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his ascetic tendencies save him from the petty personal



pretensions which so obstruct our ordinary social intercourse;



and his purity gives us in him a clean man for a companion。 



Felicity; purity; charity; patience; self…severitythese are



splendid excellencies; and the saint of all men shows them in the



completest possible measure。







But; as we saw; all these things together do not make saints



infallible。  When their intellectual outlook is narrow; they fall



into all sorts of holy excesses; fanaticism or theopathic



absorption; self…torment; prudery; scrupulosity; gullibility; and



morbid inability to meet the world。  By the very intensity of his



fidelity to the paltry ideals with which an inferior intellect



may inspire him; a saint can be even more objectionable and



damnable than a superficial carnal man would be in the same



situation。  We must judge him not sentimentally only; and not in



isolation; but using our own intellectual standards; placing him



in his environment; and estimating his total function。







Now in the matter of intellectual standards; we must bear in mind



that it is unfair; where we find narrowness of mind; always to



impute it as a vice to the individual; for in religious and



theological matters he probably absorbs his narrowness from his



generation。  Moreover; we must not confound the essentials of



saintliness; which are those general passions of which I have



spoken; with its accidents; which are the special determinations



of these passions at any historical moment。  In these



determinations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary



idols of their tribe。  Taking refuge in monasteries was as much



an idol of the tribe in the middle ages; as bearing a hand in the



world's work is to…day。  Saint Francis or Saint Bernard; were



they living to…day; would undoubtedly be leading consecrated



lives of some sort; but quite as undoubtedly they would not lead



them in retirement。  Our animosity to special historic



manifestations must not lead us to give away the saintly impulses



in their essential nature to the tender mercies of inimical



critics。







The most inimical critic of the saintly impulses whom I know is



Nietzsche。  He contrasts them with the worldly passions as we



find these embodied in the predaceous military character;



altogether to the advantage of the latter。  Your born saint; it



must be confessed; has something about him which often makes the



gorge of a carnal man rise; so it will be worth while to consider



the contrast in question more fully。







Dislike of the saintly nature seems to be a negative result of



the biologically useful instinct of welcoming leadership; and



glorifying the chief of the tribe。  The chief is the potential;



if not the actual tyrant; the masterful; overpowering man of



prey。  We confess our inferiority and grovel before him。  We



quail under his glance; and are at the same time proud of owning



so dangerous a lord。  Such instinctive and submissive



hero…worship must have been indispensable in primeval tribal



life。  In the endless wars of those times; leaders were



absolutely needed for the tribe's survival。  If there were any



tribes who owned no leaders; they can have left no issue to



narrate their doom。  The leaders always had good consciences; for



conscience in them coalesced with will; and those who looked on



their face were as much smitten with wonder at their freedom from



inner restraint as with awe at the energy of their outward



performances。







Compared with these beaked and taloned graspers of the world;



saints are herbivorous animals; tame and harmless barn…yard



poultry。  There are saints whose beard you may; if you ever care



to; pull with impunity。  Such a man excites no thrills of wonder



veiled in terror; his conscience is full of scruples and returns;



he stuns us neither by his inward freedom nor his outward power;



and unless he found within us an altogether different faculty of



admiration to appeal to; we should pass him by with contempt。







In point of fact; he does appeal to a different faculty。



Reenacted in human nature is the fable of the wind; the sun; and



the traveler。  The sexes embody the discrepancy。  The woman loves



the man the more admiringly the stormier he shows himself; and



the world deifies its rulers the more for being willful and



unaccountable。  But the woman in turn subjugates the man by the



mystery of gentleness in beauty; and the saint has always charmed



the world by something similar。  Mankind is susceptible and



suggestible in opposite directions; and the rivalry of influences



is unsleeping。  The saintly and the worldly ideal pursue their



feud in literature as much as in real life。







For Nietzsche the saint represents little but sneakingness and



slavishness。  He is the sophisticated invalid; the degenerate par



excellence; the man of insufficient vitality。  His prevalence



would put the human type in danger。







〃The sick are the greatest danger for the well。  The weaker; not



the stronger; are the strong's undoing。  It is not FEAR of our



fellow…man; which we should wish to see diminished; for fear



rouses those who are strong to become terrible in turn



themselves; and preserves the hard…earned and successful type of



humanity。 What is to be dreaded by us more than any other doom is



not fear; but rather the great disgust; not fear; but rather the



great pitydisgust and pity for our human fellows。 。 。 。  The



MORBID are our greatest perilnot the 'bad' men; not the



predatory beings。  Those born wrong; the miscarried; the broken



they it is; the WEAKEST who are undermining the vitality of the



race; poisoning our trust in life; and putting humanity in



question。 Every look of them is a sigh'Would I were something



other!  I am sick and tired of what I am。'  In this swamp…soil of



self…contempt; every poisonous weed flourishes; and all so small;



so secret; so dishonest; and so sweetly rotten。  Here swarm the



worms of sensitiveness and resentment; here the air smells odious



with secrecy; with what is not to be acknowledged; here is woven



endlessly the net of the meanest of conspiracies; the conspiracy



of those who suffer against those who succeed and are victorious;



here the very aspect of the victorious is hatedas if health;



success; strength; pride; and the sense of power were in



themselves things vicious; for which one ought eventually to make



bitter expiation。  Oh; how these people would themselves like to



inflict the expiation; how they thirst to be the hangmen!  And



all the while their duplicity never confesses their hatred to



be hatred。〃'222'







'222' Zur Genealogie der Moral; Dritte Abhandlung; Section 14。  I



have abridged; and in one place transposed; a sentence。















Poor Nietzsche's antipathy is itself sickly enough; but we all



know what he means; and he expresses well the clash between the



two Ideals。  The carnivorous…minded 〃strong man;〃 the adult male



and cannibal; can see nothing but mouldiness and morbidness in



the saint's gentleness and self…severity; and regards him with



pure loathing。  The whole feud revolves essentially upon two



pivots:  Shall the seen world or the unseen world be our chief



sphere of adaptation?  and must our means of adaptation in this



seen world be aggressiveness or non…resistance?







The debate is serious。  In some sense and to some degree both



worlds must be acknowledged and taken account of; and in the seen



world both aggressive

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