What Nietzsche Taught

Spake Zarathustra," in which book this doctrine of the eternally recurring irrationality of all things first made its appearance. Niet

ings which I have not put in chronological order, and my reason for placing these extracts here, and not between "The Dawn of Day" and "The Joyful Wisdom," is due to the fact that after conceiving this doctrine and making notes pertaining to it, Nietzsche put the idea aside and wrote "The

material not found in the present quotations. It is true that Nietzsche intended to elaborate these notes, but even had he done so I doubt if this doctrine would have assumed a different aspect from the one it

found a statement relating to this doctrine, in which I have endeavoured to point out just what infl

ng of the Nietzschean ethic, and I have placed these passages here solely f

M "THE ETERN

unlimited. The time, however, in which this universal energy works its changes is infinite-that is to say, energy remains eternally the same and is eternally active:-at this moment an infinity has already elapsed, that is to say, every possible evolution must already have taken place. Consequ

is eternally active but it is no longer able eternally to crea

can only have a given numbe

is an organism contradicts the

beginning of activity is absurd; if a state of equilibrium had been reached it: would have persisted to all eternity; (2) or there is no such

of the production of the most vital energy. For a highly positive state must follow a negative state. Space like matter is a subjective form, time is n

eneral is impossible. If stability were pos

g

ty. There can therefore be no question of dividing energy into equal parts; in every one of its states it manifest

ve existed and so on backwards,-and from this it follows that it has already existed not only twice but three times,-just as it will exist again not only twice but three times,-in

no experience as it is always without a past! If the reverse were the case a repetition wou

attain to certain forms, or that it aims at becoming more beautiful

tter is ever so little compared with the whole, everything has already been transformed into life once bef

g

ould already have been reached, and the clock of the universe would be at a standstill. The world of energy does not therefore reach a state of equilibrium; for no instant in its career has it had re

again! He unto whom striving is the greatest happiness, let him strive; he unto whom peace is the greatest happi

od at the disposal of other aspirations, and in this way it exercises a modifyi

ixt your last moment of consciousness and the first ray of the dawn of your new life no time will elapse,-as

no right to this thought; I wish to protect myself[Pg 172] against those who gush over anything! I would defend my doctrine in advance. It must be the r