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What laws, what tables, did Nietzsche wish to dictate? What values would he choose to honour or depreciate? and what right had he to choose, to build up an order of beauty, an order of virtue, in nature, where a mechanical order reigns? He had the right of the poet, no doubt, whose genius, the creator of illusions, imposes upon the imagination of man this love or that hatred, this[Pg 272] good or that evil. Thus Nietzsche would answer us, but he did not fail to recognise the difficulty. On the last pages of the second part of his poem he avowed it.
"This, this is my danger," says Zarathustra, "that my glance throweth itself to the summit, whereas my hand would fain grasp and rest upon—the void."
He wished to bring his task to a head. He had felt, this very summer, as something very close and urgent, the tragic menace that hung over his life. He was in haste to complete a work which he could at last present as the expression of his final desires, as his final thought. He had intended to complete his poem in three parts; three were written and almost nothing was said. The drama was not sketched. Zarathustra had to be shown at close quarters with men, announcing the Eternal Return, humiliating the feeble, strengthening the strong, destroying the ancient ways of humanity; Zarathustra as lawgiver dictating his Tables, dying at last of pity and of joy as he contemplates his work. Let us follow his notes:—
"Zarathustra reaches at the same moment the most extreme distress and his greatest happiness. At the most terrible moment of the contrast, he is broken.
"The most tragical history with a divine dnouement.
"Zarathustra becomes gradually more grand. His doctrine develops with his grandeur.
"The Eternal Return shines like a sun setting on the last catastrophe."
"In the last section great synthesis of him who creates, who loves, who destroys."
In the month of August, Nietzsche had indicated a dnouement. His condition of mind was then very bad,[Pg 273] and his work suffered in consequence. He now took up the draft again, and tried to make the best of it.
It was a drama which he had the ambition to write. He places his action in an antique frame, in a city devastated by the pest. The inhabitants wish to commence a new era. They seek a lawgiver; they call Zarathustra, who descends among them, followed by his disciples.
"Go," said he to them, "announce the Eternal Return."
The disciples are afraid and avow it.
"We can endure thy doctrine," they say, "but can this multitude?"
"We must make an experiment with truth!" answers Zarathustra. "And if the truth should destroy humanity, so be it!"
The disciples hesitate again. He commands: "I have put in your hands the hammer which must strike men; strike!"
But they fear the people and abandon their master. Then Zarathustra speaks alone. The crowd as it hears him is terrified, loses its temper and its wits.
"A man kills himself: another goes mad. A divine pride of the poet animates him: everything must be brought to light. And at the moment that he announces the Eternal Return and the Superman together, he yields to pity.
"Everyone disowns him. 'We must,' they say, 'stifle this doctrine and kill Zarathustra.'
"'There is now no soul on the earth who loves me,' he murmurs; 'how shall I be able to love life?'
"He dies of sadness on discovering the suffering which is his work.
"'Through love I have caused the greatest sorrow; now I yield to the sorrow which I have caused.'
"All go, and Zarathustra, left alone, touches his serpent with his hand: 'Who counsels wisdom to me?'—The serpent bites him. The eagle tears the serpent to bits, the lion throws itself upon the eagle. As soon as Zarathustra sees the combat of the animals, he dies.
"Fifth Act: The Lauds.
"The league of the faithful who sacrifice themselves upon the tomb of Zarathustra. They had fled: now, seeing him dead, they become the inheritors of his soul and rise to his height.
"Funeral ceremony: 'It is we who have killed him.'—The Lauds.
"The great Noon. Midday and eternity."
Friedrich Nietzsche abandoned this plan, which yet gives glimpses of great beauty. Did he dislike displaying the humiliation of his hero? Probably, and we shall note his search for a triumphant dnouement. But it is chiefly to be noted that he has dashed against a fundamental difficulty, the nature of which he perhaps does not plainly conceive: the two symbols on which he bases his poem, the Eternal Return and the Superman, in conjunction create a misunderstanding which renders the completion of the work impossible. The Eternal Return is a bitter truth which suppresses all hope. The Superman is a hope, an illusion. From one to the other there is no passage, the contradiction is complete. If Zarathustra teaches the Eternal Return, he will fail to excite in men's souls an impassioned belief in superhumanity. And if he teaches the Superman, how can he propagate the moral terrorism of the Eternal Return? Nevertheless, Friedrich Nietzsche assigns him these two tasks; the breathless disorder of his thoughts drives him to this absurdity.
Does he clearly perceive the problem? We do not know. These real difficulties against which he breaks are[Pg 275] never avowed. But if he perceives them ill, at least he feels the inconvenience and seeks by instinct some way of escape.
He writes a second sketch which is certainly skilful: the same scene, the same fever-stricken city, the same supplication to Zarathustra, who comes among a decimated people. But he comes as a benefactor and is careful about announcing the terrible doctrine. First, he gives his laws and has them accepted. Then, and only then, will he announce the Eternal Return. What are these laws which he has given? Friedrich Nietzsche indicates them. Here is one of the very rare pages, in which we discern the order which he has dreamed.
"(a) The day divided afresh: physical exercises for all the ages of life. Competition as a principle.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
"(b) The new nobility and its education. Unity. Obtained by selection. For the foundation of each family, a festival.
"(c) The experiments. (With the wicked, punishments.) Charity in a new form, based on a concern for the generations to come. The wicked respectable so far as they are destroyers, for destruction is necessary. And also as a source of strength.
"To let oneself be taught by the wicked, not to deny them competition. To utilise the degenerate.—Punishment justifiable when the criminal is utilised for experimental purposes (for a new aliment). Punishment is thus made holy.
"(d) To save woman by keeping her woman.
"(e) The slaves (a hive). The humble and their virtues. To teach the enduring of repose. Multiplication of machines. Transformation of the machines into beauty.
"'For you faith and servitude!'
"The times of solitude. Division of the times and days. Food. Simplicity. A feature of union between the poor and the rich.
"Solitude necessary from time to time, that the being may examine himself and concentrate.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
