Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/282

246 silence all around, as though we were in the central bottom of the earth. For once altogether destitute of power! The sport of elementary powers! This blissful state implies a repose, a flinging off the great burden, a rolling downhill without effort as though by force of blind gravity. It is the dream of the moun taineer who, although having set his goal on high, falls asleep on the road from sheer exhaustion and dreams of the bliss of the contrast—the very rolling downhill without the least effort. I describe happiness such as I presume it in our present hunted, ambitious society both in Europe and America. Here and there they show signs of falling back into impotence: wars, arts, religions, geniuses offer them this enjoyment. If once we have temporarily indulged in a sensation which swallows and crushes everything--such is our modern festive mood—we grow freer, more refreshed, colder, sterner, and do not weary in striving after the contrary: after power. —In all probability there do not exist any pure, but only purified races, and these even are very rare. The more common are crossed races, amongst whom, in addition to a disharmony of bodily forms (when, for instance, the eye and mouth are not in harmony with each other), we always meet with a disharmony of habits and valuations. (