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3. The collection of all the conceptions out of which Hellenic culture has grown up. Criticism of religion, art, society, state, morals.
4. Christianity is likewise denied.
5. Art and history—dangerous.
6. The replacing of the study of antiquity which has become superfluous for the training of our youth.
Thus the task of the science of history is completed,[Pg 187] and it itself has become superfluous, if the entire inward continuous circle of past efforts has been condemned. Its place must be taken by the science of the future.
185
"Signs" and "miracles" are not believed; only a "Providence" stands in need of such things. There is no help to be found either in prayer or asceticism or in "vision." If all these things constitute religion, then there is no more religion for me.
My religion, if I can still apply this name to something, lies in the work of breeding genius: from such training everything is to be hoped. All consolation comes from art. Education is love for the offspring; an excess of love over and beyond our self-love. Religion is "love beyond ourselves." The work of art is the model of such a love beyond ourselves, and a perfect model at that
186
The stupidity of the will is Schopenhauer's greatest thought, if thoughts be judged from the standpoint of power. We can see in Hartmann how he juggled away this thought. Nobody will ever call something stupid—God.
187
This, then, is the new feature of all the future progress of the world: men must never again be ruled over by religious conceptions. Will they be any worse? It is not my experience that they behave well and morally under the yoke of religion; I am not on the side of Demopheles.[15] The fear of a[Pg 188] beyond, and then again the fear of divine punishments will hardly have made men better.
[15] A type in Schopenhauer's Essay "On Religion." See "Parerga and Paralipomena."—TR.
188
Where something great makes its appearance and lasts for a relatively long time, we may premise a careful breeding, as in the case of the Greeks. How did so many men become free among them? Educate educators! But the first educators must educate themselves! And it is for these that I write.
189
The denial of life is no longer an easy matter: a man may become a hermit or a monk—and what is thereby denied! This conception has now become deeper: it is above all a discerning denial, a denial based upon the will to be just; not an indiscriminate and wholesale denial.
190
The seer must be affectionate, otherwise men will have no confidence in him: Cassandra.
191
The man who to-day wishes to be good and saintly has a more difficult task than formerly: in order to be "good," he must not be so unjust to knowledge as earlier saints were. He would have to be a knowledge-saint: a man who would link love with knowledge, and who would have nothing to do with gods or demigods or "Providence," as the Indian saints likewise had nothing to do with them. He should[Pg 189] also be healthy, and should keep himself so, otherwise he would necessarily become distrustful of himself. And perhaps he would not bear the slightest resemblance to the ascetic saint, but would be much more like a man of the world.
192
The better the state is organised, the duller will humanity be.
To make the individual uncomfortable is my task!
The great pleasure experienced by the man who liberates himself by fighting.
Spiritual heights have had their age in history; inherited energy belongs to them. In the ideal state all would be over with them.
193
The highest judgment on life only arising from the highest energy of life. The mind must be removed as far as possible from exhaustion.
In the centre of the world-history judgment will be the most accurate; for it was there that the greatest geniuses existed.
The breeding of the genius as the only man who can truly value and deny life.
Save your genius! shall be shouted unto the people: set him free! Do all you can to unshackle him.
The feeble and poor in spirit must not be allowed to judge life.
194
I dream of a combination of men who shall make no concessions, who shall show no consideration, and[Pg 190] who shall be willing to be called "destroyers": they apply the standard of their criticism to everything and sacrifice themselves to truth. The bad and the false shall be brought to light! We will not build prematurely we do not know, indeed, whether we shall ever be able to build, or if it would not be better not to build at all There are lazy pessimists and resigned ones in this world—and it is to their number that we refuse to belong!
