HUMAN
ALL-TOO-HUMAN
A BOOK FOR FREE SPIRITS
PART I
By
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
TRANSLATED BY
HELEN ZIMMERN
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
J. M. KENNEDY
The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche
The First Complete and Authorised English Translation
Edited by Dr Oscar Levy
Volume Six
T.N. FOULIS
13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
EDINBURGH: AND LONDON
1909
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
FIRST DIVISION: FIRST AND LAST THINGS
SECOND DIVISION: THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL SENTIMENT
THIRD DIVISION: THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
FOURTH DIVISION: CONCERNING THE SOUL OF ARTISTS AND AUTHORS
FIFTH DIVISION: THE SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE
SIXTH DIVISION: MAN IN SOCIETY
SEVENTH DIVISION: WIFE AND CHILD
EIGHTH DIVISION: A GLANCE AT THE STATE
AN EPODE—AMONG FRIENDS
INTRODUCTION.
Nietzsche's essay, Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, appeared in 1876,and his next publication was his present work, which was issued in1878. A comparison of the books will show that the two years ofmeditation intervening had brought about a great change in Nietzsche'sviews, his style of expressing them, and the form in which theywere cast. The Dionysian, overflowing with life, gives way to anApollonian thinker with a touch of pessimism. The long essay form isabandoned, and instead we have a series of aphorisms, some tinged withmelancholy, others with satire, several, especially towards the end,with Nietzschian wit at its best, and a few at the beginning so veryabstruse as to require careful study.
Since the Bayreuth festivals of 1876, Nietzsche had gradually come tosee Wagner as he really was. The ideal musician that Nietzsche hadpictured in his own mind turned out to be nothing more than a ratherdilettante philosopher, an opportunistic decadent with a suspicioustendency towards Christianity. The young philosopher thereuponproceeded to shake off the influence which the musician had exercisedupon him. He was successful in doing so, but not without a[Pg viii] struggle,just as he had formerly shaken off the influence of Schopenhauer.Hence he writes in his autobiography:[1] "Human, all-too-Human, isthe monument of a crisis. It is entitled: 'A book for free spirits,'and almost every line in it represents a victory—in its pages I freedmyself from everything foreign to my real nature. Idealism is foreignto me: the title says, 'Where you see ideal things, I see thingswhich are only—human alas! all-too-human!' I know man better—the