of Morals[1] (1887), Twilight of the Idols (1888), The Antichristian[2] (1888) "The Case of Wagner" and "Nietzsche contra Wagner" (both 1888, and little more than pamphlets). Besides these, are the autobiographical notes (not originally meant for publication) entitled Ecce Homo, and voluminous material for a contemplated and never achieved systematic work, Will to Power—material which has been more or less successfully put together by later hands and now appears under that title (second and much improved edition, 1906). There are also three posthumous volumes of private notes and unfinished sketches.[3]
II
The most general mark of the period is confidence—one might say, joy: the book which may be taken as a herald of it is entitled Joyful Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft).[4] Nietzsche is now quite emerging from the gloom and depression that had ensued on the overthrow of his first ideals. He had momentarily lost his goal; he is now sure of one. He needed a cure from his early romanticism, he had had too much sweet, too rich a diet; but he has got it—and is well again (in soul, at least).[5] Chastened, disciplined, he feels once more ready for battle. As our fathers, he says, brought sacrifices of wealth
- ↑ The German title is "Zur Genealogie der Moral," the "Zur" indicating that Nietzsche pretends to nothing more than contributions to the subject.
- ↑ The German title, "Der Antichrist," is commonly translated, in questionable fashion, "The Antichrist." The German "der Christ" does not usually signify "Christ," but "the Christian" ("Christus" is the word for Christ), and "der Antichrist" is naturally (if not necessarily) "The Antichristian." In translating as I do I am happy to find myself following the best French authority on Nietzsche, Henri Lichtenberger, who renders "L'Antichrétien." The late R. M. Meyer, perhaps the best all-round authority on Nietzsche in Germany, thought that while Nietzsche played with the double meaning of the word, Lichtenberger's translation was the correct one (this in a private letter to the writer).
- ↑ These are Vols. XII, XIII, XIV of the German octavo edition. A small part of this material is given at the end of Vols. VII and VIII of the German pocket edition; in the English translation it is almost entirely lacking, as is also the greater part of the posthumous Vols. IX, X, and XI of the German octavo edition, covering Nietzsche's first and second periods.
- ↑ Cf. Joyful Science, § 324, beginning "No! Life has not deceived me!"
- ↑ Preface, § 1, to Joyful Science. Cf. preface (of 1886), § 2, to Mixed Opinions etc., where this book, along with Human, etc., and The Wanderer etc., is spoken of as his "anti-romantic self-treatment."
