ect, in other words, of any variation from the
normal proportion I have mentioned, is to produce unhappiness, whether
it be that the will is greater than the intellect, or the intellect
greater than the will. Especially is this the case when the intellect is
developed to an abnormal degree of strength and superiority, so as to be
out of all proportion to the will, a condition which is the essence of
real genius; the intellect is then not only more than enough for the
needs and aims of life, it is absolutely prejudicial to them. The result
is that, in youth, excessive energy in grasping the objective world,
accompanied by a vivid imagination and a total lack of experience, makes
the mind susceptible, and an easy prey to extravagant ideas, nay, even
to chimeras; and the result is an eccentric and phantastic character.
And when, in later years, this state of mind yields and passes away
under the teaching of experience, still the genius never feels himself
at home in the common world of every day and the ordinary business of
life; he will never take his place in it, and accommodate himself to it
as accurately as the person of moral intellect; he will be much more
likely to make curious mistakes. For the ordinary mind feels itself so
completely at home in the narrow circle of its ideas and views of the
world that no one can get the better of it in that sphere; its faculties
remain true to their original purpose, viz., to promote the service of
the will; it devotes itself steadfastly to this end, and abjures
extravagant aims. The genius, on the other hand, is at bottom a
_monstrum per excessum_; just as, conversely, the passionate, violent
and unintelligent man, the brainless barbarian, is a _monstrum per
defectum_.

* * * * *

_The will to live_, which forms the inmost core of every living being,
exhibits itself most conspicuously in the higher order of animals, that
is, the cleverer ones; and so in them the nature of the will may be seen
and examined most clearly. For in the lower orders its activity is not
so evident; it has a lower degree of objectivation; whereas, in the
class which stands above the higher order of animals, that is, in men,
reason enters in; and with reason comes discretion, and with discretion,
the capacity of dissimulation, which throws a veil over the operations
of the will. And in mankind, consequently, the will appears without its
mask only in the affections and the p