development, particularly for the development of beings of a higher type.[1] He thinks that by the conquest of nature more force may be won than is actually needed, and then something of the luxurious might come among men, of which we have no idea now; great projects would be feasible of which we do not dream. "Aerial navigation alone throws all our old cultural conceptions aside" [he might have added, "undersea navigation," had he lived now]. Instead of our usual works of art, we might try to beautify nature on a great scale by means of labor extending over centuries—for example, bring to perfection suggestions and motives of beauty in the Alps. We might have an architecture, in which we should build for eternity, as the Romans did. We might utilize the backward peoples of Asia, Africa, and elsewhere as laborers.[2] Cyclopic work has been done by other forces in the past; the day of science is to come.[3] k
For progress Nietzsche finds an advantage in the free-thinking habits of mind which have arisen in recent times (though he distinguishes free-thinking from what is popularly known as "free-thought"). Prehistoric ages were determined during immeasurable stretches of time by custom, nothing happening; in the historic period the matter of moment has always been some departure from custom, some disagreement of opinion: it is free action of the mind (die Freigeisterei) that makes history.[4] There is corresponding significance in the dissolution of old religious traditions now going on. We are ready to experiment, to take things into our own hands. Our courage rises as we have need of it, and if we fail or err, we believe that it is our own affair—"God," as one to whom we are accountable for mistakes, and "immortal souls," with which we are to pay penalties, have disappeared.[5] And yet, Nietzsche urges, we should be at our work betimes. The aim he proposes few will question the greatness of—he speaks of it as an "ecumenical" one, embracing the whole inhabited globe;[6] he
