Page 114 - beyond-good-and-evil
P. 114

from their bad conscience than by playing the role of ex-
       ecutors of older and higher orders (of predecessors, of the
       constitution, of justice, of the law, or of God himself), or
       they even justify themselves by maxims from the current
       opinions of the herd, as ‘first servants of their people,’ or
       ‘instruments of the public weal”. On the other hand, the
       gregarious European man nowadays assumes an air as if
       he  were  the  only  kind  of  man  that  is  allowable,  he  glori-
       fies his qualities, such as public spirit, kindness, deference,
       industry, temperance, modesty, indulgence, sympathy, by
       virtue of which he is gentle, endurable, and useful to the
       herd, as the peculiarly human virtues. In cases, however,
       where it is believed that the leader and bell-wether cannot
       be dispensed with, attempt after attempt is made nowadays
       to replace commanders by the summing together of clever
       gregarious men all representative constitutions, for exam-
       ple, are of this origin. In spite of all, what a blessing, what
       a deliverance from a weight becoming unendurable, is the
       appearance of an absolute ruler for these gregarious Euro-
       peans—of this fact the effect of the appearance of Napoleon
       was the last great proof the history of the influence of Napo-
       leon is almost the history of the higher happiness to which
       the entire century has attained in its worthiest individuals
       and periods.

       200. The man of an age of dissolution which mixes the races
       with one another, who has the inheritance of a diversified
       descent in his body—that is to say, contrary, and often not
       only contrary, instincts and standards of value, which strug-

                                                     11
   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119