New and Old
Conceptions
of Govern-
ment.
ment.
Nietzsche - v06 - Human All-Too-Human - a
—
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 323 (#462) ############################################
322 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
444-
War. —Against war it may be said that it
makes the victor stupid and the vanquished re-
vengeful. In favour of war it may be said that
it barbarises in both its above-named results, and
thereby makes more natural; it is the sleep or
the winter period of culture; man emerges from
it with greater strength for good and for evil.
445-
In the Prince's Service. —To be able to
act quite regardlessly it is best for a statesman
to carry out his work not for himself but for a
prince. The eye of the spectator is dazzled by
the splendour of this general disinterestedness, so
that it does not see the malignancy and severity
which the work of a statesman brings with it. *
446.
A Question of Power, not of Right. —As
regards Socialism, in the eyes of those who always
consider higher utility, if it is really a rising
against their oppressors of those who for centuries
have been oppressed and downtrodden, there is
no problem of right involved (notwithstanding the
ridiculous, effeminate question," Howfar ought we to
grant its demands? ") but only a problem of power
(" How far can we make use of its demands ? ");
* This aphorism may have been suggested by Nietzsche's
observing the behaviour of his great contemporary, Bismarck,
towards the dynasty. —J. M. K.
## p. 323 (#463) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE-
323
/
the same, therefore, as in the case of a natural
force,—steam, for instance,—which is either forced
by man into his service, as a machine-god, or
which, in case of defects of the machine, that is to
say, defects of human calculation in its construc-
tion, destroys it and man together. In order to
solve this question of power we must know how
strong Socialism is, in what modification it may
yet be employed as a powerful lever in the
present mechanism of political forces; under cer-
tain circumstances we should do all we can to
strengthen it. With every great force—be it the
most dangerous—men have to think how they
can make of it an instrument for their purposes.
Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to
have taken place between the two powers, the
representatives of the old and the new, when,
however, a wise calculation of the greatest
possible preservation and advantageousness to
both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty.
Without treaty no right. So far, however, there
is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question,
therefore no rights, no " ought. "
*l
*
\
447-
Utilising the most Trivial Dishonesty. —
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 324 (#464) ############################################
324 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
even himself. Such little faults of dishonesty, or
perhaps only of a dishonest silence, are not hard
to bear by the individual, but the consequences
are extraordinary, because these little faults are
committed by many at the same time. Each one
says to himself: "For such small concessions I
live better and can make my income; by the
want of such little compliances I make myself
impossible. " Because it seems almost morally
indifferent to write a line more (perhaps even
without signature), or not to write it, a person
who has money and influence can make any
opinion a public one. He who knows that most
people are weak in trifles, and wishes to attain
his own ends thereby, is always dangerous.
448.
Too Loud a Tone in Grievances. —Through
the fact that an account of a bad state of things
(for instance, the crimes of an administration,
bribery and arbitrary favour in political or learned
bodies) is greatly exaggerated, it fails in its effect
on intelligent people, but has all the greater effect
on the unintelligent (who would have remained
indifferent to an accurate and moderate account).
But as these latter are considerably in the majority,
and harbour in themselves stronger will-power
and more impatient desire for action, the ex-
aggeration becomes the cause of investigations,
punishments, promises, and reorganisations. In
so far it is useful to exaggerate the accounts of
bad states of things.
## p. 325 (#465) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 325
449.
The Apparent Weather - Makers of
Politics. —Just as people tacitly assume that
he who understands the weather, and foretells it
about a day in advance, makes the weather, so
even the educated and learned, with a display of
superstitious faith, ascribe to great statesmen as
their most special work all the important changes
and conjunctures that have taken place during
their administration, when it is only evident that
they knew something thereof a little earlier than
other people and made their calculations accord-
ingly,—thus they are also looked upon as weather-
makers—and this belief is not the least important
instrument of their power.
450.
New and Old Conceptions of Govern-
ment. —To draw such a distinction between
Government and people as if two separate spheres
of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and
lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other,
is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment,
which still accurately represents the historic estab-
lishment of the conditions of power in most States.
When Bismarck, for instance, describes the con-
stitutional system as a compromise between
Government and people, he speaks in accordance
with a principle which has its reason in history
(from whence, to be sure, it also derives its ad-
mixture of folly, without which nothing human
## p. 326 (#466) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able "higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
ion of the conception of Government, let us but
:onsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
Relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
anH shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 327 (#467) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
Possession and Justice. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of ]
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 327 (#468) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able " higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
ion of the conception of Government, let us but
:onsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
/relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
anil shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 327 (#469) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
Possession and Justice. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of |
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 328 (#470) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
^j* aroused. To give an example: a German states-
L^ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\/ will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
j3 •>. that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
. ;* than with the former country; he likewise knows
n. 'jY that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le disordre organise, as Menmee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 328 (#471) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. V* 335
454- ^SJ
J^> Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. — v
» are bent on revolutionising society
-ided into those who seek something
s thereby and those who seek some-
children and grandchildren. The
^ more dangerous, for they have the
. ne good conscience of disinterestedness,
. ers can be appeased by favours: those in
. are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
it expedient. The danger begins as soon as
che aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
## p. 328 (#472) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
<jj aroused. To give an example: a German states-
^\ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\} will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
j3 -^ that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
. * than with the former country; he likewise knows
q"^ that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le cUsordre organise, as Merimee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 328 (#473) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. X* 335
\
454-
The Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. —
Those who are bent on revolutionising society
may be divided into those who seek something
for themselves thereby and those who seek some-
thing for their children and grandchildren. The
latter are the more dangerous, for they have the
belief and the good conscience of disinterestedness.
The others can be appeased by favours: those in
power are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
that expedient. The danger begins as soon as
the aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
\
/
## p. 328 (#474) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
456.
Pride of Descent. —A man may be justly
proud of an unbroken line of good ancestors down
to his father,—not however of the line itself, for
every one has that. Descent from good ancestors
constitutes the real nobility of birth; a single
break in the chain, one bad ancestor, therefore,
destroys the nobility of birth. Every one who
talks about his nobility should be asked: "Have
you no violent, avaricious, dissolute, wicked, cruel
man amongst your ancestors? " If with good
cognisance and conscience he can answer No, then
let his friendship be sought.
457-
Slaves and Labourers. —The fact that we
regard the gratification of vanity as of more
account than all other forms of well-being
(security, position, and pleasures of all sorts), is
shown to a ludicrous extent by every one wishing
for the abolition of slavery and utterly abhorring
to put any one into this position (apart altogether
from political reasons), while every one must ac-
knowledge to himself that in all respects slaves
live more securely and more happily than modem
labourers, and that slave labour is very easy
labour compared with that of the " labourer. " We
protest in the name of the " dignity of man "; but,
expressed more simply, that is just our darling
vanity which feels non-equality, and inferiority
in public estimation, to be the hardest lot of all.
## p. 328 (#475) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. V 335
\
The cynic thinks differently concerning the rriSttf it
because he despises honour:—and so Diogenes
was for some time a slave and tutor.
458.
Leading Minds and their Instruments. —
We see that great statesmen, and in general all
who have to employ many people to carry out
their plans, sometimes proceed one way* and
sometimes another; they either choose with great
skill and care the people suitable for their plans,
and then leave them a comparatively large
amount of liberty, because they know that the
nature of the persons selected impels them pre-
cisely to the point where they themselves would
have them go; or else they choose badly, in fact
take whatever comes to hand, but out of every
piece of clay they form something useful for their
purpose. These latter minds are the more high-
handed; they also desire more submissive instru-
ments; their knowledge of mankind is usually
much smaller, their contempt of mankind greater
than in the case of the first mentioned class, but
the machines they construct generally work better
than the machines from the workshops of the former.
459-
Arbitrary Law Necessary. —Jurists dis-
pute whether the most perfectly thought-out law
or that which is most easily understood should
prevail in a nation. The former, the best model
of which is Roman Law, seems incomprehensible
## p. 328 (#476) ############################################
322 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
444-
War. —Against war it may be said that it
makes the victor stupid and the vanquished re-
vengeful. In favour of war it may be said that
it barbarises in both its above-named results, and
thereby makes more natural; it is the sleep or
the winter period of culture; man emerges from
it with greater strength for good and for evil.
445-
In the Prince's Service. —To be able to
act quite regardlessly it is best for a statesman
to carry out his work not for himself but for a
prince. The eye of the spectator is dazzled by
the splendour of this general disinterestedness, so
that it does not see the malignancy and severity
which the work of a statesman brings with it. *
446.
A Question of Power, not of Right. —As
regards Socialism, in the eyes of those who always
consider higher utility, if it is really a rising
against their oppressors of those who for centuries
have been oppressed and downtrodden, there is
no problem of right involved (notwithstanding the
ridiculous, effeminate question," Howfar ought we to
grant its demands ? ") but only a problem of power
(" How far can we make use of its demands ? ");
* This aphorism may have been suggested by Nietzsche's
observing the behaviour of his great contemporary, Bismarck,
towards the dynasty. —J. M. K.
## p. 328 (#477) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 323
the same, therefore, as in the case of a natural
force,—steam, for instance,—which is either forced
by man into his service, as a machine-god, or
which, in case of defects of the machine, that is to
say, defects of human calculation in its construc-
tion, destroys it and man together. In order to
solve this question of power we must know how
strong Socialism is, in what modification it may
yet be employed as a powerful lever in the
present mechanism of political forces; under cer-
tain circumstances we should do all we can to
strengthen it. With every great force—be it the
most dangerous—men have to think how they
can make of it an instrument for their purposes.
Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to
have taken place between the two powers, the
representatives of the old and the new, when,
however, a wise calculation of the greatest
possible preservation and advantageousness to
both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty.
Without treaty no right. So far, however, there
is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question,
therefore no rights, no "ought. "
447-
Utilising the most Trivial Dishonesty. —
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 328 (#478) ############################################
324 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
even himself. Such little faults of dishonesty, or
perhaps only of a dishonest silence, are not hard
to bear by the individual, but the consequences
are extraordinary, because these little faults are
committed by many at the same time. Each one
says to himself: "For such small concessions I
live better and can make my income; by the
want of such little compliances I make myself
impossible. " Because it seems almost morally
indifferent to write a line more (perhaps even
without signature), or not to write it, a person
who has money and influence can make any
opinion a public one. He who knows that most
people are weak in trifles, and wishes to attain
his own ends thereby, is always dangerous.
448.
Too Loud a Tone in Grievances. —Through
the fact that an account of a bad state of things
(for instance, the crimes of an administration,
bribery and arbitrary favour in political or learned
bodies) is greatly exaggerated, it fails in its effect
on intelligent people, but has all the greater effect
on the unintelligent (who would have remained
indifferent to an accurate and moderate account).
But as these latter are considerably in the majority,
and harbour in themselves stronger will-power
and more impatient desire for action, the ex-
aggeration becomes the cause of investigations,
punishments, promises, and reorganisations. In
so far it is useful to exaggerate the accounts of
bad states of things.
## p. 328 (#479) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 325
449-
The Apparent Weather - Makers of
POLITICS. —Just as people tacitly assume that
he who understands the weather, and foretells it
about a day in advance, makes the weather, so
even the educated and learned, with a display of
superstitious faith, ascribe to great statesmen as
their most special work all the important changes
and conjunctures that have taken place during
their administration, when it is only evident that
they knew something thereof a little earlier than
other people and made their calculations accord-
ingly. —thus they are also looked upon as weather-
makers—and this belief is not the least important
instrument of their power.
45o.
New and Old Conceptions of Govern-
ment. —To draw such a distinction between
Government and people as if two separate spheres
of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and
lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other,
is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment,
which still accurately represents the historic estab-
lishment of the conditions of power in most States.
When Bismarck, for instance, describes the con-
stitutional system as a compromise between
Government and people, he speaks in accordance
with a principle which has its reason in history
(from whence, to be sure, it also derives its ad-
mixture of folly, without which nothing human
\
## p. 328 (#480) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able " higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
f:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
tion of the conception of Government, let us but
tonsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
an8 shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 328 (#481) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
POSSESSION ANDJustICE. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of |
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 328 (#482) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
^j aroused. To give an example: a German states-
l^\ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\} will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
V3. ^
<
that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
than with the former country; he likewise knows
that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le de"sordre organise, as Merimee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 329 (#483) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. \ 335
\
454- ^^
The Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. — v
Those who are bent on revolutionising society'
may be divided into those who seek something
for themselves thereby and those who seek some-
thing for their children and grandchildren. The
latter are the more dangerous, for they have the
belief and the good conscience of disinterestedness.
The others can be appeased by favours: those in
power are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
that expedient. The danger begins as soon as
the aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
/
## p. 330 (#484) ############################################
328 X HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
456.
Pride of Descent. —A man may be justly
proud of an unbroken line of good ancestors down
to his father,—not however of the line itself, for
every one has that. Descent from good ancestors
constitutes the real nobility of birth; a single
break in the chain, one bad ancestor, therefore,
destroys the nobility of birth. Every one who
talks about his nobility should be asked: "Have
you no violent, avaricious, dissolute, wicked, cruel
man amongst your ancestors? " If with good
cognisance and conscience he can answer No, then
let his friendship be sought.
457-
Slaves and Labourers. —The fact that we
regard the gratification of vanity as of more
account than all other forms of well-being
(security, position, and pleasures of all sorts), is
shown to a ludicrous extent by every one wishing
for the abolition of slavery and utterly abhorring
to put any one into this position (apart altogether
from political reasons), while every one must ac-
knowledge to himself that in all respects slaves
live more securely and more happily than modern
labourers, and that slave labour is very easy
labour compared with that of the "labourer. " We
protest in the name of the " dignity of man "; but,
expressed more simply, that is just our darling
vanity which feels non-equality, and inferiority
in public estimation, to be the hardest lot of all.
-
## p. 331 (#485) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. \ 335
\
The cynic thinks differently concerning the matf it
because he despises honour:—and so Diogenes
was for some time a slave and tutor.
458.
Leading Minds and their Instruments. —
We see that great statesmen, and in general all
who have to employ many people to carry out
their plans, sometimes proceed one way* and
sometimes another; they either choose with great
skill and care the people suitable for their plans,
and then leave them a comparatively large
amount of liberty, because they know that the
nature of the persons selected impels them pre-
cisely to the point where they themselves would
have them go; or else they choose badly, in fact
take whatever comes to hand, but out of every
piece of clay they form something useful for their
purpose. These latter minds are the more high-
handed; they also desire more submissive instru-
ments; their knowledge of mankind is usually
much smaller, their contempt of mankind greater
than in the case of the first mentioned class, but
the machines they construct generally work better
than the machines from the workshops of the former.
459-
Arbitrary Law Necessary. —Jurists dis-
pute whether the most perfectly thought-out law
or that which is most easily understood should
prevail in a nation. The former, the best model
of which is Roman Law, seems incomprehensible
## p. 332 (#486) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
/<h& layman, and is therefore not the expres-
sion of his sense of justice. Popular laws, the
Germanic, for instance, have been rude, supersti-
tious, illogical, and in part idiotic, but they
represented very definite, inherited national morals
and sentiments. But where, as with us, law is
no longer custom, it can only command and be
compulsion; none of us any longer possesses a
traditional sense of justice; we must therefore
content ourselves with arbitrary laws, which are
the expressions of the necessity that there must
be law. The most logical is then in any case the
most acceptable, because it is the most impartial,
granting even that in every case the smallest unit
of measure in the relation of crime and punish-
ment is arbitrarily fixed.
460.
The Great Man of the Masses. —The
recipe for what the masses call a great man is
easily given. In all circumstances let a person
provide them with something very pleasant, or
first let him put it into their heads that this or
that would be very pleasant, and then let him
give it to them. On no account give it immedi-
ately, however: but let him acquire it by the
greatest exertions, or seem thus to acquire it.
The masses must have the impression that there
is a powerful, nay indomitable strength of will
operating; at least it must seem to be there
operating. Everybody admires a strong will,
because nobody possesses it, and everybody says
## p. 333 (#487) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE.
to himself that if he did possess it then
no longer be any bounds for him and his e
If, then, it becomes evident that such a strong
effects something very agreeable to the masses;'''
instead of hearkening to the wishes of covetous-
ness, people admire once more, and wish good
luck to themselves. Moreover, if he has all the
qualities of the masses, they are the less ashamed
before him, and he is all the more popular.
Consequently, he may be violent, envious,
rapacious, intriguing, flattering, fawning, inflated,
and, according to circumstances, anything what-
soever.
461.
Prince and God. —People frequently com-
mune with their princes in the same way as with
their God, as indeed the prince himself was
frequently the Deity's representative, or at least
His high priest. This almost uncanny disposition
of veneration, disquiet, and shame, grew, and has
grown, much weaker, but occasionally it flares up
again, and fastens upon powerful persons generally.
The cult of genius is an echo of this veneration
of Gods and Princes. Wherever an effort is
made to exalt particular men to the superhuman,
there is also a tendency to regard whole grades
of the population as coarser and baser than they
really are.
462.
My UTOPIA. —In a better arranged society ,
the heavy work and trouble of life will be assigned W
to those who suffer least through it, to the most
\
## p. 334 (#488) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
'V
uSe,* therefore; and so step by step up to
-Viose who are most sensitive to the highest and
sublimest kinds of suffering, and who therefore still
suffer notwithstanding the greatest alleviations
of life.
463.
A Delusion in Subversive Doctrines. —
There are political and social dreamers who
ardently and eloquently call for the overthrow
of all order, in the belief that the proudest fane
of beautiful humanity will then rear itself im-
mediately, almost of its own accord. In these
dangerous dreams there is still an echo of
Rousseau's superstition, which believes in a
marvellous primordial goodness of human nature,
buried up, as it were; and lays all the blame of
that burying-up on the institutions of civilisation,
on society, State, and education. Unfortunately,
it is well known by historical experiences that
every such overthrow reawakens into new life
the wildest energies, the long-buried horrors and
extravagances of remotest ages; that an over-
throw, therefore, may possibly be a source ot
strength to a deteriorated humanity, but never
a regulator, architect, artist, or perfecter of human
nature. It was not Voltaire's moderate nature,
0 0 inclined towards regulating, purifying, and recon-
structing, but Rousseau's passionate follies and half-
) °' lies that aroused the optimistic spirit of the Revolu-
tion, against which I cry, "Ecrasez tin/time! "
Owing to this the Spirit of enlightenment and
progressive development has been long scared
## p. 335 (#489) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 335
away; let us see—each of us individually—if it
is not possible to recall it!
464.
Moderation. —When perfect resoluteness in
thinking and investigating, that is to say, freedom
of spirit, has become a feature of character, it
produces moderation of conduct; for it weakens
avidity, attracts much extant energy for the
furtherance of intellectual aims, and shows the
semi-usefulness, or uselessness and danger, of all
sudden changes.
465.
The Resurrection of the Spirit. —A
nation usually renews its youth on a political
sick-bed, and there finds again the spirit which
it had gradually lost in seeking and maintaining
power. Culture is indebted most of all to
politically weakened periods.
466.
New Opinions in the Old Home. —The
overthrow of opinions is not immediately followed
by the overthrow of institutions; on the contrary,
the new opinions dwell for a long time in the
desolate and haunted house of their predecessors,
and conserve it even for want of a habitation.
467.
Public Education. —In large States public
education will always be extremely mediocre, for
## p. 336 (#490) ############################################
336 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
the same reason that in large kitchens the cook-
ing is at best only mediocre.
468.
Innocent Corruption. —In all institutions
into which the sharp breeze of public criticism
does not penetrate an innocent corruption grows
up like a fungus (for instance, in learned bodies
and senates).
469.
Scholars as Politicians. —To scholars who
become politicians the comic r61e is usually
assigned; they have to be the good conscience
of a state policy.
470.
The Wolf hidden behind the Sheep. —
Almost every politician, in certain circumstances,
has such need of an honest man that he breaks
into the sheep-fold like a famished wolf; not,
however, to devour a stolen sheep, but to hide
himself behind its woolly back.
471.
Happy Times. —A happy age is no longer
possible, because men only wish for it but do not
desire to have it; and each individual, when good
days come for him, learns positively to pray for
disquiet and misery. The destiny of, mankind is
arranged for happy moments—every life has such
—but not for happy times. Nevertheless, such
times will continue to exist in man's imagination
## p. 337 (#491) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 337
as "over the hills and far away," an heirloom of
his earliest ancestors; for the idea of the happy
age, from the earliest times to the present, has no
doubt been derived from the state in which man,
after violent exertions in hunting and warfare,
gives himself over to repose, stretches out his
limbs, and hears the wings of sleep rustle around
him. It is a false conclusion when, in accordance
with that old habit, man imagines that after whole
periods of distress and trouble he will be able also
to enjoy the state of happiness in proportionate
increase and duration.
472.
Religion and Government. —So long as
the State, or, more properly, the Government,
regards itself as the appointed guardian of a
number of minors, and on their account considers
the question whether religion should be preserved
or abolished, it is highly probable that it will
always decide for the preservation thereof. For
religion satisfies the nature of the individual in
times of loss, destitution, terror, and distrust, in
cases, therefore, where the Government feels itself
incapable of doing anything directly for the miti-
gation of the spiritual sufferings of the individual;
indeed, even in general unavoidable and next to
inevitable evils (famines, financial crises, and
wars) religion gives to the masses arr attitude of
tranquillity and confiding expectancy. Whenever
the necessary or accidental deficiencies of the
State Government, or the dangerous consequences
## p. 338 (#492) ############################################
338 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
of dynastic interests, strike the eyes of the
intelligent and make them refractory, the un-
intelligent will only think they see the finger of
God therein and will submit with patience to the
dispensations from on high (a conception in which
divine and human modes of government usually
coalesce); thus internal civil peace and continuity
of development will be preserved. The power,
which lies in the unity of popular feeling, in the
existence of the same opinions and aims for all,
is protected and confirmed by religion,—the rare
cases excepted in which a priesthood cannot agree
with the State about the price, and therefore
comes into conflict with it. As a rule the State
will know how to win over the priests, because
it needs their most private and secret system for
educating souls, and knows how to value servants
who apparently, and outwardly, represent quite
other interests. Even at present no power can
become "legitimate" without the assistance of
the priests; a fact which Napoleon understood.
Thus, absolutely paternal government and the
careful preservation of religion necessarily go
hand-in-hand. In this connection it must be
taken for granted that the rulers and governing
classes are enlightened concerning the advantages
which religion affords, and consequently feel them-
selves to a certain extent superior to it, inasmuch
as they use it as a means; thus freedom of spirit
has its origin here. But how will it be when
the totally different interpretation of the idea of
Government, such as is taught in democratic
States, begins to prevail? When one sees in it
## p. 339 (#493) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 339
nothing but the instrument of the popular will,
no " upper " in contrast to an " under," but merely a
function of the sole sovereign, the people? Here
also only the same attitude which the people
assume towards religion can be assumed by the
Government; every diffusion of enlightenment
will have to find an echo even in the repre-
sentatives, and the utilising and exploiting of
religious impulses and consolations for State
purposes will not be so easy (unless powerful
party leaders occasionally exercise an influence
resembling that of enlightened despotism). When,
however, the State is not permitted to derive any
further advantage from religion, or when people
think far too variously on religious matters to
allow the State to adopt a consistent and uniform
procedure with respect to them, the way out of
the difficulty will necessarily present itself, namely
to treat religion as a private affair and leave it
to the conscience and custom of each single
individual. The first result of all is that religious
feeling seems to be strengthened, inasmuch as
hidden and suppressed impulses thereof, which
the State had unintentionally or intentionally
stifled, now break forth and rush to extremes;
later on, however, it is found that religion is over-
grown with sects, and that an abundance of
dragon's teeth were sown as soon as religion
was made a private affair. The spectacle of
strife, and the hostile laying bare of all the
weaknesses of religious confessions, admit finally
of no other expedient except that every better
and more talented person should make irreligious-
## p. 340 (#494) ############################################
340 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
ness his private affair, a sentiment which now
obtains the upper hand even in the minds of
the governing classes, and, almost against their
will, gives an anti-religious character to their
measures. As soon as this happens, the sentiment
of persons still religiously disposed, who formerly
adored the State as something half sacred or
wholly sacred, changes into decided hostility to
the State; they lie in wait for governmental
measures, seeking to hinder, thwart, and disturb
as much as they can, and, by the fury of their
contradiction, drive the opposing parties, the irre-
ligious ones, into an almost fanatical enthusiasm
for the State; in connection with which there is
also the silently co-operating influence, that since
their separation from religion the hearts of persons
in these circles are conscious of a void, and seek
by devotion to the State to provide themselves
provisionally with a substitute for religion, a kind
of stuffing for the void. After these perhaps
lengthy transitional struggles, it is finally decided
whether the religious parties are still strong
enough to revive an old condition of things, and
turn the wheel backwards: in which case en-
lightened despotism (perhaps less enlightened and
more timorous than formerly), inevitably gets the
State into its hands,—or whether the non-religious
parties achieve their purpose, and, possibly through
schools and education, check the increase of their
opponents during several generations, and finally
make them no longer possible. Then, however,
their enthusiasm for the State also abates: it
always becomes more obvious that along with the
## p. 341 (#495) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 34I
religious adoration which regards the State as a
mystery and a supernatural institution, the reverent
and pious relation to it has also been convulsed.
Henceforth individuals see only that side of the
State which may be useful or injurious to them,
and press forward by all means to obtain an
influence over it. But this rivalry soon becomes
too great; men and parties change too rapidly,
and throw each other down again too furiously
from the mountain when they have only just
succeeded in getting aloft. All the measures
which such a Government carries out lack the
guarantee of permanence; people then fight shy
of undertakings which would require the silent
growth of future decades or centuries to produce
ripe fruit. Nobody henceforth feels any other
obligation to a law than to submit for the moment
to the power which introduced the law; people
immediately set to work, however, to undermine
it by a new power, a newly-formed majority.
Finally—it may be confidently asserted—the
distrust of all government, the insight into the
useless and harassing nature of these short-
winded struggles, must drive men to an entirely
new resolution: to the abrogation of the con-
ception of the State and the abolition of the
contrast of " private and public. " Private concerns
gradually absorb the business of the State; even
the toughest residue which is left over from the
old work of governing (the business, for instance,
which is meant to protect private persons from
private persons) will at last some day be managed
by private enterprise. The neglect, decline, and
## p. 342 (#496) ############################################
342 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
death of the State, the liberation of the private
person (I am careful not to say the individual),
are the consequences of the democratic conception
of the State; that is its mission. When it
has accomplished its task,—which, like every-
thing human, involves much rationality and
irrationality,—and when all relapses into the old
malady have been overcome, then a new leaf in
the story-book of humanity will be unrolled, on
which readers will find all kinds of strange tales
and perhaps also some amount of good. To
repeat shortly what has been said: the interests
pf the tutelary Government and the interests of
religion go hand-in-hand, so that when the latter
begins to decay the foundations of the State are
also shaken. The belief in a divine regulation of
political affairs, in a mystery in the existence of
the State, is of religious origin: if religion dis-
appears, the State will inevitably lose its old veil
of Isis, and will no longer arouse veneration. The
sovereignty of the people, looked at closely, serves
also to dispel the final fascination and supersti-
tion in the realm of these sentiments; modern
democracy is the historical form of the decay of
the State. The outlook which results i-rem this
certain decay is not, however, unfortunate in
every respect; the wisdom and the selfishness of
men are the best developed of all their qualities;
when the State no longer meets the demands of
these impulses, chaos will least of all result, but a
still more appropriate expedient than the State
will get the mastery over the State. How many
organising forces have already been seen to die
I
J
## p. 343 (#497) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 343
out! For example, that of the gens or clan,
which for millennia was far mightier than the
power of the family, and indeed already ruled and
regulated long before the latter existed. We our-
selves see the important notions of the right and
might of the family, which once possessed the
supremacy as far as the Roman system extended,
always becoming paler and feebler. In the same
way a later generation will also see the State
become meaningless in certain parts of the world,
—an idea which many contemporaries can hardly
contemplate without alarm and horror. To labour
for the propagation and realisation of this idea is,
certainly, another thing; one must think very
presumptuously of one's reason, and only half
understand history, to set one's hand to the
plough at present—when as yet no one can show
us the seeds that are afterwards to be sown upon
the broken soil. Let us, therefore, trust to the
"wisdom and selfishness of men" that the State
may yet exist a good while longer, and that the
destructive attempts of over-zealous, too hasty
sciolists may be in vain!
473-
Socialism, with Regard to its Means. —
Socialism is the fantastic younger brother of
almost decrepit despotism, which it wants to suc-
ceed; its efforts are, therefore, in the deepest
sense reactionary. For it desires such an amount
of State power as only despotism has possessed,
—indeed, it outdoes all the past, in that it
## p. 344 (#498) ############################################
344 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
aims at the complete annihilation of the indi-
vidual, whom it deems an unauthorised luxury
of nature, which is to be improved by it into an
appropriate organ of the general community. Owing
to its relationship, it always appears in proximity
to excessive developments of power, like the old
typical socialist, Plato, at the court of the Sicilian
tyrant; it desires (and under certain circumstances
furthers) the Caesarian despotism of this century,
because, as has been said, it would like to become
its heir. But even this inheritance would not
suffice for its objects, it requires the most sub-
missive prostration of all citizens before the
absolute State, such as has never yet been realised;
and as it can no longer even count upon the old
religious piety towards the State, but must rather
strive involuntarily and continuously for the
abolition thereof,—because it strives for the aboli-
tion of all existing States,—it can only hope for
existence occasionally, here and there for short
periods, by means of the extremest terrorism. It
is therefore silently preparing itself for reigns of
terror, and drives the word "justice" like a nail
into the heads of the half-cultured masses in order
to deprive them completely of their understanding
(after they had already suffered seriously from the
half-culture), and to provide them with a good
conscience for the bad game they are to play.
Socialism may serve to teach, very brutally and
impressively, the danger of all accumulations of
State power, and may serve so far to inspire dis-
trust of the State itself. When its rough voice
strikes up the way-cry " as much State as possible"
## p. 345 (#499) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 345
the shout at first becomes louder than ever,—but
soon the opposition cry also breaks forth, with so
much greater force: "as little State as possible. "
474-
The Development of the Mind Feared
by the State. —The Greek polls was, like every
organising political power, exclusive and distrust-
ful of the growth of culture; its powerful funda-
mental impulse seemed almost solely to have a
paralysing and obstructive effect thereon. It did
not want to let any history or any becoming have
a place in culture; the education laid down in the
State laws was meant to be obligatory on all
generations to keep them at one stage of develop-
ment. Plato also, later on, did not desire it to be
otherwise in his ideal State. In spite of the polis
culture developed itself in this manner; indirectly
to be sure, and against its will, the polis furnished
assistance because the ambition of individuals
therein was stimulated to the utmost, so that,
having once found the path of intellectual develop-
ment, they followed it to its farthest extremity.
On the other hand, appeal should not be made to
the panegyric of Pericles, for it is only a great
optimistic dream about the alleged necessary con-
nection between the Polis and Athenian culture;
immediately before the night fell over Athens (the
plague and the breakdown of tradition), Thucy-
dides makes this culture flash up once more like
a transfiguring afterglow, to efface the remem-
brance of the evil day that had preceded.
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 323 (#462) ############################################
322 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
444-
War. —Against war it may be said that it
makes the victor stupid and the vanquished re-
vengeful. In favour of war it may be said that
it barbarises in both its above-named results, and
thereby makes more natural; it is the sleep or
the winter period of culture; man emerges from
it with greater strength for good and for evil.
445-
In the Prince's Service. —To be able to
act quite regardlessly it is best for a statesman
to carry out his work not for himself but for a
prince. The eye of the spectator is dazzled by
the splendour of this general disinterestedness, so
that it does not see the malignancy and severity
which the work of a statesman brings with it. *
446.
A Question of Power, not of Right. —As
regards Socialism, in the eyes of those who always
consider higher utility, if it is really a rising
against their oppressors of those who for centuries
have been oppressed and downtrodden, there is
no problem of right involved (notwithstanding the
ridiculous, effeminate question," Howfar ought we to
grant its demands? ") but only a problem of power
(" How far can we make use of its demands ? ");
* This aphorism may have been suggested by Nietzsche's
observing the behaviour of his great contemporary, Bismarck,
towards the dynasty. —J. M. K.
## p. 323 (#463) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE-
323
/
the same, therefore, as in the case of a natural
force,—steam, for instance,—which is either forced
by man into his service, as a machine-god, or
which, in case of defects of the machine, that is to
say, defects of human calculation in its construc-
tion, destroys it and man together. In order to
solve this question of power we must know how
strong Socialism is, in what modification it may
yet be employed as a powerful lever in the
present mechanism of political forces; under cer-
tain circumstances we should do all we can to
strengthen it. With every great force—be it the
most dangerous—men have to think how they
can make of it an instrument for their purposes.
Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to
have taken place between the two powers, the
representatives of the old and the new, when,
however, a wise calculation of the greatest
possible preservation and advantageousness to
both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty.
Without treaty no right. So far, however, there
is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question,
therefore no rights, no " ought. "
*l
*
\
447-
Utilising the most Trivial Dishonesty. —
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 324 (#464) ############################################
324 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
even himself. Such little faults of dishonesty, or
perhaps only of a dishonest silence, are not hard
to bear by the individual, but the consequences
are extraordinary, because these little faults are
committed by many at the same time. Each one
says to himself: "For such small concessions I
live better and can make my income; by the
want of such little compliances I make myself
impossible. " Because it seems almost morally
indifferent to write a line more (perhaps even
without signature), or not to write it, a person
who has money and influence can make any
opinion a public one. He who knows that most
people are weak in trifles, and wishes to attain
his own ends thereby, is always dangerous.
448.
Too Loud a Tone in Grievances. —Through
the fact that an account of a bad state of things
(for instance, the crimes of an administration,
bribery and arbitrary favour in political or learned
bodies) is greatly exaggerated, it fails in its effect
on intelligent people, but has all the greater effect
on the unintelligent (who would have remained
indifferent to an accurate and moderate account).
But as these latter are considerably in the majority,
and harbour in themselves stronger will-power
and more impatient desire for action, the ex-
aggeration becomes the cause of investigations,
punishments, promises, and reorganisations. In
so far it is useful to exaggerate the accounts of
bad states of things.
## p. 325 (#465) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 325
449.
The Apparent Weather - Makers of
Politics. —Just as people tacitly assume that
he who understands the weather, and foretells it
about a day in advance, makes the weather, so
even the educated and learned, with a display of
superstitious faith, ascribe to great statesmen as
their most special work all the important changes
and conjunctures that have taken place during
their administration, when it is only evident that
they knew something thereof a little earlier than
other people and made their calculations accord-
ingly,—thus they are also looked upon as weather-
makers—and this belief is not the least important
instrument of their power.
450.
New and Old Conceptions of Govern-
ment. —To draw such a distinction between
Government and people as if two separate spheres
of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and
lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other,
is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment,
which still accurately represents the historic estab-
lishment of the conditions of power in most States.
When Bismarck, for instance, describes the con-
stitutional system as a compromise between
Government and people, he speaks in accordance
with a principle which has its reason in history
(from whence, to be sure, it also derives its ad-
mixture of folly, without which nothing human
## p. 326 (#466) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able "higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
ion of the conception of Government, let us but
:onsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
Relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
anH shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 327 (#467) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
Possession and Justice. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of ]
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 327 (#468) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able " higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
ion of the conception of Government, let us but
:onsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
/relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
anil shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 327 (#469) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
Possession and Justice. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of |
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 328 (#470) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
^j* aroused. To give an example: a German states-
L^ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\/ will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
j3 •>. that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
. ;* than with the former country; he likewise knows
n. 'jY that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le disordre organise, as Menmee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 328 (#471) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. V* 335
454- ^SJ
J^> Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. — v
» are bent on revolutionising society
-ided into those who seek something
s thereby and those who seek some-
children and grandchildren. The
^ more dangerous, for they have the
. ne good conscience of disinterestedness,
. ers can be appeased by favours: those in
. are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
it expedient. The danger begins as soon as
che aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
## p. 328 (#472) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
<jj aroused. To give an example: a German states-
^\ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\} will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
j3 -^ that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
. * than with the former country; he likewise knows
q"^ that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le cUsordre organise, as Merimee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 328 (#473) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. X* 335
\
454-
The Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. —
Those who are bent on revolutionising society
may be divided into those who seek something
for themselves thereby and those who seek some-
thing for their children and grandchildren. The
latter are the more dangerous, for they have the
belief and the good conscience of disinterestedness.
The others can be appeased by favours: those in
power are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
that expedient. The danger begins as soon as
the aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
\
/
## p. 328 (#474) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
456.
Pride of Descent. —A man may be justly
proud of an unbroken line of good ancestors down
to his father,—not however of the line itself, for
every one has that. Descent from good ancestors
constitutes the real nobility of birth; a single
break in the chain, one bad ancestor, therefore,
destroys the nobility of birth. Every one who
talks about his nobility should be asked: "Have
you no violent, avaricious, dissolute, wicked, cruel
man amongst your ancestors? " If with good
cognisance and conscience he can answer No, then
let his friendship be sought.
457-
Slaves and Labourers. —The fact that we
regard the gratification of vanity as of more
account than all other forms of well-being
(security, position, and pleasures of all sorts), is
shown to a ludicrous extent by every one wishing
for the abolition of slavery and utterly abhorring
to put any one into this position (apart altogether
from political reasons), while every one must ac-
knowledge to himself that in all respects slaves
live more securely and more happily than modem
labourers, and that slave labour is very easy
labour compared with that of the " labourer. " We
protest in the name of the " dignity of man "; but,
expressed more simply, that is just our darling
vanity which feels non-equality, and inferiority
in public estimation, to be the hardest lot of all.
## p. 328 (#475) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. V 335
\
The cynic thinks differently concerning the rriSttf it
because he despises honour:—and so Diogenes
was for some time a slave and tutor.
458.
Leading Minds and their Instruments. —
We see that great statesmen, and in general all
who have to employ many people to carry out
their plans, sometimes proceed one way* and
sometimes another; they either choose with great
skill and care the people suitable for their plans,
and then leave them a comparatively large
amount of liberty, because they know that the
nature of the persons selected impels them pre-
cisely to the point where they themselves would
have them go; or else they choose badly, in fact
take whatever comes to hand, but out of every
piece of clay they form something useful for their
purpose. These latter minds are the more high-
handed; they also desire more submissive instru-
ments; their knowledge of mankind is usually
much smaller, their contempt of mankind greater
than in the case of the first mentioned class, but
the machines they construct generally work better
than the machines from the workshops of the former.
459-
Arbitrary Law Necessary. —Jurists dis-
pute whether the most perfectly thought-out law
or that which is most easily understood should
prevail in a nation. The former, the best model
of which is Roman Law, seems incomprehensible
## p. 328 (#476) ############################################
322 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
444-
War. —Against war it may be said that it
makes the victor stupid and the vanquished re-
vengeful. In favour of war it may be said that
it barbarises in both its above-named results, and
thereby makes more natural; it is the sleep or
the winter period of culture; man emerges from
it with greater strength for good and for evil.
445-
In the Prince's Service. —To be able to
act quite regardlessly it is best for a statesman
to carry out his work not for himself but for a
prince. The eye of the spectator is dazzled by
the splendour of this general disinterestedness, so
that it does not see the malignancy and severity
which the work of a statesman brings with it. *
446.
A Question of Power, not of Right. —As
regards Socialism, in the eyes of those who always
consider higher utility, if it is really a rising
against their oppressors of those who for centuries
have been oppressed and downtrodden, there is
no problem of right involved (notwithstanding the
ridiculous, effeminate question," Howfar ought we to
grant its demands ? ") but only a problem of power
(" How far can we make use of its demands ? ");
* This aphorism may have been suggested by Nietzsche's
observing the behaviour of his great contemporary, Bismarck,
towards the dynasty. —J. M. K.
## p. 328 (#477) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 323
the same, therefore, as in the case of a natural
force,—steam, for instance,—which is either forced
by man into his service, as a machine-god, or
which, in case of defects of the machine, that is to
say, defects of human calculation in its construc-
tion, destroys it and man together. In order to
solve this question of power we must know how
strong Socialism is, in what modification it may
yet be employed as a powerful lever in the
present mechanism of political forces; under cer-
tain circumstances we should do all we can to
strengthen it. With every great force—be it the
most dangerous—men have to think how they
can make of it an instrument for their purposes.
Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to
have taken place between the two powers, the
representatives of the old and the new, when,
however, a wise calculation of the greatest
possible preservation and advantageousness to
both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty.
Without treaty no right. So far, however, there
is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question,
therefore no rights, no "ought. "
447-
Utilising the most Trivial Dishonesty. —
The power of the press consists in the fact that
every individual who ministers to it only feels
himself bound and constrained to a very small
extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but
sometimes also does not express it in order to
serve his party or the politics of his country, or
## p. 328 (#478) ############################################
324 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
even himself. Such little faults of dishonesty, or
perhaps only of a dishonest silence, are not hard
to bear by the individual, but the consequences
are extraordinary, because these little faults are
committed by many at the same time. Each one
says to himself: "For such small concessions I
live better and can make my income; by the
want of such little compliances I make myself
impossible. " Because it seems almost morally
indifferent to write a line more (perhaps even
without signature), or not to write it, a person
who has money and influence can make any
opinion a public one. He who knows that most
people are weak in trifles, and wishes to attain
his own ends thereby, is always dangerous.
448.
Too Loud a Tone in Grievances. —Through
the fact that an account of a bad state of things
(for instance, the crimes of an administration,
bribery and arbitrary favour in political or learned
bodies) is greatly exaggerated, it fails in its effect
on intelligent people, but has all the greater effect
on the unintelligent (who would have remained
indifferent to an accurate and moderate account).
But as these latter are considerably in the majority,
and harbour in themselves stronger will-power
and more impatient desire for action, the ex-
aggeration becomes the cause of investigations,
punishments, promises, and reorganisations. In
so far it is useful to exaggerate the accounts of
bad states of things.
## p. 328 (#479) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 325
449-
The Apparent Weather - Makers of
POLITICS. —Just as people tacitly assume that
he who understands the weather, and foretells it
about a day in advance, makes the weather, so
even the educated and learned, with a display of
superstitious faith, ascribe to great statesmen as
their most special work all the important changes
and conjunctures that have taken place during
their administration, when it is only evident that
they knew something thereof a little earlier than
other people and made their calculations accord-
ingly. —thus they are also looked upon as weather-
makers—and this belief is not the least important
instrument of their power.
45o.
New and Old Conceptions of Govern-
ment. —To draw such a distinction between
Government and people as if two separate spheres
of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and
lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other,
is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment,
which still accurately represents the historic estab-
lishment of the conditions of power in most States.
When Bismarck, for instance, describes the con-
stitutional system as a compromise between
Government and people, he speaks in accordance
with a principle which has its reason in history
(from whence, to be sure, it also derives its ad-
mixture of folly, without which nothing human
\
## p. 328 (#480) ############################################
326 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
can exist). On the other hand, we must now
learn — in accordance with a principle which
has originated only in the brain and has still to
make history—that Government is nothing but
an organ of the people,—not an attentive, honour-
able " higher" in relation to a " lower " accustomed
f:o modesty. Before we accept this hitherto un-
listorical and arbitrary, although logical, formula-
tion of the conception of Government, let us but
tonsider its consequences, for the relation between
people and Government is the strongest typical
relation, after the pattern of which the relationship
between teacher and pupil, master and servants,
father and family, leader and soldier, master and
apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present,
under the influence of the prevailing constitutional
system of government, all these relationships are
changing a little,—they are becoming com-
promises. But how they will have to be reversed
an8 shifted, and change name and nature, when
that newest of all conceptions has got the upper
hand everywhere in people's minds! —to achieve
which, however, a century may yet be required. In
this matter there is nothing further to be wished
for except caution and slow development.
451.
Justice as the Decoy-Cry of Parties. —
Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent)
representatives of the governing classes asseverate:
"We will treat men equally and grant them
equal rights "; so far a socialistic mode of thought
## p. 328 (#481) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 327
which is based on justice is possible; but, as has
been said, only within the ranks of the governing
class, which in this case practises justice with
sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand,
to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists
of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome
of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose
bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw
them again, until it finally begins to roar, do
you think that roaring implies justice?
452.
POSSESSION ANDJustICE. —When the Socialists
point out that the division of property at the
present day is the consequence of countless deeds
of injustice and violence, and, in summa, repudiate
obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis,
they only perceive something isolated. The entire
past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence,
slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot
annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions,
nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are
not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a single
fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks
also in the souls of non-possessors; they are not
better than the possessors and have no moral
prerogative; for at one time or another their
ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible
new distributions, but gradual transformations of |
opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must
become greater, the instinct of violence weaker.
## p. 328 (#482) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
453-
The Helmsman of the Passions. —The
statesman excites public passions in order to have
the advantage of the counter-passions thereby
^j aroused. To give an example: a German states-
l^\ man knows quite well that the Catholic Church
\} will never have the same plans as Russia; indeed,
V3. ^
<
that it would far rather be allied with the Turks
than with the former country; he likewise knows
that Germany is threatened with great danger
from an alliance between France and Russia. If
he can succeed, therefore, in making France the
focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has
averted this danger for a lengthy period. He
has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred
against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds
of hostility, the supporters of the Pope's authority
into an impassioned political power which is
opposed to German politics, and must, as a matter
of course, coalesce with France as the adversary
of Germany; his aim is the catholicising of France,
just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation
of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one
State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of
minds of another State in order to gain advantage
thereby. It is the same disposition which supports
the republican form of government of a neighbour-
ing State—le de"sordre organise, as Merimee says
—for the sole reason that it assumes that this
form of government makes the nation weaker,
more distracted, less fit for war.
## p. 329 (#483) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. \ 335
\
454- ^^
The Dangerous Revolutionary Spirits. — v
Those who are bent on revolutionising society'
may be divided into those who seek something
for themselves thereby and those who seek some-
thing for their children and grandchildren. The
latter are the more dangerous, for they have the
belief and the good conscience of disinterestedness.
The others can be appeased by favours: those in
power are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt
that expedient. The danger begins as soon as
the aims become impersonal; revolutionists seek-
ing impersonal interests may consider all defenders
of the present state of things as personally in-
terested, and may therefore feel themselves superior
to their opponents.
455-
The Political Value of Paternity. —When
a man has no sons he has not a full right to join
in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular
community. A person must himself have staked
his dearest object along with the others: that
alone binds him fast to the State; he must have
in view the well-being of his descendants, and
must, therefore, above all, have descendants in
order to take a right and natural share in all
institutions and the changes thereof. The develop-
ment of higher morality depends on a person's
having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic,
or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its
duration and permits him earnestly to strive after
goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime.
/
## p. 330 (#484) ############################################
328 X HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
456.
Pride of Descent. —A man may be justly
proud of an unbroken line of good ancestors down
to his father,—not however of the line itself, for
every one has that. Descent from good ancestors
constitutes the real nobility of birth; a single
break in the chain, one bad ancestor, therefore,
destroys the nobility of birth. Every one who
talks about his nobility should be asked: "Have
you no violent, avaricious, dissolute, wicked, cruel
man amongst your ancestors? " If with good
cognisance and conscience he can answer No, then
let his friendship be sought.
457-
Slaves and Labourers. —The fact that we
regard the gratification of vanity as of more
account than all other forms of well-being
(security, position, and pleasures of all sorts), is
shown to a ludicrous extent by every one wishing
for the abolition of slavery and utterly abhorring
to put any one into this position (apart altogether
from political reasons), while every one must ac-
knowledge to himself that in all respects slaves
live more securely and more happily than modern
labourers, and that slave labour is very easy
labour compared with that of the "labourer. " We
protest in the name of the " dignity of man "; but,
expressed more simply, that is just our darling
vanity which feels non-equality, and inferiority
in public estimation, to be the hardest lot of all.
-
## p. 331 (#485) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. \ 335
\
The cynic thinks differently concerning the matf it
because he despises honour:—and so Diogenes
was for some time a slave and tutor.
458.
Leading Minds and their Instruments. —
We see that great statesmen, and in general all
who have to employ many people to carry out
their plans, sometimes proceed one way* and
sometimes another; they either choose with great
skill and care the people suitable for their plans,
and then leave them a comparatively large
amount of liberty, because they know that the
nature of the persons selected impels them pre-
cisely to the point where they themselves would
have them go; or else they choose badly, in fact
take whatever comes to hand, but out of every
piece of clay they form something useful for their
purpose. These latter minds are the more high-
handed; they also desire more submissive instru-
ments; their knowledge of mankind is usually
much smaller, their contempt of mankind greater
than in the case of the first mentioned class, but
the machines they construct generally work better
than the machines from the workshops of the former.
459-
Arbitrary Law Necessary. —Jurists dis-
pute whether the most perfectly thought-out law
or that which is most easily understood should
prevail in a nation. The former, the best model
of which is Roman Law, seems incomprehensible
## p. 332 (#486) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
/<h& layman, and is therefore not the expres-
sion of his sense of justice. Popular laws, the
Germanic, for instance, have been rude, supersti-
tious, illogical, and in part idiotic, but they
represented very definite, inherited national morals
and sentiments. But where, as with us, law is
no longer custom, it can only command and be
compulsion; none of us any longer possesses a
traditional sense of justice; we must therefore
content ourselves with arbitrary laws, which are
the expressions of the necessity that there must
be law. The most logical is then in any case the
most acceptable, because it is the most impartial,
granting even that in every case the smallest unit
of measure in the relation of crime and punish-
ment is arbitrarily fixed.
460.
The Great Man of the Masses. —The
recipe for what the masses call a great man is
easily given. In all circumstances let a person
provide them with something very pleasant, or
first let him put it into their heads that this or
that would be very pleasant, and then let him
give it to them. On no account give it immedi-
ately, however: but let him acquire it by the
greatest exertions, or seem thus to acquire it.
The masses must have the impression that there
is a powerful, nay indomitable strength of will
operating; at least it must seem to be there
operating. Everybody admires a strong will,
because nobody possesses it, and everybody says
## p. 333 (#487) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE.
to himself that if he did possess it then
no longer be any bounds for him and his e
If, then, it becomes evident that such a strong
effects something very agreeable to the masses;'''
instead of hearkening to the wishes of covetous-
ness, people admire once more, and wish good
luck to themselves. Moreover, if he has all the
qualities of the masses, they are the less ashamed
before him, and he is all the more popular.
Consequently, he may be violent, envious,
rapacious, intriguing, flattering, fawning, inflated,
and, according to circumstances, anything what-
soever.
461.
Prince and God. —People frequently com-
mune with their princes in the same way as with
their God, as indeed the prince himself was
frequently the Deity's representative, or at least
His high priest. This almost uncanny disposition
of veneration, disquiet, and shame, grew, and has
grown, much weaker, but occasionally it flares up
again, and fastens upon powerful persons generally.
The cult of genius is an echo of this veneration
of Gods and Princes. Wherever an effort is
made to exalt particular men to the superhuman,
there is also a tendency to regard whole grades
of the population as coarser and baser than they
really are.
462.
My UTOPIA. —In a better arranged society ,
the heavy work and trouble of life will be assigned W
to those who suffer least through it, to the most
\
## p. 334 (#488) ############################################
328 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
'V
uSe,* therefore; and so step by step up to
-Viose who are most sensitive to the highest and
sublimest kinds of suffering, and who therefore still
suffer notwithstanding the greatest alleviations
of life.
463.
A Delusion in Subversive Doctrines. —
There are political and social dreamers who
ardently and eloquently call for the overthrow
of all order, in the belief that the proudest fane
of beautiful humanity will then rear itself im-
mediately, almost of its own accord. In these
dangerous dreams there is still an echo of
Rousseau's superstition, which believes in a
marvellous primordial goodness of human nature,
buried up, as it were; and lays all the blame of
that burying-up on the institutions of civilisation,
on society, State, and education. Unfortunately,
it is well known by historical experiences that
every such overthrow reawakens into new life
the wildest energies, the long-buried horrors and
extravagances of remotest ages; that an over-
throw, therefore, may possibly be a source ot
strength to a deteriorated humanity, but never
a regulator, architect, artist, or perfecter of human
nature. It was not Voltaire's moderate nature,
0 0 inclined towards regulating, purifying, and recon-
structing, but Rousseau's passionate follies and half-
) °' lies that aroused the optimistic spirit of the Revolu-
tion, against which I cry, "Ecrasez tin/time! "
Owing to this the Spirit of enlightenment and
progressive development has been long scared
## p. 335 (#489) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 335
away; let us see—each of us individually—if it
is not possible to recall it!
464.
Moderation. —When perfect resoluteness in
thinking and investigating, that is to say, freedom
of spirit, has become a feature of character, it
produces moderation of conduct; for it weakens
avidity, attracts much extant energy for the
furtherance of intellectual aims, and shows the
semi-usefulness, or uselessness and danger, of all
sudden changes.
465.
The Resurrection of the Spirit. —A
nation usually renews its youth on a political
sick-bed, and there finds again the spirit which
it had gradually lost in seeking and maintaining
power. Culture is indebted most of all to
politically weakened periods.
466.
New Opinions in the Old Home. —The
overthrow of opinions is not immediately followed
by the overthrow of institutions; on the contrary,
the new opinions dwell for a long time in the
desolate and haunted house of their predecessors,
and conserve it even for want of a habitation.
467.
Public Education. —In large States public
education will always be extremely mediocre, for
## p. 336 (#490) ############################################
336 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
the same reason that in large kitchens the cook-
ing is at best only mediocre.
468.
Innocent Corruption. —In all institutions
into which the sharp breeze of public criticism
does not penetrate an innocent corruption grows
up like a fungus (for instance, in learned bodies
and senates).
469.
Scholars as Politicians. —To scholars who
become politicians the comic r61e is usually
assigned; they have to be the good conscience
of a state policy.
470.
The Wolf hidden behind the Sheep. —
Almost every politician, in certain circumstances,
has such need of an honest man that he breaks
into the sheep-fold like a famished wolf; not,
however, to devour a stolen sheep, but to hide
himself behind its woolly back.
471.
Happy Times. —A happy age is no longer
possible, because men only wish for it but do not
desire to have it; and each individual, when good
days come for him, learns positively to pray for
disquiet and misery. The destiny of, mankind is
arranged for happy moments—every life has such
—but not for happy times. Nevertheless, such
times will continue to exist in man's imagination
## p. 337 (#491) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 337
as "over the hills and far away," an heirloom of
his earliest ancestors; for the idea of the happy
age, from the earliest times to the present, has no
doubt been derived from the state in which man,
after violent exertions in hunting and warfare,
gives himself over to repose, stretches out his
limbs, and hears the wings of sleep rustle around
him. It is a false conclusion when, in accordance
with that old habit, man imagines that after whole
periods of distress and trouble he will be able also
to enjoy the state of happiness in proportionate
increase and duration.
472.
Religion and Government. —So long as
the State, or, more properly, the Government,
regards itself as the appointed guardian of a
number of minors, and on their account considers
the question whether religion should be preserved
or abolished, it is highly probable that it will
always decide for the preservation thereof. For
religion satisfies the nature of the individual in
times of loss, destitution, terror, and distrust, in
cases, therefore, where the Government feels itself
incapable of doing anything directly for the miti-
gation of the spiritual sufferings of the individual;
indeed, even in general unavoidable and next to
inevitable evils (famines, financial crises, and
wars) religion gives to the masses arr attitude of
tranquillity and confiding expectancy. Whenever
the necessary or accidental deficiencies of the
State Government, or the dangerous consequences
## p. 338 (#492) ############################################
338 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
of dynastic interests, strike the eyes of the
intelligent and make them refractory, the un-
intelligent will only think they see the finger of
God therein and will submit with patience to the
dispensations from on high (a conception in which
divine and human modes of government usually
coalesce); thus internal civil peace and continuity
of development will be preserved. The power,
which lies in the unity of popular feeling, in the
existence of the same opinions and aims for all,
is protected and confirmed by religion,—the rare
cases excepted in which a priesthood cannot agree
with the State about the price, and therefore
comes into conflict with it. As a rule the State
will know how to win over the priests, because
it needs their most private and secret system for
educating souls, and knows how to value servants
who apparently, and outwardly, represent quite
other interests. Even at present no power can
become "legitimate" without the assistance of
the priests; a fact which Napoleon understood.
Thus, absolutely paternal government and the
careful preservation of religion necessarily go
hand-in-hand. In this connection it must be
taken for granted that the rulers and governing
classes are enlightened concerning the advantages
which religion affords, and consequently feel them-
selves to a certain extent superior to it, inasmuch
as they use it as a means; thus freedom of spirit
has its origin here. But how will it be when
the totally different interpretation of the idea of
Government, such as is taught in democratic
States, begins to prevail? When one sees in it
## p. 339 (#493) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 339
nothing but the instrument of the popular will,
no " upper " in contrast to an " under," but merely a
function of the sole sovereign, the people? Here
also only the same attitude which the people
assume towards religion can be assumed by the
Government; every diffusion of enlightenment
will have to find an echo even in the repre-
sentatives, and the utilising and exploiting of
religious impulses and consolations for State
purposes will not be so easy (unless powerful
party leaders occasionally exercise an influence
resembling that of enlightened despotism). When,
however, the State is not permitted to derive any
further advantage from religion, or when people
think far too variously on religious matters to
allow the State to adopt a consistent and uniform
procedure with respect to them, the way out of
the difficulty will necessarily present itself, namely
to treat religion as a private affair and leave it
to the conscience and custom of each single
individual. The first result of all is that religious
feeling seems to be strengthened, inasmuch as
hidden and suppressed impulses thereof, which
the State had unintentionally or intentionally
stifled, now break forth and rush to extremes;
later on, however, it is found that religion is over-
grown with sects, and that an abundance of
dragon's teeth were sown as soon as religion
was made a private affair. The spectacle of
strife, and the hostile laying bare of all the
weaknesses of religious confessions, admit finally
of no other expedient except that every better
and more talented person should make irreligious-
## p. 340 (#494) ############################################
340 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
ness his private affair, a sentiment which now
obtains the upper hand even in the minds of
the governing classes, and, almost against their
will, gives an anti-religious character to their
measures. As soon as this happens, the sentiment
of persons still religiously disposed, who formerly
adored the State as something half sacred or
wholly sacred, changes into decided hostility to
the State; they lie in wait for governmental
measures, seeking to hinder, thwart, and disturb
as much as they can, and, by the fury of their
contradiction, drive the opposing parties, the irre-
ligious ones, into an almost fanatical enthusiasm
for the State; in connection with which there is
also the silently co-operating influence, that since
their separation from religion the hearts of persons
in these circles are conscious of a void, and seek
by devotion to the State to provide themselves
provisionally with a substitute for religion, a kind
of stuffing for the void. After these perhaps
lengthy transitional struggles, it is finally decided
whether the religious parties are still strong
enough to revive an old condition of things, and
turn the wheel backwards: in which case en-
lightened despotism (perhaps less enlightened and
more timorous than formerly), inevitably gets the
State into its hands,—or whether the non-religious
parties achieve their purpose, and, possibly through
schools and education, check the increase of their
opponents during several generations, and finally
make them no longer possible. Then, however,
their enthusiasm for the State also abates: it
always becomes more obvious that along with the
## p. 341 (#495) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 34I
religious adoration which regards the State as a
mystery and a supernatural institution, the reverent
and pious relation to it has also been convulsed.
Henceforth individuals see only that side of the
State which may be useful or injurious to them,
and press forward by all means to obtain an
influence over it. But this rivalry soon becomes
too great; men and parties change too rapidly,
and throw each other down again too furiously
from the mountain when they have only just
succeeded in getting aloft. All the measures
which such a Government carries out lack the
guarantee of permanence; people then fight shy
of undertakings which would require the silent
growth of future decades or centuries to produce
ripe fruit. Nobody henceforth feels any other
obligation to a law than to submit for the moment
to the power which introduced the law; people
immediately set to work, however, to undermine
it by a new power, a newly-formed majority.
Finally—it may be confidently asserted—the
distrust of all government, the insight into the
useless and harassing nature of these short-
winded struggles, must drive men to an entirely
new resolution: to the abrogation of the con-
ception of the State and the abolition of the
contrast of " private and public. " Private concerns
gradually absorb the business of the State; even
the toughest residue which is left over from the
old work of governing (the business, for instance,
which is meant to protect private persons from
private persons) will at last some day be managed
by private enterprise. The neglect, decline, and
## p. 342 (#496) ############################################
342 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
death of the State, the liberation of the private
person (I am careful not to say the individual),
are the consequences of the democratic conception
of the State; that is its mission. When it
has accomplished its task,—which, like every-
thing human, involves much rationality and
irrationality,—and when all relapses into the old
malady have been overcome, then a new leaf in
the story-book of humanity will be unrolled, on
which readers will find all kinds of strange tales
and perhaps also some amount of good. To
repeat shortly what has been said: the interests
pf the tutelary Government and the interests of
religion go hand-in-hand, so that when the latter
begins to decay the foundations of the State are
also shaken. The belief in a divine regulation of
political affairs, in a mystery in the existence of
the State, is of religious origin: if religion dis-
appears, the State will inevitably lose its old veil
of Isis, and will no longer arouse veneration. The
sovereignty of the people, looked at closely, serves
also to dispel the final fascination and supersti-
tion in the realm of these sentiments; modern
democracy is the historical form of the decay of
the State. The outlook which results i-rem this
certain decay is not, however, unfortunate in
every respect; the wisdom and the selfishness of
men are the best developed of all their qualities;
when the State no longer meets the demands of
these impulses, chaos will least of all result, but a
still more appropriate expedient than the State
will get the mastery over the State. How many
organising forces have already been seen to die
I
J
## p. 343 (#497) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 343
out! For example, that of the gens or clan,
which for millennia was far mightier than the
power of the family, and indeed already ruled and
regulated long before the latter existed. We our-
selves see the important notions of the right and
might of the family, which once possessed the
supremacy as far as the Roman system extended,
always becoming paler and feebler. In the same
way a later generation will also see the State
become meaningless in certain parts of the world,
—an idea which many contemporaries can hardly
contemplate without alarm and horror. To labour
for the propagation and realisation of this idea is,
certainly, another thing; one must think very
presumptuously of one's reason, and only half
understand history, to set one's hand to the
plough at present—when as yet no one can show
us the seeds that are afterwards to be sown upon
the broken soil. Let us, therefore, trust to the
"wisdom and selfishness of men" that the State
may yet exist a good while longer, and that the
destructive attempts of over-zealous, too hasty
sciolists may be in vain!
473-
Socialism, with Regard to its Means. —
Socialism is the fantastic younger brother of
almost decrepit despotism, which it wants to suc-
ceed; its efforts are, therefore, in the deepest
sense reactionary. For it desires such an amount
of State power as only despotism has possessed,
—indeed, it outdoes all the past, in that it
## p. 344 (#498) ############################################
344 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
aims at the complete annihilation of the indi-
vidual, whom it deems an unauthorised luxury
of nature, which is to be improved by it into an
appropriate organ of the general community. Owing
to its relationship, it always appears in proximity
to excessive developments of power, like the old
typical socialist, Plato, at the court of the Sicilian
tyrant; it desires (and under certain circumstances
furthers) the Caesarian despotism of this century,
because, as has been said, it would like to become
its heir. But even this inheritance would not
suffice for its objects, it requires the most sub-
missive prostration of all citizens before the
absolute State, such as has never yet been realised;
and as it can no longer even count upon the old
religious piety towards the State, but must rather
strive involuntarily and continuously for the
abolition thereof,—because it strives for the aboli-
tion of all existing States,—it can only hope for
existence occasionally, here and there for short
periods, by means of the extremest terrorism. It
is therefore silently preparing itself for reigns of
terror, and drives the word "justice" like a nail
into the heads of the half-cultured masses in order
to deprive them completely of their understanding
(after they had already suffered seriously from the
half-culture), and to provide them with a good
conscience for the bad game they are to play.
Socialism may serve to teach, very brutally and
impressively, the danger of all accumulations of
State power, and may serve so far to inspire dis-
trust of the State itself. When its rough voice
strikes up the way-cry " as much State as possible"
## p. 345 (#499) ############################################
A GLANCE AT THE STATE. 345
the shout at first becomes louder than ever,—but
soon the opposition cry also breaks forth, with so
much greater force: "as little State as possible. "
474-
The Development of the Mind Feared
by the State. —The Greek polls was, like every
organising political power, exclusive and distrust-
ful of the growth of culture; its powerful funda-
mental impulse seemed almost solely to have a
paralysing and obstructive effect thereon. It did
not want to let any history or any becoming have
a place in culture; the education laid down in the
State laws was meant to be obligatory on all
generations to keep them at one stage of develop-
ment. Plato also, later on, did not desire it to be
otherwise in his ideal State. In spite of the polis
culture developed itself in this manner; indirectly
to be sure, and against its will, the polis furnished
assistance because the ambition of individuals
therein was stimulated to the utmost, so that,
having once found the path of intellectual develop-
ment, they followed it to its farthest extremity.
On the other hand, appeal should not be made to
the panegyric of Pericles, for it is only a great
optimistic dream about the alleged necessary con-
nection between the Polis and Athenian culture;
immediately before the night fell over Athens (the
plague and the breakdown of tradition), Thucy-
dides makes this culture flash up once more like
a transfiguring afterglow, to efface the remem-
brance of the evil day that had preceded.
