CHAPTER XVI
CRITICISM OF MORALITY. INTRODUCTORY
I
It was a saying of Goethe that a bold and free work of art should be contemplated in the spirit in which it was originally conceived. This is something to have in mind as we turn to Nietzsche's final ethical and social views—perhaps the most characteristic product of his genius. He is daring, loves strong and telling expressions, easily exaggerates or seems to—and if we do not make allowances, we may often be offended and think it hardly worth while to give him the attentive study he requires. We need for the moment to be touched with a little of his own geniality, and to exercise toward him something of the persistent "good will" which Emerson says gives "insight." He speaks as freely about himself as about other subjects. Once after noting that every society has a tendency to caricature its opponents, as we do today the "criminal," as Roman aristocratic society did the Jew, as artists do the bourgeois type, as pious people do the man who is godless, and aristocrats the man of the people, he says that immoralists—his class—incline to caricature the moralist and gives as an instance his own references to Plato.[1] Plainly we must read between the lines and not press every word in dealing with such a man.
I begin with the ethical views. The material to be considered falls naturally under two heads: criticism and construction. Constructive effort is much more pronounced in this period than in the preceding, and yet criticism continues—indeed, it is more keen and mordant than ever. The two things really go hand in hand, and even his construction is not as complete—or even as unmistakable in meaning—as we could wish; his end came too early to allow him to leave more than torsos in any department of thought. The consideration of
- ↑ Will to Power, $ 374.
