gether in so small a space and allowed such emulation in perfecting their peculiarities [as there]."[1]
As virtually stated already, to be independent in this way is something for few; average natures are likely to go to pieces in attempting it.[2] It is a privilege of the strong; no one had better attempt it, unless he is compelled. e Nietzsche suggests a variety of ways in which one can test oneself in advance. f How great the demands are is shown by the challenges of Zarathustra to would-be higher men who come to him. Warning them that they must have a conscience different from the common one and that this will involve inner distress, he says, "But wilt thou go the way of thy distress, which is the way to thyself? If so, show me thy right and thy power to do so! Art thou a new power and a new right? A first motion? A self-revolving wheel? Canst thou also force stars to revolve around thee? Alas, there is so much loose longing (Lüsternheit) after high things.… There are so many great thoughts that act only like bellows, blowing one up and making one emptier. Free dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought do I wish to hear and not that thou hast escaped a yoke. Art thou one with the right to escape a yoke? There is many a man who threw away his last worth, when he threw away his servitude. Free from something? What is that to Zarathustra? But let thine eye tell me clear and straight: free for what? Canst thou give thyself thine evil and thy good, and hang up thy will over thee as a law? Canst thou be judge over thyself, and avenger of thy law?"[3] Such are the prerequisites of sovereign individuals. Men of this type even practise asceticism, and find a pleasure in self-subjugation. They are the most reverend of men, which does not exclude their being also the most cheerful and amiable—indeed, they represent in a special sense happiness, beauty, goodness on the earth.[4]
These supreme specimens of our kind are to Nietzsche the ultima ratio of society. It is not man, mankind, that is important, but such as they. Mankind is experimental material,
