at the cost of duty, nor forget
that it is often only through the immolation of self that the self can be
realised.

(2) While the Romantic movement, of which Goethe was the most illustrious
representative, did much to enlarge life and ennoble the whole expanse of
being, its extreme subjectivism and aristocratic exclusiveness found
ultimate expression (_a_) in the pessimism of Schopenhauer, and the
arrogance of Nietzsche. The alliance between art and morality was
dissolved. The imagination scorned all fetters and, in its craving for
novelty and contempt of convention, became the organ of individual
caprice and licence. In Nietzsche--that strange erratic genius--at once
artist, philosopher, and rhapsodist--this philosophy of life found
brilliant if bizarre utterance. If Schopenhauer reduces existence to
nothing, and finds in oblivion and extinction its solution, (_b_)
Nietzsche seeks rather to magnify life by striking the note of a proud
and defiant optimism. He claims for the individual limitless rights;
and, repudiating all moral ties, asserts the complete sovereignty of the
self-sufficing ego. With a deep-rooted hatred of the prevailing
tendencies of civilisation, he combines a vehement desire for a richer
and unrestrained development of human power. He would not only revalue
all moral values, but reverse all ideas of right and wrong. He would
soar 'beyond good and evil,' declaring that the prevailing judgments of
mankind are pernicious prejudices which have too long tyrannised over the
world. He acknowledges himself to be not a moralist, but an
'immoralist,' and he bids us break in pieces the ancient tables of the
Decalogue. Christianity is the most debasing form of slave-morality. It
has made a merit of weakness and servility, and given the name of virtue
to such imbecilities as meekness and self-sacrifice. He calls upon the
individual to exalt himself. The man of {110} the future is to be the
man of self-mastery and virile force, 'the Superman,' who is to crush
under his heel the cringing herd of weaklings who have hitherto possessed
the world. The earth is for the strong, the capable, the few. A mighty
race, self-assertive, full of vitality and will, is the goal of humanity.
The vital significance of Nietzsche's radicalism lies less in its
positive achievement than in its stimulating effect. Though his account
of Christianity is a caricature, his strong invective has done much to
correct the sentim