the stock before referred to has still left sound elements—notably in Hanover, Westphalia, Holstein, and, in general, North Germany.[1] Peasant blood is the best, but Nietzsche has respect for the nobles of the Marches and for the Prussian nobility in general—once venturing the remark that the future of German culture lies with the sons of Prussian officers.[2] Though Germans understand obeying better than commanding, there are those who can command.[3] In 1888 Nietzsche wrote his sister, "Our new Kaiser pleases me more and more: his latest is that he has taken a very firm stand against AntiSemitism and the Kreuzzeitung.… He would surely understand will to power as a principle."[4] Moreover, the present Verdummung may not last forever, and there may be room for greater ideas than the Empire in time; the Germans should train a ruling caste on broader lines than at present.[5]
Not unnaturally Nietzsche gives less attention to other European stocks—he is less acquainted with them. Of the English he does not expect much. England is the home of parliamentarism and democracy.[6] Comfort, business, and personal liberty are inadequate ideals. He sees more of the impulse for greatness in the feelings of Russian Nihilists than in those of English Utilitarians—"England's small-mindedness (Klein-Geisterei) is now the greatest danger on earth."[7] But he does not think that England is strong enough to continue her old commercial and colonial rôle fifty years longer: too many
- ↑ Werke, XIII, 346-7, §§ 857, 859.
- ↑ Ibid., XIII, 347, § 859; 345, § 856.
- ↑ Dawn of Day, § 207.
- ↑ Leben, II (2), 890.
- ↑ Werke, XIV, 420, § 304; XIII, 356, § 880; cf. suggestions of a new German "Wesen" in Werke (pocket ed.), III, 435, § 4. Nietzsche expresses the wish that Germans might get control of Mexico to the end of giving an example to future humanity of a model forest-culture (Werke, XII, 207, § 441).
- ↑ "Modern ideas," contributory to or symptomatic of the European decline noted in chap, xxviii, are ultimately of English origin (Beyond Good and Evil, § 263; cf. what is said of Buckle, Genealogy etc., I, § 4).
- ↑ Werke, XIII, 352, § 872 (cf. 332, § 822). The last statement must be in view of England's predominance on the earth—she sets the tone and gives the example. As to the first statement, one notices that the last English writer of distinction on ethics (G. E. Moore, Ethics), as so many earlier ones, makes pleasure and pain the final measure of right and wrong. There is a friendlier attitude to English thinkers (though not on this score) in Genealogy etc., I, § 1; Mixed Opinions etc., § 184; and, generally, in his second, less idealistic, period.
