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AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.XVand your ways; the sort of contempt you yourselves have for the even more Anglo-Saxonculture of the Americans ? I candidly confessthat in my more German moments I have feltand still feel as the German philosophers do ; butI have also my European turns and moods, andthen. I try to understand you and even excuseyou, and take your part against earnest andthinking Germany. Then I feel like telling theGerman philosophers that if you, poor fellows, hadpractised everything they preached, they wouldhave had to renounce the pleasure of abusing youlong ago, for there would now be no more Englishmen left to abuse l As it is, you have sufferedenough on account of the wild German idealsyou luckily only partly believed in: for what theGerman thinker wrote on patient paper in hisstudy, you always had to .write the whole worldover on tender human skins, black and yellowskins, enveloping ungrateful beings who sometimes had no very high esteem for the depth andbeauty of German philosophy. And you havenever taken revenge \.!POn the inspired mastersof the European thinking-shop, you have neverreabused them, you have never complained oftheir want of worldly wisdom : you have invariably suffered in silence and agony, just as braveand staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For thisis what you are, dear Englishmen, and howeverwell you brave, practical, materialistic John Bullsand Sancho Panzas may know this world, howevermuch better you may be able to perceive, to count,to judge, and to weigh things than your idealbDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

xviNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.German Knight: there is an eternal law in thisworld that the Sancho Panzas have to follow theDon Quixotes ; for matter has to follow the spirit,even the poor spirit of a German . philosopher !So it has been in the past, so it is at present, andso it will be in the future; and you had better prepare yourselves in time for the eventuality. Forif Nietzsche were nothing else but this customarytype of German philosopher, · you would againhave to pay the bill largely; and it would bevery wise on your part to study him: SanchoPan a may escape a good many sad experiencesby knowing his master's weaknesses. But asNietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,as Germany seems to emerge with him from heryouthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not evenhave the pleasure of being thrashed in the company of your Master: no, you will be thrashedall alone, which is an abominable thing for anyright-minded human being. " Solamen miserissocios habuisse malorum." *The second reason for the neglect of Nietzschein this country is that you do not need him yet.And you do not need him yet because you havealways possessed the British virtue of not carrying things to extremes, which, according to theGerman version, is an euphemism for the Britishwant of logic and critical capacity. You have,for instance, never let your religion have any greatinfluence upon your politics, which is somethingquite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in theirdistress.Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.xviihim so angry about you. For· the German seesyou acting as a moral and law-abiding Christianat home, and as an unscrupulous and Machiavellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains fromthe reproach of hypocrisy, with which the morestupid continentals invariably charge you, he willcertainly call you a " British muddlehead." Wel1,I myself do not take things so seriously as that,for I know that men of action have seldom timeto think. It is probably for this reason also thatliberty of thought and speech has been granted toyou, the law-giver knowing very well all the timethat you would be much too busy to use andabuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, itmight now be time to abuse it just a little bit,and to consider what an extraordinary amalgamation is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.True, there has once before been another Christianconquering and colonising empire like yours, thatof Venice-but these Venetians were thinkers compared with you, and smuggled their gospel intothe paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you followtheir example, in order not to be unnecessarilyembarrassed by it in your enterprises .abroad?In this manner you could also reconcile theproper Germans, who invariably act up to theirtheories, their Christianity, their democratic principles, although, on the other hand, in so doingyou would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful toyour own traditions, which are of a niore democratic character than those of any other Europeannation.For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, wasDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

xviiiNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.born in an English cradle: individual liberty,parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights ofthe people, are ideas of British origin, and havebeen propagated from this island over the wholeof Europe. But as the prophet and his words arevery often not honoured in his own country, thoseideas have been embraced with much more fervourby other nations than by that in which theyoriginated. The Continent of Europe has takenthe desire for liberty and equality much moreseriously than their levelling but also level-headedinventors, and the fervent imagination of Francehas tried to put into practice all that was quitehidden to the more sober English eye. Every onenowadays knows the good and the evil consequences of the French Revolution, which sweptover the whole of Europe, throwing it into a stateof unrest, shattering thrones and empires, andeverywhere undermining authority and traditionalinstitutions. While this was going on in Europe,the originator of the merry game was quietlysitting upon his island smiling broadly at theexcitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing asmuch as he could out of the water he himself hadso cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reaping the benefit from the mighty fight for the appleof Eros which he himself had throwri amongst them.As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallelbetween the Germans and the Jews, I may nowbe allowed to follow this up with one between theJews and the English. It is a striking parallel,which will specially appeal to those religious soulsamongst you who consider themselves the lostDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.xixtribes of our race (and who are perhaps even morelost than they think),-and it is this: Just as theJews have brought Christianity into the world,but never accepted it themselves, just as they, inspite of their democratic offspring, have alwaysremained the most conservative, exclusive, aristocratic, and religious people, so have the Englishnever allowed themselves to be intoxicated by thestrong drink of the natural equality of men, whichthey once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most conservative people of our continent.But because the ravages of Democracy havebeen less felt here than abroad, because there is agood deal of the mediceval building left standingover here, because things have never been carriedto that excess which invariably brings a reactionwith it - this reaction has not set in in thiscountry, and no strong desire for the necessity ofit, no craving for the counterbalancing influenceof a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.I cannot help pointing out the grave consequencesof this backwardness of England, which has arisenfrom the fact that you have never taken anyideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,which all the peoples of Europe will have tocross : they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,and stronger, but while the others are already inthe water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing theirground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,you are still standing on the other side of it,Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

XXNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.roaring unmercifully about the poor swimmers,screamers, and fighters below,-but one day youwill have to cross this same river too, and whenyou enter it the others will just be out of it, andwill laugh at the poor English straggler in theirturn IThe third and last reason for the icy silencewhich has greeted Nietzsche in this country is dueto the fact that he has-as far as I know-noliterary ancestor over here whose teachings couldhave prepared you for him. Germany has hadher Goethe to do this; France her Stendhal; inRussia we find that fearless curiosity for allproblems, which is the sign of a youthful, perhapstoo youthful nation; while in Spain, on the otherhand, we, have an old and experienced people, witha long training away from Christianity under thedominion of the Semitic Arabs, who undoubtedlyleft some of their blood behind,-but I find greatdifficulty in pointing out any man over here whocould serve as a useful guide to the heights of theNietzschean thought, except one, who was not aBritisher. I am alluding to a man whose politicsyou used to consider and whose writings you evennow consider as fantastic, but who, like anotherfantast of his race, may possess the wonderful giftof resurrection, and come again to life amongstyou-to Benjamin Disraeli.The Disraelian Novels are in my opinion thebest and only preparation for those amongst youwho wish gradually to become acquainted withthe Nietzschean spirit. There, and nowhere else,will you find the true heroes of coming times,Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.xximen of moral courage, men whose failures andsuccesses are alike admirable, men whose noblepassions have altogether superseded the ordinaryvulgarities and moralities of lower beings, menendowed with an extraordinary imagination,which, however, is balanced by an equal power ofreason, men already anointed with a drop of thatsacred and noble oil, without which the HighPriest-Philosopher of Modern Germany would nothave crowned his Royal Race of the Future.Both Disraeli and Nietzsche you perceive starting from the same pessimistic diagnosis of thewild anarchy, the growing melancholy, the threatening Nihilism of Modern Europe, for bothrecognised the danger of the age behind its loudand forced "shipwreck gaiety," behind its bigmouthed talk about progress and evolution, behindthat veil of business-bustle, which hides its fearand utter despair-but for all that black outlookthey are not weaklings enough to mourn and letthings go, nor do they belong to that cheap classof society doctors who mistake the presentwretchedness of Humanity for sinfulness, andwish to make their patient less sinful and stillmore wretched. Both Nietzsche and Disraeli haveclearly recognised that this patient of theirs issuffering from weakness and not from sinfulness,for which latter some kind of strength may still berequired; both are therefore entirely opposed to afurther dieting him down to complete moral emaciation, but are, on the contrary, prescribing atonic, a roborating, a natural regime for him-advice for which both doctors have beenDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

xxiiNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.reproached with Immorality by their contemporariesas well as by posterity. But the younger doctorhas turned the tables upon their accusers, and hasopenly reproached his Nazarene colleagues withthe Immorality of endangering life itself, he hasclearly demonstrated to the world that theirtrustful and believing patient was shrinkingbeneath their very fingers, he has candidly foretoldthese Christian quacks that one day they wouldbe in the position of the quack skin-specialist atthe fair, who, as a proof of his medical skill, usedto show to the peasants around him the skin ofa completly cured patient of his. Both Nietzscheand Disraeli know the way to health, for theyhave had the disease of the age themselves, butthey have-the one partly, the other entirelycured themselves of it, they have resisted the spiritof their time, they have escaped the fate of theircontemporaries ; they therefore, and they alone,know their danger. This is the reason why theyboth speak so violently, why they both attackwith such bitter fervour the utilitarian and materialistic attitude of English Sci nce, why theyboth so ironically brush aside the airy and fantasticideals of German Philosophy-this is why theyboth loudly declare (to use Disraeli's words) "thatwe are the slaves of false knowledge ; that ourmemories are filled with ideas that have no originin truth ; that we believe what our fatherscredited, who were convinced without a cause;that we study human nature in a charnel house,and, like the nations of .the Ea t, pay divinehonours to the maniac and the fool." But if theseDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.xxiiitwo great men cannot refrain from such outspokenvituperation-they also lead the way: they bothteach the divinity of ideas and the vileness ofaction without principle; they both exalt the valueof personality and character ; they both deprecatethe influence of society and socialisation; theyboth intensely praise and love life, but they bothpour contempt and irony upon the shallowoptimist, who thinks it delightful, and the quietist,who wishes it to be calm, sweet, and peaceful.They thus both preach a life of danger, in opposition to that of pleasure, of comfort, of happiness,and they do not only preach this noble life, theyalso act it: for both have with equal determinationstaked even their lives on the fulfilment of theirideal.It is astonishing-but only astonishing to yoursuperficial student of the Jewish character-thatin Disraeli also we find an almost Nietzscheanappreciation of that eternal foe of the Jewish race,the Hellenist, which makes Disraeli, just likeNietzsche, confess that the Greek and the Hebreware both amongst the highest types of the humankind. It is not less astonishing-but likewiseeasiiy intelligible for one who knows somethingof the great Jews of the Middle Ages-that inDisraeli we discover that furious enmity againstthe doctrine of the natural equality of men whichNietzsche combated all his life. It was certainlythe great Maimonides himself, that spiritual fatherof Spinoza, who guided the pen of his Sephardicdescendant, when he thus wrote in his Tancred:" It is to be noted, although the OmnipotentDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

xxivNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.Creator might have formed, had it pleased him, inthe humblest of his creations, an efficient agentfor his purpose that Divine Majesty has neverthought fit to communicate except with humanbeings of the very highest order."But what about Christian ty, to which Disraeliwas sincerely attached, and whose creation healways considered as one of the eternal glories ofhis race? Did not the Divine Majesty think itfit then to communicate with the most humble ofits creatures, with the fishermen of Galilee, withthe rabble of Corinth, with the slaves, the women,the criminals of the Roman Empire? As I wish, to be honest about Disraeli, I must point out here,that his genius, although the most prominentin England during his lifetime, and althoughviolently opposed to its current superstitions, stillpartly belongs to his age-and for this verypardonable reason, that in his Jewish pride heoverrated and even misunderstood Christianity.He all but overlooked the narrow connectionbetween Christianity and Democracy.· He didnot see that in fighting Liberalism and N onconformity all his life, he was really fighting Christianity, the Protestant Form of which is at the rootof British Liberalism and Individualism to thisvery day. And when later in his life Disraelicomplained that the disturbance in the mind ofnations has been occasioned by " the powerfulassault on the Divinity of the Semitic Literatureby the Germans," he overlooked likewise theconnection of this German movement with thesame Protestantism, from the narrow and vulgarDownloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.XXVmiddle-class of which have sprung all thoserationalising, unimaginative, and merely cleverprofessors, who have so successfully underminedthe ancient and venerable lore. And thirdly, andworst of all, Disraeli never suspected that theFrench Revolution, which in the same breath heonce contemptuously denounced as " the CelticRebellion against Semitic laws," was, in spite ofits professed attack against religion, really a profoundly Christian, because a democratic andrevolutionary movement. What a pity he didnot know all this I What a shower of splendidadditional sarcasms he would have poured overthose flat-nosed Franks, had he known what Iknow now, that it is the eternal way of the Christian to be a rebel, and that just as he has oncerebelled against us, he has never ceased pesteringand rebelling against any one else either of his ownor any other creed.But it is so easy for me to be carried away bythat favourite sport of mine, of which I am thefirst inventor among the Jews-Christian baiting.You must forgive this, however, in a Jew, who,while he has been baited for two thousand yearsby you, likes to turn round now that the opportunity has come, and tries to indulge on his partalso in a little bit of that genial pastime. Icandidly confess it is delightful, and I now quiteunderstand your ancestors hunting mine as muchas they could-had I been a Christian, I would,probably, have done the same; perhaps have doneit even better, for no one would now be left towrite any such impudent truisms against me-Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com

xxviNIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.rest assured of that ! But as I am a · Jew, andhave had too much experience of the other sideof the question, I must try to control myself inthe midst of victory; I must judge things calmly;I must state fact honestly; I must not allow myself to be unjust towards you. First of all, then,this rebelling faculty of yours is a Jewish inheritance, an inheritance, however, of which youhave made a more than generous, a truly Christianuse, because you did not keep it niggardly foryourselves, but have distributed it all over the earth,from Nazareth to Nishni-Novgorod, from Jerusalemto Jamaica, from Palestine to Pimlico, so thatevery one is a rebel and an anarchist nowadays.But, secondly, I must not forget that in everyAnarchist, and therefore in every Christian, thereis also, or may b , an aristocrat-a man who,just like the anarchist, but with a perfectly holyright, wishes to obey no laws but those of his ownconscience; a man who thinks too' highly of hisown faith and persuasion, to convert other peopleto it; a man who, therefore, would never carry

THE Editor begs to call attention to some of the difficulties he had to encounter in preparing this edition of the complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Not being English himself, he had to rely upon the help of collaborators, who were somewhat slow in coming forward. They were