Page 164 - beyond-good-and-evil

Hail, ye worthies, barrow-wheeling,
‘Longer—better,’ aye revealing,

Stiffer aye in head and knee;
Unenraptured, never jesting,
Mediocre everlasting,

SANS GENIE ET SANS ESPRIT!

229. In these later ages, which may be proud of their
humanity, there still remains so much fear, so much SU-
PERSTITION of the fear, of the ‘cruel wild beast,’ the
mastering of which constitutes the very pride of these
humaner ages—that even obvious truths, as if by the agree-
ment of centuries, have long remained unuttered, because
they have the appearance of helping the finally slain wild
beast back to life again. I perhaps risk something when I
allow such a truth to escape; let others capture it again and
give it so much ‘milk of pious sentiment’ [FOOTNOTE:
An expression from Schiller’s William Tell, Act IV, Scene
3.] to drink, that it will lie down quiet and forgotten, in its
old corner.—One ought to learn anew about cruelty, and
open one’s eyes; one ought at last to learn impatience, in
order that such immodest gross errors—as, for instance,
have been fostered by ancient and modern philosophers
with regard to tragedy—may no longer wander about vir-
tuously and boldly. Almost everything that we call ‘higher
culture’ is based upon the spiritualising and intensifying of
CRUELTY—this is my thesis; the ‘wild beast’ has not been

1