it is tamed. The criminals with whom Dostoevsky associated were better than he was, because
they were more self-respecting. Nietzsche is nauseated by repentance and redemption, which he
calls a folie circulaire. It is difficult for us to free ourselves from this way of thinking about
human behaviour: "we are heirs to the consciencevivisection and self-crucifixion of two thousand
years." There is a very eloquent passage about Pascal, which deserves quotation, because it shows
Nietzsche's objections to Christianity at their best:
"What is it that we combat in Christianity? That it aims at destroying the strong, at breaking their
spirit, at exploiting their moments of weariness and debility, at converting their proud assurance
into anxiety and conscience-trouble; that it knows how to poison the noblest instincts and to infect
them with disease, until their strength, their will to power, turns inwards, against themselves--until
the strong perish through their excessive self-contempt and self-immolation: that gruesome way of
perishing, of which Pascal is the most famous example."
In place of the Christian saint Nietzsche wishes to see what he calls the "noble" man, by no means
as a universal type, but as a governing aristocrat. The "noble" man will be capable of cruelty, and,
on occasion, of what is vulgarly regarded as crime; he will recognize duties only to equals. He will
protect artists and poets and all who happen to be masters of some skill, but he will do so as
himself a member of a higher order than those who only know how to do something. From the
example of warriors he will learn to associate death with the interests for which he is fighting; to
sacrifice numbers, and take his cause sufficiently seriously not to spare men; to practise inexorable
discipline; and to allow himself violence and cunning in war. He will recognize the part played by
cruelty in aristocratic excellence: "almost everything that we call 'higher culture' is based upon the
spiritualizing and intensifying of cruelty." The "noble" man is essentially the incarnate will to
power.
What are we to think of Nietzsche's doctrines? How far are they true? Are they in any degree
useful? Is there in them anything objective, or are they the mere power-phantasies of an invalid?
It is undeniable that Nietzsche has had a great influence, not among technical philosophers, but
among people of literary and artistic culture. It must also be conceded that his prophecies as to the
future