In the volume before us we have the first two books of what was to be
Nietzsche's greatest theoretical and philosophical prose work. The
reception given to _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ had been so unsatisfactory,
and misunderstandings relative to its teaching had become so general,
that, within a year of the publication of the first part of that
famous philosophical poem, Nietzsche was already beginning to see
the necessity of bringing his doctrines before the public in a more
definite and unmistakable form. During the years that followed--that is
to say, between 1883 and 1886--this plan was matured, and although we
have no warrant, save his sister's own word and the internal evidence
at our disposal, for classing _Beyond Good and Evil_ (published 1886)
among the contributions to Nietzsche's grand and final philosophical
scheme, "The Will to Power," it is now impossible to separate it
entirely from his chief work as we would naturally separate _The Birth
of Tragedy,_ the _Thoughts out of Season,_ the volumes entitled _Human,
all-too-Human, The Dawn of Day,_ and _Joyful Wisdom._
_Beyond Good and Evil,_ then, together with its sequel, _The Genealogy
of Morals,_ and the two little volumes, _The Twilight of the Idols_
and the _Antichrist_ (published in 1889 and 1894 respectively), must
be regarded as forming part of the general plan of which _The Will to
Power_ was to be the _opus magnum._
Unfortunately, _The Will to Power_ was never completed by its author.
The text from which this translation was made is a posthumous
publication, and it suffers from all the disadvantages that a book
must suffer from which has been arranged and ordered by foster hands.
When those who were responsible for its publication undertook the task
of preparing it for the press, it was very little more than a vast
collection of notes and rough drafts, set down by Nietzsche from time
to time, as the material for his chief work; and, as any liberty taken
with the original manuscript, save that of putting it in order, would
probably have resulted in adding or excluding what the author would
on no account have added or excluded himself, it follows that in some
few cases the paragraphs are no more than hasty memoranda of passing
thoughts, which Nietzsche must have had the intention of elaborating
at some future time. In these cases the translation follows the German
as closely as possible, and the free use even of a conjunction has in
certain cases been avoided, for fear lest the meaning might be in the
slightest degree modified. It were well, therefore, if the reader could
bear these facts in mind whenever he is struck by a certain clumsiness,
either of expression or disposition, in the course of reading this
translation.
It may be said that, from the day when Nietzsche first recognised the
necessity of making a more unequivocal appeal to his public than
the _Zarathustra_ had been, that is to say, from the spring of 1883,
his work in respect of _The Will to Power_ suffered no interruption
whatsoever, and that it was his chief preoccupation from that period
until his breakdown in 1889.
That this span of six years was none too long for the task he had
undertaken, will be gathered from the fact that, in the great work he
had planned, he actually set out to show that the life-principle, "Will
to Power," was the prime motor of all living organisms.
To do this he appeals both to the animal world and to human society,
with its subdivisions, religion, art, morality, politics, etc. etc.,
and in each of these he seeks to demonstrate the activity of the
principle which he held to be the essential factor of all existence.
Frau Foerster-Nietzsche tells us that the notion that "The Will to
Power" was the fundamental principle of all life, first occurred to her
brother in the year 1870, at the seat of war, while he was serving as
a volunteer in a German army ambulance. On one occasion, at the close
of a very heavy day with the wounded, he happened to enter a small
town which lay on one of the chief military roads. He was wandering
through it in a leisurely fashion when, suddenly, as he turned the
corner of a street that was protected on either side by lofty stone
walls, he heard a roaring noise, as of thunder, which seemed to come
from the immediate neighbourhood. He hurried forward a step or two, and
what should he see, but a magnificent cavalry regiment--gloriously
expressive of the courage and exuberant strength of a people--ride
past him like a luminous stormcloud. The thundering din waxed louder
and louder, and lo and behold! his own beloved regiment of field
artillery dashed forward at full speed, out of the mist of motes, and
sped westward amid an uproar of clattering chains and galloping steeds.
A minute or two elapsed, and then a column of infantry appeared,
advancing at the double--the men's eyes were aflame, their feet struck
the hard road like mighty hammer-strokes, and their accoutrements
glistened through the haze. While this procession passed before him,
on its way to war and perhaps to death,--so wonderful in its vital
strength and formidable courage, and so perfectly symbolic of a race
that _will_ conquer and prevail, or perish in the attempt,--Nietzsche
was struck with the thought that the highest will to live could not
find its expression in a miserable "struggle for existence," but in
a will to war, a Will to Power, a will to overpower! This is said to
be the history of his first conception of that principle which is at
the root of all his philosophy, and twelve years later, in _Thus Spake
Zarathustra,_ we find him expounding it thus:--
"Wherever I found a living thing, there found I Will to Power; and even
in the will of the servant found I the will to be master.
"Only where there is life, is there also will: not, however, Will to
Life, but--so teach I thee--Will to Power!
"Much is reckoned higher than life itself by the living one; but out of
the very reckoning speaketh--the Will to Power!"
And three years later still, in _Beyond Good and Evil,_ we read the
following passage:--
"Psychologists should bethink themselves before putting down the
instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic
being. A living thing seeks above all to _discharge_ its strength--life
itself is _Will to Power_; self-preservation is only one of the
indirect and most frequent results thereof."
But in this volume, and the one that is to follow, we shall find
Nietzsche more mature, more sober, and perhaps more profound than
in the works above mentioned. All the loves and hates by which we
know him, we shall come across again in this work; but here he seems
to stand more above them than he had done heretofore; having once
enunciated his ideals vehemently and emphatically, he now discusses
them with a certain grim humour, with more thoroughness and detail, and
he gives even his enemies a quiet and respectful hearing. His tolerant
attitude to Christianity on pages 8-9, 107, 323, for instance, is
a case in point, and his definite description of what we are to
understand by his pity (p. 293) leaves us in no doubt as to the calm
determination of this work. Book One will not seem so well arranged
or so well worked out as Book Two; the former being more sketchy and
more speculative than the latter. Be this as it may, it contains deeply
interesting things, inasmuch as it attempts to trace the elements of
Nihilism--as the outcome of Christian values--in all the institutions
of the present day.
In the Second Book Herbert Spencer comes in for a number of telling
blows, and not the least of these is to be found on page 237, where,
although his name is not mentioned, it is obviously implied. Here
Nietzsche definitely disclaims all ideas of an individualistic
morality, and carefully states that _his_ philosophy aims at _a new
order of rank._
It will seem to some that morality is dealt with somewhat cavalierly
throughout the two books; but, in this respect, it should not be
forgotten that Nietzsche not only made a firm stand in favour of
exceptional men, but that he also believed that any morality is nothing
more than a mere system of valuations which are determined by the
conditions in which a given species lives. Hence his words on page 107:
"Beyond Good and Evil,--certainly; but we insist upon the unconditional
and strict preservation of herd-morality"; and on page 323: "Suppose
the _strong_ were masters in all respects, even in valuing: let us try
and think what their attitude would be towards illness, suffering,
and sacrifice! _Self-contempt on the part of the weak_ would be the
result: they would do their utmost to disappear and to extirpate their
kind. And would this be _desirable_?--should we really like a world
in which the subtlety, the consideration, the intellectuality, the
_plasticity_--in fact, the whole influence of the weak--was lacking?"
It is obvious from this passage that Nietzsche only objected to the
influence of herd-morality outside the herd--that is to say, among
exceptional and higher men who may be wrecked by it. Whereas most other
philosophers before him had been the "Altruist" of the lower strata of
humanity, Nietzsche may aptly be called the Altruist of the exceptions,
of the particular lucky cases among men. For such "varieties," he
thought, the morality of Christianity had done all it could do, and
though he in no way wished to underrate the value it had sometimes
been to them in the past, he saw that at present, in any case, it
might prove a great danger. With Goethe, therefore, he believed that
"Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round
a building during the course of its construction, and which are taken
away as soon as the edifice is completed. To the workman, they are
indispensable; but he must be careful not to confound the scaffolding
with the building."[1]
It is deeply to be deplored that Nietzsche was never able to complete
his life-work. The fragments of it collected in volumes i. and ii. of
_The Will to Power_ are sufficiently remarkable to convey some idea of
what the whole work would have been if only its author had been able to
arrange and complete it according to his original design.
It is to be hoped that we are too sensible nowadays to allow our
sensibilities to be shocked by serious and well-meditated criticism,
even of the most cherished among our institutions, and an honest and
sincere reformer ought no longer to find us prejudiced--to the extent
of deafness--against him, more particularly when he comes forward with
a gospel--"The Will to Power"--which is, above all, a test of our power
to will.