to it.[1] We and our thoughts are not to be like shy deer hidden in the wood, but to go forth to conquer and possess. It may be left to little maidens to say, "good is what is pretty and touching"; to be really good is to be brave.[2] The time of war may not yet be come; Nietzsche is human enough, Christian enough to count it his happy fortune that he lives a preparatory existence and can leave to future man the conduct of actual conflicts;[3] but war in the large sense belonged to his nature. Although I do not remember his quoting Heraclitus's dictum, πόλεμος πᾶτήρ πάντων, it accords with his spirit. He might also have said with Goethe:
"Machet nicht viel Federlesen,
Schreibt auf meinen Leichenstein:
Dieser ist ein Mensch gewesen,
Und das heisst: ein Kämpfer sein!"
—and he wished to transmit a legacy of this spirit to his disciples. Zarathustra says, "Your war shall ye wage, and for the sake of your thoughts.… Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars—and the short peace more than the long. I counsel you not to work, but to conflict. I counsel you not to peace, but to victory. Let your work be a conflict, your peace be a victory; … Let your love to life be love to your highest hope, and let your highest hope be the highest thought of life!… What matter about long life! What warrior wisheth to be spared?"[4]
Nietzsche had his dark hours, as the strongest have, and about details and methods he had no settled assurance; but his dominant mood was one of hope. "We children of the future, how can we be at home in this world of today?" Zarathustra scarcely knew how to live, save as a seer of things to come—so did the past oppress him; but atonement would be made for the shortcomings of the past and the great Hazar be finally ushered in.[5] "Have ye not heard anything of
