they NEED its discipline for "moralizing" and humanizing. The Englishman, more gloomy, sensual, headstrong, and brutal than the German—is for that very reason, as the baser of the two, also the most pious: he has all the MORE NEED of Christianity. To finer nostrils, this English Christianity itself has still a characteristic English taint of spleen and alcoholic excess, for which, owing to good reasons, it is used as an antidote—the finer poison to neutralize the coarser: a finer form of poisoning is in fact a step in advance with coarse-mannered people, a step towards spiritualization. The English coarseness and rustic demureness is still most satisfactorily disguised by Christian pantomime, and by praying and psalm-singing (or, more correctly, it is thereby explained and differently expressed); and for the herd of drunkards and rakes who formerly learned moral grunting under the influence of Methodism (and more recently as the "Salvation Army"), a penitential fit may really be the relatively highest manifestation of "humanity" to which they can be elevated:
Beyond Good and Evil
Table of Contents
- PREFACE 9
- CHAPTER I. PREJUDICES OF PHILOSOPHERS 16
- CHAPTER II. THE FREE SPIRIT 70
- CHAPTER III. THE RELIGIOUS MOOD 118
- CHAPTER IV. APOPHTHEGMS AND INTERLUDES 159
- CHAPTER V. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MORALS 185
- CHAPTER VI. WE SCHOLARS 235
- CHAPTER VII. OUR VIRTUES 280
- CHAPTER VIII. PEOPLES AND COUNTRIES 338
- CHAPTER IX. WHAT IS NOBLE? 393
- FROM THE HEIGHTS 467
- By F W Nietzsche 468
- Translated by L. A. Magnus 469