Thoughts out of Season, part 1 | Page 4

this customary type of German philosopher, you
would again have to pay the bill largely; and it would be very wise on
your part to study him: Sancho Panza may escape a good many sad
experiences by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as Nietzsche no

longer belongs to the Quixotic class, as Germany seems to emerge with
him from her youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even have
the pleasure of being thrashed in the company of your Master: no, you
will be thrashed all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. "Solamen miseris socios habuisse
malorum."[6]*
[Footnote * : It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.]
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche in this country is that
you do not need him yet. And you do not need him yet because you
have always possessed the British virtue of not carrying things to
extremes, which, according to the German version, is an euphemism for
the British want of logic and critical capacity. You have, for instance,
never let your religion have any great influence upon your politics,
which is something quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
him so angry about you. For the German sees you acting as a moral and
law-abiding Christian at home, and as an unscrupulous and
Machiavellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from the reproach
of hypocrisy, with which the more stupid continentals invariably charge
you, he will certainly call you a "British muddlehead." Well, I myself
do not take things so seriously as that, for I know that men of action
have seldom time to think. It is probably for this reason also that liberty
of thought and speech has been granted to you, the law-giver knowing
very well all the time that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it might now be time to
abuse it just a little bit, and to consider what an extraordinary
amalgamation is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas. True, there
has once before been another Christian conquering and colonising
empire like yours, that of Venice--but these Venetians were thinkers
compared with you, and smuggled their gospel into the paw of their
lion.... Why don't you follow their example, in order not to be
unnecessarily embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad? In this
manner you could also reconcile the proper Germans, who invariably
act up to their theories, their Christianity, their democratic principles,
although, on the other hand, in so doing you would, I quite agree, be
most unfaithful to your own traditions, which are of a more democratic
character than those of any other European nation.

For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was born in an English
cradle: individual liberty, parliamentary institutions, the sovereign
rights of the people, are ideas of British origin, and have been
propagated from this island over the whole of Europe. But as the
prophet and his words are very often not honoured in his own country,
those ideas have been embraced with much more fervour by other
nations than by that in which they originated. The Continent of Europe
has taken the desire for liberty and equality much more seriously than
their levelling but also level-headed inventors, and the fervent
imagination of France has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one nowadays knows the
good and the evil consequences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state of unrest, shattering
thrones and empires, and everywhere undermining authority and
traditional institutions. While this was going on in Europe, the
originator of the merry game was quietly sitting upon his island smiling
broadly at the excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as much
as he could out of the water he himself had so cleverly disturbed, and
thus in every way reaping the benefit from the mighty fight for the
apple of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them. As I have
endeavoured above to draw a parallel between the Germans and the
Jews, I may now be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel, which will specially
appeal to those religious souls amongst you who consider themselves
the lost tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more lost than
they think),--and it is this: Just as the Jews have brought Christianity
into the world, but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in spite of
their democratic offspring, have always remained the most conservative,
exclusive, aristocratic, and religious people, so have the English never
allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the strong drink of the natural
equality