aware of their imperfection and owning that nature had succeeded poorly in their own case, they would none the less remember the great end for which she was striving, and, placing themselves at her service, help her to succeed better in the future.[1] Nietzsche conceives that society might actually be pervaded by an aim of this character, that all might unitedly project it; indeed he recognizes that only in this way can the aim be accomplished—the task being too great for individuals.
III
When society, or a given society, is inspired in this way, there will come what he calls a culture—this being a general term for a unity of style in the activities, the life-expressions, of a people.[2] Existing societies have no culture in this sense (though the French have had one)—the aims of men today are too haphazard, criss-cross; particularly does Nietzsche make light of the pretense of a German culture.[3] It is not outward forms, laws, or institutions that he has in mind, so much as a spirit, a thought, a vital governing aim. At the same time the aim he proposes is not without definite characters. Not only is it contrasted with the aim of making everybody, or as many as possible, happy, but it is also contrasted with the ambition widely prevalent now of founding or furthering great communities (states or empires), which the individual is to find his supreme function in serving. The community is not an end of itself. There is as much dignity in serving an individual, if he be one of the higher type, as in serving the state: it is not size, numbers, that determine value, but the quality and grade of being.[4] The end of social organization itself is to facilitate the emergence of the higher type or types of man. The ideal community is not one in which the members are on a par, all in turn ends and means, but one in which the higher types are ends and the rest are means to them. The old idea of service—one-sided service, if you will—is thus introduced. The philosopher, the artist, the saint being the culmination of
