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464 intelligence of a Luther!" They robbed Europe of the harvest, the meaning of the last great period in history, the Renaissance, through Luther and his Protestantism, "the most impure (unsauberste) type of Christianity that exists." Twice, when straight, unambiguous, wholly scientific ways of thinking might have established themselves, they found—through Leibnitz and Kant—furtive paths (Schleichwege) back to the old ideals. The nobility itself is almost absent in the history of the higher culture—Christianity and alcohol being large contributory factors to the result. There has never been, properly speaking, a German culture—there have been great solitaries who had their own, but Germany in general has been in this respect rather like a moor in which every step of the foreigner left its mark, but itself was without character." It has clever and well-instructed scholars—that is the principal thing one can say; in particular, a high-water mark and divinatory refinement of the historical sense has been reached. Nietzsche speaks caustically at times of the smallness and pitiableness of the German soul, their "Bedientenseele," their involuntary bowing before titles of honor, etc.; they know how to obey better than to command, and if they occupy themselves with morality, they proceed to idealize the impulse to obedience. "Man must have something he can unconditionally obey"—it is a characteristically German sentiment and piece of logic. Yet, inspired