still remains. All this in general. And now as to the special type of morality which he proposes.
II
It is conceivable, he says, that the existence of man should be so precarious on the earth, that any rules and any illusions would be justified by which he was kept alive—the strictest discipline might be necessary. In this way primitive types of morality were justified, even if they covered much that seems to us superfluous or absurd—man could live only in and by society, and the social strait-jacket was imperative. Now, however, human existence has become relatively secure. Man abounds, perhaps superabounds. While under the early situation morality was not a matter of choice, now a certain freedom arises: we can more or less choose our ends, aiming in this or that direction as our imagination or taste or reason dictates.[1]
It is under such a presupposition that Nietzsche proposes his moral aim. The problem appears to him in its most general form like this: Here within what we call humanity is an immense mass of force, accumulated and kept from wasting and self-destruction in no small measure by the influence of past morality—what shall be done with it, what impress shall be put upon it, what direction shall it take? Shall we let it drift? Shall our policy in relation to it be laisser aller, laisser passer—trusting to Providence or to destiny? Nietzsche thinks that confidences like these have an uncertain foundation and that humanity has already drifted too long. We should rather, he urges, seek to put an end to the horrible rule of folly and chance, hitherto called "history," for things do go to a fearful extent by accident in this world, and the call for foresight, for reason, is great.[2] "The immense amount of accident, contradiction, disharmony, stupidity, in the present human world points to the future"; this is its "field of labor, where it can create, organize, and harmonize."[3] A goal does not exist now, the ideals of men contradict one another; they arose in far
