revenge."[1] "That you are pitiful I presuppose; to be without pity means to be sick in mind and body"—this though it is added that much mind is needed to dare to be pitiful.[2] Nietzsche gratefully recognizes what the "spiritual men" of Christianity have done for Europe in giving consolation to the suffering, courage to the oppressed and despairing, however otherwise these same men have sinnved.[3] He speaks of the pity of the saint as pity for the soil (Schmutz) of the human, all-too-human.[4] One who says things like these can hardly be said to be without appreciation of pity. He does, indeed, speak of triumphing over pity at times—but this presupposes that one has it. His "higher men," called to great tasks of creation and destruction, are usually beings with normal sympathetic feelings—otherwise how could he speak of their not going to pieces from the suffering they bring?[5]
In fact, ordinary sympathetic feeling for those who are temporarily disabled or sick or otherwise unfortunate, such as we show in our homes or as the community shows in public institutions, I see no trace of disapproval of in Nietzsche: he rather comments with implied satisfaction on the immense amount of humanity attained by present-day mankind, though putting on the other side of the balance-sheet the fact of decadence.[6] He knows that communities as hard-hearted as he is sometimes supposed to have been simply could not hold together or live—and he once mentions the care of the sick and poor as among the natural customs and institutions of society (along with the state, courts of justice, and marriage).[7]
What he has in mind in criticising pity comes out in the saying of Zarathustra, "Not your pity but your bravery has saved hitherto the unhappy";[8] and again in a remark that where there is the impulse to help, the unpleasant sensation
- ↑ Zarathustra, I, vi.
- ↑ Werke, XII, 297, § 344.
- ↑ footnote
- ↑ Ibid., § 271.
- ↑ Werke, XIV, 412, § 291.
- ↑ Will to Power, § 63.
- ↑ The Antichristian, § 26. A. W. Benn, ordinarily discriminating, misinterprets Nietzsche at this point (International Journal of Ethics, October, 1908, pp. 16-7).
- ↑ Zarathustra, I, x.
