Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/733

Rh good-natured, more prudent, more comfortable, more mediocre, more indifferent, more Chinese, more Christian—man, there is no doubt, is becoming 'better' and 'better.' Just here lies Europe's danger: with our fear of man we have also lost our love for him, our reverence for him, our hope in him, yes our desire for him. The sight of man now wearies us—what is nihilism to-day if it is not that? We are weary of man."

"We have invented happiness, say the last men and blink their eyes. They have left the regions where life was hard, for they need warmth. They still love their neighbors and rub themselves on them, for they need warmth. To become sick and to be distrustful they regard as sinful, they walk circumspectly. A fool who still stumbles over stones or men: A little poison now and then, that makes pleasant dreams. And much poison at the end, for a pleasant death. They still work, for work is a source of amusement. But care is taken that the amusement be not too severe. They no longer grow rich or poor; it is too troublesome. Who is willing to govern? Who is willing to obey? All that is too troublesome. No shepherd and one flock. Everybody desires the same, everybody is equal: whoever thinks otherwise voluntarily goes to the insane-asylum. Once the whole world was insane, say the choicest and blink their eyes. They are wise and know everything that has happened; so they go on mocking. They still quarrel with each other, but they soon become reconciled—otherwise it would spoil their digestion. They have their little pleasures by day and their little pleasures by night; but they take care of their health. We have invented happiness say the last men and blink their eyes."

Our traditional morality is also rejected by Nietzsche because it is based on pity and favors the weak and decadent against the strong. Religion, too, particularly Christianity, is repudiated for the same reason and his contempt for science and philosophy is to be explained in the same way—by his glorification of the will for power. Peace, happiness, pity, self-denial, contempt of the world, effeminacy, nonresistence, socialism, communism, equality, religion, philosophy and science, are all rejected because they contradict life, and all systems of thought and all institutions which regard these things as valuable and worthy to be sought after for their own sakes are symptoms of decadence.