Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/384

348 —Ye stronger md arrogant intellects, we ask you but for one thing: do not throw another burden on our shoulders, but take some of our burden upon yours, since you, forsooth, are the stronger! But you delight in doing the reverse: for you wish to soar, wherefore we have to carry your burden in addition to ours: that is, we have to crawl. —Why is beauty enhanced by the advance of civilisation? Because civilised minds are less responsive to the three occasions for ugliness: first, ecstasies in their wildest outbursts ; secondly, utmost bodily exertions; thirdly, the compulsion to inspire fear by the very sight, which is so important and frequent with the lower and imperilled stages of culture, that it even prescribes gestures and ceremonials, and makes a point of ugliness. —Let us in our age at least persist in the belief that benevolence and beneficence are characteristics of a good man; but let us add “provided he be first of all benevolent and beneficent to himself!" For, if he is not—if he shuns, hates, injures himself—he, surely, is not a good man. Then he seeks in others protection against