cious of it, we refrain from confessing it even
to ourselves.

There are some, however, who are both frank enough and bold enough to
announce their belief in the radical doctrine which demands a complete
transformation of essential values. For them, good is evil and evil
good, and they seem not ashamed to avow it. The conspicuous German
philosopher of later years, Nietzsche, with a naive simplicity insists
that the great need of our modern civilization is that which he
designates as "the transvaluation of all values." By this he means the
complete transformation of certain ideas of supreme value into their
direct opposites. He declares, for instance, that the central virtues of
Christianity, such as those of self-sacrifice, pity, mercy, indicate an
inherent weakness of the human race, and that the strong man dissipates
his energies through the offices of kindness and helpfulness. Thus the
law which commands us to bear one another's burdens must be regarded as
obsolete. Every man should be strong enough to bear his own burdens. If
not, he is a drag to the onward progress of humanity, and to assist him
is to do evil and not good. If you help the weak, you so far forth
assist in perpetuating an inferior type of manhood.

Nietzsche's "Moralic Acid."

From this point of view, the definition of religion given in the Old
Testament should be revised, "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly
before thy God." In doing justice we must first be just to self; in
loving mercy it must not be at the expense of our own interests and
advantage, and we must not walk so humbly before our God as to give to
the world the appearance of weakness or lack of independence. As
Nietzsche insists, "The man who loves his neighbor as himself must have
an exceedingly poor opinion of himself." If the race is to be perfected,
everything and every person must be sacrificed in order to produce and
preserve the strong man at all hazards. There is a kind of "moralic
acid," as Nietzsche styles it, which is corroding the strength of
humanity in our modern day. We have discoursed too much of character,
too little of power; too much of self-sacrifice and too little of
self-assertion; too much of right, too little of might. Conscience not
only interferes with success, but also prevents the evolution of a
superior type of man, that superman who is not constrained by duty nor
limited by law, living his life "beyond good and evil."

The serious question which