FOR some years the name of Friedrich Nietzsche has been the war-cry
of opposing factions in Germany. It is not easy to take up a German
periodical without finding some trace of the passionate admiration or
denunciation which this man has called forth. If we turn to Scandinavia
or to France, whither his fame and his work are also penetrating, we
find that the same results have followed. And we may expect a similar
outburst in England now that the translation of his works has at last
begun. At present, however, I know of no attempt to deal with Nietzsche
from the British point of view, and that is my excuse for trying to
define his personality and influence.[1] I do not come forward as the
champion of Nietzschianism or of Anti-Nietzschianism. It appears to
me that any human individuality that has strongly aroused the love
and hatred of men must be far too complex for absolute condemnation or
absolute approval. Apart from praise or blame, which seem here alike
impertinent, Nietzsche is without doubt an extraordinarily interesting
figure. He is the modern incarnation of that image of intellectual
pride which Marlowe created in Faustus. A man who has certainly stood
at the finest summit of modern culture, who has thence made the most
determined effort ever made to destroy modern morals, and who now leads
a life as near to death as any life outside the grave can be, must
needs be a tragic figure. It is a figure full of significance, for it
represents one of the greatest spiritual forces which have appeared
since Goethe, full of interest also to the psychologist, and surely not
without its pathos, perhaps its horror, for the man in the street.