as "relatively" a "sort of superman."[1] Once he makes a derisive reference to "learned cattle who had suspected him of Darwinism."[2] If Nietzsche finally held to Darwinism at all—and it is not certain that he did[3]—it was only in the sense of a development-theory in general, much as Emerson spoke of the worm mounting "through all the spires of form" to man. For not evolution, not even selection, is a distinctive Darwinian idea, but only natural selection, along with the theory of surplus numbers and the consequent struggle for existence—and Nietzsche distrusted these premises of Darwin's view, and wanted not so much natural selection (which he thought often favored the weak) as conscious, human selection in the direction of individuals of maximum power.
III
But when we ask how the superman is to be got, we are left more or less in the vague. Nietzsche thinks that we have not sufficient data for a judgment as yet. Physiology, medicine, psychology, sociology—sciences that must give us the data—are not developed enough. Those who imagine that Nietzsche has any short cut to Utopia have little idea of the manner of man he was. Brandes called his view "aristocratic radicalism" (in distinction from radicalism of the democratic or socialistic type); but he is radical in thought, not in proposing a program. He has a profound sense of the slowness of all real social changes. He contrasts the French Revolution with what it might have been, had steadier heads kept in control.[4] Chronic ailings (such as lung troubles) develop from slight causes repeated constantly, he observes, and cures, if possible, come in much the same way (in this case by repeated deep breathing); and the truth holds equally of spiritual ills.[5] So "no impatience" now! "The superman is our next stage "—but "moderation" along with courage is needed in aiming thitherward.
