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Humanity owes no small part of its evils to these fantastic enthusiasts; for they are the insatiable sowers of the weed of discontent with ones self and ones neighbour, of contempt for the world and the age, and, above all, of worldlassitude. An entire hell of criminals could not, perhaps, bring about such unfortunate and farreaching consequences, such heavy and disquieting effects that corrupt earth and sky, as are brought about by that noble little community of unbridled, fantastic, halfmad peopleof geniuses, toowho cannot control themselves, or experience any inward joy, until they have lost themselves completely: while, on the other hand, the criminal often gives a proof of his admirable selfcontrol, sacrifice, and wisdom, and thus maintains these qualities in those who fear him. Through him lifes sky may at times seem overcast and threatening, but the atmosphere ever remains brisk and vigorous.Furthermore, these enthusiasts bring their entire strength to bear on the task of imbuing mankind with belief in inebriation as in life itself: a dreadful belief! As savages are now quickly corrupted and ruined by firewater, so likewise has mankind in general been slowly though thoroughly corrupted by these spiritual firewaters of intoxicating feelings and by those who keep alive the craving for them. It may yet be ruined thereby.
51.
SUCH AS WE STILL ARE.Let us be indulgent to the great oneeyed! said Stuart Mill, as if it were necessary to ask for indulgence when we are willing to believe and almost to worship them. I say: Let us be indulgent towards the twoeyed, both great and small; for, such as we are now, we shall never rise beyond indulgence!
52.
WHERE ARE THE NEW PHYSICIANS OF THE SOUL?It is the means of consolation which have stamped life with that fundamental melancholy character in which we now believe: the worst disease of mankind has arisen from the struggle against diseases, and apparent remedies have in the long run brought about worse conditions than those which it was intended to remove by their use. Men, in their ignorance, used to believe that the stupefying and intoxicating means, which appeared to act immediately, the socalled consolations, were the true healing powers: they even failed to observe that they had often to pay for their immediate relief by a general and profound deterioration in health, that the sick ones had to suffer from the aftereffects of the intoxication, then from the absence of the intoxication, and, later on, from a feeling of disquietude, depression, nervous starts, and illhealth. Again, men whose illness had advanced to a certain extent never recovered from itthose physicians of the soul, universally believed in and worshipped as they were, took care of that.
It has been justly said of Schopenhauer that he was one who again took the sufferings of humanity seriously: where is the man who will at length take the antidotes against these sufferings seriously, and who will pillory the unheardof quackery with which men, even up to our own age, and in the most sublime nomenclature, have been wont to treat the illnesses of their souls?
53.
ABUSE OF THE CONSCIENTIOUS ONES.It is the conscientious, and not the unscrupulous, who have suffered so greatly from exhortations to penitence and the fear of hell, especially if they happened to be men of imagination. In other words, a gloom has been cast over the lives of those who had the greatest need of cheerfulness and agreeable imagesnot only for the sake of their own consolation and recovery from themselves, but that humanity itself might take delight in them and absorb a ray of their beauty. Alas, how much superfluous cruelty and torment have been brought about by those religions which invented sin! and by those men who, by means of such religions, desired to reach the highest enjoyment of their power!
54.
THOUGHTS ON DISEASE.To soothe the imagination of the patient, in order that he may at least no longer keep on thinking about his illness, and thus suffer more from such thoughts than from the complaint itself, which has been the case hithertothat, it seems to me, is something! and it is by no means a trifle! And now do ye understand our task?
55.
THE WAYS.Socalled short cuts have always led humanity to run great risks: on hearing the glad tidings that a short cut had been found, they always left the straight pathand lost their way.
56.
THE APOSTATE OF THE FREE SPIRIT.Is there any one, then, who seriously dislikes pious people who hold formally to their belief? Do we not, on the contrary, regard them with silent esteem and pleasure, deeply regretting at the same time that these excellent people do not share our own feelings? But whence arises that sudden, profound, and unreasonable dislike for the man who, having at one time possessed freedom of spirit, finally becomes a believer? In thinking of him we involuntarily experience the sensation of having beheld some loathsome spectacle, which we must quickly efface from our recollection. Should we not turn our backs upon even the most venerated man if we entertained the least suspicion of him in this regard? Not, indeed, from a moral point of view, but because of sudden disgust and horror! Whence comes this sharpness of feeling? Perhaps we shall be given to understand that, at bottom, we are not quite certain of our own selves? Or that, early in life, we build round ourselves hedges of the most pointed contempt, in order that, when old age makes us weak and forgetful, we may not feel inclined to brush our own contempt away from us?