s youth. After serving his time in the army--he
was considered one of the best riders of his regiment--and after a
brilliant University career at Bonn and Leipzig, he was appointed, at
twenty-four years of age, Professor of Greek in the University of
Bale. His academic activity extended over eleven years, and was only
interrupted in 1870 by a few months' service in the Ambulance Corps,
during the Franco-German War.

His first book, "The Birth of Tragedy," appeared in 1871. Like most of
his books, it was published at his own expense, and, like most of his
books, it did not find a public. The three first parts of his
masterpiece, "Thus Spake Zarathustra," were such a desperate failure
that Nietzsche only ventured to print fifty copies of the fourth and
concluding part, and he printed them merely for private circulation
amongst his friends, but he only disposed of seven copies!

In 1879 he resigned, owing to ill-health, with a pension of L120.
After his retirement he spent a nomadic life wandering from Nice to
Venice, and from the Engadine to Sicily, ever in quest of health and
sunshine, racked by neuralgia and insomnia, still preaching in the
desert, still plunging deeper and deeper into solitude. And as the
world refused to listen to him, Nietzsche became more and more
convinced of the value of his message. His last book, "Ecce Homo," an
autobiography, contains all the premonitory symptoms of the
threatening tragedy. It is mainly composed of such headings as the
following: "Why I am so Wise," "Why I am so Clever," "Why I write such
Excellent Books," and "Why I am a Fatalist."

Alas! fatality was soon to shatter the wise and clever man who wrote
those excellent books. In 1889 Nietzsche went mad. For eleven years he
lingered on in private institutions and in the house of his old mother
at Naumburg. He died in 1900, when his name and fame had radiated over
the civilized world, and when the young generation in Germany was
hailing him as the herald of a new age. England, as usually happens in
the case of Continental thinkers, was the last European country to
feel his influence; but in recent years that influence has been
rapidly gaining ground, even in England, a fact abundantly proved by
the great and startling success of the complete edition of his works.

II.

Most writers on Nietzsche--and they are legion--begin with extolling
him as a prophet or abusing him as a lunatic. I submit that before we
extol or abuse, ou