What Nietzsche Taught

th "The Case of Wagner," that famous pamphlet i

o "G?tzend?mmerung"-"The Twilight of the Idols"-a titular parody on Wagner's "G?tterd?mmerung" For a subtitle he appended a characteristically Nietzschean phrase-"How to Philosophise with the Hammer." The writing of this work was done with great rapidity: it was accomplished in

zsche again gave his[Pg 232] attention to Wagner, drafting "Nietzsche contra Wagner," a pamphlet made up entirely of excerpts from his earlier writings. This work, intended to supplement "The Case of Wagner," was not published until 1895, although it had been printed and corrected before the author's final breakdown. "The Antichrist" appeared a

us amount of reading, not only of Nietzsche's own writings but of philosophical works in general. But once equipped with this preparation, one will find more of contemporary interest in it than in the closely organised books such as "Beyond Good and Evil" and "The Genealogy of Morals." There are few points in Nietzsche's philosophy not found here. For a compact expression of his entire teaching I know of no better book to which one might turn. Nietzsche[Pg 233] himself, to judge from a passage in his "Ecce Homo" intended this book as a statement of his whole ethical system. He probably meant that it should prese

e reader ignorant of the inner seriousness of Nietzsche will accept these passages only at their surface value. Of the forty-four short epigrams which comprise the opening chapter, I have append

close study of[Pg 234] Nietzsche's own destructive works. The explanation of Socrates's power, the condemnation of that ancient philosopher's subtle glorification of the canaille, the reasons for his secret fascination, and the interpretation of his whole mental progress culminating in his death-all this is profound and categorical criticism which has its roots in the very fundamentals of Nietzsche's philosophy. But because

of criticism which has led up to the present discussion of them, one will experience difficulty in following the subtly drawn arguments and analogies presented against them. To demonstrate briefly the specific application of the first error, namely: the confusion of cause and effect, I offer an analogy stated in the passage. We know that Christian morality teaches us that a people perish through vice and luxury-that is to say, that these two conditions are causes of racial degeneration.[Pg 2

ts to the comfort we obtain by attributing a certain unexplained fact to a familiar cause-by tracing it to a commonplace source-thereby doing away with its seeming mystery. Thus ordinary maladies or afflictions, or, to carry the case into moral regions, misfortunes and unaccountable strokes of fate, are explained by finding trite and plausible reasons for their existence. As a consequence the habit of postulating causes becomes a fixed mental habit. In the great majority

s of his age. Because it is not a direct voicing of his doctrines it does not lend itself to mutilation except where it touches on principles of conduct and abstract aspects of morality. Many of the most widely read passages of all of Nietzsche's work are contained in it. But here again, as in the case of "Thus Spake Zarathustra," one regrets that the surface brilliance of its style attracted readers in England and America before these nations were acquainted with the books which came b

the discussion of art and artists, to which subjects many pages are devoted. In fact, "The Twilight of the Idols" contains most of the art theories and ?sthetic doctrines which Nietzsche advanced. He defines the psychology of the artist, and draws the line between the two concepts, Apollonian and Dionysian, as applied to art. He analyses the meaning of beauty and ugliness, and endeavours to show in what man

hose of senility, and that we have deteriorated, physically as well as mentally, as a result of an adherence to a code of morality invented to meet the needs of a weak and impoverished[Pg 238] people. Our virtues, he says, are determined and stimulated by our weakness, so that we have come to admire the moralities of the slave, the most prominent among which is the doctrine of equality. In the decline of all the positive forces of life Nietzsche sees only racial decadence. In this regard it is important to take note of one of the passages relative to the discussion of this de

many of his doctrines and literary habits. This chapter is important only to the student who wishes to go to the remoter

"THE TWILIGH

cause he can never fathom her dep

tion. It thus reduces its chances of being trodden u

ed, beautified, deified?"-In all ages it has laid the weight of discipline in the process of extirpation (the extirpation of sensuality, pride, lust of dominion, l

react to a stimulus, is in itself simply another form of degeneracy. Radical and mortal hostility to sensuality, rema

instincts; he can remain young only on condition that his soul

u shalt," "thou shalt not," and any sort of obstacle or hostile element in the road of life is thus cleared away. Conversely, the morality which is antagonisti

eneration itself, which converts itself into an imperative: it says:

ation or motive of life, is a specific error, for which no one should feel any m

eneration of the instincts to disintegration of t

y parts of the psychology of error: in every pa

is-the most egregious theological trick that has ever existed for the purpose of making mankind "

hology, or the psychology of the will, is the outcome of the fact that its originators, who were the priests at the head of ancient communities, wanted to crea

entity neither as a sensorium nor as a spirit-this alone is the great deliverance,-thus alone is the innocence of Becoming restored.... The conce

g

retation of certain phenomena: or more strictly speaking, a misinterpretation of them. Moral judgment, like the religious one, belongs

he monastery look like after the process? He looked like a caricature of man, like an abortion: he had become a "sinner," he was caged up, he had been imprisoned behind a host of appalling notions. He now lay there, sick, wretched, malevolent even toward himself: full of hate for the instincts of life, f

ore with the object of making man mora

ntelligible character.-Victor Hugo,[Pg 242] or the lighthouse on the sea of nonsense.-Liszt, or the school of racing-after women.-George Sand, or lactea ubertas, in plain English: the cow with plenty beautiful milk.-Michelet, or ent

sy, however differently produced, have this power to create art, and above all the state dependent upon sexual excitement-this most venerable and primitive form of ecstasy. The same applies to that ecstasy which is the outcome of all great desires, all strong passions; the ecstasy of the feast, of the arena, of the act of br

e eye, so that it acquires the power of vision. The painter, the sculptor, the epic poet are essentially visionaries. In the Dionysian state, on the other[Pg 243] hand, the whole system of passions is stimulated and intensified, so that

. It does occur, but as an exception. The general condition of life is not one of want or famine, but rather of ric

erience the most excruciating tragedies: but on that very account they hon

ndignation for "right," "justice," "equal rights," he is only groaning under the burden of his ignoranc

ame. The socialist does the former, the Christian, for instance, does the latter. That which is common to both attitudes, or rather that which is equally ignoble

g

means of splashing mud over

ng. Instinctively to select that which is harmful to one, to be lured by "disinterested" motives,-these things almost provide the formula for decadence. "Not to have one's own interests at heart"-this is simply a mor

never forgive Christianity for having so abused the weakness of the dying man as to do violence to his conscience, or for having used his manner of dying as a means of valuing both man and his past!-In spite of all cowardly prejudices, it is our duty, in this respect, above all to reinstate the proper-that is to say, the physiological, aspect of so-called natural death, which after all is perfectly "unnatural" and nothing else than suicide. One never[Pg 245] perishes through anybody's fault but one's own. The only thing is that the death which takes place in the most contemptible circumstances, the death

s more trouble and caution to live such a dependent and senile existence. In such circumstances everybody gives everybody else a helping hand, and, to a certain extent, everybody is either an invalid or an invalid's attendant. This is then ca

pears as the last great age, while we moderns with our anxious care of ourselves and love of our neighbours, with all our unassuming vir

nglish, the transformation

one's cause, one's self included. Freedom denotes that the virile instincts which rejoice in war and in victory, prevail over other instincts; for instance, over the instincts of "happiness." The man who has won his freedom, and how much more

t which alone makes it an institution, has been undermined. No institution ever has been nor

odesty. After all, he has the majority on his side. There is now not the slightest hope that an unassuming and contented sort of man, after the style of the Chinaman, will come into being in this quarter: and this would have been the reasonable course, it was even a dire necessity. What has been done? Everything has been done with the view of nipping the very pre-requisite of this accomplishment in the bud,-with the most frivolous thoughtlessness those self-same instincts by means of which a working-class becomes poss

gical; they are the outcome of the fact that for long ages energy has been collected, hoarded up, saved up and preserved for their use, and that no explosion has taken place. When

with the depressing passions, with suspicion, fear and dishonour. But this is almost the recipe for physiological degeneration. When a man has to do that which he is best suited to do, which he is most fond of doing, not only clandestinely, but also with long suspense, caution and ruse, he becomes an?mic; and inasmuch as he is always having to pay for his instincts in the form of danger, persecution and fatalities, even his feelings begi

an was depreciated.... The time is coming-this I guarantee-when he will pass as the

that which is not inherited is impe

the body is the greatest mishap

k but of going up-up into lofty, free[Pg 249] and even terrible nature and natu

uals equality, to unequals inequality"-that would be the real speech of justice and that which follows from it. "Never make unequal things equal." The fact that so much horror and blood are associate