s
as books of _moral_ seduction: these petty folks fasten themselves to
morality--they know the uses of morality! Morality is the best of all
devices for leading mankind _by the nose_!--The fact is that the
conscious conceit of the chosen here disguises itself as modesty: it is
in this way that _they_, the "community," the "good and just," range
themselves, once and for always, on one side, the side of "the
truth"--and the rest of mankind, "the world," on the other.... In _that_
we observe the most fatal sort of megalomania that the earth has ever
seen: little abortions of bigots and liars began to claim exclusive
rights in the concepts of "God," "the truth," "the light," "the spirit,"
"love," "wisdom" and "life," as if these things were synonyms of
themselves and thereby they sought to fence themselves off from the
"world"; little super-Jews, ripe for some sort of madhouse, turned
values upside down in order to meet _their_ notions, just as if the
Christian were the meaning, the salt, the standard and even the _last
judgment_ of all the rest.... The whole disaster was only made possible
by the fact that there already existed in the world a similar
megalomania, allied to this one in race, to wit, the _Jewish_: once a
chasm began to yawn between Jews and Judaeo-Christians, the latter had
no choice but to employ the self-preservative measures that the Jewish
instinct had devised, even _against_ the Jews themselves, whereas the
Jews had employed them only against non-Jews. The Christian is simply a
Jew of the "reformed" confession.--

45.

--I offer a few examples of the sort of thing these petty people have
got into their heads--what they have _put into the mouth_ of the Master:
the unalloyed creed of "beautiful souls."--

"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart
thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.
Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha
in the day of judgment, than for that city" (Mark vi, 11)--How
_evangelical_!...

"And whosoever shall offend one of _these_ little ones that believe in
me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and he were cast into the sea" (Mark ix, 42).--How _evangelical_!...

"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for
thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes
to be cast into hell fire; Where the worm dieth not, and the fi