6. Do we want to attain a goal, or do we want to avoid all goals (like
the philosopher, for instance, who scents a boundary, a _cul-de-sac,_ a
prison, a piece of foolishness in every goal)?
7. Do we want to become more respected, or more feared, or more
_despised_?
8. Do we want to become tyrants, and seducers, or do we want to become
shepherds and gregarious animals?
910.
_The type of my disciples._--To such men as _concern vie in any way_
I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities of
all kinds. I wish them to be acquainted with profound self-contempt,
with the martyrdom of self-distrust, with the misery of the defeated: I
have no pity for them; because I wish them to have the only thing which
to-day proves whether a man has any value or not, namely, _the capacity
of sticking to his guns._
911.
The happiness and self-contentedness of the lazzaroni, or the
blessedness of "beautiful souls," or the consumptive love of Puritan
pietists, proves nothing in regard to _the order of rank_ among men.
As a great educator one ought inexorably to thrash a race of such
blissful creatures into unhappiness. The danger of belittlement and of
a slackening of powers follows immediately I am _opposed_ to happiness
_à la_ Spinoza or _à la_ Epicurus, and to all the relaxation of
contemplative states. But when virtue is the means to such happiness,
well then, _one must master even virtue._
912.
I cannot see how any one can make up for having missed going to _a
good school_ at the proper time. Such a person does not know himself;
he walks through life without ever having learned to walk. His soft
muscles betray themselves at every step. Occasionally life itself is
merciful enough to make a man recover this lost and severe schooling:
by means of periods of sickness, perhaps, which exact the utmost
will-power and self-control; or by means of a sudden state of poverty,
which threatens his wife and child, and which may force a man to
such activity as will restore energy to his slackened tendons, and a
_tough spirit_ to his will to life. The most desirable thing of all,
however, is, under all circumstances to have severe discipline _at
the right time, i.e._ at that age when it makes us proud that people
should expect great things from us. For this is what distinguishes hard
schooling, as good schooling, from every other schooling, namely, that
a good deal is demanded, that a good deal is severely exacted; that
goodness, nay even excellence itself, is required as if it were normal;
that praise is scanty, that leniency is non-existent; that blame is
sharp, practical, and without reprieve, and has no regard to talent and
antecedents. We are in every way in need of such a school: and this
holds good of corporeal as well as of spiritual things; it would be
fatal to draw distinctions here! The same discipline makes the soldier
and the scholar efficient; and, looked at more closely, there is no
true scholar who has not the instincts of a true soldier in his veins.
To be able to command and to be able to obey in a proud fashion; to
keep one's place in rank and file, and yet to be ready at any moment
to lead; to prefer danger to comfort; not to weigh what is permitted
and what is forbidden in a tradesman's balance; to be more hostile to
pettiness, slyness, and parasitism than to wickedness. What is it that
one _learns_ in a hard school?--_to obey_ and _to command._
913.
We should _repudiate_ merit--and do only that which stands above all
praise and above all understanding.
914.