds between man and man, people and people?
No sign from any God can any longer help us
to answer this question; our own insight must
decide. The earthly rule of man must be taken
in hand by man himself, his "omniscience" must
watch over the further fate of culture with a1 .
iti'
sharp eye.
246.
The Cyclopes of Culture. —Whoever has
seen those furrowed basins which once contained
glaciers, will hardly deem it possible that a time
will come when the same spot will be a valley
of woods and meadows and streams. It is the
same in the history of mankind; the wildest
forces break the way, destructively at first,
but their activity was nevertheless necessary in
order that later on a milder civilisation might
build up its house These terrible energies—
that which is called Evil—are the cyclopic archi-
tects and road-makers of humanity.
24;.
The Circulation of Humanity. —It is
possible that all humanity is only a phase of


## p. 229 (#301) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 229
development of a certain species of animal of
limited duration. Man may have grown out
of the ape and will return to the ape again,*
without anybody taking an interest in the ending
of this curious comedy.
Just as with the decline
of Roman civilisation and its most important
cause, the spread of Christianity, there was a
general uglification of man within the Roman
Empire, so, through the eventual decline of general
culture, there might result a far greater uglification
and finally an animalising of man till he reached
the ape. But just because we are able to face
'"'this prospect, we shall perhaps be able to avert
such an end.
248.
The Consoling Speech of a Desperate
Advance. —Our age gives the impression of an
intermediate condition; the old ways of regarding
the world, the old cultures still partially exist,
the new are not yet sure and customary and
hence are without decision and consistency. It
appears as if everything would become chaotic,
as if the old were being lost, the new worthless
and ever becoming weaker. But this is what the
soldier feels who is learning to march; for a time
I he is more uncertain and awkward, because his
muscles are moved sometimes according to the
r old system and sometimes according to the new,
and neither gains a decisive victory. We waver,
* This may remind one of Gobineau's more jocular
saying: "Nous ne descendons pas du singe, mais nous y
allons. "—]. M. K.
i


## p. 230 (#302) ############################################

230 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
but it is necessary not to lose courage and give
up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we
cannot go back to the old, we have burnt our
boats; there remains nothing but to be brave
whatever happen. — March ahead, only get
forward! Perhaps our behaviour looks like
progress; but if not, then the words of Frederick
the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed
as a consolation: "Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne
connaissez pas assez cette race maudite, a laquelle
nous appartenons. "
249.
Suffering from Past Culture. —Whoever
has solved the problem of culture suffers from a
feeling similar to that of one who has inherited
unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns
thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He
thinks of their origin with grief and is often
ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of
strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his
possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness,
he cannot forget their origin. He looks despond-
ingly at the future; he knows well that his
successors will suffer from the past as he does.
250.
MANNERS. —Good manners disappear in pro-
portion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive
aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly
observed from decade to decade by those who have
an eye for public behaviour, which grows visibly



## p. 231 (#303) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 231
. *•
more vulgar. No one any longer knows how to
court and flatter intelligently; hence arises the
ludicrous fact that in cases where we must render
actual homage (to a great statesman or artist, for
instance), the words of deepest feeling, of »simple,
peasant-like honesty, have to be borrowed, owing
to the embarrassment resulting from the lack
of grace and wit. Thus the public ceremonious
meeting of men appears ever more clumsy, but
more full of feeling and honesty without really
being so. But must there always be a decline in
manners? It appears to me, rather, that manners
take a deep curve and that we are approaching
their lowest point. When society has become sure
of its intentions and principles, so that they have
a moulding effect (the manners we have learnt
from former moulding conditions are now inherited
and always more weakly learnt), there will then
be company manners, gestures and social ex-
pressions, which must appear as necessary and
simply natural because they are intentions and
principles. The better division of time and work,
the gymnastic exercise transformed into the ac-
companiment of all beautiful leisure, increased and
severer meditation, which brings wisdom and
suppleness even to the body, will bring all this
in its train. Here, indeed, we might think with a
smile of our scholars, and consider whether, as a
matter of fact, they who wish to be regarded as the
forerunners of that new culture are distinguished
by their better manners? This is hardly the
case; although their spirit may be willing enough
their flesh is weak. The past of culture is still too


## p. 231 (#304) ############################################

230 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
but it is necessary not to lose courage and give
up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we
cannot go back to the old, we Jiave burnt our'
boats; there remains nothing but to be brave
whatever happen. — March ahead, only get
forward! Perhaps our behaviour looks like
progress; but if not, then the words of Frederick
the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed
as a consolation: "Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne
connaissez pas assez cette race maudite, a laquelle
nous appartenons'. '
249.
Suffering from Past Culture. —Whoever
has solved the problem of culture suffers from a
feeling similar to that of one who has inherited
unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns
thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He
thinks of their origin with grief and is often
ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of'
strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his
possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness,
he cannot forget their origin. He looks despond-
ingly at the future; he knows well that his
successors will suffer from the past as he does.
•
1
1
250.
MANNERS. —Good manners disappear in pro-
portion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive
aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly
observed from decade to decade by those who have
an eye for public behaviour, which grows visibly


## p. 231 (#305) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 231
more vulgar. No one any longer knows how to
court and flatter intelligently; hence arises the
ludicrous fact that in cases where we must render
actual homage (to a great statesman or artist, for
instance), the words of deepest feeling, of'simple,
peasant-like honesty, have to be borrowed, owing
to the embarrassment resulting from the lack
of grace and wit. Thus the public ceremonious
meeting of men appears ever more clumsy, but
more full of feeling and honesty without really
being so. But must there always be a decline in
manners? It appears to me, rather, that manners
take a deep curve and that we are approaching
their lowest point. When society has become sure
of its intentions and principles, so that they have
a moulding effect (the manners we have learnt
from former moulding conditions are now inherited
and always more weakly learnt), there will then
be company manners, gestures and social ex-
pressions, which must appear as necessary and
simply natural because they are intentions and
principles. The better division of time and work,
the gymnastic exercise transformed into the ac-
companiment of all beautiful leisure, increased and
severer meditation, which brings wisdom and
suppleness even to the body, will bring all this
in its train. Here, indeed, we might think with a
smile of our scholars, and consider whether, as a
matter of fact, they who wish to be regarded as the
forerunners of that new culture are distinguished
by their better manners? This is hardly the
case; although their spirit may be willing enough
their flesh is weak. The past of culture is still too


## p. 231 (#306) ############################################

23O HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
but it is necessary not to lose courage and give
up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we
cannot go back to the old, we have burnt our
boats; there remains nothing but to be brave
whatever happen. — March ahead, only get
forward! Perhaps our behaviour looks like
progress; but if not, then the words of Frederick
the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed
as a consolation: "Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne
connaissez pas assez cette race maudite, a laquelle
nous appartenons''
249.
Suffering from Past Culture. —Whoever
has solved the problem of culture suffers from a
feeling similar to that of one who has inherited
unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns
thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He
thinks of their origin with grief and is often
ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of
strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his
possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness,
he cannot forget their origin. He looks despond-
ingly at the future; he knows well that his
successors will suffer from the past as he does.
250.
MANNERS. —Good manners disappear in pro- \
portion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive
aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly
observed from decade to decade by those who have
an eye for public behaviour, which grows visibly


## p. 231 (#307) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 231
more vulgar. No one any longer knows how to
court and flatter intelligently; hence arises the
ludicrous fact that in cases where we must render
actual homage (to a great statesman or artist, for
instance), the words of deepest feeling, of'simple,
peasant-like honesty, have to be borrowed, owing
to the embarrassment resulting from the lack
of grace and wit. Thus the public ceremonious
meeting of men appears ever more clumsy, but
more full of feeling and honesty without really
being so. But must there always be a decline in
manners? It appears to me, rather, that manners
take a deep curve and that we are approaching
their lowest point. When society has become sure
of its intentions and principles, so that they have
a moulding effect (the manners we have learnt
from former moulding conditions are now inherited
and always more weakly learnt), there will then
be company manners, gestures and social ex-
pressions, which must appear as necessary and
simply natural because they are intentions and
principles. The better division of time and work,
the gymnastic exercise transformed into the ac-
companiment of all beautiful leisure, increased and
severer meditation, which brings wisdom and
suppleness even to the body, will bring all this
in its train. Here, indeed, we might think with a
smile of our scholars, and consider whether, as a
matter of fact, they who wish to be regarded as the
forerunners of that new culture are distinguished
by their better manners? This is hardly the
'" case; although their spirit may be willing enough
their flesh is weak. The past of culture is still too


## p. 231 (#308) ############################################

230 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
but it is necessary not to lose courage and give
up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we
cannot go back to the old, we have burnt our
boats; there remains nothing but to be brave
whatever happen. — March ahead, only get
forward! Perhaps our behaviour looks like
progress; but if not, then the words of Frederick
the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed
as a consolation: "Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne
connaissez pas assez cette race maudite, a laquelle
nous appartenonsl'
249.
Suffering from Past Culture. —Whoever
has solved the problem of culture suffers from a
feeling similar to that of one who has inherited
unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns
thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He
thinks of their origin with grief and is often
ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of
strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his
possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness,
he cannot forget their origin. He looks despond-
ingly at the future; he knows well that his
successors will suffer from the past as he does.
250.
MANNERS. —Good manners disappear in pro-
portion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive
aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly
observed from decade to decade by those who have
an eye for public behaviour, which grows visibly


## p. 231 (#309) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 231
more vulgar. No one any longer knows how to
court and flatter intelligently; hence arises the
ludicrous fact that in cases where we must render
actual homage (to a great statesman or artist, for
instance), the words of deepest feeling, of'simple,
peasant-like honesty, have to be borrowed, owing
to the embarrassment resulting from the lack
of grace and wit. Thus the public ceremonious
meeting of men appears ever more clumsy, but
more full of feeling and honesty without really
being so. But must there always be a decline in
manners? It appears to me, rather, that manners
take a deep curve and that we are approaching
their lowest point. When society has become sure
of its intentions and principles, so that they have
a moulding effect (the manners we have learnt
from former moulding conditions are now inherited
and always more weakly learnt), there will then
be company manners, gestures and social ex-
pressions, which must appear as necessary and
simply natural because they are intentions and
principles. The better division of time and work,
the gymnastic exercise transformed into the ac-
companiment of all beautiful leisure, increased and
severer meditation, which brings wisdom and
suppleness even to the body, will bring all this
in its train. Here, indeed, we might think with a
smile of our scholars, and consider whether, as a
matter of fact, they who wish to be regarded as the
forerunners of that new culture are distinguished
by their better manners? This is hardly the
case; although their spirit may be willing enough
their flesh is weak. The past of culture is still too


## p. 232 (#310) ############################################

HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
powerful in their muscles, they still stand inafettered
position, and are half worldly priests and half de-
pendent educators of the upper classes, and besides
this they have been rendered crippled and life-
less by the pedantry of science and by antiquated,
spiritless methods. In any case, therefore, they
are physically, and often three-fourths mentally,
still the courtiers of an old, even antiquated
culture, and as such are themselves antiquated;
the new spirit that occasionally inhabits these old
dwellings often serves only to make them more
uncertain and frightened. In them there dwell
the ghosts of the past as well as the ghosts of the
future; what wonder if they do not wear the best
expression or show the most pleasing behaviour?
251.
The Future of Science. —To him who
works and seeks in her, Science gives much
pleasure,—to him who learns her facts, very little.
But as all important truths of science must gradu-
ally become commonplace and everyday matters,
even this small amount of pleasure ceases, just as
we have long ceased to take pleasure in learning
the admirable multiplication table. Now if Science
goes on giving less pleasure in herself, and always
takes more pleasure in throwing suspicion on the
consolations of metaphysics, religion and art, that
greatest of all sources of pleasure, to which
mankind owes almost its whole humanity, becomes
impoverished. Therefore a higher culture must
give man a double brain, two brain-chambers, so
V
i


## p. 233 (#311) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 233
to speak, one to feel science and the other to feel
non-science, which can lie side by side, without
confusion, divisible, exclusive; this is a necessity
of health. In one part lies the source of strength,
in the other lies the regulator; it must be heated
with illusions, onesidednesses, passions; and the
malicious and dangerous consequences of over-
heating must be averted by the help of conscious
Science. If this necessity of the higher culture is not
satisfied, the further course of human development
can almost certainly be foretold: the interest in
what is true ceases as it guarantees less pleasure;
illusion, error, and imagination reconquer step by
step the ancient territory, because they are
united to pleasure; the ruin of science: the
relapse into barbarism is the next result; mankind
must begin to weave its web afresh after having,
like Penelope, destroyed it during the night. But
who will assure us that it will always find the
necessary strength for this?
252.
The Pleasure in Discernment. —Why is
discernment, that essence of the searcher and the
philosopher, connected with pleasure? Firstly,
and above all, because thereby we become con-
scious of our strength, for the same reason that
gymnastic exercises, even without spectators, are
enjoyable. Secondly, because in the course of
knowledge we surpass older ideas and their re-
presentatives, and become, or believe ourselves to
be, conquerors. Thirdly, because even a very


## p. 234 (#312) ############################################

234 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.

little new knowledge exalts us above every one,
and makes us feel we are the only ones who
know the subject aright. These are the three most
important reasons of the pleasure, but there are
many others, according to the nature of the dis-
cerner. A not inconsiderable index of such is
given, where no one would look for it, in a passage
of my parenetic work on Schopenhauer,* with the
arrangement of which every experienced servant
of knowledge may be satisfied, even though he
might wish to dispense with the ironical touch
that seems to pervade those pages. For if it be
true that for the making of a scholar "a number
of very human impulses and desires must be
thrown together," that the scholar is indeed a
very noble but not a pure metal, and "consists of
a confused blending of very different impulses and
attractions," the same thing may be said equally
of the making and nature of the artist, the phil-
osopher and the moral genius—and whatever .
glorified great names there may be in that list.
Everything human deserves ironical consideration
with respect to its origin,—therefore irony is so""
superfluous in the world.
253-
Fidelity as a Proof of Validity. —It is a
perfect sign of a sound theory if during forty
years its originator does not mistrust it; but I
* This refers to his essay, "Schopenhauer as Educator,"
in Thoughts Out of Season, vol. ii. of the English edition. —
J. M. K.
^


## p. 235 (#313) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 235
maintain that there has never yet been a philo-
sopher who has not eventually deprecated the
philosophy of his youth. Perhaps, however, he
has not spoken publicly of this change of opinion,
for reasons of ambition, or, what is more probable
in noble natures, out of delicate consideration for
his adherents.
254.
The Increase of what is Interesting. —
In the course of higher education everything
becomes interesting to man, he knows how to
find the instructive side of a thing quickly and to
put his finger on the place where it can fill up a
gap in his ideas, or where it may verify a thought.
Through this boredom disappears more and more,
and so does excessive excitability of temperament.
Finally he moves among men like a botanist
among plants, and looks upon himself as a
phenomenon, which only greatly excites his dis-
cerning instinct.
255.
The Superstition of the Simultaneous. —
Simultaneous things hold together, it is said. A
relative dies far away, and at the same time we
dream about him,—Consequently! But countless
relatives die and we do not dream about them.
It is like shipwrecked people who make vows;
afterwards, in the temples, we do not see the votive
tablets of those who perished. A man dies, an owl
hoots, a clock stops, all at one hour of the night,
—must there not be some connection? Such an


## p. 236 (#314) ############################################


236
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
intimacy with nature as this supposition implies
is flattering to mankind. This species of super-
stition is found again in a refined form in historians
and delineators of culture, who usually have a kind
of hydrophobic horror of all that senseless mixture,
in which individual and national life is so rich.
256.
Action and not Knowledge Exercised by
Science. —The value of strictly pursuing science
for a time does not lie precisely in its results, for
these, in proportion to the ocean of what is worth
knowing, are but an infinitesimally small drop.
But it gives an additional energy, decisiveness,
and toughness of endurance; it teaches how to
attain an aim suitably. In so far it is very valu-
able, with a view to all that is done later on, to
have once been a scientific man.

257.
The Youthful Charm of Science. —The
search for truth still retains the charm of being
in strong contrast to gray and now tiresome
error; but this charm is gradually disappearing.
It is true we still live in the youthful age of
science and are accustomed to follow truth as a
lovely girl; but how will it be when one day she
becomes an elderly, ill-tempered looking woman?
In almost all sciences the fundamental knowledge
is either found in earliest times or is still being
sought; what a different attraction this exerts



## p. 237 (#315) ############################################

SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 237
compared to that time when everything essential
has been found and there only remains for the
seeker a scanty gleaning (which sensation may be
learnt in several historical disciplines).
258.
The Statue of Humanity. —The genius of
culture fares as did Cellini when his statue of
Perseus was being cast; the molten mass threat-
ened to run short, but it had to suffice, so he
flung in his plates and dishes, and whatever else
his hands fell upon. In the same way genius
flings in errors, vices, hopes, ravings, and other
things of baser as well as of nobler metal, for the
statue of humanity must emerge and be finished;
what does it matter if commoner material is used
here and there?
259.
A Male Culture. —The Greek culture of the
classic age is a male culture. As far as women
are concerned, Pericles expresses everything in
the funeral speech: "They are best when they
are as little spoken of as possible amongst men. "
The erotic relation of men to youths was the
necessary and sole preparation, to a degree un-
attainable to our comprehension, of all manly
education (pretty much as for a long time all
higher education of women was only attainable
through love and marriage). All idealism of the
strength of the Greek nature threw itself into that
relation, and it is probable that never since have
young men been treated so attentively, so lovingly,


## p. 238 (#316) ############################################


238
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
so entirely with a view to their welfare (virtus) as
in the fifth and sixth centuries B. C. —according to
the beautiful saying of Holderlin: "denn liebend
giebt der Sterbliche vom Besten. " * The higher the
light in which this relation was regarded, the lower
sank intercourse with woman; nothing else was
taken into consideration than the production of
children and lust; there was no intellectual
intercourse, not even real love-making. If it be
further remembered that women were even ex-
cluded from contests and spectacles of every
description, there only remain the religious cults
as their sole higher occupation. For although in
the tragedies Electra and Antigone were repre-
sented, this was only tolerated in art, but not
liked in real life,—just as now we cannot endure
anything pathetic in life but like it in art. The
women had no other mission than to produce
beautiful, strong bodies, in which the father's
character lived on as unbrokenly as possible, and
therewith to counteract the increasing nerve-
tension of such a highly developed culture. This
kept the Greek culture young for a relatively long
time; for in the Greek mothers the Greek genius
always returned to nature.
260.
The Prejudice in Favour of Greatness.
— It is clear that men overvalue everything great
* For it is when loving that mortal man gives of his
best. —J.