954.
A certain question constantly recurs to us; it is perhaps a seductive
and evil question; may it be whispered into the ears of those who
have a right to such doubtful problems--those strong souls of to-day
whose dominion over themselves is unswerving: is it not high time,
now that the type "gregarious animal" is developing ever more and
more in Europe, to set about rearing, thoroughly, artificially, and
consciously, an opposite type, and to attempt to establish the latter's
virtues? And would not the democratic movement itself find for the
first time a sort of goal, salvation, and justification, if some one
appeared who availed himself of it--so that at last, beside its new
and sublime product, slavery (for this must be the end of European
democracy), that higher species of ruling and Cæsarian spirits might
also be produced, which would stand upon it, hold to it, and would
elevate themselves through it? This new race would climb aloft to new
and hitherto impossible things, to a broader vision, and to its task on
earth.
955.
The aspect of the European of to-day makes me very hopeful. A daring
and ruling race is here building itself up upon the foundation of
an extremely intelligent, gregarious mass. It is obvious that the
educational movements for the latter are not alone prominent nowadays.
956.
The same conditions which go to develop the gregarious animal also
force the development of the leaders.
957.
The question, and at the same time the task, is approaching with
hesitation, terrible as Fate, but nevertheless inevitable: how shall
the earth as a whole be ruled? And to what end shall man as a whole--no
longer as a people or as a race--be reared and trained?
Legislative moralities are the principal means by which one can form
mankind, according to the fancy of a creative and profound will:
provided, of course, that such an artistic will of the first order gets
the power into its own hands, and can make its creative will prevail
over long periods in the form of legislation, religions, and morals.
At present, and probably for some time to come, one will seek such
colossally creative men, such really great men, as I understand them,
in vain: they will be lacking, until, after many disappointments, we
are forced to begin to understand why it is they are lacking, and that
nothing bars with greater hostility their rise and development, at
present and for some time to come, than that which is now called _the_
morality in Europe. Just as if there were no other kind of morality,
and could be no other kind, than the one we have already characterised
as herd-morality. It is this morality which is now striving with
all its power to attain to that green-meadow happiness on earth,
which consists in security, absence of danger, ease, facilities for
livelihood, and, last but not least, "if all goes well," even hopes
to dispense with all kinds of shepherds and bell-wethers. The two
doctrines which it preaches most universally are "equality of rights"
and "pity for all sufferers"--and it even regards suffering itself as
something which must be got rid of absolutely. That such ideas may be
modern leads one to think very poorly of modernity. He, however, who
has reflected deeply concerning the question, how and where the plant
man has hitherto grown most vigorously, is forced to believe that this
has always taken place under the opposite conditions; that to this end
the danger of the situation has to increase enormously, his inventive
faculty and dissembling powers have to fight their way up under long
oppression and compulsion, and his will to life has to be increased
to the unconditioned will to power, to over-power: he believes that
danger, severity, violence, peril in the street and in the heart,
inequality of rights, secrecy, stoicism, seductive art, and devilry of
every kind--in short, the opposite of all gregarious desiderata--are
necessary for the elevation of man. Such a morality with opposite
designs, which would rear man upwards instead of to comfort and
mediocrity; such a morality, with the intention of producing a ruling
caste--the future lords of the earth--must, in order to be taught at
all, introduce itself as if it were in some way correlated to the
prevailing moral law, and must come forward under the cover of the
latter's words and forms. But seeing that, to this end, a host of
transitionary and deceptive measures must be discovered, and that the
life of a single individual stands for almost nothing in view of the
accomplishment of such lengthy tasks and aims, the first thing that
must be done is to rear _a new kind_ of man in whom the duration of
the necessary will and the necessary instincts is guaranteed for many
generations. This must be a new kind of ruling species and caste--this
ought to be quite as clear as the somewhat lengthy and not easily
expressed consequences of this thought. The aim should be to prepare
a _transvaluation of values_ for a particularly strong kind of man,
most highly gifted in intellect and will, and, to this end, slowly
and cautiously to liberate in him a whole host of slandered instincts
hitherto held in check: whoever meditates about this problem belongs
to us, the free spirits--certainly not to that kind of "free spirit"
which has existed hitherto: for these desired practically the reverse.
To this order, it seems to me, belong, above all, the pessimists of
Europe, the poets and thinkers of a revolted idealism, in so far as
their discontent with existence in general must _consistently_ at least
have led them to be dissatisfied with the man of the present; the same
applies to certain insatiably ambitious artists who courageously and
unconditionally fight against the gregarious animal for the special
rights of higher men, and subdue all herd-instincts and precautions
of more exceptional minds by their seductive art. Thirdly and lastly,
we should include in this group all those critics and historians by
whom the discovery of the Old World, which has begun so happily--this
was the work of the _new_ Columbus, of German intellect--will be
courageously _continued_ (for we still stand in the very first stages
of this conquest). For in the Old World, as a matter of fact, a
different and more lordly morality ruled than that of to-day; and the
man of antiquity, under the educational ban of his morality, was a
stronger and deeper man than the man of to-day--up to the present he
has been the only well-constituted man. The temptation, however, which
from antiquity to the present day has always exercised its power on
such lucky strokes of Nature, _i.e._ on strong and enterprising souls,
is, even at the present day, the most subtle and most effective of
anti-democratic and anti-Christian powers, just as it was in the time
of the Renaissance.
958.
I am writing for a race of men which does not yet exist: for "the lords
of the earth."
In Plato's _Theages_ the following passage will be found: "Every one
of us would like if possible to be master of mankind; if possible, a
_God!" This_ attitude of mind must be reinstated in our midst.
Englishmen, Americans, and Russians.
959.
That primeval forest-plant Man always appears where the struggle for
power has been waged longest. _Great_ men.