ANOTHER SIDE OF NIETZSCHE SIR, —Mr. Wiener in his eulogy of
"The Real Nietzsche" wonders how much he has been read and you, yourself (Janus), flirt rather surprisingly
with the German philosopher. Nearly 'thirty years have passed since I read Nietzsche's works and I have none of them to hand, but here are some actual quotations from my notes on his books:— " Christianity is a slave morality invented by the weak to bolster up the weak. Chastity is unnatural ; scruples are folly. Man should live as he likes or not live at all.
Dead are all gods, now we will that Supermen live.
Sin is a Jewish institution, it is the moral interpretation of physiological depression.
Remorse is indecent. Pity is ignoble. Christian altruism is the collective egotism of the feeble. A good conscience is so like a good digestion as often to be mistaken for it. The sublime is the mantle of the ugly. Every triumph of an ideal has been a retrogressive movement. Good men never speak the truth. The New Testament is the gospel of a completely ignoble type of man. Christianity is a mean life and the most fatal and seductive lie that has ever yet existed. It is the morality of a paltry people—it allows men to emasculate themselves. It is the triumph of castration. Poverty, humility and chastity are dangerous and slanderous ideals, poisons. Sympathy is one of our modern vices."
This was the teaching which inspired Hitler to say, "We shall breed a new race trained to hardness; cruelty, violence, supermen, leading masses. On them we shall found a Reich that will last for a thousand years." Most of us in this country believe in Christianity as the best way of life and many of us still believe in it as the supreme, revealed religion. To read Nietzsche certainly provokes thought, but it should lead us, (t) to realise the hideous character of this antithesis to the old beliefs, and (a) to aim at supermen nobler than those of Nietzsche. An earlier philosopher than he said, speaking of false prophets, "By your fruits ye shall know them" The fruits of Nietzsche's philosophy are to be seen in Lidice, Lublin and Rotterdam ; in temporary triumph followed by disaster, destruction, disgrace and misery.. Nietzsche ended as an incurable lunatic and his disciple, Hitler, may share his fate.
Spring Hill, Chitonville, Northamptgn. F. INCE-JONES.
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