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26 promises success and, by means of this influence, causes His reason to weak as the highest rationality. Now consider the consequences of such a prejudice, when shrewd men, full of the lust of power, availed—and avail—themselves of it. Produce the right mood and you may dispense with all arguments and overcome all counter-Arguments.

The actors of virtue and sin.—Among those ancients who became renowned for their virtue, there were, as it seems, an exceeding great number who acted to themselves: the Greeks especially, being born actors, quite unconsciously, we may presume, pursued and approved this art. Besides, everybody was emulating somebody or everybody else's with his own: why then should they not have used all possible skill in dis-playing their virtue above all before themselves, if only for the sake of practice. Of what use would be a virtue which one could not exhibit or which knew not how to exhibit itself! Christianity closed the career of these actors of virtue: in their stead it invented the museous trumpeting about and parading of sin; it introduced to mankind a menaciously concocted sinfulness (even in our days good Christians consider this the "right thing").

Refined cruelty as virtue.—This kind of morality entirely rests on our craving after distinction—so do