would be absolutely unworthy a deeper mind to consider mediocrity in itself an objection. It is the first indispensable requirement in order that there may be exceptions: a high culture is conditioned by it."[1] "Hatred against mediocrity is unworthy a philosopher: it almost raises the question as to his 'right to philosophy.' Just because he is the exception, he has to protect the rule and to give all average people good heart."[2] Nietzsche even uses the word "duty" in this connection: "when an exceptional man treats one of the average type with tenderer hands than he does himself and his own kind, this is not mere courtesy of the heart—it is simply his duty."[3] l His appreciation goes to what are commonly regarded as the lower as well as to the upper strata of this third social class—indeed, he once hazards the conjecture that more relative superiority of taste and tact for reverence may be found "among the lower ranks of the people, especially among peasants, than among the newspaper-reading half-world of intellect, the educated."[4]
In one way the interests of the great working mass come first, in his judgment. The group is prior to the independent individual in point of time (as we have already seen),[5] and also, in a sense, of importance. The labors of the mass who make up its bulk are the sine qua non for the higher man—it is from their "surplus labor" that be lives—but he is not a sine qua non for them, and in certain circumstances he may be a luxury, a waste.[6] To secure their existence and well-being is then the first social requirement.
In this connection I may mention a curious set of reflections to which Nietzsche is led. We have already seen his attitude to modern—I might say, Christian—civilization. It has turned normal or at least ancient valuations upside down—has exalted the low and pulled down the high, has made the common man of supreme importance and waged war against whatever is rare, independent, privileged, powerful (save as it serves the common man). "We do not want you apart, superior, in a sphere of your own, we want you to serve us"—such is the
