Notes

Preface



1. Bisher (so far) is a word that recurs militantly throughout Beyond Good and Evil.
It helps to color the word "beyond" in the title.]

2. Grossgezuchtet: zuchtet means to breed, grow, or cultivate animals, plants. or
qualities, Nictudis uses the word frequently, and in these gores it is most often
rendered by "cultivate." In his usage the connotation is generally spiritual.

3. Cf. the Preface to The Antichrist: "One must be skilled in living on moutains--
sesing the wretched ephemeral babble of politics and national self-seeking beneath
oneself." (Portable Nietzche. p. 568). In the daily newspaper the concern with eph-
emeral matters is institutionalized and cultivated at the expense of genuine spir-
ituality."

4 Nietzche's coinage, initially introduced by him in Human, All-Too-Human (1878),
section 475 (Portable Nietzsche, pp. 61.63).

5.The book was written "summer 1885 in the Upper Engadine and the following winter
in Nizza" (letter to Georg Brandes, April 10, 1888), This is borne out by other let-
ters, except that additions and revisions were made until June 1886. The book was
printed in June and July and published the beginning of August 1886.



Part One



1. Marianne Cowan has suggested in the preface to her translation that Nietzsche
divided this book "into 'articles' like articles of faith." and she sees "irony
in this." But there is no warrant for rendering Haupstücke as "article": it means
"major part." Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason are
both divided into Haupstücke. So is Nietzsche's own Human, All-Too-Human. The term
is obviously particularly appropriate for books subdivided into many short sections.

2.Nietzsche's attack on this faith is prefigured in the title of the book. This aphorism
invites comparison with the first aphorism of Human, All-Too-Human.

3. "All is to be doubted." Descartes,

4 Folly, stupidity. silliess: one of Nietzsche's favorite French words.

5."Man is the measure of all things.' Protagores, born about 480 B.C.

6. One of Kant's central questions was, "How are synthetic judgments a priori possible?
He meant judgments that are known for certain to be true, independently of experience,
but not by definition. His examples include the judgment that every event has a cause.
Hans Vaihingerr, a leading Kant scholar who published a book on Nietzsche als Philosoph
(1902; 4th ed. 1916). later pubbihed his own theory of necessary fictions under the title,
Die Philosophie der Als-Ob (1911; English a. by C. K. Ogden, 1924: The Philosophy of "As
If") devoting the final chapter to a detailed discussion of Nietzsche 's similar ideas. C.f.
section 11 below.

7. Nietzsche is thinking of the "great" philosophers. Now that there are literally thou-
sands of "philosophers," these tend to be more akin to their colleagues in other depart-
ments than to the men discussed here.

8. The reference Is to Epicurus' fragment 235. and the ambiguity is due to the fact that
Dionysius was the name of the Sicilian tyrant whom Plato had tried for several years to
convert to his own philosophy.

9 Staging.

10. "The ass arrived, beautiful and most brave."

11. First Cause.

12. Vermöge eines Vermögen: by virtue of some virtue, or by means of some means.

13. German foolishness.

14 "Finden" und "erfinden."

15. "Because it contains a sleepy faculty whose nature it is to put the senses to sleep"

16. Boscovich, an eighteenth-century Jesuit philosopher somewhat out of the main stream
of science had defined atoms only as centers of force, and not as particles of matter
in which powers somehow inhere" (Charles Coulston Gillispie, The Edge of Objectivity:
An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas, Princeton, NJ., Princeton University Press,
1960. p. 455).

17. Affekt: I have rendered this term consistently as "affect": good dictionaries include
the relevant meanings. "Feeling" comes close to Nietzsche's meaning but fails to suggest
the fact that the term is somewhat technical and carries overtones of Spinoza's affectus
and a long philosophical tradition. Moreover, 'feeling" is needed to render Gefuhl, which
occurs several times in this section.

In his discussion of Spinoza's affectus, Stuart Hampshire uses "affection" and places the
word in quotation marks (Spinoza. Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1951. pp. 135f.). In Jlames
Mark Baldwin's Dictionazy of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. 1 (1901). "affect" is de-
fined as "A stimulus or motive to action which Is AFFECTIVE in v.) or felt, not present-
ed as an end," a usage "suggested by Baldwin," while "affection" ia suggested as an equi-
valent of the German Affekt, which is defined as "passing emotional states ... The best
writers distinguish it from passion. as having less vehemence, and as less distinctly,
if at all, connected with a sensuous basis...St. Augustine, as quoted and adopted by
Aquinas, says: "Those mental states (motus animi) which the Greeks call pathes, and Cic-
ero perturbationes, are by some called affectus, or affectiones by others, keeping to
the literal rendering of the Greek passiones.'"

My reason for preferring "affect" to "affection' is that the former is readily recog-
nized as a technical term, while the latter is very apt to be misunderstood as suggest-
ing a mild form of love.

18. Nietzsche admired Spinoza for, among other things. his critique of teleogy.

19. Reduction to the absurd.

20. Something that is its own cause--a term traditionally applied to God.

21. Contradiction betwee the noun and the adjective.

22. "I am the effect."

23. Cf. Sartre's famous dictum: 'If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable,
it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anythins until later, and then
he will be what he makes of himself...Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he con-
ceives himself to be, but he is what he wills...Man is nothing else but that which he
makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism.... Before that project-
ion of the self nothing exists...Man is responsible for what he is. Thus, the first ef-
fect of existentialism is that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is, and
places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders" ("Ex-
istentialism Is a Humanism," included in Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, ed.
Walter Kaufmann. pp. 2901.).

Reading this without knowing that Beyond Good and Evil was published in 1886 and Sartre's
lecture in 1946, one would scarcely guess at Nietzsche's immense influence on existential-
ism in general and Sartre in particular; one might even suppose that Nietzsche was here
polemicizing against Sartre. Cf. also section 8 of "The Four Great Errors" in Twilight of
the Idols (Portable Nietzsche, p. 500), where some implications of the abovse passage in
Beyond Good and Evil are developed briefly.

24. "The religion of human suffering."

25. "Neither God nor master."

26. Sacrifice of the intellect.

27. "Again" is surely open to objections.



Part Two



28. Holy simplicity!

29. For the role of Don Quixote, alluded to above, in Nietzsche's thought, sea Kaufmann,
Nietzsche, Chapter 1. note 40.

30. Compare Nietzsche's splendid formulation in a note of the 1880's: "A very popular error:
having the courage of one's convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an
attack on one's convictions!!!" (Werke; Musarian edition. Munich. 1920-29, XVI. p. 318.

31. Feinheit (subtlety) can also mean fineness or, depending on the context, delicacy, sens-
itivity, nicety, elegance, purity. In this translation it has been generally rendered as
"subtlety" and sometimes as "refinement."

32. An echo of the Prologue to Zarathustra.

33. Abbe Ferdinand Galiani (1728-87) is characterized in The Oxford Companion to French Lit-
erature (Oxford, Clarendon Press. 1959) as a Neapolitan, of diminutive size, secretary at the
embassy in Paris from 1759...of considerable learning and originality of views. somewhat of
a buffoon, much appreciated in the literary and philosophical society of the day...His Dial-
ogues sur les bles, a work remarkable for lively wit as well as force of argument. combating
the doctrines of the more extreme physiocrats, appeared in 1770, after his departure from
Paris in 1769." His letters to Mme d'Epinay, Mme Geolfrin, and Mme Necker have also been pub-
lished.

34. In the original edition: gangasrotogati. Although the second "o" Is clearly a misprint.
It has not been corrected in later editions or in the English translation,. Gati means gait;
srota, the current of a river, and ganga is the river Ganges. So the word means: as the cur-
rent of the Ganges moves. (For the information about the Sanskrit words, also in the two fol-
lowing notes, I am indebted to Professor Samuel D. Atkins.)

35. As the tortoise moves. In the original edition and in subsequent editions and transla-
tions the diacritical mark is missing.

36. In the original edition: mandeikagati, without diacritical marks, The "ei" is a misprint,
perhaps due to the misreading of a handwritten "u"---but has been perpetuated in subsequent
editions and translations.

Far from being merely playful or concerned with style to the exclusion of philosophy, this
section touches on a crucial problem: Nietzsche's tempo is a major reason for the long delay
in his reception as philosopher; and three quarters of a century alter the appearance ol Be-
yond Good And Evil the tempo of articles in British and American philosophical journals had
slowed down to the point where many philosophers were bound to feel that anything written
gangasrotagati simply could not be philosophy. Even Wittgenstein, though he had never follow-
ed the fashion of moving like the tortoise, had at least proceeded mandukagati. For this
whole question of philosophical style and tempo see Kaufmann, Critique of Religion and Phil-
osophy (Garden City, N.Y., Anchor books), sections 3-10.

37. Rapid tempo.

38. In morals and arts.

39. In the original edition and in the standard editions, Macchavelli

40. Extrernely brisk and lively manner.

41. Small fact.

42. This theme is taken up again in several later editions, where the concept of the mask
is discussed; e.g., section 40.

43. Advocate of God: Nietzsche's coinage, modeled after advocatus diaboli, devils advocate.

44. Cf.: "It might be amusing, perhaps even instructive, to compare Ryle on ordinary language
with W.D. Ross on prima facie duties. There is a close resemblance between Oxford deontology
and Oxford linguisticism. not least in the assumption that duties, like verbal habits, are
'learnt in the nursery' (Ryle's phrase), and that what nurse has told us goes for the rest of
the world, too" (John Passmore, "Professor Ryle's use of 'use' and 'usage,'" The Philosophical
Review, LXIII [January 1954], 62).

45. "He seeks the true only to do the good."

46. This is relevant to Nietzsche's conception of an order of rank and the themes of Part IX
below.ante Stet{ the true only to do the good.'

47. "To be a good philosopher, one must be dry, clear, without illusion. A banker who has
made a fortune has one character trait that is needed for making discoveries in philosophy,
that is to say, for seeing clearly into what is."

48. Cf. section 30 above.

49. "This section is obviously of great importance for the student of Nietzsche: it suggests
plainly that the surface meaning noted by superficial browsers often masks Nietzsche's real
meaning, which in extreme cases may approximate the opposite of what the words might suggest
to hasty readers. In this sense "beyond good and evil" and "will to power," "master morality"
and "hardness" and "cruelty" may be masks that elicit reactions quite inappropriate to what
lies behind them. Specific examples will be found on later pages.

Karl Jaspers has called attention to the similarity between Nietzsche and Kierkegaard at this
point, in his lecture on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre,
ed. Kaufmann, New York, Meridian Books, 1956, p. 165). See also Jaspers' Nietzsche (1936, pp.
358ff,; pp. 405ff of the English version, Tucson. University of Arizona Press. 1965. which
unfortunately omits the references for the quotations).

50. Winkel has been translated here and elsewhere as "nook"; but it can also mean angle,
which would make sense here though not in many of the other passages.

51. This might he an allusion to Richard Wagner; but this is a point Nietzsche considered
important generally, and it is developed at length in Part IV of Zarathustra.

52. In German usage, classical philology, which Nietzsche had given up in order to devote
himself entirely to his own writing, is a science.

53. Versucher could also mean tempters (which does not seem intended here, at least as the
primary meaning) or experimenters (which is meant but would spoil the triple play on words):
Versuch (attempt orexperiment) and Versuchung (temptation). For some discussion of Nietzsche's
"experimentalism" see Kaufmann's Nietzsche, Chapter 2, section III. See also section 210 below.

54. It is Interesting to compare this critique of dogmatism with Hegel's. Hegel insisted that
dogmatism is wrong in supposing that an isolated proposition can be the form of the truth;
nothing is accomplished by repeating such formulations: their significance depends on the
meaning assigned to the terms and on the context; hence only the system can be the form of
the truth. For a comparison of Hegel's and Nietzsche's views of systems see Kaufmann's Nie-
tzsche, Chapter 2. section II: the remainder of the chapter deals with Nietzsche's "experi-
mentalism" and its "existential" quality.

55. Free-thinkers



Part Three



56. The German title is Das Religiose Wesen. The word Wesen is not easy to translate. In phil-
osophical prose it is most often rendered by "essence," but in many contests "being" is called
for e.g., a natural being, a human being. Above, either "the religious nature" or "the religious
being" might do. But In section 47 Nietzsche speaks of "the religious neurosis" or what I call
'das religiose Wesen'"; and this puts one in mind of contexts in which Wesen means character,
conduct, manners, airs, and even ado: viel Wesen means much ado. Finanzwesen means financial
affairs, or the financial establishment, or finances. Bankwesen, banks or banking in general;
Minenwesen, mining; and Kriegwesen, military art--these last examples come from a dictionary.

57. Wissen und Gewissen: literally. knowledge and conscience.

58. Religious men.

59. Roman Empire.

60. Height of absurdity.

61. A type that has lived.

62. The title of this part of the book. See note 1 above,

63. So let us make bold to say that religion is a product of the normal man. that man is closest to
the truth when he is most religious and most certain of an infinite destiny....It is when he is good
that he wants virtue to correspond to an eternal order; it is when he contemplates things in a dis-
interested manner that he finds death revolting and absurd. How can we but suppose that it is in mo-
ments like this that man sees best?"

64. In other words. that affirms life as a great boon, in spite of all its terrors this shows
great strength and a remarkable and noble freedom from resentment.

65. Delicacy.

66. Mystical and physical union.

67. Madame Guyon (Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon. 1648-1717); was a French mystic who
is considered one of the chief advocates of Quietism, introduced before 1673 by Miguel Molinos
(1640-96), a Spanish priest who was arredted by the Roman Inquisition in 1655 and sentenced to
perpetual imprisonment in 1687. Madame Guyon was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703. The Quietist
doctrine,(devotional contemplation and abandonment of the will as a form of religious mysticism
or calm acceptance of things as they are without attempts to resist or change them.) wan con-
demned by Innocent XII in 1699. (These dates are taken from The Oxford Companion to French Lit-
erature, Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1939.)

68. Another suggestion for an "order of rank." Cf. section 39, note 19 above.

69. Cf. The Genealogy of Morals, Third Essay, section 22.

70. An allusion to Nietzsche`s doctrine or the eternal recurrence of all events. Cf. the penul-
timate chapter of Also Sprach Zarathustra, especially sections 10 and 11 (Portable Nietzsche.
pp. 435f.), and. for critical expositions, Kaufmann's Nietzsche, Chapter 11. section II. and
A. Danto's Nietzsche as Philosopher (New York, Macmillan. 1965). Chapter 7.

71. From the beginning: a musical direction.

72. A vicious circle made god? or: God is a vicious circle? or, least likely, the circle is a
vicious god?

73. In other words, even if he rises above all resentment and sees only the good done by rel-
igion

74. "Probably an allusion to Exodus 4:10: the context requires us to think of Moses, In any case.

75. Seinem Zuchtungs und Erziehungswrete.

76. Zuchtende.

77. An allusion to Hamlet's "Sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought.".



Part Four



78. In the original edition of 1886 and in the second edition of 1891 this section bears the same
number (65) as that preceding it. In the third and fourth edition of 1893 and 1894. the editor in-
troduced minor changes and renumbered all the sections from this point on. In the standard editions
(the so-called Grossoktav end the Musarion editions) this section is distinguished from the one pre-
ceding it by the addition of an "a." Schelechta, whose edition of the works in three volumes is wide-
ly considered impeccable philologically, follows the standard editions although he purports to fol-
low the edition of 1886. Similar instances will be noted in subsequent notes.

79. Scham: in most other places (see sections 40 and 65 above) this word has been translated as
"shame."

80. Freud's theory of repression in nuce--or in ovo. Other sections that put one to mind of Freud
include 3 above and 75 below; but this list could easily he lengthened.

81. See section 65a, note 1, above.

82. Again, as in sections 49 end 58, gratitude is virtually an antonym of resentment.

83. Emphasized in most editions, but not In that of 1886 nor in Schlechut's.

84. See note 6 above.

85. If Christians were really passionately concerned for the salvation of their fellow men in the
hereafter, they would still burn those whose heresies lead legions into eternal damnation.

86.Pious fraud or holy lie; here juxtapoosed with "impious fraud" or unholy lie. The former means
deceiving men for the sake of their own salvation, as In Plato's Republic. 414C.

87. One of Sartre's leitmotifs; cf. Electra in Les Mouches (The Flies) and the problem of Les
Mains sales (Dirty Hands).

88. Ein Volk: the polemical and sarcastic thrust of this epigram depends on the heavy reliance of
German nationalism--both in Nietzsche's time and on the twentieth century--on the mystique of the
Volk

89. "In true love it is the soul that envelops the body."

90. "Good and bad women want a stick."

91. In the religious sense.



Part Five



92. First edition of 1886 and second edition of I891: "das Princip, sagt er" (p. 136 der Grundpro-
bleme der Moral). der Grundsatz.. . ."

Musarian edition of the Werke: "das Princip, sagt er" (p. 137 der Grundprobleme der Ethik), der
Grundsatz. . ."

Schlechta's edition, which purports to follow the original edition, actually departs even a little
further from it than the Musarianausgabe: "das Princip, sagt er" (p. 137 der Grundprobleme der
Ethik), der Grundsatz. . ."

The correct title of Schopenhauer's book is Die beiden Grundprobleme der Ethik (the two funda-
mental problems of ethics). and in the original edition of 1841 the quoted passage is found on p. 131.
Nietzsche neither placed the title in quotes nor italicized it. and his slight variation of the title
is less odd than the fact that on Schopenhauer's own title page of 1841 the title of the second essay.
which Nietzsche cites, is given at Ueber das Fundament der Moral, nicht gekront von der K. Danischen
Societe: der Wissenschaften, zu Kopenhagen, den 30. Januar 1840" ("On the Foundation of Morals, not
awarded a prize by the Danish Royal Society...") Turning the page, ore finds the table of contents,
in which the title of the second essay is given as follows: "Preisschrift uber di Grundlage der Moral
(Prize essay on the basis of morals). (The heading on p. 101 agrees with the table of contents, not
with Schopenheuer's title page.) If Schopenheuer could say in ore instance Fundament and in the other
Grundlage, Nietzsche might as well say Moral instead of Ethik; moreover, the word in the title that
concerned Nietnehe was Moral, not Ethik.

The editors who changed the title and page reference given by Nietzsche failed to insert three dots
in the quotation itself, to indicate a minor omission of two and a half lines between "agreed" and
the Latin quotation. This omission does not change the sense and is in no way unfair to Schopenhauer.


93. "Really" and "real": eigentlich. The emphasis is Nietzsche's, not Schopenhauer's.

94. "Hurt no one; rather, help all as much as you can."

95. Letting go

96. Zucht und Zuchtung

97. Nietzsche was the first to use sublimiren in its specifically modern sense, which is widely
associated with Freud. On the history of this interesting term see Kaufmann 'A Nietzsche, Chapter
7, section IL

98. "Plato in front and Plato behind, in the middle Chimaera." Cf. Iliad, VI:181, where Chimaera
is described: "Lion in front and serpent behind, in the middle a goat." For Nietzsche's complex
and seemingly contradictory view of Socrates, see Kaufmann 's Nietzsche, Chapter 13.

99. Literally arm-breast; both words mean crossbow.

100. "What occurred in the light goes on in the dark."

101. This, of course, was what happened to Nietzsche himself.

102. But compare section 52 above; also Human, All-Too-Human, section 475, and The Dawn, section
205 (Portable Nietzsche, pp. 6 1 ff.; 86f.); and above all, sections 248 and 250 below. For a
discussion of Nietzsche's image of the Jews and the many pertinent passages in his writings, see
Kaufmann, Nietzsche, Chapter 10.

103. It has often been alleged that Cesare Borgia was Nietzsche's ideal, but an examination of all
of Nietzsche's references to him shows that this is plainly false (Kaufmann, Nietzsche, Chapter 7,
section III). One can consider a type healthy without admiring it or urging others to emulate it,

104. Moral license.

105. The association of Goethe and Hafiz is suggested by Goethe's great collection of poems, West-
Ostlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan, 1819), in which he identifies himself with the Persian poet.
But the old Goethe, unlike Hafiz, was certainly no sot.

106. Medieval German emperor, 1215-50. The members of the Stefan George Circle cultivated "monumen-
talistic" historiography, in the sense of Nietzsche's second "Untimely Meditation," and penned por-
traits of great men partly aimed to show the qualities that constitute human greatness, Two of
their most celebrated studies are Friedrich Gundolfs Caesar (1924) and Ernst Kantorowicz's Kaiser
Friedrich 11 (1927). Another such study is Ernst Bertram's Nietzsche (1918), whose faults are
summed up in the subtitle: "Attempt at a Mythology."

107. Commonwealth

108. Cf. F. D. Roosevelt's celebrated demand for "freedom from fear." The idea that much of man's
conduct and culture can be explained in terms of fear was first explored extensively by Nietzsche
in The Dawn (1881), For some discussion and pertinent quotations, see Kaufmann's Nietzsche, Chap-
ter 6, section 11; for Nietzsche's own Opposition to punishment and resentment, ibid., Chapter 12,
section V. Nietzsche's critique of one type of opposition to punishment, above, should be compared
with Twilight of the !dols, section 37 (Portable Nietzsche, pp. 538ff.), and Rilke's Sonnets to
Orpheus, 11.9 (original and translation in Twenty German Poets, ed. an trans. W. Kaufmann, New York,
Modern Library, 1963, pp. 234f.).

109. Cf. Zarathustra, "On Old and New Tablets," section 2 (Portable Nietzsche, p. 308): "When I
came to men I found them sitting on an old conceit: the conceit that they have long known what is
good and evil for man whoever wanted to sleep well still talked of good andevi *1 before going to
sleep."

And in Shaw's Major Barbara (Act III) Undershaft says: "What! no capacity for business, no know-
ledge of law, no sympathy with art, no pretension to philosophy; only a simple knowledge of the
secret that has puzzled all the philosophers, baffled all the lawyers . . . : the secret of right
and wrong. Why, man, you are a genius, a master of masters, a godi At twenty-four, too!"

110 "Neither god nor master"; cf. section 22 above.

111. Perhaps an allusion to Richard Wagner.

112. Wir Gelehrten. This can only mean "Scholars," not "Intellectuals" (Cowan translation)..

113. Showing one's wounds."

114. Wissenschaft might just as well be rendered as "scholarship" in this section--and in much
German literature: the term does not have primary reference to the natural sciences as it does
in twentieth-century English.

115. Des wissenschaft lichen Menschen.

116. Des Gelehrten.

117. An allusion to the German proverb: 'Self-praise stinks."

118. Gebildet.

119. Eingebildet.

120. Leisure.

121. Cf. section 252 below.

122. The German word Art in this context could mean manner, but the same word near the end of
the sentence plainly means type.

123. Eugen Duhring (1833-1921) and Eduard von Hartmann (1842-1906) were highly regarded at the time.
Duhring was a virulent anti-Semite: Hartmann attempted to amalgamate Schopeahauers philosophy with
Hegel's.

124. Storendsten, zerstorendsten.

125. Entsinnlichten. Cowan mistakenly translates this word as "demoralized."

126. An allusion to the conception of Spinoza as "God-intoxicatad" Cowan: "divine alcoholic."

127. Coinage, formed from ipsissima (very own).

128. Dross.

129. "I despise almost nothing."

130. Almost.

131. Dem cusarischen Zuchter und Gewaltmenschen der Cultur.

132. Ausgang und Aufgang; literally, going out and going up.

133. Coinage, modeled on "nicotine"; cf. Antichrist, section 2 (Portable Nietzsche, p. 570).

134. Of good will.

135. The Cowan translation has, instead of "against the 'spirit'" [gegen den "Geist"], "to cure
mind," which misses the point of the remark about Hamlet.

Nietzsche had argued in one of the most brilliant passages of his first book, The Birth of Tragedy,
that Hamlet is no skeptic: "Action requires the veils of illusion: that is the doctrine of Hamlet,
not that cheap wisdom of Jack the Dreamer who reflects too much...Not reflection, no--true know-
ledge, an insight into the horrible truth, outweighs any motive for action" (section 7).

136. In German, conscience bites. Cf. the medieval "agenbite of inwit" of which James Joyce makes
much in Ulysses.

137. Frederick William I, reigned 1713-40.

138. It is essential for understanding Nietzsche to realize that he is not "for" or "against" skep-
ticism, but that he analyzes one type of skepticism with disdain (section 208) before describing
another with which he clearly identifies himself. It is equally characteristic that when he joins
his countrymen in admiration of Frederick the Great, he pays tribute to him not for his exploits
and conquests but rather for his skepticism, and that his praise of "tough virility" is aimed at
the sublimated, spiritual version found, for example, in philologists and historians. For Nietzsche's
anti-romanticistm cf., e.g.. The Gay Science (1887), section 370. cited at length and discussed in
Kaufmann's Nietzsche, Chapter 12, section V.

139. "That fatalistic, ironical, Mephistophelic spirit." "Mephistophelic" obviously refers to Goethe's
Mephistopheles, not to Marlowe's. For Goethe's conception see Goethe's Faust: The Original Germian
and a New Translation and Introducion. by Walter Kaufmann (Garden City. Anchor Books. 1962), pp.
22-25,

140. Allusion to Rant's famous dictum, in the Preface to his Prolegomene (1783), that it was Hume
who had first interrupted his "dogmatic slumber."

141. Allusion to Madame de Stael's De l'Allemagne (Paris, t810).

142. For Nietzsche's conception of Goethe see. e.g.. Twrilight of the Idols, sections 49-51 (Portable
Nietzsche, pp. 553-55.). Cf. also the title of one of Nietzsche's last works, Ecce Homo (written in
1888).

143. Experimente. In the following, as earlier, Versuch is rendered as "attempt." Cf. section 42 above.

144. Kant. Cf. Antichrist, section 11 (Portable Nietzsche, p. 577).

145. The dichotomy proposed in this section is highly questionable: we find both analyses and normative
suggestions in the works of the major moral philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Spinoza and Kant;
and normative thinkers or legislators who are not also analysts are not philosophers. Yet Nietzsche's
point that something vital is lacking in the work of those who are merely "laborers" is certainly worth
pondering, and the immediately following section offers a far superior suggestion about the ethos of the
"true" philosopher.

146. to Aristotle's discussion of greatness of soul (niegalopsychia) is worth quoting here, at least in
part, because it evidently influenced Nietzsche. The valuations that find expression in Aristotle's ac-
count are exceedingly remote from those of the New Testament and help us understand Nietzsche's contrast
of master morality and slave morality, introduced below (section 260). Moreover, in his long discussion
of "what is noble," Nietzsche emulates Aristotle's descriptive mode.

"A person is thought to be great-souled if he claims much and deserves
much [as Socrates did in the Apology when he said he deserved the greatest
honor Athens could bestow]. . . . He that claims less than he deserves is
small-souled. . . . The great-souled man is justified in despising other
people--his estimates are correct; but most proud men have no good ground
for their pride. . . . He is fond of conferring benefits. hut ashamed to
receive them, because the former is a mark of superiority and the latter of
inferiority. . . . It is also characteristic of the great-souled men never
to ask help from others, or only with reluctance, but to render aid willing-
ly; and to be haughty towards men of position and fortune, but courteous
towards those of moderate station. . . . He must be open both in love and
in hate, since concealment shows timidity; and care more for the truth
than for what people will think; . . . he is outspoken and frank, except
when speaking with ironical self-depreciation, as he does to common people.
. . . He does not bear a grudge, for it is not a mark of greatness of
soul to recall things against people, especially the wrongs they have done
you, but rather to overlook them. He is . . . not given to speaking evil
himself, even of his enemies, except when he deliberately intends to give
off ence. . . . Such then being the great-souled man, the corresponding
character on the side of deficiency is the small-souled man, and on that
of excess the vain man" (Nicontaclean Ethics IV.3, Rackham translation
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1947).

The whole passage is relevant and extremely interesting.

147. "Geblit." Nietzsche's conception of "blood" is discussed, and other relevant passages are quoted,
in Kaufmann's Nietzsche, at the end of Chapter 10.

148. The element of snobbery and the infatuation with "dominating" and "looking down" are perhaps more
obvious than Nietzsche's perpetual sublimation and spiritualization of these and other similar quali-
ties. It may be interesting to compare Nietzsche's view with Dr. Thomas Stockmann's in Act IV of Ibsen's
An Enemy of the People:

"What a difference there is between a cultivated and an uncultivated animal family! Just look at a com-
mon barnyard hen.... But now take a cultivated Spanish or Japanese hen, or take a noble pheasant or a
turkey; indeed, you'll see the difference. And then I refer you to dogs, which are so amazingly closely
related to us men. Consider first a common plebeian dog-I mean, a disgusting, shaggy, moblike cur that
merely runs down the streets and fouls the houses. And then compare the cur with a poodle that for sev-
eral generations is descended from a noble house where it received good food and has had occasion to
hear harmonious voices and music. Don't you suppose that the poodle's brain has developed in a way
quite different from the cur's? You can count on it. It is such cultivated young poodles that jugglers
can train to do the most astonishing tricks. A common peasant cur could never learn anything of the
kind, even if stood on its head."

Not only do Nietzsche and Ibsen's Dr. Stockmann share Lamarck's be. lief in the heredity of acquired
characteristics; both are concerned with spiritual nobility and realize that-to put it plainly-of two
brothers one may have it and the other not. Thus Stockmann says a little later: "But that's how it al-
ways goes when plebeian descent is still in one's limbs and one has not worked one's way up to spirit-
ual nobility. . . That kind of rabble of which I am speaking isn't to be found only in the lower strata.
. .. My brother Peter-he is also a plebeian straight out of the book.



Part Seven



149. Bourgeois stupidity.

150. "Man of good will.'

151. Notably Kant.

152. What the "moralistic pedant" says, especially after the 'Enough' (several lines above), seems ve-
ry close, to put it mildly, to Nietzsche's own position. Yet Nietzsche here dissociates himself from
these remarks and ascribes them to a pedant"--not because they are wrong but because he considers it
pedantic and self-righteous to be so unhumorously and completely right. See sections 30 and 40 above.
With the final sentence of section 221 com. pare Ease Homo. Chapter l. end of section 5.

153. See note for section 26 above.

154. Vast or comprehensive spirit.

155. When Nietzsche wrote this, the taste for archaic and primitive art was not yet widespread and
classical art was still considered the norm: Praxiteles and Raphael were supposed to be the ultimate
in beauty. Nietzsche thus foresees developments of the twentieth century.

156. Untergang. Compare with this whole passage the Prologue of Zarathustra, especially sections 3-6,
where Nietzsche plays with the words Untergang, Oberrnenach (Overman), and diber'wInden (overcome)
and contrasts the overman with "the last man" who has "invented happiness" and is contemptible.

157. Redlichkett.

158. "We strive for the forbidden," The quotation is from Ovid's Amores, III. 4,11.

159. Cf. Schopenhauer as Educator (1874). section 4: '. .. He will be mistaken for another and long
be considered an ally of powers which he abominates.... " There, too, this is pictured as a conse-
quence of honesty and courage. But when Nietzsche wrote Ecce Homo, in 1888, he no longer felt: "what
matter?' Thus the first section of the Preface ends: 'Under these circumstances there is a duty a-
gainst which my custom, and .even more the pride of my instincts, revolts at bottom; namely, to
say: Listen to mel For I an not this one or that! Abore all, do not mistake me for someonee else"
There is also a note of the period 1885-88. published post- humously: "One generally mistakes me
for someone else: I confess it; also that I should be done a great service if someone else were to
defend and define me against these mistakes [VerwechselungenI" (Werke, Musarion edition, vol. XIV,
318f.)

160. Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-71) was a French philosopher whose an- cestors had borne the
name of Schweitzer. He was a materialist and utilitarian.

161. Poco: little; curante: careful, caring; pococurante: easygoing.

162. Nietzsche uses the English words "comfort" and "fashion."

163. Heil euch, brave Karrenschieber,
Stets "je longer desto lieber,"
Steifer stets an Kopf und Knie,
Unbegeistert, ungespdssig,
Unverwiistlich-mittelmrssig,
Sans genie et sans esprit!

The phrase in quotes is a German cliche.

164. Quoted from Tell's famous monologue in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, Act IV, Scene 3. Schiller had
earlier translated Macbeth into German and was, no doubt, influenced by "the milk of human kindness."

165. Sacrifice of the intellect.

166. Nachsagte, nachraunte, nachruhmte: literally, "said after, whispered after, praised after us an
extravagant honesty."

167. Nachruhm. literally, after-fame.

168. Fate.

169. Cf. Freud.

170. Allusion to "the Eternal-Feminine" in the penultimate line of Goethes Faust.

171. The embarrassing contrast with Nietzsches own remarks in section 230, toward the end of the
paragraph to which notes 18 and 19 refer, speaks for itself. If anything redeems section 232, and
much of the remainder of Part VII, it is surely the disclaimer in 231.

172. Woman should be silent in church.

173. Woman should be silent when it comes to politics.

174. Woman should be silent about woman.

175. "My friend, permit yourself nothing but follies--that will give yon great pleasure."

176. "She looked up, and I at her."

177. Kurze Rede, langer Sinn inverts der langen Rede kurzer Sinn (the brief meaning of the long
speech), a familiar German quotation from Schiller's Die Piccolomini, Act 1, Scene 2. Cf. Twilight
of the Idols, section 51, and the succeeding section I of the last chapter of Twilight (Portable
Nietzsche, pp. 555-57).

178. In the first two editions a new section begins at this point, but it is numbered 237, repeat-
ing the preceding number. In the standard editions, including Schlechta's (which falsely claims
to follow the original edition), the second 237 is omitted, and the verse and prose are offered
as a single section.

179. Fortunately for Nietzsche, this is surely wrong. But it is worth asking which, if any, of
his other ideas are of a Piece with his secondhand wisdom about "woman": probably his embarrass-
ingly frequent invocation of "severity" and "hardness" and other such terms-the almost ritual
repetition of the words, not necessarily, if at all, the spiritualized conceptions he develops
with their aid-and perhaps also the tenor of his remarks about democracy and parliaments. Goethe
said: Me greatest human beings are always connected with their century by means of some weakness"
(Elective Affinities). At these points Nietzsche's deliberate "untimeliness" now seems tuie bound,
dated, and as shallow as what he attacked.

180. Commis.

181. "Herr."

182. Ever since Aristotle's Poetics (1449b), pity and fear have been associated with tragedy. Cf.
also 1452a, 1453b.

183. Allusion to Schiller's famous line about fate in classical tragedy (in, OShakespeare's Sha-
dow"): "Which elevates man when it crushes man."

184. Nietzsche discusses Wagner at greater length in The Birth of Tragedy, The Case of Wagner,
and Nietzsche contra Wagner.

185. Dumpf has no perfect equivalent in English. It can mean hollow or muted when applied to a
sound, heavy and musty applied to air, dull applied to wits, and is a cousin of the English words,
dumb and damp. Goethe still used it with a positive connotation when he wrote poetry about inar-
ticulate feelings; Nietzsche uses the word often--with a strongly negative, anti-romantic conno-
tation.

186. Verlachung (becoming shallower) contrasted with Vertiefung (becoming more profound). The
first people is, without a doubt, Germany; the statesman, Bismarck; and the second people prob-
ably France. Of course, the points made are also meant to apply more generally, but this evalua-
tion of Bismarck at the zenith of his success and power certainly shows an amazing independence
of spirit, and without grasping the full weight of the final sentence one cannot begin to un-
derstand Nietzsche's conceptions of the will to power or of "beyond good and evil"

187. Goethes, Faust, line 1112.

188. August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819). a popular German writer in his time who
had his differences with Goethe and also pub. lished attacks on Napoleon, was assassinated by Karl
Ludwig Sand (1795- 1820). a theology student who took the poet for a Russian spy. Sand was execu-
ted.

189. Pen name of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825). one of the most renowned German Writ-
ers of the romantic period.

190. Against Napoleon.

191. A word without any exact equivalent In English. It Is variously rendered as feeling, soul,
heart, while gemiilich might be translated as comfortable or cozy.

192. For the eyes.

193. The word has no exact English equivalent but might be rendered "four-square."

194. The area around Berlin was at one time called "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire."

195. This is by no means the accepted German etymology of deutsch.