GENERAL TYPES OF 
 SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 OS IAS L.SCHWARZ 
 
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GENERAL TYPES OF 
 SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 A PHILOSOPHICO- PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY 
 OP GENIUS. TALENT AND PHILISTINISM IN 
 THEIR BEARINGS UPON HUMAN SOCIETY AND 
 ITS STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER SOCIAL ORDER 
 
 BY 
 
 OSIAS L. SCHWARZ 
 
 With a Preface by 
 
 JACK LOND ON 
 
 and an Introductory Letter by 
 
 MAX NOBDAU 
 
 Savoir, c^est prSBoir; privoir, c'est pouvoir; 
 pouvoir dest devoir. — ^A. Comte, M. Gutau 
 Zur Wahrheit durch Entsagung. — O. L. S. 
 OiSiv iipll^to, — Zeno 
 
 BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1916, BT RiCHABD G. BaOOEB 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Made in the United States of America 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
TO MY WIFE: 
 
 Ich bin ein armer Denker, 
 Hab' weder Ruhm noch Geld; 
 Doch hole mich der Henker, 
 Ob so was mir vergaUt 
 Das Leben hier auf Erden, 
 Wo manche NulUtat 
 Sich stolz oft kann geberden 
 Als gross' Autoritat. 
 
 II 
 
 Das Elnz'ge was ich bieten 
 Dir, meine Liebste, kann, 
 Sind relne LiebesblUhten 
 Von einem treuen Mann. 
 Ich kann auch auf den Schwlngen 
 Der kuhnen Phantasie 
 Dich in die Sphare bringen 
 Erhab'ner Philosophie, 
 Von wo aus wenn Du schauen 
 Wirst nach der kleinen Erd', 
 So wirst Du nicht mehr bauen 
 Auf eitler Dinge Wert. 
 Wie kleinlich und verganglich 
 Erscheint auf dieser Hoh', 
 Wie leer und unzulanglich 
 AUtaglich Freud' und Weh ! 
 Nur Wahrheit und die Liebe 
 Sind ew'ge, heil'ge GUter: 
 Die fiirchten keine Diebe 
 Und brauchen keine Hiiter. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Drum liebe Deinen Denker 
 So ohne Ruhm imd Geld. 
 Es hole mich der Henker, 
 Ob ich Dir's nicht vergelt'l 
 
 Berlin, October ZO, 1901. 
 
 O. L. S. 
 
Abseits von den Menchenwogen, 
 Welche stromen hin und her, 
 Unbewusst sich hingezogen 
 FiiMend nach erhab'ner Sphar', 
 Wandr'ich einsam, unbeachtet, 
 Auf bewusstem, eig'nem Pfad, 
 Wo mein Herz fortwahrend schmachtet 
 Nach mehr Licht und guter Tat. 
 
 II 
 
 Und so wandernd ganz alleine 
 Auf dem schweren Lebenspfad, 
 Schopf ich, teure Liebste meine, 
 Frischen Mut und neuen Rat 
 Aus der heil'gen, reinen Liebe, 
 Welche unser Herz belebt 
 Und die harten Schichsalshiebe 
 Zu vermindern ist bestrebt. 
 
 O. L. S. 
 
 Berlin, October S7, 1901. 
 
 Si Ton veut 6crire sur des matiferes oil la connaissance ne pent 
 provenir que de I'observation et la solidite que de la meditation, 
 s'exer^ant k ses heures sur des donn^es complexes et de plus en 
 plus nombreuses, il faut avant tout n'Stre pas press6 d'etre lu. 
 En eflfet, travailler en ces matiferes, c'est attendre. Attendre, c'est 
 se laisser instruire par les choses, par les gens, par les livres, et 
 plut6t encore en profitant de ce qu'on les recontre qu'en se don- 
 nant grand' peine pour les aller chercher; car les livres, choses, 
 gens, sont tous un peu comme les complaisants : questionnez-les. 
 Us se font de votre avis; n'ayez pas I'air de vous soucier de leur 
 opinion, leur pens6e se trahit et la v6rit6 leur 6chappe. 
 
 R. TOPFFEH. 
 
 (Reflexions d'un peintre gdnevois, t II, p. 46.) 
 
 II 
 
 Was eine lange weite Strecke 
 Im Leben von einander stand. 
 Das kommt nun unter einer Decke 
 Dem guten Leser in die Hand. 
 
 Goethe. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 "General Types of Superior Men" is one of those 
 immortal, epoch-making works which appear only at 
 very long intervals, and which leave an indelible, con- 
 structive impression on the mind of the world and 
 mark a century mile-stone on the arduous and painful 
 path of the world's intellectual development. This is 
 so because such a work as this springs from the bottom- 
 most deep of a prophetic soul which is moved by an 
 insatiable and impervertible impulse for truth as well 
 as by the purest love for the entire human family. 
 
 This present work gives us vastly more than can be 
 inferred from the title. The psychology of the various 
 and many types of superior men is merely the nucleus 
 of his subject from which Mr. Schwarz ventures into 
 all regions of human knowledge in order to build up 
 his original philosophy of human life. His philosophy, 
 as embodied in this work and in two as yet unpublished 
 works on ethics, is not the nebulous, lifeless, grandilo- 
 quent but meaningless theorizing of our universities, 
 but is the reasoning of an intensely original thinker — 
 one who deals with the realism of life, who is not afraid 
 to touch upon the fierce class struggle that seems to 
 him to threaten to strangle human progress, and one 
 who uses simple, easily intelligible language because he 
 really has something freshly new and intelligible to say 
 under the sun. 
 
 One of Mr. Schwarz's greatest merits is the fact that 
 he voices a vigorous protest against the tendency of 
 our capitalistic civilization towards over-specialization, 
 
 5 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 which is egotistic unconcern about remote ends, totality 
 of happiness, and wholeness of life. His work is truly 
 a revival of Socrates' fight against the shams and 
 sophists who ever bend themselves to the dethronement 
 of ethics and the instatement of the worship of mam- 
 mon. 
 
 What Sigmund Freud tries to accomplish with his 
 psycho-analysis in the field of mental pathology, Mr. 
 Schwarz (himself not so faithful and precise a disciple 
 of Max Nordau as he strives to make himself believe) 
 tries to accomplish in the field of social pathology by 
 breathing into the various fields of human activity the 
 revivifying air of sincerity, self-scrutiny, straight 
 thinking, and plain speaking. What many of our 
 radical writers have striven to accomplish indirectly, 
 implicitly, concretely in novels of social criticism, Mr. 
 Schwarz handles boldly, directly, and explicitly, not 
 alone in this work, but in the two works on ethics pre- 
 viously mentioned which it is to be hoped will soon 
 see the hght of day. 
 
 Jack London. 
 
 Glen Ellen, Sonoma Co., Calif. 
 August 19, 1916. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Definition, General Characteristics of Genius and 
 Talent. 
 
 Genius and Talent 11 
 
 General Characteristics of Their Fields of Ac- 
 tivity — Difference of Degree — Aim and Abil- 
 ity — Natural Interests — Self -Instruction — Oen^ 
 itis amd Erudition — Memory — Imitation, Teach- 
 ableness, Thought-Pride, Verbosity, Grandilo- 
 quence. 
 
 Superior and Average Mind 33 
 
 Social Significance — Impressibility, Conscious- 
 ness, Personality — Difference in Thinking — 
 Mental Harmony — Difference in Affection and 
 Volition. 
 
 Adaptation, Heredity, and Variability ... 45 
 Adaptation — Heredity — Variability and Prog- 
 ress — Difference in Racial Influence — Genius and 
 Nationality — Attitude Towards the Established 
 Order of Things — True and False Superiority — ■ 
 Sociability — Difference in Intellectual Needs — 
 Difference in Originality. 
 
 II. Origin and Conditions. 
 
 Origin, Causes 83 
 
 Heredity, Spontaneous Variations — Environ- 
 ment — Necessity — Historical Progress of Gerir- 
 ius — Is Genius a Partial Increase of Abilities? 
 — Social and Economic Causes of Philistinism 
 — Economic Cause of Philistinism,. 
 
 Conditions, Incentives 99 
 
 Pain — Poverty — Poverty and Intellectual Fertil- 
 ity — Isolation and Social Life — Division of Labor 
 — Hiimian and Animal Intelligence. 
 
 III. Types of Superior Men, Intellectual Hierarchy. 
 
 Types of Superior Men 114 
 
 Observation and Interpretation — Impressibility — 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAFFER PAQB 
 
 SentimentaKsm and Cogitation — Subject-Matter 
 and Method— Point of View and Aim — First 
 CoMse, Ultimate Result — Ability and Sphere of 
 Interests — Contact with the DaUy Life — Special- 
 ism and Many-Sidedness. 
 
 Intellectual Hierabchy, Classification . . 13* 
 The Man of Action — Poet and Thinker — Juvenile 
 and Mature Types — Classification — Hierarchy — 
 Curves of Development — Scientist and Philoso- 
 pher — Realistic and Romantic Thinker. 
 
 IV. Creative Life 153 
 
 Imitation and Creation — Inspiration, Intuition — 
 Quest of Truth — Thought and Language— Art, 
 Poetry, Psychology — Play and Serious Activity 
 — Wit and Humor — Dream and Dramiatic Activ- 
 ity — Dream, Activity — Philosophy , Science, Ulti- 
 mate Concepts. Idealism or Philosophic Ro- 
 manticism — Scientific Laws — Causation — Ac- 
 quisition and Limitations of Human Knowl- 
 edge — Facts and Hypotheses — Diagrammatic 
 Representation of the Evolution of Hypotheses, 
 Theories, Philosophical Systems — Progress in 
 Knowledge and Understanding — Evohition of 
 Knowledge — Knowledge of Other Selves — The 
 Various Organs of Knowledge — Potentiality — 
 Truth and Error — Truth of Opposite Theories 
 ■ — Belief, Doubt, Lam of Conservation — Truth, 
 Beauty, Utility, Morality — Truth from, the Cap- 
 italistic Point of View — Quantity and Quality 
 — Does the Actor Create? — Authorship. 
 
 V. Affective Life 276 
 
 Solitude — Pain, Pleasure, Emotions — Wisdom 
 and Aspirations — Morality, Success, Ha/ppiness, 
 Love of Approbation. 
 
 VI. Steiving Life 297 
 
 Theory and Practise — Thinking and Acting — 
 Ai/ms and Activity — Reward for Right Acting — 
 Leadership — Pursuit of Truth and Struggle for 
 Existence — Pursuit of Social Happiness. 
 
 VII. Influence Upon the Masses 329 
 
 Influence of Thinkers and Artists — Influence of 
 Mystics — Why and How Far Is the Mass Influ- 
 enced? — How Suggestion Works. 
 
 VIII. Appeeciation 349 
 
 Difficulties in Appreciationr— Admiration With- 
 out Adherence — Treatment of Superior Men and 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 SAPTEB PAOB 
 
 Their Social Usefulness — MutuaZ Appreciation 
 Between Superior and Average Man — Self-Ap- 
 preciation — Criteria of Oenms — Appreciation 
 amd Reward of Oenvas Under the Capitalistic 
 Rigi/me. 
 
 I 
 
 IX. N0BMAI,ITT AND ABNORMALITY 387 
 
 Normal and Abnormal Ideals — Sane and Insane 
 Genius — Normal and Abnormal Originality — 
 Common Sense, Science, Speculation — Mysticism 
 — Regressive Genius — Mathematical Mysticism — 
 Psychic Poison — Sex and Mental Superiority — 
 Genius and Paramnesia, Amnesia, Perceptional 
 Obtuaeness and Other Apparent Deficiencies. 
 
 Index 435 
 
8 rue Henner, Paris, June 4th, 1912. 
 My dear Ma. Schwakz, 
 
 At last I have achieved the perusal of your Mss. 
 with the additional notes ; much later than I had 
 anticipated; but I could not do it sooner, as I hate 
 mere skipping and want to read carefully. 
 
 I have. never been more embarrassed to judge a 
 work than in your case. If I were to discuss all your 
 ideas — and the temptation to this course is very 
 strong — I should have to write several volumes. This 
 being out of the question, I must needs limit myself 
 to mere generalities which are just as unsatisfactory 
 to myself as to you. However, I have no choice. 
 
 Your book is teeming with ideas, but still more 
 seething with feelings. It is a vehement preaching in 
 the old testamentary prophetic style, abrupt, fitful, 
 violent, abundant, just as the momentary wrath or 
 sorrow inspires the preacher ; it is Isaiah holding forth 
 on the structure of modern society and on the barren- 
 ness and wickedness of the souls of contemporary 
 civUized men. 
 
 Your study on genius, pseudo-superior man and 
 philistine is in reality a pretext for invective against 
 the average man who is in fact an average beast. 
 Your indictment against that type is wonderful in its 
 quaintness, raciness and overwhelming power. It com- 
 pares favorably with the very best, most scathing 
 satires on the miserable creature man that I know of 
 in the world literature. But it is dogmatic, not scien- 
 tific, it is subjective and cannot claim that calm ob- 
 jective argumentativeness that carries with it convic- 
 
 H 
 
12 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 tion even to obtuse or oppositionally oriented minds. 
 You charm by your wit, your imagery, your 
 originality; you dazzle by your temperament, your 
 vigor, your torrential and breezy dash and pluck ; you 
 stun with your thunder-bolts ; but you scarcely ever 
 stoop to prove, to discuss, to argue, to count with 
 the possibility of a disagreeing opiniqn and to refute it. 
 
 In detail, there are some statements and presump- 
 tions which I deem dubious ; your analysis of hereditary 
 influences in the formation of genius is hazy. But this 
 is of no importance. Only a pettyish carping critic 
 would stop at it. We must span the whole, and this 
 is, not dry, lifeless, pale abstractions, but impassioned, 
 hot-blooded, flushing life. 
 
 Your picture of real society, especially, I suppose, 
 in America, is ghastly and appalling. Many of its 
 features apply to civilized society everywhere and hold 
 good in every country. Your idealism which makes 
 you fervently believe that socialistic society would 
 show none of the vices you so marvelously brand in the 
 capitalistic society, is beautiful and lofty. I doubt, 
 however, that you are right. Socialistic society would 
 be constituted by, and composed of, men, and as, on 
 your own showing, the phllistine is vastly predominat- 
 ing in our species, this stupid and evil fellow would 
 carry his own shortcomings into socialistic society as 
 well. The state of mankind Is conditioned by the 
 quality of men, not by institutions. 
 
 Your mastery of English is astounding. Altogether 
 you are a powerful writer and sure to achieve success 
 in the long run. 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 De. Max Nordau. 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF 
 SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DEFINITION, GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 OF GENIUS AND TALENT 
 
 GENIUS AND TALENT 
 
 General Characteristics of Their Fields of Activity — 
 The man of talent subsumes special cases, isolated phe- 
 nomena, under a known general rule, under a known 
 general law ; the man of genius is rather concerned with 
 ascending from a few special cases, from a few isolated 
 phenomena, to a new general rule, to a new general law. 
 
 But new generalizations are not the only field for 
 the activity of a genius. Sagacity is displayed not 
 only in discovering something quite new. It is not less 
 required in reducing something unknown to something 
 known, something apparently known to something 
 really unknown; in identifying things commonly con- 
 sidered unlike, as well as in separating or in discrimi- 
 nating things vulgarly regarded as identical ; in finding 
 relations between things and events which to the tal- 
 ented man seem entirely unrelated ; in finding expression 
 or means of realization for what in others are mere 
 vague, groping, timid feelings and wishes. 
 
 From a maximum of observations the talented man 
 draws a minimum of conclusions, whereas the genius 
 draws a maximum of conclusions from a minimum of 
 observations. Talent is mostly concerned with apply- 
 ing, interpreting, modifying, verifying, . . . the crea- 
 tions of the genius. 
 
 The startlingly novel creations of the genius are 
 
 11 
 
12 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 largely due to the fact that he draws the material 
 for his reasoning processes in particular and for his 
 mental activities in general from all available sources, 
 unhampered in his selection by either prejudices or 
 fear of consequences. He draws not only upon the 
 limited scientific stock in trade and upon those con- 
 scious personal experiences which enjoy scientific popu- 
 larity and social approval, as the mere man of talent 
 does, but he also draws upon the tabooed, unpopular, 
 obscure facts and claims and upon the vast store of 
 subconscious perceptions and long-forgotten memories. 
 Only in distinction from the philistine who reacts to 
 his mental torpor and dull daily routine by resorting 
 at intervals to stimulants, intoxicants, excitements in 
 order to break for a short while the barriers between 
 the subconscious reservoir and the dried-up conscious 
 streams of thought, and in distinction from the genuine 
 psychic mediums, hypnotic subjects, crystal-gazers, 
 clairvoyants, mind-readers, etc., who, when not resort- 
 ing to the easier method of fraud, resort to artificially 
 induced states of mental dissociation, inner absorption, 
 hypersensitiveness, in order to dig up from their sub- 
 conscious some forgotten trivial, personal memories 
 and some directly or telepathically obtained percep- 
 tions — the! man of genius draws naturally, steadily, 
 slowly, effortlessly, during his normal state upon the 
 worth-while contents of his subconscious reservoir, by 
 keeping the gates of his consciousness always wide open 
 and by keeping his attention always concentrated upon 
 some vital question or problem. And just as he draws 
 fearlessly, impartially and patiently upon the vast but 
 chaotic store of the subconscious, just so is it his prac- 
 tise not to dismiss from his consciousness any thought, 
 feeling, or impulse that claims his attention before hav- 
 ing found for it the proper place or function in his 
 mental economy, no matter how distasteful, unflatter- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 13 
 
 ing, tabooed, unpresentable that thought, feeling or im- 
 pulse may appear. And if, for some reason, he is com- 
 pelled to deviate from this wholesome habit of constant 
 self-scrutiny, psycho-analysis, intellectual impartiality, 
 and to relegate certain thoughts to the subconscious, 
 he never allows them to remain there long in an isolated, 
 erratic, dissociated, non-incorporated state ; for they 
 may work havoc by developing into mental weeds (fixed 
 ideas, phobias, obsessions, delusions, etc.) which tend 
 to overrun, displace, replace, or break up the normal, 
 primary personality. 
 
 The hypermnesia of fever, dreams, trance, etc., 
 proves that our subconscious or automatic mental ac- 
 tivity (subconscious perception, memory, . . . ) is 
 richer in contents, in receptivity and in invention, but 
 poorer in orderliness, general harmony, organization, 
 selection, adaptation, utilization, is less our own, than 
 our conscious perception, conscious memory, conscious 
 judgment. Conscious mental activity means to select 
 those of our numerous present, past, and possible im- 
 pressions which we can organize into a working mech- 
 anism in conformity with our few dominant, driving, 
 guiding ideas and ideals. There is no or little room 
 in an average sane consciousness for ideas which do 
 not fit into a teleological scheme: such ideas are con- 
 sciously soon forgotten, although they may leave nomi- 
 nal or verbal representatives in consciousness for a 
 certain time. 
 
 Conscious activity is never an exact repetition or 
 copy of an older or usual activity; moreover, it is 
 always selective, critical, teleological: it suspects, ex- 
 pects, or tends towards harmony, an aim. Semi-con- 
 scious, inspirational, spontaneous activity is a still 
 greater deviation from the usual, but is not teleological 
 for the actor or agent himself. Automatic behavior is 
 an exact copy of an older one; it may tend towards 
 
14 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 an aim, a priori unknown to the agent. The fact that 
 a close observation can always detect a difference be- 
 tween a really and a seemingly conscious activity, 
 proves that consciousness is not a mere epiphenoraenon, 
 a mere mental image ; it is a regulator, a factor helping 
 in new situations, but disturbing in usual circum- 
 stances. "Conscious" means influenced by, influencing, 
 harmonizing with, the mind at large. The achievements 
 of the talented men are conscious, anticipated, slightly 
 original, voluntary; the creations of the genius are 
 semi-conscious, inspirational, spontaneous, highly 
 original; the average man is best fit for muscular or 
 automatic activity. The convictions of the genius are 
 mainly first-hand, i. e., drawn directly from the hard 
 school of bitter personal experience, from the cosmical 
 and social environment, and deeply rooted in his inner- 
 most soul. Others' opinions are wholly adopted by 
 talented, and especially by average men. They do not 
 separate fact from interpretation and appreciation 
 (emotional interpretation) ; whereas the genius ex- 
 tracts the objective components of the facts, adding 
 his own interpretation and valuation if necessary. 
 
 The intellectual seeds of thoughts planted into an 
 average or talented mind, either perish or develop into 
 thoughts more or less similar to their mother-thoughts ; 
 whereas the genius grafts his own thoughts and feelings 
 upon those which are transplanted into his mind, and 
 thus gives birth to improved, new intellectual plants. 
 He invents means and ways of increasing the amount 
 of truth, beauty, love, social happiness ; of enriching 
 and ennobling human life. 
 
 Difference of Degree — Does the man of genius diff^er 
 in degree or in kind, quantitatively or qualitatively, 
 from the average man.? How does he differ from the 
 man of talent? 
 
 It depends upon the point of view from which we 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 15 
 
 look at them simultaneously. What appears to be a 
 quantitative difference from the objective point of 
 view, appears as a qualitative difference from the sub- 
 jective point of view. 
 
 The abilities of the original man are not different 
 from those of the routine man: they are merely more 
 developed, richer in results. Looked at from above, 
 from the philosophical point of view, the genius may 
 not seem much more than an average man. But from 
 the social or human standpoint, the quantitative differ- 
 ence seems so large that it can be taken for a 
 difference in quality. If we look at their abilities, 
 geniuses differ merely in degree from others ; but if 
 we look at their achievements, fields of activity, they 
 differ in kind. 
 
 All the mental processes (perceiving, remembering, 
 imagining, judging, reflecting and their various com- 
 binations) presuppose and arise from a dualism, a dis- 
 crepancy between the self and the not-self, the present 
 and the past, the present and the future, the actual 
 and the possible, the known and the unknown. All 
 these processes have in common such a dualism, and 
 involve the same, irreducible elementary operations of 
 discriminating, identifying, linking. They differ, how- 
 ever, in the degree of complexity, of remoteness between 
 the related facts. What is true of the various mental 
 processes in one and the same individual, holds also 
 of the mental processes of the genius when compared 
 with those of the average man: The genius has no 
 abilities different from those of the average man, he 
 only has them in a larger quantity. Where the mental 
 energy of the common mortal is soon exhausted when 
 applied to simple, concrete facts having reference to 
 his daily needs, the genius can apply his mental energy 
 as easily in attacking abstract notions, whole complexes 
 of facts having no immediate bearing upon the narrow 
 
16 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 sphere of actual human interests. 
 
 Aim and Ability. — Ability and aim, force and direc- 
 tion, are inseparable. But this does not mean that 
 the same ability, the same force, must always persist 
 in the same direction, and cannot be turned towards a 
 different aim; nor does it mean that the same aim 
 cannot be attained, or at least striven after by differ- 
 ent abilities. There is no limit to the number of aims, 
 directions of activity; but the number and the magni- 
 tude of the abilities, forces, impulses are limited. 
 Hence arises the need of neglecting, reducing, subordi- 
 nating some aims in favor of others. The mere fact' 
 of getting interested in a certain line of activity, of 
 beginning to pursue a certain aim, reduces, often 
 against our will and without our knowing it, our ability 
 of pursuing other aims. Aims and means lie on the 
 same line ; only the means must be first passed through 
 before the aim can be attained. This being often the 
 only difference between means and aims, we understand 
 why a means may become an aim and why an aim may 
 become a means to a further end. Some geniuses 
 differ from each other more in aim than in ability 
 (various classes of scientists: physicists, chemists, 
 geologists . . . ; various classes of artists : poets, novel- 
 ists, dramatists ; painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, 
 etc.). Others differ from each other more in ability 
 than in aim. Thus observers, scientists, philosophers, 
 all pursue truth. Only the first stop at facts and 
 simple relations, at perceptions ; the second rise to more 
 complex relations, to concrete concepts; the third rise 
 to the most general concepts, to world-conceptions, to 
 first principles. Philistines differ from geniuses in both 
 aims and abilities. The talented man differs from the 
 genius belonging to the same class more in ability than 
 in aims. What for a more able man, for a genius, is 
 a mere means or secondary aim, is for a talented or less 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 17 
 
 able man who works in the same direction a primary 
 aim. What is a primary aim for a man working in 
 one direction, for one class of genius and talent, is a 
 mere secondary aim or a means for one working in a 
 different direction, for another class of genius and 
 talent, and vice versa. 
 
 Natural Interests. — In addition to the difference 
 in abilities, other fundamental differences between 
 genius, talent and average mind must be looked for in 
 the quality and quantity of their respective inborn, 
 natural interests ; for it is these interests that deter- 
 mine the content and direction of our consciousness, 
 perception, memory, imagination, revery, thinking; it 
 is these interests that set in action or stimulate our 
 mental abilities. We usually notice, remember, . . . 
 spontaneously, involuntarily, easily, what we are di- 
 rectly interested in ; we notice, remember, . . . delib- 
 erately, intentionally, vountarily, slowly, what we are 
 indirectly interested in; we disregard, we relegate from 
 our consciousness whatever is against our natural in- 
 terests and inclinations. To the philistine, food, shel- 
 ter, clothing, sexual love affairs, his bodily appearance, 
 gossip, external approbation, material possessions, su- 
 perficial intellectual pleasures, are just as serious af- 
 fairs or aims of life as the pursuit of general, abstract, 
 impersonal knowledge, of beauty, of social reform and 
 social happiness, of self-perfection and self-approba- 
 tion, of spiritual possessions, of refined and ethereal 
 intellectual joys, are to the genius. The philistine is 
 just as insatiable, just as philoneistic and persistent, 
 and often just as original in his trivial pursuits and 
 petty ambitions as the genius is in his lofty aspirations. 
 Only the philistine insatiableness is detrimental to so- 
 ciety as a whole, the philistine's philoneism consists 
 merely in love of new sensations, of fads, of fashion, of 
 distinction, of new appearances. A philistine would feel 
 
18 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 just as unhappy if he had to eat every day the same 
 kind of food, and wear a whole year the same clothes, 
 as a philosopher would feel if he were compelled to 
 think continually the same few thoughts, and to read 
 his whole life only one and the same book, say the 
 Bible. The man of talent stands midway between the 
 genius and the average man. The pseudo-superior 
 man or the ordinary man of action, in addition to the 
 philistine pursuits and the sham intellectual pursuits, 
 and the semi-superior man, in addition to some real 
 intellectual pursuits, strive also for power, influence, 
 popularity, political or economic leadership. 
 
 The natural interests or inclinations of an indi- 
 vidual being given, the characteristic objects of his 
 thoughts, the permanent content of his consciousness, 
 and his characteristic ways of action follow as neces- 
 sary corollaries ; for qui vent la 'fin, veut les moyens. 
 
 A great, exclusive interest in, or an intense desire 
 for, a certain object, joined to a little ability, can ac- 
 complish much more in that direction than a great 
 ability guided by a feeble interest. Looking at the 
 results alone, such an individual with an intense, one- 
 sided desire, great perseverance, but little ability, is 
 often mistaken for a genius. This is the case espe- 
 cially of financial kings, political and military heroes, 
 explorers. . . . True genius, however, is more or less 
 universal; it attains many-sided results in a compara- 
 tively short time, with comparatively little labor, with 
 comparatively simple tools or apparatus, without pre- 
 meditation, without perseverance conscious of its par- 
 ticular aim. 
 
 Self-Instruction. — In study, in self-instruction, the 
 genius seeks rather confirmation of, than impulse for, 
 his creations ; whilst the talented man seeks rather im- 
 pulse, stimulation for mental activity. 
 
 Some learn in order to know ; others read in order to 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 19 
 
 have something to talk about ; a third class utilize their 
 learning either for theoretical or for practical purposes, 
 either for theoretical or financial speculations. Both 
 extremes, the disinterested genius and the selfish ma- 
 terialist, belong to the third class; dilettante readers, 
 professors, etc., belong to the second group; scholars, 
 serious readers, etc., belong to the first. 
 
 To the superior man, to the man with genuine hunger 
 for knowledge, books are a means of supplementing, 
 completing, broadening, strengthening and unifying his 
 knowledge gained from personal experience ; in books 
 he seeks stimulation to further thinking and personal 
 observation or investigation ; books serve to widen his 
 intellectual horizon, i. e., to make his mind still more 
 receptive for an ever-increasing field of impressions ; 
 they help him overcome, in imagination at least, the 
 limitations imposed upon him by the daily routine and 
 prosaic struggle for bread as well as by the shortness of 
 human life ; in books he looks for the acquaintance with 
 such men, things and epochs as are not accessible to his 
 direct observation. To him book knowledge is not — as 
 it is to the pseudo-superior man — a substitute for the 
 communion with men and Nature, for the personal 
 search after knowledge, an excuse for laziness and 
 parasitism, an object of luxury or a dead weight to be 
 stored away, carried around and preserved intact in his 
 memory in order to be displayed, boasted, exhibited on 
 certain occasions ; to him it is an indispensable brain 
 food to be digested, assimilated and transformed into 
 available energy, into dynamic, energizing, guiding 
 ideas ; unlike our dignified scholars, he does not allow 
 his attention to be entirely absorbed by the opinions 
 and speculations of others about men, things and life's 
 struggles, but prefers to consult the latter directly 
 and to keep in touch therewith. 
 
 G^nms and Erudition. — In science the conservative 
 
20 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 element is represented by scholars, savants ; in prac- 
 tical life it is represented by women. The more we 
 know about the opinions of others, the less opinions of 
 our own can we form. Vast erudition — narrow yiews. 
 The memory of the pure scholars is puffed up with 
 verbal wisdom and with studied words of praise, or ad- 
 miration for acknowledged, past progress; but their 
 own mental eyes are blind to the real progressive move- 
 ments and intellectual fermentations going on under 
 their very noses. 
 
 Erudition is to, or, rather, beyond a certain extent, 
 an obstacle to originality. Erudition is only a means 
 to the original man, but no end in itself. In the works 
 of others, the genius does not look so much for in- 
 formation as for stimulation of his own creative 
 activity. 
 
 Memory. — The memory of the genius is assimila- 
 tive; that of the savant is mainly reproductive. The 
 memory of the genius is essentially assimilative, com- 
 parative, harmonious, i. e., it retains those experiences 
 which can be brought into connection with its own 
 original content; whereas the memory of the savant 
 and of the average man is chronological, topograph- 
 ical, unharmonious, accumulative except in the sphere 
 of his specialty or of his personal interests. The 
 genius remembers what he understands ; the others 
 may come to understand in the long run what they 
 remember, although too much memorizing, i. e., absorp- 
 tion of too much intellectual food — especially if not 
 called for by a higher or an organic need — usually hin- 
 ders digestion, assimilation, understanding. 
 
 Imitation, Teachableness. — Just as the human 
 baby seems to be at a disadvantage, because of its 
 clumsiness, helplessness, unadaptedness, when compared 
 with many animals that come into the world almost 
 qompletely equipped with instincts of self-preservation ; 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 21 
 
 just so does the genius seem to be clumsy, backward, 
 unteachable, unsociable, unadapted, slow-witted, when 
 compared with the philistine and particularly with the 
 pseudo-superior man, who learn quickly to imitate the 
 language, manners, behavior of others and the outward 
 form of everything. But just as the initial advantage 
 of animals over men, i. e., their well-defined inherited 
 abilities, proves a stumbling-block to learning from in- 
 dividual experience, to further progress and self-ex- 
 pansion; just so the apparent greater teachableness 
 at school, the passive adaptability or inborn imitative- 
 ness, the grasping of forms, conventions, surface of 
 things of the philistine proves to be a stumbling-block 
 to teachableness at the school of life, to creativeness or 
 active adaptability, to mental self-development, to get- 
 ting at the bottom, substance or essence of things, to 
 finding the path to be followed under new, unusual cir- 
 cumstances. The genius may show awkwardness and 
 lack of skill in the field of tradition worship, routine 
 and convention ; but the philistine is absolutely helpless 
 in the field of self-education, innovation, pioneering, 
 coping with new and broad problems. 
 
 Imitation of other people's doings and sayings is the 
 most natural, hence the easiest method of mental growth, 
 in philistines, in one-sided and semi-superior individuals. 
 Imitation, learning, begins, of course, with the mere 
 form, outer appearance, word, or the letter of the true, 
 beautiful, and the moral; and it ends with more or 
 less complete assimilation of the hidden, invisible 
 content. 
 
 The growth of the genius proceeding from within, 
 from content towards form, from thought and feeling 
 towards expression, we can understand why he is un- 
 able to imitate others, we understand why he is so 
 awkward and hence so easily detected when he tries 
 to speak and act without having the corresponding 
 
22 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 convictions and feelings, we understand why an actor 
 is very seldom a good playwright, and vice versa; 
 we understand why the genius — even the many-sided — 
 makes the impression of being less adaptable to new 
 circumstances, less teachable, than the semi- and the 
 pseudo-superior men. In the philistine and the pseudo- 
 superior man, form and content are usually dissociated, 
 or rather form is the all-important pursuit, form is an 
 end-in-itself ; whereas in the genuine superior man, 
 form and content are inseparably connected: He can- 
 not accept the one without the other, he cannot speak 
 for the mere beauty of the sound, he cannot act like 
 others for the mere sake of acting or of pleasing, he 
 cannot act without feeling and pursuing ends in con- 
 formity with his actions, he cannot adopt publicly, 
 externally or temporarily, the form of higher thoughts 
 and sentiments and pursue secretly, innerly or later 
 baser ends like the pseudo-superior man. So that 
 where the philistine has merely to adopt a form, the 
 genius has to adopt simultaneously the content hidden 
 therein; and this retards his success in learning from 
 others. Where the philistine and the pseudo-superior 
 man rest satisfied with a superficial, partial assimilation 
 of others' thoughts and feelings, the genius cannot 
 refrain from going to the bottom, origin and end of 
 things ; he cannot refrain from following up the 
 thoughts to their remotest antecedents and down to 
 their remotest consequences. And this is another cause 
 of his slowness in assimilating others' ideas. The ap- 
 parent quick-mindedness, quick-wittedness, teachable- 
 ness, adaptability, many-sided education of pseudo-su- 
 perior men lies in their lack of conscientiousness and 
 in their purely formal, verbal, partial, disconnected, 
 superficial, imitative learning from others. The pseudo- 
 superior man is richer in words than in ideas, richer in 
 expression than in feeling, richer in appearances than 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 23 
 
 in realities. The reverse is true of the genius. The 
 genius, like an infant, disposes of more states of con- 
 sciousness than of adequate words to express them. 
 The philistine is poor in both ideas and corresponding 
 words. 
 
 Thoti^ht-pride, Verbosity, Grandiloquence . — Just as 
 to the financial millionaire money has a very small sub- 
 jective value, so the intellectual millionaire or the man 
 of genius does not make so much of an original thought 
 as the intellectually poor do. There is a thought-pride 
 as well as a purse-pride. 
 
 Verbosity and grandiloquence are an indirect be- 
 trayal of thought-pride or intellectual snobbism; it is 
 a substitute for self-praise and intellectual sterility. 
 Verbosity is also a sign of thought-confusion; of in- 
 ability to extricate and separate the clear, solid, valu- 
 able thoughts from the ore of impure, muddy, useless, 
 cumbersome, erroneous judgments. Hence genuine 
 genius and verbosity are never found together. The 
 very original man becomes hlase to intellectual pleas- 
 ures : Original ideas come naturally and easily to him, 
 without any conscious or voluntary struggle on his 
 part; not knowing the hardships of the struggle for 
 truth, he cannot feel the joys of intellectual triumph. 
 
 SUPEMOB, AND AVERAGE MIND 
 
 Social Significance. —Action precedes reaction ; spon- 
 taneous activity precedes voluntary activity; play pre- 
 cedes serious activity; revery, imagination, hypothesis, 
 precede perception of new realities or new facts. Se- 
 rious activity consists of play activities which are modi- 
 fied and oriented by the pressure of ungratified needs. 
 Truths or facts are often nothing but verified and 
 modified hypotheses, just as reaction is nothing but 
 action modified by an external cause. The reaction is 
 
M GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 not equal to the externa] action: it is merely propor- 
 tional to it. The external action by itself could not 
 provoke any reaction, if the body acted upon were not 
 more or less self-active. Thus facts do not obtrude 
 themselves upon the mentally inert individual, i. e., upon 
 the unimaginative; education, argumentation, reason- 
 ing, do not appeal to the philistine masses ; insults are 
 not quickly responded to by individuals who are free 
 from vanity, unless these insults are calculated to wound 
 the instinct of self-preservation. 
 
 Children, women and the rich, whose needs are min- 
 istered to by others, and who are kept aloof from the 
 struggles against harsh realities, may indulge in play, 
 revery, illusions, incomplete perceptions, unverified 
 hypotheses. But adults, men, and the poor, who are 
 thrown upon their own resources and, hence, have to 
 face realities, must control and direct their activity, 
 must verify their presuppositions and conform them 
 to reality. The philistine masses, who indulge in all 
 kinds of superstitions, mystical beliefs, illusions, preju- 
 dices with regard to remote men and things that do 
 not affect them directly, immediately and palpably, 
 would be crushed out of existence if they did not form 
 more or less correct opinions about men and things 
 that constitute their immediate environment. The phil- 
 istine does not see in men and things much more than 
 he anticipated, nor does he anticipate very much. He 
 does not see new facts unless they are forced upon his 
 attention by geniuses and by the pressure of immediate 
 circumstances, at the same time. If the genius is more 
 impressed by the same things which act on everybody, it 
 is because he is himself more distinterestedly active, it 
 is because he anticipates more, it is because he is al- 
 ways ready to meet half-way everything and everybody, 
 since he does not waste too much energy, as the philis- 
 tine does, on petty, trivial, selfish matters. If man is 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 25 
 
 much more capable of serious activity than animals, it 
 is because — owing to his prolonged infancy — he has a 
 much greater or richer store of play activities to draw 
 upon in case of emergency. If human intelligence meets 
 needs and external obstacles much more effectively than 
 animals, it is because man exerts his intelligence even 
 in the absence of needs or of obstacles, even before 
 they arise and after their cessation. If the man of 
 genius solves better than the philistine life problems of 
 general, future, higher interest, it is because the per- 
 sonal, momentary, selfish, bodily interests of the genius 
 are reduced to a reasonable minimum, and hence do not 
 absorb his entire attention and energy. Just as it is 
 not so much the greater total relative weight of the 
 brain as the greater weight and complexity of the 
 frontal and parietal lobes which distinguishes the genius 
 from the philistine; just so — to express the same thing 
 in terms of energy — what characterizes the genius is 
 not so much his greater total vital or merely mental 
 energy as the greater surplus of mental energy which 
 is at the disposal of higher, synthetic, conceptual, gen- 
 eral, disinterested, prospective and retrospective think- 
 ing, and which results from the fact that the genius 
 spends a minimum of energy on lower, particular, per- 
 sonal, present interests. 
 
 It is easier to impart motion to a moving body than 
 to a body at rest ; for in the real world there is no such 
 a condition as a zero velocity: A body at rest adheres 
 ever more to its surroundings, hence acquires an in- 
 creasing negative velocity, which must be overcome be- 
 fore the body can be set in motion. Just so knowledge 
 or intellectual motion can be easily imparted to the 
 thinking individual, but not to the adult philistine who 
 did not stop at his childhood's thoughtlessness or intel- 
 lectual inertia, but adheres ever more to the fixed dog- 
 mas, superstitions, customs of his immediate social 
 
26 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 environment, and contracts, an ever-increasing aver- 
 sion to free, independent thinking. The genius is, in 
 the animate world, the moving, progressive or dynamic 
 element ; he cannot take root anywhere ; he moves freely 
 — mentally, at least, if not bodily — from one social 
 class, nation, race, to another; from the present to 
 the past or to the future; from one object of thought 
 to another. He is hated by the philistines, who form 
 the static, conservative, nay, regressive element; for 
 he recalls them from the easy, downward, catabolic 
 path, and spurs them on along the arduous, onward, 
 anabolic path of human life. 
 
 A genius stands for a social organ, whose function 
 is to elaborate a certain ideal, new aspiration, to be 
 completed, coimterbalanced by other aspirations elab- 
 orated by other geniuses. In spite of the multi-lateral 
 symmetry of the social organism, geniuses of the same 
 class cannot so easily take the place of each other, for 
 each has something sui generis, even when compared 
 with those belonging to the same class. The average 
 man stands for a mere social unit, social cell, easily 
 replaceable, substitutable, frequently replaced and sub- 
 stituted, and not infrequently misplaced on account of 
 social imperfections, thus hindering the functioning of 
 social organs, of geniuses. 
 
 The moral geniuses form the brain, the cerebral or- 
 gans, of the social organism. The agitators, organizers, 
 leaders, form its nervous system: they carry to the 
 moral geniuses detailed information as to the anomalies 
 existing within human society ; they give the signal of 
 alarm in case anything goes wrong with human insti- 
 tutions ; they also carry to the philistine masses, which 
 represent the muscular system of the social organism, 
 the general remedial measures devised and recommended 
 for execution by the moral geniuses. The other gen- 
 iuses, the purely technical, artistical, scientifical, philo- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 27 
 
 sophical, merely play the role of organs concerned with 
 particular functions but not with the welfare of the 
 entire organism. The moral geniuses alone see to it — 
 or, rather, will see to it — that the functions performed 
 by these geniuses should run their normal course and 
 should not be turned or shunted off into the channels 
 of parasitic outgrowths, of intra- and extra-social 
 parasites. 
 
 Just as in the individual organism it is not the nerves 
 that feel the pain or realize the cause of and remedy 
 for the pain-producing disturbances, but the brain hid- 
 den in its shelter does all this work noiselessly and un- 
 ostentatiously; and just as in the individual organism 
 there are special nerves, the sensory, afferent or centri- 
 petal nerves, for transmitting to the brain the dis- 
 turbances occurring in various parts of the organism, 
 and other nerves, the motor, efferent or centrifugal, 
 for reacting, according to the dictates of the brain, 
 upon the causes of these disturbances: just so in the 
 social organism it is not the pure agitators and pure 
 truth-tellers that feel the grieves of mankind or elabo- 
 rate suitable remedies, but the obscure, solitary, noise- 
 less, moral geniuses do all this work. The pure truth- 
 teller merely reports on abnormal conditions, iniquities, 
 oppression, intolerance, without fully grasping their 
 extent, deeper causes and far-reaching consequences. 
 And the pure agitator stirs up the masses to action, 
 without being fully aware of the imperiousness, scope, 
 authorship of the message delivered by him to the 
 people. Since, however, the evolution of the social 
 organism shows signs that it will not much longer fol- 
 low the line of extreme specialization or differentiation, 
 like the hierarchical evolution of the individual organ- 
 ism, but wiU rather tend towards a democratic state of 
 society in which all differentiation will be externalized, 
 confined to tools, machinery, institutions, but not to 
 
28 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 men, i. e., every member of society will be conscious 
 of as many social happenings as possible, and capable 
 of fitting into almost any social institution, function 
 or position; it follows that we must not feel surprised 
 to meet here and there with intellectual and artistic 
 geniuses who are also moral geniuses, with intellectual 
 producers who are also intellectual distributors, with 
 moral geniuses who can also agitate or carry their own 
 messages to the people — not to the too rough, stulti- 
 fied, unthinking class — , with some agitators who really 
 feel and partly elaborate themselves what they say, 
 with dramatists who are also able to enact their own 
 productions, etc. On the contrary, the opposite ought 
 to surprise and pain us, viz., to find actors who mis- 
 represent the author because they themselves are in- 
 capable of feeling like him, with agitators who merely 
 make a profession out of carrying the messages of hope 
 and regeneration sent out by moral geniuses because 
 they themselves are vain, selfish and incapable of self- 
 sacrifice; in short, with interpreters who misinterpret 
 the teachings and admonitions of geniuses. It ought 
 to pain us that the masses have been so degraded to 
 mere brainless tools by the spoliation or predatory sys- 
 tem as to be deprived of understanding for the calmer 
 expression of feelings and for the logic of the moral 
 genius and to need the gesticulation, declamation, noise 
 of the pure agitator in order to be aroused from their 
 mental torpor. 
 
 Impressibility, Consciousness, Personality. — The su- 
 perior man, i. e., the man of great talent, has not only 
 a more heterogeneous impressibility but also a more 
 developed consciousness than the average man: His 
 consciousness is more selective, teleological, difi^eren- 
 tiated, discriminating, orderly, harmonious, economi- 
 cal, adaptive, spontaneous or self-active, and qualita- 
 tively richer, i. e., richer in aims or interests. 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 29 
 
 The average man leads a subconscious, suggestible, 
 imitative life; only in new, unhabitual circumstances 
 does he become self-conscious. When the tempest and 
 the commotion of the unexpected is over, the average 
 mind falls back into the sweet habitual sleep of its 
 semi-conscious, hypnoidic life. The reverse is true of 
 the normal superior man ; his self-conscious personality 
 is more stable, more steadily awake. 
 
 The average man is hetero- and auto-suggestible, 
 i. e., his systems of ideas can be harmonized only under 
 the influence of an external authoritative will. Other- 
 wise his mind is in a state of anarchy, disharmony, sub- 
 ject to the tyranny of fixed ideas, false beliefs. The 
 superior man is cosmico- and socio-suggestible, i. e., 
 his systems of ideas are mutually harmonizing them- 
 selves and under the control of real, objective relations. 
 Blind imitation of local, self-styled authorities accounts 
 for 99 per cent of an ordinary man's thinking, feeling 
 and doing. This is the reason why the statistical 
 method is of such little use in psychology and social 
 sciences. 
 
 The personality of the original man is concentrated 
 and determined rather by internal than by external 
 factors. Changing the external factors (material pos- 
 sessions, domestic, national, racial, professional in- 
 fluences), the internal kernel is not intimately affected. 
 The personality of the inferior man is dis-centrated, 
 diffuse, determined and held together mostly under the 
 pressure of external circumstances. On removing the 
 latter the kernel soon volatilizes. 
 
 If the educated philistines, and especially the pseudo- 
 superior men, are so eager to live among or to be seen 
 with a so-called better social class, it is not only be- 
 cause they want to deceive others as to their value, but 
 also because they themselves — owing to their suggesti- 
 bility, imitativeness, mental mimicry — feel and tend to 
 
30 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 become difFerent in a different social environment. 
 Only the genuine superior man, the man with a strong, 
 original personality, can afford to mingle with all kinds 
 of social elements without losing anything from his 
 value; nay, he gains in many-sidedness and in consist- 
 ency by doing so: by asserting and defending — either 
 overtly or before his inner forum — his convictions, sen- 
 timents, peculiarities, against those of others, he comes 
 to find out which are of real, permanent, indestruct- 
 ible social value and which are not worth being fought 
 for and transmitted to posterity. 
 
 The average man possesses on the whole less dis- 
 criminative or selective ability and less motility and 
 spontaneity than the genius; laymen less than special- 
 ists ; females less than males ; animals less than men ; 
 plants less than animals ; inanimate and dead matter 
 less than living matter or protoplasm. The phiHstine 
 accepts almost indiscriminately the opinions and senti- 
 ments thrust upon him by the men in authority; he 
 hardly chooses his wife, friends, vocation, sources of 
 enjoyment and information, etc.; he associates and 
 makes friends with those with whom he happens to be 
 thrown together; his horizon does not go much beyond 
 the narrow circle of men and things into whose midst 
 he happens to have been thrown by circumstances; he 
 passively submits to the existing order of things, un- 
 able as he is to conceive the possibility of a better one. 
 ^His personality is so little his own, so little a product 
 of his spontaneity and internal forces, and so much 
 produced and maintained by immediate external, par- 
 ticularly social, influences that it goes to pieces, i. e., 
 he goes insane during a one or two years' solitary con- 
 finement, but it remains unaffected by a lifelong monot- 
 onous occupation. The amount of solitude a man can 
 bear, as well as the reciprocal of the amount of monot- 
 onous work, blind obedience, compulsory sociability 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 31 
 
 with uncongenial men at which he begins to feel an- 
 noyed, revolted, unhappy, could therefore serve as a 
 measure of his individuality, originality, spontaneity, 
 self-activity, independent personality. 
 
 The average civilized man dreads nothing more than 
 solitude, ostracism, the relaxation of the external in- 
 fluences, suggestions or pressures, in the absence of 
 which his unstable, volatile, hysterically predisposed 
 mind threatens to break up, to disintegrate, to run 
 wild or to fall into extreme, incurable hysteria. His 
 apparent venality, his willingness to obey a master or 
 to serve as a mere tool, his seemingly stupid or ungrate- 
 ful opposition to socialism, anarchism or any other 
 movement directed towards his emancipation, and his 
 hero-worship, are reducible to his dread of mental dis- 
 sociation if left to himself, or to his acquired inability 
 to act spontaneously except within very narrow limits 
 and only in one or two directions allowed by local pub- 
 lic opinion and by his exploiters. External or social 
 pressures brought to bear from all sides by various 
 kinds of oppressors or exploiters prevent the average 
 man's mind from evolving, and split it up into innerly 
 incoherent bundles of impulses; and these very same 
 external pressures, which have destroyed the evolutive 
 power and inner unity of the philistine's soul, become 
 now indispensable for the keeping up of its external, 
 apparent, artificial integrity. 
 
 The less one has in one's self, the more does one try 
 to have on, with, and aroimd one's self; the less abil- 
 ity, the more noise about one's own doings and merits ; 
 the less reason to be proud of one's own merits, the 
 more does one boast of those of others, of one's descent, 
 family, friends, club, party, sect, race, vocation, ma- 
 terial possessions, social rank; the less esteem one de- 
 serves, the more does one ask of one's fellow-men, and 
 the more vulnerable is one's self-love; those are most 
 
32 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 proud of their school education, profession, college, who 
 have intellectually least profited from them. 
 
 The phiUstine is in the social world what an inert 
 body is in the physical realm. Like an inert body, the 
 intellectual and the moral phiHstine do not enter into 
 intellectual or moral activity from their own initi- 
 ative or spontaneously: they need an impulse from 
 without, from a foreign will. Nor do they cease 
 persisting in beliefs, customs, moral practises, etc., im- 
 posed upon them by intellectual or moral geniuses — 
 even if the latter have become absurd, harmful — ^until 
 an impulse towards a contrary or a different direction 
 is given them. 
 
 The spontaneity of the genius is like the spontaneity 
 of an explosive which does not need an external cause 
 proportional to its effects in order to explode; it is 
 the apparent spontaneity of accumulated little causes 
 which begin to act visibly merely upon the addition 
 of another little cause, which seems to be the only one 
 on account of its being the last and- the noticed one. 
 
 What distinguishes the philistine from the genius is 
 the fact that in the former external influences remain 
 separated, unconscious, dormant, and hence without 
 appreciable effect ; whereas in the latter these small 
 impersonal cosmico-social influences are accumulated, 
 summed up, concentrated until they give rise to new 
 thoughts, sentiments or acts of will, personal and 
 strong enough to externalize themselves and to act upon 
 the inert minds of the philistines. 
 
 Difference in Thinking. — What distinguishes the 
 thinking of a superior man from that of the average 
 man is the fact that a thinking process, once begun, in 
 the mind of a superior man, tends to persist in the same 
 direction, after the cessation of the external or internal 
 stimulus; it tends to spread, not only over actual and 
 present experiences, but also over past and possible ex- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 33 
 
 periences and circumstances ; whereas with the average 
 man the thinking processes are of short duration and 
 of little extension, and are aroused by immediate ex- 
 ternal stimuli. To the genius, thinking is an organic, 
 permanent need, an end-in-itself. To the philistine, 
 thinking is either an adventitious, aimless, play activ- 
 ity, or a mere means used only under the pressure and 
 for the gratification of urgent bodily needs. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, the philistine does 
 not care much, nor is he able, to meditate on general 
 problems (origin, meaning, aim of human life and of 
 the universe . . .), on questions having no direct and 
 immediate bearing on his own material welfare. Only 
 under the stimulus of intense psychical pain or deep 
 discontentedness, and sometimes under the stimulus of 
 a general surplus of vital energy, do such questions 
 arise in his mind; but his thinking usually stops soon 
 without having advanced much beyond the raising of 
 the questions. Owing to cumulative hereditary ten- 
 dencies, to spontaneous variations, or mutations, the 
 organ of thinking — which in his philistine and semi- 
 intellectual ancestors arose only adventitiously under 
 the pressure of intense psychical pain, or of a great 
 general surplus of vital energy — becomes in the genius 
 permanent, endowed with specific energy which causes 
 it to function under the stimulus of the slightest psy- 
 chical pain, nay, even in the absence of such a stimulus, 
 and even in the absence of a total, general surplus of 
 vital energy. 
 
 The genius discriminates in a thing and in a phe- 
 nomenon, the typical, general, essential, permanent 
 . . . from the individual, particular, accessory, change- 
 able. . . . The philistine is inclined either to regard 
 every object or phenomenon as particular, as sui 
 generis, or to regard everything as typical. The man 
 of talent, the scientist, are less penetrating and hence 
 
34 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 more cautious than the man of genius : They observe 
 a large number of similar things or phenomena before 
 they dare to separate the typical from the individual. 
 The philistine, like the child and the primitive man, 
 mistakes fable for fact, second-hand for first-hand 
 knowledge, the accidental for the essential, the form 
 for the spirit, the ephemeral for the eternal, the means 
 for the end, the copy for the original, tautologies for 
 explanations, the particular for the general, the arti- 
 ficial and the conventional for the natural, the change- 
 able for the permanent, the trivial for the important, 
 the local for the universal, the appearance for the 
 reality, words for things, thoughts, feelings or will. 
 This distinction between the philistine and the intellect- 
 ual man in matters of general human interest is also 
 found between the ignorant and the educated, the in- 
 experienced and the experienced, between specialists 
 and laymen, pupil and teacher, in matters of theoret- 
 ical, indirect, practical interest. The philistine can- 
 not discriminate in the present the vestiges of the past 
 and the germs of the future; he is unable to see how 
 the present can serve to reconstruct the past and to 
 foretell the future. He does not discriminate between 
 accidental, changeable, occasional, imagined, desired, 
 subjective, apparent relations and material, essential, 
 permanent, immutable, causal, real relations between 
 things ; between spiritual and material possessions. 
 
 Compared with the slow, uncertain, groping infer- 
 ences of the philistine and of the talented man, those 
 of the genius make the impression of intuitions. Where 
 the man of talent reasons, the man of genius perceives. 
 Where the man of talent searches without finding, the 
 man of genius finds without searching. Where the man 
 of talent sees darkness, inextricable confusion, the 
 genius sees light, clearness, obvious relations. 
 
 Thinking, reason, does not transcend experience. We 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 35 
 
 do not get by reasoning more than what is given in 
 experience, i. e., in perception and feeling. Reason can 
 only analyze and synthesize the data of experience, but 
 it cannot increase their number. If from the present 
 we draw conclusions as to the future, it is because ex- 
 perience has shown us that the future is to the present 
 what the present is to the past ; that what is prominent 
 in the present was a mere tendency in the past, hence 
 what is a mere tentative to-day may become a reality 
 to-morrow. If from a few particular known instances 
 we draw conclusions as to the whole class, i. e., as to 
 the unknown instances belonging to the same class, it 
 is because experience has shown us that things, events, 
 men having one attribute in common usually have or 
 tend to have in common other attributes also. Our ex- 
 perience teaches us not only what is, not only the real, 
 but also what ought to be, the ideal; for the "ought" is 
 one of the actual tendencies, the ideal is an exceptional 
 or embryonal real, the future is embryonal in the 
 present. 
 
 If genius seems to transcend experience, it is be- 
 cause the experience of the genius is richer, more con- 
 scious of the whence and the whither than the experi- 
 ence of the talented man and of philistines. It is be- 
 cause the mental eye of the genius is tuned to perceive 
 tendencies, nascent movements, while others are wholly 
 absorbed in noisy actualities ; his eye is tuned to look 
 for the deeper similarity and unity of things, while 
 others' attention is entirely engrossed with superficial 
 variety. Hence, what is reality, a general truth, a 
 perception, a conscious or inner command, a clear state 
 of mind, "Zweckbewusstes Streben," an actual experi- 
 ence to the genius, is still a dream, a particular truth, 
 a bold inference, a law or duty or outer command, a 
 dim state of mind, a vague desire timidly groping in 
 the dark for expression or realization, a possible ex- 
 
36 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 perience to the philistine. 
 
 Formal, external, superficial, geographical, histor- 
 ical, striking differences between men, things or phe- 
 nomena, captivate the whole attention of the philistine 
 and blind him as to the essential, inner, hidden, perma- 
 nent, time- and space-independent, less striking simi- 
 larities. And vice versa : Formal similarities take pos- 
 session of the philistine's entire attention or interest, 
 and do not allow him to see essential differences. To 
 the thinker, however, both geographical or spatial and 
 historical or temporal differences, the differences be- 
 tween nations and the differences between epochs, are 
 not so much differences of kind or essence as of degree 
 or form : Evolution is not so much creative as selec- 
 tive; human progress is not so much in the line of in- 
 tensity as of comprehensiveness, i. e., higher intellect, 
 refined sentiments, and higher morality are not a prod- 
 uct of modern times, or the exclusive possession of a 
 certain race ; and do not increase with time or place, 
 but merely meet with ever more opportunity and ad- 
 herents. Just as the railroad and the telegraph have 
 practically reduced the bodily or physical distances 
 between men; just so this insight into the permanent 
 and universal similarities hidden beneath the changeable 
 and local forms reduces considerably the soul- or psy- 
 chical distances between men. And where the philistine 
 mind sees nothing but bewildering chaos and unceasing 
 disharmonies, deeper insight reveals to the thinker un- 
 derlying order or unity and an ever-growing harmony. 
 
 All our mental processes, even the simplest, most 
 short-lived, and seemingly instantaneous, pass through 
 stages of growth and of decay. Thus, the simplest 
 process of sensation, if attended to, begins with a vague 
 consciousness of some undifferentiated, unlocalized, un- 
 identifiable experience ; after a moment the process be- 
 comes ever more differentiated into an experience of a 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 37 
 
 definite quality, intensity, duration, local sign . . . ; in 
 exceptionally favorable circumstances, this simple sen- 
 sation may evolve or rather get incorporated into an 
 increasing complex process of perception, apperception 
 (^ perception -|- memory), conception, general view. 
 An incipient perception, an incipient recollection, is a 
 vague experience of something indefinable, unnameable ; 
 after a while, if no other experience has captivated our 
 attention, the perception or the recollection be- 
 comes clearer, more differentiated, we discriminate it 
 from other past and present experiences, we localize 
 it, we classify it as novel, as familiar, as belonging to 
 a certain setting, etc. Likewise, the conception of a 
 class of things or of phenomena, the conception of a 
 general or common property, begins with a vague sus- 
 picion which only after days, months, years — if ever — 
 takes on a definite, more or less sharply marked-off, 
 shape. The stage of dissolution of a mental process 
 is the reverse of the evolutional stage. Thus, if, after 
 coming to a clear decision as to what to do and as to 
 how, when, where, why do it, our attention happens to 
 be captivated by some sudden flash of memory or of 
 perception, our decision rolls back into the depths of 
 subconsciousness, of indecision, from which it has pain- 
 fully and elaborately been carried up to the heights of 
 conscious, harmonious life : we first remember only what 
 we decided to do, but we cannot recall the how, where, 
 why . . . ; then, we do not even know what we had de- 
 cided to do, we merely know that something has been 
 decided upon. 
 
 Now, to revert to our subject of superior and of 
 average minds to which I wanted to apply the above- 
 given psychological considerations. In the philistine 
 mind, mental processes, especially the conceptual proc- 
 esses, never pass the embryonal stage of vagueness, in- 
 definiteness, lack of individual characterization. The 
 
38 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 unbalanced, nebulous, immature or decaying, mystical 
 thinkers succeed occasionally in carrying their concep- 
 tions very near the height of clearness, of intellectual 
 safe standing ground ; but either their intellectual cour- 
 age or their intellectual strength fails : they become 
 dizzy, and allow their conceptions to slip back into the 
 dark abysses of unconsciousness, of intellectual con- 
 fusion and uncertainty. Only the balanced intellectual 
 genius succeeds in maintaining some concepts upon the 
 luminous heights of clear thinking. Only the ideal 
 man of action, the volitional genius, is fully conscious 
 of his wishes, aspirations, and means of reaching them. 
 The volitional philistine only knows that he wishes 
 to live differently; but what this difference consists in 
 he does not even suspect. And volitional talent knows 
 what it craves for, but it does not know how to give 
 it reality. The emotionally talented man feels the 
 pressure of a strong feeling in his heart; but how to 
 deliver his heart, how to bring this emotional child to 
 daylight, how to bring it up to full maturity and to 
 social usefulness : this task is left over for the emotional 
 genius. 
 
 The normal average man is intellectualy anthropo- 
 centric, and emotionally ego-centric, which is not iden- 
 tical with egoism; the intellectually superior man is 
 intellectually cosmo-centric, and emotionally ego- or 
 anthropo-centric ; the morally superior man is intellect- 
 ually and emotionally anthropo-centric. 
 
 The common mortal turns his mind to disinterested 
 thinking when he is free from material preoccupations ; 
 the superior man does so in spite of the cares and 
 troubles of the daily life. The thinking function of 
 the common mortal, and especially of women, is not 
 yet differentiated; it has no specific energy at its dis- 
 posal ; it works only in the case of a surplus of energy, 
 or under the pressure of immediate necessity; it is in- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 39 
 
 termittent, adventitious, unstable. Common sense rea- 
 sons sanely, but very seldom clearly; whereas philo- 
 sophical speculation reasons clearly rather than sanely. 
 The moral philistine, after having secured some spot 
 of solid ground in the midst of the stormy ocean of 
 human life, may begin to feel interested in the lot of his 
 less fortunate brothers who are driven around by the 
 merciless, savagely raving storms ; he may come to con- 
 sider those who worry about others' troubles as not 
 mere eccentrics. Whereas the moral genius is deeply 
 pained by the sight of his drowning fellow-men, and he 
 devises schemes of bringing them to the solid ground 
 which he sees extending near at hand and in great 
 abundance, while he himself is floating around upon 
 unsteady waves foaming with rage and is in danger of 
 being swallowed up himself at any moment by the bot- 
 tomless abyss. The art-philistine becomes aware of 
 the beauties of Nature only after — and not before — he 
 has become free from material cares, from the uncer- 
 tain struggles for economic security. Nature with her 
 elementary, untamed forces, the ocean with its raging, 
 stormy waves, are beautiful to look at, but not to strug- 
 gle against. Just as one cannot afford to rejoice in the 
 contemplation of the muscular strength and dexterity 
 of wild beasts before these beasts have gone out of 
 sight, or have been rendered inoffensive by being im- 
 prisoned behind the iron railings of menagerie cages ; 
 just so with the rest of nature: until the men of genius 
 have taught their fellow-men how to domesticate nat- 
 ural forces, animals, and plants, to make provision for 
 the future. Nature was — as she still is for the pariahs 
 of modern civilization — a vast reservoir of inimical 
 forces, a vast hiding-place of unexpected, ubiquitous, 
 steadily lurking dangers for man to avoid or to contend 
 with. Nature's apparent and hidden beauties remained 
 unnoticed by the majority of primitive men who were 
 
40 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ignorant of her laws and ways, whose entire time and 
 energy were consumed by the struggle aga,inst the un- 
 chained, capricious forces. Her horrors disappear for 
 the civilized man in proportion as he comes to know her 
 better, to comply with her laws, to domesticate ever 
 more of her forces, to secure ever more solid standing- 
 ground from which to contemplate safely the rest of the 
 untamed domain of nature, to secure ever more provi- 
 sions for the future in order to be able to indulge in 
 revery and in retrospections. The man of genius for 
 whom ideals are not mere dreams, but anticipated future 
 realities ; the man of genius for whose mental eye the 
 potentialities of cosmic and of human nature are quasi- 
 actuahties, may enjoy, anticipatingly, the beauties of 
 Nature, while she is still treating him stepmotherly. 
 The moral genius may rejoice, anticipatingly, over the 
 beauties, amenities, bright opportunities of a future 
 human society — while being ill-treated and roughly 
 handled by actual human society — because he sees it 
 potentially existing in the present, because he rests 
 satisfied with a minimum of material gratifications in 
 order to save the rest of his time and energy for the 
 contemplation and pursuit of higher aspirations. 
 
 Mental Harmony. — In the mind of the average man 
 there is an apparent harmony between the most an- 
 tagonistic and contradictory states of consciousness, 
 just as there seems to be harmony between savage peo- 
 ples who never come in contact. This state of affairs 
 is neither harmony nor disharmony: it is anharmony. 
 True harmony must be preceded by more or less con- 
 flict. The harmony in the mind of the superior man 
 is like the harmony between civilized nations who have 
 learned to appreciate the advantages of peace and co- 
 operation in the light of the disadvantages resulting 
 from a previous state of war. The great mass of av- 
 erage men live in continual contradiction between words 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 41 
 
 and deeds, between opinion and behavior. Their life 
 is full of contradictions, inconsistencies, for the simple 
 reason that they lack the capacity for self-scrutiny and 
 their opinions are impressed from without, and are not 
 the product of an inner evolution. Hence, their con- 
 tradictions are more extramental than mental; they 
 exist for others rather than for the actor himself. In 
 other words, the average man is not illogical, he is 
 alogical ; his mind is not dis-harmonious, it is an-har- 
 monious, or broken up into disconnected compartments. 
 Mental disharmony seems to be the prerogative of 
 the thinking man, either in the initial or in the declin- 
 ing stage of his evolution. In the average mind, cruelty 
 and kindness, superstitions and sound judgments, pred- 
 atory and cooperative impulses, live side by side with- 
 out coming into contact for lack of a unifying, self- 
 scrutinizing, higher brain organ. 
 
 As affections, or emotions, have a centrifugal, dif- 
 fusive, directly communicative character; and as ideas, 
 convictions, are centripetal, concentrative, but indi- 
 rectly communicative; we understand why opposite, 
 contrary, contradictory emotions never coexist in mind 
 at the same moment, for they either neutralize each 
 other, or predominate alternately ; we understand why 
 even philistines may attain emotional harmony, al- 
 though there is disharmony, contradiction, between their 
 convictions. Harmony between ideas, thoughts, convic- 
 tions, is indirectly established through their accom- 
 panying affective components. Only convictions, theor- 
 ies, general views springing from within, from the depth 
 of our soul, are accompanied by strong affections. 
 Whenever a new theory on a certain matter is thrust 
 upon the attention of an original man having theories 
 of his own on the same matter, he feels immediately 
 whether the new theory agrees with his own or not, 
 even before he is able to bring forward logical argu- 
 
42 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ments for or against it. Before he is able to confront 
 the theories themselves, he feels the agreement, or the 
 opposition between their irradiating emotional waves. 
 Whereas the convictions, theories, of the philistine, of 
 the semi- and the pseudo-superior man, being imposed 
 from without, are rather superficial, deprived of emo- 
 tional roots and ramifications of their own, more or 
 less skilfully grafted upon vain and selfish ideas and 
 desires ; we understand therefore why there is no har- 
 mony, at best no lasting harmony, between their ideas ; 
 we can understand why they can simultaneously give 
 their assent to contradictory theories, to religion and 
 science, to knowledge and superstition, to capitalism 
 and socialism. Their only means of testing a new 
 theory is to see whether it subserves personal interests, 
 whether it does not run counter to the approval of in- 
 fluential, prominent men, whether its verbal adoption 
 is conducive to an increase in popularity. 
 
 Difference in Affection and Volition. — In the evolu- 
 tion of mental activity from the average man to the 
 thinker, the following law seems to dominate the affec- 
 tive and volitional aspects. The thinker gains in dura- 
 tion and clearness what he loses in rapidity and intens- 
 ity. Irritability, impulsiveness, intolerance become, or 
 make room for, sensibility, deliberation, tolerance. In 
 psychology, like in mechanics, the products "duration X 
 rapidity" or "clearness X intensity" remain con- 
 stant, as we advance from the unthinking to the think- 
 ing stage. 
 
 The affections of the philistine, especially of women, 
 have the following characteristics: (a) They are in- 
 tense, promptly aroused, but inconstant, short-lived, 
 and vague (unconscious of origin and aim), (b) There 
 is no differentiation, no purity, no independence of sen- 
 timents: The object of love is at the same time an 
 object of admiration, sexual attraction, respect, pride, 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 43 
 
 hope, joy, envy . . . ; the object of hatred is also an 
 object of contempt, anger, disrespect, fear, shame, 
 sorrow . . . ; self-love is inextricably mixed or alloyed 
 with self-conceit. Thus to the moral philistine, poverty 
 (including the poor man) is at the same time an ob- 
 ject of pity, contempt, ridicule, antipathy, dread . . . ; 
 and wealth (including the wealthy) an object of de- 
 sire, worship, admiration, love, confidence. . . . (c) 
 There is an undue extension or transference of senti- 
 ments from one quality of the object inspiring them to 
 all the other qualities which by themselves would not 
 be able to inspire the same sentiments, nay, which would 
 often inspire quite the opposite sentiment. Thus the 
 philistine cannot admire the intelligence of a man and 
 despise his character at the same time; he cannot love 
 merits and find defects also, (d) Undue extension or 
 transference of sentiments to other objects having 
 purely superficial or accidental connections with the 
 primary object of love or of hatred. If the philistine 
 loves or hates a person, nation, race, he also loves or 
 hates their possessions, wearing apparel, pet animals, 
 manners, language, etc. (e) The phiUstine's affections 
 are evoked by, and often entirely concentrated upon, 
 the mere form, symbol, name, outward or accidental 
 and per se insignificant qualities of the object. This 
 can be seen in sexual fetichism, idolatry, superstitions, 
 beliefs, individual and collective antipathies. . . . (f) 
 Between two opposite emotions there are no, or merely 
 embryonal, intermediary emotions. Thus women es- 
 pecially may swing back and forth between love and 
 hatred without stopping at any transitional sentiment 
 (sympathy, warm politeness, indifference, cold or 
 formal politeness, antipathy). They may swing al- 
 most instantaneously from extreme enthusiasm, exalta- 
 tion, happiness, blind confidence, conviction ... to 
 extreme unhappiness, depression, discouragement, ab- 
 
44 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 solute distrust . . . without stopping at any inter- 
 mediary step (zeal, interest, indifference, disinclination; 
 contentedness, indifference, discontentedness, etc.). 
 (g) The philistine mistakes an interested, associative or 
 heteronomous affection for a disinterested, directly pro- 
 duced, objective, autonomous affection, (h) The phil- 
 istine is philoneistic in the realm of sensations and emo- 
 tions, hut misoneistic in the realm of ideas, thoughts. 
 The reverse holds of the scientific and philosophic 
 genius. The artist and the poet discover new emotional 
 sources in the old objects of affection; the philistine 
 looks for new emotions by changing the object of his 
 affection. This accounts partly for the rapid spread- 
 ing of alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, new beverages, new 
 foods, new fashions, new objects of affection. This ac- 
 counts partly for the fact that modern and civilized 
 men differ from previous generations and from uncivi- 
 lized men much more in objects of affection, in language, 
 food, shelter, clothing, than in the affections themselves 
 and in beliefs, convictions, ideas, (i) Parallel to the 
 Philistine's hopeless confusion and inextricable mixture 
 of thoughts (mistaking of identical objects for differ- 
 ent ones, and vice versa; mistaking of appearances for 
 realities; inability to analyze a manifold; inability to 
 discriminate between necessary and contingent • . .) 
 there runs a confusion and mixture in his affections. 
 Parallel to his narrow-mindedness, ignorance, erroneous 
 judgments there is narrow-heartedness, indifference or 
 lack of sympathy, misplaced and uncalled-for affec- 
 tions, undeserved antipathies, emotional outbreaks at 
 the wrong moment and in undue proportion. Not only 
 most of his opinions about, but also most of his affec- 
 tions towards, things and persons, and himself, come 
 from without, through hetero-suggestion. 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 45 
 
 ADAPTATION, HEREDITY AND VAUIABILITY 
 
 Adaptation. — ^The genius anticipates the future. 
 The common mortal is adapted to actual circumstances ; 
 the genius is adapted to ideal future circumstances 
 which are potentially contained in actuality. Like a 
 converging lens, the genius concentrates the weak, un- 
 conscious, scattered tendencies of the mass of philis- 
 tines into a luminous, conscious, life-producing focus. 
 The direct influence of the cosmico-social environment 
 does not rise to the level of consciousness in the average 
 mind. Only through the suggestive intermediation of 
 the genius does it gain entrance into it, after having 
 undergone many mutilations. 
 
 The common mortal, left to himself, adapts himself 
 negatively: by fleeing, forgetting, renouncing; by 
 drowning thought in ferverish, aimless, single-aimed 
 activity; by indulging in illusions, hopes, appearances, 
 stupefying practises and beverages ; by seeking refuge 
 in torpor, sleep, ecstasy, mysticism, nirvana. The 
 genius causes positive adaptations : change of environ- 
 ment, of self, or of both. The sane genius is highly 
 adaptable; his mental equilibrium is stable, i. e., en- 
 vironmental influences displace, or lift his psychical 
 center of gravity or the center of his vital interests, and 
 this displacement is gradual and proportional to the 
 external cause. 
 
 The insane man has an unstable mental equilibrium ; 
 an insignificant external cause may suddenly and ir- 
 recoverably overthrow the center of his vital interests. 
 The average man is adaptable only under the combined 
 influence of the environment and of the geniuses ; he 
 has an indifferent mental equilibrium; if new environ- 
 mental influences supervene, he cannot displace accord- 
 ingly his psychical center of gravity without the assist- 
 ance of the geniuses. 
 
46 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The male is variable, adaptable, teachable (which, 
 of course, has nothing to do with verbal or school teach- 
 ing), acquisitive, original. The female is stable, con- 
 servative, imitative, individually or ontogenetically un- 
 progressive. Thus many a man born in the so-called 
 higher stations of life has adapted himself, when he 
 had to, to the rough, harsh, uncertain, struggling life 
 of the poor; whereas even women born in poverty can 
 never adapt themselves to the difficulties, uncertainties 
 and lack of luxuries of such a life. That so-called 
 lowly born women fit in easily in higher ranks, if good 
 luck brings them there, is no proof of adaptation. A 
 smooth course of life does not demand any effort, and 
 the aristocratic atmosphere with its empty convention- 
 alities is nothing new to any woman, for whom simula- 
 tion, the desire to please or to make impression by any 
 means, is a natural, inborn aim of life. 
 
 Intelligence means, primarily, the ability to adapt 
 one's self to changeable, uncertain surroundings, with 
 a minimum of action or expenditure of energy, and with 
 a minimum of loss. Animal and phihstine adaptation 
 consists either in running away from unfavorable sur- 
 roundings, or in persistent efforts, untiring, blind at- 
 tempts to overcome them. Human and original adapta- 
 tion neither gives up the struggle altogether to seek 
 refuge in vegetation, torpor, forgetfulness, self-decep- 
 tion, self-stupefaction, nor does it persist in continual, 
 blind, exhausting, harmful- action, but looks for the 
 most economical way of changing either the environ- 
 ment or the subject himself. The genius, in distinc- 
 tion from the philistine, and man, in distinction from 
 animals, is neither over-active nor indolent, i. e., averse 
 to action in general; he is rather lazy, i. e., averse to 
 muscular effort, especially to useless and harmful ef- 
 fort. The moral genius is seemingly less adaptable to 
 actual social circumstances than the a-moral and the 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 47 
 
 immoral genius who have no self-respect, no moral char- 
 acter to fight for or to guard against mutilation. The 
 genuine intellectual genius for whom thinking, or the 
 pursuit of knowledge, has become an aim-in-itself, is ap- 
 parently less adaptable to our modern social environ- 
 ment than the pseudo-superior man in whom thinking 
 has remained a means of furthering his personal well- 
 being, of regulating and economizing his expenditure 
 of energy. But the genuine intellectual genius has an- 
 other Way of saving his energy, viz., by renouncing the 
 gratification of vanity and of the desire for material 
 luxuries. The moral genius does not fight against 
 human laziness or aversion to muscular efi^ort, for he 
 knows that man's strength and progress does not lie 
 in the direction of muscular growth but in the direc- 
 tion of brain development. He merely fights against 
 laziness at the expense of one's fellow-men, while he 
 praises laziness which results from and leads to re- 
 flective subjugation of natural forces. He knows that 
 laziness is not such a hateful thing as selfish and 
 parasitical employers would have their employees be- 
 lieve ; if it were so, they would not reserve laziness 
 as a privilege for themselves. The moral genius hates 
 drudgery, bestial display of muscular action, just as 
 much as he does extreme general laziness, torpor, 
 vegetation, simultaneous inertia of mind and body. 
 
 A lower kind of bodily adaptation, a passive or sub- 
 missive adaptation, is seen in plants and in cold-blooded 
 or poikilo-thermous animals, whose life-intensity fluct- 
 uates with the fluctuations in the atmospherical, aqua- 
 tic and food-supplying conditions ; these animals can or 
 rather must even suspend their life activities, if they 
 are unable to keep pace with external fluctuations in 
 temperature, moisture, etc. Very primitive is the 
 adaptation of these animals and of most plants — es- 
 pecially of the so-called hibernating and aestivating — 
 
48 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 and of primitive men, to fluctuations in the food-sup- 
 plying conditions. They can gorge themselves with 
 a seemingly unlimited amount of food, if there is plenty 
 of it; they can also stand starvation, if there is no 
 food supply : a kind of inter-cellular and inter-organic 
 cannibalism is going on which enables the more essen- 
 tial organs and cells to eat up the less esential; the 
 life functions are reduced to a minimum, or even to 
 zero, so as to reduce the expenditure of energy. A 
 higher degree of bodily adaptation, an active or pro- 
 gressive adaptation, is to make the body independent, 
 within certain limits, of external fluctuations. Thus 
 the warm-blooded animals, by means of internal heat- 
 producing mechanisms, sudoriferous (sweat) glands, 
 etc., succeed in maintaining their temperature, moisture, 
 life rhythm more or less uniform or constant, in spite 
 of external fluctuations. Likewise, the habit of storing 
 away food, and agriculture, give independence of the 
 fluctuations in the food-supply conditions. 
 
 What has been said about bodily adaptation holds 
 also of psychical and social adaptation. There is a 
 lower, passive or philistine type of adaptation to one's 
 social environment which consists in allowing one's con- 
 victions and sentiments to fluctuate in accordance with, 
 to take on the color of, one's changing social environ- 
 ment. The adult philistine becomes more imitative, 
 suggestible, hypnotizable, i.e., he suspends his own 
 judgment and critical ability, and becomes a believer 
 among believers, skeptical among skeptics, cynical 
 among cynics, tyrannical and selflsh among exploiters, 
 etc. ; or he gives up his mental activity altogether and 
 becomes a stupid, docile, harmless, intellectually inert 
 and indiff^erent individual. 
 
 — The higher kind of adapation to one's social envi- 
 ronment is that of the genius who either creates for him- 
 self a social environment in conformity with his own 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 49 
 
 convictions and sentiments ; or keeps at a distance from 
 others so as to preserve his individuality against the 
 crushing burden of imposed beliefs. Unlike the emo- 
 tional individual whose psychical equilibrium is exposed 
 to being disturbed by the fluctuating, capricious 
 changes of fate and of human affections ; the intellect- 
 ual individual is well equipped with psychical self-pro- 
 tective mechanisms which enable him to preserve his 
 mental temperature and equilibrium by discriminating 
 between realities and appearances, between realizable 
 
 and unrealizable wishes ; by eliminating vanity, illusory 
 aspirations, wishes whose fulfilment depends on others ; 
 by transforming dreams into realities ; by avoiding too 
 close contact with capricious men ; by learning how to 
 calm down capricious emotional upheavals, etc. 
 
 The more accelerated the growth of a living being is 
 in a certain direction or along a certain evolutional 
 path, and the farther it travels thereon the less is its 
 chance and ability of changing direction and of fol- 
 lowing a better, higher-leading, new path. The more 
 moldable by environment animals are, the less capable 
 are they of molding and transforming it, or of creating 
 a better artificial environment. The more adapted an 
 
50 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 animal is to a given environment, the less adaptable 
 does it prove in case of an environmental change. The 
 philistine and the man belonging to an inferior race are 
 bodily more developed, i. e., nearer to the mature simian 
 type than the intellectual man and the man belonging 
 to a superior race, who bodily stand nearer to the in- 
 fantile type. 
 
 What one gains in adaptiveness to one's given en- 
 vironment, one loses in adaptableness to a new or dif- 
 ferent environment. In other words, the more we con- 
 fine ourselves to the pursuit of a few objects near at 
 hand, the less able we become to pursue the numerous 
 and as yet remote or non-existent ends. In order to 
 live one must be somehow adapted to one's surround- 
 ings. The degenerate is unadaptable but not un- 
 adapted. Or, more correctly, he is actively, but not 
 passively, unadaptable. He lives because he has found 
 some simpler, smoother, more frictionless conditions 
 and surroundings ; but he could not survive if these 
 conditions, too, would change or be taken away from 
 him. An extreme degree of degeneration is to be both 
 actively and passively inadaptable: such an individual, 
 if there be such a one, could not survive any change 
 in his habitual course of life. The actively adaptable 
 is unadapted to, dissatisfied with, existing or stable 
 conditions ; he is capable and fond of initiating changes ; 
 he has the power to resist, to change, select, subdue, ex- 
 ternal influences, and to assert, maintain, freely modify 
 his natural or inborn tendencies. The adapted is pas- 
 sively adaptable to slowly changing conditions, but in- 
 adaptable to rapid, and still less to sudden, changes ; 
 he is imitative, submissive, yielding, self-surrendering, 
 renunciating, suggestible. 
 
 In prehistoric times, the bodily stronger but psychi- 
 cally less adaptable dark races drove the bodily weaker 
 but psychically more adaptable white race away from 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 51 
 
 the warm zone, which does not demand much exertion 
 and initiative on the part of the living beings which 
 inhabit it. 
 
 Heredity. — Heredity means persistence and trans- 
 mittal of old environmental influences, i. e., of the or- 
 ganism's reactions thereto, as long as the provocative 
 environmental causes remain the same or vary but 
 slightly, i. e., in details only. The genius inherits the 
 parental tendencies to react in a modified way to the 
 environmental changes. The philistine inherits the 
 rougher, more organized, more primitive ways of reac- 
 tion. The genius inherits the potential, undeveloped, 
 unfinished, unrecorded, insecure, socially unprotected, 
 variable mental possessions of his parents ; whereas the 
 philistine inherits their actual, developed, localized, se- 
 cure, constant, socially approved mental possessions. 
 What in the parents or ancestors was but a timid, nas- 
 cent, acquired, secondary way of reaction, becomes in 
 the genius a regular, natural, instinctive, primary way 
 of reaction ; and the primary reactions of the ancestors 
 (struggle for food, shelter, clothing, social rank, re- 
 production . . ■) become either all or most of them 
 secondary in the genius ; they become subordinate to his 
 intellectual, social, or other ideals, i. e., he is ready to 
 sacrifice them or to reduce them to an indispensable 
 minimum in case of conflict with the latter. 
 
 The experiences passed through during an individ- 
 ual's lifetime can neither destroy natural impulses nor 
 create new ones. All they can accomplish is to slightly 
 increase or decrease the natural, inherited proclivities. 
 Thus a naturally truth-loving individual cannot very 
 well become an accomplished, undetected liar or im- 
 postor, in spite of his bitter experiences due to sin- 
 cerity. An individual's experiences do, however, get 
 accumulated, summed up, in the form of instincts, emo- 
 tions, in his descendants, provided the external physico- 
 
52 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 social circumstances remain the same, i. e., cause the 
 descendants to have experiences similar to those of 
 their ancestors. The more intellectually gifted an in- 
 dividual is, the more easily can he free himself from 
 inherited impulses which are counteracted by his nat- 
 ural environment, or the more easily can he change his 
 environment so as to support his natural proclivities. 
 It was natural for prehistoric man to inherit and to 
 preserve various emotions, or instincts of fear (fear 
 of darkness, animals . . .), for his environment was 
 full of dangers threatening his life at every step. But 
 if a modern man is haunted by the same phobias which 
 are no longer justified by his environment and individ- 
 ual experiences, it is a case of degeneration, of atavism, 
 at best of philistine inertia. Instinctive suspicion, with- 
 holding of truth from, and cruelty towards, strangers, 
 which is natural in primitive peoples surrounded by in- 
 imical tribes, is often to be considered as pathological, 
 or at best as philistine conservatism in a civilized man 
 who ought rather to cultivate emotions of altruism, 
 effusiveness, communicativeness. 
 
 VariahUity and Progress. — Progress, evolution, de- 
 velopment, means adaptive change, i. e., a change to 
 the benefit of the organism undergoing it. Progress 
 does not mean continual, uninterrupted, rapid change 
 or variation. Progress means change at the moment 
 and in the direction needed. What, for instance, would 
 become of human intercourse if language varied rapidly, 
 if the number of dialects increased instead of being re- 
 duced.'' Linguistic evolution means increasing clear- 
 ness, comprehensibility, and economy of the correspond- 
 ence between words and ideas ; but all these require- 
 ments necessitate fixity, uniformity rather than va- 
 riability, slow rather than rapid change. Nor does 
 progress necessarily imply absolute novelty, increasing 
 complexity. Progress may often require a return to 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 53 
 
 older and simpler ways. Progress, like anything else, 
 is rather characterized by its aims and results than by 
 its means, rather by its content than by its form. 
 Progress is not necessarily simultaneous in all the parts 
 or functions of an individual or social organism ; it 
 often necessitates temporary stagnation or even regress 
 in some of them. Not only the genius, but the philistine 
 also is variable. Only in the philistine the tendencies 
 towards variability are weak, repressible, and do not 
 meet with an intelligence that can seize upon, retain, 
 reinforce the adaptive ones, and neglect, eliminate the 
 non-adaptive. The philistine's tendencies to vary re- 
 main latent until they get an additional stimulus com- 
 ing from geniuses with irrepressible tendencies to vary. 
 The philistine is variable, but not progressive; imita- 
 tive but not creative ; original in form, trivial and sim- 
 ple matters, but not in content, important and com- 
 plicated matters. 
 
 What is progress, adaptation, advantageous varia- 
 tion, to a certain individual or social class, may mean 
 regress, maladjustment, disadvantage, for mankind as 
 a whole. What is progress for mankind may be irrele- 
 vant, meaningless to the universe. What is a disad- 
 vantage, a voluntary or non-voluntary maladjustment, 
 for the genius, results in advantages, better adjustment 
 for human society as a whole. Hence, from the social 
 standpoint, from the standpoint of social progress, the 
 genius is more adaptable than the phiKstine; whereas 
 from the standpoint of the individual's interests, the 
 philistine may be and often is better adapted, better 
 fitted for survival, which does not mean that he is more 
 adaptable than the genius. Thus, for instance, the 
 moral genius knows very well the tricky ways and means 
 of our so-called successful men; but his higher ideals, 
 his self-respect, make him despise such a course of life. 
 The philistines make often the impression of being more 
 
54 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 adaptable than geniuses, because they easily imitate, 
 and get accustomed to, the external appearances and 
 manifestations of new situations, if they are compelled 
 to. But, at bottom, they assimilate and understand just 
 as little of the spirit of progress as their uncivilized, 
 primitive brothers and sisters. And women often seem 
 more adaptable than men because women are never 
 brought into really novel circumstances : at various 
 times, in various places, in various social classes, women 
 in reality have to play one and the same role, viz., the 
 role of inspiring, spreading, refusing love, with or with- 
 out domestic drudgery in addition; the actress and the 
 play remain the same, only the language and the 
 costume vary. 
 
 Progress means to come ever nearer to one's aims or 
 goals. Human progress or civilization means a quali- 
 tative and quantitative increase in the realization of 
 economic, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and moral 
 ends. It means increasing security of livelihood, in- 
 creasing number of means for the gratification of bodily 
 needs, increasing certainty and generality (comprehen- 
 siveness) of knowledge, increasing number in the sources 
 of healthful enjoyment, increasing happiness, soUdar- 
 ity, love, liberty or respect for individuality among men. 
 In short: It means to enrich and to intensify human 
 life, to lengthen it spiritually if not materially, to in- 
 crease it qualitatively if not quantitatively. Spencer's 
 formula of evolution as applied to human societies em- 
 phasizes the formal, irrelevant, outer aspect; but fails 
 to touch the kernel, the soul, of the matter. As an at- 
 tempt to embrace in a single glance such a vast field of 
 seemingly disparate phenomena from the vertiginous 
 height of philosophical generalization, Spencer's form- 
 ula certainly deserves all our praise and admiration. 
 But the respect for the boldness and lofty aim of the 
 attempt must not blind us as to the meagerness of the 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 65 
 
 results. 
 
 The method by which progress is effectuated is ac- 
 tive adaptation, i. e., change of.cosmical and social en- 
 vironment; creation of better, securer, more constant, 
 artificial surroundings; domestication of physical and 
 of psychical forces ; weeding out of harmful variations 
 in self and in not-self ; seizing upon and cultivating use- 
 ful variations. 
 
 Difference m Racial Influence. — Bodily differences 
 between different races are more pronounced, more nat- 
 ural, than psychical differences ; and geniuses belonging 
 to different races differ still less in the latter respect 
 than the average men of different races. This fact can 
 easily be explained if we keep in mind that the body 
 is adapted to relatively stable physical circumstances 
 limited in time and space, whereas the mind is a product 
 and a factor of superior adaptation to unstable, change- 
 able, past, present and possible physical and social cir- 
 cumstances. Geographically, the various races live in 
 different circumstances, but intellectually they live or 
 tend to live in the same world. Actual circumstances 
 may differ from race to race, but possible circum- 
 stances are the same for all races. Hence, the uni- 
 formity of the philosophical temperament all over the 
 world. 
 
 Bodily and externally, man is dependent on, shaped 
 by, and has to conform with, the physical and the social 
 environment. Mentally, however, the superior man mas- 
 ters and shapes the environment in conformity with his 
 needs and wishes, and makes himself within certain 
 limits independent of it. The stronger one's inner mental 
 life, i. e., the greater one's genius, the more indepen- 
 dent does he become of his physical and social en- 
 vironment; the less is he influenced by so-called racial 
 and national mental traits which are not permanent, 
 stable and natural, as ethnical psychologists would 
 
56 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 have us believe, but accidental, superficial, changeable, 
 artificial, due to philistine, or compulsory, imitation 
 of tone-setting pseudo-superior men. 
 
 Genius and Nationality. — The more isolated a 
 group of men, a community, tribe or nation, the less 
 isolation, solitude, freedom or independence, do its in- 
 dividual members enjoy, and the less is the number of 
 thought-stimulating influences acting on them. With 
 increasing relations or intercourse between nations, 
 the originality and normal peculiarities of individuals 
 increase, while the national or abnormal, unnatural 
 peculiarities disappear: national and individual origin- 
 ality are inversely proportional. The peculiarity of a 
 province or nation consists in the uniformity or lack 
 of peculiarity in its individual members, i. e., in their 
 enforced unilateral development. What distinguishes 
 provinces or nations from each other is not funda- 
 mental differences but the accentuation or greater fre- 
 quency of certain common human qualities in some 
 nations and of other qualities in other nations. That 
 these provincial and national mental characteristics are 
 mostly superficial, enforced, artificial, simulated, is 
 proved by the fact that the children of immigrants do 
 not differ psychically from the children of natives : 
 The sons of supposedly effusive, impulsive, emotional 
 Italians become self-controlled, reticent, taciturn, 
 foxy, intellectual-looking Yankees; the child of a sup- 
 posedly monotheistically predisposed, peace-loving 
 Jew can be brought up to become a fanatic polytheist 
 or a pugnacious Gentile. 
 
 The more original an individual is, the less national 
 characteristics does he possess. Geniuses belonging to 
 different nationalities resemble each other both physi- 
 cally and psychically much more than they resemble 
 their own countrymen; not only geniuses, but also 
 average men belonging to different nationalities but 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 67 
 
 having the same profession, sympathize with and re- 
 semble each other much more than their own country- 
 men who follow different professions. So artificial 
 and purely accidental or compulsory a matter is the 
 division of mankind into nations ; patriotism usually 
 unmasks itself as being a cloak for class interests ; 
 rulers and capitalists of one nation intermarry with 
 those of other nations, and feel degraded if one of their 
 class intermarries with a member of a socially or finan- 
 cially lower class, although belonging to the same 
 nation. 
 
 Attitude Towards the Established Order of Things. 
 — The common mortal accepts the world and its actual 
 organization as a complex of indisputable, inalterable 
 facts ; the superior man of an extreme moral idealism 
 refuses it any reason of existence ; the balanced idealist 
 accepts the world and human society as a complex of 
 facts on the way of being transformed, capable of be- 
 ing remodeled. 
 
 Desire, belief, knowledge, do not form three inde- 
 pendent, differentiated processes in the mind of the 
 average man ( and still less in women ) : he does not 
 believe nor does he try to know what he does not de- 
 sire to be true ; he is convinced of and believes in his 
 superiority, immortality, etc., because he desires it; 
 whereas the thinking man strives to know the world in 
 order to change his desires and beliefs accordingly, 
 where the contrary is not feasible. The average man, 
 when he becomes sentimental, swings between hope 
 and fear, between the extremes of rose-tinted optimism 
 and pessimistic wailings; the balanced superior man 
 persists in meliorism. Modern pragmatism is a relapse 
 into this primitive, undifferentiated, philistine way of 
 thinking. William James, one of the most brilliant 
 among modern sophists, frankly dethrones logic ; in his 
 "Will to Believe" he reduces truth or reality to a mere 
 
58 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 product of our beliefs, and later in his "Pragmatism" 
 and "Meaning of Truth" he makes the last regressive 
 step, i.e., he subsumes both knowledge or truth and 
 belief under value, utility, or human desires. 
 
 To the average man, the ideal is realized somewhere 
 or nowhere; to the superior man, the ideal is projected 
 into the future. The ideals of perfection, justice, 
 goodness, etc., are conceived by the inferior man in 
 the form of actual realities (God, paradise, etc.) ex- 
 isting externally, in a remote space. The superior 
 man conceives them as possibilities, existing internally 
 and potentially, as possibilities that the human soul is 
 gradually approaching — like the parabola its asymp- 
 totes — which, in other words, tend to become -realities 
 in an infinite time. 
 
 The men of genius form the periphery of the hu- 
 man phalanx ; they are more in touch with the sur- 
 rounding environment, with the cosmical and social 
 milieu; they receive the first impact, the first blows, 
 which they transmit in a mitigated form to the great 
 mass of men, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, 
 they transmit the accumulated unconscious reactions 
 of the mass in the form of conscious, apparently spon- 
 taneous reaction against the environment. 
 
 The philistine has a blind, disinterested respect for 
 the established institutions, for established opinions ; 
 he judges their soundness by the number of adherents, 
 regardless of the psychical and other differences be- 
 tween the adherents ; he looks up to them as indisput- 
 able, immutable, divine institutions which are beyond 
 comprehension, beyond criticism. The pseudo-supe- 
 rior man is an interested, insincere worshiper of suc- 
 cess. He never attacks a harmful social institution, a 
 misleading and erroneous system of beliefs, as long as 
 they are in power and in favor with the majority, as 
 long as it pays better to be on good terms with them. 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 69 
 
 He never defends a nascent theory, a nascent institu- 
 tion, as long as it is dangerous, risky, unremunerative 
 to do so. Only the genuine genius does not allow him- 
 self to be carried away by the torrent of blind and of 
 interested worshipers, or by the imposing externals 
 and by the momentum of a long past, or by the aureola 
 of traditions. The only raison d'etre of theories, be- 
 liefs, opinions, he finds in their amount of truth. The 
 only title to existence of social organs or institutions 
 he finds in their social usefulness, i.e., in their perform- 
 ing more efficiently, more economically, the functions 
 which single members or private groups of members of 
 the community perform but imperfectly, inefficiently; 
 just as in the individual organism cutaneous respira- 
 tion and cutaneous elimination of waste products do 
 not render superfluous the more efficient pulmonary 
 breathing or the more efficient elimination through 
 the kidneys, nor would the brain enjoy the privilege 
 of being constantly supplied with food even in times 
 of starvation if it were not of unique, paramount, in- 
 dispensable importance to the whole organism. 
 
 The Philistine's conservatism or reverence for and 
 idealization of the existing order is nothing but the 
 obverse of his misoneism or aversion and opposition 
 to real, fundamental, far-reaching changes. Thus the 
 proletarian philistine may overcome his natural mis- 
 oneism to the extent of seeing the advantage of trades 
 unions, whose object it is to force exploiters to pay 
 higher wages, to improve the working conditions, but he 
 is unable to go a few steps further with the socialists 
 and industrial unionists and strive to do away with 
 exploitation altogether. The minority of aristocratic 
 or predatory philistines, in their turn, may go the 
 length of conceding a few superficial, formal, partial, 
 apparent reforms; but — even when they herald them- 
 selves as liberals, progressives, reformers, etc. — they 
 
60 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 remain bent upon preserving the old social organiza- 
 tion based upon slavery, upon a more or less disguised 
 oppression, exploitation of their weak, poor, defense- 
 less, friendless, foreign fellowmen, whom they drive 
 either into a shiftless, erratic, insecure livelihood or 
 into lifelong vegetation and monotonous drudgery. 
 
 True and False Superiority. — The true or voca- 
 tional superior man strives to become better and wiser 
 than he is; the senational, noise-making, self-advertis- 
 ing, professional, pseudo-superior man strives to ap- 
 pear superior to others and greater than he is. These 
 two tendencies, viz. the tendency to be superior, to be- 
 come perfect, and the tendency to be recognized, ac- 
 knowledged as such, exclude each other. Hence, the 
 late, often posthumous, but enduring glorification of 
 genuine idealists, and the promptly acquired, noisy, 
 but perishable glory of the heroes of the day, perish- 
 able and ephemeral like the mass of their admirers itself. 
 
 The pedant, the financial aristocrat, the intellec- 
 tually pseudo-superior man, is much more anxious than 
 the true scholar, the born intellectual aristocrat, the 
 intellectually genuine superior man, to impress others 
 with his superiority by means of select language, man- 
 ners, outward appearances, company, surroundings. 
 The liar, the hypocrite, the morally pseudo-superior 
 man, feels more than the sincere the necessity of 
 emphasizing and trumpeting out his sincerity, of beau- 
 tifying his motives, of having all appearances or cir- 
 cumstantial evidence speak in his favor, just because 
 he himself is not very much convinced thereof. The 
 pseudo-superior man believes in his own intellectual 
 or moral excellence in proportion as he succeeds in 
 making others believe therein. 
 
 The knowledge of the pseudo-superior man is super- 
 ficial, verbal, lazily and incidentally picked up from 
 lectures, conversations, journalistic accounts, and 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 61 
 
 criticisms of books, etc. The ideas of the genuine su- 
 perior man are laboriously worked out from personal 
 experiences and observations, or patiently gleaned from 
 the perusal of the original works of other honest 
 thinkers. The pseudo-superior man learns just enough 
 to be able to hide his ignorance and to make believe 
 that he knows much more than he actually does. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man is superficially many- 
 sided; there is no inner connection between his ideas, 
 no harmony between opinions and acts ; he does not 
 approach the study of the world from inner or evolu- 
 tional impulses : he is guided by fashion, by the im- 
 portance given to it by actual society; his guide is not 
 within himself, for he pursues ostentation, notoriety, 
 fame, success rather than truth. He apparently 
 serves two masters : the criminal financial and the dis- 
 interested thought speculators. 
 
 Pseudo-superior men differ from average men not 
 so much in their thinking, feeling, and striving as in 
 their way of expressing it, in their language or rather 
 refined slang and in their manners or rather manner- 
 isms; they differ not so much privately, internally, 
 really as they do publicly, externally, apparently; not 
 so much in intelligence, real knowledge, stock of ideas 
 as in verbal knowledge, education, stock of words, use- 
 less neologisms and formalities, in astuteness, in their 
 feminine ability to simulate superiority and to conceal 
 their prosaic pursuits beneath an external crust of 
 poetry; they do not differ so much from the mass as 
 they endeavor to make themselves and others believe 
 by resorting to intellectual snobbism, i.e., by using and 
 hunting for rare, pedantic, high-sounding, oracular 
 words, inflated manners, gestures, by keeping at a dis- 
 tance from the great mass, by enshrouding themselves 
 in an atmosphere of mysteriousness and assumed im- 
 portance. The genuine superior man does not waste 
 
62 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 time in delighting in, in showing off, and in exploiting 
 his superiority : he tries to be, not to appear, greater 
 than he is. The pseudo-superior man gratifies his per- 
 sonal vanity, his seMsh pursuits, advertises himself in- 
 directly while apparently glorifying the profession, 
 caste, sect, nation, race to which he happens to belong ; 
 he conceals his egotism and conceit under the more 
 respectable and more presentable cloak of professional, 
 fraternity, sectarian, national, racial megalomania. 
 The pseudo-superior man accepts such truths only as 
 are valuable to him; he considers truth and personal 
 value as identical or, more correctly, value is his prac- 
 tical criterion of truth. Not so the ideal man: he ac- 
 cepts and defends truth, even if it be detrimental to 
 his personal interests ; only in ethical matters which 
 depend partly on human will does he test truth in the 
 crucible of social value. Ethical, religious, artistical, 
 philosophical theories and ideas are for the former a 
 full dress to be put on for great occasions and festi- 
 vals ; to be shown, exhibited on the platform or stage, 
 in the classroom or in books, but not to be worn, to 
 be made use of in every-day life. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man does not love knowledge, 
 truth, art, religion . . . for their own sake or for the 
 sake of their general usefulness, but for the sake of 
 the material benefit he can derive therefrom. He 
 considers them as his private property to be kept a 
 secret, to be protected against theft, to be used as a 
 source of power over the propertyless, i.e., over lay- 
 men and over the ignorant. He carries the individual- 
 istic, egoistic habit from the economic world over into 
 the intellectual, spiritual world as much as the spirit 
 of the time or the Zeitgeist allows it. The modern 
 western pseudo-superior men do not openly form such 
 hermetically sealed castes as the ancient priests did 
 and the Brahmins still do, but the open-eyed connois- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 63 
 
 seur can still detect much of this caste spirit, caste 
 secrecy, caste grandomania, caste or interested solidar- 
 ity euphemistically called esprit de corps among our 
 academicians, politicians, liberal professions, and,' 
 what is worse still, he discovers among them the pred- 
 atory or gang spirit. But, in spite of their endeavors 
 to monopohze knowledge, art, religion . . . and the 
 material advantages going therewith, the intellectual 
 world is ever more penetrated by the international, 
 socialistic, communistic, hospitable spirit, thus paving 
 the way for socialism, community of material goods in 
 the economic world. 
 
 The genuine superior man is too rich in original 
 thoughts and too high above the applauses of the 
 ephemeral masses to resort to the pseudo-superior 
 man's various forms of intellectual dishonesty : obscure, 
 mystical, picturesque, dazzling language; puzzling, 
 mystifying theories; adulteration, distortion of com- 
 monplace truth; plagiarism, feeding one's readers or 
 audience on empty words, on Hegelian nonsense and 
 vagaries. . . . 
 
 The genuine superior man adopts the intellectual or 
 moral sphere as his permanent place of abode, just as 
 in the economic world the independence-seeking type of 
 pioneer ventures into new lands with the intention of 
 creating for himself and others a new and more tender 
 adoptive fatherland. The intellectual world is not the 
 natural element in which the semi-superior, and still 
 less the pseudo-superior man, can permanently live. He 
 only occasionally, if at all, ventures to those as yet little 
 inhabited regions in order to have some amazing, sensa- 
 tional wonders to report to the sedentary, conservative 
 masses of phihstines, which, although averse to actual 
 changes of place, opinions, habits, unless compelled 
 by external circumstances, enjoy hearing about such 
 wonderful possibilities. The semi-superior man is in 
 
64 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the intellectual world the analog of the predatory pion- 
 eer, adventurous traveler, explorer of unknown lands, 
 who travels thither, not in order to live there, but in 
 order to satisfy either his own curiosity, aimless Wan- 
 derlust or the curiosity of the non-nomadic masses, and 
 thus to earn fame, money, and what not. The pseudo- 
 superior men, the academical philosophers, the profes- 
 sional moralists, are in the intellectual or theoretical 
 world what the politicians, demagogues, ofBce-seekers 
 are in the economic world or world of action. The intel- 
 lectually pseudo-superior men pose as originators of 
 new thought directions, of intellectual progress, while 
 doing their best to discourage, to suppress, to silence 
 the contemporary genuine theoretical geniuses of whose 
 rivalry they are afraid. The volitionally pseudo-supe- 
 rior men pose as social reformers, as benefactors of 
 the people, as benevolent rulers, while persecuting, im- 
 prisoning, destroying the genuine contemporary and 
 social reformers in whom they scent dangerous rivals 
 destined to supersede them some day when the people 
 will be more enlightened, more critical and open-eyed. 
 The genuine superior man strives modestly and noise- 
 lessly towards self-perfection, towards excelling him- 
 self. He does it out of an inner evolutive impulse, 
 and not, like the semi- and pseudo-superior men, out 
 of envy, ambition, or compelled by the need of com- 
 peting with others and to surpass them by any means, 
 either in reality or in appearance. This unscrupulous 
 competitive need is a mitigated form of the fighting 
 instinct, and is still considered in our actual society 
 as the chief characteristic of manliness; whereas the 
 harmlessness, sincerity, straightforwardness of the 
 genuine superior men points to the existence in embryo 
 of a cooperative instinct which, in a more perfect so- 
 ciety, will supersede aggressiveness and interested do- 
 cility; from a mere demand of reason that it is now- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 65 
 
 adays, collaboration will become an instinctive or emo- 
 tional demand. 
 
 In all their doings the pseudo-superior men assume 
 an air of self-importance which gives them the appear- 
 ance of taking their work seriously, of considering 
 their work as a primary end, as the only or most im- 
 portant aim of their life. Only the connoisseur un- 
 masks an actor in the pseudo-superior man, only the 
 connoisseur sees that the real aim is self-aggrandize- 
 ment. Like the actor, the pseudo-superior man 'may 
 sometimes deceive himself as to the real materialistic 
 aim of his acting, and identify himself for a moment 
 with the disinterested intellectual hero whom he im- 
 personates. 
 
 The pseudo-superior men in the intellectual world 
 treat knowledge and classes of knowledge or sciences 
 in a similar way as women and financial aristocrats in 
 the economic world treat men and classes of men. They 
 are very anxious to keep up artificial demarcation lines 
 between various sciences ; they are more anxious about 
 methods and terminology than about the knowledge 
 pursued; style, form, manner and order of exposition, 
 are more essential to them than the ideas expounded; 
 they care more for the author, origin of an idea, its 
 bearing on their own interests, than for the idea itself, 
 for its truth, for its bearing on general human inter- 
 ests ; they lay more emphasis upon formal, abstract, 
 dry, verbal than upon material, concrete, living, real 
 logic. Their works, if they produce any, are a display 
 of elegant, brilliant, refined, fashionable methods; of 
 over-systematization, of musical, hypnotizing, multi- 
 colored language or expression ; of mathematical gar- 
 ments; of everything that is mystifying, awe-inspiring, 
 but not of real, substantial, socially useful knowledge 
 or truth. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man, like children and women, 
 
66 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 strives for authority, power, social distinction, linguis- 
 tic wealth, which are but symbols of superiority. He 
 imagines that with the symbol the thing represented 
 by it will infalliby come also. Or he mistakes, and 
 hopes that others will also mistake, the appearance, the 
 symbol for the reality, the thing-in-itself. The crav- 
 ing for power, for sham superiority or social distinc- 
 tion, is a remnant, a mitigated form of the primitive, 
 bestial predatory or parasitical habits of the nomadic 
 aggressive tribes who preyed upon the peaceful, seden- 
 tary, agricultural races ; and the spontaneous, quasi- 
 instinctive, distinterested respect or fear shown by the 
 masses to such sham superior individuals, even if they 
 have no real power, is a relic of the primitive justified 
 fear shown by the conquered, exploited, ill-treated 
 masses in the presence of a despotic, capriciously cruel 
 member of the ruling class or of the victorious invad- 
 ers. 
 
 The aim of the pseudo-superior man being power, 
 social distinction and superiority over others, but not 
 truth, not real intellectual superiority; we understand 
 why he looks for truth — or rather pretends to do so — 
 everywhere except where it is to be found; at best, he 
 preferably looks for it in the distance, among primi- 
 tive peoples, in uninhabited lands, in the remote, inac- 
 cessible past. He prefers intricate, mathematical, dia- 
 lectical, incomprehensible, abstract methods which are 
 inaccessible to and uncontrollable by the majority. He 
 seemingly looks in the clouds and in the heavens for 
 things that are on earth, under everybody's eyes. He 
 prefers roundabout, untrodden, deserted, mysterious 
 paths where nobody can follow him and see whether he 
 really travels thereon or merely sits down in idleness 
 while people consider him a pioneer and expect him to 
 return with a message that he has discovered new, 
 perspectives. 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 6T 
 
 The proletarian philistine is frankly materialistic 
 and prosaic, frankly narrow-minded and narrow- 
 hearted; nay, he often hides a tender soul under his 
 rough exterior and higher aspirations under his as- 
 sumed or externally imposed brutal manners. Whereas 
 the aristocratic philistine, and particularly the pseudo- 
 superior man, is a philistine with the appearance or in 
 the garb of a superior man. He conceals his hard- 
 heartedness under a smiling, soft-mannered behavior; 
 he conceals his prosaic, materialistic nature under 
 memorized poetical expressions ; he conceals his egoism 
 under the cloak of altruistic pursuits ; he has a hideous 
 soul in a beautiful, attractive body. In short, he is a 
 phrase-monger, an appearance-monger ; he imitates or 
 mimicks and deals in the outward forms of all that is 
 noble and ideal. The parasitical or pseudo-superior 
 man, who takes on the outward appearance of the gen- 
 uine superior man, and even improves upon it, in order 
 to reap the credit and remuneration due to the latter 
 for his social services, reminds me of those African 
 savages who, after the confinement of their wives, lie in 
 bed and simulate all the sufferings of childbirth in or- 
 der to receive the consolations and congratulations to 
 which by right their wives are entitled. The pseudo- 
 superior man leaves the earnest, hard, ungrateful, dan- 
 gerous pioneering work to the genius; and, when the 
 new land is already prepared and rendered sufficiently 
 safe for mass colonization, or, to drop the figure, when 
 the new doctrines are sufficiently cleared up, rendered 
 immune from attack and opposition, he jumps in, stirs, 
 up the public, constitutes himself a leader or an execu- 
 tive authority, in order to reap the admiration and the 
 benefits which are really due to publicly unknown, long 
 forgotten or merely posthumously honored geniuses. If 
 our present-day rulers had been born a hundred 
 years earlier, they would not have styled themselves. 
 
68 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 defenders of international peace, of international mor- 
 ality, friends of the negroes, etc., just as they hate 
 to-day to take up the cause of unemployment, of so- 
 cialism, of child labor, etc., because these movements 
 are not yet sufficiently advanced or free from danger 
 and, hence, demand too much self-abnegation, too much 
 real work and self-sacrifice of their defenders. The 
 pseudo-superior man wages war while seemingly mak- 
 ing peaceful transactions ; he competes under the mask 
 of cooperation; he furthers solely his own interests 
 under the mask of serving others; he commits crimes 
 under the appearance of seeking justice or of enforc- 
 ing the law; he is an innocent-looking criminal; when 
 he finds the antiquated or military form of war inef- 
 ficient, he claims to be a defender of peace while he 
 goes on using the more dangerous — and to him harm- 
 less — weapon called capital to crush his competitors 
 and to enslave his fellow-men, carrying the spirit of 
 war over into new fields of human activity (industry, 
 commerce, politics, education, church, etc.) ; he is an 
 intelligent-looking fool, a friendly -looking egoist, an 
 active-looking idler, a serious or dignified-looking, 
 frivolous creature, a brave-looking coward, an honest- 
 looking rascal, a beast of prey in a sheep's skin. He 
 hides his obtuseness, superficiality, ignorance, nonentity 
 behind mystifying conventionalities, formalities, cere- 
 monies, sonorous words, etc. 
 
 Sociability. — The phiUstine is more sociable, al- 
 though less social or altruistic, than the superior man, 
 because he has less refined intellectual and emotional 
 needs than the latter. The philistine has no strong 
 convictions to defend against unbelievers or skeptical 
 people ; he has no clearly defined and imperious aspira- 
 tions beyond food, shelter, reproduction, bodily amuse- 
 ments and clothing, on account of which he should 
 differ from his fellow-men. He has no penetrating in- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 69 
 
 sight into others' hearts and minds to distinguish im- 
 pure, mixed, interested, simulated feelings towards him 
 from pure, unmixed, distinterested, genuine ones; to 
 distinguish words of the tongue from words of the 
 heart. Nor has he any longing for such subtle, in- 
 visible, ethereal possessions as friendship, love, fame; 
 he ^has no understanding and hence no yearning 
 for the chastity of the soul: the chastity of the body 
 is sufficient to him; friendliness, politeness taste to him 
 just as good as — nay, much better than — friendship 
 and sympathy. He has no trains of thoughts to fol- 
 low out, no problems to think out, so that transitory 
 solitude is no necessity to his mind; nay, more, soli- 
 tude is a horror to him, for his soul or inner world is 
 such a desert that he is afraid of being left alone with 
 his own thoughtlessness. Thinking is, or rather has 
 become, so unnatural to him that an occasional reflec- 
 tive state of mind is regarded by himself and others 
 as a symptom of mental derangement, whereas in the 
 superior maji the opposite symptom, thoughtlessness, 
 becomes alarming; just as revolutionary thoughts, 
 which are natural in a social philosopher, are a symp- 
 tom of moral insanity in the ignorant and narrow- 
 minded. 
 
 The phiUstine is more communicative, for he makes 
 no selection among his few banal, trivial, suggested, 
 ever-recurring thoughts to see which deserve being com- 
 municated to others ; he is too naive to know that what 
 is important to him may not seem so to others. Where- 
 as the superior man tries to select those which appeal 
 to the interest and understanding of others, and this 
 selective process going on inwardly is another obstacle 
 to ordinary sociability. With the philistine, language 
 is not so much a means of conveying his thoughts and 
 feelings as a means of sociability, of approaching his 
 fellow-men, a channel of discharge for his surplus of 
 
70 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 motor energy; talking is no serious activity to him, 
 no means to a higher end, it is rather play activity; 
 it is not a means to externalize his own, or to penetrate 
 into others', inner, psychical, sensory activity; it is 
 rather an end-in-itself, a source of immediate pleasure. 
 All men, both superior and philistine, have the same 
 bodily needs (In financial aristocrats these become more 
 refined and more difi^erentiated) ; whereas not all 
 superior men have the same intellectual needs and abili- 
 ties, for specialization is carried to its extreme: some 
 delight in observation, experimentation; others in 
 speculation, interpretation, invention; within each field 
 the material worked upon and the method pursued 
 differ from superior man to superior man to such an 
 extent that no two superior men of like intellectual 
 needs are likely to meet one another in persona; they 
 only meet through the intermediary of their published 
 works. Solitude is the price paid for mental superi- 
 ority, be it even solitude in the midst of admirers. The 
 sociability of the philistine springs from disinterested 
 love of men and human company ; whereas the sociabil- 
 ity of the pseudo-superior man is like the helpless at- 
 tachment of the parasitical animal to its host. 
 
 The incentives of the pseudo-superior man to socia- 
 bility are his self-seeking nature or desire to further 
 through others his personal interests, and his vanity 
 or love of being admired by the masses; the causes of 
 his dexterity and success in society are his ability to 
 simulate and to dissimulate, his little degree of su- 
 periority over philistines, his ability of indirect self- 
 advertising, his lack of strong convictions and feelings, 
 and of intellectual honesty which should prevent him 
 from playing any role. Whereas the superior man, 
 compared with the pseudo and semi-superior man, seems 
 unsociable because he is not bold enough, not promi- 
 nent enough, not naive enough, or he is too polite, too 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 71 
 
 poor or dependent, too rucksichtsvoU to assert his 
 own personality in society and to impose it upon 
 others ; he is too unskilled an actor, too self-respecting, 
 too honest intellectually to make believe that he thinks 
 and feels like others, and to act accordingly ; he is too 
 original, natural, and engrossed with permanently im- 
 portant matters and thoughts to have time or patience 
 for imitating artificial, trivial, transitory social man- 
 ners, empty conventionalities and formalities, stereo- 
 typed phrases. 
 
 Thinking is a private matter. Only the results of 
 thinking, only thoughts and conclusions, can be shared, 
 communicated, used for social purposes. But the proc- 
 esses and ways of thinking, the searching after conclu- 
 sions, are unsharable, uncommunicable, because not 
 fully known to the thinking individual himself: To 
 know in what way new conclusions are to be reached 
 means to have almost reached them. Hence, to be 
 sociable all the time or at any time means to give up 
 one's thinking, to relapse into animal superficiality and 
 thoughtless enjoyment of life. Likewise with love: 
 Conjugal, parental, fraternal love are private matters. 
 One cannot fondle one's wife, children, brothers and 
 sisters, intimate friends in public, without arousing the 
 envy, indignation, laughter of the unheeded selfish on- 
 lookers. Continual or frequent social intercourse 
 makes, therefore, for the destruction, not only of origi- 
 nality or truth-seeking, but also of love. Sociability 
 breeds conventionality, superficiality, posing, acting, 
 shallowness of heart and mind. 
 
 When thinking people will become more numerous 
 and economically less dependent, they will reform 
 social life: They will impose upon it respect for in- 
 dividuality, naturalness ; they will make it more agree- 
 able by combining it with more free play, with inter- 
 missions of isolation, with the freedom of retiring with- 
 
n GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 out formalities from and of joining at pleasure again 
 in the social circle. An ideal human life cannot sub- 
 sist without a healthful alternation and combination of 
 activity and rest, of work and play, of effort and re- 
 laxation, of sociability and isolation, of social inter- 
 course and privacy. . . . 
 
 Difference m InteUectiuil Needs. — The objects of 
 needs, in contradistinction to the objects of luxury, 
 must be enjoyed continually or at least periodically; 
 they cannot be dispensed with without causing pain, 
 unhappiness, harm; one never tires of them; one longs 
 for them instinctively and not merely out of imitation ; 
 hence, one cannot with impunity be dissuaded from pur- 
 suing them. The objects of needs are not always 
 different in kind or quality from those of luxuries. 
 One and the same object is usually an object of need 
 or an object of luxury according to the quantity 
 that one may dispose of and enjoy. The boundary 
 line between needs and luxuries is shifting, not only 
 for various individuals, but also for one and the same 
 individual. The limits, however, within which the 
 boundary line may slide to and fro without destroying 
 the happiness, health or even the life of the individual, 
 are fixed for one and the same mature individual. 
 
 Intellectual pursuits which are organic needs for 
 the genius are mere luxuries for the philistine; and 
 most of the bodily comforts and gratifications of vanity 
 which seem to be a need to the philistine are dispensable 
 luxuries for the genius. 
 
 The philistine has no real or only rudimentary in- 
 tellectual needs. He has curiosity, but no thirst for 
 knowledge, no ideal aspirations. In the man of talent, 
 the intellectual needs are somewhat developed, but not 
 so pronounced, whole-heartedly adhered to, and not so 
 impulsive as to assert themselves in spite of adverse 
 circumstances. External circumstances, the social 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 73 
 
 mUieu, accentuate some intellectual tendencies and 
 point out the direction of their development, but 
 suppress many others. Hence the intellectual mani- 
 festations of the man of talent are voluntary, method- 
 ical, systematical, plamnassig, full of erudition, but 
 ridiculously poor in new conclusions. The pseudo- 
 superior man has some talent and often even a spark 
 of genius; but he subordinates his little, superficial in- 
 tellectual ability to the attainment of material and vain 
 pursuits. In the man of genius, the intensity and the 
 direction of intellectual impulses are determined from 
 within. Hence their manifestations are spontaneous, 
 unmethodical, poor in erudition, but rich and bold in 
 conclusions drawn. 
 
 The pursuit of uncertain, risky, not wholly attain- 
 able ends, requires most — if not the whole — of our 
 energy. We cannot therefore afford to pursue two 
 opposite kinds of such ends. He who chooses, or rather 
 feels impelled by his nature to pursue, truth, knowl- 
 edge, social happiness, must be either sufficiently pro- 
 vided with resources and means of satisfying his mate- 
 rial bodily needs, or he must reduce these to a minimum 
 whose gratification is well-nigh secure ; for no one can 
 take his flight into the higher, intellectual spheres with- 
 out starting from a bit of secure, safe, solid, econom- 
 ic standing ground. Likewise the great mass of toil- 
 ing people, and the insatiable materialists, need their 
 whole energy in the pursuit of food, clothing, shelter, 
 social recognition — no matter whether deserved or not 
 — vain luxuries, petty ambitions, etc. They need there- 
 fore a bit of apparently momentarily safe intellectual 
 standing ground in order to take refuge therein when- 
 ever they get tired and feel the vanity of their petty 
 pursuits ; in order to appease their occasionally awak- 
 ening drowsy conscience when it reproaches them for 
 their materialism. And this minimum of solid intel- 
 
74 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 lectual standing ground they find in dogmatic religion, 
 in dogmatic science, which save them the trouble of 
 personal pilgrimage to the lofty regions of philo- 
 sophical meditation on such intricate, subtle, vital 
 matters as immortality, origin and aim of human life, 
 justification and valuation of various ways of human 
 activity, etc. The philistine, the materialist — if not 
 too much stupefied by drudgery or greed and un- 
 bridled enjoyment — although lacking themselves the 
 leisure and ability to pursue spiritual values, feel just 
 as much the need of an indispensable minimum of soHd 
 intellectual ground in the form of dogmas, religious 
 practises, ready-made convictions as the most world- 
 despising, impassible philosopher is in need of a secure 
 indispensable minimum of economic standing ground in 
 the form of food, shelter, clothing. 
 
 The aristocratic or parasitical philistine pretends 
 to strive after knowledge, education, when in reality 
 he is after a mere semblance of knowledge or the 
 mastery of a grandiloquent caste language, which 
 should constitute his title to a privileged position, that 
 is, to the exertion of authority over the masses of 
 proletarian philistines. This fact is well known, al- 
 though not openly admitted by all pseudo-superior 
 men, successful lecturers, preachers, heads of educa- 
 tional institutions, who spurn to divulge their precious 
 knowledge in the market place, in the street corners, and 
 prefer to attract their audiences through personal ties, 
 exclusive fees, imposing buildings, dazzling pomp and 
 ceremonies, adorned flattery, etc. ; for they know that the 
 mere prospect of acquiring knowledge would not attract 
 the aristocratic philistines, and still less would it in- 
 duce them to open their purses and to part with some 
 of their money, their only object of sincere adoration. 
 
 Difference in Originality. — Strictly speaking, it is 
 not correct to say that originality is what distinguishes 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 75 
 
 the genius from the masses of philistines, unless we 
 understand by originality any mental difference from 
 the mvdtitude; in the latter case, however, our whole 
 statement reduces itself to a tautology. If we give to 
 the word originality its true meaning of initiative, in- 
 ventiveness, mental variability, mental capacity of 
 going beyond imitation, of doing more, better or dif- 
 ferently than we have been taught, of impressing the 
 stamp of individuality on what has been suggested to 
 us, then we cannot deny a certain amount of originality 
 and of philoneism to any philistine, for there are no 
 two perfectly identical things, let alone identical men, 
 in this world. It is a common observation that 
 philistines, particularly the minority of aristocratic 
 philistines, also enjoy being different from their neigh- 
 bors ; nay, they mistake their formal, petty differences 
 for superiority and try to compel others to acknowl- 
 edge it. It is also a common observation that many a 
 would-be aristocratic philistine, who has been born into 
 a low, humble, poor, servile condition, takes very easily, 
 when favored by circumstances, to automobile riding, 
 to indulgence in luxury and in ostentatiousness, to a 
 domineering, tyrannizing, haughty attitude and be- 
 havior, etc., thus disproving Lombroso's contention 
 that the philistine is misoneistic or averse to change 
 and novelty. The truth is that the philistine is merely 
 averse to the mental effort necessitated by higher, dis- 
 interested pursuits; he is averse to changing himself 
 (and very naturally so) and to such new circumstances 
 as compel a change of self or a greater mental effort 
 than he is capable of; he is averse to new institutions 
 that demand, not outward conformation, but compli- 
 ance with their spirit. But he is not in the least averse 
 to an improvement in his material condition, to amus- 
 ing novelties, to new comforts, to new sensations, to 
 commercial innovations and technical progress that 
 
76 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 bring him in greater returns. He is averse or opposed 
 to radical, substantial, great changes, but not to super- 
 ficial, formal, trivial, slight changes. He is disinclined 
 to adopt new ends, but does not object to new and 
 better means for the attainment of his every-day ends. 
 Thus the alleged conservatism of the savage philistines 
 did not prevent them from appreciating the superiority 
 of firearms over their bow and arrows. Likewise the 
 conservatism of the church did not shrink in ancient 
 times from using steam power and mechanical inven- 
 tions for the purpose of fraudulently maintaining the 
 popular belief in miracles; nor does it shrink in our 
 times from adopting the use of electricity and of other 
 modern inventions ; all it cares to conserve is the 
 stupidity of the flock and its privileges based there- 
 upon. What is euphemistically called the antagonism 
 between misoneism, conservatism, individualism, . . . 
 and philoneism, progressivism, socialism, ... is in 
 reality nothing else than the antagonism between selfish, 
 parasitic, low, stupid pursuits and unselfish, pro- 
 ductive, higher pursuits ; for the progressive individual 
 never dreams of throwing overboard all the past 
 acquisitions of mankind; nay, he is more anxious than 
 anybody else to conserve whatever has proved to be 
 generally useful. The only difference between philis- 
 tine and superior originality, individuality, mental 
 variability is this : that the former is purely quantita- 
 tive, applied either to trivial, useless, aimless, playful 
 pursuits or to selfish, materialistic, bodily, narrow, 
 simple, immediate needs, or to outstripping one's fel- 
 low-men by slightly deviating from the common road 
 and temporarily following an unencumbered round- 
 about way; whereas the originality of the genius is 
 qualitative, that is to say, his mental abilities are 
 quantitatively much greater than those of the philistine 
 and his interests or aims differ qualitatively, i. e., in 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 77 
 
 kind, number, seriousness, comprehensiveness, from 
 those of the philistine ; his originality applies itself to 
 remote, ultimate, broad, intellectual, generally useful 
 ends, to setting new ideals or new aims of life. 
 
 The originality of the minority of snobbish or aris- 
 tocratic and commercial or would-be aristocratic phil- 
 istines invents new amusements, new games, but not new 
 machines ; new words for old ideas ; more palatable, but 
 not more wholesome or more substantial food; more 
 adorned, but not more hygienic dresses ; new appear- 
 ances, but not new realities ; luxuries, but not new 
 means of gratifying real needs ; charity, but not altru- 
 ism ; jurisprudence, legal tricks or subtleties, but not 
 a reorganization of society upon an equitable basis. 
 The originality of aristocratic philistines also mani- 
 fests itself in idealizing, disguising their own base pur- 
 suits, and not in adopting nobler aims of life ; in in- 
 venting methods of deceiving, enslaving, spying and im- 
 posing upon their fellow-men, and methods of rising 
 on the backs of the latter ; in inventing methods of 
 self-advertising, self-glorification, flattering self-decep- 
 tion, and not of self-perfectioning. From aristocratic 
 philistines we can learn how to uselessly spend our sur- 
 plus energy in games, hunting, dancing, athletics and 
 on other wasteful, stultifying forms of muscular activ- 
 ity, or in idle, verbal speculation, reverie, psychical re- 
 search, spiritism, occultism, etc., but not how to trans- 
 form this surplus energy into sensory energy, idea- 
 forces, sane and useful thoughts, or how to make it 
 render generally useful services while relieving ourselves 
 thereof; or, in other words, how to combine productive 
 work with play (so as to avoid the accumulation of a 
 dangerous surplus), mental uplift with amusement, pub- 
 lic service with personal benefit. From aristocratic 
 originality we can learn how to pass ofF for pro- 
 moters, leaders, benefactors, useful members of society, 
 
78 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 when in reality we are incompetent, non-producers, in- 
 dolent parasites; we can learn how to invent conven- 
 tions, formalities, ceremonies, excuses, lies to fit every 
 occasion and to serve as shields for concealing our 
 ignorance, misdeeds, callousness, egotism, embarrass- 
 ment, etc. 
 
 The originality of proletarian philistines applies it- 
 self to finding out ways of pleasing the exploiters and 
 their allies; it also manifests itself in taking personal 
 advantage of the existing artificial social order, but 
 not in improving it ; it finds ways of enduring, mitigat- 
 ing, avoiding existing evils, but not in facing and de- 
 stroying them once for all; it finds some amount of 
 happiness in the midst of privations of aU sorts, some 
 amount of hope and consolation in illusory beliefs, self- 
 stultification, etc. 
 
 The formal, low-grade, deceptive, anti-social origi- 
 nality of the aristocratic philistines reaches its climax 
 in their leaders, champions and spokesmen, the pseudo- 
 superior men, who, while being really in the employ 
 of the exploiters or aristocratic philistines, pose as 
 leaders of the entire congregation, community, nation, 
 in order to gain the confidence of the exploited. In 
 addition to formal, verbal, deceptive originality, the 
 pseudo-superior man also possesses a spark of real 
 originality. He prostitutes and degrades, however, the 
 art or science in which he happens to be gifted ; he per- 
 verts it from its true, socially useful mission and 
 presses it — under a disguise, of course — into the serv- 
 ice of his employers. Thus, if he happens to be a 
 psychologist like Hugo Miinsterberg, he degrades psy- 
 chology to the art of the detective ("On the witness 
 stand") or to the art of the slave-driver ("Psychology 
 and industrial efficiency"); at best, he wastes his in- 
 genuity on trifling, useless, playful, sensation-arousing 
 investigations. 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 79 
 
 If a surplus of energy is left to the rich philistine 
 in consequence of his freedom from material cares 
 (food, shelter, clothing), he either spends this surplus 
 in pleasure-seeking which ruins his mind and body, or, 
 in exceptional cases, he turns his mind to original 
 activity. But this originality, in distinction from the 
 genuine originality of the genius, does not manifest it- 
 self so much in setting new and socially useful aims 
 of life, in enriching the contents of human aspirations, 
 as in enriching and uselessly beautifying the mere forms 
 of old pursuits. The rich philistine is intellectually 
 too timid to venture upon new, untrodden ground, to 
 venture beyond the externals of old or proposed insti- 
 tutions. He rather prefers to go around vital prob- 
 lems, not too far away from the masses, than to try 
 to bring light into the dark interior of the problems 
 themselves, where he may find himself all alone. The 
 rich philistine spends his surplus- of energy on invent- 
 ing, or delighting in, socially detrimental play activities 
 and luxuries (food-delicacies, new fashions in dress or 
 shelter, etiquette, conventionalities, love-play or flirta- 
 tion, dilettantism, decoration, eccentricities, fads, use- 
 less neologisms, . . . ) rather than in serious activi- 
 ties, in socially useful aims (pursuit of real knowledge, 
 of vitalizing love, of substantial beauty). What dis- 
 tinguishes the genius from the philistine is, not so 
 much the latter's inability to strike upon new interpre- 
 tations, thoughts, feelings or manners of acting, as 
 his fear of the unknown, his fear of getting too far 
 away from the multitude, his lack of intellectual cour- 
 age to invite his fellow-men to follow him into the new 
 intellectual regions of which he happens to get a 
 glimpse. The mercenary or pseudo-superior man, on 
 the other hand, is not afraid of the unknown. But he 
 is too little thirsty for knowledge, and he is too much 
 concerned with his own material comfort to venture too 
 
80 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 far into the unknown; nor is he very eager to bring 
 light into the darkness of the unknown, from fear of 
 betraying his little advancement therein, and also from 
 the desire to exploit the fear and curiosity of the masses 
 which do not dare to follow him, but are nevertheless 
 waiting to get enlightenment or consolation from him 
 on his return from the transcendental world. The rich 
 philistine, to whom a superficial or verbal education 
 lends the appearance of intellectual superiority, and 
 the pseudo-superior man, lack the modesty, the disin- 
 terested, impersonal, self-forgetful love of knowledge 
 of the genuine superior man to go too far away from 
 the public: They venture far enough to attract the 
 public attention upon themselves, but they do not go 
 too far to get lost sight of, nor do they absent them- 
 selves for too long a time in the realms of thought and 
 meditation to be forgotten by the admiring contem- 
 poraries. They also lack the genuine superior man's 
 intellectual honesty to see how little real knowledge is 
 left to impart to others after it is disentangled from 
 its academic verbiage and from the purely ornamental, 
 useless, fictitious, pseudo knowledge. Not that the field 
 of human inquiry has been exhausted or is limited and 
 exhaustible, but under present conditions the teacher 
 lacks either the ability or the means of guiding his 
 pupils along the path of independent inquiry. It was 
 not only fear of intellectual prostitution that made 
 Spinoza shrink back from notoriety and refuse a uni- 
 versity professorship, but also his modesty, his fair- 
 mindedness, his feeling that he did not know enough 
 yet to teach others, let alone to spread it out in a two 
 years' college course. Likewise with Schopenhauer: it 
 was not grando-mania that made him lecture to his 
 students on his own "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstel- 
 lung," but it was the conviction that this was for the 
 time being the best and most secure knowledge he could 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 81 
 
 impart to others. Whereas the pseudo-superior men 
 (99 per cent, of college professors, academic philos- 
 ophers, priests, ethical culture leaders, journalists, 
 statesmen, . . . ), driven by vanity or by greed, un- 
 dertake to teach and preach things that they do not 
 know themselves, to enlighten others in matters about 
 which they are themselves in the dark, to lead their 
 fellow-men towards goals unknown to themselves, or 
 towards goals that they do not care to reach. The 
 dilettantism of rich philistines is analogous to the 
 flirtation of brainless and heartless women. The 
 dilettanti do not take art and science seriously. Un- 
 like the genuinely superior men, they do not concen- 
 trate their love and constant attention on one single 
 pursuit while preserving their friendship or interest for 
 all the other nobler pursuits. All they want is to 
 draw selfish amusement, to gratify their vanity; and 
 to kill their time or enmii; just as flirts degrade love 
 — which is a serious matter for the preservation and 
 improvement of the species- — to a mere plaything, pas- 
 time or weapon of exploitation. The semi-superior men 
 take their intellectual pursuits seriously. Only, like the 
 great mass of normal women, whose love seems to be re- 
 served merely for successful men, the semi-superior men 
 reserve their interest merely for fashionable scientific 
 and artistic pursuits. Just as the merchant deals with 
 a commodity not because he is interested in it or because 
 he desires it for his own use, but merely because there 
 is a demand for it, i. e., because it is saleable; and just 
 as a mediator between marriageable men and women 
 treats both the genuine and the spurious need of love 
 as a commodity; just so does the pseudo-superior man 
 treat knowledge, art, morality as a commodity to be 
 sold, to be transferred from the producer to the con- 
 sumer, in a more or less adulterated form. 
 
 What has been said about male aristocratic philis- 
 
82 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 tines applies also to the female philistines. During 
 their first youth and during their child-bearing period, 
 they indulge mainly in flirtations, love affairs, sex 
 parasitism, with hardly any understanding for the real 
 world they are living in. Those who are not entirely 
 degenerate also take upon themselves part of their ma- 
 ternal duties. During the second youth, however, 
 when they have no more maternal duties to attend to, 
 those who are incurable sex parasites foolishly try to 
 live their girlhood over again, giving food to scandal- 
 mongers and destroying the happiness of many a home. 
 Whereas those who have not been entirely crippled by 
 their parasitic function try to develop to a certain 
 extent the neglected organs of their souls, viz., the 
 need for sociability, female friends, knowledge, social 
 welfare work, defending the women's rights movements, 
 spreading light on sexual hygiene, etc.; they are in- 
 capable, however, to embrace serious pursuits that re- 
 quire more courage, more energy, more self-denial, such 
 as scientific investigations, socialistic propaganda, 
 radical reforms, nursing of the poor, taking care of 
 orphans or of children whose parents go out working, 
 starting a crusade against the tyranny and the morally 
 ruinous effect of fashions, luxuries, display of wealth. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 
 
 ORIGIN, CAUSES 
 
 Heredity, Spontaneous Variations. — Heredity and 
 variation are two simultaneous, complementary quali- 
 ties of reproduction. Neither is more primitive and 
 more in need of explanation than, or a special case of, 
 the other. The elementary functions of life (nutrition 
 and reproduction) being given, heredity and variation 
 follow as necessary corollaries. For life means some 
 sort of changes or variations. If the parents vary, 
 i. e., if the parents are different at every moment from 
 what they were at preceding moments, owing to varia- 
 tions in the external and internal environment, how 
 can we expect the child who is born and lives in a dif- 
 ferent environment to reproduce all the parental traits 
 exactly as they were in the parents at the same periods 
 of their lives.'' On the other hand, the internal and 
 external environment of every foetus and child over- 
 laps more with the parental environment than with any- 
 body else's environment. What wonder, then, that his 
 variations are nearer to the mean variation of his 
 parents than to anybody else's mean variation .!• Any 
 character or trait consists of three parts : One is in- 
 herited ; one is apparently due to variation, but is really 
 mostly due to the actualization, liberation, or emer- 
 gence in the child of an inherited latent parental trait, 
 or vice versa; it may be due to the latentification or 
 repression of a parental actual trait ; the third part is 
 
 83 
 
84 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 really due to variation, i. e., to acquisition made under 
 new circumstances. 
 
 From the subjective point of view, genius appears 
 to be a spontaneous phenomenon, a creation ex 
 nihilo; objectively, however, it can be regarded as a 
 result of accumulation or of summation of inherited 
 unconscious tendencies, of inherited cosmical-sugges- 
 tive impulses. 
 
 If heredity meant persistence, conservation, copy- 
 ing; if heredity were only uniparental or alternate, 
 then, of course, genius and heredity would be incom- 
 patible. But if we keep in mind that we inherit tend- 
 encies, that tendencies which have been counteracted, 
 repressed, neutralized in our ancestors may become 
 freed, released, actual in us, their descendants ; that 
 there is such a thing as bi-parental or blended inherit- 
 ance, i. e., summation of similar parental characteristics 
 in the descendants, then there is no contradiction be- 
 tween inheritance and genius. 
 
 The child is not simply a copy of his parents. He 
 is a continuation of the parental tendencies ; he con- 
 tinues their curve of development, in its ascending or 
 descending stage. The child of a genius who has 
 reached the culminating point of his development- 
 curve, who — in other words — ^has no more potential 
 tendency toward a higher stage, is likely to be an in- 
 ferior being, inferior to his father, at least. 
 
 Hereditary, inner, physiological influences could be 
 interpreted in the last analysis as cumulative environ- 
 mental, outer, social influences ; for what we inherit 
 from our ancestors must have been acquired at some 
 remote past under the influence of the social-physical 
 environment. Only those acquired characters are 
 transmitted hereditarily which aflPect strongly the par- 
 ent's organism, i. e., which affect not only the soma, 
 but also the germ plasm. 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 
 
 85 
 
 To produce a genius, the qualitatively similar char- 
 acters of the parents must be added algebraically; a 
 geometrical addition gives birth to common mortals 
 and to talented men. The resultant, however, of such 
 an algebraic addition is unstable. Hence, the non- 
 hereditary characteristic of higher genial abilities. The 
 geometrical addition of potential or actual abilities can 
 give an indefinite number of different resultants, start- 
 ing from zero, and reaching as a maximum the arith- 
 metic sum. If we have an angle of maximum attrac- 
 tion between two characters, Cj and Cg, that is an angle 
 of 0", we have a resultant C3=Ci-|-C2. 
 
 Ci 
 
 This is a case of creative inheritance. That "love- 
 children," i. e., children conceived in mutual sexual at- 
 traction and in noble self-forgetfulness, untainted by 
 sordid financial and other selfish considerations, are 
 both mentally and bodily exceptionally vigorous, is a 
 well-known fact. If the angle of attraction is such 
 that the resultant Cg equals either c^ or Cj we have a 
 case of alternate inheritance. 
 
 A maximum angle of repulsion, i. e., 180°, gives 
 Cg^Ci — C2 or degenerative inheritance. 
 
 1 - ^ 
 
86 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Environment. — Every man is both a product and a 
 factor, at the same time, of the environment in which 
 he lives. Only the genius is a more important factor 
 than the others. Both the working class and the class 
 of geniuses, i. e., the physical and the mental workers, 
 the protecting, supporting, and the really guiding 
 classes, arise from the ecto-derma of the social embryo, 
 from the outer, more exposed to, but not wholly worn- 
 out by, physico-social environmental influences and 
 frictions, from the less protected, less supported, and 
 the less guided strata of human society. 
 
 The influence of the actual, immediate environment 
 is not so evident or manifest in the individual life of 
 the genius as in that of the average man; it is not so 
 evident in the life of individuals as it is in that of the 
 race and of the species ; not so great upon the body 
 as it is upon the mind. The reverse is true of heredity : 
 Its influence upon the genius, the race, the mind, is not 
 so great, manifest and univocal as it is upon the philis- 
 tine, the individual, the body. The influences of the 
 environment seem to be cumulative, hence the appear- 
 ance of spontaneity given to original creations. In the 
 genius, the latent, remote, mediate environmental influ- 
 ences seem to be more concentrated to a burning, active 
 focus than in the talented or the average man. In 
 the individual life, the point of application of tend- 
 encies (the matter upon which the tendency is exerted) 
 is apparently more subject to environmental influences 
 than their magnitude (capacity of achievement) and 
 than their direction (general nature), which are rather 
 hereditary, inborn. 
 
 Theoretically, the environment of a thing, of a being, 
 is all the rest of the world except itself. Practically, 
 however, the environment of a being consists only of 
 those things and beings which can act upon it. The 
 environment of animals, especially the social environ- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 87 
 
 ment of man, is largely selected. This fact makes it 
 difficult to disentangle the share of external influences 
 and opportunities from that of individual peculiarities 
 and abilities, the share of compulsion, suggestion from 
 that of will, adaptation, originality. Strong individual 
 peculiarities, pronounced originality, cause their owner 
 to avoid as far as possible the company of those in 
 the midst of whom he cannot manifest or at least pre- 
 serve his nature. The superior women of all times, 
 such as the hetairas of ancient Athens, have always 
 tried to surround themselves in their salons with a 
 select social milieu or to find it in convents, literary 
 circles, etc. The less original an individual, the more 
 easily does he discover his like to associate with. The 
 philistine is welcome everywhere, because he has the 
 most elementary human needs which are common to 
 and approved by all men. 
 
 If the environment of a being consists only of those 
 things, events and beings which act upon it; it follows 
 that the genius lives in a different environment from 
 that of the philistine ; or, more correctly, the environ- 
 ment of the genius is more extended than that of the 
 philistine. Whereas the philistine is acted upon by 
 his narrow, local, physical, artificial, personal, phe- 
 nomenal, immediate, visible, present, actual, . . . en- 
 vironment, the genius is also acted upon by the cos- 
 mical, psychical, natural, hidden, impersonal, remote, 
 invisible, past, possible, latent, . . . environment. 
 The philistine, in order to change his behavior, needs 
 examples given by living authoritative persons. To the 
 genius a mere hint, a mere suggestion coming from any 
 source — from the animated or inanimated world, from 
 obscure or prominent men, from persons or books, , . . 
 — is sufficient. 
 
 Individuality and environment, abUity and oppor- 
 tunity, are correlative terms; one presupposes the 
 
88 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 other ; they have to be explained in terms of each other. 
 Neither is a mere cause, or mere effect of the other. 
 Individual differences, variations, originality, are partly 
 due to environmental changes. And vice versa : changes 
 in man's physico-social environment are caused by in- 
 dividual pecuUarities, by originality or genius. If 
 an environmental change, in order to stimulate original 
 human action and thinking, has to work cumulatively 
 by means of heredity, the same holds of the influence 
 of the genius upon his surroundings ; attempts at in- 
 novation have to be repeated by a succession of similar 
 geniuses and talents, their efforts must be cumulated 
 before a real and lasting innovation can take place. 
 
 The psychically independent or isolated individuals, 
 i. e., the individuals who for some reason or other are 
 more or less free from the shackles of tradition, custom, 
 externals, conventions and from restless material pur- 
 suits ; the individuals who without breaking entirely — - 
 like the extra-social criminals, the insane, the eccentric, 
 Natur-Menschen — with the slowly and blindly ad- 
 vancing compact group of human beings, keep at a cer- 
 tain distance from it : such individuals, I say, have a bet- 
 ter, more comprehensive view of both nature or physical 
 environment and human society or social environment. 
 They see the opportunities of the physical environ- 
 ment, they are open to its suggestions and teachings ; 
 they also receive the impact of the blind strivings, 
 aspirations, tendencies of the social group which, on 
 account of counteracting tendencies and on account 
 of the great mass acted upon, cannot see their way out 
 of the state of mere latency or vague desire, cannot go 
 over into an actual change of direction, but which in 
 the independent individuals go freely over into an actual 
 movement in a different direction. The semi-independ- 
 ent individuals who are often nearer to the independent 
 individuals than to the bulk of philistines, soon follow 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 89 
 
 dragging along a greater or lesser part of the de- 
 pendent, imitative, mentally inert individuals. The 
 bulk of human beings may preserve its old course and 
 perish little by little ; whereas the new little social group 
 may break gradually all its connections with the old 
 group and form a group apart, following a different 
 and more advantageous or progressive course. This 
 new group, in its turn, may also get split up, after a 
 certain time, into a smaller, more progressive and into 
 a large, conservative group; and so on. 
 
 Necessity. — Individual necessity does not engender 
 genius. Nor does social necessity. The only thing 
 it does, is to select, to encourage useful originality. The 
 social needs prepare channels for the activity of the 
 genius, prescribe its direction, but do not create it. 
 Otherwise, we could not understand why different races, 
 different nations having the same social needs, do not 
 produce the same quality and quantity of genius. 
 Or, if these needs do contribute towards creating 
 genius, they are certainly among the secondary 
 factors. Abilities, originality, genius, are not by any 
 means the products of aims, needs, wants, necessity, 
 poverty. The latter merely select, guide, seize upon, 
 make subservient the former ; nay, more, they degrade, 
 pervert, deflect, the former from their natural course. 
 Higher abilities (intellectual, artistic, moral, . . . ) 
 arise spontaneously whenever the lower abilities that 
 minister to the gratification of bodily needs leave a 
 surplus of mental energy. Geniuses arise in families 
 that either do not need or do not care to spend much 
 energy on the acquisition of food, shelter, social rank. 
 Geniuses, inventors, are very seldom greedy or sensitive 
 to their material wants, nor do they reap many mate- 
 rial benefits from their intellectual labor. In our mod- 
 ern society where the majority of men are compelled 
 to spend their whole time and to exhaust their entire 
 
90 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 energy in the gratification of lower needs, higher abili- 
 ties and genius must remain the apanage of a privi- 
 leged but often degenerate minority. But in a 
 socialistic society where, thanks to genuine solidarity 
 and cooperation, all men will enjoy the privilege of 
 economic security, of leisure and of liberty, higher 
 pursuits and genius — from exceptional, abnormal, 
 dearly paid-for natural endowments — will become gen- 
 eral, normal, common attributes of mankind. 
 
 Our necessities or needs induce us to seize upon every- 
 thing that can best gratify them ; they make us invent 
 new means of satisfying them. But it is only a surplus 
 of energy, leisure, freedom from material cares and 
 from restraint or oppression, that enriches our lives by 
 enabling us to look for new aims or new needs, or to 
 develop our neglected, embryonal, spontaneously aris- 
 ing needs. A need never leads to the adoption of new 
 needs. On the contrary: every need tends to subjugate, 
 minimize, displace the others, and to press all our 
 abilities and our entire energy into its service. Neces- 
 sity is not the mother of real and great inventions ; it 
 is rather the exploiter of such inventions as promise 
 to be useful and docile. The greed and vanity of 
 capitalists encourage technical inventions which lend 
 themselves to an increase in the capitalistic power; 
 but all other technical inventions and all the new moral 
 or social ideas, in order to assert themselves, have to 
 struggle very hard against capitaHstic persecution. It 
 is not economic pressure, it is not poverty that in- 
 duces the genius to invent: it is by freeing himself 
 from this pressure, it is by reducing his bodily needs 
 and by giving up petty ambitions that he gains a sur- 
 plus of energy which he devotes to creative work. 
 
 Historical Progress of Genius. — It is an admitted 
 fact that the average duration of life increases, not in 
 consequence of an increased vital energy, but in conse- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 91 
 
 quence of a decrease in its being wasted, due to greater 
 cleanliness, to better hygienical and social circum- 
 stances. The same holds of the modern genius when 
 compared with the genius of antiquity : he is not richer 
 in mental abilities, but he can make a better and more 
 economical use of them, thanks to the greater wealth 
 of knowledge at his disposal, thanks to the laws and 
 formulas discovered by the geniuses of the past which 
 enable him to survey with little effort vast horizons of 
 particular phenomena and thus to save his mental 
 energy for further new acquisitions. 
 
 The modern genius owes his superiority over the an- 
 cient genius, and the educated genius owes his superi- 
 ority over the uneducated genius, to the accumulated 
 human knowledge which is transmitted to the former 
 in a condensed, handy form through the channels of 
 school, class or caste, and home education. And just 
 so man owes his conceptual thinking, his superiority 
 over other intelligent ancj teachable animals, not only 
 to an inborn greater mental ability, but also to social 
 heredity, to language which allows him to learn from 
 the experience of his ancestors and contemporaries ; 
 whereas the animal has no other channel of trans- 
 mitting its experiences than the narrow channel of in- 
 stincts, of physiological heredity. But if it is doubtful 
 whether human genius is increasing in intension, ability, 
 absolute magnitude, there is not the least doubt that 
 its sphere of interests, its field and the number of men 
 endowed therewith, are steadily increasing until undel- 
 a more equitable social regime the human species will 
 consist, only of geniuses of all sorts who will enrich, 
 beautify and beatify each other's lives. 
 
 Is Genius a Partial Increase of Abilities? — The 
 rudimentary organs, the muscular inferiority of the 
 civilized man compared with his unciviKzed ancestors, 
 and of the genius compared with the philistine, the 
 
92 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 organic deficiency of man in comparison with his 
 cousins on the zoological scale: all these facts prove 
 that intellectual progress is necessarily compensatory, 
 i. e., at the expense of the body; they prove that in- 
 ferior instruments of adaptation disappear, become 
 atrophied by disuse before superior ones. Particu- 
 larly the unequal development of non-substitutional 
 abilities speaks unambiguously in favor of the origin 
 of genius by compensation. The division of labor in 
 social life makes it unnecessary and impossible for the 
 individual to develop all his abilities equally. Without 
 the division of labor we could have talented men, but 
 never men of genius. Hence, the scarcity of genius in 
 the country, and its frequency in cities, where, alas, it 
 is outweighed by poverty in morality, in solidarity. 
 Up to a certain limit there is no antagonism between 
 the receptive and the reactive abihties of the mind, 
 there is no antagonism between the intensity of special 
 abilities and the total number of abihties, there is no 
 antagonism between the objective and the subjective 
 aspects of our mental processes. In other words, a 
 continuous, normal, many-sided progress in mental 
 abilities may occur at the expense of the body alone 
 (thinking at the expense of acting, or of the repro- 
 ductive power ; intelligence or soul-beauty at the ex- 
 pense of the bodily beauty) ; whereas an abnormal, dis- 
 continuous, one-sided progress of abilities is made at 
 the expense of the mind itself (intellect, conception, 
 cogitation, introspection, at the expense of the senses, 
 perception, observation, extro-spection, sentiments, 
 moral character, and vice versa) ; an addition, a 
 synergy of certain abilities, goes hand in hand with a 
 subtraction, divergence, disharmony of others. 
 
 Physiologically speaking, we are perhaps right in 
 saying that both genius and insanity are due to an 
 overflow, to a debordation of mental energy (due to a 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 93 
 
 shock, obstacle, stopping up of a channel, or to a leak- 
 age). In the genius, the overflowing energy finds chan- 
 nels of discharge in the higher centers of the brain ; 
 whereas in the insane, the overflowing energy, not find- 
 ing such channels, causes devastations, both sensory 
 and motor. Unlike the hierarchical social organisms, 
 which, if not soon democratized, are invariably doomed 
 to see their leading or ruling class lose its usefulness — 
 if it ever had any — and become a dangerous parasite 
 perishing itself of fatty degeneration while plunging 
 the ruled majority into the abyss of atrophic degenera- 
 tion — the individual organism is the only hierarchic 
 society, in which the ruling class, that is, the brain, is 
 always concerned with the general welfare and never 
 thrives at the expense of the organism ; even in the man 
 of genius, the growth of the higher functions of the 
 brain — although taking place to a certain extent at 
 the expense of the body — does not lead to degeneration 
 or decay, except under highly unfavorable conditions, 
 nor does it proceed from degeneration, as Lombroso 
 would have us believe, but it merely eliminates or rele- 
 gates to a subordinate rank the physiological-anatom- 
 ical methods of adaptation and the destructive, 
 predatory abilities by replacing them with superior 
 weapons, with constructive and cooperative abilities, 
 with means of preventing waste of energy, with means 
 of making up in quality, intensity, for any loss in quan- 
 tity, extensity. 
 
 Social and Economic Causes of Philistinism. — Owing 
 to the primitive compact tribal or horde life during 
 the nomadic, hunting period with its external uni- 
 formity or uniformity of occupation for all members, 
 which tends to bring about an internal or mental uni- 
 formity also ; owing to the tyranny exerted at a later 
 period by nomadic invaders, by parasitic conquerors 
 and subsequent rulers, upon their miHtary forces and 
 
94 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 upon the subjugated peaceable, agricultural tribes, 
 which tyranny does not tolerate any critical, independ- 
 ent judgment in the conquered, in the ruled; owing to 
 the pressure of economic dependence, during the mod- 
 ern industrial period, which crushes all individuality 
 out of existence, by reducing the masses of men to mere 
 machines, to mere instruments for increasing the wealth 
 and the comforts of a few idlers; owing to these and 
 other external, social pressures which can be reduced 
 ultimately to the pressure of fear, of direct or indirect 
 intimidation exerted by the crowd, leaders, exploiters, 
 which paralyzes all mental spontaneity — at least, all 
 its overt manifestations — leaving untouched only one 
 spring to action, viz., that of instinctive or of volun- 
 tary imitativeness ; owing to the social pressures, I 
 say, the human species consists of a considerable mass 
 of philistines, i. e., of thoughtless, automatic, empty- 
 minded, empty-hearted, intellectually blind, purely 
 imitative individuals ; and of a non-negligible minority 
 of semi- and of pseudo-superior men who dare to assert 
 their originality or spontaneity only in directions which 
 are useful to — or which at least do not harm — the in- 
 terests of their immediate social superiors, of the hand- 
 ful of rulers and exploiters (monarchs, financial kings, 
 employers, capitalists, government, church, organized 
 parasitic professions). Owing to natural or physio- 
 logical causes alone, we ought to have only a vanishing 
 minority of philistines among men. Fortunately, the 
 increasing division of labor; the lack of rational 
 solidarity, nay, the occasional antagonisms and mutual 
 indictments or exposures between the exploiters them- 
 selves ; the increasing individual liberty due to increas- 
 ing traveling facilities, and to increasing agglomera- 
 tions of men into cities ; the privilege of anonymity due 
 to the press and to city life ; the possibility for the mod- 
 ern or industrial slave to pay with his independence for 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 95 
 
 that of his children and for that of the intellectual 
 proletarians who make it their business to enlighten the 
 masses in open or disguised ways ; the lack of foresight 
 in the exploiters who, while caring for their immediate 
 and personal interests, undermine the interests of their 
 class and of their remote posterity, etc., etc.: all these 
 and many other subtle, imperceptible causes work 
 towards freeing the majority of men from the grip of 
 paralyzing and stultifying fear, from the grip of human 
 parasitism which is the main cause of philistinism and 
 of social misery. 
 
 Social pressure weighs more heavily upon the grown- 
 ups, and among these mostly upon the normal or sane- 
 minded; whereas children and eccentrics are allowed a 
 little more free play or spontaneity. This fact might 
 be a partial explanation of why hereditary philistinism 
 manifests itself after the period of adolescence, i. e., 
 there are less philistines among children than among 
 the mature; it might also explain partly why genius 
 manifests itself more frequently in families with a nerv- 
 ous, eccentric diathesis than in families with a sedate 
 temperament. The philistinism, empty-mindedness and 
 mental degeneration of the rich is not so much ac- 
 quired, i. e., due to the power, privileges, idleness, ex- 
 cessive indulgence in pleasures aiForded by wealth, as 
 it is inherited from degenerate self-seeking and ma- 
 terialistic ancestors, in whom all human aims were 
 atrophied or destroyed by an unquenchable greed or 
 rapacity. These parvenus or upstarts had at least 
 one aim in life, viz., accumulation of money, which 
 stimulated their activity and made them indirectly in- 
 terested in those phases of human progress which lend 
 themselves to exploitation; whereas their children, 
 whose fortunes grow quasi automatically, find them- 
 selves brought into this world without any aim of life, 
 without any natural interests on which to spend use- 
 
96 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 fully their energy. 
 
 It is not always the fit, the strong, the courageous, 
 the progressive animals that survive. Often the unfit, 
 the timid, weak, unprogressive animals survive, because 
 they do not venture out of their dark hiding-places, 
 and thus escape dangers, pitfalls, the attacks of 
 enemies. Just so the darkness of ignorance, stupidity, 
 humor-worship or, more correctly, frivolousness, saves 
 many a man from being crushed out of existence by 
 exploiters, who only hate and destroy competitors, 
 critics, the serious-minded, the moral geniuses who try 
 to spoil their lucrative spoliation business. Only those 
 proletarian geniuses escape corruption or persecution 
 who remain in the lower, ignorant, oppressed social 
 strata, and confine themselves, like the fluorescent deep- 
 sea animals, to carrying around their feeble, self-cre- 
 ated light merely within the boundary lines of their own 
 milieu which stands under such a high, crushing pres- 
 sure from above. 
 
 Economic Cause of Philistinism. — All manifestation 
 of misoneism, of aversion to change, of aversion to new 
 ideas, institutions, reforms, which seems to be such an 
 insurmountable obstacle to progress, would dwindle 
 into an insignificant, impotent, negligible resistance, if it 
 were not secretly backed up or reenforced by economic 
 interests, by a fear of financial loss or loss in prestige. 
 The psychological cause of misoneism, i. e., the aver- 
 sion to a change in our habits, the dislike of mental 
 eff^ort, does not count for much with normal, men living 
 under normal circumstances, who are rather thirsting 
 for — though not always capable of finding through 
 themselves — some change, some new aims of life, some 
 new source of activity, knowledge and enjoyment. The 
 same pseudo-rulers, the same captains of industry, and 
 the same parasitical nobility who so vehemently oppose 
 all reforms demanded by socialists, moral geniuses, 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 97 
 
 altruists, as soon as the demand for certain reforms 
 becomes too widespread to be resisted, and as soon as 
 they find some cheap way of apparently or superficially 
 complying with such demands without any loss of 
 prestige or money for themselves, begin to call them- 
 selves promoters of such reforms and become very 
 proud of the credit which is undeservedly given them. 
 The same vain academicians and pseudo-scholars who 
 vehemently refuse to accept the new theories and philo- 
 sophical conceptions of non-professional, non-academ- 
 ical, self-taught, genuine thinkers, because the accept- 
 ance of such new truths would mean a loss of prestige 
 for their self-important personalities and for the 
 capital-supported institutions of learning, are only too 
 glad to have something new to promulgate provided 
 it is their own or provided they have succeeded in un- 
 detectedly stealing it from some poor devil of a socially 
 obscure genius. The same captain of industry whose 
 sleep and conscience are not in the least disturbed by 
 the vision of thousands and thousands of human lives 
 wrecked and lost in his mills, or by the thought that 
 his millions are paid for with streams of human blood 
 and tears, is proud, however, of the financial support 
 which he lends to the International Peace Movement, 
 because such a movement does not harm, nay, it fur- 
 thers his commercial interests. 
 
 As soon as our caste and clique system and all eco- 
 nomic dependence — which are ultimately based on class 
 parasitism — will be done away with, it will be surpris- 
 ing to see how rapidly men can progress and how little 
 philistinism or misoneism is natural to the human 
 species. 
 
 Similarly, men's aversion to being criticized is largely 
 due, it is true, to their hypocrisy, deceitfulness and 
 self-conceit; but it is also due a good deal to the fear 
 of financial loss that is usually entailed by criticism. 
 
98 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 If human self-conceit and hypocrisy seem ineradicable, 
 it is all due to their economic basis. If Religion 
 seems to be fundamentally conservative and antago- 
 nistic to science, it is because we mistake the Church 
 for the seat of Rehgion: We mistake for the seat of 
 Religion what is in reality a parasitical institution 
 thriving on the people's ignorance, superstitions, un- 
 grounded fears. 
 
 Karl Marx and Achile Loria have so masterfully 
 proved that economic or financial interests are at the 
 bottom of all intolerance shown by temporal and spirit- 
 ual pseudo-leaders to the pioneers of science, new 
 creeds, free thought, democracy; just as economic or 
 financial interests, and not mere stupidity or vanity, 
 are often at the bottom of the hunting for titles, class 
 distinctions, empty honors, and at the bottom of court 
 scandals, intrigues, ludicrous ceremonies or formalities, 
 pomp, royal marriage affairs, etc. The intolerance 
 manifested by philistines is of a disinterested, purely 
 psychological nature: it is due to suggestion, mental 
 inertia or aversion to a change in the habits of think- 
 ing, feeling, acting. Their intolerance and prejudices 
 would never go over into active aggression and persecu- 
 tion of superior men and of other races, if they were 
 not fanned into a flame of passion by the deliberate 
 lies, press machinations, etc., of the pseudo-leaders 
 whose economic interests are in danger of being harmed 
 by the real but unpaid leaders of mankind. As a proof 
 that the real cause of the rulers' intolerance of honest, 
 critical, independence-loving, ideal, original men is not 
 due to misoneism or mental conservatism, we have the 
 fact that they tolerate men of a different type provided 
 the latter are inferior, more stupid, uglier than them- 
 selves, so as to throw into relief the superiority of the 
 former; they also tolerate more intelligent men, pro- 
 vided the latter are mercenary, homage-paying, sub- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 99 
 
 missive; nor do they interfere with the various species 
 of intra-social brainy parasites whom they are afraid 
 of. But they are intolerant of, and impatient, harsh, 
 or cruel with, defenseless superior individuals who put 
 them into the shadow and whose light discloses to view 
 their defects kept hidden in the dark. They are in- 
 tolerant of independence-loving individuals who refuse 
 to subserve their make-believe game of directive or guid- 
 ing ability, and who refuse to pay them homage, thus 
 betraying their uselessness and purely ornamental, self- 
 assumed social function. 
 
 CONDITIONS, INCENTIVES 
 
 Pam. — Pain is a stronger stimulus to thinking and 
 creating than pleasure. Socially considered, it may 
 b6 one of the causes of genius ; individually consid- 
 ered, it is a stimulus only: A social cause may de- 
 generate into an individual stimulant, and an individual 
 incentive may become a cause, in the long run. 
 
 The awakening from the inertia of thoughtlessness, 
 under the pressure of necessity or need, is painful. 
 Thinking, in its initial stage of running away from 
 unfavorable circumstances, is painful ; but in its second 
 stage, of seeking better circumstances, it becomes 
 pleasure-giving. The post-thinking stage, of finding 
 favorable or satisfactory solutions, terminates in in- 
 difference, just as the pre- thinking stage, the stage of 
 mental inertia, started with indifference. 
 
 Poverty. — Poverty, it is maintained, stimulates 
 thinking, creation. It is true, but every truth holds 
 within certain limits only. So does temperature, up to 
 a certain degree, stimulate our psycho-physical activity. 
 But below and above certain limits it paralyzes. Pov- 
 erty may intensify original activity, if it does not 
 reach the limit of insecurity, uncertainty as to the 
 
100 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 gratification of the most elementary bodily needs. 
 There is as little progress in equatorial regions as near 
 the poles ; there is as small a percentage of men of 
 genius among the paupers as among the high financial 
 aristocrats. 
 
 Only the poor, socially obscure individuals have a 
 chance to know the real predatory basis of human so- 
 ciety and the hideous souls of the so-called upper class, 
 for nobody considers them worth while to put on a 
 poetic mask in their presence. 
 
 The real world obtrudes itself upon the attention of 
 those who have to struggle against its asperities and 
 thorny paths. Even our own real self is revealed 
 only when its wishes and impulses are resisted, when 
 its assertions are disputed and contradicted. The poor, 
 the unprotected individual, he who is thrown upon his 
 own resources, he whom nobody has relieved of the 
 burden of responsibility, he whose every step requires 
 forethought and foresight, he whose every attempt at 
 self-assertion is being opposed, cannot very well afford 
 to lose himself in revery, dreams, delusions, musical and 
 mystical intoxications, sweet thoughtlessness and self- 
 conceit, as the rich do. The life-path of the rich — • 
 owing to the quasi-automatical self-multiplying power 
 of capital — is so smooth and their wants are so regu- 
 larly ministered to by hirelings that they need not 
 make any voluntary effort, any muscular or mental 
 exertion which would prevent them from falling asleep, 
 from falling an easy prey to hypnotizing, fantastic, 
 morbid and shallow literature, to the flattering delu- 
 sions of spiritualism, psychic research, idle speculation, 
 day dreaming. Christian Science, theosophy, and other 
 mystic humbug. Only the state-, church- or capital- 
 supported idealistic philosopher can afford to shut him- 
 self up within the narrow circle of his shadowy ideas, 
 and to forget, ignore, or even deny the existence of a 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 101 
 
 harsh, stern, stormy reahty beyond. Only he can 
 afford to forget the inseparability and distinction be- 
 tween subjective and objective, dream and reality. 
 
 In the struggle against Nature, man comes to a 
 clearer insight not only into the hidden reality of the 
 material world, but also into his own soul. If to live 
 means to struggle, to be active, to overcome obstacles, 
 to gain mastery over nature and over one's own soul 
 by means of increased knowledge, to increase one's 
 power and develop one's psycho-physical organs by a 
 constant and reasonable use ; it follows that the finan- 
 cial aristocrats, in spite of their luxurious, noisy, seem- 
 ingly brilliant and happy parading, in reality vegetate 
 and constitute a dangerous crushing burden upon the 
 toiling classes which are worn out by unnecessary over- 
 exertion, by a hopeless and compulsory drudgery whose 
 only aim is to make the path of a negligible minority 
 of idlers, not only smooth, but dangerously slippery 
 and vertiginous, while the life-path of the great mass 
 threatens to become ever more obstructed by insur- 
 mountable obstacles. Both the extremely poor who 
 have neither the opportunity nor the strength to 
 struggle and to assert themselves, and the extremely 
 rich who have nothing to struggle against, nothing to 
 strive for, are doomed to degenerate in mind and body, 
 and to constitute a burdensome obstacle in the way of 
 human progress. Geniuses, leaders of mankind, defend- 
 ers of great causes, arise mainly from the social middle 
 classes which enjoy an optimum of economic independ- 
 ence, and which are not entirely free from, nor entirely 
 crushed by, the struggles for existence. To take seri- 
 ously the higher or intellectual pursuits, to advance in 
 the purely intellectual direction, one must be sufficiently 
 advanced bodily and economically, i. e., one must save 
 energy by having his lower, bodily needs regularly, 
 automatically, rhythmically attended to, one must be 
 
102 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 protected against and free from economic fluctuations 
 and uncertainties demanding over-exertion and pro- 
 longed, restless, unrhythmical attention. Thus in in- 
 tensively industrial and commercial countries, like the 
 United States, the public struggles too hard against 
 economic uncertainties to be able to look for moral and 
 intellectual uplift in the theaters, at lectures or else- 
 where: All they look for is amusement, relaxation, 
 forgetfulness, thoughtless pleasure, emotional intoxi- 
 cation. 
 
 Poverty and InteUectvMl Fertility. — Necessity, not 
 poverty, is the mother of invention. The struggle 
 against poverty excludes the pursuit of truth. If poor 
 geniuses are seen to be productive, in spite of their 
 poverty, this does not prove anything against the 
 paralyzing influence of poverty. It merely means that 
 geniuses do not struggle against it, in order to be able 
 to pursue truth. Only when poverty becomes intoler- 
 able does the genius awake from his habitual indifi"er- 
 ence or impassivity towards it; he struggles for a mo- 
 ment to surrender again. Instead of defending himself, 
 he addresses the threatening poverty, as Archimedes 
 addressed the Roman soldier, with the words betraying 
 his only preoccupation: "Noli turbare circulos meos." 
 
 Isolation and Social Life. — The impulse to mental 
 activity comes mostly from without — from the cos- 
 mical or social environment — ; but the activity itself is 
 purely individual, and, in order to run its course, re- 
 quires prolonged isolation of the creating individual, 
 admitting only an intermittent contact with nature and 
 society, if the first impulse has not been strong enough 
 to push the activity to satisfactory results. Too close, 
 continued, direct, immediate contact with our fellow- 
 men prevents us from gaining a general and broad view, 
 true conceptions about human nature and human or 
 social relations ; it also renders us unable to resist com- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS lOS 
 
 pulsory, automatic, unreflective suggestion. Too much 
 separation or isolation, on the other hand, renders our 
 general views blurred, vague, lifeless ; we become 
 estranged from, and in course of time we lose sight of, 
 everything that is human. A wise combination or com- 
 promise between, and alternation of, isolation and as- 
 sociation, leads to an harmonious development of in- 
 dividuality. Entirely isolated or entirely absorbed by 
 social life, man loses his personality and his equilibrium. 
 Both the absolutely solitary and the absolutely gregari- 
 ous animals remain unprogressive. 
 
 Only in an economically advanced society, in cities, 
 where the division of labor is carried very far, is such 
 isolation of the thinking individual possible, is he freed 
 from the pressure exerted by the mass. Whereas in 
 the country, in undifferentiated, primitive, tribal life, 
 the pressure of the mass with its fixed customs, in- 
 violable traditions, represses every manifestation of 
 originality except in the despotic chief, and in the un- 
 manageable children and insane. 
 
 Division of labor depends, among other conditions, 
 on the density of population. And the denser the popu- 
 lation of a city, the greater is the chance of being 
 psychically isolated for every individual, i. e., the 
 chance of living less known, less noticed, less influ- 
 enced by people differing in nature; the greater also 
 is the chance of meeting and of associating with, or at 
 least of hearing from, congenial minds ; hence the 
 greater is the courage in every individual of remaining 
 true to himself, of allowing free course to his natural 
 propensities, of manifesting his peculiarities, his origi- 
 nality. 
 
 Isolated, man and animal are thrown upon their own 
 resources; the yoke of the responsibility for their 
 actions weighs heavily upon their minds and impels 
 them to control, inhibition, deliberation, poly-ideistic 
 
104 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 thinking, foreseeing of consequences and learning from 
 past experience, selection of the fittest among the 
 spontaneously arising ideas and impulses. As a mem- 
 ber of a crowd, man and animal relapse into a condi- 
 tion of intellectual inertia, confused thinking, credulity, 
 of emotional, instinctive, automatically imitative, un- 
 stable, exaggerated, uncontrolled, destructive, non-in- 
 hibited, impulsive, non-harmonized, mono-ideistic, 
 motor activity, either bodily or mental, lacking in in- 
 trospection, circumspection and prospection. Between 
 the extremely objective, critical, original thinking of 
 the psychically isolated, contemplative genius and the 
 extreme suggestibility, automatism of the crowd, there 
 is the rationally imitative, conservative life of socie- 
 ties, clubs, parties, corps, etc., and the impersonal, in- 
 direct, self-imposed suggestions of the public, of book 
 and magazine readers. The genius is constructive, pro- 
 gressive ; the public is cooperative ; societies are con- 
 servative ; crowds are destructive. 
 
 The life of solitary (isolated) animals is relatively 
 simple ; there is not much change in their surroundings, 
 nor do many unexpected events occur during their life 
 time. Hence, no great amount of brain work is re- 
 quired of such animals. The minds of animals living 
 in crowds or herds have no free play (Spielraum) or 
 psychical isolation, hence no individuality of their own. 
 Forethought and responsibility resting with the leaders 
 only, it follows that the brain work of such gregarious 
 animals is reduced to a minimum, to mere imitation and 
 docility. 
 
 Social life oflFers a reasonable amount of free play 
 or psychical isolation, but it also imposes a tolerable 
 share of responsibility upon every member. The con- 
 tact between the members of society is not so close, 
 not so personal, not so material, not so compulsory 
 and immutable as that between the members of a crowd 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 105 
 
 or horde. Whoever has a strong, expansive, original 
 individuality which requires more free play or isolation 
 and contemplation, has also to take upon himself a 
 greater burden of responsibility and of discomfort re- 
 sulting therefrom; for leaders do not tolerate and do 
 not protect their like, and still less their critics or 
 superiors who might eclipse them. It is true, the re- 
 sponsibility of a gregarious, social animal is less than 
 that of an isolated, solitary animal; but social hfe is 
 so complicated and progressive that more brain work 
 is required of a relatively protected social animal than 
 of an isolated animal thrown upon its own resources, 
 be it mere imitation of tone-setting individuals. A 
 maximum amount of brain work is required of inde- 
 pendent individuals who keep at a distance from the 
 herd and also of leaders — I mean real, and not sham 
 or nominal leaders who protect and preserve them- 
 selves under the mask of protecting and serving the 
 community; I also mean leaders in the broadest sense 
 of the word: any superior man influencing or guiding 
 others directly or indirectly, mediately or immediately, 
 consciously or unconsciously. 
 
 The above trend of thought leads me to the assump- 
 tion that all the solitary animals belonging to the same 
 species are almost equally intelUgent because they have 
 equal shares of responsibility for their own preserva- 
 tion and that of their progeny. Whereas social life 
 by distributing unequal shares of responsibility among 
 the members of society necessitates an accumulation of 
 intelligence at the periphery, in the unprotected, in 
 the most responsible, in the most isolated. This, how- 
 ever, is not as argument in favor of the cruel competi- 
 tion of our individualistic, capitalistic society in which 
 a majority break their necks and waste their brain 
 energy in their hopeless fight against insurmountable 
 obstacles, their souls being dwarfed, mutilated, or killed 
 
106 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 by a tantalizing anxiety as to the future, and a minor- 
 ity of the brainless individuals, sons of men in power, 
 find upon entering life's battlefields too smooth and 
 slippery a path without any obstacle to hold them back 
 from gliding down into the abyss of degeneration, im- 
 becility, insanity: they degenerate because nobody and 
 nothing hold them back from over-gratifying those 
 psycho-physiological functions which yield immediate 
 pleasures. The economic dependence or slavery of 
 our capitalistic system brings into close, compulsory, 
 and indissoluble connection men of the most divergent 
 intellectual abilities and inclinations. The more capable 
 and the more ideally inclined are thus hindered in their 
 onward and upward course of life ; they cannot ad- 
 vance, they cannot venture to express any opinion that 
 is likely to meet with hatred, jealousy, opposition, or 
 at best with mere indiflference. In a socialistic society 
 where every individual will have a right to employment, 
 where men wUl be dependent merely on the community 
 and, hence, economically independent of particular in- 
 dividuals, intellectual progress will become an easier, 
 more common and less risky afi'air. A more intellectual 
 or more altruistic individual will not risk anything in 
 trying to invite less gifted fellow men to travel along 
 the same path which he pursues ; because he will be in a 
 position to dissolve his contingent and loose connections 
 with such individuals as prove to be opposed to prog- 
 ress, and to associate with more willing, more pro- 
 gressively predisposed individuals, or even to Isolate 
 himself psychically from his contemporaries if his pur- 
 suits are of such a nature as to appeal merely to 
 posterity. 
 
 Close, intimate, continual association between fellow- 
 creatures, between mother and child, between action 
 feeling and thinking, between master and disciple, 
 is possible and necessary during the initial stage of de- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 107 
 
 velopment, during the stage of weakness, maladjust- 
 ment, simple organization, imitativeness, singleness of 
 purpose ; but it becomes impossible, stifling, detrimen- 
 tal, if kept up during the age of maturity, strength, 
 adaptability, initiative, complex organization, many- 
 sided pursuits : This stage is best subserved by a loose, 
 voluntary, soluble, intermittent association. It is not 
 suflicient that an individual should feel and know his 
 own interests: he must also be able to act towards 
 their preservation. For the defense of general inter- 
 ests, however, it is at present better to divide this work 
 among thinkers, poets and men of action : He who acts 
 has no time and no original ability to find out the vital 
 needs of the masses, nor is he able to create the emo- 
 tional or poetical stimulus to action; likewise, the 
 thinker who spends his energy in finding out the real 
 needs of mankind and the ways of realizing them, has 
 no patience for leadership and agitation. Only among 
 primitive peoples pursuing few and simple ends is it pos- 
 sible for every and for one and the same individual to 
 think and feel for the people, and to lead them at the 
 same time. And it will be so again in an advanced 
 democratic society. Close and continual association 
 exerts an accelerating or stimulating influence on in- 
 dividuals who naturally and spontaneously move in the 
 same direction; but it is a source of tyranny, disturb- 
 ances, mutual obstruction, between uncongenial indi- 
 viduals, i. e., between individuals who naturally follow 
 difi'erent paths. 
 
 Motion, variation, progressiveness, spontaneity, is 
 the primary, original, uncaused condition of isolated 
 beings, unicellular organisms, elements, atoms ; close, 
 indissoluble association or aggregation is a cause of 
 stagnation, inertia, unprogressiveness, imitativeness, 
 oscillating or undirected (aimless) movement; an in- 
 crease in the bulk or size of the aggregate leads, how- 
 
108 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ever, to a regrouping, differentiation, division of the 
 tasks, and hence to a restoration, rehabilitation of 
 progressiveness, individuality, variation, or, more cor- 
 rectly, it leads to a higher plane of progressiveness. 
 The previously seemingly homogeneous group spKts 
 into several smaller groups loosely or flexibly connected 
 among themselves, so that a progressive individual does 
 not need any longer to have the approval and follower- 
 ship of the entire mass in order to effect an innova- 
 tion: He merely needs the consent of the members be- 
 longing to the same group. If bodily progressiveness 
 or direct adaptability has almost reached its limit, it 
 is partly because an affected organ is hindered in its 
 tendency to change in conformity to outer stimuli by 
 its being too strongly interrelated or correlated with 
 the rest of the body. If even our indirect or psychical 
 adaptability and variability stagnates in small com- 
 munities, and, after a certain period of development, 
 begins to stagnate even in large cities, it is due in the 
 former case to the strong, indissoluble, rigid ties be- 
 tween the exceptional, original individual and the rest 
 of the community, and in the latter case it is due to 
 the ties of economic dependence, to capitalistic oppres- 
 sion and repression of all spontaneity in the exploited. 
 Fear of the majority in small communities, and fear of 
 a despotical, predatory minority, which soon gains 
 control over the jobs and lives of the majority in large 
 cities, inhibits all tendencies towards originality and 
 is one cause why the man of genius avoids the com- 
 munication of his thoughts through conversation, 
 through personal contact with his feUow-men, but does 
 so from a distance, through books, the press, etc. The 
 pressure of the majority in small communities hinders 
 the putting into practise of innovations. On the other 
 hand, the despotical independence of the leading minori- 
 ties in large cities and capitals encourages only such 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 109 
 
 innovations as are beneficial to themselves. The remedy 
 does not lie, however, in the Tolstoian return to the 
 land, in the so-called Rousseauian return to Nature, 
 to the isolation and liberty of roaming of the ungre- 
 garious primeval man, but in the democratization of 
 society, in ascending to a higher plane of independence 
 or of isolation, viz., to a voluntary isolation in the 
 midst of society, to the freedom or opportunity of as- 
 sociating and cooperating with like-minded individuals 
 and hence of easily dissolving one's connections with 
 uncongenial people. Progressiveness will be reen- 
 throned as soon as mutual control, and continual ex- 
 change of members, between the various social classes 
 will be established; as soon as the bulk of the nation 
 will constitute itself into a final court of appeal and 
 ultimate judge of innovations affecting the general 
 welfare; as soon as a socialistic regime will guarantee 
 to every man the right to employment, the right to 
 a decent and secure livelihood, the right to transfer 
 from one line of employment or one place of abode to 
 others on the basis of mere personal fitness and of 
 mere personal responsibiHty, and not on the basis of 
 references, recommendations, influence, etc. 
 
 Division of Labor. — ^Division of labor, which is an 
 effect of inequality of talent or of opportunity, be- 
 comes in its turn a cause of increasing inequality and 
 differentiation between human talents and opportuni- 
 ties by enabling single individuals or classes of indi- 
 viduals to devote more time to one line of pursuit. In 
 primitive communities all the members of which had 
 the same occupations and were each self-sufiicient, as 
 soon as certain individuals, owing to greater talent or 
 opportunity, began to make certain things better than 
 the other feUow-tribesmen, there arose in the less 
 gifted or less favored the desire to exchange a greater 
 quantity of their other productions for a small quantity 
 
110 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 of such products of better quality; and this demand, 
 increasing with the density of population as well as with 
 the intercommunication between tribes, became an in- 
 ducement for the gifted or fortunate individuals to 
 give up producing things which they could get in ex- 
 change for their favorite productions. Unfortunately, 
 however, with the appearance of division of labor and 
 of the exchange of values between various producers 
 there was also made room for the quasi-parasitical class 
 of middlemen; and later, when exchange became facili- 
 tated by the introduction of money or a conventional 
 medium and unit of measure, there sprang up from the 
 midst of the non-productive class of middlemen the still 
 more dangerous predatory class of financial specu- 
 lators. 
 
 It is probable that the first producers who had been 
 relieved of the unprogressive condition of a Jack-of-all- 
 trades were those who in their leisure time produced 
 artistical works or articles of luxury, next came the 
 men who were capable of producing useful things of a 
 better quality or at least with an artistic flourish ; only 
 lately has division of labor been .degraded from a pro- 
 moter of talent and of quality to the role of increasing 
 mere quantity, to the role of making the industrial 
 exploiters independent of and masters over the Workers, 
 and hence to the role of stultifying, philistinizing, en- 
 slaving, automatizing the masses. 
 
 Human and Animal Intelligence. — The four-footed 
 ancestor of man, owing to his greater intelligence, spe- 
 cialized his fore limbs for the prehensile function, and 
 his hind legs for locomotion and for supporting the 
 whole weight of the body. He began to use his fore 
 legs, not only occasionally and temporarily, as the 
 now living apes do, for the purpose of reaching for 
 things at a height greater than that of his body when 
 resting on all four legs, and for the purpose of handling 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 111 
 
 various natural things or objects (stones, bones, 
 sticks, . . .) as tools ; but he preferred to persist in the 
 erect posture, in spite of its requiring painful effort in 
 the beginning, even when he had nothing to handle or to 
 reach for, probably for the reason that the erect pos- 
 ture enabled him to have a larger visual horizon and 
 hence, to detect his enemies at a distance. To say with 
 some anthropologists, Munro for example, that the 
 erect posture is a cause of human intelligence, or of an 
 increase in human knowledge or intelligence, is just as 
 wrong as to say that the use of tools and machines 
 make man more intelligent, make man invent other ma- 
 chines, and make him come to a better understanding 
 of self and Nature. As a matter of fact, we see men 
 using machines and becoming more stupid in conse- 
 quence of a constant use ; whereas improvements upon 
 existing machines come from those workers who make 
 a less steady use of them; and entirely new inventions 
 do not come from machine-workers, but from brain- 
 workers. Of course, intelligence alone, without nat- 
 ural material to work upon, and without natural sug- 
 gestions to start from, could not have invented any- 
 thing. Without seeing animals clinging to floating 
 trees, man would not have invented the boat; without 
 caves or hollow trees, offering refuge in case of incle- 
 ment weather or of pursuing wild beasts, man would not 
 have invented the house, etc. But if Nature or chance 
 suggests the use of floating trees, caves, sticks, . . . ; 
 the improvements upon these spring from intelligence 
 alone. 
 
 I do not maintain, however, that the intelligence of 
 our four-footed ancestors created the erect posture: 
 It merely seized upon, and held fast to, it, after having 
 struck it unintentionally, accidentally, while the fore 
 limbs were busy grasping objects, and because the hind 
 legs proved adaptable for the support of the entire 
 
112 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 body weight. Mental energy cannot spend itself on 
 remote objects or pursuits, before having dealt with 
 more immediate, nearer, urgent needs and desires, with- 
 out having been entirely absorbed by the latter; just 
 as a spring of water can give birth to a river only after 
 having filled the cavities first met with, and only in 
 the case when the cavities are not too large to absorb 
 the whole quantity of water and, thus, to prevent it 
 from overflowing. To say that man took to the use of 
 tools because of his erect posture, because of having 
 thus the fore legs set free, is tantamount to saying 
 that the river is due to the smaUness of the excavations 
 met with by the spring water in the beginning of its 
 course. If the water had no potential energy, it would 
 not overflow so as to create the bed of the river: it 
 would merely form a lake of smaller or larger extension 
 than the cavities. To say that man owes his increase 
 of intelligence, his civilization, his superiority over ani- 
 mals, to the mere fact that his erect posture leaves his 
 hands free, leaves a surplus of energy to be used in 
 tool-handling: to say that means to maintain that 
 human mental energy does not differ from animal men- 
 tal energy, not even in quantity, let alone in quality, 
 potential, pressure, or capacity for aspiring. More- 
 over, this theory leaves not only the nature of intelli- 
 gence just as mysterious as before, but it also leaves 
 the erect posture itself a mystery: Why of all animals 
 has the erect posture become a permanent characteris- 
 tic in man alone.'' If human progress is due merely to 
 a surplus of energy, why do the strong wild beasts and 
 the favored domestic animals spend their surplus of 
 energy in mere aimless play-activity, whilst man alone 
 spends it in serious, purposeful activity .'' The truth 
 seems to me to be that the only cause of why the sur- 
 plus of human mental energy, in distinction from that 
 of animals, is teleological, directed towards new goals. 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITIONS 113 
 
 is that mysterious quality of a high potential, inborn 
 pressure, discontented restlessness. This higher po- 
 tential of human intelligence enables it to rise from 
 the sensational level, on which the animal mind nor- 
 mally dwells, to the perceptional level, which is the nor- 
 mal place of abode of the philistine mind, and finally 
 to the highest or conceptual planes where the superior 
 intellects feel at home. 
 
 In the human species racial experience is transmit- 
 ted non-compulsorily, through education or social 
 heredity rather than compulsorily, through physiolog- 
 ical inheritance, and also through generalized, non- 
 specialized, vague instincts, that leave room for indi- 
 vidual adaptations, additions, or modification and evo- 
 lution, rather than — ^like in animals — through well- 
 defined and fully developed instincts, that leave little 
 room for individual initiative or for exerting individual 
 intelligence. In animals not only habits or acquired 
 characters but also actions performed but once may 
 become instinctive or hereditary modes of behavior, 
 i. e., they may leave behind an organized physiological 
 mechanism, which is immediately set going whenever the 
 original internal or external stimulus of the instincti- 
 fied actions recurs. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN, INTELLECTUAL 
 HIERARCHY 
 
 TYPES OP SUPERIOE MEN 
 
 Observation and Interpretation. — The different types 
 of geniuses taken as a whole differ quantitatively from 
 the class of average men, but they differ qualitatively 
 among themselves and from intermediate types. 
 
 A common characteristic of all geniuses is combin- 
 ing and creative imagination. Observation is mostly 
 required for scientific creations ; interpretation or ex- 
 planation is the main requirement for philosophic work. 
 The technical and the artistic genius have a maximum 
 power of observation and of constructive imagination 
 built thereupon ; the philosophical genius has a maxi- 
 mum power of interpretation ; in the scientific genius 
 the two abilities are balanced. The specific ability of 
 the technological genius is clear perception and im- 
 agination of movements, i. e., of correlated space and 
 time relations. From a large number of observations, 
 the scientist draws a few conclusions, the talented scien- 
 tist draws less general conclusions than the scientist of 
 genius ; from a few observations the philosopher draws 
 many conclusions, or more general conclusions than 
 those of the scientist. 
 
 The genuine, born, original, pure observer observes 
 spontaneously, unintentionally, involuntarily, disinter- 
 estedly, without any foregoing conscious aim of satis- 
 fying an intellectual or bodily need, nor under the im- 
 
 114 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 115 
 
 pulse of any preconceived idea or hypothesis ; but the 
 elaboration, the mental digestion, the interpretation of 
 the observational material, is voluntary, interested, self- 
 or hetero-imposed. The reverse is true of the original, 
 born, pure thinker, speculative mind : Except the mini- 
 mum of observations which form the ground-work of his 
 reasonings, all the other and subsequent observations 
 occur under the impulse of interest, will, intention, in 
 the view of confirming or invalidating theories which 
 come to him naturally, spontaneously. 
 
 The philosopher's mind's-eye being accommodated 
 for the embracing of vast horizons, for bird's-eye views, 
 rather than of details, is, therefore, liable to become 
 intellectually far-sighted ; whereas the scientist who is 
 in the habit of paying more attention to particular 
 phenomena, to narrow generalizations, is, therefore, 
 likely to contract intellectual myopy, contempt for 
 (arising from the inability to attain) wide generaliza- 
 tions. An excess of metaphysical speculation leads 
 to mental presbytia; an excess of positivism leads to 
 mental myopy ; and vice versa. 
 
 The philosopher is indirectly interested in particular 
 phenomena; he deems them worthy of his attention in 
 so far only as they allow, him to ascend through them 
 to general views, for he is more interested in the har- 
 mony, relation, between things than in the things them- 
 selves. To the scientist, and more so to the technolo- 
 gist, generalizations are a mere means to a better com- 
 prehension or utilization of things, of particular 
 facts. 
 
 The objective, positive, naturalistic or experimental 
 thinker approaches men and things from without; he 
 displays a maximum activity of the perceptive or re- 
 ceptive organs and a minimum of reasoning, i. e., a 
 minimum activity of the associative or combinative brain 
 organs; he reifies men, i. e., he is inclined to obliterate 
 
116 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the distinction between human, vital and mechanical 
 phenomena; he advances from the simple to the com- 
 plex by adding, synthetizing elementary properties ; he 
 abstains from accepting hypotheses as long as the 
 sense data are scarce; to rise above things upon a 
 weak factual foundation terrifies him, nor does he feel 
 any necessity for doing so; he preferably dwells in 
 the low, prosaic regions of /acts and actualities ; if he 
 is original, it is in observation, in the discovery of new 
 facts. The subjective, humanistic, or speculative 
 thinker approaches everything from within ; he displays 
 a minimum of observation, perception and a maximum 
 of interpretation, combination; he humanizes things 
 and animals, i. e., he is inclined to attribute to them too 
 many human qualities; he advances from the complex, 
 from his own ego, to the simple by means of abstraction, 
 subtraction, simplification, analysis ; he prefers any 
 provisional hypothesis, no matter how wildly specula- 
 tive, to none ; disconnected, unexplained, brute facts 
 are a burden to him, his mind cannot digest them unless 
 held together by or diluted in theories ; his usual and 
 favorite abode are the high, poetical regions of abstract 
 concepts and general views; his originality consists in 
 inventing new theories to include, to shelter the new 
 facts discovered by the observer or by the experimenter, 
 or dimly foreseen by himself. 
 
 Both the positive and the speculative thinker natu- 
 rally dislike, and even ignore, unless compelled by public 
 opinion or by professional interests to take notice of, 
 each other. Both admire and accept as teacher the 
 happy genius who is both positive and speculative at 
 the same time and who in his turn understands how to 
 learn from both speculators and observers. 
 
 Subjective or humanistic speculation can be easily 
 perverted by, and pressed into the mercenary service 
 of, egoism, commercialism, profit-seeking. Such a per- 
 
( INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 117 
 
 verted form is pragmatism, which is a new name given 
 by modem representative sophists to the old sophistic 
 theory that man is the measure of all things. One 
 need not be surprised that pragmatism or instrumental- 
 ism arose or was rather revived and brought into vogue 
 in the United States of America, and in England under 
 the more original, hence more innocent name of human- 
 ism; for, the English-speaking race being the commer- 
 cial or predatory race per excellentiam, it was natural 
 that the self-seeking commercial standards should have 
 first exerted their influence on, and been echoed by, 
 English-American philosophy. Let us hope that the 
 philosophers belonging to other less predatory nation- 
 alities wiU resist the contagious effects of such a mer- 
 cenary and morally perverted philosophy. 
 
 Impressibility. — The poet has more impressibility 
 but less clearness of consciousness than the thinker. 
 The poet depicts the world and the soul as they impress 
 him under certain peculiar psycho-physical circum- 
 stances ; the scientist describes the world as it im- 
 presses him under relatively constant or normal psycho- 
 physiological circumstances. 
 
 In ordinary circumstances, the philistine is very lit- 
 tle impressed by things not belonging to the sphere of 
 his bodily needs; the psycho-technical artist and the 
 physico-technical artist or technologist are impressed 
 by certain things at the expense of others, or by some 
 aspects of things exclusively : The artist, in the narrow 
 sense of the word (poet, painter, sculptor, etc.), by the 
 emotional or beauty aspect; the technologist, by the 
 practical or utilitarian aspect; the scientist and the 
 philosopher pay more attention to the harmony of 
 things, to the harmony of various aspects : the scientist 
 deals with partial harmony, relative truth; the philos- 
 opher with total harmony, absolute truth. 
 
 Sentiment alism and Cogitation. — The youth, igno- 
 
118 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 rant of life's obstacles and of his fellow-men's meanness, 
 looks with sentimental hopes forward into the future; 
 the old man, mentally and bodily weakened, looks with 
 sentimental admiration and regret back to an idealized 
 past; the prosaic man, who finds nothing poetical in 
 real life, becomes sentimental when human life is repre- 
 sented on the stage or in novels. What is the common 
 characteristic of all the above-given cases of sentimen- 
 tal attitudes, what does sentimentalism mean? 
 
 Sentimentalism means one-sideness ; cogitation is 
 many-sidedness; prosaic attitude means no-sidedness 
 or affective blindness. Sentimentalism means that the 
 mind recurs periodically to and dwells a long time on a 
 few things or aspects of things ; whereas in cogitation 
 the mind dwells a relatively short time on many things 
 or aspects of things. Opposite aspects awaken oppo- 
 site feelings that partially neutralize each other, and 
 thus free our mind from a narrow sentimentalism. 
 
 Just as there is no motion or force independently of 
 matter, nor matter in a state of absolute rest ; so there 
 are no sentiments independently of ideas, nor ideas 
 lacking a sentimental aspect. Sentiments are motion, 
 commotion of ideas ; ideas are psychical matter in mo- 
 tion. Too strong a sentimental shock produces con- 
 fusion, dissociation or disintegration of ideas and of 
 mental functions, hysteria, stupor, hinders precipita- 
 tion of pure ideas ; a moderate sentimental shock stimu- 
 lates thinking, facilitates combination, colligation, fu- 
 sion of ideas. 
 
 Emotions and ideas are not separate states of mind. 
 Emotion and idea are inseparable constituents, com- 
 bined in various proportions, of one and the same state 
 of mind. The emotion is the centrifugal, materializable, 
 dynamical constituent ; the idea is the centripetal, stat- 
 ical, ethereal part. With increasing clearness, mean- 
 ingfulness of the idea, i. e., with increasing associations 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 119 
 
 between the idea and other ideas, there is a parallel 
 decrease in the intensity, explosiveness, immediacy of 
 motor discharge in the emotion. With decreasing clear- 
 ness or associative links, with increasing independence 
 or isolation of an idea or system of ideas, there is an 
 increase in the emotional and volitional (motor) con- 
 stituent. The fact that strong emotions go together 
 with confused, vague ideas, leads many psychologists 
 to the prima facie plausible theory that emotions are 
 nothing else but obscure ideas, as if there were not 
 plenty of confused ideas in the human mind without 
 any appreciable emotional fringes. 
 
 Vague, inarticulate longings which shift around aim- 
 lessly on the stormy ocean of the sentimentalist's soul; 
 simple, undifferentiated, elementary states of mind, in 
 which the emotional constituent is prepotent and the 
 idea is almost reduced to zero, find their most adequate 
 or most beautiful expression in music — including dance 
 or acted music — which is the lowest, most primitive art, 
 hence the favorite art of women, children and philis- 
 tines. With increasing complexity in the states of 
 mind, with increasing clearness in the cogitational con- 
 stituent, and with decreasing impetuosity in the emo- 
 tional part, higher arts (sculpture, painting, poetry, 
 drama, novel) are resorted to. States of mind in which 
 the cogitational element dominates and the impetuosity 
 of the emotional element is reduced to a minimum, find 
 their best expression in science and philosophy. 
 
 Mysticism (spiritualism, occultism, theosophy, . • .) 
 is an intermediate step between pure emotionalism and 
 clear thinking ; it may mean an ascending stage towards 
 clear, original thought, or a descending stage of decay 
 into emotionalism, into primitive confused ideas. In 
 mystical minds, the boundary lines between related and 
 analogous concepts is totally obliterated, hence the 
 concepts are confounded, interchanged. 
 
120 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 There is no fundamental antagonism between cogita- 
 tion, reason, knowledge, science, . . . and emotion, sen- 
 timent, feeling, art, religion. . . . Only those emotions 
 are dispelled by increased knowledge which are illusory, 
 which have no objective foundation, which owe their 
 apparent, idealized, or magnified value to the intellect- 
 ual mist which enshrouds the ignorant and to the 
 hypnotic suggestions of the charlatans who exploit 
 ignorance. 
 
 Genuine, objective, useful sentiments persist — nay, 
 they thrive better — in the light of truth. Thus the 
 atheist who does not believe in any divine sanction of 
 morality, nor in future reward and punishment of 
 human actions, is not less — nay, he is more — ^moral and 
 altruistic than the religious; the naturalist, the physi- 
 cian, the scientist, who study the sexual organs and the 
 other mechanisms of the human body in all its naked- 
 ness, are not less exposed to falling in love than the 
 ignorant common mortal ; the psychologist who cannot 
 idealize his parents and children, does not love them less, 
 nay, he loves them more sanely, than the ignorant man 
 loves his idealized family. The love of the enlightened 
 is sane, constant, pure, unalienable. . . . Enlighten- 
 ment or science does not attack or destroy genuine or 
 metaphysical religion, i. e., the cosmic sentiments or 
 the consciousness of our being one with, an integrating 
 part of, the whole universe; the sentiments of wonder 
 and awe inspired by infinity, by the mysterious and un- 
 known potentialities of nature ; the sentiments of mod- 
 esty, good will and humility inspired by. the frailty and 
 ephemeralness of human life, etc. Science merely at- 
 tacks superstition, fear, ecclesiastic non-sense and ex- 
 ploitation. Reason does not destroy instincts ; it only 
 renders them modifiable, adaptable, useful. Knowledge 
 and truth are not incompatible with sentimentalism ; 
 they merely do not tolerate error, illusion, ignorance. 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 121 
 
 fetishism, ungrounded opinions, sentiments or actions. 
 Mature, masculine reflection does not go together with 
 youthful and feminine (explosive, impulsive) enthusi- 
 asm. But there is not the least reason for regret; for 
 such an enthusiasm is unstable, short-lived, unreliable, 
 it either remains inactive or overshoots the mark. 
 
 No amount of theological sophistry will ever succeed 
 in covering up the irreconcilable conflict between science 
 and anthropomorphic religion, as manifested in the in- 
 vocation of supernatural help, in prayer and ritual ; for 
 the office of science is to promote progress by teaching 
 us how to gain knowledge of and mastery over nature, 
 whereas prayer is a hindrance to progress, a mere faded 
 relic of the primitive man's magic rites, by means of 
 which he both gave vent to his desires and vainly hoped 
 to influence the course of natural events in his favor. 
 
 In short : Just as in social life the parasitical insti- 
 tutions or organizations, the fraudulent reputations 
 and the absurd customs, can subsist and thrive only on 
 condition that they shun the light of public criticism, 
 of free discussion, of a comparison with similar but 
 useful institutions, and on condition that they seek 
 the protection of darkness, secrecy, legal suppression 
 of free speech (through laws against libel, lese majesty, 
 contempt of court, etc.), taboos, terrorism, etc.; just 
 so in individual life the injurious emotions, the phobias, 
 the parasitic or fixed ideas, the hypnotically instUled be- 
 liefs, the bad habits, can subsist and thrive only on con- 
 dition that they shun the light of consciousness, of self- 
 scrutiny, of reason, of a comparison with objective and 
 useful mental acquisitions, and on condition that they 
 seek protection in the darkness of the subconscious, in 
 isolation, in opaque or adorned linguistic garbs. 
 
 Subject-Matter cmd Method. — The subject-matter of 
 art, taken in its broadest sense, i. e., including useful 
 arts also, is formed by the harmonies and the conflicts 
 
122 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 between desire and reality or knowledge; the end pur- 
 sued is beauty or utility. The subject-matter of 
 science is formed by knowledge, that of philosophy is 
 the harmony of various classes of knowledge or the un- 
 derlying reality ; their direct aim is truth, and indirectly 
 they lead to the useful. 
 
 A practical art is a system of useful, perceptual, con- 
 crete, individual, particular, implicit knowledge. The 
 knowledge of an esthetical art is about emotions, pas- 
 sions, states of mind and their outward manifestations. 
 A science is a system of explicit, verified, conceptual, 
 general, class knowledge. Philosophy is a system of 
 the highest, ultimate, most general conceptual knowl- 
 edge of both mind and cosmos. The artistic or es- 
 thetic sense represents the lowest or initial stage of 
 unselfish human interests : it is a vague, emotional, 
 unselfish, general or undifferentiated, and formal or 
 superficial interest in cosmic and human nature. 
 Whereas the scientific and the philosophic spirit 
 represent clearly-defined, intellectual, unselfish interests 
 in the essence of the universe. 
 
 When we perceive a thing a single time or for the 
 first time, we certainly have no way of telling what be- 
 longs to the thing perceived and what to its environ- 
 ment, to its setting, i. e., to the other things perceived 
 simultaneously and more or less connected therewith; 
 so that we cannot recall the thing without recalling its 
 context. After repeated experience, however, i. e., after 
 having perceived the thing in various contexts, with 
 various emotional fringes, we come to separate the thing 
 from other things with which it is fortuitously or 
 merely contiguously associated, we come to separate 
 the objective from the subjective aspect; we become 
 able to evoke free ideas, the image of the thing without 
 being encumbered by a mass of other irrelevant, un- 
 related images ; we become able to recall the things in 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 123 
 
 consequence of a mere resemblance with other things 
 thought about ; we become able to use it, not only as an 
 object of revery, but also as an object of classification, 
 thought, as an element of reasoning. Experiences sui 
 generis, unclassified and emotional experiences, belong 
 to the realm of Memory and of Imagination. Fre- 
 quent, recurrent, common, objective experiences belong 
 to the realm of knowledge, of thought. The poet, the 
 artist, deals with the individual, exceptional, subjective, 
 emotional, unclassifiable, unanalyzed part of human ex- 
 perience; he deals with objects of Memory and of Im- 
 agination. The thinker takes his subject-matter among 
 the typical, general, objective, recurrent, communicable 
 elements of human experience; he deals with objects of 
 thought, with experience stripped of the contingent, 
 accidental, purely individual, incommunicable elements 
 and of the variable emotional fringes. 
 
 In Art, knowing and doing are inseparable, continu- 
 ally cooperating and mutually furthering. In Litera- 
 ture (Poetry, Drama, Novel), Science and Philosophy, 
 knowing is separated, differentiated, from doing : Know- 
 ing merely sets aims to our doing, but does not pre- 
 scribe, or busy itself too much with, the means to be 
 employed and the single actions to be performed. In 
 Literature, unlike Science and Philosophy, laws or the 
 conception of constant, causal, intimate relations be- 
 tween things and phenomena are not presented explicitly 
 or separately from the described particular phenomena. 
 In Science more attention is paid to the changing, di- 
 versifying, superficial relations between things than to 
 their underlying, deeper, constant, unifying relations. 
 Philosophy prefers to search beneath the troubled sur- 
 face of striking and ephemeral appearances, for the 
 slow but steady course of cosmical and human events ; 
 it searches, beneath historical and geographical superfi- 
 ciality and diversity, for psychological profundity and 
 
IM GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 similarities ; beneath political exaggeration, bluff, noise 
 and vicissitudes, it looks for economic truth, stability, 
 or slow progress ; behind dazzling and changing forms, 
 it sees the permanent, indestructible essence or spirit. 
 All the grandiloquent, sonorous talk of our profes- 
 sorial and academical philosophers and scientists about 
 methodology consists mostly of empty phraseology. 
 The methods of thinking, acting, investigating cannot 
 be followed separately or one at a time like the roads 
 leading to a city. Thus no complex can be analyzed 
 without separating its elements by synthesizing them 
 with other elements. We cannot think out one prob- 
 lem without seeing more or less the parallel or analo- 
 gous problems in other fields of knowledge, and the 
 supra-ordinated or more general problems, as well as 
 the sub-ordinated or more particular and practical 
 problems to which the problem under consideration 
 leads. No generalization can be reached by induction 
 without making sure of every upward step by looking 
 down, I mean deductively, to the further particular 
 facts supporting it. We cannot start from the simple 
 and advance towards the complex, unless we admit that 
 the simple presents itself to our consideration without 
 being looked for. As a matter-of-fact, we do not know 
 that we are in the presence of the simple unless we start 
 from complexes of v<arious degrees and compare them 
 among themselves. The experimental method cannot 
 be followed without the speculative ; the most insignifi- 
 cant step in experimenting starts from a supposition, it 
 starts as the verification of some anticipated succes- 
 sion, coexistence or other relation of phenomena; all 
 conscious activity is guided by ideas. Only verbally, 
 i. e., in exposition, can we afford to follow a single 
 method, to simplify and separate what is in reality 
 complex and connected; but in thinking and invention 
 such a simplification is impossible. 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 125 
 
 The main method of art is synthetical ; the analytical 
 is of secondary importance only, i. e., analyses are made 
 in the view of subsequent larger syntheses. In science 
 the reverse is true : Description, the concrete, paves the 
 way for explanations, for generalizations, for the ab- 
 stract. In philosophy, both methods seem to be of 
 equal importance. Synthesis in Art and Philosophy is 
 constructive, it creates concrete or abstract organic 
 wholes ; synthesis in science is classificatory, it arranges 
 in order to handle more easily, it prepares the raw ma- 
 terial for the former. 
 
 Analysis puts into our hands the inert matter, the 
 substance, the body, the anarchic elements of things and 
 of ideas ; but it lets escape their collective or resultant 
 motion, their associative energy, their souls, their spirit 
 of cooperation. Art synthesizes anew or recombines 
 the scattered elements of cosmic and human nature into 
 new, more beautiful or more useful wholes. And Phi- 
 losophy synthesizes the scattered, disconnected scien- 
 tific concepts into a more or less unified, consistent, 
 life-guiding or life-illuminating system. 
 
 What the psychologist, the scientist, the philosopher 
 express explicitly, in abstract form, the artist and the 
 technician express implicitly, in a concrete body, in a 
 work full of life, or in a mechanism of far-reaching 
 usefulness. 
 
 Point of View and Aim. — Art looks at the world from 
 one point of view, science from an indefinite mimber of 
 points of view, philosophy tends to embrace the world 
 from an infinite number of points of view, suh specie 
 aeternitatis. Art attains subjective truth (beauty 
 or utility), science attains objective relative truth, 
 philosophy strives after objective absolute truth. 
 Primitive art looked at the world successively from 
 many points of view; hence, no perspective and lack 
 of congruity. Modern art looks at the different parts 
 
126 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 of a whole simultaneously from one point of view. The 
 artistic type of mind does not mistake the Inferential 
 rectification of the primary perceptions for the latter, 
 what is seen from one point of view for what would be 
 seen from a more habitual or more practical standpoint, 
 the result of unconscious inference for immediate ob- 
 servational data ; in the psychical combinations he does 
 not lose sight of its elements, he distinguishes what is 
 given to his senses from what is added by his imagina- 
 tion and intellect. 
 
 What is said about the artist in the sphere of per- 
 ceptions holds — mutatis mutandis — of the scientist and 
 of the philosopher in the sphere of the concrete or 
 abstract concepts. 
 
 First Cause, Ultimate Result. — The first cause and 
 final aim of art, science, philosophy, is normally a gen- 
 eral increase or intensification — and abnormally a com- 
 pensatory, unilateral intensification- — of the psycho- 
 physiological rhythms. This rhythm-intensification of 
 our life functions is produced by Art directly, through 
 the intermediation of one sense by the lower arts (music, 
 dancing, color-painting, etc.) or through several senses 
 plus lower intellectual organs by the higher arts ; it is 
 great but transitory; it arises and ceases almost im- 
 mediately with the stimulus ; it throws the individual 
 under its influence into ecstasy, exaltation, self-es- 
 trangedness; it makes him a docile instrument in the 
 hands of the person exerting this intensification. 
 
 The rhythm-intensification induced through coarse 
 dance and music or other physical and emotional intoxi- 
 cants (religious, sexual, gambling, self-deceptive or 
 other exciting practises) is not only unstable, ephem- 
 eral, uncontrollable, unavailable for constructive, up- 
 lifting purposes, a fruitless reaction against mental 
 decay, an inadequate, though the easiest, means of ap- 
 peasing discontent or the thwarted evolutional impulse, 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIEEARCHY 127 
 
 but is also followed by a swinging of the mind to the 
 opposite extreme of bestiality, torpor, paralysis, iner- 
 tia, weariness of life. 
 
 The rhythm-intensification produced by, and giving 
 rise to, Science and Philosophy, is small but permanent ; 
 it is communicated indirectly through the senses ; it ap- 
 pears much later than the stimulus, and may never dis- 
 appear ; it enriches the individual, it renders him aspir- 
 ing, it makes him a willing colaborer of his teachers 
 and congenial minds. 
 
 Science tunes the individual in harmony with the 
 world as it is ; philosophy tunes him in harmony with 
 the world as it tends to become. 
 
 Philosophy — I mean real, self-created and not verbal, 
 school philosophy — tunes the human mind in harmony 
 with eternity, infinity; it lifts man above the stormy, 
 cloudy, impure, narrow, petty-minded, discomforting, 
 disconsolate every-day life; it lifts man above vain, 
 illusory, fragile hopes and above ungrounded, unavoid- 
 able fears. 
 
 The physiological criterion of a normal or general 
 intensification of the vital ryhthms, is an increase in 
 the demand for more and better nourishment, for an in- 
 tenser and richer field of activity; the psychical crite- 
 rion is a state of optimism, of psycho-physiological 
 euphoria, or at least of hopefulness. 
 
 Science (s) looks mostly at the divergence, dissimi- 
 larity, differentiation of phenomena, of things (I differ- 
 entiates, falls into, 1 and 2 ; II into 3 and 4 ; A into I 
 and II). 
 
128 GENERAL TYPES OP SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Philosophy (p), on the contrary, looks at the con- 
 vergence, similarity, origin, unification of phenomena 
 and of things (1 and 2 unified into I, I and II unified 
 into A). 
 
 Ability and Sphere of Interests. — Sometimes not a 
 difference in the prevailing ability, but a difference in 
 the predominating interests, will determine the type of 
 superiority to which an individual will belong: Many 
 philosophers could have become scientists, were not 
 their sphere of interests too vast to permit a prolonged 
 sojourn in a single domain of human knowledge. Like- 
 wise, many scientists could have become technologists, 
 had they been more patient and their intellectual hori- 
 zon narrower. What makes the thinker unfit for action, 
 for so-called leadership, is, not inability or ignorance 
 of human nature, but his broader and unselfish interests, 
 his greater self-respect, his greater morality, his higher 
 ambition, viz., the ambition to be a leader of leaders, a 
 leader of seeing, enlightened, thinking men, and not of 
 blind, credulous, ignorant, easily deceived masses. 
 
 No amount of patience and of voluntary effort can 
 enable one to accomplish things which he may be inter- 
 ested in, but which he is not fit for; although interest 
 aroused by education and other external circumstances, 
 if reinforced by concurrent heredity, may succeed in 
 creating, after one or two generations, the correspond- 
 ing ability. Thus, the reproductive artist (singer, 
 actor, . . . ) cannot, by dint of mere wiU or effort, rise 
 to the level of a productive or creative artist (com- 
 poser, dramatist, . . .). Nor is the observer able to 
 rise to the level of the thinker, i. e., to rise above the 
 low region of brute facts, and to see the subtle connec- 
 tions between them. Nor can the purely scientific 
 thinker, who dwells at a certain height above the re- 
 gion of brute facts, rise to the still higher level of the 
 philosopher, who dwells in a region above that of con- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 129 
 
 Crete or scientific concepts, and who soars so high 
 above the region of brute facts that these almost dis- 
 appear from his view. 
 
 But a little voluntary effort can enable a man of 
 higher abilities to accomplish — although less efficiently 
 than the specialist — things that require lower abilities. 
 For those who have risen to a higher intellectual sphere 
 must have passed through, or dwelt for a certain time 
 in, the lower sphere ; nay, more, they cannot throw off 
 entirely the lower kind of mental work and shift it on to 
 the shoulders of the intellectual subordinates. In the 
 intellectual world, unlike the economic world, men ca- 
 pable of higher activities do not feel themselves entitled 
 to the privilege of keeping the biggest profits for them- 
 selves and of being exempted from all lower or simpler 
 activity : they only feel entitled to giving less time and 
 less attention to lower mental work. Thus, the thinker 
 must come down from time to time into the region of 
 observational and experimental workshops ; the produc- 
 tive or creative artist must do a certain minimum of 
 reproductive or imitative work. 
 
 One cannot simultaneously exert one's ability or in- 
 telligence, and become equally skilled, in two diverging, 
 let alone in two opposite, lines of activity: in both the 
 pursuit and shunning of truth, in both cherishing love 
 and bearing hatred for one's fellow-men, in both sin- 
 cere effusion and crafty reticence, in both self-expres- 
 sion and self-denial, in both invention and imitation, in 
 both progressive and regressive adaptation, in both 
 paving new ways and submitting to the established 
 order of things, in both talking sense and keeping up a 
 conversation by means of platitudes and conventional 
 non-sense, etc. One cannot become skilled in things 
 that one does against one's will, reluctantly, merely on 
 external provocation or compulsion, without previous 
 preparation, Even in lying, cheating, preying, under- 
 
130 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 mining, torturing, oppressing, . . . one cannot become 
 skilful unless one does these things continually, natu- 
 rally, spontaneously, for their own sakes, even in the 
 absence of external compulsion or of urgent needs, dis- 
 interestedly and not only with a view to getting personal 
 benefit therefrom. The good-natured and sincere indi- 
 vidual does not display any tact, inventiveness, intelli- 
 gence, foresight, mindfulness of his own interests dur- 
 ing his justified outbursts of anger, indignation or re- 
 volt; for, judging others by himself, he is never pre- 
 pared to see them misconstrue or deliberately distort 
 his words, belittle or question his pure intentions, be- 
 tray and misuse his confidence. Whereas the bad-na- 
 tured, venomous, hypocritical individual displays a dia- 
 bolical intelligence, tactfulness, resourcefulness, calm- 
 ness in his vindictiveness and rapacity; for he is plan- 
 ning evil all the time, before he can make use of it, so 
 that he is never unarmed or taken unawares in cases of 
 friction with his fellow men. 
 
 Contact with the DaUy Life. — The artist stands in 
 direct and continual touch with the daily life of the 
 common mortal, and with Nature (hence, the personifi- 
 cation thereof) ; whereas the thinker is somewhat es- 
 tranged from the plain man's sphere of interests. The 
 artist accentuates the ideal germ contained in the prose 
 of the daily life ; he forms a connecting bridge between 
 the low regions of the daily life and the high regions 
 of thinking. 
 
 Specialism and Many-Sidedness.- — The many-sided- 
 ness of the philosopher is acquired by a simultaneous 
 consideration of various fields of knowledge ; that of the 
 scientist is successively acquired. 
 
 There is no conflict, no antagonism, between speciali- 
 zation and polyhistory or philosophy. The true or 
 profound specialist ends by becoming a philosopher, 
 or, at least, philosophically minded ; the objective phi- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 131 
 
 losopher ends sometimes by concentrating his interests 
 upon one specialty more than upon others ; the former 
 ends by acquiring, and the latter ends by objectively 
 corroborating his previously purely subjective sense 
 for proportion or sense for the relative and unequal im- 
 portance of the various fields of human endeavor. The 
 specialist begins by concentrating his interest upon 
 one science ( S ) ; and, as he advances further into the 
 domain of his science of predilection (s approaches S), 
 
 he comes necessarily in contact with the other sciences 
 (Sj, S2, S3 . . .), and lastly he begins to suspect, to 
 seek a harmony between all the fields of human knowl- 
 edge. The polyhistors or the philosophers begin with 
 many points of view, with a diffusion, dissemination of 
 their interests. They begin to glean simultaneously in 
 various fields of knowledge ( a, b, c, . . .). When their 
 partial acquaintance with the various fields increases, 
 they begin to perceive a philosophical system. 
 
 Every science — especially psychology — is an avenue 
 leading to, and ending at, the Heights of Philosophical 
 
132 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Contemplation. The contempt for philosophy of those 
 scientists who did not succeed in advancing far enough 
 on the rough, arduous, and thorny road of their own 
 specialty to be able to cherish the hope of arriving soon 
 at the Philosophical Heights : the contempt for philos- 
 ophy, I say, shown by this kind of narrow-minded 
 scientists springs from the same source as the contempt 
 of the fox in the fable for the sour grapes. 
 
 There is antagonism between superficial specialism 
 and dialectic, speculative philosophizing. The super- 
 ficial specialist does not know enough of his own spe- 
 cialty to see the innumerable ways of communication be- 
 tween the field of his specialty and the fields of other 
 specialists. The speculative philosopher knows too lit- 
 tle about the different domains of human knowledge to 
 find an objective harmony between them; therefore his 
 lazy mind establishes a fictitious link between his scat- 
 tered ideas, and he mistakes this fictitious connection 
 for an objective philosophic system. This dialectic, 
 romantic, ideologist, idealistic, parasitical type of spec- 
 ulative thinker is largely responsible for the existence 
 of mental poverty and confusion; just as the parasiti- 
 cal type of financial speculators is largely responsible 
 for the existence of economic poverty and slavery. 
 
 Theoretically we do not see any reason for stopping 
 at, and resting satified with, ultimate explanations ; but 
 practically we have to do so, we have to hold in check 
 our explanatory aimless Wanderlust which is a relic 
 of primitive unbridled imagination, a relapse into the 
 primitive aimless wandering of animistic thought; just 
 as the Wanderlust of the tramps is a relic of or re- 
 lapse into the wandering instinct of our nomadic an- 
 cestors. The purely speculative philosopher is a scien- 
 tific tramp and parasite: just as the regulations, norms, 
 drudgery, unnecessarily complicated machinery of our 
 economic world, form an unbearable burden to the 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 133 
 
 tramp ; so are the norms, methods, propaedeutics, un- 
 necessarily long preparatory work of the scientific 
 career to the speculative philosopher; he prefers to 
 live and travel around in the world of imagination at 
 the expense of scientific, experimental workers, just as 
 the proletarian tramps and particularly the idle aristo- 
 crats or privileged tramps live and travel around at the 
 expense of manual workers. Just as nomadic Wan-' 
 derhtst could with impunity be gratified as long as 
 there were uninhabited regions, and regions inhabited 
 by weak races; and just as parasitism will become im- 
 possible in an ideal society in which the working classes 
 will manage their own affairs: Just so will pure meta- 
 physics become impossible when every science will not 
 shrink from working out its own metaphysics, after 
 having established a firm, practical, experimental 
 foundation. 
 
 Not to do injustice to the genuine, ideal metaphysi- 
 cians, we must rather compare them to the explorers 
 of unknown and of the pola r regions : they have, it is 
 true, the nomadic instinct of Wanderlust, like the 
 tramps, biit they subordinate it to and apply it in the 
 pursuit of higher aims of life, in the exploration of the 
 misty unknown regions of metaphysics. The scientific- 
 ally poorly-equipped speculator either perishes in these 
 metaphysical lands, or returns without bringing any 
 new information about them except the phantoms of his 
 own mind exalted by fear. The verbal, adventurous, or 
 pseudo-metaphysician returns without having reached 
 the misty, frozen, as yet uninhabited land of meta- 
 physics ; but he makes more fuss about his excogitated 
 exploration than real explorers. The antipathy felt 
 by scientific specialists for philosophers has its ana- 
 log in the economic world in the antipathy felt by set- 
 tled or routine people for nomadic or traveling, adven- 
 turous individuals. 
 
134 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 INTELLECTUAL HIEEAECHY, CLASSIFICATION 
 
 The Man of Action. — Intellectually, the pure or 
 ordinary man of action does not stand much higher 
 than the philistine. He is, as a rule, a pseudo-intel- 
 lectual man, and, often, a morally pseudo-superior man. 
 Although mercenary and success-worshiping histo- 
 rians, and the credulous masses, erect him monuments 
 and immortalize him in various other ways, the im- 
 partial student of human nature cannot assign him 
 any high rank in the hierarchic scale of psychical abili- 
 ties. Human progress would be more continuous and 
 less subject to disturbances or retrogressions, if the 
 thinkers, the genuine superior men, exerted direct guid- 
 ance over the masses. The man of action needs the sug- 
 gestions and guiding ideas elaborated by the thinkers ; 
 but the latter — if they had their choice — could dis- 
 pense with the intermediation of the former — not, how- 
 ever, with the intermediation of technologists, but 
 merely with that of leaders, statesmen, professional re- 
 formers, ethical culturists, organizers. . . . 
 
 The pure man of action has the following character- 
 istics : Activity, restlessness is his life. Solitude, in- 
 action, revery, thinking for its own sake, thinking that 
 cannot immediately be communicated and put into prac- 
 tise, is a dread to him. His mental activity runs in 
 simple, unilateral, unramified circuits, leading to im- 
 mediate muscular discharge. His knowledge of men 
 and things is purely empirical, and of no general or 
 theoretical nature. He does not care for the "why" ; 
 he merely cares for the "what." In other words: He 
 merely cares to know how to act quickly and efficiently 
 upon a particular class of men or things, and how to 
 make them react; but he does not care to know about 
 physical and psychical behavior in general, nor about 
 their inner, hidden causes. If he is a leader of men, 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 135 
 
 aU he cares to know is, what pleases and displeases 
 them, what prompts them to action, what gains their 
 confidence, what are the safest means of using them 
 for the gratification of his material and egoistically- 
 vain pursuits — if he is a pseudo-morally active man — 
 or what are the safest means of making men work in 
 their own interest and for the gratification of his al- 
 truistical vanity — if he is a genuine morally active man, 
 i. e., an ideal man of action. But the fact that he 
 knows how to lead men does not at all prove that he 
 knows and understands them. On the contrary! If 
 he really knew and understood men, as a genuine psy- 
 chologist does, he would be less enthusiastic ; if he had 
 a clear idea of how empty of reality the pursuit of im- 
 mortality is, and of how insignificant human life and 
 struggles are in comparison with the infinite, eternal 
 processes going on in the universe, he would proBSjbly 
 be more sober and less impulsively active. Compara- 
 tively speaking, the physically active man or the tech- 
 nologist knows more about the substances acted upon 
 than the socially active man or the leader knows about 
 his flock. Both act for the sake of getting useful re- 
 sults. Knowledge is a mere means to them. Too much, 
 too general, too deep knowledge would be a hindrance 
 to them. Hence, they avoid it, and are averse to it. 
 They tolerate Science, Art, Philosophy, purely intel- 
 lectual pursuits, so long and in so far only as it serves 
 their purposes so to do. If the socialistic philosopher 
 works hand in hand with socialistic leaders and organ- 
 izers, it is — not because he does Hot know their aversion 
 to intellectual pursuits, but — because he knows that 
 they will bring about a social organization under which 
 there will be more leisure and more liberty than under 
 the capitalistic spoliation regime, hence more oppor- 
 tunity for intellectual pursuits. 
 
 The man of action is necessarily narrow-minded, one- 
 
136 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 sided, oligo-ideistic, or even mono-ideistic ; for one can- 
 not pursue many practical aims, i. e., the realization of 
 many ideals, as one can pursue many trains of thoughts. 
 To put into practise a single idea and to preserve the 
 practical results against degeneration or destruction, 
 requires — in our human society which is spoiled by an 
 anarchical, cut-throat competition — untiring attention, 
 uninterrupted application, and readiness to act at any 
 moment; whereas a train of thoughts may be dropped 
 for some time and resumed later, without any detri- 
 ment, nay, with positive advantage. The pursuit of a 
 practical end, on the contrary, does not allow any in- 
 terruption, and jealously forbids the pursuit of any 
 other practical end ; it requires steady preoccupation 
 with details and with trivial matters ; it also requires 
 direct contact with the objects or persons acted upon. 
 The greater the mass to be acted upon and the greater 
 its ignorance or intellectual blindness, the greater is the 
 chance for its falling a prey to unscrupulous, criminal 
 rulers or leaders whose so-called executive ability un- 
 masks itself, on closer inspection, as consisting of mere 
 flattery, terrorism, intrigue and bribery. 
 
 The distinction between active and contemplative men 
 is not always a distinction between two kinds of men; 
 it is more often a distinction between two degrees of 
 activity. What is commonly known and spoken of as 
 the active type of men consists of men who are prompt 
 in putting into practise whatever they see, think or is 
 suggested to them; who feel the necessity of being al- 
 ways doing something — be it even something useless, 
 something they do not believe in, something that does 
 not appeal to their interests — rather than do nothing 
 or indulge in thinking and dehberating; who prefer to 
 do something now, at the risk of having later to undo 
 it, rather than deliberate, plan the whole scheme of 
 action, and postpone action or agitation until the en- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 137 
 
 tire scheme is worked out in their minds ; who feel the 
 impulse of exhibiting themselves, of drawing the people's 
 attention upon themselves ; who learn to do by doing, 
 and learn such things only as they themselves can do 
 or put into practise. Whereas what we commonly call 
 the contemplative class of men does not necessarily or 
 entirely consist of inactive men. The contemplating 
 man is not prompt in acting, nor does he like to be 
 continually active. He does not act before having 
 planned the system of means to be employed, before 
 having weighed and valued the consequences, before 
 having made sure that the trouble is worth his while 
 and will yield lasting results. He has no patience for 
 carrying out details and for remaining active in a single 
 cause ; nor can he rest satisfied merely with immediately 
 realizable or working knowledge. The man of action 
 acts promptly, much and continually, but achieves very 
 little; whereas the thinking man acts after delibera- 
 tion and mature conviction, he acts little and but rarely, 
 but achieves much. Left to themselves, the thinkers 
 and philosophers of mankind would have accomplished 
 long ago the international peace, general culture and 
 universal brotherhood which the men of action have 
 been promising and claiming to pursue for so many 
 thousands of years. 
 
 Poet and Thinker. — From the evolutionary stand- 
 point, the thinker, the philosopher, must be regarded 
 as superior to the pure poet; since sentimentalism goes 
 together with an immature age, is only a stage of transi- 
 tion in the life of the thinker, whereas philosophic and 
 scientific thinking comes with maturity. If we admit 
 that the evolution of the superior man during his indi- 
 vidual life represents an abridged copy or recapitula- 
 tion and an anticipation at the same time of the evo- 
 lution of mankind, we have to accept the conclusion 
 that art, in general, and poetry, in particular, repre- 
 
138 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 sent a lower stage of development than science and 
 philosophy. 
 
 The thinker may exceptionally redescend into the 
 warm regions of poetry ; and the poet, the artist, may 
 from time to time ascend into the serene regions of phil- 
 osophical thinking. But, in spite of occasional deep 
 philosophical insights or intuitions, the poet remains 
 a superficial, confuse, obscure, inconsistent or imma- 
 ture thinker. Even Goethe, the philosophical poet per 
 exceUentiam, makes no exception thereto. 
 
 The poet is a primitive type of thinker: He thinks 
 in images, mental pictures, not in concepts ; he ex- 
 presses, therefore, his thoughts in pictorial language; 
 he thinks the general and the abstract in the form and 
 by means of the particular or concrete ; he thinks the 
 new, the inanimate, the impersonal in terms of the old, 
 traditional, animate, personal. Since conflicting or an- 
 tagonistic images, unlike conflicting concepts, cannot 
 coexist — but only succeed each other — in conscious- 
 ness, we understand why poets are partial, one-sided, 
 inconstant, inconsistent, sentimental. 
 
 Juvenile and Mature Types. — Psychical maturity is 
 characterized by a better, more rapid perception of 
 wholes, of manifolds, and by conception of the abstract, 
 of the content, of remote ends; psychical juvenility has 
 a clearer and more objective perception of parts, of 
 details, of the concrete, of form, of immediate ends. 
 
 What is true of maturity and juvenility in common 
 mortals, holds also of the diff'erent types of superior 
 men. The artist represents the juvenile type in com- 
 parison with the scientist and the philosopher, who 
 represent maturer types. And within each class we 
 can make the same distinction: one artist may lay 
 more stress on details, form: he belongs to the juvenile 
 type of artists; another one may pay more attention 
 to the whole, to the conception, idea: he is a philoso- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 139 
 
 pher-artist, he belongs to the maturer type. Exclusive 
 emphasizing of form or of idea is a symptom of com- 
 plete immaturity or of complete decay. Theology is 
 either the immature, juvenile or the senile stage of 
 metaphysics. 
 
 The tenth step does not cost any more energy than 
 any preceding step did consume (it only requires a 
 greater effort, on account of the fall in the normal level 
 of vital energy), but the tenth step cannot be made 
 before the ninth. The same holds true of mental proc- 
 esses. Abstract mental processes do not absorb more 
 energy than concrete processes, but the concrete is the 
 foundation of the abstract. To start with the concrete 
 and end with the abstract presupposes an intellectually 
 richer, higher, maturer individuality than to remain 
 forever in the concrete sphere. 
 
 The juvenile or immature novelist and dramatist do 
 not go much beyond the fantastic stories and fairy tales 
 heard during their childhood; at best, they merely 
 repeat, in a more or less altered form, what they have 
 heard from gossipers or what they have read; they de- 
 scribe men and things as seen from the outside; they 
 concentrate their entire attention upon a single indi- 
 vidual or a few individuals to the exclusion of the rest 
 of the world, or as if the rest of mankind were mere 
 appendages and had a purely incidental existence ; they 
 either disregard reality altogether, or reproduce in- 
 discriminately, like a photographic film, the most in- 
 significant, trivial, obvious, encumbering, minute de- 
 tails ; if they possess some introspective ability, they 
 depict a single emotion, a single pursuit of their hero, 
 as if he were obsessed day and night by it and had no 
 other needs or aims in life. The maturer, psychological, 
 philosophical novelist and dramatist have the gift to 
 fathom beneath the surface of things, to scrutinize 
 their own souls and to penetrate into the souls of aU 
 
140 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 types of men ; they disclose the type or class behind or 
 around the individual characters which they depict ; 
 they give the reader glimpses of broad views or of life- 
 conceptions while dealing with particular experiences 
 of particular individuals ; they open vistas into the fu- 
 ture while dealing with the past or present; they af- 
 ford glances into the whole complex structure of human 
 society while dealing with one social stratum in particu- 
 lar ; their fine sense of proportion enables them to sepa- 
 rate the vital from the irrelevant, the instructive and 
 interesting from the trivial, causal connections from 
 mere chance connections. 
 
 Classification. — Strictly speaking, we ought not to 
 base our hierarchical classification of superior men 
 merely upon the prevailing mental function, for all men- 
 tal functions are implied in any mental process, nor 
 upon the proportion between the observational and the 
 interpretative (speculative, hypotheses-making) abil- 
 ity. In other words, we ought not to make a distinction 
 between speculative and non-speculative or observa- 
 tional thinkers, we ought not to make speculation the 
 differentia between philosopher and scientist; for there 
 is just as much theory, fiction, arbitrary — although jiot 
 explicit — assumption in the latter as in the former. 
 The experimental chemist does not imply less specula- 
 tion in his account of analyses and syntheses of simple, 
 palpable chemical substances than the social reformer 
 makes in his ideal reconstructions of mankind; the 
 physiological psychologist, who scoiFs at the philo- 
 sophical psychologist, is not aware that he is forging 
 just as many unverified and even unverifiable theories 
 in his psychometrical experiments and in his analysis 
 of sensations as the latter does in his combinations of 
 concepts, mental functions, etc. ; metaphysics is based 
 just as well upon observation as is physics ; only physics 
 builds upon its observations an intellectual edifice of 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 141 
 
 ordinary altitude, whereas metaphysics builds upon its 
 observations a gigantic tower. In reality both philoso- 
 pher and scientist start from observations ; then they 
 forge hypotheses in order to connect and organize them ; 
 then they proceed to further observations and experi- 
 mentations in order to test the strength of the hy- 
 potheses which are usually modified and multiplied to 
 meet the demands of additional facts, and so on. The 
 real difference between the speculative or philosophical 
 thinker and the non-speculative or scientific thinker is 
 a difference in the complexity of the problems attacked. 
 The philosopher having a wide mental grasp, a broad 
 intellectual horizon, higher aspirations, great intellec- 
 tual boldness, many-sided and refined intellectual inter- 
 ests, attacks highly complicated problems which are 
 not within easy reach. The scientist having a narrow 
 intellectual horizon, very few and rougher intellectual 
 needs, little intellectual boldness or spirit of adventure, 
 ventures therefore merely into the lower, immediate, 
 simpler, handier realms of knowledge. 
 
 It is not proper to classify mental superiority merely 
 on the basis of predominating abilities (observation, 
 memory, imagination, reason) without taking into con- 
 sideration the fundamental aims or interests. For we 
 perceive, remember, . . . spontaneously, quickly what 
 we are directly, constantly interested in ; and we learn 
 to withdraw our attention from whatever we feel to be 
 against our aims. Thus women notice in one second 
 more things referring to the clothing, hairdressing, 
 talk, etc., of passers-by than the best man observer 
 could notice in one hour ; the self-important individual, 
 the ego-maniac, the born auto-biographer, will remem- 
 ber the most trivial happenings in his and others' Hfe, 
 if they only seemed to flatter his self-love. The philo- 
 sophically minded individual, i. e., the individual who 
 is interested mostly in broad, general views, eternal 
 
142 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 values, higher thoughts, will as a rule hardly notice or 
 remember persons, things, events of mere actual, transi- 
 tory interest, and still less will he notice or remember 
 gossip, formalities, conventions, petty intrigues and 
 rivalries, matters of fashion, fads, verbal knowl- 
 edge. . . . 
 
 What distinguishes scientific from non-scientific ob- 
 servation is not the accuracy and quickness of the 
 mental process, but the interests that guide it and pre- 
 side over it, and the subject-matter of the observational 
 process. Likewise with introspection : It is erroneously 
 assumed that the psychologist has a generally keener 
 introspective, self-scrutinizing, self-analyzing ability 
 than the non-psychologist. But this is not necessarily 
 true. If it were so, psychiatrists could not rely on 
 the morbid self-analyses of their patients. What dis- 
 tinguishes the self-analysis of the psychologist from 
 that of the non-psychologist is the fact that the latter 
 observes trivial, personal, strange states of mind, 
 whereas the former notices and remembers only those of 
 his states of mind which are of general interest, which 
 lead to some broad conception or general truth. The 
 philosophical psychologist has a keener self-observa- 
 tion in concepts and complex mental states ; the physi- 
 ological psychologist displays keen introspection in 
 sensations and elementary states of mind. The poet re- 
 members his emotions, the psychologist remembers 
 rather the thoughts stirred up by them. The born 
 psychiatrist will be a keen observer of all deviations 
 from the normal in his own mental life and also of their 
 outward manifestations in others. The ethical psychol- 
 ogist is steadily on the alert to detect any frank or 
 disguised and devious intrusions of impure, selfish 
 motives into his own consciousness, and also manifes- 
 tations of such intrusions into others' minds; and in 
 his meditations on any psychological problem he can- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 143 
 
 not help starting from, or landing into, ethical con- 
 siderations, just as any individual with inborn, con- 
 stant, predominating interests cannot help taking these 
 as a center of perspective, or as a reference point in 
 any of his preoccupations. 
 
 If certain individuals are called observers, this does 
 not mean that they confine their mental activity to 
 mere observing, and refrain from recollecting, imagin- 
 ing, conceiving, reasoning, theorizing: it merely means 
 that all the latter mental operations are subordinated 
 to and pressed into the service of observation; whereas 
 the thinker, if he observes or uses the observations and 
 experiments of others, it is for the sake of reasoning 
 about them, it is for the sake of using them as stepping- 
 stones for the attainment or supporting of higher 
 points of view, broader outlooks, general conceptions. 
 
 What distinguishes the observation of the thinker 
 from that of the pure observer is the fact that it is an 
 end-in-itself for the latter, whereas for the former it is 
 a mere means, a mere method of verifying old hypo- 
 theses and of stimulating the conception of new hypo- 
 theses. To the pseudo- or professional superior man, 
 knowledge, art, morality, are mere means or methods 
 of furthering his personal interests. To the genuine 
 or vocational superior man they are ends in themselves, 
 and only occasionally, secondarily, means of earning 
 money or fame. Food, shelter, clothing, material pos- 
 sessions, are aims to the philistine, but mere means to 
 the intellectual individuals. For the technologist, 
 mathematics, physics, chemistry, are mere means or 
 methods of attaining and testing practical ends. The 
 mathematician, physicist, chemist, see in the technical 
 construction a mere embodiment of scientific principles, 
 a mere method of illustrating scientific theories. To a 
 linguist the literature of a nation is a mere means of 
 getting at linguistic peculiarities and principles. To 
 
144 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the Kultur Historiker language is a mere means of 
 getting at the literature, at the intellectual treasures 
 of nations. Whoever is interested in a certain subject, 
 in certain problems, must have some interest in the 
 methods of approaching, of formulating, of solving, 
 and of applying them. Thus the scientist who has no 
 natural interest in, no inborn or specific ability for 
 mathematics, or for Logic, may nevertheless gain a clear 
 insight into mathematical and logical methods, as soon 
 as he feels the need of applying them to his own field 
 of scientific interests. A mathematician and a logician, 
 on the other hand, for whom mathematics or logic 
 are an aim and not a means, a science and not a 
 method, may fail in applying correctly these methods 
 to complex matters which do not interest them; they 
 must, however, take some interest in simpler matters, 
 in general scientific questions, as means of illustrating 
 and of grasping their methods. Art and technology 
 are for science mere means or methods of getting at, 
 and of utilizing, knowledge. Science, in her turn, is 
 for philosophy a mere m^ans or method, a mere step- 
 ping stone for getting at ultimate truth, at the sup- 
 posedly unique reality underlying all the various classes 
 of scientific knowledge. 
 
 technological / physical: industry 
 
 fobservation> interpret.) y or 
 
 perceptual, implicit, /^ useful arts 
 
 working knowledge . \ 
 
 aim: utility, beauty. \ psychical: fine arts 
 
 action, expression ^^^^^ ^j, 
 
 (politics, reform) 
 
 Scientific / physical: biology 
 
 (observ.= interpr.) / 
 
 conceptual knowledge. . \^ 
 
 aim: truth, guiding principles \. psychical: psychology, . 
 \ sociology, . . 
 
 Philosophic physical: ontology 
 
 (interpret. >observ.) / 
 
 ultimate conceptual / 
 
 knowledge \^ 
 
 aim: final harmony . \ 
 
 world-conception \ 
 
 life-conception psychical: epistemology, . . . 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 145 
 
 Hierarchy. — Lowest on the hierarchic scale of in- 
 tellectual superiority, just a little above the level of 
 average men, we have to place the thoughtless observer, 
 the mechanical experimenters, the purely reproductive 
 and imitative artists and writers. Just as the greedy 
 money-maker consumes his entire activity and ability 
 in the simple aim of amassing money to such an ex- 
 tent that in the end he loses — if he ever had — the ca- 
 pacity of enjoying his wealth, and must regretfully 
 see how others more capable of enjoying life stretch 
 their arms towards his so dearly paid-for pile of 
 money; just so the thoughtless observer, the empty- 
 minded experimenter, amass piles of facts and figures 
 without stopping to digest part of them, in the hope — 
 they claim — that the more gigantic their heap of raw 
 observations will grow, the more easily will knowledge 
 be extracted therefrom; but, alas, their minds end by 
 losing — if they ever had — the capacity of digesting the 
 intellectual wealth which, much to their disgust, they 
 must hand over to the youthful minds of thinkers which 
 are more capable of drawing intellectual food and en- 
 joyment therefrom. The purely observational, extro- 
 spective, descriptive, experimental, intellectual man 
 has no real, many-sided, comprehensive, deep thirst for 
 knowledge, for otherwise he could not confine his mental 
 activity for a long time, and often during his whole 
 lifetime, to a particular, narrow class of objects, to 
 which his attention is usually drawn by popular or 
 scientific fashion. 
 
 Within the observational field itself a difficulty meets 
 us when we have to decide who stands higher on the 
 hierarchic scale: the observer of pathological cases, or 
 the observer of normal cases (for instance, the psy- 
 chiatrist or the psychologist proper). For, on the 
 one hand, the genuine observer who does not stop at 
 superficial descriptions, who does not rest satisfied with 
 
146 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 , Philosophers 
 
 Scientists 
 
 Inventors, 
 
 Technologists 
 
 Critics, 
 Populariaers, 
 Pure Observers, 
 Pure 
 
 Experimenters, 
 Mecnanicians 
 
 Psychologists 
 
 \ 
 
 Novelists 
 Dramatists 
 Creative Artists 
 
 Critics, 
 Reproductive 
 and Imitative 
 Artists and 
 Writers, Actors, 
 Singers, Men of 
 Action, Pseudo- 
 superior Men 
 
 Average 
 
 Men 
 
 External World 
 
 Internal World 
 
 mere shadowy, speculative ideas as to the essence of 
 things and processes observed, applies himself to the 
 pathological field, for essential and distinctive features 
 of things are better detected in the caricature, abnor- 
 mal condition ; but, on the other hand, it takes more 
 genius to perceive the essence of things in their nor- 
 mal than in their abnormal condition. 
 
 The bulk of the army of geniuses is formed by scien- 
 tists and technologists, the vanguard by philosophers, 
 the rear by poets and artists. Or, more correctly, tal- 
 ented men form the bulk of the army, and geniuses are 
 leaders, officers. 
 
 The poets, qua poets, conserve and revive the past; 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 147 
 
 the scientists and technologists represent the present 
 in its evolutive course ; the philosophers anticipate the 
 future: They aire the first to catch the only glimpse 
 it is allotted to mortals to attain of ideal beauty, of 
 absolute truth. 
 
 It is needless to emphasize the fact that Nature 
 knows of no such rigorous classification, of no fixed 
 demarcation lines. There are no absolutely pure think- 
 ers ; no absolutely pure poets, etc. The only differ- 
 ence between a thinker and a poet, characterized as 
 such, is that what is the rule, an aim, with the former 
 is the exception, fortuity, with the latter, and vice versa. 
 
 The poet compared with the psychologist is what 
 the practical man is when compared with the scientist. 
 The psychologist observes his own soul directly and 
 the souls of others indirectly in an impersonal, ob- 
 jective, disinterested, impartial way; and so does the 
 scientist with respect to the external world. Whereas 
 the poet, the artist, observes his own soul and that of 
 others for the sake of an emotion, in a subjective, 
 partial, personal way; and the practical man notices 
 the exterior world in so far only as it furthers his own 
 interests. To the psychologist, concrete situations 
 are a means to illustrate, or impure material from which 
 he extracts, pure abstract thoughts and laws. To the 
 poet, thoughts are a means to make concrete situations 
 interesting, to characterize a personage or the hero ; 
 a hidden skeleton to support a concrete living being; 
 a mere scaffolding by means of which to build a new 
 ideal social organization. 
 
 As we advance from the class of artists and tech- 
 nologists to the highest class, to that of philosophers, 
 the motor aspect or motor arc decreases in favor of 
 the sensory aspect or sensory arc. Poly-ideists are 
 oligo-active. (Does not this fact point to, or suggest, 
 the theory that psychical energy is physiological energy 
 
148 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 accumulated in a latent state? And, continuing this 
 line of thought, emotional energy would represent a 
 highly condensed or explosive form, whereas cogita- 
 tional energy would represent a better available form of 
 latent cerebral energy.) Of two men standing on the 
 same level of many-sidedness, the more active, the 
 experimentalist, is superior to the less active, to the 
 speculative. Of two men of equal activity, that one is 
 superior who is more many-sided. But the division of 
 labor being a general rule, we very seldom meet with 
 an experimenter who does not borrow his ideas start- 
 ing-point from the speculative thinker who, in his turn, 
 looks for confirmation of his original ideas to the ex- 
 perimental researches of others. 
 
 The speculative thinker (I do not mean the dialectic, 
 parasitical, or dishonest type) is too rich in original 
 ideas, too lofty and many-sided in his interests, to have 
 time and patience for experimenting, for going deeply 
 into details and consequences. The experimenter, on 
 the contrary, especially the mechanical experimenter 
 who in the intellectual world is the analog of the 
 worker in the economic world, is too poor in original 
 ideas, too poor in inner intellectual impulses and needs, 
 to let go so easily an original idea of his, such a rara 
 avis, or one adopted on account of its being en 
 vogue; it is easier for him to fathom, and to experi- 
 ment upon, one and the same thing than to go over 
 to a new order of things. "Too much of an experi- 
 menter to be a deep thinker" ought, therefore, to be- 
 come a stereotyped phrase. , 
 
 Without corroboration on the part of the patient 
 scientist we could never distinguish the fruitful specu- 
 lation of the genius from that of a lazy mind, the 
 divination of intuition from the mere idle guesswork or 
 fancies of a superficial, verbal speculator. And vice 
 versa: without a guiding speculative idea the scientist 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 149 
 
 would never know what to observe or what to experi- 
 ment on. 
 
 To the moral genius no single definite place can be 
 assigned on the hierarchical scale of genius and talent. 
 He may be found anywhere. He may be intellectually 
 a philistine ; in this case his morality is manifested 
 merely in action, in lending assistance to particular 
 individuals. He may be an artist, poet, novelist: 
 in this case he depicts with predilection the oppressed 
 and the disinherited class ; he invites our attention and 
 cooperative sympathy for the latter. He may be a 
 scientist (economist, sociologist, psychologist), a phi- 
 losopher: in this case he searches after Truth about 
 social conditions, he plans schemes of increasing social 
 happiness or of reducing human suffering. What is 
 common to all these classes of moral geniuses is their 
 aim, viz., the increase of social happiness and solidar- 
 ity. They only differ in methods, means : one uses 
 direct, personal action and persuasion as a means 
 (radical reformers, ideal politicians, ideal teachers and 
 priests, agitators . . . ) ; another one pursues the 
 same aim through the medium of art, literature, sci- 
 ence, philosophy. 
 
 Curves of Development. — The artist advances fur- 
 ther than the average man along the line of receptivity 
 (observation) and reproductivity ; the scientist and the 
 philosopher advance further than the average man and 
 the artist along the line of creation and interpretation. 
 The mental and bodily development of the genius are 
 not so strictly parallel as in the normal philistine. 
 (See figure on p. 150.) 
 
 Part of the development curve drawn in detail so 
 as to show the rhythm or periodicity of the abilities 
 in their yearly (a), seasonal or quarterly (b), monthly 
 (c), daily (d), etc., variations, is represented by the 
 figure on page 151. 
 
Curves of development 
 
 9^s^ 9^Heuueugiui 
 
 
 150 
 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 
 
 151 
 
 Scientist and Philosopher. Realistic and Romantic 
 Thinker. — Just as we perceive things better if we ex- 
 pect or anticipate the perception, or if — at least — we 
 have had previous similar perceptions, just so do ive 
 understand general statements and conclusions drawn 
 by somebody else from his particular experiences, if 
 we have incipient, vague tendencies towards the same 
 generalizations, or if — at least — we have had identical 
 or similar experiences to those of the man who dares 
 or is capable to draw general conclusions. Just as 
 remote objects are quasi non-existent for those who 
 did not follow the objects in their movement, and for 
 those whose attention is not directed towards the dim, 
 distant objects; just so do general statements — espe- 
 cially those of the highest degree of generality or 
 the philosophical — remain meaningless, mere sounds, 
 mental non-entities, mere mental shadows, at best life- 
 less ideas for those who have not followed the trend of 
 particular, concrete experiences moving towards the 
 summit of general, philosophical views ; and also for 
 those who are left in the dark as to the experimental, 
 
152 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 factual, concrete structure which supports on its top 
 the dimly seen general, abstract, philosophical state- 
 ment. 
 
 All the factual, scientific avenues lead to the same 
 summit of philosophic views. No matter along what 
 scientific avenue one travels, the highest philosophical 
 summit reached is the same for all. If not all the 
 philosophers agree, it is because many stop exhausted 
 on the mountain slope, or on a lower summit accessible 
 through but one scientific avenue, which summit they 
 mistake for the highest; and also because on a higher 
 level many lose sight of what they experienced on a 
 lower one, so that these experiences become obliterated, 
 non-existent for this kind of philosophers, known under 
 the euphemistic name of idealists. Realists alone, on 
 their higher, subjective, introspective, conceptual 
 standing ground, do not forget, and do not lose the 
 connection with the lower, objective, extrospective, 
 perceptual standing ground. 
 
 The realistic philosopher, i. e., the philosopher who, 
 while rising to ever higher points of view which enable 
 him to embrace ever broader horizons, does not lose 
 sight of the single, particular objects, individuals, pur- 
 suits, events, met with in the low regions of concrete 
 life : only this kind of philosopher, I say, is in a posi- 
 tion to assign to everything its real place and signifi- 
 cance by comparison with the entire field of human 
 and extra-human activities. Only he is in a position 
 to warn the philistines against the danger of allowing 
 themselves to be exclusively and forgetfully absorbed 
 in trivial, ephemeral pursuits ; in noisy but empty, 
 artificial, perishable humbug performances of ex- 
 ploiters, while paying no attention to approaching 
 catastrophes which spring from unchecked human 
 parasitism. Only he is in a position to remind the in- 
 tellectual proletarians of the real, fundamental eco- 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 153 
 
 nomico-ethical problems that must be solved before any 
 other, and thus to save them from being caught in 
 the nets of fictitious, shallow, nebulous, idle, formalistic, 
 truth-shunning capitalistic philosophy. Among mod- 
 ern philosophers the only one who, in my opinion, is 
 fully entitled to the name of a genuine, consistent, un- 
 shakable, many-sided realistic philosopher is Max 
 Nordau. If the caste of academical, state- or capital- 
 supported philosophers ignore him, it is on account of 
 his plebeian manners, love of independence, non-official, 
 non-technical, plain, unguarded and unsparing lan- 
 guage, lack of grandiloquent and customary scholastic 
 verbosity, disrespect for time-honored and school-sanc- 
 tioned doctrines or authorities. Wundt, in spite of 
 his great abilities, is too much of a hairsplitter, too 
 selfish, too fame-seeking, too thirsty for the applause 
 of all living philosophasters, too much entangled in the 
 nets of academico-capitalistic philosophy, too busy dis- 
 playing useless erudition and systematizing or assort- 
 ing already existing doctrines, to work himself up to a 
 realistic world-conception which is accessible only to 
 bold, independent, disinterested, solitary, vanity-free, 
 proletarian thinkers. Spencer lacked the life experi- 
 ences of the proletarian to remain true to the philo- 
 sophical and sociological realism of his early years. 
 
 Only the realistic philosopher is in a position to see 
 the chaotic conditions prevailing both in our intel- 
 lectual and economic world, where fundamental activi- 
 ties are neglected or given but scanty attention, and 
 badly remunerated or even despised; whereas unessen- 
 tial, playful, childish, useless, and even harmful pur- 
 suits are indulged, paid for from public funds, highly 
 esteemed, given undue importance, and munificently 
 remunerated. 
 
 One may be a realistic thinker in matters of phi- 
 losophy, individual psychology, cosmological science, 
 
154 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 and still remain an unrealistic, romantic, idly specula- 
 tive, ideologistic, nebulous thinker in matters socio- 
 logical, political, economic, ethical-psychological. And 
 this for the simple reason that in the former fields 
 there are no hereditary privileges : Every thinker 
 must start out with personal observation and experi- 
 ence, with sensations, and rise gradually to perceptions 
 and thence to ever broader concepts; whereas, in the 
 field of political, economic, social relations, ready-made 
 fictitious concepts and spurious ideals are imposed upon 
 the children of the privileged classes, and no chance is 
 given them to get closely acquainted with the real pred- 
 atory substratum of the social edifice. Only the in- 
 tellectual proletarian is in a position to study the whole 
 structure of human society from the bottom upwards 
 and to fully realize its defective, tottering condition; 
 for he is born in a lower social stratum, which has to 
 carry daily the crushing burden of human uncertainties, 
 hardships, oppression; but, owing to his superior in- 
 tellect, he is able to get access — either bodily, or men- 
 tally, i. e., through reading — to the higher social classes 
 and to thus extricate the net of subtle causal connec- 
 tions between the simplified, brutalized, struggling, 
 harassed life of the men at the bottom and the increas- 
 ingly refined, complicated, privileged, dream-indulging, 
 smooth life of the upper classes. If he is also a moral 
 genius, then, even if he has worked himself up to a 
 secure position, he will never lose sight of the funda- 
 mental, vital needs and problems of mankind to allow 
 himself — like the thinker who is born into a privileged 
 class — to be carried away by sociological and political 
 abstractions, fictions, grandomaniacal dreams. What 
 has been said about the reasons for the sociological 
 realism of the intellectual proletarian, also holds, al- 
 though in a reversed order, for the impoverished middle 
 class thinker (Karl Marx, for instance) and for the 
 
INTELLECTUAL HIERARCHY 155 
 
 temporarily or permanently disinherited, persecuted 
 aristocratic thinker (Peter Kropotkin, for instance) 
 who begin their life among the privileged classes and 
 are afterwards driven into the ranks of the desperately 
 struggling proletarians, where they learn to rectify and 
 complete their world-conception, or to see men and 
 things in their true significance. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 CREATIVE LIFE 
 
 Imitation and Creation. — Imitation and creation do 
 not exclude each other. The particularity of an in- 
 dividual, nation, race, manifests itself just as much in 
 what they imitate as in what they create independently, 
 just as much in the suggestions received as in the sug- 
 gestions given out or exerted upon others. Suggestion 
 alone can but intensify or minimize, accelerate or re- 
 tard, start or arrest, associate or dissociate mental 
 processes that are potentially or actually existent in 
 the mind of the influenced individual ; but it cannot give 
 him what he lacks absolutely, it cannot make a blind 
 man see, it cannot make an empty mind think, it cannot 
 make an empty heart feel. Hence, to explain all the 
 identical or similar myths, customs, beliefs, practises, 
 found among distant races, nations, tribes, merely as 
 results of contact, diffusion, imitation, is just as one- 
 sided and childish as to explain them merely as aborigi- 
 nal, spontaneous, independent creations, as proofs of 
 the fundamental identity of men's souls the world over. 
 
 Not only truth and knowledge, but also error, illu- 
 sion, beliefs, are based on the observation of real phe- 
 nomena and of real things. Only the latter are built 
 on incomplete, inaccurate, second-hand, emotionally ob- 
 scured observations. There is no error, no belief, no 
 legend, no myth, without a kernel of truth or fact there- 
 in — be it ever so small and hidden from view. AU 
 creation, aU original work, must be based upon, and 
 contain, some amount of imitation. All speculation 
 
 156 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 157 
 
 must take its starting-point from some amount of ob- 
 servation. The human mind can not create anything 
 entirely from its own resources, without being assisted, 
 stimulated, fertilized by suggestions coming from ex- 
 ternal Nature. Even music, the so-caUed subjective 
 art per exceUentiam, draws inspiration, not only from 
 the human heart with its mysterious longings and pas- 
 sions, but also from the vast and mighty organ of 
 Nature, from what Karl Merz so beautifully describes 
 as the music of Nature: The wind that howls in 
 caverns, and sighs through the pines, and whistles upon 
 reeds ; the wave that moans, the rivulet that laughs, 
 the thunder that peals, the ocean that roars ; the music 
 of shifting sands, the mysterious sounds of the waters 
 rushing through coral caves ; the wild concerts of the 
 animal world, the songs of birds and of insects ; the 
 yelling and screaming waves dashing against the rocks ; 
 man's own outbreaks of emotional expression, etc. 
 
 The genuine original man is original even when he 
 tries to imitate and believes that he is imitating ; he 
 is original against his own will ; he finds out at his own 
 expense (for originality is mistaken for stubbornness 
 or haughtiness, and hence offends and irritates those 
 deprived of it) that he differs from others, but often 
 he does not know it, or does not fuUy appreciate it. 
 
 Whereas the pseudo-original man imitates while try- 
 ing to create ; if insane, he loves originality for its own 
 sake without especial regard to the matter upon which 
 his originality exerts itself; the affected originality of 
 the pseudo-superior man aims at success ; the pseudo- 
 original is original in form, trivial matters, words, 
 when he believes to be original in substance, important 
 matters, thoughts. Verbal or formal originality spends 
 itself on inventing big words for small thoughts ; un- 
 common, roundabout, humoristically ambiguous or ob- 
 scure expressions for common, every day, simple, plain. 
 
158 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 trivial facts. Verbal originality tries to hide ugly 
 platitudes under stylish, adorned, picturesque linguistic 
 garbs ; just as women try to please, not with what they 
 have in themselves, but with nice, colored dresses and 
 borrowed feathers. Whereas philosophical, general, 
 soul-uplifting, socially useful truth is too sublime in it- 
 self to stand in need of showing itself in an adorned, 
 picturesque, stylish, linguistic garb. 
 
 Verbal originality repeats one and the same idea in 
 various forms, giving thus the appearance of having 
 exhausted the subject; or it finds an original form, an 
 original exposition, for old, common-place truths which 
 on account of their new garb are mistaken for new 
 truths. Real originality expresses, presents, many 
 original ideas, new truths, in one and the same linguistic 
 garb. Variation in ideas, novelty and originality of 
 conceptions, thought-wealth, go often together with a 
 monotonous style, with linguistic poverty. And vice 
 versa: linguistic wealth, variation in the stylistic forms, 
 go usually together with mental poverty, with monoto- 
 nous repetition of the same common-place truths. It 
 is with ideas or thoughts as with men: ordinary, com- 
 mon-place, empty-minded, philistine individuals often 
 walk around in fashionable, brilliant, eye-catching, ex- 
 ceptional garments ; likewise, common-place, meaning- 
 less ideas often circulate in high-sounding, brilliant, 
 fashionable, scientific linguistic garments. 
 
 Originality in certain things presupposes imitation 
 in others ; originality in ideas, essence, wholes, concep- 
 tion of the end, goes very seldom hand in hand with 
 originality in form, details, conception of the means, 
 and vice versa. We cannot be teachers in certain 
 things without being disciples in other things. The 
 speculative thinker is original in ideas, ideals, aims ; 
 the original experimenter may be original in means and 
 ways of testing, applying, realizing them. The former 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 159 
 
 is original in broad views, large syntheses; the latter 
 is original in finding out details, in analyzing. The 
 former sees many aspects, things, complexes, at a single 
 glance ; the latter sees many details of one and the 
 same aspect, thing, complex. The speculator looks 
 at things from above ; the experimenter from a-near. 
 The former looks for relations, causes, reasons, where 
 the latter looks for facts, effects, consequences. The 
 former looks for outer, complex relations ; the latter 
 for inner, simple relations. The former knows in- 
 tuitively, simultaneously what the latter finds out by 
 reasoning, successively. The former perceives wwtim 
 in myitis; the latter mult a in uno. 
 
 Out of a great mass of vagaries and non-sense, a 
 very slight but very precious quantity of deep, fertile 
 truth can be extracted; but it takes a specialist in 
 clear thinking and in penetrating, comprehensive, 
 critical sense to undertake this delicate and difficult 
 task of extracting it ; to all others the scarce, subtle, 
 precious truth, which is almost inextricably lost within 
 the inexhaustible layers of metaphysical mud, escapes 
 between their fingers, and nothing but metaphysical 
 mud remains in their hands. 
 
 An original man undertakes repugnantly the task of 
 merely reproducing, popularizing, compiling, expound- 
 ing, commenting upon others' opinions, others' scien- 
 tific or philosophic work. If his ability consists mainly 
 in creative and explanatory work, he will never excel 
 in imitative and descriptive work. As a rule the knowl- 
 edge acquired through reading and school education 
 exerts merely a catalytic or stimulating action upon 
 the mind of the genius, i. e., it merely helps, spurs, 
 encourages his own thoughts to emerge, to enter new 
 combinations, to give birth to new creations, without 
 this knowledge itself being consumed, utilized, absorbed 
 in these original products. 
 
160 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The premature longing for originality, for intel- 
 lectual wealth, induces many to mistake tautologies for 
 explanations, verbal for real similarities and distinc- 
 tions, to falsify reality semi-consciously, to shun labori- 
 ous verifications, and to bring forth theories having no 
 foundation. These pseudo-originals forget that very 
 often a little original thought is the result of long 
 and laborious observations, experiences, just as a small 
 quantity of gold is extracted from large masses of ore. 
 An original idea which seems to have risen instan- 
 taneously from a single observation, may in reality 
 have lain prepared by many previous observations in 
 our sub-consciousness, and this single observation may 
 be that negligible quantity which by and through itself 
 could never give rise to an original thought, but is 
 just able to turn the scales, to lift the unconscious idea 
 into consciousness. 
 
 Both the premature and the decrepit yearning for 
 originality, i. e., the yearning which is not yet or no 
 longer accompanied by the power of being original or 
 creative, manifest themselves in various manners : in 
 indulging in physical or emotional intoxicants ; in 
 paradoxo-mania ; in the spirit of contradiction ; in 
 philosophical negativism ; in hunting for verbal origi- 
 nality, for superfluous neologisms ; in ignoring, belit- 
 tling, ridiculing the real originality of others ; in per- 
 secuting contemporary genuine superior men; in 
 getting easily wounded by — and, therefore, anxiously 
 avoiding — criticism, except for advertising purposes; 
 in semi-conscious, self-deceptive plagiarisms ; in coun- 
 terfeiting ideas by coining new words, etc. 
 
 As an example of how pseudo-originality manifests 
 itself in philosophy let us take the master of modern 
 sophists, Henri Bergson. He identifies, combines, 
 fuses concepts which the human mind has taken so 
 many pains to discriminate: To him space and time 
 are identical, spirit is pure duration, intelligence is 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 161 
 
 pure space, the physical is merely the psychical in- 
 verted. On the other hand, he dishonestly avails him- 
 self of the fact that the same ideas appear under dif- 
 ferent names ; hy combining such names he gives him- 
 self the appearance of handing out explanations, new 
 truths, when in reality he hands out tautologies, empty 
 phrases ; by insinuating that such names stand each 
 for a different idea, he simulates a greater intellectual 
 wealth than he really possesses. Such dissimilar words 
 denoting in reality one and the same concept, with 
 which this philosophical magician is juggling, are: 
 time and duration, space and externality, etc. "Mutual 
 externality," he says, "is the distinguishing mark of 
 things which occupy space." The abstract concepts 
 of philosophy, and the same old worn-out disputes 
 about time, space, motion, free wiU, and even the more 
 recent theories which he does not hesitate to reject in 
 their usual wording, he clothes and repeats ad nauseam: 
 in his own hybrid language formed from a combination 
 of physical, chemical, mathematical, mechanical terms. 
 Thus he declaims about: "fluid concepts capable of 
 following reality in all its sinuosities," "ontological 
 affinity between knower and known," "intuition re- 
 fracted into concepts and propagated to other men," 
 "reflective consciousness solidifies into sensible quali- 
 ties the continuous flow of reality," "Nature is a neu- 
 tralized consciousness," "the mind diluting its quality 
 into quantity," "reality can pass from tension to ex- 
 tension by way of inversion." The old assertion that 
 aU accurate knowledge must lend 'itself to mathemat- 
 ical expression he dishes up as an invention of his by 
 disguising it in his hybrid linguistic garb: "All the 
 operations of intelligence tend towards geometry as 
 their perfect achievement." He disconnects things that 
 belong together, such as intelligence and instinct, in 
 order to shift the burden of explanation for his pseudo- 
 
162 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 theories from the one to the other at will. He de- 
 thrones Reason, Logic, Intellect, because it is too demo- 
 cratical, it does not lend itself to bribery, and because 
 every man can directly appeal to it and find redress 
 in its court against the harm done by falsehoods forced 
 upon him by philosophical charlatans. He conspires 
 with the other less brilliant sophists to reenthrone, 
 under the new mask of Intuition, the Revelation or 
 Inspiration of the oracles, the mystics' and spiritists' 
 direct communion with God or spirits, Hartmann's 
 Unconscious ; for the common mortal is not admitted 
 into the precincts of such a ceremonious, secluded, 
 capricious, despotical, autocratic Ruler, but must ap- 
 peal through the intermediary of privileged courtiers, 
 such as Bergson, William James, Rudolph Eucken, and 
 their hangers-on. He dazzles, bewilders, confuses with 
 picturesque, wildly metaphorical, symbolical, sonorous 
 language. He does not use his wild metaphors, like 
 the honest thinker, as mere illustrations, as vehicles for 
 conveying abstract ideas or rather for carrying the 
 readers along the upward path of analogy to the 
 heights of general concepts ; he expects us to take 
 his metaphors literally, to stare at them and to admire 
 their author, but not to use them as vehicles for higher 
 and independent thinking; his metaphors are unre- 
 deemable promissory notes that cannot be exchanged 
 for real, solid, nourishing facts. He combines the 
 most unexpected words, the names of mutually exclu- 
 sive abstract concepts, but is smart enough not to play 
 the same trick with concrete concepts and with per- 
 cepts, for fear lest the majority, who live on the per- 
 ceptual level and hence cannot be bluffed in their own 
 domain, should not declare him fit for an insane asy- 
 lum. Thus he declaims without a smile about: "spa- 
 tialization of time," "materialization of spirit," "con- 
 cretion of durations," "duration increasing in tension," 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 163 
 
 etc., whch is just as meaningless as to speak about 
 painting noises, humidification of dryness, smelling a 
 color, etc. He revives the primitive man's personifying, 
 materialistic, anthropomorphic way of thinking under a 
 more modern garb. Thus he says : "The Universe is a 
 great individual akin tb ourselves," "intelligence has 
 been deposited by life on its march," "spirit contracts 
 into intelligence," "by turning and twisting on itself, 
 the faculty of seeing becomes identified with the act of 
 willing," "matter is ballasted with geometry," "intelli- 
 gence insinuates itself into matter, adopts its rhythm, 
 concentrates itself on it," "the movement which issues 
 in spatiality deposits along its route the faculty of 
 induction as well as that of deduction," "mathematics 
 in general represents simply the direction in which mat- 
 ter refalls," "physics comprehends its role when it 
 pushes matter in the direction of spatiality," "auto- 
 matism lies in ambush for our freedom," "our activity 
 leaps from act to act." The naive, materiahstic, 
 primitive theory that our ideas are copies, reflections, 
 emanations, imprints of real things reappears in his 
 babbling about: "fluid conceptions," "the inability of 
 the human intellect to grasp the dynamical," as if 
 the idea of a movement ought to be a moving idea and 
 the idea of infinity ought to be infinite ; to know some- 
 thing means to him to become identical with it, to be 
 in it; to perceive means to him to carve pieces out of 
 the big stream of continuous reality. He thinks he 
 writes metaphysics, when in reality he rewrites physics 
 using abstract concepts as subjects instead of the 
 names of material objects. And these ruminations of 
 the little bit of physical, chemical and mathematical 
 knowledge stuffed into his mind at school he has the 
 insolence of regaling us with, as if it were a new, fresh 
 philosophical dish. He abstains from defining — at any 
 rate, from clearly defining — his terminology, in order 
 
164! GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 to be able to use it arbitrarily, to twist it according to 
 his needs, to make it hide his tricks and plagiarisms. 
 The commonplace truth "Nature knows of no sharp 
 demarcation lines between things" he twisted beyond 
 all recognition into the seemingly new dynamic theory 
 of "fluid conceptions," "dilution of quality into quan- 
 tity," "spatialization of time," "concretion of dura- 
 tions"; but he is shrewd enough to behave sanely in 
 the region of percepts and not to maintain, for in- 
 stance, that Paris may dissolve or dilute into Berlin 
 because the frontiers between Germany and France are 
 conventional, or that East flows, melts into West be- 
 cause the cardinal points are merely relative and not 
 fixed. This clever sophist boldly speaks about knowing 
 things intuitively, absolutely, from the inside, from 
 their own point of view; but is careful not to make 
 himself ridiculous by coming down from the realm of 
 abstractions and speaking to us about smelling a flower 
 from inside, about tasting an apple from its own point 
 of view, about seeing the absolute shape of a table by 
 placing ourselves inside its drawers, about feeling the 
 absolute action of things upon ourselves by avoiding 
 the ether waves proceeding therefrom and placing our- 
 selves at the origin or center of irradiation. To give 
 a glimpse into Mr. Bergson's philosophical kitchen, into 
 his method of seasoning his undigested, confused school 
 knowledge with some nonsense of his own so as to dis- 
 guise its origin and dish it up as a philosophical dis- 
 covery of his, let us consider this notion of absolute, 
 intuitive or inside knowledge and see how he manufac- 
 tured it: He had a confused recollection of a con- 
 venient simplification used in Mechanics which consists 
 in substituting a simple fictitious, so-caUed apparent or 
 relative movement from A to B in the place of 2 real 
 or absolute movements, say of a falling body from A 
 to C and of a vehicle moving towards it from B to C. 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 165 
 
 This simplification is convenient, because the effect or 
 impact of the falling body against a man sitting in 
 the vehicle would be exactly the same as if the vehicle 
 were still and the falling body were moving along AB 
 away from its real vertical path. This does not mean, 
 however, that the man in the vehicle has no other way 
 of knowing the real movement of the falling body ex- 
 cept by transporting himself to its 
 interior. Nor does it mean that 
 he always forgets his own displace- 
 ment toward the body and cannot 
 escape the illusory impression that 
 the latter moves towards him away 
 from the vertical direction. 
 
 One kind of nonsensical para- 
 doxes, in which Bergson and the philosophical humbug- 
 gers of all times take special delight, consists in pounc- 
 ing upon correlated and hence inseparable concepts — 
 such as space and time, change (flux) and permanency, 
 motion (energy, force) and matter, subject (mind, 
 nous) and object (matter, cosmos), etc. — and to deny 
 the reality of one set or reduce it to a mere derivative, 
 form, shadow of the other set. These humbuggers avoid, 
 however, very carefully playing the same trick with 
 correlated percepts. Thus they do not care to apply 
 their vagaries to concrete cases and to teU us, for 
 instance, that the flight of the birds is the only real 
 thing whereas the birds are pure Action, or that one 
 can appease his hunger by imagining that he takes 
 food, etc. 
 
 Just as a quickly revolving wheel becomes impene- 
 trable to bodies thrown against it, and behaves as if 
 the interstices between the spokes were filled with mat- 
 ter, just so a quick, sanguine, practical, preoccupied, 
 busy, enthusiastic mind (a mind in which the asso- 
 ciated ideas, idea and action, follow each other mechan- 
 
166 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ically, quickly) becomes impenetrable, impervious to 
 original truths, incapable of really assimilating, in- 
 corporating, taking in new doctrines which are floating 
 around in the intellectual atmosphere. 
 
 Spontaneity or passivity means the transformation 
 of physiological into psychical energy. The reverse 
 process, the transformation of conscious psychical 
 energy into physiological energy, forms the voluntary 
 or active processes. The will does not produce or 
 create ; it merely reproduces, arranges, directs the data 
 of spontaneity. Will in its initial stage is self-imita- 
 tion. A personality manifests itself in imitation as 
 well as in creation: We cannot imitate what does not 
 exist in us as a tendency at least. Avoidance of pain 
 and pursuit of pleasure are the causes of voluntary 
 action, but mere results of spontaneous action. The 
 causes of the latter are purely physiological, viz. a 
 surplus of energy tending to expend itself in new 
 channels, if the old ones are sufficiently supplied with 
 energy. 
 
 Human desires stand like doorkeepers at the en- 
 trance of our consciousness, and do not admit but 
 anticipated, expected impressions, or impressions har- 
 monizing with them. Any other impressions and 
 memories are left outside, in the darkness of uncon- 
 sciousness, until accumulating and associating they be- 
 come able to force their way through. In conservative, 
 custom-bound, letter-worshiping communities where 
 originality or mental productivity is not tolerated, 
 there it manifests itself in the shape of ingenious in- 
 terpretations of and commentations on traditions, old 
 texts, authoritative, classical and time-honored works 
 or institutions : It reads new meanings into old words ; 
 it hides the new, the unfamiliar, under the familiar, old 
 cloak of the traditional, of the customary; it confines 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 167 
 
 itself to mere hints, to timidly raised questions, to 
 parables, myths, symbols. Where intellectual energy 
 is repressed and is not allowed to discharge itself freely 
 in the form of a continuous, illuminating life-calling; 
 there it bursts forth from time to time in the form of 
 flashes — I mean of proverbs, short poems, winged words 
 or phrases, epigrams. Invention or creation hides it- 
 self under the cloak of imitation ; hopes and ideals are 
 presented in the form of real, historical, past events. 
 
 Inspiration, Intuition. — The cooperation of the 
 senses and of the motor centers is simultaneous, in- 
 stinctive, automatic: What one hears, one generally 
 tends to look at, touch, smell, act upon, imitate, etc., 
 except when experience advises not to do so. Whereas 
 the cooperation of the higher intellectual functions 
 (perception, memory, imagination, reasoning, . . . ) 
 is willed, spontaneous, occasional, capricious, difficult 
 to attain, given to but few individuals at certain mo- 
 ments and on certain topics only. The chance co- 
 operation of the higher mental functions and of senti- 
 ment constitutes inspiration, intuition. If the abili- 
 ties of the superior man are a prognostic of human 
 evolution in general, then we may hope that the next 
 higher mental acquisition to be made by mankind in a 
 very remote future will be an automatic, constant, 
 general, simultaneous cooperation of all mental func- 
 tions at any moment, on any topic, in all men. 
 
 Just as social happiness will be the result of in- 
 stinctive, voluntary cooperation of men ; and the 
 highest esthetic enjoyment wiU result from a wise co- 
 operation of all arts, as dreamt of by the semi-insane 
 genius Wagner: just so the highest amount of truth, 
 quasi-absolute truth, will result from instinctive, simul- 
 taneous cooperation of all intellectual functions. 
 
 Lack of cooperation between sensory and motor func- 
 tions is the main cause of illusions, errors, fallacies. 
 
168 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Lack of economic, disinterested cooperation between 
 men is the main cause of social insecurity and misery. 
 
 Quest of Truth. — Truth, like woman's love, does not 
 tolerate any rivals in the heart of him who longs for 
 it. Truth reveals itself only to him who renounces 
 the pursuit of success, fame, social recognition, 
 wealth. . . . 
 
 The attractive force of truth is so powerful for 
 the genius that he abandons his dearest illusions in 
 order to foUow its paths. Truth is an organic neces- 
 sity, a permanent function, with the genius, and a 
 mere luxury, or an adventitious function, with the 
 others. 
 
 Primitive, inferior creatures do not thrive in the 
 sunlight. Likewise, morally inferior men shun the 
 light of Truth, for their mind's eye is blinded by it. 
 
 In our quest of truth, we can easily fall a prey to 
 prejudice, a guide who spares us trouble, spares us 
 the effort of seeing with our own eyes. It allows us 
 to indulge in laziness, to rest satisfied with the knowl- 
 edge of classes and substitute it for the knowledge of 
 individuals, to substitute the knowledge of the past 
 for the present. Prejudices lose their subjective value 
 long before they lose their value of exchange or market 
 value. Hence an additional difficulty in eradicating 
 them. 
 
 Expectant or anticipating attention, preconceived 
 opinions and feelings, prejudices, are serviceable if we 
 do not rely too much on them, if we put them to a 
 test from time to time, if they merely help us to start 
 our thinking or to overcome the initial mental inertia, 
 if we do not allow ourselves to be blindly guided by 
 them, if we do not allow them to take the place of, or 
 to hold in check, our own thinking. The hypnotic 
 state is characterized by temporary, transitory, but 
 strong, obsessive prejudices in one or a few directions ; 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 169 
 
 whereas the mental condition of a normal average in- 
 dividual is that of slight but permanent prejudices in 
 many, if not in aU, directions. 
 
 Our imagination, anticipation, expectation, pre-per- 
 ception of things or events, is both an aid and an 
 obstacle to our perceiving them, according as we use 
 it as a mere stimulus to or as a substitute for further 
 objective thinking. We perceive things where they 
 are not to be found and events prior to their occur- 
 rence, and fail to perceive them where they are or when 
 they occur; because our anticipation does not corre- 
 spond to reality, is too much relied upon, or is too 
 one-sided. Thus, in looking for a certain book in a 
 library we may happen to stand right in front of it 
 at the beginning of our search and still fail to see it, 
 because we did not expect such a quick success. In 
 examinations, the easiest questions prove often to be 
 the most puzzling, because the candidates expecting 
 hard questions become suspicious even of the most 
 obvious simplicity. Even moderate, conservative, com- 
 plimentary statements made by avowed socialists, 
 anarchists, communists, alarm the prejudiced philistine, 
 arouse his spirit of contradiction and of vindictive- 
 ness ; whereas the remonstrances, criticisms, revolu- 
 tionary statements, the betrayal of common secrets 
 coming from confreres, from so-called respectable or 
 conservative citizens, and high dignitaries he either 
 listens to indifferently, thoughtlessly nodding consent, 
 or responds to with his habitual stupid, fawning laugh- 
 ter, as he responds to whatever passes for a good joke 
 or clever trick. New truths unpretentiously expressed 
 in plain language by an obscure, poor, non-academical, 
 proletarian thinker are either ignored, belittled or 
 ridiculed by our self-important, grandiloquent, verbose 
 professors who, true to their mission of retainers of 
 the money lords, do not expect any manifestation of 
 
170 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 intelligence, originality or initiative on the part of the 
 unsuccessful toiling class, for this would contradict 
 their teaching and belief that all material success is 
 the reward of higher intelligence: they do not expect 
 any new truths to come from below, from the so-called 
 lower social strata, but merely from above, from the 
 acknowledged, official spiritual leaders who enjoy the 
 confidence and approval of the master class. 
 
 The broad-hearted or moral genius is not preju- 
 diced against any human being. Every one is welcome 
 to his sympathy and interest if he only proves to be 
 worthy of it. He takes interest in any human and living 
 being, without any side-intentions to use them as instru- 
 ments for his own welfare. He judges and treats every 
 man without regard to the latter's influence or social 
 rank, but merely according to merit. He does not shrink 
 in horror from approaching even the so-called out- 
 casts, for he is driven by the altruistic desire of finding 
 out the kernel of goodness left in them and of using it 
 as a handle for moral uplifting. No human being, no 
 matter how low sunken, is given up by him as a 
 hopeless, incurable case. 
 
 The broad-minded or intellectual genius is not 
 prejudiced against any object of thought. He wel- 
 comes every idea that knocks at the door of his atten- 
 tion, no matter whether the idea is related or not to 
 other ideas which are in vogue, popular, or at least in 
 scientific fashion; no matter whether the time and 
 energy spent on the ideas yields material profit or not. 
 His main concern is intellectual profit, and such profit 
 is always the reward of exerting our reasoning power, 
 even if the results are negative and the welcomed 
 theory has to be discarded. He takes the trouble — at 
 the risk of being ridiculed and ostracized by academi- 
 cians — of listening to the claims of the so-called 
 exploded, risky, boycotted theories. No theory is con- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 171 
 
 demned by him without being first impartially and 
 critically examined into. Just as our parasitical 
 leaders keep jealously watch over the social functions 
 and offices usurped by and entrusted to them, and do 
 not allow any new type of men — I mean the altruistic 
 and truth-loving type — to join their ranks, just so 
 the views, opinions, beliefs, artificial desires or inter- 
 ests instilled in the minds of the masses keep jealously 
 watch over the entrance gates of their senses and do 
 not admit into the court of consciousness any facts 
 which tend to contradict them. The masses see merely 
 what the hypnotizing leaders suggest to them; and 
 they pass by blindly the facts and things which they 
 have been warned against. 
 
 The more pains a writer takes in chiseling, studying, 
 and adorning his style, diction or phraseology, the 
 less eagerness for truth is to be expected from him. 
 The more he thinks of pleasing as many readers as 
 possible, i. e., the more he loves himself, the less love 
 is put by him into the service of Truth. The more 
 preoccupied he is with the impression to be made upon 
 readers, the less preoccupied he is with the object of 
 thought, with the problem he deals with. 
 
 The genius does not need statistical data to draw 
 his conclusions ; a few observations — often, one only — 
 form a sufficient basis for his generalizations. The 
 genius prefers a simple, accurate, spontaneous, un- 
 looked-for personal observation of a phenomenon un- 
 detached from the context of antecedent, concomitant, 
 and succeeding phenomena to a host of inaccurate, 
 isolated, looked-for observations made by others on 
 supposedly identical or similar phenomena detached 
 from their context, and to a whole series of artificially 
 prearranged experiments. 
 
 Nor does the genius have much use for the "ques- 
 tionnaire" method when he wants to get an insight into 
 
172 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the soul and heart of his fellow men; for this method 
 of questioning others about their convictions, feelings, 
 impulses and the causes thereof presupposes that 
 everybody knows and understands himself, and sec- 
 ondly that everybody is wilUng and able to make 
 impartial statements about himself. Statistical work 
 is a good field for talented men, who can thus verify, 
 modify, extend, apply the results attained by geniuses. 
 In the flight of his imagination the genius overlooks at 
 a single glance a wider horizon of facts and of rela- 
 tions than the scientist in his reptilian crawhng on the 
 surface can explore in a lifetime. 
 
 Thought and Langiuage. — Thoughts arise like 
 plants : a certain period of life and a certain composi- 
 tion of the brain are the prerequisites for their sprout- 
 ing. Like plants, they remain for a long time in an 
 embryonal state in the dark subsoil of subconsciousness 
 before appearing into the light of consciousness as a 
 fully developed intellectual plant. 
 
 Language is no adequate translation of thought, not 
 even of abstract thinking: there is no parallelism be- 
 tween the categories and sub-categories of language 
 (parts of speech) and those of thought. Language 
 is a translation of our most important, latest, con- 
 cluding thoughts and states of consciousness. Super- 
 ficially thinking individuals are more talkative and 
 more graphomaniacal — to use Lombroso's term — than 
 deeply thinking individuals; for they reach quickly 
 conclusions, their premises or preparatory and gen- 
 erating thoughts are incomplete, the concluding or 
 resulting states of mind are never difi'erentiated, sepa- 
 rated, distinguished from the generating states, the 
 genuine generating thoughts are not clearly discrimi- 
 nated from collateral and antecedent states of mind, 
 no hierarchy of valuation exists between the various 
 conclusions attained, and hence no difference in their 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 173 
 
 claims on publicity or vocal expression. 
 
 Clear thoughts are expressed in clear language. 
 The reciprocal is not necessarily true, but the oppo- 
 site is always so ; confused, mystical language is 
 apparently only concealing deep thoughts. 
 
 To be rich in words does not save one from remain- 
 ing poor in ideas ; for there can be appearance and 
 no reality behind it, or — more correctly — different ap- 
 pearances may conceal one and the same reality in- 
 stead of different realities, or different shades of the 
 same reality. Increasing wealth in thoughts does not 
 immediately bring about a parallel increase in termi- 
 nological wealth. The balanced original man tries to 
 get along, as far as possible, with the existing stock of 
 words. The unbalanced inventor invents useless things, 
 new words for old ideas, entirely new names for slightly 
 original concepts, unusual groupings of words to ex- 
 press banalities, he makes use of. abstract and general 
 terms to express very concrete and particular facts, 
 the appearance of originality is more to him than the 
 reality of it, he hunts for the appearance of originality 
 to deceive others and himself as to his mental sterility. 
 It is just as pathological to delight in self-deception 
 as to our declining creative power as it is pathological 
 to delight in euphoria when our bodily health is get- 
 ting poorer and poorer. A less unbalanced semi- or 
 pseudo-original man worries about his declining crea- 
 tive power; and if he takes refuge in verbal originality, 
 it is because he wants to keep alive the admiration of 
 his disciples, to prevent his name from disappearing 
 from publicity. 
 
 "Ignoti nulla cupido." He who hunts for origi- 
 nality, creation, must have, or have had, at least a 
 germ of it, must have tasted its pleasures. Only in 
 the abnormal craving for originality do the desire and 
 the will transcend the power, the physiological liniitsj 
 
174 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 instead of being adapted to them. It is not abnor- 
 mality to seek pleasure, consolation, in appearance 
 when reality is unattainable or lost (it is merely a 
 symptom of mental weakness), for this is practised by 
 the great mass also in their various beliefs, customs, 
 etc. ; but it is abnormal to delight in an appearance, 
 in pseudo-originality, as if it were a reality, true 
 originality. Between the true geniuses who are origi- 
 nal both in form and in content, in expression and in 
 thought, and the philistines who are intellectually 
 sterile, there is the class of semi-original individuals 
 who are original either in content, thought, or in form, 
 expression: In the former case, i. e., in the case of 
 persons richer in taste than in creative power, the 
 original ideas remain in the darkness of unconscious- 
 ness until they find an appropriate garment or form 
 given them by genuine geniuses ; in the latter case we 
 have pseudo-geniuses who give new forms to old ideas, 
 who steal others' intellectual property by hiding it 
 under their own linguistic cloak. 
 
 We treat words as we treat men. Some words be- 
 come popular, not in consequence of their being mean- 
 ingful, useful, but in consequence of their noble descent 
 (from Latin, Greek, French, the language of the domi- 
 nant class ... ) or in consequence of their pleasing 
 sound or appearance. Such words are entrusted with 
 all kinds of offices, they are called upon to represent 
 the most varied ideas even if they are not fit for the 
 purpose ; they are called upon to convey so many ideas 
 that they end by conveying the opposite meaning or 
 nothing at all, and by lingering as idle, meaningless 
 sounds. On the other hand, we see strongly correlated 
 functions or meanings, which could be best conveyed 
 by one and the same word, subtly distinguished and 
 torn apart by our academicians and assigned to sev- 
 eral words so that not only waste, but also increased 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 175 
 
 mental confusion, is the outcome. Words that express 
 the same idea with equal fitness are treated differently 
 on account of their difference in sound; nay, they are 
 mistaken for having different meanings ; and the sup- 
 posedly noble words are assigned to sinecures, better 
 offices, .colleges, etc. The genuine superior man, who 
 has many and real ideas to communicate, uses there- 
 fore plain, transparent, honest, unequivocal words 
 which fitly convey his ideas. Whereas the pseudo- 
 superior man, who has very few or no ideas to impart 
 to his fellow men, prefers to use rare, high-sounding, 
 intoxicating, vague, aristocratic, technical, caste lan- 
 guage with a mere semblance of meaningfulness, depth, 
 novelty, uniqueness. 
 
 Just as in our modem social organization many 
 kinds of useful work are left undone, whereas many 
 kinds of purely ornamental, useless or even harmful 
 work are done, nay, overdone; just so with our lan- 
 guage or expression of ideas : many useful, beautiful, 
 lofty ideas clamoring for the daylight hardly find any 
 linguistic garb in which to present themselves, and 
 remain therefore hidden from view or are presented in 
 inadequate, worn-out, ambiguous garbs ; whereas many 
 a trivial, uninteresting, meaningless idea has at its dis- 
 posal a rich selection of linguistic garments to disguise 
 its ugliness or deformities therein. 
 
 Articulate language, which to the thinker is a 
 means of imparting, gaining and exchanging ideas or 
 knowledge, arouses in the mind of the philistine merely 
 confused ideas and emotions, and is used by him as a 
 mere channel of motor discharge, as a relief valve in 
 case he is not allowed to expend his energy in the di- 
 rection of the gratification of his needs, or as a motor 
 channel for expending a surplus of energy which he 
 does not like to store up by transforming it into 
 sensory energy or idea-forces. He who talks to a 
 
176 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 philistine with the intention of conveying general views 
 to him is usually painfully surprised to meet with 
 anger, resentment, wounded self-love; for words do 
 not convey any clear ideas to the philistine: they 
 merely arouse in him feelings of like and dislike, love 
 and hatred, self-complacency or self-degradation ; he 
 cannot understand how anybody can speak with any 
 other intention — if with any intention at all — than 
 that of pleasing, flattering, courting or irritating, in- 
 sulting, humiliating, teasing his interlocutor. This ex- 
 plains why a speech without strong intonation and 
 unaccompanied by gestures or emotional language does 
 not appeal to the masses, does not move them to action 
 and only bores them. 
 
 The attention of the genius is like a sensible bal- 
 ance; a very small weight or an ordinary, by com- 
 mon mortals unnoticed, fact sufHces to change its 
 center of gravity, to stir up the activity of his ideas 
 and sentiments. I do not mean to say that attention 
 is a power, a faculty. It is a quality of mental proc- 
 esses, it is their intensity and the communication of 
 their intensity to allied suggested processes. 
 
 The streams of consciousness are quicker and richer 
 in thoughts in the genius than in the ordinary 
 man; it takes, therefore, the genius such a short time 
 to bring into contact certain thoughts, to find their 
 connection, as to give the appearance of intuitions to 
 his reasonings. 
 
 Perhaps the only difference between the conscious- 
 ness of a common mortal and that of a poet, a thinker, 
 is its subject-matter, its contents, the thing which it 
 responds to. 
 
 And who knows whether consciousness can be called 
 a purely human attribute.'' Do not plants and animals 
 respond to atmospherical changes where man remains 
 bUnd.? Are not plants geniuses in nutrition, whereas 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 177 
 
 man is a nutritive philistine and parasite? And with- 
 in our own body, can we deny some sort of conscious- 
 ness to individual cells? Do they not respond to in- 
 fluences concerning them alone, and not the organism 
 as a whole? Whereas what we call consciousness may 
 in reality be but a higher consciousness concerned in 
 matters referring to the organism taken as a whole, 
 just as social consciousness, the state, is concerned or 
 rather ought to be concerned with general interests 
 and not with those of classes and of particular citizens. 
 The common man is more conscious of his daily needs ; 
 the poet is more conscious of the emotional aspect of 
 human experience, he is often blind and tactless in 
 practical matters ; the thinker is rather conscious of 
 the cognitive aspect, frequently blind in emotional and 
 practical affairs. 
 
 Probably the cells forming the animal colony or 
 animal organism have less consciousness than the in- 
 dependent cells in single-celled creatures ; just as 
 individuals living in uninhabited spots, isolated from 
 their fellow-men, at a distance from civilized centers, 
 can better appreciate the advantages of protective 
 social organization than individuals living in towns or 
 cities. The distribution of consciousness is analogous 
 to that of static electricity in conductors : it does not 
 reside in every particle, but accumulates on the ex- 
 ternal surface and in prominent points. 
 
 The man of action, the experimenter, the imitative 
 artist, are not fully conscious of all their aims and 
 motives ; they are rather conscious of their intended 
 actions or movements, of their immediate aims and 
 means to be employed. Whereas the thinking or con- 
 templative man is rather conscious of ultimate aims, 
 motives, ends, than of immediate aims, actions to be 
 performed, means of realizing the former. 
 
 The creative artist, the poet, the technician, are coij- 
 
178 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 scious of, and explicit about, concrete, particular 
 things or events, details, single phenomena or states 
 of mind ; but they are only dimly conscious of, and ex- 
 press implicitly, incompletely, vaguely, hesitatingly, in 
 hints only, tacitly, the classes, wholes, laws, general 
 conceptions, towering above the little bit of reality 
 which forms the subject-matter of the artistic work. 
 The reverse holds of thinkers, scientists, philosophers. 
 The philosopher, particularly, while being fully con- 
 scious of, and giving clear, bold expression to, general 
 laws, comprehensive views, sweeping generalizations, 
 world and life conceptions, is not quite aware of, and 
 gives but an implicit, vague, timid, tacit expression 
 to, the endless multitude of particular cases, concrete 
 events and consequences that might be subsumed there- 
 under or derived and deduced therefrom. 
 
 Just as each of the cells constituting the animal 
 colony called human organism is rather conscious of its 
 own condition and immediate relations to other cells, 
 whereas the brain is less conscious of its own condi- 
 tion and more preoccupied with the general condition 
 of the body and with the ultimate, remote external and 
 internal forces acting upon the latter; just so with 
 the social organism or human society : the moral philis- 
 tine who represents but a cell of the social organism 
 is conscious of his own immediate condition, needs and 
 relationships ; whereas the moral genius who is the 
 brain of the social organism is less conscious of, less 
 sensitive to, his own needs, risks, sufferings, and more 
 preoccupied with the common weal and woe of the 
 group, nation, race; he is seriously concerned with 
 the remedies and fundamental causes of human misery 
 or social maladjustment. 
 
 Form is at the same time a means for and an ob- 
 stacle to recognizing the matter, the substance, the 
 content embodied in it; language both expresses and 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 179 
 
 conceals the thought contents. 
 
 One and the same form, language, expression, can- 
 not fit different kinds of contents, states of mind, 
 thoughts. The fitness, definiteness, adequacy of a form, 
 means its capacity of conveying, exteriorizing, com- 
 municating a certain state of mind. It is nonsense 
 to speak of music as a vague, indefinite language, 
 without adding with reference to which states of mind 
 it is SO'. Music is the most adequate, the most definite, 
 the clearest language or expression of pure emotions ; 
 only if it attempts (I allude to Wagnerism) to ex- 
 press ideas, does it become inadequate, vague. The 
 same thing is true of articulate language: Words are 
 comparatively definite, clear, generally understood ex- 
 pressions of ideas ; but for the purpose of expressing 
 pure emotions they are too inadequate; nor is mere 
 talk the proper expression of volition. The contents 
 of music, however, i. e., the states of mind conveyed 
 by music, are vague and indefinite in comparison with 
 the contents of articulate language. Dance or acted 
 music, and music proper, sculpture, painting, poetry, 
 drama, novel, science, philosophy, express states of 
 mind of an increasing degree of complexity, with an 
 ever-increasing predominance of idea over emotion, of 
 sensory and postponed motor activity over impulsive 
 motor activity. What has been said of the various 
 means of expression holds also for the varieties of one 
 and the same expressional type. Thus the articulate 
 language which fitly expresses concrete experiences is 
 too vague, too misleading, for philosophical concepts, 
 and vice versa. Mathematical language which is so 
 adequate to express simple quantitative relations is 
 entirely but of place and pedantic in Psychology, 
 Philosophy, . . . where we deal with qualitative, com- 
 plex relations. 
 
 Just as analogy is both a means of facilitating, and 
 
180 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 an obstacle to, the understanding of the unknown, in- 
 visible, complex, unusual, psychical, ... in terms of 
 the known, visible, simple, physical, usual, . . . ac- 
 cording as the illustrations or explanatory terms are 
 taken for what they are or are mistaken for, identified 
 with, or more attended to than, the terms explained; 
 just so language, form, outer appearance, symbol, 
 . . . reveal or conceal thought, substance, reality, 
 truth, . . . according as they merely arouse or capti- 
 vate our attention. 
 
 Form, language, the letter, symbols, manners, cus- 
 toms, rituals, . . . — as long as they remain simple, 
 natural, transparent — are a vehicle, a receptacle, serv- 
 ing to convey, to perceive, to suggest content, mean- 
 ing, thought, social feelings, the spirit, morality, truth, 
 religiosity. . . . But as soon as they become compli- 
 cated, adorned, conventional, they become untrue to 
 their original mission ; they captivate and absorb our 
 attention, our interest entirely, and thus prevent us 
 from looking into their contents ; nay, more, we are 
 blinded by their fascinating appearance and forget 
 the more important reality which they are supposed 
 to contain. 
 
 The genuine original man does not need, and dis- 
 dains to blind the people with, a pedantic, over-tech- 
 nical, neologistic, figurative language; for his original, 
 fully developed ideas do not fear the transparent garb 
 of a simple, natural, commonly understood language, 
 just as the harmoniously developed bodily forms of 
 the ancient Greeks were made visible by their simple 
 garments. 
 
 If even honest, matter-of-fact, vocational writers 
 hunt to a certain extent for unusual, high-sounding, 
 so-called stylish expressions for their ideas, it is under 
 the pressure of our age of word-idolatry, it is under 
 the pressure of form-worshiping publishers and read- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 181 
 
 ers. Whereas the dishonest, wilfully nebulous, profes- 
 sional writer, preacher, teacher, orator, overstep all 
 limits in their desire to hide falsehood, common-place, 
 inconsistency, intellectual prostitution, empty-minded- 
 ness, behind eye-catching, attention-absorbing, hypno- 
 tizing, intoxicating, non-transparent, ambiguous, 
 sophistical, evasive phraseology. 
 
 If even an intellectually honest and original thinker 
 like Kant mistook himself for more original than he 
 really was and did not see, for instance, that most of 
 his explanations were mere tautologies and that his cele- 
 brated categorical imperative ("Act only on that 
 maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that 
 it should become a universal law") is nothing but a 
 modification of the generally accepted maxim "Act as 
 you expect others to act" and of the old wise maxim, 
 "Do unto others what you want them to do unto you," 
 couched in a formalistic, nebulous, grandiloquent garb; 
 it is due to the fact that he, as a professor, was com- 
 pelled to accept the traditional academical verbal origi- 
 nality or linguistic method of imposing upon the non- 
 academical world. And since deception of others, par- 
 ticularly unintentional deception, goes together with 
 more or less self-deception, we understand how even the 
 great Kant had become the dupe of his academical 
 hairsplitting, word-idolatry, verbal originality and had 
 come to mistake them for real, objective, original think- 
 ing. 
 
 The use in religious services of dead, archaic lan- 
 guage and of archaic implements or symbols, that no 
 longer convey any clear ideas but merely arouse con- 
 fused, thought-paralyzing emotions, is mildly or 
 timidly ascribed to the conservatism or to the emo- 
 tional mission of the church, instead of being ascribed 
 to its deceitful, parasitical pursuits and instead of 
 being classified together with its other deceptive, 
 
182 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 money-extorting devices: shutting out of the fear-dis- 
 pelling bright daylight, lugubrious music, subdued or 
 soul-depressing colors, meaningless and thought-con- 
 fusing hocus-pocus, appeal to fear, to the imaginary 
 horrors of hell and to other paralyzing feelings. The 
 use by other pseudo-superior men of the not yet com- 
 monly understood vague, abstract, conventional, tech- 
 nical, insinuating, suggestive, covert language for 
 trivial purposes, or even of the no longer commonly 
 understood language of smiles, frowns, sneers, gestures, 
 facial contortions, twinkling of the eyes, queer intona- 
 tion, etc., is ascribed to their smartness, instead of 
 being ascribed to its real motives : cowardice, hypocrisy, 
 malice, evasiveness, moral crookedness. Among the 
 languages of civilized nations, German — as used by 
 academicians, professors, the cultured — will stand as 
 a monument of linguistic deception and imposture. In 
 no other nation does the language of the upper or 
 parasitical class differ to such an extent, in every re- 
 spect — in grammatical forms, illogical order of words, 
 far-fetched relation between word and meaning, undue 
 use of abstract words, unnaturally long and intricate 
 sentences, etc. — from the language of the masses as 
 to appear to the latter almost like a foreign tongue. 
 
 If the poet shows predilection for archaisms, per- 
 sonifications, pictorial language, figures of speech, 
 concrete words reminding of outgrown beliefs or modes 
 of life, it is not out of intellectual dishonesty; it is 
 merely because the poet represents a primitive type 
 of thinker and hence makes use of a more primitive 
 mode of expression. 
 
 Language is an inadequate, unidimensional, abbrevi- 
 ated, selective, superficial, and merely suggestive ex- 
 pression or translation of thought. Language is but 
 a very imperfect instrument of thought expression. 
 Words represent, but they may also misrepresent 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 183 
 
 things, thoughts, feelings. Thus "to save appear- 
 ances" or "diplomacy" is identical with "telling lies," 
 "intriguing and bluffing," but it does not shock any- 
 body because it is presented in a diiferent linguistic 
 garb, because it is better dressed than its alter ego. 
 Language gives the appearance of fixity, unchange- 
 ableness, non-variability, ripeness, univocality, real 
 existence, richness of meaning to what is changeable, 
 variable, dynamical, growing, multi-vocal, imaginary, 
 poor in or devoid of meaning. Not only identical 
 things can be expressed by many differently sounding 
 word combinations, but also the most dissimilar things, 
 diametrically opposed feelings and convictions, circu- 
 late under one and the same name. Thus those who 
 cannot shut their eyes to the absurdities and puerilities 
 of Religion, but do not dare to differ from the great 
 mass or from their beloved beings, drop — pften, with- 
 out knowing it — the thing, but cling to the name : they 
 cover under the cloak of Religion their new convictions 
 which are rather science, philosophy, ethics, everything 
 but religion. 
 
 As there is greater abundance of forms than of 
 matter, we can understand why the same discoveries 
 are made independently by many, but we cannot ex- 
 pect them to be expressed in the same form also. 
 
 Sentimental natures can grasp bits of truth, but 
 never a complete truth, since the flight of their imagi- 
 nation does not allow itself to be guided by the will. 
 The speculative or subjective thinker is more of a poet 
 than of a thinker: he flies on the wings of imagination 
 over the surface of things, and only from time to time 
 does he condescend to come in touch with them. 
 
 The greater the impressibility an original man has, 
 i. e., the more systems of ideas are stirred up, shaken 
 by a new idea, the more difficult is the harmonizing, 
 its acceptance, but the more stable is the subsequent 
 
184 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 harmony; whereas those who easily accept foreign 
 opinions do not in reality assimilate them. 
 
 Thinking and consciousness play the same role with 
 respect to emotions and unconsciousness as the com- 
 mutator of a dynamo with respect to the alternating 
 currents : The spontaneous, discontinuous, sporadic, 
 rhythmic, periodic emotive and subconscious processes 
 are transformed into voluntary, continuous, constant 
 processes ; discontinuous enervating effort is trans- 
 formed into continuous, calm, regulated volition ; pain- 
 ful ideas occurring but once or very rarely give place 
 to painless or even pleasurable steady preoccupations. 
 
 Another function of thinking is to store away 
 volitional or motor energy for future use; to prevent 
 emotional and volitional energy from spending them- 
 selves wastefully or uselessly in the form of immediate 
 muscular activity, and to store them away in the form 
 of dynamic ideas until the most unobstructed and most 
 appropriate channels are found; to prevent fluctuat- 
 ing and antagonistic impulses from manifesting them- 
 selves in the form of mutually destructive actions, 
 until a way has been found of making them harmonize 
 or cooperate towards the same goal; to preliminarily 
 perform an action potentially or in one's mind, with 
 or without the assistance of a concomitant experi- 
 mentation on a small scale, thus saving the troubles, 
 irrecoverable expenditures of energy, non-retractable 
 consequences of immediate, impulsive large-scale 
 action; to transform impulses towards blind, aimless, 
 wasteful, incoordinated, explosive, exhausting, de- 
 structive, mutually neutralizing actions into tendencies 
 towards teleological, far-sighted, economical, coordi- 
 nated, regulated, wholesome, constructive, cooperating 
 activities ; to prevent the undue accumulation of pent- 
 up emotional energy and hence its sudden, explosive, 
 uncontrollable, harmful discharge in the form of in- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 185 
 
 coordinated muscular activity. The emotional indi- 
 vidual swings back and forth between extreme, 
 opposite, mutually destructive lines of action, without 
 advancing in any definite direction, without reaching 
 any definite goal or settling on a higher plane of life. 
 Whereas the thinking individual or the man who is 
 guided by Reason advances steadily towards a definite 
 goal, towards higher and ever broadening horizons. In 
 freeing himself from the fetters and restraints of tradi- 
 tion, custom, routine, externally imposed obedience 
 and uncriticalness, the thinking man does not yield to 
 the natural, first impulse of overstepping the limits of 
 the golden mean and of going over to the extreme of 
 freedom from all restraints : from the artificial, ex- 
 ternally imposed, unnecessary or socially harmful as 
 well as from the natural, self-imposed, necessary, 
 socially useful restraints ; from fear of innovations, 
 from deep reverence for existing doctrines, beliefs, the 
 established order of things and the powers that be to 
 cynicism or disrespect for everything that is sacred 
 to others and to paradoxomania ; from indiscriminate, 
 rigid morality to extreme laxity or indiscriminate im- 
 morality. Unlike the emotional individual, the thinker 
 does not yield to the first impulse towards destroying 
 everything that proves obsolete or a hindrance to 
 progress, but consults his reason which advises to build 
 first something provisional at least in the place of 
 what he intends to destroy ; he does not throw over- 
 board what is a hindrance in his onward course to- 
 gether with everything that is connected therewith, 
 but checks his first impulse and separates what is 
 worth while keeping from what really deserves being 
 discarded; if he happens to belong to the class of the 
 robbed, exploited, down-trodden, he does not yield to 
 the impulse of becoming a robber and exploiter in his 
 turn who makes no distinction between those who de- 
 
186 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 serve his revenge and those who are innocent, but turns 
 against the causes, sources, roots of the entire ex- 
 ploitation system; he does not yield to the first 
 impulse towards freeing himself not only from intel- 
 lectual restraints, but also from moral restraints, not 
 only from drudgery, but also from restful and re- 
 munerative work. It is natural for the thoughtless, 
 stultified or intellectually intimidated individual to 
 swing from one extreme of action over to the other 
 extreme before settling in an intermediate course of 
 action ; for instance : from submission to an oppressive, 
 despotical government, from blind faith in stultifying 
 dogmas to bloodthirsty rebellion, fanatic iconoclasm, 
 political and intellectual anarchy, absolute skepticism. 
 The thinking man, however, instead of actually pass- 
 ing from one extreme to the other, does so potentially 
 only, i. e., in his imagination, but not in his actions. 
 The foresight of the consequences and of the unneces- 
 sary oscillations around the safe and sound inter- 
 mediate line of action makes him save or omit the 
 succession of mutually destroying and contradictory 
 actions and proceed slowly but firmly towards the 
 right course of action. 
 
 The pedant clothes banalities in technical language; 
 the popular writer, on the contrary, clothes abstract, 
 scientific ideas in the narrow language of the people ; 
 the true man of science adapts language to thoughts. 
 The pedant appropriates the form of culture.; the 
 popularizer, the contents ; the scientist, both. 
 
 Thinking and imagination are our mental micro- 
 scope and telescope. They transform the invisible and 
 the distant into the visible and near, the past into actu- 
 ality, the impossibihty into possibiHty. They form an 
 extension of our senses, of our preceptions. 
 
 Art, Poetry, Psychologif. — ^Art pursues beauty, i. 
 e., adequate, concrete, palpable forms and symbols for 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 187 
 
 thought, truth, reality, ideas tinged with emotion, i. e., 
 implying either fundamental, or higher vital interests. 
 We need not complain that the subjects of poetry are 
 exhausted already. As long as the human heart, the 
 human passions, do not change in their essence, we 
 have no use for new subjects: The main function of 
 poetry is to give an adequate expression to our nobler 
 passions and longings, to find the appropriate lan- 
 guage, the best form for human vital hopes and fears. 
 Poetry is not so much a matter of content as a mat- 
 ter of form. The form is more changeable, more 
 destructible than the essence. Hence, there is a rich 
 field for poetical originality. 
 
 The remoter an object is from the sphere of our 
 senses, the less intense is its mental image; if it leaves 
 • the sphere of our senses to pass into that of our 
 imagination, instead of a presentation, we get merely 
 a vague image, a representation of it. Since nothing 
 can be represented if it has not been previously pre- 
 sented ; in other words, since nothing can pass into the 
 sphere of imagination if it has not previously been in 
 the sphere of our senses ; we understand why ideals 
 cannot be wholly created, they are merely new vital 
 combinations of representations, the corresponding 
 sensations of which have been experienced already. 
 The ideals arising in our imagination act back upon 
 the sphere of our senses, and induce us to create corre- 
 sponding objects in the sphere of reality. Ideals are 
 a product of our past experience, and a factor, a 
 cause, of future experience. The spheres of imagina- 
 tion and perception, and the spheres of volition or de- 
 sire and power, overlap partly. Some of our percep- 
 tions do not recur in our imagination, and some of the 
 actions which we have the power to perform do not re- 
 cur in our wishes. The common part of the two spheres 
 is formed by elementary perceptions and spontaneous 
 
188 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 actions which constitute the raw material for new 
 imaginative and volitional combinations. Many of our 
 imaginations and wishes remain forever outside of, 
 and incapable of being incorporated into, the sphere 
 of perceptions and powers. Outer volition is the psy- 
 chical antecedent of muscular movement, or — ob- 
 jectively defined — it is cerebro-spinal movement imme- 
 diately preceding and exciting muscular movement; 
 whereas thought is cerebral movement which is not — 
 or is only indirectly and mediately- — followed by 
 muscular movement. Abulia is not a disease or defect 
 of will, as the illustrious Ribot maintains. It is a de- 
 fect of power, of the muscular system. The muscles 
 of the abulic, like those of the sleeping individual, are 
 too tired, too inert, too relaxed or atonic to be easily 
 set in activity by mere volition, without the assistance 
 of some outside stimulus. 
 
 Both the poet and the psychologist carry the mate- 
 rials for their study, for their creations, and their 
 laboratory, mostly in their own soul. Consciousness is 
 their microscope, their scalpel. Experimentation and 
 observation are merely means of verification to them. 
 
 The born psychologist finds his best and most re- 
 liable subject of experimentation in himself. He does 
 not put others or himself under artificial, prearranged 
 circumstances in order to get a clearer insight into 
 the human soul; but he takes his daily, natural, un- 
 called-for experiences as material to draw general 
 conclusions therefrom. Nor does he try to get an 
 insight into the souls of others by directly questioning 
 them: he merely watches their actions, outward mani- 
 festations, the unintentional betrayals of their true 
 peculiarities during their talk and during their actions 
 when they believe themselves unwatched. Human life 
 with its manifold relations and vicissitudes offers a 
 sufficient change in one's point of view, in one's ex- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 189 
 
 temal situations and corresponding states of mind; 
 it offers ample opportunities to bring out one's abili- 
 ties and to lay bare the most hidden nooks and comers 
 of one's soul; it offers enough opportunities to upset 
 one's a priori opinions about and expectations from 
 others. Nay, more, is not human life itself a continued 
 psychological experimentation with one's own self and 
 with others? Is it not a continued series of trials and 
 errors, an uninterrupted chain of framed, discarded, 
 modified, or verified hypotheses about our own abilities 
 and pursuits and about others' willingness to co- 
 operate ? 
 
 To know what men really think, feel, desire and 
 strive after, the genuine psychologist judges them, not 
 by what they deliberately or parrot-like profess in 
 books, in newspapers, on platforms, in public, but by 
 their manner of acting, living, dealing with their fel- 
 low-men, and by their unguarded gestures, utterances 
 or remarks ; not by their written, professed moral code, 
 but by their customs and by their unwritten, acted 
 upon, privately disclosed code of morals; not by their 
 isolated, exceptional actions, but by their habits and 
 daily practise; not by their overt behavior towards 
 superiors, equals, patrons, publicly known men, inde- 
 pendent and socially protected individuals, but by 
 their behavior towards inferiors, subordinates, ser- 
 vants, socially obscure, defenseless and dependent in- 
 dividuals; not by their compulsory, professional, 
 bread-earning activities, but by their spontaneous, 
 voluntary, recreational, self-chosen, disinterested 
 activities ; not by their professional, interested, busi- 
 ness friendships, but by their disinterestedly chosen, 
 private, intimate friends ; not by their manner of act- 
 ing under artificial, abnormal, experimental conditions, 
 but by their manner of acting under natural, normal, 
 ordinary circumstances. 
 
190 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The scientist and the psychologist control the 
 simplified and idealized past of their recollection and 
 imagination in the light of the present; whereas the 
 poet tries to mold the present in conformity with the 
 imaginary world of his recollections and hopes. The 
 true poet exaggerates reality, truth, not in order to 
 deform them, but in order to throw them more into 
 relief. He exaggerates the form, the accidental parts, 
 in order to give prominence to essence, to permanent 
 and eternal parts. 
 
 Reality alone can normally interest us, can gain our 
 attention and sympathy. Not the daily, obvious and 
 banal reality, but that one which is inaccessible, un- 
 known, exceptional, still ideal, the ideal tending to be- 
 come real, the exceptional tending or deserving to be- 
 come the rule, the ideal built up by means of realistic 
 constituents, the exceptional and pathological in so 
 far as it is an exaggeration of what is good and noble 
 in human nature. The ideal, to interest us, must have 
 points of contact with our real life, with our daily 
 experience. This explains why the great mass of naive 
 novel-readers ascribe historical reality to the events 
 and personages ; whereas more educated novel-readers 
 look at least for psychological reality or verisimilitude. 
 Even the consumers of sensational, blood-and- 
 thunder literature (shockers, dreadfuls, dime-novels) 
 take interest therein because they believe it deals with 
 the realm of reality and possibility. People who lead 
 a life of monotonous daily drudgery, a life devoid of 
 all opportunities, and who are kept in ignorance as 
 to how the world's affairs are administered and as to 
 how the spoils are divided, soon forget — if they ever 
 knew— how to discriminate between wish and reality, 
 between what is probable or possible and what is im- 
 probable or impossible ; they lose the sense for various 
 degrees of probability. Since they are tied hands and 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 191 
 
 feet, and have to feed their souls on empty hopes, why 
 not hope for the highly improbable and even for the 
 impossible, why not enjoy in their imagination the 
 wildest dreams or adventures, when it does not require 
 any greater mental effort to do so than it does to 
 dream less ambitious, more modest, but equally un- 
 realizable dreams? Why not reach for the moon, for 
 the remote, if things nearer at hand are just as in- 
 accessible? Why should not the servant girl, the shop 
 girl, dream of a prince, a millionaire, a great hero, 
 when even a seven-dollar-a-week clerk looks down upon 
 her and is just as much beyond her reach? 
 
 The poetical description differs toto orbe from 
 the scientifical: the former is subjective, personal, uni- 
 lateral, i. e., written in the view of arousing certain 
 emotions ; the latter is objective, impersonal, multi- 
 lateral. A poetico-scientifical description unites the 
 two sets of qualities, harmonizes the subjective and the 
 objective point of view. 
 
 The difference between the scientific or professional 
 psychologist and the practical psychologist or knower 
 of men (diplomats, detectives, business men, etc.), and 
 that between the psychologist and the poet is not a 
 difference between analytical and synthetical psy- 
 chological knowledge. It is a difference between 
 general, theoretical, explanatory and particular, prac- 
 tical, factual, empirical psychological knowledge, be- 
 tween knowledge as an aim in itself and knowledge as 
 a means. The practical knower of men and the poet 
 do not care why men, or whether all men, act, feel, 
 and think in a certain way in given situations; they 
 care to know, not to understand, how men, or only a 
 certain class of men, act or feel under special 
 circumstances with respect to things of importance to 
 the former. 
 
 The philosophico-poetical genius infuses new life into 
 
192 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 abstract, dry thoughts ; he gives a new, palpable, more 
 attractive body to spiritual values which either he him- 
 self or an analytical thinker has extracted from the 
 actual semi-prosaic life. He not only restores to life 
 what has been extracted therefrom, but restores it to 
 a higher and better plane of life. He revives the Past, 
 not only as it was, but also as it might have been or 
 as it tended to become. He represents not only the 
 Present, but also the embryonal Future which is con- 
 tained therein, which gives meaning and value to the 
 former and is also destined to supersede it. 
 
 Poets, artists, novelists, technicians, sentimental 
 natures, may grasp bits of general conceptions ; but 
 consistent and harmonious thoughts cannot be ex- 
 pected of them. They may for a moment rise to such 
 a height of cool, abstract thinking where they catch a 
 glimpse of the common ethereal bonds that unite, and 
 of the hidden unique reality that underlies, the mani- 
 folds of seemingly disconnected particular situations ; 
 but they forget all about it as soon as they come down 
 from the Philosophical Heights to the concrete world 
 of physical events, of human actions and passions. 
 
 The purely poetical genius is impressed by events, 
 personages, concrete social conditions which are preg- 
 nant with great ideas and ideals, which are the carriers 
 of deep and eternal truths; but is himself unable to 
 generalize, to separate the general from the particu- 
 lar, the abstract truth from the concrete, changeable, 
 perishable receptacles: he rather feels than knows the 
 eternal, valuable truths expressed in his own creations 
 and in the dramas of real life. The philosophical 
 thinker who congratulates himself on having fouiid a 
 Gesirmungs-Genosse in a novelist, dramatist or poet 
 who happens to describe concrete events similar to 
 those from which he himself has extracted his general 
 views or theories, is soon bitterly disillusioned if he 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 193 
 
 gets better acquainted with the poet and finds that 
 the latter has rather confused and inconsistent general 
 views — if he has any — about the very same concrete 
 happenings which he so beautifully renders in his 
 works. The pure poet, the pure artist, reproduces more 
 or less faithfully what he has seen, heard, and felt, 
 without much speculation as to the causes, meaning, 
 underlying psychical laws; without much speculation 
 as to what is typical, constant, eternally and uni- 
 versally human, and what is individual, accessory, 
 superficial, transient in his poetical or artistical paint- 
 ings. If he were interested in, like the philosophical 
 thinker, or if he intended to bring out, the typical, the 
 hidden truth, the inner driving psychical forces, he 
 could not pay attention to, and still less remember, the 
 little details and accessory events which lend life and 
 give the stamp of reality to his descriptions and crea- 
 tions. The poet, the novelist, the artist, stand much 
 nearer, than the philosopher or the critic think, to the 
 masses of philistines and of semi-intellectual people. 
 They share with the latter an almost exclusive interest 
 in concrete events, in brute, uninterpreted, unsifted 
 facts bearing on the daily life and struggles of men. 
 They only differ from the masses in emotional wealth, 
 in emotional sagacity, in the ability to render and to 
 synthetize what they see, hear, feel. Morbidly intensi- 
 fied and diflFerentiated emotions may transform even a 
 philistine into a temporary poet, novelist: it makes 
 him notice things which he normally does not pay at- 
 tention to; it makes him connect events and actions 
 which he normally does not link from lack of sym- 
 pathetic understanding of their agents; it makes him 
 step out temporarily from his narrow sphere of per- 
 sonal and practical interests. The pure poet, the 
 purely emotional genius, is normally never held back 
 by social class barriers, he normally has no class preju- 
 
194 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 dices, he moves around and feels at home in all social 
 elements, he partakes mentally in all human dramas 
 without regard to the social or geographical stage 
 upon which they are played (enacted). The philo- 
 sophical poet, and still more so the philosophical 
 thinker, rises above mankind ; he is free from human or 
 anthropocentrical prejudices; his place of abode is 
 above the low regions of actual human life; he partici- 
 pates mentally in everything that was, is, or will be, 
 going on in the infinite, eternal universe. The poet 
 detaches, frees himself only of his caste, of his narrow 
 social element into which he happens to be born; the 
 philosopher frees himself of contemporary mankind, 
 of the Present, of Mother Earth. 
 
 The true poet knows how to discover the poetry hid- 
 den in the darkness of unconsciousness of the lowest 
 type of men ; for even the mean aims of a criminal 
 may be a means used by the genius of the species in 
 its striving for higher ideals ; individual perversities 
 are sometimes symptoms of undercurrent social ideals ; 
 human hypocrisy, defined in optimistical language, 
 means a manifestation, a betrayal of our being con- 
 scious of our own imperfections. The genuine poet 
 discovers also the prosaic egotism hidden behind the 
 manifested poetry and simulated altruism of a pseudo- 
 superior man; he discovers the eternally valuable in 
 the insignificant acts of the most humble ; he discovers 
 the ideal kernel in perversities, the striving for har- 
 mony in the midst of contradictory and hypocritical 
 complexes of acts. He discovers behind the egotistic, 
 criminal exploitation of the poor by capitalists, behind 
 their conscious striving for material wealth he dis- 
 covers, I say, the wonderful concentration of scattered 
 unproductive individual efforts, the preparation for 
 solidarity, for a socialized concentration of work; he 
 sees in capitalism a wonderful, but dearly paid for les- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 195 
 
 son given by individual egotistical capitalists to the 
 government as to what it has to do in order to do 
 away with misery arising from unsocialized, uncon- 
 trolled, scattered efforts. 
 
 The true thinker does not so easily become enthu- 
 siastic about deceptive, dazzling appearances, i. e., 
 mere superficial resemblances with, or imitations of, 
 truth and goodness. He discovers stagnation, or very 
 slow progress under apparently rapid progress ; he 
 detects persistence of old superstitions, iniquities and 
 parasitism, unsettled difficulties under modern eulogis- 
 tic names, under the appearance of altruism and social 
 service, outgrown points of view. He sees the old 
 slavery, superstitions, intolerance, vandalistic invasion 
 and rapacity, dogmatism and scholasticism, etc., per- 
 sisting more or less behind modern proletarianism, 
 spiritism, Christian Science, forced civilizing of in- 
 ferior races, missionary proselytizing, positivism and 
 evolutionism, etc. 
 
 The talented novelist, the talented poet, can never 
 take their present and recent experiences as subject- 
 matter of their creations, for our present and recent 
 experiences dominate us : we are still living in them, 
 among them, and not above them, we are stiU actors, 
 and not yet critical spectators. The novel-reader 
 identifies himself with the novel; whereas the novel- 
 writer is above it, is equal to it plus an additional dose 
 of wisdom. The present personality of the poet is a 
 purified form of his past personality. Only the humor- 
 ist is — as it were — self-estranged: He sympathizes 
 with his past emotions, beliefs, etc. ; but he ridicules 
 them at the same time, for he does not share, or pro- 
 fess them, any longer. The poet of genius who can 
 build upon the present experiences is like those ab- 
 normal individuals who sufl[^er from a double person- 
 ality without amnesia: he is himself, and, at the same 
 
196 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 time, above himself. When a genius seems to utilize 
 his recent experiences for his creations, it is in reality 
 his old experiences ripened under the influence of the 
 recent ones that he works out under the name of the 
 latter. 
 
 The genuine, creative poet or artist extracts from 
 his experiences only those events and aspects of events 
 which are of a general and permanent human interest. 
 This requires a survey of the whole class of similar 
 experiences. In order to accomplish this, the experi- 
 ences to be utilized must lie in the past, must have be- 
 come objects of memory. For the field of actual, recent 
 experience, and of perception, is too confused, too nar- 
 row, too much entangled with selfish interests : It does 
 not give us simultaneously the similar materials from 
 whose comparison permanent, common values can be ex- 
 tracted; it gives us a mixture of a few dissimilar, un- 
 related experiences, in which personal and general val- 
 ues are intermingled. Only memory is the common, 
 hospitable, broad repository in which related, cooperat- 
 ing experiences have a chance of coming and of being 
 evoked together. In memory the beautiful can be easily 
 separated from the ugly, the true and disinterested 
 can impartially be separated from error, illusion and 
 interestedness. Women are too much engrossed with 
 their own personality and with their present experi- 
 ences to become creative artists or poets. In order to 
 be creative one must soar so high above real events 
 and experiences as to be able to imagine the various 
 possible harmonious combinations between these ill- 
 assorted elements. To create means to call into life 
 an ideal complex of human relations by simply bringing 
 together characters, things, events, which in real life, 
 for want of favorable conditions or owing to social bar- 
 riers, unfortunately remain apart and therefore run 
 to waste, but which would harmonize beautifully and 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 197 
 
 would fulfil a high mission if they could meet or hap- 
 pen in the order and connection indicated by the cre- 
 ative artist, poet, novelist or dramatist. 
 
 Flay and Serious Activity. — Play, in a restricted 
 sense, is an abridged, smoothed copy of a serious ac- 
 tivity taken from our own experience (self-imitative 
 play), from the experience of others (hetero-imitative 
 play), from the experience of the race (instinctive 
 play), or arising spontaneously (creative play). Play 
 is activity in the direction of habits, instincts, spon- 
 taneity. Play is activity minus asperities and preci- 
 pices, minus the impulse of necessity, minus the tyranny 
 of an externally imposed aim. Play, in general, and 
 art, in particular, begin with a quasi-imitation of real 
 life, and end with the tendency to model, to transform 
 it in agreement with the life of play and art: it be- 
 comes creative in the end. In its wider sense of self- 
 imposed activity, play includes children's plays, idlers' 
 games, and also art, science, philosophy, in their im- 
 mature stage. On the one hand, play recreates us 
 from, reminds us of, prepares us for, serious action ; 
 on the other hand, it disgusts us of it, by way of con- 
 trast, and prepares us for an ideal life. The world of 
 play, art, imagination, is a world of refuge for those 
 tired of, and disgusted with, the real prosaic world; 
 and also a prototj'pe, a model, for the real world to 
 come. 
 
 In the case of a surplus of energy, we feel pleasure 
 in extra-organic activity or expenditure, independently 
 of the manner in which it is expended (play or serious 
 action) ; in the case of a normal quantity of energy, 
 the pleasure feeling depends on the manner of its being 
 expended, on the "how" (play, revery) ; in the case of 
 a fall in the normal level, pleasure arises from non- 
 expenditure or intra-organic activity (recreative play, 
 rest). 
 
198 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 If we include under the name of play-activity any 
 kind of activity- — mental or sensory, and physical or 
 motor — which is spontaneous, involuntary, purpose- 
 less, non-oriented, an aim-in-itself, or at least self- 
 imposed, revocable, . . . ; we can see that both theories 
 of play-activity — that of Spencer which finds the cause 
 of play-activity in a surplus of energy, and that of 
 Groos which claims that play-activity arises from a 
 complex of useful, life-preparatory instincts — are in- 
 correct. For play-activity sets in and takes the place 
 of serious or teleological activity both in the case of a 
 surplus of energy and in the case of a slight deficit 
 or of moderate exhaustion, as well as in all cases of a 
 normal level of vital energy, as soon as the external 
 or the internal control, i. e., as soon as the pressure of 
 an ungratified need or of fear, is relaxed or removed. 
 If children play, it is because they are being taken care 
 of, it is because and in so far as neither their own con- 
 sciousness nor their guardians compel them to care for 
 the gratification of their needs. For the same reason 
 many women and rich individuals remain children all 
 their life long, i. e., they indulge permanently in bodily 
 and mental play-activity (sports, games, day-dream- 
 ing . . .). If more geniuses arise among the hopefuUy 
 struggling social middle classes, it is because the chil- 
 dren of such parents have inborn, inherited aims of 
 life. As soon as a social class is allowed to live and 
 to thrive without any exertion on its part, it relapses 
 from serious, purposeful, teleological, directed, volun- 
 tary activity into playful, aimless, undirected, auto- 
 matical, capricious, illusory, dreaming, thoughtless ac- 
 tivity. In preglacial times when Nature was a kind 
 mother to men and animals, when food was in abund- 
 ance and there was no need of shelter and of social or- 
 ganization, play-activity, revery, thoughtlessness, was 
 the rule, whereas serious activity, thinking, was but an 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 199 
 
 exception, an anomaly, a puzzle in need of solution. 
 Play-activity which puzzles the poor, the struggling, 
 the adults, is the natural or given state of mind and 
 body for the rich, the idlers, children and women. In- 
 tellectual pursuits (artistic, scientific, philosophic, so- 
 cial) which may become serious aims of life for men, 
 for thinkers, seem to women and to philistines a mere 
 anomaly, luxury, a curious kind of play-activity which 
 requires explanation. The child does not take very 
 seriously anything, either his bodily or his mental 
 needs. The genius has in common with the child his 
 lack of seriousness and of perseverance in pursuing 
 personal, material, bodily interests ; and is therefore 
 looked upon as childish by the philistines and the 
 pseudo-superior men who are more serious about these 
 matters. The philistine remains a child in his intellect- 
 ual pursuits, and is therefore being ridiculed by the 
 genius who is more mature in this direction. 
 
 To call all art a play-activity means to adopt the 
 philistine's point of view, who does not seriously, i. e., 
 persistently, passionately and consistently, pursue any- 
 thing but his material or economic interests. To the 
 real artist, artistic creation is a more serious affair, 
 a more irresistible pursuit than the accumulation of 
 money, and just as much of a need as eating, drinking 
 and sleeping. I do not deny that the art of the aristo- 
 cratic philistine, the art which caters to idlers, para- 
 sites and would-be. parasites, is playful, petty-minded, 
 shallow, fantastic, thoughtless, merely meant to amuse 
 and to lull men's minds to sleep. Nor do I deny that 
 all arts, like aU other serious activities, are derived and 
 in their immature stage indistinguishable from play- 
 activity. It is natural for those who believe that all 
 play-activity springs from a surplus of energy to con- 
 sider Art and Literature as a kind of play-activity; 
 because serious, realistic, thought-stimulating, socially 
 
200 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 useful Art and Literature, which springs from inner, 
 organic needs, is so rare as to be hardly known to the 
 public at large, whereas ephemeral, immature, pseudo- 
 artistic and pseudo-literary works which are the prod- 
 uct of leisure, ennui, vanity, imitation, overflood the 
 market. 
 
 Just as consciousness, reflection, deliberation, do not 
 necessarily and always mean an advantage over, or a 
 progress in comparison with, automatism, sub-con- 
 sciousness, instinct; just as it is advantageous, a sign 
 of progi-essiveness, to be conscious of, to reflect upon, 
 or to deliberate about, new, complex, unusual circum- 
 stances, and a disadvantage, wastefulness, a sign of 
 regressiveness or backwardness, to do so under old, 
 usual, recurrent, simple circumstances; just so with 
 serious and play-activity: a play-activity may some- 
 times mean a relapse from a more advanced, serious 
 activity into a more primitive, aimless, demoralized 
 one ; and sometimes it may mean an advance from a 
 primitive, cruel, unavoidable, compulsory, material- 
 istic serious way of action to a loftier, free, intellectual, 
 sociable, amusing way of action. Thus, for instance, 
 it is probable that art, or some arts at least, began as 
 a refined, voluntary, sociable, leisurely way of imitat- 
 ing (painting, describing, mimicking) fights with beasts 
 and other tribes, hunting for food, meeting with acci- 
 dents in primeval forests, etc., into which primitive men 
 were driven by dire necessity. It is probable that some 
 primitive dramas were nothing but the imitation of real 
 grievances brought before the tribe or the elders of 
 the tribe by two quarreling parties that were afraid 
 and forbidden to use personal, direct revenge or the 
 club-law; while it meant a serious or practical matter 
 to the litigants, it proved to be amusing, interesting, 
 worthy of reproduction or imitation, to the people. It 
 was, however, a stiU greater advance when these amus- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 201 
 
 ing representations of real or mock grievances, fights 
 or other events came to be used, not only for amuse- 
 ment or time-killing purposes, but also for the serious 
 purpose of instructing, elevating, influencing the 
 masses. To learn things for present, immediate use 
 is a serious activity dictated by the struggle for bread, 
 but to learn for future, possible use, although a play- 
 activity from the practical or bread-and-butter point 
 of view, may be considered as an advance over the 
 former way of learning, if it is taken seriously from 
 the intellectual point of view, i. e., if it gratifies an 
 intellectual need and is not merely one of the means of 
 discharging a surplus of energy. The amateurishness 
 of the rich in questions of art and philanthropy, their 
 love for animals, are certainly regressive, degenerate 
 forms of play-activity, i. e., perverted and declining 
 serious human activities. 
 
 From play-activity we advance to a higher type of 
 serious activity, and from the latter we advance to a 
 higher type of play-activity, and so on; just as from 
 theory we go over to practise, and from the latter to 
 broader or more solid theories which in their turn lead 
 to new and more useful applications, and so on. To 
 ask "which is prior, serious or play-activity.'"' is prob- 
 ably just as foolish as to ask "which is older, the hen 
 or the egg?" Just as each hen is older than the eggs 
 she lays and younger than the egg she has been hatched 
 from, and just as at the beginning of animal life or in 
 the case of many single-celled animals there is no dif- 
 ferentiation, no distinction between ovum or egg and 
 animal; just so with play-activity and serious activity, 
 theory and practise, thought and action, intelhgence 
 and instinct: Primitive activity partakes of the char- 
 acters of both serious and play-activity without being 
 either in particular ; in spite of Bergson's pretentious 
 attempt in his "Evolution Creatrice" to make out of 
 
202 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 instinctive activity something sui generis, something 
 entirely different from intelligent activity, the two are 
 in reality just as correlated as parent and child, as 
 lower and higher, play and serious activity. Only 
 academic philosophers can go on disputing forever in 
 labstracto whether thought is prior to action, intelli- 
 gence to instinct, play-activity to serious activity, etc., 
 or vice versa, without going to the trouble of opening 
 their eyes for a moment and just watch how every 
 thought, every intelligent act, every play-activity is 
 based upon, arises from, follows after some actions, in- 
 stinctive acts, serious activity, and in its turn gives 
 rise to, or is followed by, other kinds of actions, in- 
 stinctive acts, serious activities. 
 
 Wit and Humor. — Wit is an intellectual play-activ- 
 ity. Humor stands between wit and serious intellectual 
 activity: in its form it is still intellectual play-activity, 
 but its aim is already serious. Both wit and humor 
 differ from serious literature in the fact that the lat- 
 ter presents meanings, thoughts, realities in usual, ade- 
 quate, natural, commonly expected and commonly un- 
 derstood words, forms, appearances ; whereas wit and 
 humor present them in disguised, roundabout, indirect, 
 unusual, inadequate, unexpected, incongruous, con- 
 densed, figurative forms. Wit manufactures incongrui- 
 ties between expression and meaning, roundabout and 
 puzzling ways of expressing simple and obvious rela- 
 tions ; it plays upon words ; it ridicules serious affairs ; 
 it sneers at sacred pursuits and virtues ; it uses tragic, 
 dignified, general, abstract, big expressons for comical 
 events, trivial affairs, commonplace occurrences, con- 
 crete things, platitudes, small ideas, and vice versa. 
 Whereas humor discovers real incongruities and con- 
 tradictions in human nature, between appearances and 
 realities, between real and professed intentions ; it ridi- 
 cules masked vices, sham virtues; it ridicules persons, 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 203 
 
 things and customs which are undeservedly treated like 
 serious, important affairs ; the humorist does not spare 
 himself and his own shortcomings. To the witty indi- 
 vidual wit is an aim-in-itself, a wasteful discharge of 
 superfluous energy, or a means to a frivolous, personal 
 end, or a means for selfish amusement. Wit is some- 
 times a device resorted to by unsubstantial writers in 
 order to hide their scanty substance beneath a mass 
 of sparkling verbal foam. Wit is often the shield of 
 the coward who does not dare to openly vent his real 
 feelings towards and opinions about others. Whereas 
 to the humorist humor is a means to a serious, moral 
 end; humor is amusing and instructive or uplifting at 
 the same time. Humor is one of the weapons of the 
 morally courageous individual. The humorist uses 
 the very same mask, disguise, and perverted or sophis- 
 tical language of the persons ridiculed in order to de- 
 feat them with their own arms, in order the better to 
 unmask their hidden hypocrisy, cowardice and im- 
 morality. 
 
 The only aim which the philistine pursues seriously 
 (persistently, consistently, thoroughly, whole-heart- 
 edly, . . .) and which absorbs almost his entire time 
 and energy is bodily comfort, food, shelter, clothing. 
 And so does the pseudo-superior man; only he does 
 not do it openly, directly, like the philistine, but under 
 the guise of higher, disinterested, generally useful pur- 
 suits. Higher pursuits the philistine is either frankly 
 averse to, or treats them playfully, superficially, wit- 
 tily, as a pastime, but does not degrade them to a busi- 
 ness like the pseudo-superior man. The philistine may 
 enjoy wit, which approaches playfully the mere forms 
 or appearances of higher pursuits; he may even enjoy 
 humor which seriously pursues higher aims, but adopts 
 the playful, adorned, figurative, incoherent, superficial, 
 roundabout method of making others acquainted there- 
 
204 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 with; but he has no understanding whatsoever for the 
 serious thinker who goes straight to the mark both in 
 his thinking and in the exposition of his thoughts, for 
 serious intellectual pursuits require more intellectual 
 energy, courage, independence than even the materially 
 successful philistine selected for survival by our spo- 
 liation system can dispose of: his independent, critical 
 judgment and spontaneity have been crushed by ex- 
 ploitation, his energy is absorbed by drudgery or un- 
 certainty, wasted on artificial needs and ridiculous 
 fashions imposed upon him by a shrewd commercialism, 
 and side-tracked by the example of parasitical aristo- 
 crats into the channels of unsatiable, degenerative, anti- 
 social pursuits of luxury, wealth, empty titles. 
 
 The humoristic writer saves mental labor and ef- 
 fort to his hearers or readers by caricaturing reality, 
 i. e., by exaggerating, throwing into relief, personify- 
 ing, visualizing its hidden characteristics or vitally im- 
 portant parts and by suppressing, ignoring, simplify- 
 ing, distorting the other parts, in order to irresistibly 
 draw attention to the former. Whereas the serious 
 thinker who is anxious to depict complex reality and 
 to give due emphasis to all its constituent parts, does 
 not appeal to the masses who are unable to concentrate 
 their attention on more than one thing at a time, and 
 to grasp the subtler relations between things, particu- 
 larly the remote, mediate, hidden relations between 
 classes of things. 
 
 Dream cmd Dramatic Activity. — In revery or day- 
 dreaming, trains of ideas and feelings which have been 
 rejected or suppressed during teleological, purposive 
 thinking emerge spontaneously into the light of con- 
 sciousness. There are two kinds of revery: (1) revery 
 as a reaction against, and as a consequence of, mental 
 exhaustion caused by fruitless teleological thinking; 
 (2) revery caused by a surplus of mental energy left 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 205 
 
 after gratification of immediate needs. 
 
 The main difference between night- and day-dream- 
 ing is the fact that in the former purposeless, sup- 
 pressed trains of ideas easily displace each other, thus 
 obscuring and truncating the meaning of the dream; 
 whereas in the latter the imaginary drama is followed 
 into the most insignificant and trivial details. Another 
 important diff'erence between day- and night-dreaming 
 is the presence of a dim or clear consciousness of its 
 unreality in the former; whereas in night dreams im- 
 aginations, unrealities, are mistaken for realities, be- 
 cause we do not experience clear sensations at the 
 same time in the light of which we should be able to 
 recognize our imaginations as such, as mere distorted 
 copies, or combinations of past experiences ; because it 
 is natural to mistake copies, imitations, secondary, un- 
 usual, derived experiences for the originals, models, 
 primary, usual experiences. Dreams are usually trans- 
 mutations, translations of bodily, ccsnesthetic, organic 
 feelings into psychical feelings of which we do not be- 
 come directly and immediately conscious, but merely 
 as the results or as the kernels of dream-dramas which 
 are improvised from experiences of vital, customary 
 hopes and fears. 
 
 The difference between the revery of the layman and 
 the dramatic thinking of the novelist, artist, poet, etc., 
 is the fact that in revery our own ego forms the main 
 personage; our own wishes, hopes and fears form the 
 content of the drama; whereas the drama, properly 
 so-called, is of a more general human interest, of a 
 more permanent and social value. 
 
 Dream Activity. — Between waking mental activity 
 and dreamless sleep there is an infinite series of all de- 
 grees of mental activity, ranging between highest ra- 
 tionality, coherence, richness in symbolical meaning 
 and extreme irrationality, incoherence, meaningless- 
 
206 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ness, lack of control; so that it is almost impossible to 
 establish a sharp line of division between dream and 
 waking activity. If we compare the dream activity 
 immediately before waking up or immediately after 
 falling asleep with the waking mental activity, we can 
 merely say that the former is not controlled or regu- 
 lated by sense impressions ; it draws all its material 
 from memory, from stored-up impressions ; only its 
 starting point may be an isolated peripheral or or- 
 ganic sensation, it does not terminate in motor response 
 or muscular activity (except in the somnambulist). 
 Those, however, who are waked up in the middle of 
 dreams taking place long after having fallen asleep or 
 long before the natural or spontaneous awakening, will, 
 of course, emphasize the lack of coherence, harmony, 
 meaning, rationality, etc. The most important and 
 almighty law of dream activity is determined by the 
 course of cerebral fatigue: Those brain centers fall 
 first asleep which have been most used, most fatigued; 
 and those centers begin first to enter into activity 
 which are most easily recreated. This explains why 
 thinking in images, long-forgotten or never-thought-of 
 individuals and incidents, nay, even ancestral experi- 
 ences, reappear in dreams. This explains why clear 
 sense impressions and motor response are most lack- 
 ing in the dreams of normal sleep ; for the senses and 
 the muscular system are the most fatigued, the most 
 overworked parts of the organism. During normal 
 sleep our sense-organs are almost closed, almost in- 
 accessible to external stimuli. And even if a stimulus 
 succeeds in making some impression, it usually im- 
 presses only one sense-organ. This is the reason why 
 in dream we always misinterpret or exaggerate our 
 sensations: Because they are vague and isolated, we 
 do not know to what objects they have to be referred; 
 isolated sensations lead to illusions, hallucinations; 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 207 
 
 associated, they lead to perceptions. 
 
 In spite of his ingenious use of dreams for diagnostic 
 purposes, Freud's interpretation of dreams as imag- 
 inary realizations of unfulfilled wishes, which have been 
 repressed during waking hours, is certainly one-sided 
 and incomplete. It does not cover the whole field of 
 mental activity as it occurs in dreams and in related 
 states of mind (insanity, day-dreaming of the ex- 
 hausted). Not only our wishes, but also our dreads, 
 come true in dreams. Freud's attempt to reduce these 
 apprehensions or fears to wishes of early childhood is 
 certainly ingenious ; but, unfortunately, it does not 
 correspond to reahty. If we dream about the death 
 of beloved beings, it is not because at some early period 
 we may have wished their death. Still less can one in- 
 terpret incests committed in dreams as due to early im- 
 pure sexual wishes. A candidate never wishes to fail 
 in his examination. Nor does an actor wish to be else- 
 where and unable to get to the theater when it is time 
 to ring up the curtain; and still they often dream of 
 such situations. The only true explanation of the in- 
 coherent, pictorial, hallucinatory, primitive way of 
 thinking during sleep, insanity, some cases of day- 
 dreaming, is to be found in the laws of cerebral fatigue. 
 The effects of fatigue — no matter whether cumulative 
 or sudden (shock) — upon a cerebral organ (sensation, 
 perception, apperception, memory, imagination, con- 
 ception) are inversely proportional with the amount of 
 disposable or specific energy of the organ and directly 
 proportional with the amount of work performed by it. 
 Both the oldest and the most recent cerebral organs, 
 i. e., the perceptual and the conceptual organs, are most 
 exposed to fatigue, hence are out of work during sleep. 
 The motor and the perceptual brain centers become 
 exhausted or obtuse, because too much used; and the 
 reasoning centers become exhausted because they have 
 
208 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 but little energy at their disposal. Hence, the dream 
 stuff is mostly made of pictorial thinking, of recollec- 
 tions and imaginations which — for want of vivid per- 
 ceptions to be compared with — are mistaken for reali- 
 ties. What has been said about the various fields of 
 mental activity, holds also within every field: Only 
 such recollections and imaginations are evoked and 
 thought about in dreams as have not been under- or 
 over-worked, repressed or over- fatigued 'during the 
 waking condition. Thus, the more we think of a per- 
 son during the day, the less do we dream about him 
 or her ; we begin to dream about deceased beloved 
 beings, as soon as our grief becomes less absorbing dur- 
 ing the daytime. If both apprehensions and wishes are 
 dreamed of as if they were actual events, it is because 
 primitive, infantile, pictorial thinking has no way of 
 distinguishing between desire, belief and knowledge, 
 between will and power, actuality and possibility, af- 
 firmation and negation, intention and ability. If more 
 primitive ways of feeling, thinking and doing (crimes, 
 selfishness, laxity, impulsiveness, playful moods, . . .) 
 come into play during dreams, it is because the more 
 recently acquired inhibitory, purposeful abilities are 
 out of work. 
 
 Philosophy, Science, Ultimate Concepts (Cate- 
 gories). Idealism or Philosophic Romanticism. — ^From 
 the heights of philosophical contemplation, the low 
 regions of facts and objects, the solid ground peopled 
 by individual men and animals, are lost sight of or are 
 seen so dimly and confusely that a great many philoso- 
 phers (idealism, solipsism or idealism carried to itg 
 logical extreme, monopsychism) are prone to deny the 
 existence of this object or external world altogether, 
 to regard it as a complex of mere ideas or imagina- 
 tions. Were not these naive gentlemen compelled to go 
 down into these lower regions to gratify their bodily 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 209 
 
 and lower intellectual needs, they would deny the ex- 
 istence of this world not only in words but also in their 
 deeds, as some lunatics suffering from negativism ■ do. 
 The idealists forget that imagination cannot create 
 new attributes, new elements; that all it can do is to 
 create new combinations. They neglect to ask them- 
 selves : Why should our imagination endow some of our 
 states of consciousness with the attribute of external- 
 ity, or space, to the exclusion of others? 
 
 If sometimes (in a state of hallucination) one can 
 perceive objects in the external world without there 
 being any, there arises naturally the suspicion that 
 what we call objects, the external world, in the so- 
 called normal state might also be a kind of hallucina- 
 tions, a kind of mental constructs, a kind of internal 
 or imaginary world. 
 
 But leaving aside the nonsense into which this 
 doubt raised by idealists would land us, viz., to talk 
 about an internal world when we deny in the same 
 breath the existence of an external world, as if internal 
 had any meaning without reference to external, to 
 which it is correlated; leaving aside, I say, this logical 
 objection, we can raise the following psychological ob- 
 jection. If what we believe to be external objects may 
 be unmasked as internal, imaginary, subjective con- 
 structs, it never happens that what we first know to 
 be a purely novel imaginary being should prove itself 
 later on to be a real object; the external world is the 
 cause of our internal world, but our internal world never 
 creates new elements in the external world, nor does it 
 create complexes in the external world out of imaginary 
 elements. 
 
 Scientific Laws. — Scientific laws, it is said, express 
 constant relations between phenomena; they prove the 
 uniformity of Nature. We forget that what is ap- 
 proximately constant for us may be variable in the 
 
210 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 highest degree for beings having an acute mathematical 
 sense, for whom a,n error of one-millionth of a milK- 
 meter or of a second means very much. What is equi- 
 librium for us may be a very quick succession of im- 
 perceptible inclinations now in one direction and now in 
 the opposite, since even the adjacent portions of a small 
 environment are not absolutely homogeneous. What 
 would we think of a savage who, having no concept of 
 a number greater than 10, would establish a scientific 
 law that never do more than 10 immigrants arrive to- 
 gether on his island? 
 
 Men do not suspect how little uniformity, constancy 
 or periodicity there is in the phenomena of Nature. 
 The layman does not know how much uncertainty and 
 disagreement there is in Science and Philosophy; just 
 as the ordinary citizen does not suspect how much ar- 
 bitrariness, personal machinations and hostilities, 
 usurpation, iniquity, favoritism, law-breaking or an- 
 archy, and how little protection there is in the govern- 
 mental institutions. The ordinary man projects his 
 own ephemeral constancy, conservatism, monotony, loy- 
 alty, into external Nature and into his rulers or sup- 
 posed protectors. If Nature seems to him constant, 
 and his leaders seem to him to be in possession of cer- 
 tain, clear, positive knowledge; it is because and so 
 long as he does not venture beyond the limits of the 
 sphere of his practical, immediate interests ; it is be- 
 cause he does not pry into the workshop of Nature or 
 of his teachers and preachers ; the government, the 
 Law, seems to offer him reliable protection because 
 and so long as he is not badly in need thereof. If theo- 
 ries seem to be reliable guides, it is because in practise 
 one never depends entirely on their guidance; just as 
 men can rely on each other in proportion as they can 
 dispense with and are independent of each other. 
 
 Causation. — Our belief in the constancy of nature 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 211 
 
 is an effect of psychical inertia (persistence in old 
 ways of thinking, resistance to changes). A visible, 
 an easily accessible, an outer quality A has been asso- 
 ciated in our past experience with an invisible, not eas- 
 ily accessible, inner quality B. In virture of the law 
 of inertia, it is natural to expect B when A presents 
 itself again in our experience. If some subsequent ex- 
 perience presents to us A dissociated from B we first 
 refuse to accept the reality of this dissociation, but 
 finally our former association becomes weakened, 
 doubted. Or, instead of doubting the univocality 
 ( Eindeutigkeit ) of the association, we may transfer 
 our doubt to the reexperiencing of A, i. e., we may 
 doubt whether the A dissociated from B is really iden- 
 tical with the A we had experienced formerly in associa- 
 tion with B. 
 
 What is true in the realm of perception is also true 
 in the realm of concepts. The conviction that the 
 same or identical causes produce the same or identical 
 effects (which statement does not exclude the possibil- 
 ity of practically identical effects being produced by 
 practically dissimilar causes), is also an effect of the 
 law of psychical inertia applied to the whole of our 
 experience, and is corroborated by our ability to fore- 
 tell future events by means of past events. 
 
 To the objection of subtle philosophers that, owing 
 to the continuous flux of things, no identical events and 
 causes can recur, hence no identical effects can be 
 expected, the answer is very simple: When we speak 
 of identical things and causes we mean what may ap- 
 pear to us as identical; if our imperfect senses are 
 not able to detect slight variations in the causes, they 
 will also be unable to detect the non-identity of the 
 expected effects with the really occurring effects. And 
 this is all we want, for we do not care to perceive and 
 foresee things as they may appear to some superior 
 
212 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 minds, or as they may be in themselves (if there be any 
 meaning in the word things-in-themselves). We care 
 to foresee things as they impress our actual imper- 
 fect human senses. 
 
 What distinguishes mind from matter is the fact 
 that in mind effects often precede causes, whereas in 
 matter causes precede effects. The effects and the 
 causes of our conscious activity are identical in es- 
 sence, and differ in form only. Pleasure-causing sen- 
 sations, conceptions, perceptions, given as uninten- 
 tional, fortuitous, indirect effects, or consequences of 
 our activity, become, in the shape of representations, 
 images, symbols, the aims or causes of repeating the 
 same or a similar activity. 
 
 Bergson calls the psychical causation circular in con- 
 tradistinction to the physical which is rectilinear. It 
 seems to me more correct to say spiral instead of cir- 
 cular, for in a circular causation there is no room left 
 for progress, variation. 
 
 In the physical world the complex of causes must 
 also be considered identical in essence, or quantity with 
 their effects, if we admit that motion can only be trans- 
 ferred, added to, or subtracted from, existing motion, 
 that motion can never create motion just as matter can 
 never create matter. If it seems that sometimes iden- 
 tical effects can be produced by dissimilar causes, it is 
 either an illusion easily explained by our inability to 
 disentangle the true causes from the complex of indif- 
 ferent circumstances of which they form a part, by our 
 confounding partial with total causes, remote and 
 mediate with immediate causes, by taking the whole re- 
 action of a body as the effect of the action of another 
 body, forgetting that in this reaction is also included 
 the activity of the body previous to the action ex- 
 erted upon it; or it is because the dissimilar causes 
 have some common property which alone is responsi- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 213 
 
 ble for their similar effects, whereas their uncommon, 
 peculiar properties have not participated in the effect 
 under consideration. 
 
 Thus it is a mistake to regard laughter as an ef- 
 fect which can be produced by dissimilar causes. A 
 close observation shows that the purely physiological 
 laughter of hysterics differs toto orbe from the psy- 
 chical laughter, and this in its turn differs according as 
 it is the expression of pure, genuine joy, or of simu- 
 lated joy, or of joy mixed with irony, hatred, hypoc- 
 risy, envy, etc. Laughter being a complex phenomenon 
 is naturally due to a complex of causes. And the va- 
 rieties of laughter are to be explained by the pre- 
 dominance, supervening, absence of some ingredients of 
 the causal complex. What they all have in common, 
 however, is due to one and the same partial cause, viz., 
 an incongruity between appearance and reality, the 
 actual and the ideal, aim and achievement, thought and 
 expression, etc., that tickles our self-conceit or self- 
 love. But if, philosophically speaking, unlike causes 
 cannot give rise to like effects, for practical purposes 
 they may sometimes be considered as such. 
 
 If we admit that all phenomena can be reduced ulti- 
 mately to transfers, additions, and subtractions of 
 movement; if we admit that the state of motion is the 
 natural, original, primordial state of the smallest par- 
 ticles of matter, and that their rest is but suspended 
 movement, i. e., an artificial, unstable state resulting 
 from equal but opposite impacts: We can understand 
 how an effect may be actually, perceptibly, a new crea- 
 tion, i. e., different from its causes in both quantity 
 and quality, although potentially the effect cannot con- 
 tain either more or less motion and matter than its 
 causes ; we can understand how poisons may give birth 
 to non-poisonous substances, how light added to light 
 may sometimes result in darkness; we understand how 
 
214 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 children born of the same parents under varying cir- 
 cumstances, and even unrelated individuals, differ act- 
 ually rather than potentially. 
 
 To solve the great mystery of the origin of organic 
 life means to solve the question. How has the rectilinear 
 anorganic causation been changed into a circular and 
 spiral causation? 
 
 Acquisition and Limitations of Human Knowledge. — 
 The average man pursues pleasure, happiness, whereas 
 the genius pursues truth. Since truth can never be so 
 completely and easily attained as pleasure and satis- 
 faction; since truth is rather a fortuitous, contingent 
 product of spontaneous activity, whereas pleasure and 
 satisfaction are the direct outcome of instinctive, ha- 
 bitual, imitative activity; we understand why the ac- 
 tivity of the average man is rather circular, self-repeat- 
 ing; whereas that of the genius is rather spiral, ever 
 advancing, never wholly repeating itself. 
 
 Philosophers having a rigid system of their own, or 
 an adopted one, are usually blind to new facts that do 
 not fit into their system, so much so that they do not 
 yield even to coercive evidence. Just as political par- 
 ties, or rather politicians, differ in theory but not in 
 practise, so do philosophical systems and philosophers 
 differ rather in labels, etiquettes, phraseology, a few 
 paradoxical assertions, than in fundamental concepts 
 and views. Philosophers without a system and those 
 with a flexible system are more open-minded and more 
 open-hearted. The common mortal admits even ab- 
 surdities and impossible relations, especially when they 
 flatter his desires, fears and hopes. Superstition stands 
 at both extremes of the human hierarchy: negative 
 superstition at the top, positive superstition at the 
 bottom. 
 
 Abstract reasoning is almost nil in the higher ani- 
 mals, and even in many human beings. Hence, we may 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 215 
 
 regard it as a late acquirement of the human species. 
 Whether mankind, in its further development, will ever 
 acquire a new and higher ability, or will merely improve 
 upon the old ones, we cannot decide. 
 
 Our knowledge of and about the world begins witli 
 dark ignorance as to the elements, and ends with con- 
 fused ideas as to their more complicated combinations, 
 colligations: Darkness within and darkness without 
 the sphere of human knowledge. A system of philos- 
 ophy working synthetically upwards from the elements 
 has as little advantage over a philosophy working 
 analytically downwards from complexes : both begin 
 and end in doubt and perplexities. 
 
 Both the macrocosm and the microcosm, the infi- 
 nitely large and the infinitely small, the beginning and 
 the end of things, the primary cause and the ultimate 
 goal of events, . . . are hidden from view, and will 
 probably remain forever beyond the grasp of human 
 understanding, for the simple reason perhaps that 
 they have no real, objective, absolute existence. Thus, 
 what is imperceptible, extremely small and simple, a 
 microcosm for man, may be perceptible for a thinking 
 or philosophizing microbe — if there be such a one — 
 and may impress it as infinitely large, exceedingly com- 
 plex and heterogeneous, as a — nay, as the — Universe. 
 
 The farther we try to follow up an event, a process, 
 a thing, in the light of the little knowledge and of the 
 few discoveries in our possession — no matter whether 
 we follow it up in the direction of effects, consequences, 
 futurity, end or in the direction of causes, antecedents, 
 past, origin, beginning; no matter whether synthet- 
 ically or analytically; no matter whether deductively 
 or inductively; no matter whether in the direction 
 of greater, more inclusive wholes, of the macrocosm, 
 of the infinitely large, or in the direction of ever- 
 smaller constituent parts, of the microcosm, of the 
 
216 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 infinitely small — the deeper grows the darkness, igno- 
 rance, uncertainty and mysteriousness which enshrouds 
 our feebly shining intellect; the less reliable become 
 the experiences of single individuals, of few genera- 
 tions. The attempt to infer or to trace indefinitely, il- 
 limitably backward and forward the course of events 
 by means of what we know about a definite, limited 
 number of events, is certainly too bold and beyond act- 
 ual human ken. The failure of such an attempt, how- 
 ever, is neither a sign of its eternal futility and of 
 scientific impotence, nor is it a justification for theo- 
 logical beliefs ; for — we can answer with Diderot — if the 
 light of our intellect is like a candle that illuminates 
 but an infinitesimal part of our path, and hence does 
 not enable us to overlook at a single glance the entire 
 path, and to see whence it begins and whither it leads ; 
 this is no reason why we should blow out our candle 
 and grope in the dark, guided by mere blind faith which 
 is built on a mixture of fear and hope, of unrealizable 
 wishes and ungrounded fears. How can one ask for 
 positive information about the past and the future, 
 when we hardly know much of what is going on in the 
 present? We are so little conscious of things that act 
 directly on our senses ; how, then, do we expect Science 
 to give us unquestionable information about things and 
 phenomena which do not act at all or act but indirectly 
 on our senses? 
 
 The common mortal receives knowledge impressed 
 from without ; in the genius knowledge works its way 
 from within; in the superior man (great talent) both 
 methods work towards each other, like in tunneling a 
 mountain. Hence, the quicker and the more successful 
 acquisition of knowledge by the great talent. 
 
 To acquire knowledge of something through inner 
 evolution, and to get it verbally, from without, are 
 such diiferent processes, or have at least such different 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 217 
 
 forms, that the man of genius is usually unable to iden- 
 tify their results when they have reference to one and 
 the same thing; he often believes to know two differ- 
 ent things where in reality he knows but one, he does 
 not recognize his original ideas in those of others. This 
 is a similar phenomenon to the internal "autoscopie" 
 of hysterical persons, studied and explained by Dr. 
 Sollier. The autoscopical knowledge of the inner organs 
 cannot be identified by the patients with the verbally 
 obtained knowledge about the same organs ; just as the 
 blind whose sight has been restored are at first inclined 
 to look upon the objects seen as new and entirely dif- 
 ferent from the objects of their tactual experience. 
 Every classification of sciences presupposes a philo- 
 sophic system as a center of perspective from which 
 they are looked at. Changing the philosophic system, 
 or the center of perspective, we change the number and 
 kind of sciences which appear on the same vector ; what 
 was coordinate, subordinate or superordinate from the 
 standpoint of one system, is not so from the standpoint 
 of another system. The ideal is a center of perspective 
 at infinity, from which but one classification is possible, 
 or no classification is necessary. 
 
 Pseudo-superior men jealously keep watch over ar- 
 tificially established boundary lines between nations 
 and sciences. They forget that an advanced science, 
 like a civilized nation, cannot be self-sufficient. In 
 order to advance, sciences, not less than individual 
 men and nations, must obey the principles of division 
 of labor, i. e., every science must confine herself to ac- 
 complishing such tasks only which she can do most 
 efficiently; she must make use of the methods, results 
 or acquirements obtained by other sciences, and give 
 in exchange her own. Nay, more, just as in modern 
 times the workingmen of certain nationalities begin to 
 realize what their exploiters (kings, noblemen, cap- 
 
218 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 italists, • . •) have realized long ago, viz., that they 
 stand nearer to, and have more interests in common 
 with, the workingmen of other nationalities than with 
 the other social classes (capitalists, bureaucrats, 
 clergy, teachers, . • .) belonging to their own nation- 
 alities; just so a certain class of knowledge which is 
 commonly considered as belonging to one science may be 
 brought into close community of interests with classes 
 of knowledge commonly assigned to other sciences. 
 
 Facts and Hypotheses. — Hypotheses are supposed 
 to explain the distant, past, future, unexperienced, 
 complex, unknown, unusual, imperceptible, microcosm 
 in terms of the near, present, experienced, simple, 
 known, usual, perceptible, macrocosm. Does not this 
 mean that truth is already in our possession in germ 
 or in essence; that truth has not to be discovered, but 
 merely uncovered, unfolded? Is it not ridiculous to 
 raise our impotence of transcending the data of our 
 senses to the rank of a law of Nature, of a scientific 
 law, of a logical necessity.? 
 
 Diagrammatic representation of the evolution of hy- 
 potheses, theories, philosophical systems. 
 
 I. — First or rectilinear stage explains or links a few facts: a, b 
 II. — Second or circular stage is more inclusive, broader: it ex- 
 plains the additional facts or systems of facts: c, d, e 
 
 III. — The third or elliptical stage, and 
 IV. — The fourth or parabolical stage, are stiU broader 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 219 
 
 To support a theory, facts must be unexplainable on 
 any other theory. Facts are the material, the bricks or 
 stones ; hj'potheses, theories, are the cement, the mor- 
 tar ; both are means for constructing spiritual edifices 
 for the delight of human souls. A purely speculative 
 system is like an edifice constructed out of mortar only ; 
 a purely experimental system, if there be any possi- 
 bility for it, is like an edifice built out of bricks or 
 stones only. Both are extremely vacillating. 
 
 It sounds so comical to me to hear experimenters, 
 observers, scientists, even pliilosophers, maintain seri- 
 ously that they want to remain within the boundaries 
 of facts, of science ; that they do not want to venture 
 into hypotheses, speculation, metaphysics. First of 
 all, every fact, every experiment, every science, is based 
 upon some theory, speculation, metaphysics, and leads 
 to more comprehensive and bolder speculations. We 
 do not see things and connections between things en- 
 tirely as they are, but largely as we imagine them to 
 be. The only diff'erence between matter-of-fact think- 
 ers and speculative or hypotheses-framing thinkers is 
 that the former use theories, metaphysics, implicitly 
 and unconsciously, and are not able to separate fact 
 from theory, physics from metaphysics, nor are they 
 able to rise from a few facts and narrow theories to 
 the conception of the whole class of similar facts, and 
 to a more comprehensive theory ; whereas the latter use 
 hypotheses explicitly and consciously, and are able to 
 advance to ever-higher points of view, to ever-broader 
 outlooks. It is so comical to hear our self-important 
 academical philosophers belonging to the various 
 classes of the so-called idealistic philosophy maintain 
 that ideas, feelings, the mind, or only the writer's mind, 
 are real facts; whereas objects, the external world, 
 matter, are mere hypotheses, are non-existent or un- 
 knowable and utterly beyond our reach. If objects 
 
220 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 are non-existent, why cannot the idealistic writers 
 make a single statement merely in terms of ideas, with- 
 out implying objects? If objects are beyond our 
 reach, how did we come to speak about them? The 
 same contradiction is observed in those who maintain 
 that energy, force, movement, change, is the only real- 
 ity; and matter, permanence, is but an appearance, 
 hypothesis, mental construct. If so, why cannot these 
 dynamists or energists make a single statement without 
 making use of matter? And those who reduce matter 
 to energy, electricity (electrons), or to a mere unstable 
 form of ether, thinking that they have thereby dealt 
 a death-blow to matter, fail to see that they speak 
 about ether, electricity, energy, corpuscles, in the same 
 way as atoms, matter, have heretofore been spoken 
 about, they fail to see that ether or energy is to them 
 what matter has been to the materialists. These learned 
 gentlemen, who would doubt the sanity of an individual 
 who could not understand why a sentence must neces- 
 sarily consist of a subject and a predicate, fail to see 
 the insanity of their analogous assertion that there is 
 movement but no moving things, there is a perceiver 
 and perceptions but no things perceived. 
 
 Progress in Knowledge and Understanding. — As 
 long as there are no absolutely isolated things, no ab- 
 solutely isolated states of mind, knowledge is neces- 
 sarily comparative, relative, dynamic. This does not 
 mean that we know only changes, only relations, only 
 similarities and dissimilarities, associations and dis- 
 sociations between things. We cannot know changes 
 without knowing more or less the state preceding the 
 change, or the thing changed; we cannot know rela- 
 tions between things without knowing more or less the 
 related things themselves. We cannot know our ego 
 without knowing other egos and the external world 
 with which it stands in constant and changing rela- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 221 
 
 tion. Just as reaction has no separate existence from, 
 and no meaning without, action; just so knowledge of 
 things, i. e., of their actions upon our mind, goes to- 
 gether with some sort of knowledge of our states of 
 mind, i. e., of the mind's reactions to external or or- 
 ganic actions. We cannot know things without know- 
 ing their relations or connections with other things; 
 for things are nothing but centers of irradiation or 
 bundles of relations, or, more correctly, things are noth- 
 ing but places of intersection where relations are more 
 condensed, more numerous, just as nerve cells are the 
 crossing-places or irradiation centers of nerve fibers. 
 The diff'erence between thing and relation is merely 
 a difference in complexity, density, a difference be- 
 tween the whole and its parts, but not a difference of 
 kind or of materiality. 
 
 Knowledge is a general or collective name for sens- 
 ing, perceiving, conceiving, being conscious. Under- 
 standing is a special case, or a higher, deeper, more 
 general, more comprehensive, more penetrating, con- 
 ceptual, causal kind of knowledge. To know a thing 
 means to compare it with others, with ourselves ; to 
 associate it with, or to attend to its relations to, cer- 
 tain things, which necessitates a dissociation, or an 
 abstraction from its relations to, others. One and the 
 same thing impresses us differently according to the 
 point of view, according to the setting in which it pre- 
 sents itself to us. Thus one and the same kind of 
 work may be tedious and appear as never-ending, or it 
 may be pleasant and seem to last but a while; accord- 
 ing as it is considered as a whole or as a heap of dis- 
 connected parts, according as our attention is concen- 
 trated upon the result or upon the means, according 
 as our attention is entirely absorbed by it or distracted 
 in other directions. To speak about knowing things- 
 in-themselves amounts to speaking about knowing 
 
222 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 things that do not act on our mind; it is tantamount 
 to speaking about seeing things that do not impress 
 our eyes, and hearing sounds that do not reach our 
 ears, etc. Likewise, to know our mind-in-itself would 
 mean to know a mind that does neither act upon nor 
 react to external events ; it would mean to be con- 
 scious of our unconsciousness, which is certainly a 
 contradiction in terms. 
 
 To say that reaction is equal to action means to 
 deny all spontaneity, independence or self-activity, to 
 objects. Even if we say that the total reaction of a 
 thing is equal to the total action exerted upon it, we 
 do not bring our statement much nearer to reality. 
 For this means that everything derives its whole being, 
 existence and behavior, merely from outside, from the 
 rest of the world; it means to conceive of matter, of 
 the world, as naturally inert — a conception which would 
 involve us in more inextricable difficulties than those 
 we try to escape. Hence, it is more accurate to say 
 that reaction is proportional to action. If conscious- 
 ness or knowledge is a kind of total or unitary reaction 
 of the mind to external actions, we understand how 
 there can be many different degrees of knowledge of 
 one and the same thing or action, merely because of 
 varying internal conditions or degrees of self-activitv 
 of the mind itself. If too many things force them- 
 selves or act simultaneously on the mind, or if a single 
 thing acts too strongly and exclusively on it, it can 
 no longer respond as a whole: It splits into smaller, 
 separately reacting parts ; it sinks to a sub-conscious 
 or disintegrated state. The mind can perceive but 
 successively. To gain in simultaneity or comprehen- 
 siveness, it must lose in clearness, i. e., it must deal, not 
 with the things themselves, but with mere symbols or 
 images. 
 
 Consciousness and self-consciousness are the two 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 223 
 
 inseparable aspects of one and the same process. From 
 this inseparable connection, or parallelism, between the 
 consciousness of objects as known and the conscious- 
 ness of knowing objects, between the consciousness of 
 matter or of not-self and the consciousness of mind or 
 self, it follows that it is a fallacy to say that we un- 
 derstand mind better than matter ; that we explain 
 matter in terms of mind, or vice versa. It is rather 
 true that we are equally ignorant of or equally ac- 
 quainted with the nature of both mind and matter, with 
 the two antithetic aspects of knowledge. We under- 
 stand others, the individual, mankind, the soul in so 
 far and so much only as we understand ourselves, so- 
 ciety, the environment, the cosmos. 
 
 If the knowledge of our body comes through identi- 
 cally constituted nerves as the knowledge of the ex- 
 ternal world, if the understanding of our self goes 
 hand-in-hand with the understanding of the not-self, 
 if the substance of our experiences is inseparable from 
 some form imparted to it by our mind, it follows that 
 the concept of causality is not first abstracted from 
 the voluntary part of our inner life, and then trans- 
 ferred, by analogy, from our movements following upon 
 the efforts of our will to the successions of movements 
 and changes observed in the external world. If causal- 
 ity were a purely subjective concept, like animism, 
 which has been reified or projected into the objective 
 world, men would sooner or later free themselves from 
 it; whereas the contrary is seen to happen: its impor- 
 tance, its grip on human reasoning, is steadily increas- 
 ing. Moreover, causality or causation is nothing but 
 a short-hand name for the mutual influences between 
 things, which no sane man denies. 
 
 The progress in understanding the human soul is 
 strictly parallel, contemporaneous with the progress 
 in understanding the external world. Only the prog- 
 
2M GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 resses in knowing are not parallel. Our internal rela- 
 tions are regulated without necessitating any conscious 
 eiFort, whereas our relations with the external world 
 are not so constant as to become automatical. Hence, 
 we are more interested in learning facts about the ex- 
 ternal world than about the internal world: our no- 
 ological knowledge lags behind the cosmological. In 
 antiquity when the struggle for existence was extra- 
 social, against nature and other tribes, it was more 
 useful to have knowledge of external facts. In the 
 modern individualistic society in which the struggle 
 for existence is rather intrasocial, against fellow- 
 men and fellow-citizens, noological knowledge is of 
 greater importance. The average savage was rather 
 a naturalist and so is the villager; whereas the average 
 civilized man, and particularly the city dweller, is 
 more of a psychologist, if I may use these terms for 
 knowledge devoid of understanding. 
 
 Our body is just as external to our consciousness as 
 the surrounding physical world. Hence the knowledge 
 of our own body does not differ in the way of its being 
 obtained from the knowledge of the surrounding world; 
 the former kind of knowledge cannot be said to be 
 more objective, or more certain, than the latter. The 
 reason why we know from direct sources less about 
 the processes going on in our own body than about 
 the phenomena of the external world, is the constancy, 
 regularity, rhythm, of the former, and the irregularity, 
 continual change, lack of perceptible (I do not say 
 conceivable) rhythm in the latter. The organic, in- 
 ner nerves do not differ in construction from the pe- 
 ripheral, outer nerves. The knowledge of others' minds 
 is just as inferential as the knowledge of any material 
 object which does not impress all our senses (distant 
 objects, like stars, etc.) or which does not impress 
 them directly (electric and magnetic phenomena). If 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 225 
 
 the cerebro-molecular movements of others would di- 
 rectly impress our highest or synthetic cerebral center, 
 instead of communicating with us through their rougher 
 and superficial muscular discharges, we would know 
 others' minds just as much or just as little as we do 
 know our own mind. With increased power of obser- 
 vation, of voluntary attention, we come to notice ever 
 greater differences between the behavior of material, 
 inanimate objects, of other men, and our own behav- 
 ior ; and we succeed in freeing ourselves- from animism, 
 from personification of material — especially of mov- 
 able — objects, from projecting behind the acts of 
 others thoughts, feelings, and intentions identical with 
 our own : for no matter how similar-looking the actions 
 of different persons are, especially in their rough and 
 superficial part, they always differ in their inner and 
 less striking parts, as long as they proceed from dif- 
 ferent psychical causes. Maybe our power of ob- 
 servation is in reality not increasing, is not greater 
 than that of primitive people: we merely notice better 
 than they did the less striking, less immediately useful 
 things and events, the configurations of wholes, because 
 the knowledge of the striking, of immediately useful 
 things, of the details, has been transmitted to us, or at 
 least facilitated by our attention being drawn to them, 
 so that a surplus of intellectual energy is left to us to 
 be used in the acquisition of more general, more re- 
 fined, more theoretical knowledge. The philistine is 
 ignorant of his own self, because his evolution comes 
 very early to a stop, because there is no change and 
 no variety in his pursuits, thoughts, feelings: he 
 neither differs from his neighbors, nor from himself at 
 different stages of his life. Whereas the superior man 
 is impelled to self-analysis by the constant change in 
 his aspirations, or rather in the width of his intellec- 
 tual horizon, and by the difference between himself and 
 
226 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 his fellow-men which is painfully brought to his atten- 
 tion in various ways, through many disappointments 
 in his expectations, through ill-treatments inflicted 
 upon him by philistines and especially by pseudo or 
 parasitical superior men whom he mistakes for ideal 
 men, i. e., for his equals. 
 
 Sensation, perception, memory, imagination, judg- 
 ment, reason, are not like receptacles or grinding-ma- 
 chines that have a separate existence from and inde- 
 pendent of the materials to be stored away or 
 ground. In the animal mind, functions and experi- 
 ences or data to be worked upon are interdependent, 
 mutually determining. Only such external vibrations 
 give rise to experiences, sensations, perceptions, for 
 which we have corresponding sympathetically vibrating 
 brain centers. In the absence of such centers, vibrat- 
 ing sympathetically with the external vibrations, there 
 is no real, objective, definite experience: there is only 
 a shock, often a painful destruction of nerve tissue. 
 Thus the human brain having no centers vibrating 
 sympathetically with electric waves cannot respond 
 adequately, and without danger to the organism, to 
 the impact of electric waves ; many microbes having no 
 optical sensibility perish under the impact of light 
 waves. If quick and intense electric discharges, like 
 those of lightning, were a common aerial phenomenon, 
 men could not exist unless they would develop a brain 
 center vibrating sympathetically with these electric 
 currents, and thus preventing rupture of tissue. To 
 take analogous examples from the social environment: 
 men, like the genius and the insane, who do not vibrate 
 sympathetically with, who cannot imitate, their neigh- 
 bors, their fellow-men, with whom they come in con- 
 tact, are not tolerated, nay, they are persecuted; their 
 lives are endangered, especially in the midst of primi- 
 tive, compact communities and small towns where every 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 227 
 
 individual is constantly in contact with and watched 
 by the others ; the motto is "either imitate or starve." 
 If the social organism would have real philanthropical 
 institutions vibrating sympathetically with the crim- 
 inal, extra-social element, it would be less endangered 
 and less undermined by the latter. The moral genius 
 is a man whose brain vibrates sympathetically with all 
 the exploited, disinherited, ill-treated social classes ; 
 and whose intelligence is pressed into the service of his 
 altruistic experiences. No amount of intelligence can 
 make the rich egoist see our system of cruel spoliation 
 in its true light, for he has no sympathetic feelings with 
 the condition of the exploited. The somnambulist, the 
 hypnotized, the mentally absorbed, the fanatic, the man 
 of strong one-sided opinions, i. e., individuals in whom 
 some ideas are over-active, over-conscious, are blind 
 to everything except to events with which their minds 
 vibrate sympathetically at the time. During the indi- 
 vidual lifetime very few brain centers are being created. 
 Most of them, if not all, are hereditarily predeter- 
 mined. Owing to such hereditary predispositions — 
 which in their turn are largely due to the frequency 
 and intensity, to the cumulative impressions, of exter- 
 nal stimuli — we notice much better animate beings than 
 inanimate, animals than plants, moving things than 
 stationary things, men than animals, the opposite sex 
 than our own sex, things of immediate bearing on our 
 well-being than things of mediate bearing. Hereditary 
 predispositions, i. e., interests and sensitiveness, and 
 the intensity or the frequency of the actual, individual 
 experiences, are responsible for the adequacy and for 
 the extent of our mental reactions. One and the same 
 experience may stop in some individuals at the level 
 of sensation, of brute, partial feeling, or perception; 
 in other individuals, the memory centers are also set 
 into action, and the perception is thereby completed 
 
228 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 or transformed into apperception; in other individ- 
 uals the process goes a step higher, it arouses the ac- 
 tivity of the synthetic ■ or conceptual brain centers : 
 parts of percepts and related memories are synthe- 
 tized into a more comprehensive whole ; in imaginative 
 individuals, memories rise spontaneously into con- 
 sciousness and new connections are thus established 
 between them, etc. 
 
 Intelligence or mental adaptability, i. e., the capac- 
 ity of acquiring new experiences, of acting accord- 
 ingly, of relating them to similar past experiences, 
 of synthetizing them into classes, is in reality not a 
 simple, undivided ability, but a collection of partial 
 abilities dependent on inborn interests or hereditary 
 predispositions and on external opportunities or 
 sources of experiences. An individual may be very 
 intelligent in one line of activity, and be quite stupid 
 in all other respects. Thus a passionate man may 
 display intelligence in inventing means and devices of 
 gratifying his passion, but he remains blind to the dam- 
 age resulting for him from the passion as a whole: 
 his intelligence, his mental field of vision, does not ex- 
 tend beyond the sphere of his passion; the commercial 
 philistine may be clever in his narrow sphere of profit- 
 seeking, but he unmasks himself as a stupid fellow when 
 he comes to discuss about higher pursuits, such as re- 
 ligion, to which he naively applies his give-and-take 
 logic, and sees the weightiest reason for his compliance 
 with the externals of religion in his assertion that it is 
 more profitable or at any rate safer and less risky to 
 do so than otherwise; the stupidity, the credulity, of 
 children, of some intelligent men, is due to lack of 
 experience. Every perception, in order to be com- 
 plete, objective, presupposes the collaboration of 
 memory, imagination, judgment, reason. But beyond 
 a certain point, these functions cease to collaborate 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 
 
 equally. Perception, observation, predominates in some 
 individuals; memory and imagination, in others, etc. 
 So that intelligences diiFer, not only in the kind of ma- 
 terial or experiences on which they exert themselves, 
 but also in the kind of function which predominates 
 (observers, poets, artists, thinkers, . . .). In a more 
 restricted and modem sense, intelligence means knowl- 
 edge and understanding of men, for in our technically 
 advanced but parasitical society most inhabitants of 
 large cities live on their wits, on their ability to make 
 others work, on their ability to please — ^which presup- 
 poses the ability to understand — others. 
 
 Evolution of Knowledge. — When an object impresses 
 for the first time the mind of a baby it probably causes 
 a complex of vague, weak, undifferentiated sensations. 
 The accidental qualities are on the same level of indis- 
 tinctness as the essential or permanent qualities. If 
 the same object is presented again to the baby's mind, 
 the essential, permanent or unchanged qualities will 
 be better perceived than the accidental or those de- 
 pending on every alteration in circumstances, for the 
 impression of the former adds itself to their impres- 
 sion left the first time, whereas the impression made 
 by accidental qualities is different with every presen- 
 tation of the object. Hence, to perceive an object 
 means to notice what is common to all its impressions 
 upon our mind made at different times, i.e., to notice 
 what is repeated. Likewise, if objects belonging to 
 the same class are presented, the baby notices more 
 easily what they have in common than the individual 
 qualities, for the former are repeated and added. The 
 class attributes are known before or better than the 
 individual attributes. To conceive means to notice 
 what is common to many objects coexisting in space. 
 To form concepts of a higher order means to notice 
 what is common to related concepts of a lower order. 
 
230 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 If the knowledge of perceptible class qualities precedes 
 the knowledge of individual qualities, the reverse holds 
 for the knowledge of individuals and of groups or 
 classes. First, all the individuals belonging to the 
 same class are mistaken for one and the same, or for 
 identical individuals ; then those individuals are distin- 
 guished from each other and the correlated notions, 
 "individual-class," "part-whole," are acquired. First, 
 such groups are distinguished which differ perceptibly 
 much from each other and are mutually exclusive ; 
 then those classes are distinguished which stand nearer 
 to and include each other. The scientific or logical 
 hierarchy of classes does not, of course, run parallel tp 
 that of psychological or common-sense classification 
 whose grounds of division are mere superficial or per- 
 ceptible qualities "of things. 
 
 What has been said about the genesis and evolution 
 of objective knowledge can be repeated — mutatis 
 mutandis — about our subjective, inner or introspective 
 knowledge. When we begin to pay attention, not only 
 to the content of our mental processes, but also to their 
 form, i.e., not only to the "what," but also to the 
 "how" of our experiencing, feeling, reacting; we 
 notice that there is something constantly recurring in 
 the manner in which we take cognizance, feel or react, 
 and this something is independent of and prior to the 
 matter or cause of cognition, feeling, volition. This 
 constant form, this bed in which our streams of ex- 
 periences are flowing and to which they must conform 
 themselves, we call our self, our ego, our character 
 and temperament, our individuality. Like the bed of 
 a river, our self is, on the one hand, preexisting to our 
 experiences, and, on the other hand, it is deepened and 
 broadened by the early experiences ; nay, more, its di- 
 rection may even be changed by these early experi- 
 ences. But the self, the bed of our experiences or 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 231 
 
 streams of consciousness, once formed, exerts a mold- 
 ing, shaping, and directing influence on later experi- 
 ences. The genius, in distinction from common mor- 
 tals, has a self which is more or less fully developed at 
 birth, and which will, therefore, rather mold, select and 
 direct the individual experiences than be formed or 
 dug by the latter. The self of the genius is active 
 from the beginning; that of common mortals is passive 
 with regard to early individual and suggestive or edu- 
 cative experiences, and active with regard to later 
 ones. The self of average men is teachable, a result 
 of deliberate and of unintentioned external human in- 
 fluences ; the self of the genius is unteachable, it is a 
 cause of change in human attitudes. There is just as 
 little, or rather just as much mystery in understand- 
 ing the identity of self as there is in understanding 
 the identity of the not-self, of the objective world. If 
 the external world — and our own body may be consid- 
 ered as a part of it — furnishes the stufi^ for our men- 
 tal processes, and our mind gives the form, we may 
 say: Amidst the changing contents and the changing 
 forms of our thoughts there is something constantly 
 recurring, ever the same, which constitutes the two in- 
 teracting principles called self and not-self, mind and 
 cosmos. 
 
 What for logic is an ultimate concept, a category of 
 thought, is psychologically primary, given in the form 
 of meaningless, vague sensations. What for logic is 
 last, is first for psychology. We can best notice this 
 gradual advancement from vague, meaningless sen- 
 sations of objects or of relations to the interpreta- 
 tion of these sensations, i.e., to the linking of these 
 sensations with images of other sensations associated 
 therewith from our previous experience: We can best 
 notice this, I say, in the case of a distraction of our 
 attention while sensing or after having sensed some- 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 thing. If our mind is absorbed while an external or 
 internal impression calls on it, we first feel that some- 
 thing is going on; but it takes a certain time before 
 we make out what that something is before we interpret 
 it or give it a meaning. Likewise, if we have decided 
 to do something and our attention is diverted before 
 we have begun to carry out our decision, we notice 
 that we forget the aim of our incipient movements, 
 sometimes we even forget the movements to be made 
 and remember only that we intended to do something. 
 We remember a vague impulse, but forget its direction 
 or goal. Logically, the notion of the class comes after 
 the notion of the individuals constituting it. Psycho- 
 logically, the class attributes are known before the 
 individual attributes. Logically, the notion of animal 
 cannot be grasped before the notions of vertebrates, 
 fishes, mollusca, worms, etc. Psychologically, we may 
 know clearly what an animal is, without ever getting a 
 clear idea about the subdivisions. 
 
 Knowledge of Other Selves. — ^We describe mechan- 
 ical phenomena and movements by means of words re- 
 ferring to human actions and human movements, be- 
 cause the latter have been noticed and, hence, endowed 
 with names prior to the former. Likewise with human 
 mental processes. We speak of the semi- and of the 
 unconscious processes in terms of, and therefore we 
 mistake them for, conscious processes ; because the lat- 
 ter have attracted our attention prior to, or more 
 directly than, the former, and have therefore received 
 names before the former. If a psychologist, a knower 
 of human nature, has to describe the dimly conscious 
 operations, the flow of semiconscious intentions, feel- 
 ings and thoughts in introspectively less gifted in- 
 dividuals, he cannot help using descriptive terms which 
 apply to analogous conscious processes in his own 
 mind, and which convey therefore the idea of clear 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 
 
 consciousness in the agent described. He describes 
 the mental processes of his nonpsychological fellow- 
 men as these would describe them if they were fully 
 conscious thereof. The psychologist cannot help 
 ascribing to others the same clearness of thought and 
 of intentions as he has himself; just as the sincere 
 and honest man believes in the sincerity and honesty 
 of rascals, or, if he is too much of a sharp-eyed, ob- 
 jective psychologist not to notice their tricky and 
 mean ways of acting, he considers them as hypocrites 
 and intellectual prostitutes who knowingly do what 
 they themselves consider as wrong. He cannot under- 
 stand that there is such a thing as self-deception, self- 
 sophistication, insincerity with one's self, self-hypno- 
 tising into seeing men and things according to or in 
 agreement with one's desires or self-interest. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man who makes a business out 
 of everything, who uses everybody and everything to 
 further his own interests, cannot believe in the exist- 
 ence of genuine superior men, i.e., in men who love 
 truth, knowledge and art for their own sakes, who dis- 
 interestedly take others' troubles to heart, who argue 
 merely for the sake of getting at some truth without 
 intending to belittle others and to extol themselves. 
 Such individuals the pseudo-superior man looks down 
 upon as either unskilled fakers or cranks. 
 
 In our attempt at getting a glimpse into the soul 
 of other men, into the soul of animals, and into the 
 nature of so-called inanimate things, we can just as 
 little help taking our own soul as a starting point as, 
 when we wish to go somewhere, we cannot manage to 
 be there at the moment of conceiving the desire but 
 must patiently start out from the place where we 
 happen to be. To understand others we must wander 
 in our imagination either upward, onward, in the di- 
 rection of our aspirations, visions, hopes, tendencies 
 
234 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 or backward, downward, in the direction of our recol- 
 lections, past, prenatal and prehuman conditions. It is 
 neither possible nor useful or desirable to know men 
 and things in themselves, from their own point of 
 view, from inside or intuitively in the Bergsonian 
 sense. Nor is there any meaning in such a knowledge, 
 for knowledge presupposes a mutual interaction be- 
 tween knower and known. Bergson alone seems to 
 know the secret of such absolute knowledge, but he 
 does not care to reveal it to us common mortals: it is 
 enough honor for us if he condescends to point out to 
 us that he is endowed therewith. The only drawback 
 resulting from judging others by ourselves does not 
 lie in the fact that we must start from ourselves, from 
 our own experience, from our preconceived opinions, 
 but in the fact that we are too lazy to go beyond that, 
 to budge from the place, to shift our point of view in 
 order to compare and coordinate the partial experi- 
 ences gained under various angles. We prefer either 
 to identify others with ourselves, as children, philis- 
 tines and savages do ; or we assume and compel others 
 to be what we wish them to be, as parasites or ex- 
 ploiters do with the poor. The productive individual, 
 who relies on his own abilities, starts by assuming that 
 his fellowmen are like him and treats them accordingly. 
 Experience, however, and objective thinking, i.e., 
 thinking guided by experience, teaches him that not 
 all men are alike and willing to cooperate with him. 
 He thus attains objective knowledge, he learns to as- 
 sociate with his own kind, to modify his preconceived 
 opinions and conduct and to shun parasites. The 
 parasitical, predatory, unproductive individual, on the 
 other hand, in his indifference to real or disinterested 
 knowledge, in his desire to live indolently on the toil 
 of others, assumes and persists in his subjective or a 
 priori assumption that his poorer fellowmen are noth- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 235 
 
 ing but what he wishes and compels them to be, viz., 
 tools, stupid automata, animals born to do his bid- 
 ding, unworthy of proper or individual names, which 
 are in need of his supervision in order to get along 
 in this world; those who refuse to do his bidding or 
 to look up to him as a master and try to assert their 
 individuality, he hates and exterminates as being mor- 
 bid, abnormal cases ; he overlooks the fact that if the 
 few altruistic and independence-loving proletarians are 
 abnormal because they differ from the majority, then 
 both his class and his prostituted defenders, the official 
 psychologists and psychiatrists, also belong to the 
 abnormal, pathological, degenerate class, as they, too, 
 are in a minority, and hence deserve just as much — if 
 not more so — to be persecuted and exterminated by 
 the exploited masses. Whereas the honest, creative, 
 aspiring thinker sees in the downtrodden masses the 
 crippled souls of dimly aspiring men, who have been 
 hypnotized and frightened into intellectual torpor and 
 blindness by their exploiters ; the rich who use them as 
 mere tools, and hence want them to be nothing else, 
 prefer to deny them all higher needs, nay, all human 
 feelings, because this conception suits better their ma- 
 terialistic, predatory, anti-social pursuits. 
 
 The same applies to our conception of the animal 
 mind. The vegetarian, the kind-hearted and nonvo- 
 racious man, are inclined to look upon their animal 
 cousins with unprejudiced eyes, to perceive that they, 
 too, are stirred by passions, hatred, love, joy, sorrow, 
 care, and are capable of appreciating fair and loving 
 treatment. The liking of children for animals springs 
 not only from the fact that they — like our preglacial 
 ancestors whose life history every child briefly recapit- 
 ulates — stand psychically nearer to the animals, but 
 also to the fact that the preglacial man was a vegeta- 
 rian and hence had no reason for denying a soul to 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 his animal cousins, as the exploiters do with their 
 poorer brethren, and the Americans do with their 
 immigrant wage slaves, in order to be able to feed 
 remorselessly on their blood. Nay, more, the child, 
 like the primitive man, is rather inclined to overesti- 
 mate the psychical qualities of animals by analogy with 
 their superior physical qualities; just as, conversely, 
 he cannot conceive of a superior, extraordinary intel- 
 lect possessed by a small man with an insignificant ex- 
 terior. The egoistical, voracious, flesh-eating individ- 
 ual, on the other hand, prefers to see in animals noth- 
 ing but automata, stored-up food or energy, just as 
 the carnivorous animals, when hungry, probably look 
 upon man and upon the herbivorous animals. 
 
 To know others we must have been, at some stage of 
 our development, similar to them. For this reason, the 
 best detectives and policemen are recruited from among 
 ex-criminals and men with a criminal predisposition. 
 The best laquais, valets, butlers, servants, are to be 
 found among aborted or would-be aristocrats. If the 
 socialist is better able than the congenitaUy noble- 
 hearted anarchist or communist to understand the 
 psyche of a capitalist, it is because the socialist has 
 passed during his immature years through the parasit- 
 ical stage before he reached the humanitarian plane in 
 theory at least, if not in practise. The capitalist, 
 however, who does not evolve morally beyond the plane 
 of jungle life, remains devoid of all understanding for 
 the mentality of a sociahst: Thus, Gustave Le Bon, 
 a very capable scientist of the predatory class, who, 
 like all capitalistic writers, is manufacturing volumi- 
 nous and numerous books for want of some more useful 
 occupation, when he attempted to fathom the soul of 
 the socialist in particular and of the revolutionist in 
 general in his "Psychology of Socialism," "Psychology 
 of Revolutions," etc., made a sorry mess out of it; 
 
CREATIVE LIFE SST 
 
 whenever he seems to talk sense, he merely repeats what 
 he has appropriated from socialistic writings; but 
 whenever he talks in his own name, he talks nonsense, 
 and all he succeeds in discovering in the minds of social- 
 ists is the reflected image of his own hidden qualities, 
 viz., hatred of superiority, envy of wealth, morbid or 
 aimless restlessness and discontentedness, and such-like. 
 If the intelligent man is able to understand the fool, 
 and if the sane man is able to understand to a certain 
 extent the insane man, it is because the former's think- 
 ing processes pass through the fool's and madman's 
 stage of nebulousness, incoherency, impulsiveness, dis- 
 sociation, subjectivity, etc., but do not stop at that 
 stage and do not go over into action or into talk until 
 the entire related experience of the past has been con- 
 sulted and until all the thinking material has been 
 sifted, distilled, purified, worked up into valuable con- 
 cepts or rules of conduct. 
 
 The Various Organs of Knowledge. — Just as in the 
 field of social activities the accomplishment of any kind 
 of work requires the cooperation of, and the division 
 of the task among, helpers, workers, foremen, super- 
 intendent, manager, promoter or initiator; just so in 
 the narrower sphere of individual activity the success- 
 ful performance of any act requires the cooperation 
 of, and the division of the task among, reflex move- 
 ments, instinctive acts, habitual acts, imitation and 
 individual initiative or reflection. There is no strictly 
 or purely manual, automatic work: The work of the 
 helper cannot be done without some amount of brain 
 work (attention, reflection, discrimination, etc.) or in- 
 dividual initiative; only his reasoning power exerts it- 
 self on single or simple matters, while that of the 
 promoter exerts itself on more complicated or more 
 numerous matters. Hence, instead of speaking of hand- 
 workers and head-workers, of mechanical and Intel- 
 
238 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 lectual work, we ought to speak of simple, subordinate 
 and of complex, higher work. 
 
 What has been said about outer or muscular activity 
 holds also of inner or mental activity. Every mental 
 process, to attain truth or objectivity, requires the co- 
 operation of the senses, memory, instinctive knowledge 
 or intuition, spontaneous activity (imagination, reflec- 
 tion, analysis, synthesis, . . . ). The difference be- 
 tween sensation, perception, memories, intuitions, 
 imaginations, conceptions, is the complexity or num- 
 ber of objects which cause the mental process. If a 
 mental process is designated as perception, and not as 
 recollection, imagination, conception, ... it is not 
 because it lacks the cooperation of the latter processes, 
 but because the latter are in the background and their 
 cooperation is of a secondary importance or of an 
 auxiliary nature. 
 
 Up to a certain point, thinking and doing, feeling 
 and expression, go together, collaborate simultaneously, 
 work side by side; but beyond this limit they have to 
 part company, they have to cooperate separately or 
 successively. What has been said of outer (muscular) 
 and inner (mental) activity holds also of the com- 
 ponents and sub-components of each. Thus the vari- 
 ous mental faculties (perception, memory, imagination, 
 conception) work side by side, simultaneously or in 
 quick alternation in simple matters ; but in more com- 
 plicated problems it is best to let them work separately 
 or in succession. Likewise with each single mental 
 faculty: Passive or receptive perception, if allowed 
 to become dominant or to rule continually — as in some 
 savage or degenerate peoples — excludes observation 
 or active, selective, purposive perception. Reproduc- 
 tive or imitative and productive or creative imagina- 
 tion, in order to grow, must part company at a certain 
 stage of development. Verbal, perceptual (pictorial), 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 239 
 
 discriminating memory is inseparably connected with 
 ideational, conceptual, assimilating (synthetic) mem- 
 ory in simple and easily understood questions ; but in 
 more important and more complicated affairs, the more 
 attention we pay to, the better we try to remember 
 and to comply with words, forms, the letter, particular 
 phenomena, details, differences, . . . the less do we ob- 
 serve, remember, assimilate, comply with, keep before 
 our mind's eye ideas, substance, the spirit, classes of 
 phenomena, wholes, similarities or unifying principles. 
 Since our mental faculties or abilities cooperate either 
 simultaneously or successively; since the successive 
 faculties draw their energy and material from the pre- 
 ceding ones ; it follows that one cannot test one mental 
 faculty or ability without testing the other faculties or 
 abilities at the same time. Thus one remembers clearly 
 what one has perceived clearly — the clearness may re- 
 sult from a single but vivid perception, or from imper- 
 fect but repeated perceptions ; one perceives dis- 
 tinctly and quickly what one understands and attends 
 to; one pays attention to and understands only such 
 things as one is interested in, i.e., such things as one 
 deals with or thinks about spontaneously or without 
 external stimulation or suggestion. 
 
 Perception rests on sensations, memory rests on per- 
 cepts, imagination rests on memories, and conception 
 rests on imagination. A higher faculty, like the upper 
 stories of a building, affords a broader — if vaguer and 
 more easily misleading — outlook upon the world, life 
 and their potentialities than do the lower faculties, 
 upon which it rests. In other words, we may remember 
 things which we can no longer perceive or feel ; we may 
 imagine things which we no longer remember or per- 
 ceive, or which we cannot render perceptible as yet, or 
 which are non-existent; and we may conceive things 
 which are not accessible to either imagination or per- 
 
240 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ception. If Kant had kept this familiar fact in mind, 
 if he had not — ^like all idealistic or nebulous philoso- 
 phers — reached for clouds or empty concepts while 
 allowing the solid ground of facts to slip from under 
 his feet, and if he had not run after the mental shadows 
 called absolute truth or things-in-themselves, he would 
 not have involved himself in what he called the four 
 antinomies or seemingly inextricable, irreconcilable, 
 contradictory concepts (finiteness and infinity, free- 
 dom and causation, contingency and necessity), and 
 he would not have had to resort to a sham reconcilia- 
 tion of these contradictions by attributing them to a 
 confusion between the noumenal and the phenomenal 
 spheres. He would have seen that the infinite divisi- 
 bility of matter, which seems possible to our imagina- 
 tion because we cannot help picturing to ourselves the 
 invisible ultimate elements of matter by analogy with 
 visible wholes, is shown to be absurd by our conception 
 or reason which tells us that the infinite divisibility of 
 matter implies the existence of infinitely small particles, 
 which practically means particles of zero dimensions, 
 hence non-existent particles. To the matter-of-fact 
 thinker — ^who knows that all truth is necessarily rela- 
 tive, which does not mean changeable — -there is no con- 
 tradiction between necessity,- causality, natural law 
 and freedom, contingency ; for a certain event may at 
 the same time be contingent, independent of or unin- 
 fluenced by another event and caused by or dependent 
 on other events. More correctl}', between two seem- 
 ingly opposite concepts — such as necessity and con- 
 tingency, greatness and smallness — there is neither 
 contradiction nor harmony ; contradiction sets in when 
 they are applied to one and the same thing as com- 
 pared to another thing; a thing cannot be both greater 
 and smaller than another thing, or both influenced and 
 uninfluenced thereby. About the world as a whole it 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 241 
 
 is, of course, meaningless to say that it is necessary 
 or contingent. Our imagination cannot make us realize 
 the infinity and eternity of the world, but our concep- 
 tion can. Our imagination is not always able to show 
 us that what is true of wholes is not necessarily true 
 of parts and vice versa, but our conception helps us 
 realize that although wholes are changeable, perishable, 
 still their ultimate elements must be eternal, indestruct- 
 ible, indivisible, uncaused, uncreated. If everything 
 had to be accounted for as an effect or a product of 
 something entirely different, then, of course, we would 
 become involved in an endless chain of causes and there 
 would be no meaning in speaking about uncaused 
 causes, that is, about uncreated, eternal things and un- 
 created, spontaneous movements. 
 
 All knowledge is relative or comparative ; but this 
 does not mean that all knowledge is equally valid or 
 reliable. Only that knowledge which is based on a con- 
 stant, fixed point of reference or of comparison, or a 
 practically invariable unit of measure, is valid, reliable, 
 useful, communicable, objective. Thus if the tempera- 
 ture of our body were always fluctuating between ex- 
 tremes as in fever, our thermal nerves could never give 
 us reliable knowledge about the changes in the outside 
 temperature. If our spontaneous activity would vary 
 between extremes without the aid of any external stimu- 
 lation, or would be of such an explosive, unstable nature 
 as to be radically changed by the slightest external 
 stimulus, as it happens sometimes or periodically in 
 women and emotional men, we could never gain 
 adequate, objective, differentiated knowledge about 
 other men and the external world that impresses or 
 stimulates our senses. To gain such knowledge, our 
 inner activity must be more or less constant, it must 
 have a small range of fluctuation, and the changes 
 caused therein by external stimuli must be proportional 
 
M2 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 to the latter. The irritable or explosive individual who 
 expects things to happen according to his wishes and 
 needs, and who, therefore, never makes an effort to 
 meet men and things half-way, is bound to be subject 
 to illusions, errors, disappointments, shocks, unhappi- 
 ness. 
 
 All knowledge is knowledge of relations, actions, in- 
 teractions ; for there is no such thing as isolated, 
 unrelated, inactive, inert things. Even latency and 
 potentiality do not mean absolute inaction, suspended 
 action or suspended movement: they merely mean im- 
 perceptible, intra-molecular, intra-atomic or intra- 
 corpuscular action. If relative knowledge holds only 
 for a certain time, place (point of view), individual, 
 this does not mean that it can turn into untruth, error 
 at some future time, for other individuals and for dif- 
 ferent points of view. It merely means that in order 
 to know anything there must be an observer occupying 
 a certain position in space and time ; but if the mood 
 of the observer changes owing to organic disturbances, 
 or his point of view is shifted, he has no right to claim 
 that the external object changed. Nor does relativity 
 of knowledge mean uncertain, incomplete, partial 
 knowledge. It merely means that we cannot know men, 
 things and ourselves except as related to, acting upon, 
 or acted upon by, other men and things. What is an 
 individual, a thing, a self, from one point of view may 
 be but a part of a more comprehensive whole or self, 
 when seen from another point of view. In so far and 
 so long as a number of things or men act simulta- 
 neously, concertedly and similarly on another group, 
 they constitute or become a single object or whole. 
 The conflicts between men are invisible from an extra- 
 terrestrial, philosophical point of view, and the human 
 species appears as a single being striving toward the 
 same goal and acting on the external world in a single, 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 243 
 
 definite direction. But if the intra-human conflicts are 
 neither seen nor felt by an extra-terrestrial being or 
 aristocratic closet philosopher, they are none the less 
 harsh realities for men. 
 
 To expect knowledge and truth to be independent 
 of time, of space, of the human mind and its points 
 of view, means to expect things to be motionless, un- 
 changeable, inactive, homogeneous, unreal, for there is 
 no such thing as absolute rest, inaction, simplicity. 
 Nay, knowledge itself is a process, an activity of the 
 human mind, an interaction between the human mind 
 and external things. To say that things would still 
 exist even if all men and sentient beings should die out 
 and hence cease experiencing them, means to say that 
 things will still act on other things ; it means to say 
 that things are related not only to the- human and 
 animal mind, but also to each other. Existence is more 
 comprehensive than being experienced: a thing does 
 not cease to exist if it ceases being experienced by men, 
 but it would cease to exist if the rest of the world could 
 be annihilated. 
 
 Truth is nothing but a general or class name for 
 all actual and possible human and animal sensations, 
 feelings, perceptions, conceptions, views and relations 
 between them. If, instead of disputing m abstracto 
 as to whether or not there is absolute truth, i. e., truth 
 independent of the human mind and of all relations, 
 we would descend to the concrete realm of our sensa- 
 tions or particular experiences, and would ask, for in- 
 stance, what is the color of a thing in the dark or 
 when not looked at, we would soon agree as to the 
 absurdity of our search after absolute truth. Quan- 
 titatively, truth is more comprehensive than knowledge 
 and existence, for it deals with actuality and poten- 
 tiality, with past, present and future, and transcends 
 experience, whereas knowledge is coextensive with ex- 
 
M4> GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 perience. Qualitatively, however, truth is poorer than 
 knowledge ; for it does not admit of any degrees, where- 
 as knowledge may be certain (facts), merely adhered 
 to (faith, belief), or doubtful, conjectural, hypothet- 
 ical. To say that truth cannot transcend experience, 
 or to say that the human mind cannot know things 
 a priori, is just as absurd as to say that the human 
 mind can merely react to, but not act upon, the ex- 
 ternal world; it means to deny the spontaneity, self- 
 activity or very existence of the human mind ; it means 
 to deny prevision, it means to confine our knowledge 
 to the past, it means to deny the link between past and 
 future. But, on the other hand, from the fact that 
 human knowledge can transcend or go beyond experi- 
 ence, it does not follow that it can grow in any other 
 soil but that of experience. All knowledge is empirical, 
 i. e., it draws its origin and food from experience, and 
 is also transcendental, i. e., it does not remain confined 
 to mere past and actual experience, but surpasses it: 
 it anticipates and creates new experience. 
 
 Potentiality. — To make clear or to explain and de- 
 fine the meaning of a concept we have to distinguish 
 it from its super-, co-, and sub-ordinated concepts ; to 
 give a description of its intension and extension ; to 
 trace its psychological genesis which may coincide with 
 its historical genesis. Thus potentiality can be sub- 
 sumed under the categories of existence and of energy, 
 according as we consider it statically or dynamically. 
 Potential existence is never separated from some form 
 of actual existence: the tree exists potentially in the 
 seed ; before being recollected our ideas exist potentially 
 in our memory; before becoming dynamical, psychical, 
 conscious, our ideas are statical, structural, physio- 
 logical, unconscious; combinations exist potentially in 
 their elements. Potentiality is appealed to to explain 
 hereditary transmission, the recollection of forgotten 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 245 
 
 things, the continuity of our individuality during sleep, 
 the reestablishment of a disturbed stable equilibrium. 
 Physiological energy contains potentially psychical 
 energy ; achievement, actions, are contained potentially 
 in our abilities, thoughts and feelings; a body in a 
 higher position exists potentially in a previously occu- 
 pied lower position; ethical ideals exist actually in 
 moral geniuses, but merely potentially in the great 
 mass of morally average men; potential molar energy 
 is actual molecular energy; an increase in the quantity 
 of heat communicated to a body manifests itself first 
 in expanding its volume, i. e., in a molar form, and 
 then in changing its state of aggregation, i. e., in a 
 molecular form imperceptible for us. 
 
 To make the usual definition of potential and actual 
 energy more inclusive, I would define potential energy 
 as energy of condition, and actual energy as energy of 
 action. All cases of impeded movement, of impeded 
 action, would be special cases of potential energy. The 
 distinction between actual and potential existence 
 would disappear, say the spiritists, for a being endowed 
 with the, to us incomprehensible, ability to look into 
 temporal sequences alternately and at wiU back and 
 forward as we can do with respect to spatial sequences : 
 everything would exist actually for such beings moving 
 freely in time as we do in space. But on closer in- 
 spection this spiritistic high-sounding speculation un- 
 masks itself as a nonsensical assertion: If time were 
 a kind of space, sequence would be a kind of coexist- 
 ence. 
 
 Coordinated concepts of potentiality are: latency, 
 possibility, immanency, etc. Potential existence de- 
 pends more on the hidden qualities of the evolving thing 
 than on external circumstances; the reverse holds for 
 possible existence. In latency the idea of evolution is 
 not implied. In immanency we do not ascribe any 
 
246 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 efficient causation to external conditions. Potential 
 energy accounts for energy which is not yet manifest 
 for our senses ; latent energy accounts for energy ceas- 
 ing to manifest itself in a perceptible or external man- 
 ner, for energy being absorbed and expended in internal 
 work. 
 
 The concept potentiality arises from the inconceiv- 
 ability of a creation ex nihilo, from our need to con- 
 ceive causation as an unbroken chain of necessary 
 sequences. Looked at prospectively, the concept of 
 potentiaHty furnishes an explanation of evolution; 
 retrospectively it interprets causality and continuity; 
 aspectively it accounts for the imperceptible. The 
 naive concept of potentiaUty is that potentiality is of 
 the same nature as the resulting actuality, but reduced 
 in size, in magnitude ; that the external conditions have 
 merely a catalytic influence. The riper concept of po- 
 tentiality says that the potential is a form of the 
 actual, the actual is a resultant of the potential and of 
 certain external conditions, in which resultant, however, 
 the contribution of the potential is greater than that 
 of the conditions. 
 
 Just as the magnitude of angles does not depend on 
 the length of the sides, so the potential diiferences be- 
 tween individuals (I, II, III, etc. . . . ), between the 
 genius and the philistine, between the male and the 
 female, are given congenitally, and hence do not vary 
 with age, with growing achievement (01, Oil, OIII 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 247 
 
 . . . ). But the distances between the sides increase 
 with the length of the sides; just so do the actual in- 
 dividual differences vary in quality and quantity of 
 achievement with age. If all children seem to be alike, 
 it is on account of our inability to see in the small 
 present differences between the individualities the great 
 potential differences which determine their future 
 careers ; it is because we have not the prophetic gift 
 of seeing the future in the present, of seeing great 
 future results in humble beginnings ; it is because we 
 are mentally blind and judge men, not by their abilities 
 and tendencies, but by their visible and momentary 
 achievements, not by their thought-out opinions, but 
 by their memorized and professed opinions, not by 
 what they really do, feel and think, but by what they 
 imitate, pretend to feel and to think. 
 
 Truth and Error. — Theories, opposites, ultimate 
 categories of thought which seem irreconcilable, irre- 
 ducible to one another, indefinable in terms of one an- 
 other, from a fixed point of view, may be unmasked as 
 mere abstractions, as relative, interchangeable, inter- 
 definable, reconcilable, complementary theories and 
 concepts, as soon as our scrutinizing critical mind be- 
 gins to shift its point of view. What from a lower 
 standpoint is regarded as reality, continuity, perma- 
 nence, individuality, unrelatedness, quality, facts, ab- 
 solute truth, beauty, importance, etc., if viewed from a 
 higher, conceptual standpoint, becomes appearance, 
 discreteness, instability, element, relatedness, quantity, 
 relations, relative truth, ugliness, insignificance, etc. ; 
 or it disappears altogether. Confusion, illusion, error, 
 begin to arise when we transfer our knowledge gained 
 from one standing ground to — and take it for — ^what 
 we see from another point of view. The mind's eye, 
 like the bodily eye, has first to accommodate itself to 
 the new horizon which it tends to overlook; it has to 
 
248 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 shake off the disturbing positive or negative after- 
 images, after-thoughts, after-affections. What holds 
 for philosophy does not hold, or may be irrelevant, for 
 the scientific, artistic, and practical points of view; 
 what is real for the conceptualist whose standpoint is 
 existence in time is an empty word for the nominalist 
 whose standpoint is spatial existence ; not all we know 
 about mathematical space, time and numbers, about a 
 class, can be indiscriminately applied to the corre- 
 sponding physiological and psychological concepts of 
 space, time and numbers, to individuals ; the real, the' 
 experienced, is partly prior to and a cause of, and 
 partly subsequent to and an effect of the imaginary. 
 Truth depends on three factors, on the point of view, 
 on the observer, on the objects observed. If truth hap- 
 pens to be the same for different observers, it is so in 
 so far as they are alike. 
 
 Truth, as I said above, depends on three inseparable 
 factors : on- the observer or thinker, on the object 
 observed or imagined and its setting, and on the point 
 of view. By this I do not mean to say, like the com- 
 mercially-minded pragmatists, instnmientalists and 
 other philosophical hypocrites, sophists, inconsistent 
 minds, that there are many kinds of truth; that truth 
 is subjective like, nay, identical with, value; that truth 
 is merely a tool; that what is true for one individual, 
 for one point of view, for one science, for reason, for" 
 direct observation, from anear, is not necessarily true 
 for another individual, for another point of view, for 
 another science, for feelings, for indirect or roundabout 
 observation, from afar, and vice versa. What I mean 
 is only this: that the whole truth is not accessible to 
 every man, at any time, under any circumstances, from 
 a single point of view, to a single science, to pure rea- 
 son, etc. The truth perceived from one standpoint 
 is only a part of the whole truth ; is invisible from or 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 249 
 
 obscured and irrelevant for another standpoint; is not 
 antagonistic, but complementary to the aspect of truth 
 as seen from another point of view. Memory and 
 imagination help us to synthetize the bits of truth or 
 the various aspects of truth as perceived from various 
 points of view into a harmonious single truth. Memory 
 and imagination complete actual experiences, fill in the 
 deficiencies and gaps, make good for the deficits of 
 perception, enable us to dispense with a minute and 
 fatiguing observation. 
 
 To ask for absolute truth, for truth independent 
 of the observers, for truth about things-in-themselves, 
 for truth about things independent of their settings 
 and independent of the observer's standing ground; to 
 ask, in other words, how a thing looks when nobody 
 looks at it, and how a thing would look if nothing else 
 would exist in the universe, is a mere play of words, 
 a purely verbal, i. e., meaningless question which no 
 sane-minded man except an idealistic philosopher would 
 persistently try to answer. We might just as well ask. 
 How does a man feel when he is dead, what becomes 
 of the light when the candle is put out? etc. 
 
 We mistake the imaginary, the dream, for the real; 
 the abstract for the concrete ; mere words and symbols 
 for thoughts and things; the inanimate, impersonal, 
 unfamiliar for the animate, the personal, the familiar; 
 the new, unusual, individual for the old, usual, class ; 
 the conventional, voluntary for the natural, sponta- 
 neous. For the imaginary, the dream, are more or less 
 distorted copies of the real; the abstract does not exist 
 apart from the concrete; we are used to associate 
 signs, symbols with things, with objects of thoughts or 
 objects of perception; we use for the abstract, the 
 psychical, the imaginary, the same words which origi- 
 nally designated concrete, bodily, real things ; habitual, 
 organized, actual, hereditary ways of thinking and of 
 
250 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 acting cost less effort than the unhabitual, individual, 
 acquired ones; will and convention are derived from 
 spontaneity and nature. 
 
 Mental inertia, exhaustion, laziness, habit, distrac- 
 tion, preoccupation, are the sources of all errors and 
 illusions. Owing to them, the knowledge gained, the 
 feeling and attitude of mind aroused, under past, usual, 
 old, subjective, personal, narrow . . . circumstances, 
 are wholly taken over, indiscriminately applied to pres- 
 ent, unusual, new, objective, impersonal, wider, . . . 
 circumstances ; or vice versa. 
 
 In mature life it is hard to separate the direct and 
 immediate data of our senses from the corrections and 
 additions due to inference, memory, imagination, sub- 
 conscious reasoning. But in moments of distraction 
 when our minds are absorbed in associative or centrally 
 arising mental processes, we can sometimes get a 
 glimpse of what our peripherally incoming experiences 
 or sensations are in themselves, and thereby of what 
 they were originally, in babyhood. Thus, in moments 
 of absorption we can catch ourselves believing that two 
 objects belonging to different planes are in one and 
 the same plane. This shows that pure visual percep- 
 tion does not contain the quahty of distance and 
 solidity which are rather a result of subconscious in- 
 ference. 
 
 Abnormality does not consist so much in the experi- 
 encing as in the despotical persistence of illusions, 
 errors ; not so much in acting in response to them as 
 in acting inadequately; it consists in indulging in 
 mutually exclusive illusions. Just as ignorance and 
 wrong opinions, in distinction from stupidity and 
 prejudices, are curable, corrigible; just so the illusions 
 and delusions of the insane, in distinction from the 
 errors and illusions of the sane, are incorrigible, in- 
 capable of rectification. 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 251 
 
 Our reason (apperception, memory, imagination, 
 conception, understanding) being but an extension, an 
 aid of our senses, it is not proper to make either the 
 former or the latter exclusively the judge of Reality 
 or of Truth. The criterion of Truth is rather the 
 agreement between both Reason and Senses. Only in 
 matters which are indirectly accessible to the senses, 
 the criterion of Truth is to be looked for in Reason 
 alone (electrical phenomena, past and probable events, 
 distant events, the microcosm and the macrocosm, the 
 minds of others, . . . ). And in simple, habitual, nor- 
 mal, constantly recurrent experiences, we can entrust 
 the senses alone with the criterion of Reality. The 
 lowest senses, the so-called chemical senses, of smell 
 and of taste, give us little information about a few 
 bodies, and that only when a part of these bodies is 
 absorbed by the corresponding nerves. The mechan- 
 ical senses, the muscular, the thermal, the tactile, give 
 more information about innumerable bodies, but only 
 when the bodies act directly on our nerves. The sense 
 of hearing can be acted upon at a distance through 
 another coarse medium (air, liquids, solids). The sense 
 of sight can be acted upon from a much greater dis- 
 tance, through the most subtle medium called ether. 
 Memory and imagination enable us to complete and 
 to anticipate actual experiences. Conception enables 
 us to survey in a minimum of time and with a minimum 
 of effort vast fields of experiences, without having to 
 pay attention to every particular experience. Con- 
 ception also enables us to know things that act but 
 indirectl}', or imperceptibly, on our senses. 
 
 Under usual conditions, all our senses reveal Reality 
 more or less perfectly. The older senses (tactile, 
 muscular) reveal the general and relatively unchange- 
 able or primary properties (pressure, weight, . . .). 
 The senses acquired later (sight, hearing, . . . ) re- 
 
252 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 veal the particular, changeable, secondary properties 
 (color, sound, . . . ). Under unusual conditions, our 
 senses interpret the new experiences in terms of the old 
 ones, giving thus rise to illusions which are corrected 
 either by adaptation of the senses or by reasoning in 
 the light of past experiences. 
 
 ■i' 
 
 
 /"^ 
 
 — 
 
 tma 
 
 II. — Frequency curve of materialism, monism, realism, mechanism, 
 
 sciences . . . 
 I. — Frequency curve of spiritualism, dualism, idealism, vitalism, 
 
 religion . . . 
 
 Truth of Opposite Theories. — It is exceedingly hard 
 to decide by statistical methods between opposite 
 philosophical views as to which is in the ascendancy, 
 i. e., is the true one. To decide this point, we ought to 
 know the number of real adherents of each theory, of 
 both I and II, at different successive periods, in order 
 to be able to construct the frequency curves I and II, 
 and to infer therefrom the general tendencies of de- 
 clining or of rising — the underlying assumption 
 being that Truth gains the upper hand in the long run. 
 But a better and easier proof of the truth of II, is the 
 fact that, at an advanced stage, the adherents of I 
 act mostly as if they were adherents of II; and in 
 action — we know— true convictions betray themselves 
 better than in professed theories. There is no such 
 thing as a compromise between the two. The compro- 
 mise is possible only in words, but not de facto. I 
 do not mean to deny that a man may profess I but 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 253 
 
 act according to II, from lack of inner harmony, from 
 timidity, owing to suggestion or hypocrisy. Thus 
 preachers and religious people cling so tenaciously to 
 life and its pleasures as to disprove thereby the sin- 
 cerity of their belief in a hereafter. The spiritualists 
 attribute so many material properties to the human 
 soul that their belief becomes a purely verbal idol or 
 a party, shibboleth. 
 
 In matters of vital, general importance, in matters 
 having a direct, immediate bearing on human well- 
 being, truth, i. e., conceptions, generalizations, views 
 built directly or indirectly upon a broad sensational 
 substratum, can be tested by the general amount of 
 agreement between men, by counting the opinions pro 
 and con. For people who are blind to truth in such 
 matters either perish or end in insanity. But in 
 matters of indirect, remote, impalpable bearing on 
 human well-being, in scientific and philosophic mat- 
 ters, agreement between many is no reliable test of 
 truth: one man's opinion may be true, and the opinion 
 of thousands may be wrong. Truth, of course, gains 
 continuously adherents ; whilst error may also gain as- 
 cendency, but it cannot maintain it for a long time. 
 Thus the fact that scientist after scientist, and philos- 
 opher after philosopher, attribute to ether all the gen- 
 eral properties of matter except weight, does not prove 
 in reality that ether has no weight. For they forget 
 that if ether seems to be imponderable, it is because we 
 live in an ocean of ether of which we cannot get out, 
 in which all the worlds are floating, which surrounds 
 and penetrates all the other forms of matter. They 
 forget that air would also seem imponderable to us if 
 we had no means of producing a vacuum in a bottle, 
 and hence of weighing the bottle before and after 
 pumping out all the air. Likewise with water: the 
 weight of water cannot be measured by means of scales 
 
254 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 immersed in it. They forget that weight being a spe- 
 cial case of attraction between two bodies when sepa- 
 rated or when at a distance from each other, cannot 
 be measured directly when the distance is zero, i. e., 
 although the attraction is supposedly at its maximum. 
 The tendency towards association, the power of cohe- 
 sion, is measured by the required force of dissociation, 
 of separation. If we had any means of separating the 
 ether from other substances and from the earth, we 
 could tell whether it has any weight or not; just as 
 in the psychical world, individuals do not always 
 realize how much they love each other, how much they 
 are attached to each other, until some external circum- 
 stances threaten to separate them. 
 
 Belief, Doubt, Law of Conservation. — Originally we 
 are inclined to believe, to rest satisfied with, to accept 
 as real, objective, permanent, constant, absolutely and 
 generally true, everything we experience, or are told. 
 Doubt, the distinction between reality and appear- 
 ance, objective and subjective, absolute and relative, 
 permanent and changeable, is imposed upon us by in- 
 creased knowledge, by contradiction coming from 
 subsequent experiences about the same objects. A 
 new theory, a new doctrine, which shatters our belief 
 in a former experience, in an old doctrine, does also 
 harm to our belief in its own implications ; the micro- 
 scope destroys not only our belief in the homogeneity 
 of the cell, but also our belief in homogeneity, con- 
 tinuity, etc., in general; just as a slanderer destroys 
 not only our confidence in others, but also in himself. 
 Our ultimate concepts lose their validity ; but our be- 
 lief in their relative validity becomes, in its turn, abso- 
 lute, in a certain sense : it transcends the experience of 
 which it is a result. We believe in persistency, con- 
 stancy, as long as we do not experience change. If 
 our belief in the persistence of things, of phenomena, 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 255 
 
 of the known, is shattered, we transfer this belief over 
 to forces, noumena, to the unknown, substrata; and 
 from these we transfer it over to a hypothetical 
 primitive energy and substance, of which the actual 
 forces and substances are supposed to be forms, mani- 
 festations. 
 
 The law of conservation of energy and matter is not 
 so much a law of Nature as an approximation to it, a 
 means of understanding the world, it is rather a prod- 
 uct of our mind, of our aspirations and desires, than 
 of our actual objective experience. It is rather a 
 corollary of our instinct of psychical and bodily self- 
 preservation. Only when there arises a conflict be- 
 tween permanence in the external world and perma- 
 nence in our self, do we sacrifice the former for the 
 benefit of the latter, do we admit miracles ; or we 
 modify our concept of self-conservation, immortality: 
 From immortality of the statical, physical, whole, con- 
 scious, of men, ... it becomes an immortality of the 
 dynamical, psychical, part, unconsciousness, cosmos, 
 ... Or it might as well be maintained that our in- 
 stinct of self-conservation is a corollary or mental 
 aspect of the cosmical law of persistence of energy. 
 
 The maturer thinker comes to see that body and 
 mind qua personal are perishable, and the only way in 
 which our thoughts, feelings, tendencies, become im- 
 mortal or permanent is by becoming common property, 
 impersonal, detached from our individuality, decor- 
 poralized. 
 
 Truth, Beauty, Utility, Morality. — Corresponding 
 to the three constituent elements of every state of 
 mind, viz., cognition, afi^ection, volition, there are three 
 constituent qualities in the objects arousing the states 
 of mind, viz., reality (unreality), beauty (ughness), 
 and utility (harmfulness). Reality refers to the 
 essence, to the permanent, hidden qualities of objects; 
 
256 GENERAL TYPE^ OP SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 and it reveals itself in our sensations, perceptions, con- 
 cepts. Beauty refers to the form, outer appearance, 
 changeable qualities of such things as tend to intensify 
 our life rhythm or to gratify general vital needs; and 
 it reveals itself in our aiFections of pleasure and pleas- 
 antness. Utility or value refers to the capacity of 
 things of satisfying our particular needs, of filling in 
 the gaps in our psycho-physical organism. By an ex- 
 tension of its meaning, beauty is attributed, not only 
 to things that tend to gratify general vital needs, but 
 also to things which are symbols, products, reminders, 
 fore-runners of generally favorable and life-stimulat- 
 ing circumstances. Hence, beauty is also justly 
 ascribed to moral intentions. Entirely unjustified, 
 however, is the mystical identification of the beautiful 
 in general with the ethical. 
 
 Not only external objects arouse states of mind, but 
 each state of mind in its turn may become an object of 
 thought, of memory or of imagination. In this case, 
 the object of thought is true if it is based on a sensa- 
 tional substratum; it is beautiful if it fits in or agrees 
 with a vaster system of states of mind; it is useful if 
 it leads to a more stable equihbrium and to a richer or 
 intenser life ; it is moral if it is useful to , the com- 
 munity, species, groups to which we belong. 
 
 Just as idea, affection, and volition are irreducible, 
 untranslatable in terms of each other; just so reality 
 or truth, beauty (ugliness), and utility (harmfulness) 
 are irreducible qualities of objects. Reality, beauty, 
 and utility may go together or cooperate; but they 
 may also part company and work against each other. 
 Thus a thing may be real, a concept may be true, but 
 neither beautiful nor useful. Illusions are often beau- 
 tiful and temporarily useful. ■ Truth is not always use- 
 ful; nay, it is detrimental to certain social classes; 
 but it is never detrimental and often useful to man- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 257 
 
 kind as a whole. The capitalistic philosopher (the 
 pragmatist or sophist) and the church-devoted phi- 
 losopher (the scholastic) are, therefore, prone to reject 
 such truths as are not useful tp the exploiting class. 
 Of course, they conceal their materialistic, selfish and 
 artificial criterion of truth under the more respectable 
 cloak of social value. Truth goes always together with 
 intellectual usefulness in the truth-lover, i. e., in the 
 man to whom truth or knowledge has become a need, 
 an aim of life. 
 
 Truth from the Capitalistic Pokit of View. — If the 
 revelation of truth depends on the observer's mental 
 constitution and point of view, it follows that the 
 capitalist's conception of life, human relations, society, 
 and of the world must differ from that of the proleta- 
 rian. It follows that the class struggle, the disguised 
 war waged between the capitalistic, parasitic, preda- 
 tory class and the toiling masses on the economic- 
 industrial-political field is only one manifestation of 
 the fundamental psychical and often physical differ- 
 ence between the members composing these two varie- 
 ties of men; and that this manifestation, called the 
 class struggle proper, cannot successfully be combated 
 and studied apart from the other manifestations of 
 this fundamental or constitutional difference on the in- 
 tellectual field ' (Religion, Ethics, Philosophy, Art, 
 Literature, etc.). The productive, gregarious class 
 can just- as little afford to accept the false, narrow 
 doctrines conceived by capitalism or its perversions of 
 true and broad doctrines as it can afford to accept 
 the intolerable economic conditions imposed upon it 
 by the latter. Capitalism and socialism are two anti- 
 thetic, mutually exclusive systems of philosophy, 
 ethics, art, and methods of struggling for existence. 
 It stands to reason that the human beast of prey, who 
 only consumes, destroys, interferes with production. 
 
258 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 must needs have a different conception of himself, his 
 fellow-men, etc., from that of the productive, creative, 
 peaceful individual; nay, the exploiter's conceptions 
 or rather the conceptions of his spokesman, the pseudo- 
 superior man, are the exact opposite of the producer's 
 conceptions as expressed by his spokesman, the genuine 
 superior man. What appears true and good from the 
 capitalist's narrow, low, selfish, predatory, local, mo- 
 mentary point of view is certainly false and bad from 
 the socialist's broad, high, humanitarian, constructive, 
 cosmopolitan, eternal point of view. Many a genuine 
 superior man has been prevented from rising to an 
 understanding, let alone to an original conception of, 
 a purely, consistently socialistic philosophy, ethics, 
 world-conception by his dependence on capitalistic pub- 
 lishers, patrons, employers, by the influence of capi- 
 talistically-biased friends, hearers, readers and of a 
 capitalistic education. And the fact that among 
 intellectual proletarians the interest in history, eco- 
 nomics, literature is naturally more widely spread than 
 the more difficultly attainable and more leisure requir- 
 ing interest in philosophy, psychology, ethics explains 
 why the first-mentioned fields of knowledge have been 
 and are being rewritten from a socialistic point of 
 view, whereas the minority of philosophically-minded 
 proletarians have to try in vain to quench their intel- 
 lectual thirst at the inaccessible, dried-up, infested, 
 muddy fountain of academic philosophy. 
 
 The capitalists and their retainers look upon their 
 unfavorably situated fellow-men as living tools or 
 stupid beasts of burden that must be driven to work 
 either by compulsion, fear, intimidation, or by decep- 
 tion, flattery, jollying. Judging others by himself, by 
 his inability and unwillingness to produce, the active 
 parasite or exploiter feels and acts as if the Earth 
 Tvere not big enough for all, as. if she were step-mother- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 259 
 
 ly, as if poverty were a result of over-population and 
 not vice versa, as if the means of existence were non- 
 multipliable, scarce, and hence must be grabbed as 
 quickly as possible. He is naturally an admirer of 
 war — both in its primitive, military form and in its 
 modern, disguised, competitive form — because he al- 
 ways reaps the benefits without risking his skin. Even 
 the greatest American sociologist, Lester Ward, who 
 is fair enough to admit the wide-spread reign of decep- 
 tion, greed, and parasitism, does not find anything 
 wrong or blameworthy therein; on the contrary, he 
 defends it and considers it just as irrepressible and 
 just as little conscious or guilty of its immorality as a 
 devastating stream of lava ; nor can he see the horrors, 
 the hideous and destructive role of war, for, as a mem- 
 ber and retainer of the predatory class, he sees only 
 the immediate, selfish, apparent benefits resulting there- 
 from for his class. The predatory individual lacks the 
 sense and hence the understanding for universal kin- 
 ship and cooperativeness, for the unifying and strength- 
 ening power of love, for the ultimate superiority of 
 truth over falsehood, for the far-reaching and con- 
 structive potentialities of cosmopolitism. He who 
 denies the class struggle and the class differences, when 
 their ugliness is laid bare by socialists, is the first to 
 spread the beliefs in "blue blood," aristocracy of birth, 
 reward of ability, God-ordained rulers, etc. ; he is the 
 first to keep away and to accentuate his difference from 
 the toilers. Life to him is an interesting game of 
 mutual deception and of outwitting others. The world 
 is a stage for the display of histrionic talent, and not 
 a place where a mission or duties are to be fulfilled. 
 His conception of altruism or benevolence is something 
 to be simulated, expressed in words only; at best, it 
 means a little moderation in, and not the giving up of, 
 his predatory pursuits. His relations to the imaginary 
 
260 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 deity he conceives of as business relations, i. e., as an 
 exchange of what costs little or nothing for something 
 of greater pecuniary value. His conception of intelli- 
 gence is the ability of deceiving others, of cheaply win- 
 ning their favor and support. He cannot conceive of 
 intellectual and humanitarian pursuits as ends-in- 
 themselves, but merely as means of acquiring fame, 
 wealth, bodily comfort. A man who really finds happi- 
 ness in disinterested, non-lucrative intellectual or hu- 
 manitarian pursuits impresses him as a fool or a crank. 
 Of religious and moral practises he conceives as of 
 something good for him, if and so long as other people 
 indulge therein. His conception of language is a means 
 of concealing his own thoughts, intentions, aJfFairs, 
 weaknesses, and of making other people betray theirs. 
 Virtue to him means something that it is advisable to 
 simulate and to urge others to practise ; whereas vice 
 means something which he himself may practise 
 secretly, and which others must be openly dissuaded 
 from. Truth to him means views which it is advan- 
 tageous for him to hold or at least to profess. His 
 conception of social service, leadership, cooperation, the 
 aim of human society, is to make noise, to command, 
 to act busily and self-importantly, while leaving the 
 real work to others. A good man in capitalistic lan- 
 guage means a man who can be either easily fooled or 
 easily silenced and bribed. Capitalistic art and litera- 
 ture are romantic, fantastic, morbid, effeminating, 
 prostituted, sensational, shallow, playful, amusing, 
 petty-minded, eccentric, and not realistic, penetrating, 
 serious, instructive, uplifting. Capitalistic science is 
 prejudiced, exclusive, formal, a mere display of wit, a 
 pastime, idle and grandiloquent talk, or an instrument 
 of exploitation, and not an earnest search after truth 
 and socially useful inventions. Capitalistic ethics is 
 double-faced, sophistical, deceptive, intended to blind 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 261 
 
 the masses to the true significance of our social organi- 
 zation, to the real and only justification of gregarious 
 life, viz., the increase in every individual's security, 
 happiness, efficiency, opportunities ; it is also framed so 
 as to hide, and idealize the ugliness of, the real, preda- 
 tory, destructive, demoralizing role of the so-called 
 upper classes. Capitalistic philosophy is a mere per- 
 version, caricature of the genuine philosophy taught by 
 the great thinkers of the world; it is lifeless, barren, 
 verbose, nebulous, word-worshiping, estranged or re- 
 moved from daily life, from the market place whither 
 it was carried by Socrates, Jesus, and other genuine 
 philosophers ; it is destined to lull its upholders in 
 dreams of self-conceit or of imaginary superiority over 
 the herd of common people. Capitalistic charity, re- 
 form, government, administration of justice, are a mere 
 farce, a mere excuse or cover for cruel sport or for 
 shameless graft, or a cheap device for pacifying, brib- 
 ing and fooling the exploited masses. Corresponding 
 to their double dealing or moral duplicity, the capital- 
 ists and their chaplains, the pseudo-superior men, also 
 use a double vocabulary: a laudatory, hyperbolic 
 vocabulary to designate their own qualities and 
 actions ; euphemisms to designate their own crimes and 
 vices ; and a denigrating vocabulary to designate the 
 qualities and actions of their victims, the disinherited. 
 Their language is vague, nebulous, ambiguous, para- 
 phrastic, pedantic, deceptive, evasive, distorted, per- 
 verted or diverted from its natural mission of convey- 
 ing ideas. When the capitalist declaims about the 
 blessings of liberty, laissez-faire, competition, private 
 enterprise and initiative, he does not mean by these 
 words what Herbert Spencer meant and what the in- 
 dividualistic anarchists mean, viz., the free and fair 
 exchange of services between men capable and willing 
 to make themselves useful in one respect or another: 
 
262 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 he simply means the undisputed right of the deceitful, 
 parasitical individuals to prey upon the producers; 
 just as to the female parasite, to the sex-parasite, a 
 single moral standard for both sexes does not mean 
 that the same sexual purity should be demanded of 
 men as they demand of women, but it means that women 
 be granted the same right to sexual laxity and licen- 
 tiousness as is tacitly granted to men. 
 
 The logic displayed by the exploiter, when his privi- 
 leged position is at stake, will form an inexhaustible 
 source of fun for future generations, and would be so 
 for us, too, if unfortunately we did not have to pay 
 so dearly and often with our own skins for its foolish- 
 ness and fallacies. Thus it seems quite natural to the 
 exploiter that he should be entitled to an easy, com- 
 fortable, happy life ; but it is beyond his comprehen- 
 sion why the modern toilers, instead of looking up with 
 envy to him and his class, do not rather draw consola- 
 tion for their poverty by looking down to the paupers 
 or by looking back to ancient times when even a king 
 did not dream of such comforts as many a workingman 
 enjoys nowadays. That he, the parasite, has been 
 accustomed to luxury from early infancy appeals to 
 his logic as sufficient justification for keeping his privi- 
 leged position ; but the poor men's desire and capacity 
 for also becoming quickly accustomed to such privi- 
 leges and good things does not strike him as just as 
 valid a claim as his. He does not see anything wrong, 
 nor does he feel the least remorse, when he idles away 
 his time and hunts continually for enjoyment while his 
 fellow-men are at work, ruin their health and cripple 
 their minds in exchange for a bare existence or for 
 the mere daily bread. It does not occur to him that 
 he commits a crime if he shuns work while enjoying 
 the fruits of other men's labor; but he becomes quite 
 indignant if some poor devil also tries to enjoy what 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 263 
 
 he has not produced. If he, the idler, despises labor 
 and the man on the fruits of whose labor he con- 
 descends to live, it is natural and there is nothing un- 
 grateful about it ; but if a starving propertyless man 
 shows no respect for usurped property, it is an 
 atrocious crime that calls for the severest punishment. 
 The propertied, pot-bellied, well-fed, idle parasites, 
 who under the shield of laws made by themselves or by 
 hirelings prey continually and with impunity upon the 
 entire nation, do not find it ridiculous in the least to 
 sit in judgment on a hungry, hollow-cheeked, poor 
 devil who' in a moment of starvation has dared to steal 
 something from a single individual; it seems to them 
 an undisputable right of theirs to sit in judgment upon 
 the poor, whom they rob of their lives, liberty, health, 
 self-respect, etc., but they cannot see anything but 
 insolence and "contempt of court" in the latter's 
 attempt at also passing judgment upon their master's 
 doings and decrees. The workers or the poor, says the 
 capitalist or his prostituted spokesman, the pseudo- 
 superior man, ought to blame themselves, i. e., their 
 lack of ability, ambition, thrift, etc., if they do not 
 rise to sinecures, high, better paid or supervisory posi- 
 tions ; he does not think for a moment that even if all 
 the workers were equally highly gifted, they could not 
 all serve as supervisors or as his slave-drivers. The 
 parasitical aristocrat is proud of his ancestors on the 
 ground of their supposed superior qualities or valuable 
 services ; it does not, however, occur to him that he who 
 lacks such qualities or is incapable of rendering such 
 services ought to abdicate his privileged position and 
 be ashamed of himself. He is proud if he can trace his 
 pedigree farther back than the toilers, as if the latter's 
 ignorance of their ancestors' names would imply that 
 they have sprung up spontaneously from the ground 
 or that they cannot claim the same Adam and Eve or 
 
264 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the same kind of anthropoid apes as their ancestors. 
 The American parasite or parasitically inclined imbe- 
 cile finds reason for feeling superior to the immigrants 
 in the mere fact that he has been born on American soil, 
 as if the atmosphere and soil of this country had any- 
 thing to do with his mental make-up and had a differ- 
 ent chemical composition from that of other countries; 
 it never occurs to him to push his deep process of ratio- 
 cination a little farther and to see in the Indian his 
 superior, the typical American aristocrat, for the In- 
 dian has had the privilege of inhaling more of this en- 
 nobling, soul-transmuting American air than he did. 
 It seems beyond dispute to him that men who cannot 
 speak his language are his inferiors and uncivilized; 
 that his ignorance of their language and customs could 
 just as well be imputed to him as a mark of inferiority, 
 does not disturb him in the least in the cocksureness of 
 his logic. If the exploiter preys upon the poor on the 
 strength of laws and agreements, in which the poor had 
 neither a voice nor any choice, his conscience feels at 
 ease; but he would indignantly jump up in the air if 
 it were pointed out to him that he is even worse than 
 a highway robber who says plainly to his victims, "give 
 me either your life or your purse," and that his way 
 of acting is exactly similar to that of a hypothetical 
 highway robber who, before robbing his victims, would 
 first satisfy his legal conscience by politely requesting 
 them at the point of his pistol to sign a written agree- 
 ment to their being relieved by him of all their burden- 
 some valuables. It seems axiomatic to the parasite that 
 he is entitled to get out as much remuneration as pos- 
 sible for as little services as possible and even for mere 
 hot air or sham services, and that he is fully justified 
 to squeeze out of his employees the last drop of energy, 
 as long as they themselves have agreed to it; whether 
 the agreement has practically been extorted at the 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 265 
 
 point of a pistol, I mean, under the compulsion of dire 
 necessity, imminent starvation, the threat of being sent 
 to the workhouse, etc., he assumes to be no concern of 
 his. To the intellectual prostitute (the college pro- 
 fessor, preacher, rabbi, journalist, pot-boiler, official 
 scientist, etc.) it seems quite natural that he should 
 be well paid for his platitudinous, thrashed-out, re- 
 hashed, or stolen and adulterated lectures, sermons, 
 stories, articles, etc. ; but he contemptuously and mer- 
 cilessly laughs out of court the pretension of some 
 poor genius who also wants to live on his wits and 
 takes it into his head that, if plagiarisms and empty 
 imitations are so richly rewarded, his original poems, 
 heart-felt stories, altruistic social schemes, fertile ideas, 
 also deserve some public reward. If here and there a 
 few moral geniuses arise who take to heart the suf- 
 ferings, degradation and demoralization of the down- 
 trodden masses and try to arouse the latter against 
 their exploiters, our prostituted academical psycholo- 
 gists and psychiatrists come quick to the rescue of their 
 employers and with their insolent cocksureness declare 
 these moral geniuses as abnormal, morbid, eccentric, 
 mal-ad justed individuals on the ground of their differ- 
 ing from the majority, on the ground of their being 
 in a minority, careless of material success or of social 
 disapproval, etc. ; they neglect', however, to apply the 
 same logic to themselves and their masters who, being 
 also in a minority, nay, more, in a minority that acts 
 against the interests of the majority, have a better 
 claim to the title of abnormal, pathological individuals. 
 The exploiter does not doubt for an instant that he is 
 a useful member of the human society and that without 
 his orders the toilers would not know how to perform 
 the world's work, although he is unable to show us the 
 standard or unit of measure by means of which his use- 
 fulness could be estimated quantitatively or at least 
 
266 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 qualitatively ; but as soon as the socialist stands up and 
 advocates that the price of commodities and the remu- 
 neration of services should be determined principally 
 and above all by the amount of useful labor spent or by 
 the amount of social labor saved, he immediately cries 
 out against the impracticability, injustice, arbitrari- 
 ness and conventionality of such a standard that fails 
 to completely take into consideration individual differ- 
 ences, the inconvertibility of quality into quantity, or 
 of one kind of labor into another kind. That the labor 
 standard of value with all its drawbacks and difficul- 
 ties still towers high above the arbitrary, fluctuating, 
 life-poisoning, commercial standard, is beyond his nar- 
 row, self-centered field of vision. That men who have 
 not done a stroke of real, useful work during their 
 lifetime have the right to bequeath to their heirs their 
 usurped property, or rather their titles to the fruits of 
 the poor men's labor, does not strike the parasite's in- 
 tellect as absurd, nor does it impress his heart and 
 conscience as an atrocious crime; but that men who 
 have toiled and suffered all their lifetime should leave 
 their children unprovided for and a helpless prey in 
 the hands of beasts of prey such as he, seems to him 
 compatible with both logic and ethics. To him the 
 only reprehensible form of theft is to appropriate some- 
 thing without the verbal consent of its owner ; but from 
 his low, selfish standpoint, the capitalist cannot see that 
 it is an incomparably more dangerous theft to monopo- 
 lize common property (land, water power, forests, 
 mines, public offices, • . .) with the consent of a few 
 bribed oflScials who have no right to give away what 
 is not theirs, or to enslave one's disinherited fellow- 
 men with their consent which they must give any- 
 how unless they prefer to starve or to be sent to 
 the workhouse as vagrants. The problem of un- 
 employment does not give much trouble to the capital- 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 267 
 
 ist logician. He solves it quite promptly: the cause of 
 unemployment he finds in the unfitness of the unem- 
 ployed, and the remedy, of course, lies in technical 
 training, vocational education, extirpation of the un- 
 teachable, etc. That under our regime of usurpation 
 or private monopoly the number of applicants must 
 and does always exceed by far the number of positions, 
 and that this would be the case even if all applicants 
 were equally fit, does not occur to the capitalist's de- 
 fender; still less does it occur to him that to speak of 
 general unfitness in our age of extreme specialization, 
 simplification or division of labor and machine produc- 
 tion, is pure nonsense. 
 
 Quantity and Quality. — Quantity and quality are 
 correlated terms, i. e., they are inseparable from each 
 other, and neither can be expressed in terms of, nor re- 
 duced to, the other. But just as the fact that the 
 terms father and son are correlatives does not mean 
 that a father is not in his turn the son of somebody 
 else, and that a son cannot become in his turn a father ; 
 just so the fact that quantity and quality are corre- 
 lated does not mean that what is quantity in one sense, 
 or in relation to certain objects can never be at the 
 same time a quality when looked at under a different 
 angle, or in relation to other objects. 
 
 Thus matter and energy (motion) form an insep- 
 arable couple of quantity and quality. But matter 
 may present itself in so many various combinations 
 which from certain points of view differ so much among 
 themselves as to be considered as different in kind, or 
 as qualitatively different substances. Motion (force) 
 is in its turn both a quantity (magnitude, velocity, ac- 
 celeration) and a quality (direction). Various mo- 
 tions may en^er into such combinations as to give rise 
 to qualitatively different energies. Time and space 
 form another inseparable couple of quality and quan- 
 
268 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 tity. But just as time admits of quantitative subdivi- 
 sions, so does perhaps space draw its origin from quali- 
 tative syntheses. Differences between varieties of the 
 same species appear to he qualitative or differences of 
 kind from a lower, emotional, practical, narrow point 
 of view; but from a higher, intellectual, theoretical, 
 broader point of view, i. e., when the varieties of one 
 species are simultaneously compared with the varieties 
 of other species, the self-same varietal differences will 
 appear quantitative, whereas the difference between spe- 
 cies will appear qualitative. From a narrow point of 
 view the pursuits of superior men seem altogether dif- 
 ferent from those of philistines ; but from a higher, 
 more eternal or philosophical point of view the pur- 
 suits of superior men differ from those of philistines 
 only in quantity, in the remoteness of the goals aimed 
 at. In its advanced human, complex stage, mind seems 
 to be an energy sui generis which has nothing in com- 
 mon with the other mechanical energies and which de- 
 fies the laws followed by the latter (law of conserva- 
 tion, law of equivalent transformation) ; but future in- 
 vestigations may succeed in tracing all the energies 
 back to their common point from which they begin to 
 diverge. Maybe Jacques Loeb's study of tropisms will 
 prove to be the path towards the discovery of the 
 origin of mind. 
 
 Does the Actor Create? — The genius of the actor 
 — if it deserves that name — consists in the ability of 
 auto-hypnotization, in his ability to evoke the con- 
 sciousness of a certain personality, to identify himself 
 with it, and to act accordingly. This imaginative abil- 
 ity, of course, presupposes, as Nordau says, an unde- 
 veloped, unstable, fleeting or multiple personality of the 
 actor himself, i. e., a mind with a shiftable center of 
 gravity or a shiftable nucleus of dominant interests. 
 
 Owing to the persistence of the infantile imitative 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 269 
 
 instinct; owing to the constant observation of his own 
 and others' outbursts of emotions, the actor gains vol- 
 untary control over his emotional expressions, over his 
 gesticulations. And this control over his physiognomy 
 is often enhanced by auto-suggestibility, i. e., by the 
 hysterical ability to conjure up various successions and 
 combinations of emotions, by the ability to identify 
 himself with any dramatic or living character. 
 
 The actor must be classed with the lowest class of 
 artists, i. e., with the purely emotional, reproductive, 
 formal, juvenile type. He expresses in his own face, 
 attitude, bodily movements, voice, . . . the same emo- 
 tional states of mind, the same hum-iii passions, as the 
 painter and the sculptor express through external ma- 
 terial means; just as the dancer expresses and arouses 
 through his own rhythmical bodily movements the same 
 emotions and vague, indefinite states of mind as Music 
 tries to express and arouse through external means (air 
 vibrations ) . 
 
 The actors of the future will no longer be recruited 
 from hysterical and epileptoidal persons whose multiple 
 or rather unsettled personality enables them to imper- 
 sonate a number of characters. The actors of the 
 future will be normal individuals ; for — owing to eco- 
 nomic independence — they will have merely to im- 
 personate a dramatic hero or personage of their own 
 type ; they will have to represent themselves on the 
 stage, or rather idealized or caricatured forms of their 
 own personalities. Acting will be a vocation, and not 
 a profession. Our modern theaters, being commercial 
 enterprises, cannot afford to engage normal, sane- 
 minded, self-respecting actors who can play but one 
 character, and who are not willing to lead an irregular, 
 nomadic, lax life. 
 
 All the pseudo-superior men (professional moralists, 
 preachers, orators, politicians, leaders, rulers, organiz- 
 
270 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ers, . . . ) must be put in the same class with actors or 
 imitative geniuses, as we might call them. The main 
 difference between the actors of the stage or actors 
 in the restricted sense of the word and the actors of 
 the pulpit or of the platform, is the fact that the latter 
 make their task easy by playing, as a rule, one single 
 role, hence they can afford to be mentally more bal- 
 anced. Another difference is the honesty of the stage 
 actor, whereas the pseudo-superior man is a dishonest 
 actor, i. e., an actor who wants to be mistaken for the 
 hero whom he impersonates. If he is a priest or a rabbi 
 — particularly a reformed rabbi — or a professional 
 ethical culturist, he poses as a moral genius ; if he is a 
 politician, leader, or ruler, he poses as a patriot or 
 even as a social reformer; if he is a professor, journal- 
 ist, orator, he poses as an original thinker ; if he is the 
 head of a hospital, charitable institution, etc., he poses 
 as an altruist. And so on. The relationship between 
 actors and pseudo-superior men is so close that it is 
 not an uncommon occurrence in a country like the 
 United States, which is comparatively free from the 
 fetters of tradition, to see actors, politicians and jour- 
 nalists becoming preachers or priests, and vice versa. 
 Authorship. — The thinker, the genius, becomes an 
 author, a writer, when his amorphous, scattered, frag- 
 mentary thoughts find a central idea, around which they 
 group themselves, like the crystals around the center 
 and axis of crystallization. In the merely erudite au- 
 thor, the central ideas alone are original, the rest is 
 work of compilation; but more often it is only the 
 method of exposition that he can call his. The erudite 
 author proceeds systematically, methodically ; he can 
 appreciate the far-reaching bearings of original truths, 
 but lacks the power of attaining them. The author of 
 genius, on the contrary, reaches easily original con- 
 clusions without his being fully aware of the how, why, 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 271 
 
 to what purpose. 
 
 In the poet, an emotional commotion (inspiration) 
 brings into contact ideas and sentiments converging 
 towards the same emotional effect: the dominant emo- 
 tion attracts, selects such ideas or such of their aspects 
 only as can be brought to a common focus. The orig- 
 inality of the poet does not lie in his ideas, it lies rather 
 in their arrangement, in the language expressing them. 
 Hence, the absurdity of changing poems into non-poet- 
 ical prose. 
 
 There are two types of aphoristical writers. Some 
 write in aphorisms because they are unable to think out 
 a whole problem under its various aspects, or because 
 they are not learned enough to fill in the gaps between 
 their original glimpses of truth with others' opinions 
 about those parts which remain hidden to their own 
 observation or introspection. They usually overesti- 
 mate the import of their scattered aphorisms, because 
 the whole context is lacking within which every apho- 
 rism ought to get due proportion. Others write in aph- 
 orisms because they do not like much talking about and 
 around a question, because they do not like to repeat 
 over again what others have already said, because they 
 do not like to present an original germ and gem of 
 truth in a vast setting of erudition, because they do 
 not believe that truth is not sufficiently beautiful and 
 imposing if not adorned in linguistical and scholastical 
 gowns with long trains. If their own aphorisms prove 
 in the long run to be but the disjecta membra of an 
 intellectual edifice on the way of being organically, un- 
 consciously built up, well and good: they are glad then 
 to be able to present mankind with an harmonious whole, 
 and not with mere intellectual bricks or amorphous ma- 
 terial to be made use of by more powerful geniuses, by 
 more broad-minded spiritual architects. 
 
 Original knowledge being mainly drawn from per- 
 
272 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 sonal observations and experiences, from the School of 
 Life, under the catalytic or merely stimulating influ- 
 ence of knowledge acquired directly or indirectly from 
 the works of other original men ; we understand why the 
 writings of a genius are hardly interspersed with quota- 
 tions ; whereas the writings of talented men which con- 
 sist mostly of common-place truths plus new restate- 
 ments with but few modifications of or improvements 
 on old knowledge, are so much interspersed with, and 
 often consist only of quotations from original writers, 
 whose names are not always mentioned, especially 
 if they do not happen to be of universal fame, or not 
 in a position or mood to vindicate their intellectual 
 property. If original works contain comparatively 
 scarce quotations for the reason that creation goes to- 
 gether with a minimum of imitation, it does not follow 
 that the converse is also true. Scarcity or lack of quo- 
 tations does not necessarily point to originality; it 
 may result from unconscious or unavowed imitation, or 
 from purely verbal originality, or because of anony- 
 mous, common-place truth. 
 
 The clear-headed thinker does not feel any impulse 
 to writing until he has come to clear, definite conclu- 
 sions ; nor does he feel the need of burdening his read- 
 ers with the wanderings and errings of his mind, or with 
 the many personal, trivial, accidental, irrelevant 
 thoughts and feelings from which the few valuable con- 
 clusions had to be extricated. Whereas the nebulous, 
 inconsistent, mystical thinker begins to write and to 
 teach before having reached any agreement with him- 
 self, nay, he begins to write and to teach in the hope 
 that some truth will reveal itself to him while doing 
 so ; he communicates to his readers and hearers every- 
 thing that passes through his mind, in order that they 
 shall find out for themselves what is valuable, true, or 
 to their liking, and discard — if they choose — the trivial, 
 
CREATIVE LIFE 273 
 
 the erroneous, the disagreeable. 
 
 The less original the central idea is and the less clear 
 it is to the author himself, the more does he like to in- 
 dulge in preliminary, methodical, formal remarks; the 
 more does he talk around and about the matter, without 
 getting to the point, to the kernel of the matter, or in 
 medias res. The less valuable an author's opinions are 
 in themselves, the more careful is he to postpone their 
 presentation to the expectant reader, the more careful 
 is he to present them in good company, i. e., in the midst 
 of time-honored and authoritative opinions, in the hope 
 that the indisputable reverence for the latter will re- 
 flect part of its aureola upon his own meager ideas. 
 Whereas the original individual speaks to the point and 
 goes straight to the mark without any — at least, with- 
 out many — introductory remarks, without obscuring 
 the main idea by wrapping it up in flourished, para- 
 doxical, complicated, attention-distracting, linguistical 
 garments, or by presenting it in a setting of imposing, 
 mystifying, hypnotizing erudition. At the risk of being 
 stigmatized as dogmatical, the original writer hastens 
 to present his general conclusions, and support them — - 
 if feasible and necessary — by means of only a few, but 
 typical, well-established, personally observed, easily ac- 
 cessible facts. 
 
 The disinterestedly truth-loving writer does not over- 
 cautiously or self-importantly beat around the bush, 
 but goes straight to the mark. He does not selfishly 
 sell or keep to himself the wisdom that he could not have 
 acquired without the help of the common intellectual 
 property bequeathed by the thinkers of past genera- 
 tions. Unlike the pseudo-superior man, he does not 
 keep his readers in painful suspense or work up their 
 curiosity to a high pitch before imparting to them the 
 new truths that he has in store for them. Nor does 
 he expatiate on his new views in order to impress his 
 
274 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 readers or hearers with profundity, originality, wis- 
 dom. He does not select his words according to their 
 pleasing sounds, nor does he care much about the order 
 of exposition. 
 
 The selfishness, self-glorification, idleness, indulgence 
 in dreams, formalism, appearance-hunting, shallowness, 
 conventionalism, word-idolatry, deceptiveness of the 
 parasitical, dominant class reflect themselves in the lit- 
 erature, philosophy and certain sciences (economics, 
 sociology, theology, history, . . .) of their hired art- 
 ists, academicians, historians, priests, moralists. . . . 
 Unlike the honest thinker, the capital-owned, merce- 
 nary, deceptive thinker tries hard not to be understood, 
 not to convey any ideas, not to talk the plain, unam- 
 biguous language of the people, but merely to frighten 
 his readers or hearers into adoring him and distrusting, 
 or despairing of, their own judgment and mental 
 capacities. 
 
 The pseudo, unfair, or intellectually dishonest critic 
 ignores, passes lightly over, or diverts the public atten- 
 tion from, the strong, convincing points, good sides, 
 original portion, practicable consequences, real merits 
 of the content of the refuted doctrine ; and insists ex- 
 clusively or unduly on the weak points, bad sides, non- 
 original portion, apparent, irrelevant and purely specu- 
 lative difficulties, formal or linguistic defects. His 
 praise is insincere, confined to trivial or unimportant 
 details, meant to inspire confidence in his destructive 
 criticisms. He condemns social, ethical, religious 
 movements in the name of general usefulness, humanity, 
 civilization, patriotism, liberty, etc., when In reality he 
 thinks of the welfare, liberty of preying of his class, 
 party, caste, clique. He condemns theories and artis- 
 tic works In the name of truth, objectivity, logic, etc., 
 when in reality he does so with a view to personal ag- 
 grandizement, out of personal dislike for same or for 
 
CREATIVE ' LIFE 275 
 
 their authors. 
 
 The honest, genuinely original thinker clearly de- 
 fines his words and unambiguously sets off his own opin- 
 ions from those refuted by him, not because he does 
 not know that words have no fixed, unchangeable mean- 
 ing and that there are no sharp boundary lines between 
 what is one's own and what belongs to others, but be- 
 cause he is sincerely concerned with truth and right, 
 and hence prepared to defend or abandon his ground 
 according to the impartial verdict of human Reason: 
 he is willing to take not only the credit but also the 
 responsibility and blame for his claims. Whereas the 
 dishonest, sophistical, fame-seeking, self-advertising 
 writer abstains from definitions — from clear definitions, 
 at least — and from clearly circumscribing his own con- 
 tentions, in order to be able to encroach upon the do- 
 main of others while jealously keeping watch over what 
 he claims to be his own, in order to be able to claim as 
 his what really belongs to others or has become com- 
 mon property, in order to appear original and reap 
 credit without exposing himself to blame, detection, or 
 the burden of responsibility. Thus — to take a single 
 example of such an intellectually dishonest method of 
 undeservedly reaping credit — Bergson, one of the fash- 
 ionable sophists and phrase-mongers, in his defense of 
 free will raises the sophistical claim that "free will" is 
 indefinable, in order to be able to appropriate for his 
 own use any facts that by right could be claimed by 
 determinists ; he also obliterates, whenever convenient, 
 the distinction or boundary line between time and space, 
 in order to be able to move undetectedly back and forth 
 and to find refuge in one of these conceptual domains 
 whenever his position becomes insecure, i. e., whenever 
 his weaknesses or tricks become too apparent, in the 
 other conceptual domain. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 AFFECTIVE LIFE 
 
 Solitude. — ^Although endowed with so much vital en- 
 ^''gj; the superior man suffers — and this suffering 
 leaves deep traces behind — when he has to break away 
 from the beaten paths, when he has to abandon the 
 dear old illusions of the average man, and, after throw- 
 ing them overboard, to start on a new lonely road, to 
 venture upon untrodden ground. But in another sense, 
 the superior man is never quite lonely, for he carries a 
 vast world of thoughts and of sentiments within him- 
 self; he lodges the times gone by and those yet to come 
 in the sphere of his imagination, he communes with the 
 best of mankind through the intermediary of the 
 thoughts they have bequeathed to us. Whereas the 
 common mortals are afraid of solitude, of the company 
 of their internal world which is but a vast desert; hence 
 their rush into outside amusements and distractions. 
 
 What makes the superior man so solitary in this 
 world is the fact that those who love him do not under- 
 stand him, and those who do understand him are strang- 
 ers to him. His loneliness is a two-fold one: he is iso- 
 lated from the common mortals who are living in re- 
 gions much below him; he is isolated from the other 
 superior men, who, although living on the same plane 
 or in the same sphere, very seldom follow the same 
 paths. 
 
 If thinking were the rule, the end, and not the ex- 
 ception, a mere means for the vast majority, the think- 
 ers would not have to lead a solitary life, they would 
 
 276 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 277 
 
 not be rari nantes in gurgite vasto. Thoughtless ac- 
 tivity (playing ball, cards, etc.), unbridled imagination 
 (poetry, wit), are more sociable qualities than log- 
 ical thinking. To become sociable, the thinker must 
 imitate and thoughtlessly approve what others do or 
 say; he must, more or less, deny his nobler self. The 
 novelist and the psychologist, who get the impulses for 
 their creations from society, are more sociable than 
 those thinkers who get their creative impulses from the 
 inanimate world ; and they are more so during the 
 period of conception and the final period or that of 
 communication than during the period of incubation 
 and creative activity which requires a solitary, un- 
 disturbed life. 
 
 The novelist who is interested in particular human 
 events, is more sociable than the psychologist who is 
 rather concerned with the laws of human thinking, feel- 
 ing and conduct. The ethical psychologist, the moral 
 critic, who is anxious to discover the true hidden mo- 
 tives of human action and the psychical roots of the 
 social evils, must keep at a greater distance from his 
 fellow-men than the non-ethical psychologist; for too 
 intimate relations and too great community of interests 
 with one's fellow-men are obstacles to a clear vision in 
 moral matters and their general trend. The unfortu- 
 nate whom nature has endowed with both intellectual 
 and moral genius, feels solitary and uneasy both in 
 the midst of the intelligent few and in the midst of the 
 philistine masses : he likes the latter for their frankness, 
 directness, unspoiled kernel of morality and altruism, 
 but their stupidity and ignorance exasperate him; he 
 likes the educated for their understanding of higher 
 aims of life, but his warm, broad, sincerely loving heart 
 freezes in their selfish and hypocritical atmosphere. 
 
 The moral genius is particularly anxious to keep 
 aloof from the character-destroying and ideal-stifling 
 
278 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 organizations, parties, cliques, whose only aim is to 
 hunt for power, authority, privileges. He prefers to 
 watch their doings from a safe distance, to infer their 
 plans or intentions from occasional glimpses, and to 
 compel them to fulfil their promises by fearlessly de- 
 nouncing their trickeries or evasions and by teaching 
 the people — either directly as an agitator or indirectly 
 through his writings and readers — how to keep control 
 over their supposed representatives and how to insist 
 upon tangible results. 
 
 But most unbearable to the intellectual-moral genius 
 is the company of the aristocratic and would-be aristo- 
 cratic philistines who are both egotistic, self-adoring, 
 self-conceited, stone-hearted, greedy, envious, full of 
 venom, snobbish and stupid, dull, empty-minded, unin- 
 teresting, slaves to formalities and conventions. 
 
 His soul-penetrating knowledge of men, his ability 
 to read indifference or even hatred behind words of 
 friendship, to read what is left unexpressed behind what 
 is expressed, to discriminate mere friendliness and po- 
 liteness from friendship, make the superior man — much 
 to his regret — less expansive, less effusive, less enthusi- 
 astic, less society-seeking, which, however, differs toto 
 orbe from the wilful stiffness, self-conceit, assumed 
 air of importance, and selfish reserve of the merely 
 financial or sham aristocrats and of the pseudo-supe- 
 rior man. 
 
 The superior man is often unjustly accused of misan- 
 thropy, because he does not associate with philistines. 
 We might as well call the great mass of average men 
 misanthropists, because they do not feel at ease in the 
 company of thinking men. 
 
 The idealist passes lonely through life, making no 
 or very few real friends ; for he expects just as deep, 
 pure and sincere love as he gives ; he prefers to lose in 
 quantity in order to gain in quality. 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 279 
 
 If thinking and love of truth were the rule, and not 
 mere exceptions, the genius would not be solitary, he 
 would feel more at ease among his fellow-men. The 
 pseudo-superior man is only apparently sociable. Ex- 
 cept for exploitation or demagogical purposes, he keeps 
 at a distance from, and looks down with scorn and an- 
 tipathy upon, the masses. And even when approaching 
 them, he does it with a condescending, simulated kind- 
 ness, and not without continually and diplomatically 
 reminding them of the favor he confers upon them, of 
 his superiority, of the persisting psychical distance in 
 spite of a momentary reduction in the physical or 
 geographical distance. He selfishly enjoys his little 
 intellectual superiority over the ignorant masses, and 
 he tries, therefore, to maintain them as long as possible 
 on their low plane of intellectual stagnation. Horace 
 speaks in the name of pseudo-superior men when he 
 sings "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo." Had he been 
 the spokesman of genuine superior men, he would have 
 changed his verse to "Amo' profanum vulgus sed 
 arceo." If the genuine superior man keeps at a dis- 
 tance from the masses of the philistines, it is not from 
 antipathy, misanthropy, or because he enjoys being 
 different from and superior to them. On the contrary, 
 it pains him that the masses are under the spell of 
 pseudo-superior men, it pains him that they have not 
 yet reached such a level as to be able to understand him 
 and to follow his upward path leading plainly and 
 straight to happier and sunnier regions, instead of al- 
 lowing themselves to be guided by profit- or fame-seek- 
 ing pseudo-superior men who prefer tortuous, sinuous, 
 dark, mysterious, wearisome paths in order to prolong 
 and increase their own importance, and in order to make 
 their leadership indispensable and lucrative. Likewise : 
 If the intellectual genius does not feel at ease in, and 
 hence keeps away from, the company of women, it is 
 
280 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 not because of misogyny or morbid antipathy against 
 the female sex; on the contrary, it pains him that so 
 few women are as yet fit for and worthy of intellectual 
 intercourse. It is merely because he cannot breathe 
 in their philistine, materialistic, prosaic, terre-a-terre 
 atmosphere. If exceptionally an intellectual genius like 
 Goethe seems to take special delight in female society, 
 it is due either to sensuality, or to vanity, or to both, 
 and not to any higher motives as he would have others 
 and himself believe. Far from being a woman-hater, it 
 pains the man of genius that the female sex has not 
 succeeded so far in producing more than single and 
 widely scattered specimens of an Aspasia, Cornelia, 
 Mary Wollstonecraft, Rahel Varnhagen, George Eliot, 
 Olive Schreiner, Ellen Key, Ida M. Tarbell, Charlotte 
 Perkins Oilman, Clara Zetkin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 
 Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, etc. 
 
 Communicativeness, effusiveness, talkativeness that 
 does not restrict itself to definite, conventional subjects, 
 is certainly a sign of sincerity and of genuine sociabil- 
 ity. The proletarian philistine displays this kind of 
 communicativeness. If the genuine superior man, who 
 is certainly honest and desirous to impart knowledge 
 to others, does not often show communicativeness, it is 
 not because — like the hypocritical, misanthropic 
 pseudo-superior man and aristocratic philistine — he 
 lacks the need for disinterested sociability, or has little 
 to say, or desires to hide his ignorance and real individ- 
 uality, or speaks only for the sake of displaying supe- 
 riority and when something can be gotten out of the 
 persons spoken to, or refrains from communicativeness 
 when he is afraid of encouraging thereby familiarity 
 and inquisitiveness ; it is merely because he pursues se- 
 rious aims in life and therefore hates to talk plati- 
 tudes, nonsense, about conventional topics merely for 
 the sake of companionship or for the sake of killing 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 281 
 
 time ; it is because he likes to seriously discuss things 
 worth while, but sees that his words wiU be wasted, i. e., 
 they will not meet with any real response or under- 
 standing ; it is also because — unlike the philistine whose 
 only audience is formed by his neighbors and chance ac- 
 quaintances — he also has access to the channel of writ- 
 ten works and hence consoles himself over the unap- 
 preciativeness of his acquaintances with the hope of 
 reaching through his works appreciative readers 
 sparsely scattered over the entire globe and among the 
 future generations. 
 
 Pain, Pleasure, Emotions. — That the superior men 
 are more sensitive to moral pain than the average man, 
 does not embitter their life ; for they are also more sen- 
 sitive to moral, esthetic, and intellectual pleasures. In 
 addition to this, their affective resources being very 
 rich, they can easily find consolation and compensation 
 for any loss. If they had no other pleasures besides 
 those of creation, they would be compensated more than 
 enough for any abnegations. The intellectual joys of 
 creation have, of course, their concomitant physical 
 pains which, however, do not leave any traces in a bal- 
 anced superior man; just as the pains of childbirth do 
 not kill a bodily normal woman, and are more than com- 
 pensated for by the ensuing and enduring intellectual 
 joys of maternity. 
 
 Wisdom does not consist in killing our emotions ; it 
 consists in keeping them under the control of reason. 
 The emotions, affections, of the superior man are in- 
 tellectualized : they are not so violent, not so explosive 
 as in the average man, but they are more enduring, 
 more constant, more conscious of their origin and aim. 
 He is not irritable, not impulsive, but he is sensible, de- 
 liberating. His opinions are not enthusiastic, intoler- 
 ant ; but they are constant, tolerant. What he loses in 
 impetuosity or intensity, he gains in duration ; his emo- 
 
282 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 i 
 tive energy, instead of overflowing with violence, is dis- 
 tributed and directed into useful channels ; instead of 
 being expended at one moment and over one opportu- 
 nity, it is distributed over all his life and all his ex- 
 periences. He avoids extreme exalting emotions in 
 which the soul is unable to preserve its equilibrium, in 
 spite of having the entire mental energy concentrated 
 on a unique aim ; in which the human soul is exposed, at 
 the least shock, to tilt over into the other extreme. He 
 avoids both extremes of emotions, the depressive as well 
 as the exalting, which are equally intoxicating, equally 
 destructive of mental and bodily equilibrium or health. 
 
 The main stream of his esthetical joys and pleasures 
 shifts its bed : from the philistine field of sensation and 
 perception over to the field of concepts and ideas, from 
 the concrete to the abstract, from the known to the 
 unknown. That some geniuses have no esthetic taste 
 may mean only that their esthetic sentiments are whoUy 
 transferred into the region of broad concepts, abstract 
 truth. The child, the savage, enjoy sensations of sound, 
 color, etc. ; the youth, the common mortal and the sen- 
 timental men, enjoy perceptions: paintings, statues, 
 etc.; the thinker enjoys the beauty of a theorem, of a 
 scientific law, of a social scheme, of a philosophic gen- 
 eralization. A higher esthetic pleasure does not neces- 
 sarily wholly exclude a lower one. 
 
 The genuine intellectual man has a disinterested, di- 
 rect, self-sacrificing love for knowledge, i. e., he loves 
 Truth for its own sake, as an aim-in-itself. The 
 pseudo-intellectual man has an interested, indirect love 
 for knowledge, i. e., he loves knowledge because and in 
 so far as his material interests and his vanity are 
 gratified thereby ; but he is wiUing to sacrifice or adul- 
 terate it in case of conflict. The intellectual philistine 
 is frankly indifi'erent, or even hostile to abstract, im- 
 personal knowledge. At best, intellectual pursuits are 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 283 
 
 a mere play or aimless activity for the pseudo-superior 
 man and for the philistine. 
 
 Likewise in the realm of morality : the genuine altru- 
 ist loves disinterestedly, often self-forgettingly, his fel- 
 low-men and other living beings. The pseudo-altruist 
 loves other men interestedly, i. e., he loves them really 
 or apparently because, and in so far as, it is in his 
 own interest to do so. The moral philistine is frankly 
 indifferent to the weal or woe of others. To love dis- 
 interestedly men, or truth, does not necessarily mean 
 to love them more than one's self — although this kind 
 of altruism or of truth-loving occurs. It merely 
 means to love them for their own sake, as ends-in-them- 
 selves, and not as means either actual or prospective. 
 
 The balanced intellectual genius is often mistaken for 
 an egoist, for more selfish and less altruistic than he 
 really is ; because more altruism is expected of him 
 than of other mortals ; because he has not much re- 
 gard for the little material comforts of others, nor for 
 his own, especially when preoccupied by intellectual 
 pursuits ; because his altruism or love for others is 
 rather passive than active, rather general than indi- 
 vidual, i. e., he loves men but does not mingle much 
 with them, he does not confine his love to a few related 
 or known individuals, but he rather distributes it over 
 a larger group extending in both time and space; be- 
 cause his love and enthusiasm are shared by too many 
 pursuits ; because he shows or expresses less love than he 
 feels; he has neither time nor patience to express his 
 affections in trivial matters, in conventional ways, on 
 conventional occasions. 
 
 A dog that barks is certainly less to be feared, less 
 dangerous, than the one who bites from behind without 
 betraying himself by barking. The same with men: 
 The common man or the proletarian philistine who 
 easily gets irritated and immediately gives vent to his 
 
284 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 fury, is socially more useful than the pseudo-superior 
 man who does not explosively or visibly get irritated, 
 but never fails to take revenge sooner or later, to bite 
 from behind when unnoticed and undetectable. The 
 most useful are the genuine superior men who neither 
 get irritated against nor meditate revenge on their 
 malefactors, but merely confine themselves to openly 
 despising and shunning the latter. 
 
 The same motive that impels the dog, before and 
 after he has succeeded in stealing a bone, to hide him- 
 self or to assume a threatening, bullying attitude, viz., 
 his guUty conscience or rather the fear lest his plans 
 be thwarted while he is lying in wait for the opportune 
 moment, and the fear lest the stolen bone be snatched 
 away from him, also underlies and explains the preda- 
 tory philistine's narrow gamut of base emotions and his 
 queer behavior: it is to be found at the bottom of his 
 unsociableness, unapproachableness, reticence, secre- 
 tiveness, over-cautiousness in selecting his partners, hor- 
 ror of intimacy, suspicious attitude towards strangers 
 and towards the harmless proletarian philistines, prone- 
 ness to see nothing but envy in socialism, fondness for 
 veiled blackmailing, readiness to bluff, distrustful dis- 
 position, incapacity for friendship or love, assumption 
 of an air of superiority, aversion to fearless and critic- 
 ally-minded individuals, morbid sensitiveness to and vin- 
 dictive resentment of criticism, eagerness to disguise his 
 parasitical pursuits under the cloak of social service, 
 etc. 
 
 The volitional courage of the ignorant and of the 
 insane flows from over-estimation of their own power 
 and from under-estiraation, or even ignorance of the 
 external resistances. This courage is, therefore, 
 quickly followed by deep discouragement. The voK- 
 tional courage of the vain or pseudo man-of-action 
 consists in unscrupulously and dishonestly imposing his 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 285 
 
 will upon others, in order to make others and himself 
 believe in its strength. The volitional courage of the 
 ideal man of action prefers self-imposed rather than 
 compulsory obedience. The ideal man of action draws 
 his energy from the conviction that the direction of 
 his will leads to socially useful results. He knows his 
 volitional strength, his steadiness of purpose, too well 
 to b6 in need of breaking and subduing others' wills, in 
 order to feel the strength of his own. He is also fully 
 aware of the magnitude of the external, both physical 
 and social, resistances to become over-enthusiastic and 
 to triumph anticipatingly over his success. The same 
 remarks apply to the intellectual courage or assertive- 
 ness of the naive, of the pseudo-thinker, of the genuine 
 thinker; to the emotional courage of the naive, of the 
 self-conceited, of the genuine poet. The naive individ- 
 ual dares to express his opinions or feelings because and 
 so long as he does not know those of others, or assumes 
 that others have the same. The self-conceited man im- 
 poses by all means his convictions or feelings upon 
 others, not because and in virtue of his convictions or 
 feelings, but because of strong self-adoration, self-wor- 
 ship or vanity, whereas the intellectual courage of the 
 thinker flows from the strength or irrepressible objec- 
 tive truth of his convictions ; and the emotional cour- 
 age of the poet flows from the strength or general, 
 impersonal, eternal worth of his emotions. The cour- 
 age of the naive does not know, and hence does not 
 avoid obstacles. If, by a happy chance, the naive man 
 does not come across any obstacles, contradictions, vis- 
 ible disapproval, his courage persists. The courage of 
 the pseudo-superior man is kept up by ignoring, going 
 round, jumping over, the obstacles; by intimidating, 
 removing, or bribing opponents. The courage of the 
 genuine superior man consists in facing and trying to 
 overcome fairly and once for all the resistances met 
 
286 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 with in the form of selfishness, indifference, inertia, 
 wounded vanity, ignorance, superstitions that cannot 
 be shaken off on account of their being interwoven with 
 dear human sentiments. 
 
 Wisdom and Aspirations. — The true superior man is 
 ever the same amidst changes and vicissitudes ; he does 
 not become dizzy upon the summits of Glory and Fame. 
 Only the artistically superior man has a fickle, capri- 
 cious and irritable temperament, i. e., his lower or re- 
 flex centers are dissociated from, or not strongly as- 
 sociated with, his higher or sensory centers ; his motor 
 reactions, his reactions dictated by emotions and de- 
 sires, predominate over his sensory, cognitive reactions, 
 over his reactions dictated by knowledge and reflection. 
 This dissociation is either structural, permanent, patho- 
 logical, or merely dynamical, transitory, due to the 
 fact that the mind being absorbed, the higher brain 
 organs being centrally set into activity, oppose resist- 
 ance to peripherally incoming nervous currents which 
 are thus compelled to discharge themselves at a lower, 
 reflex and emotional level; or the higher centers may 
 be too exhausted to be able to influence the lower ones. 
 
 Human happiness is still in many respects in con- 
 flict with the natural course of things : we wish for con- 
 stancy, continuity, duration, persistence, essence . . . 
 where nature off"ers inconstancy, caducity, rhythm, pe- 
 riodicity, form. . . . But the vicissitudes of life grieve 
 little souls only; the superior man is freed of vanity's 
 yoke by the contemplation of the frequent changes in 
 human destinies. 
 
 Wisdom is ambition in its maturer stage. The am- 
 bitious man desires not so much to be, to become su- 
 perior, as to be honored, to have the appearance of su- 
 periority. The superior or wise man strives to be, to 
 become perfect, and finds satisfaction in the forum of 
 his own consciousness. The desire to please is for him 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 287 
 
 no direct incentive to action; for the judges of his 
 merits are not the blind ephemeral philistines, but the 
 impartial soul-penetrating thinkers of aU times and 
 places. 
 
 With developing intelligence, the objects of our as- 
 pirations change: A higher stage of development as- 
 pires to things of a more enduring value, of a value 
 less subject to vicissitudes. Apathy makes room for 
 vanity, vanity for ambition, ambition for wisdom ; 
 empty-mindedness makes room for curiosity, curiosity 
 for thirst for knowledge ; respect for form makes room 
 for respect for content or essence ; sentimentalism makes 
 room for cogitation ; stupid or cowardly abstinence from 
 passing judgment on one's fellow-men makes room for 
 gossiping, newsmongering, malicious, petty or purely 
 aimless criticism of particular individuals, which in its 
 turn makes room for social criticism, ethology, a disin- 
 terested study of the various types of men and of their 
 influence upon the welfare and progress of the human 
 species. 
 
 Morality, Success.— Average morality, average good- 
 ness, is a product of circumstances ; superior morality 
 is a factor, a cause of change in circumstances, a cause 
 of the creation of new social circumstances. The man 
 of superior morality is moral in spite of adverse cir- 
 cumstances ; the man of average morality or the moral 
 philistine is moral if the circumstances allow and re- 
 quire it. Unlike jurisprudence and school ethics which 
 concern themselves merely with acts of direct and im- 
 mediate moral consequences, the ideal ethics includes 
 also in its sphere the thoughts, feehngs, intentions, ten- 
 dencies leading thereto, and also the remote, indirect 
 consequences flowing therefrom, in so far as the agent 
 is conscious of them. 
 
 Moral philistinism, which finds its expression in ju- 
 risprudence, shortsightedly concerns itself with — and 
 
288 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 hence judges human actions from the standpoint of — 
 narrow, immediate, local, personal and class interests, 
 professed intentions, more striking though less im- 
 portant effects ; it wastes its wit and time on the prose- 
 cution of individual culprits for some of their crimes ; 
 it cannot devise any better means for maintaining the 
 existing social order than laws, courts, the police, the 
 army, etc., which — even if we make abstraction of 
 their corruptibility — can only grapple with crimes after 
 they have been committed, with the few visible and less 
 important effects of men's detached actions, and have 
 no other guidance but that of pervertible precedents, 
 empty traditions, arbitrary decisions of a few unscru- 
 pulous self-constituted authorities. 
 
 Whereas moral genius, which finds its expression 
 in socialistic ethics, is rather concerned with — and 
 hence judges human activities from the standpoint of — 
 vital, general interests, social welfare or general hap- 
 piness, and in this valuation is guided solely by logic, 
 reason, common sense; it cannot rest contented with 
 mere jurisprudence, penology, patch-reform; it goes 
 to the bottom of things, it studies the ultimate causes 
 of — and hence the means of preventing — crimes and 
 misery; it concerns itself with types of men and not 
 with single individuals, with lifelong pursuits and not 
 with detached, momentary actions; it points out the 
 social and the anti-social or parasitical types of men, 
 the effects of various life-activities or professions upon 
 human society ; it demands therefore radical changes in 
 our economic, political and other institutions, the 
 control of men's entire life-activity and not of some 
 striking disconnected actions; it insists, not upon the 
 reformation and extermination of criminals, but upon 
 the abolition of our laissez-faire, predatory system, 
 which creates them or favors their multiplication; it 
 does not believe in the preservation of order by setting 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 289 
 
 up a group of corruptible men to protect the vast 
 masses of men against each other, but it believes that 
 order, fair dealing, is best insured by intrusting each 
 and all therewith, by implanting good will in each man's 
 heart and self-control in each man's brain. To the 
 moral genius our entire intricated, unwieldy, and out- 
 wardly imposing legal machinery is nothing but a piti- 
 able makeshift, and its working is doomed to remain a 
 farce at bottom, as long as it leaves untouched the pred- 
 atory economic basis of our social organization, that is, 
 as long as no stop is put to the parasitical, profit-seek- 
 ing, privilege-hunting spirit, as long as production is 
 carried on primarily for sale or profit instead of being 
 carried on primarily for general use and only secondar- 
 ily for international exchange, and as long as the most 
 fundamental human right, viz., the right to employ- 
 ment, is not secured for every able-bodied adult. When, 
 however, legislation will decide to put into practise 
 these preachings of the moral genius, it will be ripe to 
 disentangle itself from all the dangerous weeds by which 
 it is overrun at present to such an alarming extent: 
 From its present-day bewildering confusion and inex- 
 tricably growing pseudo-complexity, our legal appara- 
 tus will return to its original normal state of a few 
 plain, common-sense rules, which will be immune against 
 the distortions or perversions of professional jurists or 
 legal sophists, and whose interpretation will not leave 
 any room for the verbiage and hair-splitting ingenuity 
 of college professors. 
 
 Superior morality is not the exclusive property or 
 appanage of intellectually superior men. It is found 
 near the two extremities of the 'luman scale: in simple- 
 minded working people, and in the great talents ; it is 
 rare at the extremities, in the weak-minded and in the 
 one-sided geniuses ; it is still rarer in the middle of the 
 intellectual scale, in the "smart" and talented people. 
 
290 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Just as water flows from a higher to a lower level, so 
 does wealth flow froni the higher moral level of the 
 working class and of the superior men to the all-absorb- 
 ing lower moral level of the "smart set" and talented 
 men : In the animal kingdom the strong survive, whereas 
 within the human species it is the self-seeking, the 
 hypocrites, the cunning and their proteges who survive 
 and succeed ; only in an ideal, solidary society we shall 
 have selection of the morally superior men. 
 
 What the moral genius regards as a duty, is for 
 actual mankind a sacrifice, a meritorious act; what to 
 him is a crime, does not yet fall under the jurisdiction 
 of actual ethics. 
 
 The average moral man calls himself good if he does 
 his duty, if he lets the world run its usual course, if he 
 does not participate directly, actively, in the increase 
 of human "misery"; whereas the moral genius calls a 
 crime our indirect, unintentional contribution to the 
 world's iniquities, nay, he calls a crime our passivity, 
 our attitude of indiff^erent spectators with respect to 
 the bloody dramas played upon the world's stage; he 
 calls a crime our enjoying life's pleasures while being 
 conscious of the innumerable heartrending tragedies 
 that fill the daily embittered lives of our fellow-men, 
 fellow-citizens, colaborers in the making of our happi- 
 ness ; he calls immoral the rulers, scientists, poets, pro- 
 fessors, journalists or professional gossipers, etc., who 
 find mere words of compassion for the disinherited work- 
 ing class where they ought to act, to fight energetically 
 to make a human life possible for human beings. Not 
 those living within human society and enjoying its 
 benefits, can judge about its imperfections and iniqui- 
 ties. Truth about social matters comes from outsiders, 
 from moral geniuses leading a quasi-extrasocial life, 
 excluded from the banquet of the so-called sociable 
 men. Only these moral bohemians are in a position to 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 291 
 
 overlook, geographically and historically, in space and 
 in time, human society as a whole, and thus to discover 
 that it misses its way. Only these disinherited moral 
 geniuses are in a position to hold up before actual hu- 
 man society the image of its horrid criminal face ; only 
 they are in a position to foresee the fatal consequences 
 of mankind's false step, and thus to give the cry of 
 alarm in due season. 
 
 Morality varies inversely as the intensity of our as- 
 pirations for success, for external possessions. There- 
 fore, it is easier for a man striving for self-perfection 
 to reach the summits of morality than it is for an am- 
 bitious man. 
 
 "Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner" is true for 
 superior men only. For others we ought to say, "Tout 
 oublier c'est tout pardonner." 
 
 What self-control, self-consciousness, is for the su- 
 perior man, public opinion is for the average man. The 
 former is controlled from within, the latter from with- 
 out. Public opinion is a substitute for and a fore- 
 runner of self-control, just as politeness is a substitute 
 for or forerunner of love, sympathy. 
 
 Under the modern competitive system, with its com- 
 plicated, large and, hence, unsolidary and uncontroll- 
 able communities, it is not the harmoniously developed, 
 the wise and altruistic, the many-sided and balanced 
 superior men who attain authority, leadership, success : 
 it is the degenerate, the one-sided, the men of a single 
 pursuit, the usurpers, the greedy, the unscrupulous, the 
 hypocritical cowards, the obtrusive self-constituted au- 
 thorities, the morbidly vain, the bluffers or hunters of 
 appearances who succeed, lead, rule, control the means 
 of existence, and hence impose their standards of liv- 
 ing and acting upon the great masses. 
 
 If superior men, as a rule, seem timid, awkward, ir- 
 resolute, inactive, unsociable, unfit for money-making 
 
292 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 occupations, unable to gain popularity, it is because 
 they lack the deceptive ability and the disguised aggres- 
 siveness (euphemistically called diplomacy, histrionic 
 ability, self-reliance, spirit of enterprise, etc.) of the 
 commercial, would-be aristocratic philistines and of the 
 pseudo-superior men ; it is because they like to deal with 
 men and things thoroughly, conscientiously, feelingly, 
 whole-heartedly, and spurn to rely upon studied ready- 
 made, stereotyped, conventional phrases, gestures, man- 
 ners, platitudes, which outwardly fit every occasion; 
 they spurn to respond superficially, verbally, unfeel- 
 ingly, thoughtlessly to the appeals of their fellow- 
 men, nor can they rest contented with such sham re- 
 sponses on the part of others to their heart or soul 
 effusions ; they are not as prone as the notoriety-seek- 
 ers to engage in public activities where there is no 
 chance to accomplish something worth while, let alone 
 to redeem the promises made to the people; they 
 are too serious-minded, engrossed with higher, intel- 
 lectual, unselfish aims of life to feel at ease and to be 
 welcomed in the company or in the employ of frivolous, 
 materialistic, selfish, pleasure-seeking individuals ; they 
 are too straightforward, frank, open-hearted, fair- 
 minded to resort to the crooked, devious, hypocritical, 
 cowardly, aggressive and predatory ways of the busi- 
 ness world (I mean the world where everything, com- 
 modities, religion, knowledge, philanthropy, etc., is de- 
 graded to a business) and of so-called Society; nor are 
 they successful with the honest but intellectually blind 
 masses of proletarian or toiling philistines, who mistake 
 the demagogue's flatteries for personal friendship and 
 compliments, his promises for good intentions, his stage 
 heroism for genuine courage, in short, his pretenses for 
 realities. 
 
 Happiness, Love of Approbation. — Many-sidedness 
 saves the amour-propre of the superior man from 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 293 
 
 degenerating into megalomania, for it shows him how 
 insignificant his abilities are in comparison with those 
 he has not, or has in a very slight degree only. 
 
 The happiness of the common mortal consists in liv- 
 ing in conformity with instincts, habits, traditions, in 
 following the beaten paths, whereas the happiness of the 
 superior man results from opening new ground for fu- 
 ture generations. The philistine feels a desert in his 
 soul when he breaks away from routine ; the superior 
 man suffocates in the narrow horizon of philistine mo- 
 notony. The philistine feels lost and becomes horror- 
 stricken when a superior man invites him to leave the 
 narrow grooves of conventionality and to follow him 
 into the vast untrodden fields of possibilities which are 
 full of promises for him who is not afraid to explore 
 them. 
 
 The balanced superior man, in whom the critical sense 
 is not mutilated by vanity and impulsiveness, knows 
 his own merits and defects. He is therefore unsnub- 
 bable and less vulnerable when insulted, or when he does 
 not meet with approbation. The common mortal, who 
 has no introspective criterion of his own personeility, 
 for whom the only way of knowing himself and the 
 worth of his possessions is external approbation, praise, 
 envy, etc., the common mortal, I say, suffers very much, 
 for this reason, when he is disapproved, blamed, ridi- 
 culed, shunned by his fellow-men. 
 
 In pseudo-superior men, in philistines, especially in 
 women, even self-knowledge and self-esteem are deter- 
 mined from without. A pseudo-superior man, a philis- 
 tine, a woman, respect themselves in proportion with 
 the re.spect shown them by others. Let some one show 
 them disrespect, and their entire self-confidence is 
 shaken thereby, their self-love becomes incurably 
 wounded and unquenchably irritated. They avoid there- 
 fore such occasions, nay, they crave and pay directly 
 
294 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 or indirectly for a little flattery, for undeserved compli- 
 ments; they are so little convinced and conscious of 
 having good or superior qualities and abilities that they 
 feel the need of being repeatedly complimented by others 
 for their supposedly superior advantages; they try to 
 please by all means and especially to oblige those who 
 assume the role of critics, of panegyrists, in order to 
 hear compliments and praise in exchange. Unable to 
 command respect through his real personality, through 
 his real knowledge, the pseudo-superior man hunts for 
 marks of distinction, titles of nobility, diplomas, social 
 rank, mysteriousness, secrecy, odd manners and ex- 
 pressions, etc., in order to reach that goal. 
 
 The high opinion that the megalomaniac has of him- 
 self is subjective, i. e., it does not admit the existence of 
 greater personalities, it is not a continuously and slowly 
 increasing quantity, it is ostentatious, egotistic, proud, 
 cruel. The "self-esteem of the superior man is objective, 
 i. e., based upon knowledge of his own merits, upon a 
 comparison of his own achievements with those of 
 others ; it increases proportionally with the increase in 
 the manifestations of his originality ; it is inclusive, 
 modest, not ostentatious. 
 
 While the intellectual courage, self-confidence, high 
 opinion of self increases in the balanced superior man 
 with his increasing knowledge of self, of others, and of 
 the world ; with increasing manifestations of originality, 
 of foresight of coming events, of hypotheses proving to 
 be true, there is a parallel decrease in his suggestibihty 
 or blind, uncritical obedience to, and beUef in, what 
 others say, command (directly or indirectly) or do. 
 
 The genuine intellectual genius, unlike our college 
 professors, academicians, etc., is less sensitive to criti- 
 cisms, and takes no offense at refutations ; not only be- 
 cause he loves Truth for its own sake, but also because 
 his merits are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently sure 
 
AFFECTIVE LIFE 295 
 
 of being acknowledged sooner or later, so that he does 
 not need to hunt for undeserved recognition, and he 
 has no difficulty in consoling himself over abilities de- 
 nied him by nature. 
 
 The moral genius, unlike the professional moralists, 
 preachers, ethical culturists, social workers, labor or- 
 ganizers, etc., can afford to have his intentions, feel- 
 ings, actions and superiority criticized; not only be- 
 cause he is convinced that genuine, real, superior mo- 
 rality cannot be demolished, but also because he does 
 not make a business out of Ethics, and hence has no 
 pecuniary interests at stake. 
 
 Unlike the philistine who is entirely engrossed with 
 the present and does not see much beyond the narrow 
 circle of men in whose midst he happens to live, the 
 genius can enjoy, anticipatingly, the remote future, the 
 potential, the distant, which to him are more real than 
 the present, the actual, the near. The philistine exag- 
 gerates both momentary joys and momentary troubles, 
 for he lacks the sense of proportion, i. e., he lacks the 
 broad outlook of the Imaginative Heights from where 
 the present and the immediate past and future, which 
 constitute his entire world, are seen in their true in- 
 finitesimal magnitude: what to the philistine appears 
 fearful, colossal, all-powerful, tremendously important, 
 endless, dwindles into insignificance and ephemeralness 
 when looked down upon from these heights. The genius 
 does not become broken-hearted, despondent and self- 
 distrustful because of poverty, obscurity, because his 
 benighted contemporaries ridicule him, or because the 
 exploiters hound him; for, just as the explorer of un- 
 civilized lands, or the missionary, is more than com- 
 pensated for the scorn of savage hordes by the esteem 
 of his few companions and by the thought of his far- 
 away countrymen's gratitude or admiration, just so 
 can the pioneer of the land of the future perceive at a 
 
296 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 dim distance, behind the scorn of the present-day gen- 
 erations, the admiration and gratitude of the as yet un- 
 born generations of better and more enlightened men ; 
 he can enjoy, anticipatingly, the sunnier and happier 
 life of these future children of men because of having 
 followed the path pointed out by such despised dream- 
 ers as he. His dream of immortality is not the phil- 
 istine's vain and childish dream of a bodily resurrection ; 
 his is a dream of intellectual immortality, of the per- 
 sistent influence exerted upon future generations by his 
 intellectual creations, by the new truths, by the higher 
 potentialities and worthier aims of life revealed to his 
 mind's eye. His failure to meet with a congenial life 
 companion and to enjoy domestic felicity does not ren- 
 der his life empty or aimless; for he finds consolation 
 in his vision of the future woman, for whom he tries to 
 prepare the ground, and who will be economically inde- 
 pendent, man's colaborer and faithful life companion, 
 and not an empty-minded sex-parasite like the majority 
 of present-day women. He is not in the least surprised 
 that superior men are very seldom happily married, for 
 after so many ages of vegetation and seclusion women 
 have drifted so far apart from the male sex as to form 
 almost a distinct species devoid of understanding or 
 sympathy for man's higher aspirations and seeing in 
 him nothing else but a provider of food, shelter, dresses, 
 luxuries, protection, means of gratifying her vanity. 
 The existence of so many intellectually and morally 
 crippled human beasts of prey, in whose midst he is 
 doomed to live a lonely, harassed life, do not make the 
 superior man despair of the human species ; for he can 
 enjoy in his imagination the sight of a nobler, big- 
 hearted, broad-minded type of men and women who 
 will thrive under the cooperative regime which the small 
 and scattered army of moral geniuses strives to bring 
 about. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 STRIVING LIFE 
 
 IM REICHE DES MAMMONS 
 
 Ach, wie ist das Leben 
 In der Gross-Stadt, hier: 
 Kampf und rastlos Streben, 
 Selbstsucht, Neid und Gier! 
 Menchenfluten stromenj 
 Wissen kaum wohin, 
 Stiirmisch, nicht zu zahmen. 
 Bald her, bald dorthin. 
 AUes lauft in Eile, 
 Gonnt sich keine Ruh. 
 "Bald, noch eine Weile," 
 Sagt man ab und zu, 
 "Sind wir schon am Ziele, 
 Ist das Gluck erreicht." 
 Doch! wie endlos viele 
 Gehen zu Grund so leicht, 
 Im Wirrwarr des Lebens, 
 Wo man ohne Rast 
 Kampft, bekampft vergebens 
 Der Begierden Last! 
 
 II 
 
 Wahrheit nur und Liebe: 
 Wenn dies unser Streben 
 Hier auf Erden bliebe, 
 Dann nur konnt' es geben 
 Wahres Gliick hienieden, 
 Allen gleich beschieden, 
 
 O. L. S. 
 Berlin, October 19, 1901. 
 297 
 
298 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Theory and Practise. — The theoretical man sees in 
 succession what the practical man sees simultaneously. 
 
 To profess something theoretically does not mean to 
 possess the ability of putting it into practise. For 
 practise is the resultant of component forces which do 
 not usually act in the same direction : theory, emotions, 
 habits, instincts, external suggestions. 
 
 Theory is not quite another aspect of practise, it is 
 usually its complement : The less idealism in our 
 actions, in our practise, the more do we put into, do 
 we profess in, our theories : we make up in our professed 
 and auto-suggested theories what we lack in actual 
 practise. If theory were a mere translation, a poten- 
 tial or mental equivalent of action or practise, we ought 
 to expect most idealism, altruism, moral progress, toler- 
 ance in priests, preachers, moralists, religious people, 
 orators, leaders and least in materialists, atheists, plain 
 men; whereas the reverse is usually true. In an-har- 
 monious and in disharmonious individuals, the pro- 
 fessed and sometimes auto-suggested convictions C, 
 which are expressed in speech, mannerisms, dress, etc., 
 are the complement of actual practise P, which is the 
 outer expression of their habits and instincts H & I. 
 
 (C-FP=V; C<P; C*L+M+ ; Pc=H-H). 
 
 In harmonious, morally balanced individuals, convic- 
 tions, habits, and instincts concur in action. (C-f-H-|- 
 I^; Pc=V; C<P). 
 
STRIVING LIFE 299 
 
 C'L 
 
 The majority live in flat contradiction between 
 theory and practise ; for their theory is impressed upon 
 them from without, by way of suggestion exerted by 
 superior men, whereas the motives of their practise come 
 from within, by way of heredity, habituation. The 
 genuine superior man alone lives comparatively in har- 
 mony between theory and practise. All wise things 
 have been said long ago, all wise maxims have been 
 preached already, and are on every one's lips, even on 
 the fool's ; but the wise man alone acts accordingly, the 
 ideal man alone takes them seriously to heart. 
 
 So little are thinking and acting correlated in philis- 
 tines and especially in pseudo-superior men that those 
 who preach — no matter in what form, no matter whether 
 in books, editorials, from the pulpit or platform — hon- 
 esty, idealism, poetry, chastity, ... do very seldom 
 act honestly, ideally, poetically ; nay, they act as a rule 
 dishonestly, materialistically, prosaically. . . . And 
 vice versa: Those who preach dishonesty, theft, mur- 
 der, prose, sensuality, . . . act very seldom accord- 
 ingly ; nay, as a rule, they act honestly. 
 
 By this I do not want to insinuate that the moral 
 preachings of the dishonest hypocrites are entirely 
 valueless ; or that the apotheosizing of cruelty, murder, 
 theft, egoism, lasciviousness, by mentally but not 
 actively perverted individuals is for that reason less 
 dangerous. I merely want to maintain a common- 
 place truth that it is better for the welfare of human 
 society to have to deal with frankly, consistently 
 virtuous and vicious individuals, i. e., with individuals 
 
300 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 who act as they think and preach, whose influence on 
 the people is obvious, of a definite, constant, ascertain- 
 able direction. The consistently vicious individual is 
 less dangerous, because less confidence-inspiring and 
 more easily detected; the consistently virtuous indi- 
 vidual is more useful, for he compels not only verbal, 
 but also active assent to his preachings or teachings. 
 He who feels the need of inner consistency as well 
 as of others' approval and hence tries to verbaUy 
 justify or defend his intended or already performed 
 actions which go against custom, law, public opinion, 
 is certainly harmless and unsuccessful because he be- 
 trays himself, hesitates, regrets, and often confines his 
 originality and immorality to mere talk. Whereas 
 those who instinctively, unhesitatingly, and secretly 
 act selfishly and immorally, without wasting any time 
 on, or feeling the need of, a verbal defense of their 
 motives and aims, and who rather hide the hideousness 
 of their actions from others as well as from their own 
 perverted conscience by verbally advocating a moral 
 course of action, are really dangerous or anti-social, 
 because they are neither detected by others nor hindered 
 in their action by scruples, moral reasonings, or by 
 any need of concurrence, cooperation, agreement be- 
 tween theory and practise, between words and deeds. 
 This disguisedly anti-social type of men — while pub- 
 licly and most noisily professing or preaching uncondi- 
 tional respect for and strict enforcement of abstract 
 principles, regardless of the men affected thereby ; blind 
 confidence in the impartiality, ability, good will of the 
 appointed guardians of law, peace, order; belief in the 
 ultimate conquest of truth and justice, and in the 
 quasi-automatic, spontaneous establishment of equilib- 
 rium between human interests and relations ; implicit 
 trust in the efficacity of good-sounding laws, principles, 
 political promises, irrespective of the kind of men by 
 
STRIVING LIFE 301 
 
 whom they are made, interpreted, executed; the neces- 
 sity of obeying and enforcing even bad laws until re- 
 placed by better ones- — this type of men, I say, in- 
 stinctively, secretly and in their actions betray the least 
 adherence to their professed ethical creed and the least 
 confidence in men's nobler selves, and follow rather the 
 path of violating the moral and legal codes, of flatter- 
 ing, courting, bribing, conspiring and making friends 
 with, buying favors from, prostituting themselves to, 
 those in power, and of tyrannizing, terrorizing, rob- 
 bing, exploiting, blackmailing, persecuting, undermin- 
 ing those who naively rely upon the incorruptibility of 
 the supposed protectors or upon the impossibility of 
 perverting and misinterpreting the established laws, the 
 apparently unambiguous constitution. 
 
 Our capitalistic or predatory system has no use for, 
 and hence tries to eliminate, the harmoniously, many- 
 sidedly, normally developed individuals, who do not lend 
 themselves very well to being used as tools, for monoto- 
 nous, stultifying, hard work, and whose idealism, 
 altruism, visions, speculations, theories, assume definite, 
 clear-cut shapes and hence clamor for realization, thus 
 interfering with the spoliation business of the master 
 class. More welcome to our masters are the intellec- 
 tually crippled, or one-sidedly developed philistines who 
 are glad to serve as tools, and the inharmoniously de- 
 veloped, hypocritical or muddle-headed pseudo-superior 
 men whose idealism or theorizing is so vague, indefinite, 
 shadowy, lifeless, playful, so much reduced to mere talk, 
 so much divorced from, and hence without any inter- 
 fering influence upon their practise, actions, instincts, 
 material and vain pursuits as to be harmless if not 
 positively beneficial to the parasitic classes. 
 
 Thinking and Acting. — The main source of their 
 happiness lying in themselves, in their creative power, 
 we understand why the balanced superior men seem 
 
302 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 less striving, less active than those whose happiness 
 depends on others, on success, on approbation, on 
 wealth. The superior men owmJia secv/m portant. In 
 reality the superior man strives as much as, if not 
 more than, the ambitious ; only the results attained by 
 him are not so manifest to others, are not so immediate 
 like those attained by the ambitious man. ' The intel- 
 lectually superior man strives to attain lofty ideas 
 and ideals, but he does not fight for their realization 
 among the masses. This task is left over for the emo- 
 tionally richer men, agitators, leaders, reformers, 
 statesmen, etc. 
 
 The truth-loving, many-sided, contemplative thinker 
 usually leaves the realization of the ideals, which he 
 foresees more or less clearly and preaches more or less 
 explicitly, more or less whole-heartedly, over to the 
 mono-ideistic, emotional, enthusiastic, whole-heartedly 
 striving, naive, altruistically vain, uncritical, non- 
 skeptical, often semi-insane agitators, social reformers ; 
 and to the unscrupulous self-seeking, materialistic, 
 egotistically vain, hypocritical statesmen, rulers, poli- 
 ticians, leaders, demagogues, who never embrace a noble 
 cause unless it can be made subservient to their vanity 
 and personal interests. Ideas and ideals in themselves 
 do not spur to action, if they are not fed with energy 
 coming from emotions aroused by antagonistic ideas 
 and ideals. We could never fight for justice, for the 
 rewarding of merits, if injustices, under the actual reign 
 of charlatans and hypocrites, would not wound us in 
 our innermost feelings and strivings, in the most essen- 
 tial conditions for our existence on earth. The intel- 
 lectually superior man, being less vulnerable by human 
 injustice than the emotionally or practically superior 
 man, cannot, therefore, be a leader in the holy battle 
 for justice, for the reign of merit, of love, of true 
 solidarity. Under our actual reign of hypocrites. 
 
STRIVING LIFE 303 
 
 parasites, masked criminals, flatterers wearing the mask 
 of servants, but being cruel masters in reality, the 
 noble-minded are doomed to a life of abnegation, re- 
 nouncement, self-denial ; for the price of material well- 
 being is too dearly paid for by honestly striving people. 
 Who wants bodily comforts has to pay no less a price 
 than his own soul. We cannot serve two masters, 
 especially when they are in a state of warfare with one 
 another, like material success and self-perfection. 
 Sham merit reigning almighty everywhere, we can easily 
 understand why the natural desire for social recogni- 
 tion and approbation has decayed in the ideal man 
 from the rank of intentional aims of life, from pre- 
 causes, productive causes or motives of actions, to that 
 of fortuitous aims, post-causes, maintaining causes. 
 
 In the emotionally superior man, in the reformer, 
 statesmen, men of action, the ideals have rather a sub- 
 conscious than a conscious existence; their ideals form 
 far-reaching associations with the darkest corners of 
 their souls, hence their unshakable energy. With the 
 intellectually superior men, the ideals have to pass from 
 the vast field of sub-consciousness through the narrow 
 gate of consciousness : the ideo-emotional complexes are 
 necessarily split up, their association power is partly 
 lost, hence their lesser efficacity than with the reformer. 
 
 The reformer lends an inhospitable ear to skepti- 
 cism, whereas the skepticism welcomed by the intellect- 
 ually superior man as a good assistant ends by gaining 
 mastery over him, by paralyzing his actions. A cer- 
 tain degree of skepticism may be useful in our analysis, 
 but its dissolving power is harmful to emotional 
 syntheses which lead to, or prepare for, action. The 
 ideals of the reformer are not so lofty as, but more 
 rose-tinted than, those of the pure thinker; they are 
 more terre a terre, more in touch with those of the 
 common people, too closely connected with those of 
 
304 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 daily life, hence their indomitable impulsiveness and 
 urgent demand for realization. The thinker acts di- 
 rectly on the men of action, and through them upon the 
 mass. 
 
 The thinker may fight against scientific prejudices, 
 but he has no sufficient emotive power to fight against 
 social prejudices, to free mankind from rudimentary 
 ideas and rudimentary, atrophied, burdensome social 
 organs. For it is less dangerous for the fighter, 
 polemist, although as little hopeful, to espouse the cause 
 of scientific freedom from prejudice. We cannot fight 
 against prejudice in general; for, in its broadest sense 
 of judging particular, present and personal experiences 
 in the light of generalized, past and transmitted experi- 
 ences, it is useful and inherent in human nature. We 
 merely fight against its despotism. Prejudice, prejudg- 
 ment, should be a pre-thinking, a preparatory stage, 
 but it should not supplant thinking altogether. 
 
 Observation and interpretation, imitation and crea- 
 tion, consciousness and self-consciousness, acting and 
 thinking, cannot coexist with equal intensities. The 
 curve of the one lags almost 90 degrees behind the 
 •curve of the other. Or, in other words, a maximum 
 of thinking, observation, goes together with a minimum 
 of acting, interpretation, and vice versa. Thus is ex- 
 plained why thinkers are very little active during the 
 rise of their development curve, and become relatively 
 more active after reaching maturity, or stagnation in 
 the development of thinking. The so-called men of 
 action, on the contrary, begin to devote their life to 
 pure thinking when their goal is reached. What is 
 true of every single process, is true of the individual 
 and social life taken as a whole. Thinking and acting, 
 sensory and motor activity, contemplation and striv- 
 ing, are two successive parts of the same circuit. In 
 addition to this, in the mind of the thinker, there are 
 
STRIVING LIFE 305 
 
 at a given moment many parallel circuits, many streams 
 of thought. This is another cause for retarding his 
 external activity. The pure man of action, the pure 
 agitator, concentrates his energy on the putting into 
 practise of a single line of ideas; he acts, therefore, 
 promptly, enthusiastically, under high pressure. 
 Whereas the thinker has his energy divided among many 
 lines of ideas which either diverge or converge. His 
 action in the former case is prompt, but under low 
 pressure; in the latter case it is under high pressure, 
 but delayed. 
 
 The genuine, honest superior man may become a man 
 of action in his mature age, after having acquired set- 
 tled, definite, workable convictions. The born man of 
 action, the ambitious, the born leader, the pseudo- 
 superior man, begins to be active in his childhood, be- 
 fore he has any real convictions to put into practise ; he 
 usually adopts others' convictions in so far and so 
 long only as his personal interests are furthered there- 
 by. The pseudo-superior man, like woman and unlike 
 the genuine superior man, never forgets to make im- 
 pression and to extol himself in the midst of his seem- 
 ingly most fiery, enthusiastic, and self-forgetful speech- 
 He never allows his audience or readers to lose sight 
 of his personality and to become entirely absorbed in 
 the impersonal ideas defended by him. 
 
 One very seldom finds real or willing martyrs among 
 men of genius. Do they shrink from self-sacrifice be- 
 cause this method merely stirs up emotions and does 
 not conduce to enlightenment, or because they cannot 
 attain the summits of altruism, or because they feel 
 that their life must not be sacrificed for one idea, when 
 they have to produce so many.? Martyrs are usually 
 oligo-ideists, therefore poly-emotionalists, and hence in- 
 clined to overestimate the value of their convictions 
 and to regain blind to the inadequacy of martyrdom 
 
306 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 as a means of enlightenment. Moreover, religious and 
 patriotic fanatics do not value their life on earth very 
 highly, as they have been hypnotized into looking upon 
 death as a mere stepping-stone to eternal life. 
 
 Aims and Activity. — The philistine is intellectually 
 inert, lazy. Ready-made opinions, dogmas, pre-judg- 
 ments (pre-judices), pre-feelings, foreign initiative, 
 easy methods of getting at a little truth or beauty, 
 are, therefore, welcome to him. The genius is bodily 
 lazy. He prefers, therefore, to leave to others the bod- 
 ily actions which are necessary for the preparation of 
 food, shelter, clothing, comfort, amusement. Both, 
 however, are honest and consistent: They are willing 
 to exchange their services and to reduce their claims 
 to the fruits of the labor performed by the other. The 
 philistine rests satisfied with gossip, sensation, simple 
 and superficial knowledge ; the genius ungrudgingly 
 renounces comforts, luxuries, food delicacies, if his abil- 
 ity happens to be non-lucrative. Between these two 
 honest producing types stands the dishonest middle- 
 man type of the pseudo-superior man who poses as an 
 intellectual producer when he deals with philistines 
 and as an economic producer when he deals with the 
 genius ; he buys and sells the productions, the services 
 or the labor of both philistines and geniuses ; he robs 
 the genius of the fame and public gratitude due to him, 
 and the philistine masses of the material possessions 
 and comforts produced by them; he never makes a 
 mental or a bodily effort for the pleasure of being ac- 
 tive, but only when he can derive some personal benefit 
 therefrom. 
 
 The common mortal strives to please, to imitate, 
 to act according to the requirements of public opinion 
 or social consciousness, in which he is also a share- 
 holder, for it represents an extemalization, and a 
 summation of innumerable fragmentary opinions on 
 
STRIVING LIFE 307 
 
 the essence of an ideal, desirable citizen and of an ideal 
 society. The superior man strives to act according to 
 the ideal he carries in himself, an ideal which does not 
 contradict public opinion, does not wholly destroy it^ 
 but merely completes and supplements it. The common 
 mortal accepts the actual organization of the world; 
 the superior man strives to change it, not to overthrow 
 it. He acts more upon public opinion than he is acted 
 upon. The intellectual genius pursues truth; the emo- 
 tional, beauty; the practical, utility; the moral, social 
 happiness. A one-sided superior man is inclined to 
 ignore, to depreciate, or to sacrifice the other aims of 
 life for the sake of the one he is striving after. Any 
 aim which is earnestly pursued, any wish or desire, 
 exerts, not only a guiding, but also an energizing or 
 dynamogenic influence, either by concentrating all the 
 scattered abilities or by withdrawing the energy spent 
 in other directions, or by doing both at the same time. 
 Laziness, apathy, timidity, shyness, are not always a 
 sign of weakness or of a lack of energy, but may merely 
 mean ignorance of one's own strength and ability; or 
 it may spring from a lack of stimuli, aims, interest, 
 proper channels of discharge for the apparently and 
 compulsorily stagnant energy. For inaction, rest, is 
 an exception, a mere anomaly in our universe. Motion, 
 activity, is the rule; to live — nay, to exist — means to 
 act. On the other hand, display of courage and activity 
 is not always a sign of physical or mental strength. 
 It is often based on the cowardice or stupidity of others. 
 Or it is often merely a sign that a certain aim is being 
 pursued with such great eagerness and seriousness as to 
 make us forget our weakness and the dangers to which 
 we expose ourselves. Thus even the timid female ani- 
 mals — the hen, for instance — display unwonted courage 
 in defending their brood. The moral genius, in spite 
 of his poverty, social obscurity, bodily weakness, lonely 
 
308 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 and unprotected condition, dares to attack the deeply 
 rooted prejudices of the masses and to disclose the 
 hidden criminal pursuits of the authoritative and well- 
 protected rulers or leaders ; because moral uplifting is 
 an inborn, irresistible aim of his life. If the moral 
 genius, in the face of so much egoism, cruelty, unscrupu- 
 lousness, immorality, does not lose his courage and 
 confidence in men, and persists in his fight, it is because 
 he knows that the majority of self-seekers resort to 
 immoral means, not because they take pleasure in ex- 
 ploiting and torturing their feUow-men, but because 
 under our actual social organization they do not see 
 any other means of satisfying their impulsive desires 
 for wealth, comfort, leisure, liberty, social prominence. 
 The miser, driven by greed, dares to defy the burden- 
 some contempt of his fellow-men, and even the threats 
 of murderous burglars. Great vanity has made many 
 heroes out of men who in reality trembled for their lives 
 and had neither physical strength nor any serious pa- 
 triotic aim in view. It is due to the credulity of the 
 masses and to the reticent self-interest of hangers-on 
 that the real cowardice of such historical heroes has 
 remained a family secret. The spasms of agony are 
 the last energizing effects of the will to live. Even a 
 timid animal when driven to despair, or when driven 
 into a corner and seeing no escape from its pursuer, 
 turns momentarily into a bold offensive animal, under 
 the stimulus of the desire to live. Unexpected and 
 unescapable dangers have often made heroes out of 
 cowards. To gain the love of a woman, many an 
 apathetic youth has become energetic. The more 
 quickly and directly a certain line of activity leads to 
 the realization of our aims, the more eagerly and with 
 the more pleasure do we foUow it. Thus, if self-seek- 
 ers or pseudo-superior men seem to be more energetic, 
 more enthusiastic than genuine superior men in de- 
 
STRIVING LIFE 309 
 
 fending national, humanitarian, ethical, scientific, or 
 other ideal causes, it is because the defense of such 
 causes is a mere cloak to hide their selfish pursuits. If 
 the thinker seems to be less active than the philistine, 
 it is because he has different aims of life and because 
 hife activity is inner, mental rather than muscular or 
 outer. 
 
 If the genuine superior man avoids popularity, it is 
 not because he is entirely free from vanity; it is be- 
 cause he knows or instinctively feels that the admired 
 man, the idol of the intellectually blind masses, i. e., 
 the man whose exterior is being looked at, whose words 
 are eagerly listened to, whose movements and doings 
 are being watched and imitated, in short, the man whose 
 outer appearance and manifestations are the object of 
 the people's attention, is thereby compelled to neglect 
 introspection, self-scrutiny, absorption in inner, lofty, 
 impersonal, disinterested, impartial thoughts, and to 
 come down to the low regions of appearances, self-com- 
 placency, personal, petty, trivial preoccupations : he 
 is compelled to pay attention to, show off, exaggerate, 
 the quantitative, superficial, irrelevant, unessential but 
 more striking or eye-catching parts of his individuality 
 to the detriment and at the expense of the qualitative, 
 inner, deeper, invisible but important or significant side. 
 
 Man is essentially an aspiring, upward and onward 
 striving animal, so much so that if he is debarred there- 
 from, either by inability or by external obstacles, he 
 does not stagnate like animals on the level of elementary 
 pursuits (food, shelter, sexual intercourse) but rather 
 degenerates, i.e., he spends his excessive energy in over- 
 indulging these animal pursuits (gluttony, luxury, dis- 
 play, sensuality, collecting mania, rapacity, greedy ac- 
 cumulation of wealth, aimless traveling or wandering, 
 etc.). A hideous picture of such degeneracy is pre- 
 sented by the female parasites of the well-to-do classes 
 
310 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 who morally and intellectually are completely crippled 
 and whose only concern is the criminal display of 
 wealth, the pursuit of selfish pleasures and the preser- 
 vation of their bodily attractiveness or sensual power 
 over the male sex. Man's need of always hoping for or 
 striving after something higher makes him pursue any 
 distant object — be it illusory, spurious — rather than 
 none ; it makes him idealize and espouse the cause of 
 lower objects of pursuit, which he would not care for 
 in the least if worthier or higher aims of life were 
 pointed out to him. Thus we see the enthusiastic sons 
 of aristocrats and of industrial exploiters spend their 
 surplus of youthful energy in noisily and self-impor- 
 tantly embracing the cause of the downtrodden peasants 
 and workers, whom they really neither like nor under- 
 stand and whom in later years, when they will have to 
 look themselves after their money supply, they will 
 exploit in the same way as their fathers did. Likewise, 
 the enthusiastic American youths of the parasitic class 
 who — following the hypnotic suggestions of the 
 Zeitgeist or their inner impulse towards higher pur- 
 suits — fought for the emancipation of the Negroes, did 
 so for lack of other aims of life and not because they 
 really worried over the miserable lot of the black men : 
 Had they really been concerned with the black man's 
 troubles, they would not have stopped at gaining for 
 him the mere liberty of shifting for himself, the spuri- 
 ous liberty of choosing between starvation and a new, 
 more cruel, wage-paying master. The pseudo-superior 
 man is too materialistic to have time and patience for 
 higher, non-lucrative pursuits ; but his aspiring instinct 
 compels him to at least deceive himself by idealizing 
 his low, materialistic, selfish pursuits, or to make him- 
 self and others believe that the latter are merely inci- 
 dental, unintentional, mere means to his higher, un- 
 selfish, spiritual ends. 
 
STRIVING LIFE 311 
 
 The philistine unconsciously aspires to and craves 
 for friendship, justice, general happiness, beauty, 
 deeper insight into the mysteries of the world and of 
 life, etc. But his inability to attain and to appreciate 
 such genuine values makes him idealize, rest contented 
 with, and vent his enthusiasm on, the empty imitations 
 thereof. What he calls friendship is a mere farce, a 
 mutual exploitation under the mask of mutual services ; 
 a ridiculous sample of such spurious friendship is the 
 giving of Christmas presents to those from whom we 
 expect more than we give or at least an equivalent 
 amount. What the philistine calls education, spiritual 
 edification, charitable work, public service, is mere high- 
 sounding phraseology, ritualism, ostentatiousness, self- 
 aggrandizemfent. What he calls Religion is mere super- 
 stition, idolatry ; what he calls patriotism is mere blind 
 hero-worship, stupid flag-idolatry, hatred of foreigners ; 
 what he calls conversation is mere gossip, exchange of 
 platitudes, meaningless talk ; what he calls monogamy 
 is mere covert polygamy, and at best mere bodily 
 chastity ; and so on with the other aims and ideals. The 
 Philistine's inability to strive for genuine love, knowl- 
 edge, beauty, altruism, religiosity, self-perfection, . . . 
 makes him welcome the pseudo-superior men who spare 
 him this trouble by giving him a manufactured, ready- 
 made imitation thereof, and by maintaining him in the 
 sweet illusion of being in possession of the genuine thing. 
 Incapable of anticipatingly enjoying the remote future 
 as portrayed by socialists, communists, anarchists or 
 other ideal men, the philistines prefer to feed their striv- 
 ing instinct on the pseudo-superior men's false promises, 
 adulterated hopes for immediate results rather than 
 give up all hope and striving; for aut Caesar aut viMl 
 is not the slogan of philistines, but of men who have the 
 stuff of a Cffisar. If not only the idle or parasitic 
 classes, but also the workers flock from the monotony 
 
312 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 of their daily routine to horse races, prize fights, ball 
 games, gambling dens and other such stultifying excite- 
 ments, and buoy up with the vain hopes artificially in- 
 duced thereby, it is partly because their aspiration in- 
 stinct has no better or worthier channels of discharge ; 
 it is partly because they are ignorant or incapable of, 
 or excluded from, the hopes and excitements of higher, 
 uplifting, socially useful aspirations. 
 
 Reward for Right Acting. — To work under the im- 
 pulse of the desire for immortality or enduring fame, 
 has a reward as real as that attained by materialists. 
 Even if the superior man does not attain fame during 
 his individual life, as long as he believes in its attain- 
 ment in the future, the reward for his life full of abne- 
 gations and resignations is as real as the success at- 
 tained during the individual life ; for man does not enjoy 
 so much what he has attained as he enjoys what he 
 hopes to attain, and even the means used in attaining 
 it: the pleasure expected from the attainment of a 
 goal overflows partly upon the means that lead us to it. 
 
 One cannot gain the admiration of distant places, 
 future generations (posterity), and of select people 
 without renouncing the admiration of one's own coun- 
 try (city, or district), of one's contemporaries, and 
 of the masses. One must choose between ideal pursuits 
 and glory or success during one's Kfetime, for the two 
 are incompatible. If an ideal man happens to have 
 both during his lifetime, it is not because his idealism 
 is appreciated by his contemporaries or by the philis- 
 tine masses : it is on account of his inherited or other- 
 wise acquired social rank, influential position, wealth, 
 etc. 
 
 If, incidentally, the superior man strives for wealth, 
 it is not because he is a slave to the howling mob of 
 desires. It is because to him wealth means independ- 
 ence, and independence is the main condition for self- 
 
STRIVING LIFE 313 
 
 perfectioning. 
 
 Both the materialist or the self-seeker and the ideal- 
 ist, the ambitious and the wise, the pseudo-superior and 
 the genuine superior man, act logically, but they start 
 from different premises and axioms. The acts of the 
 one, seen and judged in the light of the aims and prin- 
 ciples guiding the activity of the other one, will neces- 
 sarily appear as iUogical, ephemeral. 
 
 The axiom guiding the life of the materialist, of the 
 ambitious, of the pseudo-superior man, is: Do what- 
 ever leads to your success. A corollary of this axiom 
 is : Try by all means to please those on whom the at- 
 tainment of your success depends ; over-estimate and 
 glorify your own vocation and achievements. The axiom 
 guiding the striving life of the idealist, of the wise, of 
 the genuine superior man, is: Do whatever leads to 
 truth, beauty, general happiness or morality. A 
 corollary of this axiom is to repress all those natural 
 and legitimate aspirations towards fame, material well- 
 being, etc., if and in so far as their gratification has to 
 be purchased at the expense of the nobler aims of life. 
 
 The materialist and the idealist are in practical life 
 what the conceptualist and the nominalist are in phi- 
 losophy. What is real for the conceptualist and for 
 the idealist is an empty word for the nominalist and 
 the materialist: both are right from their own stand- 
 point. Looked at sub specie aetermtatis the con- 
 cepts, the species . . . are more real, more permanent 
 than perceptions and sensations, or individuals. From 
 the standpoint of spatial existence alone, the reverse 
 wiU be true. 
 
 Leadership. — ^Abihty for leadership seems to me 
 proven by experience to be due rather to deficiencies, 
 defects, lack of character, i. e., lack of imperturbable 
 guiding convictions, than to excesses, merits ; to a minus 
 in moral scrupulousness, in sincerity, in altruism, and 
 
314 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 in seriousness rather than to a plus of energy; to a 
 minus in paralyzing influences rather than a plus of 
 will power and forethought ; to vanity and ambition dis- 
 guised under the mask of wisdom rather than to true 
 wisdom, for it is well known quam parvo mgemo 
 mvmdus regitv/r. This holds good especially of leaders 
 who impose themselves, who are neither expected nor 
 needed, for whom the soil has not been prepared by 
 social circumstances. 
 
 Leaders, organizers, politicians, etc., of this sort are 
 congenitally immoral, or amoral; they lead a life of 
 moral duplicity; they foUow a double moral code, one 
 in private life, hermetically sealed, and another one 
 in public life, always open for inspection; they act 
 morally or immorally, according to the requirements 
 of their personal and party interests ; morality to them 
 is a means, a pure idea, and not an end, an idea-force, 
 an aspiration; morality may be in their acting, but 
 not in their feelings and intentions ; moral acting 
 springs from their reason, but not from their instincts. 
 Some are endowed by nature with physiological mimicry, 
 i. e., with an ambiguous or a strikingly harmless-, 
 innocent-, and kind-looking face. Others have the 
 gift of Imffuistical and mental mvmicry, i. e., the faculty 
 of concealing natural cruelty, falsehood, and egotism 
 behind a rich stock of memorized, easily handled, 
 friendly, heart-winning, and smoothly flowing gestures, 
 words, phrases ; the faculty of assimilating verbally 
 others' opinions, sentiments and aspirations. Fluency 
 and easy handling of sentimental phraseology ought 
 therefore to be looked upon as a suspicious symptom 
 in a moral diagnosis, for genuine feeling does not so 
 readily find such suitable terms to express itself. Ora- 
 torical ability is often a cause and an effect at the 
 same time of moral and intellectual shallowness, lazi- 
 ness: Why act originally and acquire intellectual 
 
STRIVING LIFE 315 
 
 wealth, if unusual combinations of words simulate origi- 
 nality, and if verbal wealth conceals intellectual pov- 
 erty? Why act and think if mere words can pay for 
 deeds and thoughts? Why assimilate noble and abstain 
 from base thoughts, sentiments, actions, if it is easier 
 and suiScient to adopt the language and manners of 
 those who are thinking, feeling, and acting nobly ; and if 
 it is an easier matter to preserve prosaic pursuits under 
 changed eulogistic names? A Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, 
 Moses, Karl Marx, . . . would not fall under this rule. 
 But even of these ideal leaders we can say that they did 
 not live up to their potential idealism, their actual indi- 
 viduality remained behind their potential individuality, 
 because they had to act directly upon the impure feel- 
 ings and obtuse ideas of the intellectually blind mass. 
 Even the morality — paradoxical though it may sound 
 — of socialistic and of ethical movement leaders, al- 
 though superior to that of other political leaders, is as 
 a rule inferior to that of simple members. 
 
 No wonder that the masses are so easily captivated 
 and led astray by demagogues, social quacks, pseudo- 
 leaders ; for after so many ages of slavery, exploitation, 
 oppression, drudgery, extermination of the intelligent, 
 self-respecting and independence-loving individuals or 
 peoples, the toiling masses consist largely of individuals 
 who are too stultified, brutalized and degraded by eco- 
 nomic dependence and uncertainty, too much crippled 
 by oppression, too much preoccupied and worried by 
 urgent, immediate, material needs to be open to the 
 direct, personal influence and leadership of the moral 
 geniuses who look too far ahead into the future, whose 
 enthusiasm is spent more on lofty dreams, potentiali- 
 ties, ultimate and vital aims, spiritual ends, than on 
 trivial actualities, immediate and material aims, who 
 appeal to reason and try to reawaken the lost faculty 
 of thinking rather than stir up blind emotions, who 
 
316 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 are too fair-minded to compliment the masses on their 
 as yet unspoiled kernel of unselfishness and idealism 
 without calling them down at the same time for their 
 lack of self-respect, for their servilism and stupid sub- 
 mission to degrading conditions. In spite of his con- 
 fidence in the regeneration of mankind through the toil- 
 ing masses, owing to their moral superiority over the 
 unproductive classes, the moral genius can neither 
 ignore their degradation nor compliment them on high 
 qualities that they do not possess, as the demagogue 
 does. Nor can he maintain with the naive altruists that 
 the people's stupidity, inferiority, degradation, is 
 wholly and directly due to lack of opportunity, to the 
 molding rather than to the selective influence exerted 
 by the environment and by exploiters, and hence wiU 
 vanish as soon as more favorable economic conditions 
 wiU be provided for all. The genuine leader of men 
 takes his mission too loftily, too seriously, too disin- 
 terestedly to accept any compromises, to make any con- 
 cessions, to spare any influential scoundrels and wide- 
 spread prejudices, to allure with vain promises, to 
 tolerate insincere, mercenary or vain colaborers, to 
 encourage a thoughtless, sheep-like following of or 
 obedience to his admonitions. He is too much concerned 
 with the welfare of the entire human species, of future 
 as well as of present generations, to concentrate his 
 entire love and attention on the few with whom he 
 happens to come into contact, and thus win their adher- 
 ence and, through them, that of others. He is too 
 uncompromising and outspoken to gain the tolerance 
 and unintentional cooperation of the beastly supporters 
 of the predatory system. He betrays too easily his con- 
 tempt for and distrust of the powers that be, titled 
 parasites, high-placed crooks and imbeciles, not to 
 arouse their open and immediate persecution or oppres- 
 sion of any movement directly led by him. 
 
STRIVING LIFE 317 
 
 Pursuit of Truth, and Struggle for Eaistence. — Just 
 as suicide, alcoholism, abnegation, flattery, servilism, 
 etc., are negative ways of struggling for material and 
 emotional well-being, or are rather symptoms of im- 
 potence or exhaustion than of ability or action; so in 
 our pursuit of truth, extravagant transcendental ex- 
 planations, mystical language, denigration of logic, rea- 
 son or science, apotheosizing of faith, instinct, intui- 
 tion, of the Unconscious on sentimental or pragmatical 
 grounds, etc., are rather symptoms of cessation than 
 of continuation in our intellectual pursuits ; at best, 
 they mean a negative way of pursuing truth. 
 
 Writing in obscure, abstract language, if it is done 
 semi-consciously, betrays not only an obscure, mystical, 
 chaotic mind, but also a desire to attract the attention 
 of the thoughtless mass, a desire to overawe public 
 opinion, a desire to reap credit for what one did not 
 say or for the meanings unconsciously supplied by the 
 readers. 
 
 The whole diff"erence between the striving life of the 
 genuine balanced superior man and that of the ordinary 
 mortal, and of the pseudo-superior man, is that the for- 
 mer subordinates his personal interests, his self-love 
 and vanity to truth, whereas the latter subordinates 
 truth, makes it subservient, to his personal interests. 
 What is an organic necessity, an urgent demand, an 
 aim to the former, is a mere luxury, a means to the 
 latter. 
 
 Among the pseudo-superior men we can distinguish 
 two main extreme types. The brainier pseudo-superior 
 men with high foreheads or with aquiline noses, in 
 whom vanity predominates over materialism, take to 
 liberal professions, to educational, ecclesiastical, jour- 
 nalistic, legal, indirectly parasitical careers. The less 
 brainy pseudo-superior men in whom materialism pre- 
 dominates over vanity and whose physiognomy is mostly 
 
818 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 characterized by a big, massive head whose greatest 
 part is formed by the face, with special development of 
 the jaws, take preferably to political, commercial, ad- 
 ministrative, speculative, technical, directly parasitical 
 careers. More common, of course, are the intermediate, 
 less distinct types who are not so particular about the 
 social status of their parasitical careers as long as there 
 is profit therein. 
 
 The genuine superior man does not deliberately sell 
 or prostitute his intellectual abilities ; he keeps his 
 vocation or intellectual pursuits separate from his pro- 
 fession or means of earning a liveKhood ; he has very 
 little lucrative talent, i. e., he lacks the immoral ability 
 of exploiting his own abilities, let alone those of others. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man or the parasite disguised 
 as a benefactor thrives upon the ungrounded fears and 
 empty hopes ; upon the poverty, ignorance, supersti- 
 tions, illusions, prejudices, antipathies; in short, upon 
 the weaknesses of the masses. Whereas the genuine 
 superior man appeals to the strength, productive 
 power, potentialities, realizable hopes, teachableness, 
 nobler selves of the masses. The pseudo-superior man 
 rules by force, violence, compulsion, persecution, terror- 
 ism; by threatening, intimidating, stultifying, confus- 
 ing the people; by deceit, intrigue, fraud, imposture, 
 false promises; by increasing fear, worry, discord; by 
 stirring up unjustified alarm; by belittling and sup- 
 pressing the capabilities of the people and by extolling 
 his own knowledge or resourcefulness ; by drawing the 
 people's attention to fictitious, and diverting it from 
 real, dangers. The genuine superior man proposes to 
 rule by love, persuasion, by enlightening, encouraging, 
 consulting the people, by arousing discontentedness 
 with the present, but hope for the future, self-confi- 
 dence, voluntary and intelligent obedience, by dispelling 
 discord, unjustified and paralyzing fears, by pointing 
 
STRIVING LIFE 319 
 
 out real but removable dangers, and causes of worry 
 or discontent, by modestly acknowledging his own 
 short-comings and mere advisory or stimulating influ- 
 ence, by inviting and welcoming the cooperation, criti- 
 cism and control of the people, by exhorting the people 
 to develop their dormant abilities of self-rule, self-edu- 
 cation, self-help. If the pseudo-superior man chooses 
 to exploit the optimistic or hopeful side of human 
 nature, he plays upon it in such a way that his victims 
 become so exhausted, stultified, stupefied by indulgence 
 in pleasurable excitement as to unpreventably swing 
 back to the pessimistic extreme of fear, worry, despond- 
 ency, and thus fall a prey to his colleague who thrives 
 on nosophobia, fear of death, fear for the future, fear 
 of possible accidents, fear of the unknown, disgust with 
 life, etc. The exploiters of pessimism and optimism 
 play into each other's hands. And even if the pseudo- 
 superior man must adopt enlightenment and social re- 
 form as a profession, he attacks ignorance and the other 
 social evils only partially, superficially, verbally, half- 
 heartedly, playfully, interestedly, and often in appear- 
 ance only while remaining secretly the accomplice of 
 the perpetrators of ignorance, fear, unhappiness, 
 slavery. Whereas if the genuine superior man invites 
 the people to serious activity, he does not in the least 
 object to humor and amusement provided they are 
 moderately, intelligently, recreatingly indulged in, and 
 if he attacks evil and evil-doers, he does it seriously, 
 disinterestedly, thoroughly, uncompromisingly, relent- 
 lessly, whole-heartedly. 
 
 Few novelists have so masterfully laid bare the 
 cleverly covered-up predatory structure of our social 
 organization as Upton Sinclair has done in his immortal 
 work "The Jungle." The spirit and methods of the 
 jungle are disguisedly maintained and perpetrated 
 within human society by the predatory or aristocratic 
 
320 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 and would-be aristocratic philistines, in general, and by 
 the pseudo-superior men, in particular. Under the cloak 
 of business, promoting schemes, leadership, philanthro- 
 py, religion, spiritual guidance, missionary and evan- 
 gelistic work, official science, etc., these parasites carry 
 on their business of despoiling the masses of proletarian 
 philistines, or the business of directly or indirectly as- 
 sisting in this spoliation game. Like wolves, they hunt 
 preferably in packs (gangs, coteries, cliques, exclusive 
 sets), the predatory philistines doing the dirty or me- 
 nial work and the pseudo-superior men assuming the 
 leadership. To all outside appearance, the predatory 
 gangs and the members of each gang seem to have 
 nothing more at heart than the general welfare and to 
 collaborate harmoniously towards bringing this about; 
 in reality, however, there reigns among them a morally 
 asphyxiating, character-stifling atmosphere of mutual 
 refined blackmailing, bullying, distrust, flattery, bluffing 
 and of steady cowardly quarreling over the dividing of 
 the spoils and honors. The exploiters and their re- 
 tainers reahze very well that their worst enemies are 
 the living moral geniuses, the revolutionists, no matter 
 whether they call themselves socialists, anarchists, com- 
 munists, or radical reformers. Some socialists find it 
 comical and others feel it as an insult to be identified 
 by these beasts of prey and by their henchmen with 
 anarchists. In reality, however, the capitalists and 
 their hirelings are perfectly right when they claim, 
 from their point of view, that they can hardly see any 
 difference between the various classes of revolutionists, 
 all of whom agree in their desire to put a stop to the 
 jungle spirit and methods under any disguise. What 
 difference does it make to the predatory classes and 
 to their valets if anarchists and socialists try to tear 
 to pieces their finely spun nets by pulling in opposite 
 directions; on the contrary, they would prefer to see 
 
STRIVING LIFE 321 
 
 socialists and anarchists pull in the same direction or, 
 better still, pull each other's hair while quarreling over 
 the relative merits of their respective methods. On 
 the other hand, the antipathy often manifested by 
 proletarian revolutionists against so-called "intellect- 
 uals" is not entirely unjustified, as the clever socialist 
 writer, John Spargo, would have us believe ; nor is it 
 to be mistaken for the natural antipathy of the un- 
 lettered, incurably ignorant philistines against the edu- 
 cated. For every genuine revolutionist is himself an 
 "intellectual"- — if not in the academical sense of the 
 word, then in its truer sense, — even if he himself is a 
 worker who did not enjoy the doubtful privilege of a 
 school education, and even if he does not know how 
 to handle properly the lingo of the academical caste; 
 nor does he despise the intellectual man who manages 
 to keep away from the clutches of wage slavery, and 
 rather tries to make a living by writing, teaching, 
 lecturing, etc. What the genuine, whole-hearted revo- 
 lutionist objects to, is the intrusion of self-seeking "in- 
 tellectuals" into the ranks of the revolutionists in 
 order to facilitate their admittance to, or after having 
 failed to enlist in, the ranks of capitalistic retainers 
 or of intellectual prostitutes. 
 
 The genuine superior man is too busy learning and 
 thinking out continually new problems, and he is on 
 the whole too sure of his intellectual wealth to stop 
 his mental work like the pseudo-superior man, in order 
 to take stock of his knowledge, in order to make an in- 
 ventory of his amount of intellectual superiority over 
 his fellow-men. The more he meditates, the more per- 
 spectives open themselves up before his mental eye, the 
 more interesting problems lay claim to his attention; 
 and his brain-work is at the same time such a source 
 of intellectual enjoyment to him, an aim and not only 
 a. means of self-aggrandizement, that it never occurs to, 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 him, as it does to the pseudo-superior man, to consider 
 himself intellectually rich enough to be entitled to, and 
 to long for, a life of intellectual idleness and self-com- 
 placency. 
 
 The apostle of truth, in his naivete, imagines that 
 the masses are tortured by the same thirst for the 
 light of truth as he is : he cannot imagine how human 
 beings can be at ease and live happily in the darkness 
 of ignorance or in the crepuscular, misty light of illu- 
 sion. Only when his attempts to awaken in others love 
 of truth meet with ingratitude, derision, or a deaf 
 ear, does he begin to realize that the organ of truth 
 is atrophied or undeveloped in the ignorant, the emo- 
 tional, the hunters of success, in the philistines just 
 as much as in the pseudo-intellectuals, in women, chil- 
 dren, in the immature, confused minds. But neither 
 ingratitude nor derision can discourage the true 
 apostle of truth and of love in his fight against error, 
 ignorance, falsehood, and wickedness. 
 
 Behind his abstract thoughts, behind his seemingly 
 impersonal creations, in the background, invisible to 
 others but to himself, stands modestly the concrete, 
 feeling personality of the thinker. Every one of his 
 abstract thoughts is a product of distillation, is ex- 
 tracted from a large mass of experiences mixed with 
 personal joys and sorrows. He might, therefore, fitly 
 preface his thoughts with these verses : 
 
 In diesen Gedanken, so allgemein 
 Und unpersonlich sie auch scheinen, 
 Liegt ein Stiick begraben vom Leben mein, 
 Viel Hoffen, Sehnen, und auch Weinen. 
 
 It is in the nature of the genius to write, to express 
 only what he is convinced of as being true, beautiful, 
 socially useful, without any regard for the fatal conse- 
 quences resulting therefrom either to his own interests 
 or to those of a particular influential social class or 
 
STRIVING LIFE 323 
 
 institution. Genius and intellectual prostitution are 
 incompatible. The manifestations of the genius are 
 irrepressible, incorruptible. He may postpone the 
 communication, publication, of his concepts; but he 
 can never distort, adulterate, let alone suppress them. 
 
 Even when the original or creative man is seen to 
 prostitute his intellectual individuality to save his per- 
 sonal interests, it is only apparently so: a starving 
 genius may be compelled to sacrifice temporarily part 
 of his intellectual individuality in order to save a mini- 
 mum of practical interests, which are a conditio sine 
 qua non for the preservation and development of his 
 better self. 
 
 If anybody at all is entitled to economic parasitism, 
 to freedom from the struggle for bread, it is the men 
 of genius, whose creations arise spontaneously, unex- 
 pectedly, and do not admit of postponement like the 
 conscious and voluntary achievements of the talented 
 man. But if a genius has to work for his daily bread, 
 and he is free to choose between an occupation requir- 
 ing thinking and attention — not in the line of his inter- 
 ests and inclinations — and a thoughtless, automatic 
 occupation, I would advise him to prefer the latter as the 
 less interfering with his spontaneous creations, and 
 less diverting his thoughts from their natural course. 
 The genius is not fit for prolonged routine work nor 
 for one-sided intellectual pursuits, for every external 
 stimulus and every emerging recollection are likely to 
 arouse in him new, irresistibly fascinating trains of 
 thoughts, which it would be a pity to repress for the 
 sake of the less promising daily routine task. 
 
 To act on command means to repress, to inhibit one's 
 own impulses, wishes, spontaneity, thoughts. And in- 
 hibition, we know, is painful especially if imposed from 
 without or dictated by fear. Submissiveness, acting on 
 command, is, therefore, easy to the thoughtless, empty- 
 
324. GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 minded individual deprived of spontaneity ; it is also 
 easy to the imitative, suggestible people ; but it is a 
 cruel torture to the genius, to the independent man. 
 If demagogues, leaders, are successful commanders, it 
 is mostly because their commands are really or appar- 
 ently in the same line with the impulses and wishes of 
 the masses. The ordinary man of action, the man who 
 is in need of activity either as a narcotic, as a means 
 of preventing intellectual pregnancy, or in order to 
 feel his strength, his power over men and things, sur- 
 renders and prostitutes his own convictions — if he has 
 any — , embraces any cause provided he be allowed to 
 exert freely his motor activity. The thinker, the poet, 
 the man of contemplation and meditation, on the con- 
 trary, prefers to enslave his muscles, his automatic ego, 
 in order to preserve the freedom of his thoughts, of 
 his conscious ego. He prefers mechanical work to in- 
 tellectual work that is not in the same line with his 
 spontaneity, his originality, or dominant intellectual 
 needs ; for mechanical work requiring a minimum of 
 attention and of thinking, does not interfere with his 
 psychical development or natural trends of thought. 
 
 Originality or independent thinking being a natural 
 gift that endangers the life of the individual endowed 
 therewith by making him too conspicuous to the 
 misoneistic masses and to the truth-hating and intelli- 
 gence-hating usurpers of power, of wealth, of privi- 
 leges (church, monarchs, aristocracy, capitalists, 
 leaders, . . . ) ; we understand why geniuses avoid 
 close contact with men, or try to conceal, to disown 
 their originality by attributing it to divine grace, in- 
 spiration, revelation, or by clothing it in the garb of 
 mere reinterpretatidns of or commentations upon tra- 
 ditional, official wisdom, or by putting on the mask of 
 eccentricity, jocularity, or of madness which arouses 
 pity, scorn, at most mild persecution, but not mur- 
 
STRIVING LIFE 325 
 
 derous hatred as undisguised sane superiority arouses. 
 Pursuit of Social Happimess. — Motion is the pri- 
 mary, original, natural, normal, uncaused condition 
 of atoms; and rest, of bodies. Just so in the primi- 
 tive, simple living creatures, spontaneous variation, 
 transient adaptation, is a primary, general condition; 
 and stability of form, strict inheritance, persistent 
 adaptation, is exceptional, secondary. Whereas in com- 
 plex or higher beings, stability of physical — not so 
 much of psychical — type is the rule; and spontaneous 
 variation on the mental side is still exceptional, indi- 
 vidual, confined to the select minority of geniuses, and 
 on the bodily side is reduced to a minimum. Travel, 
 mobility, progress, is instinctive, natural with the 
 minority of intellectual individuals, who are com- 
 paratively isolated from each other; whereas stagna- 
 tion, immobility, routine, is natural to the unintel- 
 lectual compact mass of philistines. Colonization, 
 rapid progess, is more natural to the civilized 
 peoples with their individualistic, social-atomistic or- 
 ganization than to the primitive, backward peoples 
 with their tribal, communistic, social-molar organiza- 
 tion, for whom it is more natural to travel (migrate) 
 and to progress en masse and, therefore, slowly. The 
 civilized peoples gain in rapidity of progress, in liberty, 
 what they lose in equality, sociability, cohesion, secur- 
 ity, of the component members. It will be the task of 
 the moral genius of the future, of socialism, to recon- 
 cile, harmonize, combine progress and solidarity, rapid 
 or easy progress and great masses, individual liberty 
 and social adhesion, individualism and cooperation, in- 
 tellectuality and active morality, freedom and security, 
 migration and sedentariness, and thus to produce gen- 
 eral social happiness. If Communism — which has very 
 little in common with modem socialism — proves to be 
 a failure in modern times, though not such a hideous 
 
326 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 failure as competition is, it is because it is no longer 
 compatible with human liberty and progress, with a 
 complex social organization and a higher or intel- 
 lectual type of human happiness. 
 
 The moral genius declares war not only against the 
 extra^social criminals who expiate their crimes with dis- 
 honor, a nomadic, restless, and a peaceless life ; but 
 also — and more so — ^war against the mtra-social crimi- 
 nals, against the pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-moral, and 
 pseudo-religious individuals, who never come in conflict 
 with the Law, for they never violate its letter, although 
 continually violating its spirit; who enjoy all the bene- 
 fits of civilized social life ; who reap honor, fame, 
 wealth, while living at the expense of genuine intel- 
 lectual, moral, and religious people ; who enslave and 
 discourage honestly striving people; who trample on 
 the most sacred sentiments, aspirations and convic- 
 tions, and drive the resourceless and friendless people 
 into the arms of vagabondage, and the intellectually and 
 morally poor into the arms of extra-social crime ; war 
 against impostors under the mask of saints, against 
 idlers under the mask of busy men, against exploiters 
 under the mask of benefactors, against anarchists 
 under the mask of law-givers and law-protectors ; not 
 so much war against institutions as against their im- 
 perfections ; not so much war against parasites in the 
 form of beggars, tramps, to whom we give from our 
 surplus, but rather war against parasites in the form 
 of aristocrats, capitalists, speculators who indirectly, 
 but none the less inexorably, compel us to feed and en- 
 rich them while starving our own minds and bodies ; not 
 so much war against parasites as against circumstances 
 and institutions that allow or compel them to be so; 
 not so much war against the effects as against the 
 causes or roots of the social evils. 
 
 The moral genius, in his constructive work, takes 
 
STRIVING LIFE 327 
 
 more or less consciously the relations between the mem- 
 bers of an ideal family as the prototype of the rela- 
 tions between the members of an ideal society. -Such 
 relations are based, not upon written laws and stipula- 
 tions printed on paper, not upon legal justice and 
 equality, but upon sentiments of love and solidarity 
 imprinted in the heart of every member; every one has 
 the rank he deserves, works according to his capacity, 
 and is remunerated according to his needs. Without 
 the repeated, reiterated, intermittent, rejuvenating 
 action of moral geniuses upon language, customs and 
 institutions, these — the academical not excepted — de- 
 generate into lifeless, automatical, meaningless things 
 and become an obstacle to further progress ; they de- 
 generate into red tape, that dangerous social gangrene 
 which spreads through the whole social organism and 
 threatens to destroy it, were it not for the alarm and 
 remedies given in due season by social physicians or 
 moral geniuses. 
 
 The moral genius feels more or less consciously that 
 the only desirable and useful social elements out of 
 which an ideal, solidary human society can be built 
 up are the hard-working, honestly striving, obscure, 
 unknown, unnoticed, unobtrusive people, and those 
 superior men who gain fame without striving for it. A 
 useless, nay, a dangerous element, does the moral genius 
 see in financial speculators, those sham aristocrats, 
 born candidates for capitalism, and intra-social crimi- 
 nals, those congenitally — hence incorrigibly — greedy, 
 selfish, rapacious, narrow-hearted, insatiable, parasit- 
 ical individuals whose entire intelligence is consumed 
 in inventing devices for enslaving their fellow-men, and 
 for robbing under the appearance of serving them. 
 Their only ability is to take advantage of others' 
 incompetence, ignorance, poverty, helplessness, con- 
 fidence, to exploit those being in desperate straits, to 
 
328 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 shift the hardships and uncertainties of life's struggles 
 onto the shoulders of the ill-informed and poor class. 
 The moral geniuses, social reformers, have always ap- 
 proached some form or other of cooperation or social- 
 ism: they have dimly or clearly foreseen that if all 
 kinds of services rendered to others were regarded as 
 services rendered to the community, and hence were 
 remunerated and regulated as to supply and demand 
 by the latter, and appreciated by specialists, instead 
 of being remunerated and appreciated by the incom- 
 petent, or stupid receivers of the services, as it happens 
 in our individualistic, unregulated, competitive society, 
 there would be no divorce and no lagging behind be- 
 tween ability and success, there would be no room for 
 ignorant but cunning charlatans and demagogues 
 living at the expense of ignorant, or stupid clients 
 or voters ; to perform one's duties and to please one's 
 superiors and clients would not require two different 
 abilities, would not require a splitting up of our at- 
 tention, a splitting up of our convictions and morality 
 into private and public. To do away with the uncer- 
 tain, arbitrary remuneration of services by incompetent 
 individuals, to do away with the horrible disproportion 
 between supply and demand due to unbridled competi- 
 tion, to lack of wise regulation, means to eliminate the 
 most important causes of the soul-destroying economic 
 dependence, of favoritism and nepotism, of greediness, 
 corruption, charlatanism, of waste of time and energy 
 in mere material pursuits, of tyranny and of slavery; 
 it means to prevent in the social organism the patho- 
 genic proliferation of the unnecessary, parasitical pro- 
 fessions and connecting elements between producers and 
 consumers. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 
 
 Inflitence of Thmkers and Artists. — It is no mere 
 figure of speech to say that the common mortal is un- 
 able to see with his own eyes, especially with his mind's 
 eye. He sees and does what geniuses suggest to him. 
 The poet spurs, impels to action ; the thinker guides, 
 opens up infinite perspectives ; the man of action leads. 
 We do not perceive new things or relations until our 
 minds are prepared to do so by intellectual geniuses. 
 Likewise, we do not feel love or duties toward other 
 social classes, other nations, races, until love and duties 
 are implanted in our hearts by moral geniuses. Just 
 as we close our bodily eyes because we feel pain when 
 we pass suddenly from darkness to light: just so do 
 we close our mind's eye when we are brought suddenly 
 from ignorance, illusions, error, to knowledge, truth, in- 
 sight; for such a sudden passage is too painful, as it 
 gives no time to our bodily and mental eyes to accom- 
 modate themselves. 
 
 An addition, progress, a step forward, is of very 
 little use if it is preceded or followed by a subtraction, 
 regress, a step backward : without conservation, no real 
 progress. Jurisprudence, legislature, the state, has 
 mostly in view the conservation, the maintenance of the 
 existing moral level, of the moral equilibrium; ethics 
 has in view the raising of the moral level. The former 
 is a moral statics, the latter a moral dynamics ; the 
 former requires deeds, facts, the latter requires inten- 
 tions ; the former makes men less dangerous, the latter 
 
 329 
 
830 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 makes them more useful, better: jurisprudence is a 
 negative ethics. Above the moral sphere, however, there 
 is the still vaster sphere of sympathy, including the 
 former; morality deals with our intentional acts and 
 the corresponding feelings of responsibility; an exten- 
 sion of this sphere would include our unintentional acts 
 also, together with the effects upon social life, and the 
 corresponding feelings of moral satisfaction or re- 
 gret ; the sphere of sympathy includes, in addition to 
 intentioned and unintentioned social activity, those 
 social happenings which are not appreciably influenced 
 by single individuals. Hence a genius influencing the 
 sympathy sphere fulfils a higher function than one 
 acting upon the moral field, in its narrower sense. 
 
 Form is more accessible to our understanding than 
 content or essence ; for it appeals to our senses first, 
 whereas the latter appeals to reason. Hence, the 
 greater and perhaps exclusive influence upon the ma- 
 jority exerted by artists, poets, orators, than by 
 thinkers, scientists, philosophers. Thinkers act indi- 
 rectly upon the mass, through the intermediary of the 
 emotional and of the active men. 
 
 The cosmico-social environment acts upon the mind 
 of the superior man. The genuine superior man acts 
 unobtrusively, disinterestedly — nay, often to his own 
 detriment — through his writings and works upon the 
 book-reading public, upon the vain semi- and mate- 
 rialistic pseudo-superior men who in their turn act 
 either viva voce, by word of mouth, directly upon 
 the non-reading masses whose only source for acquir- 
 ing knowledge and new aims of activity is personal con- 
 tact with real or self-styled well-informed men, or 
 through the press upon magazine and newspaper 
 readers. If we pass from the non-reading public to 
 the newspaper readers, from these to the magazine 
 readers, and from these to the book readers, we notice 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 331 
 
 a gradual broadening of the intellectual horizon, a 
 gradual change in the intellectual needs and interests : 
 from local, superficial, personal, interested, they become 
 universal, deep, impersonal, disinterested. If the 
 thinker prefers book-reading to the reading of news- 
 papers and magazines, it is not only on account of the 
 narrow, local, trivial facts contained therein, but mainly 
 because even these little facts are adulterated in favor 
 of private and of class interests. 
 
 The philistine is not accessible to the impalpable, 
 ethereal influence of ideas or opinions, unless they are 
 coming from a person of prestige whom he sees, hears, 
 or knows of. The magazine and novel reader who 
 stands intellectually a little higher than the orator- or 
 newspaper-worshiping philistine, is more sensitive to 
 the ethereal influence of thoughts ; but his sensitiveness 
 alone would not enable him to assimilate any new 
 thought unless its influence is backed up or reenforced 
 by that- of a living writer manifested from time to time 
 in the form of incidental personal remarks. Deper- 
 sonalized, purely scientific and philosophic ideas, i. e., 
 ideas detached or freed from the viva vox of the 
 orator, from the prestige of a living author, from the 
 obligations towards and personal relations with the 
 writer, from the alliance with the private or class in- 
 terests underhandedly subserved by newspapers, maga- 
 zines and books of the day: such ideas enter and influ- 
 ence only the highly sensitive intellect of a genuine 
 thinker. 
 
 Thinkers need not complain of their little direct 
 influence ; for this seeming disadvantage is the very con- 
 dition for the conservation of the purity of their 
 thoughts: Rare is the admired man who does not be- 
 come the slave or flatterer of his admirers; and, in 
 addition to this, fame, like wealth, attracts its specific 
 parasites. 
 
332 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The admired or prominent man becomes an uncon- 
 scious flatterer of his admirers. Not so much of those 
 who of their own initiative began to admire him for 
 his original, bold, truthful or beautifully expressed 
 ideas, as of those who admire him out of imitation, 
 who admire him merely because they do not want to 
 be behind the times and because they do not want to be 
 accused of inability to appreciate men of ability or 
 merit, who admire him without knowing his real self 
 and value, who admire him because of his success. 
 
 Reason does not convince the masses, suggestion 
 alone can appeal to their attention. The man of genius 
 who is already a recognized authority, addresses tjie 
 people, and, in his naivete, flatters himself to meet with 
 understanding and agreement, when, in reality, not his 
 words have produced the visible eff'ect, but his per- 
 sonality, his fame, have produced it. The same eloquent, 
 and even more eloquent, words uttered by an unknown 
 genius would have met with a deaf ear. 
 
 The mind of the genius, and of the superior man, is 
 elastic, i. e., if one system of ideas is pulled out from 
 its setting, the other systems of ideas which are imme- 
 diately and mediately connected therewith are soon and 
 naturally dragged along in the same direction. The 
 mind of the philistine, however, is inelastic; but it is 
 more or less malleable. New ways of thinking and 
 doing must be hammered in slowly and patiently, and 
 old ways must be hammered out by dint of repeated 
 suggestion. If forced to accept at once new ways, it 
 breaks, it becomes demoralized. 
 
 In an elastic mind, if a set of ideas is expanded, is 
 drawn along a new direction, the connections of this 
 set with other sets of ideas are not broken : they merely 
 change their conflguration, the unity or harmony of 
 the whole being preserved. Whereas in an inelastic, 
 rigid, dogmatic, custom-bound mind, a system of ideas 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 
 
 under the pressure of new directions of thought-move- 
 ments splits up into disconnected, disaggregated, frag- 
 mentary minor systems which lose thereby their firm 
 standing ground and begin to shift around like erratic, 
 uprooted plants, driven hither and thither by water- 
 currents, winds and storms. This explains partly why 
 compulsory, sudden, civilizing of savages is always de- 
 moralizing, because it overtaxes their natural mental 
 elasticity; the main reason, however, why savages be- 
 come demoralized and disappear is the fact that they 
 come mostly in contact with, and are mercilessly preyed 
 upon by, greedy adventurers and the scum of the 
 civilized nations. 
 
 The needs of philistines, and especially of women, 
 are mostly so vague, so indefinite, so much under the 
 influence of suggestion, so little shaped by real external 
 and internal Nature, that the philistine does not know 
 how to recognize — let alone how to strive for — the ob- 
 jects capable of gratifying them. He feels that he 
 needs a guide, a leader, a teacher, to point out to him 
 what is valuable, what is to be noticed, remembered, 
 striven after, rejoiced over, boasted of, etc. He prefers 
 to have a man rather than a book or Nature for his 
 guide; for in a book the valuation of things must be 
 inferred, and Nature speaks merely in hints, whereas 
 from the living guide's words, gestures, intonation, un- 
 mistakable attitude towards men, things, ideas, he can 
 tell immediately, without much reflection, who and what 
 is worth being sought for, and who or what is to be 
 shunned or fought against. Personally, i. e., left to 
 himself, the philistine has neither strong attachments 
 nor strong aversions for men, things, ideas ; but sug- 
 gestion and guidance may inflame his naturally feeble 
 affections and desires into seemingly inextinguishable 
 passions. It is easier, of course, to instil affections 
 into the philistine's heart than to instil ideas into his 
 
334 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 mind. It is easier to suggest to him affections for men 
 and objects than for ideas and ideals. And it is easier 
 to suggest to him affections for the form than for the 
 essence of men and things. It is easier to arouse in him 
 enthusiasm for things, like base-ball, races, fights, wars, 
 . . . that give him perishable, useless, and even harm- 
 ful but momentary and immediate pleasure than for 
 things that yield permanent, useful, beatifying but not 
 immediate pleasure. 
 
 Influence of Mystics. — The mystical writers have 
 seemingly a greater influence upon the majority than 
 the clear thinkers ; for their writings have the gift of 
 telling every one what he desires to be told ; the mean- 
 ing is not read from them, but any meaning can be 
 read into them. Even earnest and clear-headed men 
 fall victims to such obscure, semi-insane, nonsense 
 talk: in their naivete they take it as a duty to try to 
 comprehend everybody, even those who do not com- 
 prehend themselves. 
 
 The mystic and the pseudo-mystic apply abstract 
 names to very concrete, trivial things, and thus they 
 seem to express general statements, generalizations, 
 original truths, lofty ideas, where in reality they have 
 in mind and mean to speak about banalities, common- 
 place, prosaic, worn-out opinions. Otherwise we could 
 not understand their verbosity, for we cannot speak 
 without having something in our minds to speak about. 
 The only trouble is that the mystical, shadowy, seem- 
 ingly significant language deceives us as to the real 
 concrete content concealed behind it. We believe to 
 hear a platonic, idealistic, agnostic, wise, impersonal, 
 preaching orator or writer, where in reality there is a 
 sensual, materialistic, anthropomorphic, vain, personal, 
 revengeful pseudo-superior man before us. 
 
 The modern mystic (theologian, spiritist, theos- 
 ophist, etc.) pays homage to Science by adopting her 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 335 
 
 language — if not throughout, at least in the introduc- 
 tory part of his writings, teachings, and preachings — 
 and is thus mistaken for a scientist, although he lacks 
 and hates the convictions, laborious methods, skeptical 
 attitude of mind, lucidity, and intellectual honesty of 
 the latter. 
 
 The clear-headed, truth-loving thinker cannot have 
 many adherents, for he expresses sharply defined opin- 
 ions — about men and things— which compel either im- 
 mediate agreement or disagreement, without allowing 
 any third alternative. By his unambiguous, bold state- 
 ments he challenges his opponents to defend their opin- 
 ions, or to surrender themselves ; no unnoticed cowardly 
 escape is left open. 
 
 Whereas the nebulous, mystical, truth-shunning 
 thinker who gropes in the dark, and not knowing him- 
 self very well what opinions to cling to, does not com- 
 pel his readers to bring order into their confused minds 
 and to assign the proper place to every idea. He 
 spares them this trouble. His writings are so shadowy, 
 so misty; he glides so easily, imperceptibly, evasively 
 from one opinion over into its opposite ; he swings so 
 quickly back and forth between opposite views, that 
 every reader finds and notices only what he likes to 
 find. What the clear-headed thinker does in the intel- 
 lectual world, the moral genius does in the politico- 
 economic world. He lays bare the real motives of 
 human action. He compels those who take offense at 
 the ugliness of the motives, in which he claims to have 
 discovered the hidden mainspring of their overt be- 
 havior, to prove their innocence by changing their 
 methods of dealing with their fellow-men, and by 
 making good for the socially evil results which they 
 claim not to have intended. 
 
 Corresponding to the mystical thinker in the intel- 
 lectual world we have the pseudo-moralist in the 
 
336 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 politico-economic world. The pseudo-moralist, unlike 
 the moral genius, makes no enemies, for his incrimi- 
 nation of evil-doers and of evil-doing is so abstract, so 
 impersonal, so shadowy, that no evil-doer will notice it ; 
 and his defense of the victims is of the same sort, and, 
 moreover, weakened by so many interlinear hints at 
 their faults that both evil-doers and victims nod con- 
 sent. 
 
 The intentionally nebulous writer or intellectual 
 demagogue, Hke his materialistic brother, the political 
 demagogue, poses as everybody's defender and friend. 
 The less gifted and cowardly fame- or office-seeking 
 pseudo-intellectuals, who do not feel able to stand on 
 their own feet (I mean: on their own merits and reason- 
 ing power) look up to him for support when that offered 
 by the reverence for tradition and for the powers that 
 be is no longer reliable. And he with unscrupulous bold- 
 ness promises them his support, while in reality it is 
 they, the more numerous minor impostors, who adver- 
 tise him and support him by leaning against him from 
 all sides. And if any of these confused-minded and 
 mind-confusing weakhngs happen to become suspicious 
 of his honesty, greatness or self-supporting ability when 
 they find out that their antagonists also lean against 
 him, then he hastens to privately reassure them that 
 they are really his favorites whereas the attentions of 
 the others he just tolerates good-humoredly or as a 
 matter of poHcy. Thus, in our times we behold the 
 intellectual weaklings and prostitutes of antagonistic 
 denominations — scientists as well as mystics, revolu- 
 tionary syndicalists as well as reactionary theologians 
 — flock to the philosophical arch-demagogue, Henri 
 Bergson, the successor of Hegel, to receive his bene- 
 diction and protection, without feeling in the least dis- 
 concerted by the fact that he welcomes friends and ir- 
 reconcilable enemies alike. 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 337 
 
 Why and How Far is the Mass Infliienced? — The 
 majority stands under the influence of extreme ideal 
 views ; the resultant, therefore, is a mean between these 
 extremes. Only extreme views are logical, but the mean 
 alone is strictly useful or practicable. 
 
 The influence of the superior men upon the average 
 men consists in preparing their minds to look at the 
 World and at human life in certain ways ; it consists in 
 bringing their minds into a state of expectant attention 
 towards the phenomena of nature and of society. 
 
 Before we become able to create we have to imitate, 
 and in order to imitate something we must have at least 
 unconscious tendencies towards it. So that the masses, 
 in order to imitate the geniuses, must possess the same 
 aspirations and ability in germ at least, they must be 
 capable of resonance, of vibrating sympathetically, in 
 unison, with the geniuses arising in their midst. And 
 the man of genius, in order to influence the masses, must 
 strive in the same direction as the majority of average 
 men. Nature and human society can be mastered only 
 by obeying their laws. 
 
 We assimilate others' ideas by means of our own ; we 
 acquire new ideas by means of old ones ; we accomplish 
 voluntarily by means of what we do spontaneously : 
 without intellectual capital — be it ever so small — no in- 
 tellectual enrichment is possible; without intellectual 
 capital, or potentialities, there are no other issues than 
 to be an intellectual laborer, i. e., to think according to 
 the thinking of intellectual capitalists, just as the finan- 
 cially poor have to work according to the will of the 
 financially rich ; the only difference — and this is a tre- 
 mendous difference which, let us hope, in a more humane 
 human society will be done away with — between the in- 
 tellectual and the financial capitalist is that the former 
 does not exploit the intellectually poor; on the con- 
 trary, he uses his intellectual capital for the benefit 
 
338 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 of all. 
 
 Helmholtz' theory that we hear such sounds only, and 
 see such colors only, for whose corresponding air- and 
 ether-vibrations we have nerve-fibers vibrating sympa- 
 thetically, i. e., at the same rate and at the same peri- 
 ods : this theory, I say, applies also, and not merely 
 metaphorically, to perception, thought, assimilation of 
 others' ideas and sentiments. If we understand others, 
 if we adopt or share their feelings, it is because, and in 
 so far only as, our higher brain centers vibrate sympa- 
 thetically with theirs. From the same books, from the 
 same speeches, from the same dramas, from the same 
 newspaper, people with different mental constitutions 
 learn, assimilate, extract different ideas, sentiments and 
 motives of action : the good make a good use thereof and 
 become better, the bad men use the very same intellect- 
 ual tools for their predatory ends and become worse 
 or more dangerous ; the intelligent become more en- 
 lightened, the stupid become more confused. It is, 
 therefore, nonsensical to dispute with our academic re- 
 positories of wisdom about the beneficial or harmful 
 influence of books, education, Christianity, religion, the 
 Bible, doctrines, theories, when we have merely to open 
 our eyes in order to see in daily life and in historic 
 records that men cannot be permanently influenced to 
 act against their own nature and economic conditions ; 
 that verbal adherence to doctrines has nothing to do 
 with practical or real adherence ; that under the same 
 flag different men fight from different motives and for 
 different ends ; that mere preaching without a concom- 
 itant change in the predatory, slavish-hierarchical foun- 
 dation of our social organization has never done away 
 with the differences in men's physical and mental malce- 
 up; that — in a few words — the real influences which 
 concern the future of the human species are, not the 
 influences of professed doctrines, but the influences ex- 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 339 
 
 erted in every-day life by the various productive and 
 parasitical types of men upon each other and upon 
 the large mass of atypical, but moldable, plastic 
 Philistines. Every one learns from others what he 
 wishes to learn, what is in line with his dominant in- 
 terests. Every influential man hears from his favorites 
 and hangers-on what he wishes to hear. If kings, 
 financial magnates, rulers, leaders, so-called prominent 
 men, ... do not hear the truth from their advisers 
 and proteges, it is because they do not want to hear it, 
 it is because they do not encourage truth-telling. 
 
 If the cogitational, the emotional, and the volitional 
 geniuses influence the masses, it is because, and in so 
 far only as, they find adequate, clear, harmonious ex- 
 pression, channels of purposeful discharge, and means 
 of realization for the vague, shadowy, groping, purpose- 
 less, wavering, timid thoughts, feelings and wishes of 
 the masses. The genius' states of mind are more in- 
 tense, more dilFerentiated, better liberated from the 
 fetters of subconscious and unconscious elements, from 
 the fetters of routine, from the fear of meeting with so- 
 cial indifference or disapproval, hence are in a more 
 favorable condition for finding expression in words, 
 actions, artistic and technical works, social institutions, 
 etc. To have poetic or artistic taste, to have critical 
 ability, means to have the ability of recognizing, of 
 feeling the adequacy of poetical or artistical forms ; it 
 means to have the ability of searching, of welcoming in 
 others the expression of our own states of mind which 
 we do not dare to emit or try in vain to find through 
 ourselves. The man of taste, the critic, the popularizer, 
 are intermediators, interpreters between the masses and 
 the geniuses. 
 
 The influence and importance of poets is mostly local 
 and national, the influence of scientists and technolo- 
 gists is of international importance, the influence of 
 
340 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 philosophers lies rather in the future than in the pres- 
 ent. The life-duration of an intellectual work is in- 
 versely proportional with the number of men directly 
 influenced by it. Thus purely artistic, literary works 
 are the most short-lived; scientific productions become 
 antiquated in a few decades ; philosophic conceptions 
 alone are quasi-immortal. 
 
 Why do we average men — who bodily live near each 
 other, but mentally miles apart — learn about real life 
 from the Stage rather than from real life itself, from 
 poets rather than from real heroes.'' 
 
 In the first place, because we identify ourselves with 
 the personages of the drama, novel, etc., so that the 
 sympathy shown them is in reality sympathy with our- 
 selves. In the second place, even the personages with 
 whom we cannot identify ourselves gain our sympathy, 
 for they speak a clear language, they open to us their 
 souls, they let us gain an insight into the entire mechan- 
 ism of their motives, so that we understand them bet- 
 ter than our fellow-men on the stage of real life. In 
 the third place, even if we do not quite understand their 
 motives, still we can sympathize with them, for our 
 sphere of interests does not conflict with theirs. 
 
 Suggestion, in order to be efficient, must take into 
 account the will of the person to be acted upon, i. e., 
 it must take into account the actual streams of con- 
 sciousness, and those associated with it. The suggested 
 ideas must be gradually introduced into the actual 
 stream, until accumulating they get a directing influ- 
 ence and change the direction of the stream, without 
 the influenced person suspecting the tyranny of a for- 
 eign will. More correctly, there is no tyranny of a for- 
 eign will, for it has become his or her own. 
 
 Just as in' the domain of physical phenomena, every 
 action causes an opposite and equal reaction; just so in 
 the domain of psychical phenomena, every command 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 341 
 
 provokes a manifested or suppressed opposition, ex- 
 cept in the case when this opposition is counteracted by 
 fear, or the command is reenforced by love, admiration, 
 confidence, i. e., readiness to act in the same direction 
 with the wishes of the commander, leader, hypnotist. 
 Hence the pedagogical rule, generally ignored and vio- 
 lated : "Do not command or dogmatize before you have 
 secured the love, admiration, confidence, or conviction 
 of your pupils, social inferiors, voters, patients, clients, 
 readers, etc." 
 
 In traditional and practical matters, superior men 
 are under the suggestive influence exerted by the mass, 
 just as the mass is under their influence in new and 
 theoretical matters. The genius — especially the one- 
 sided — cannot repress and escape entirely and forever 
 the rhythmically, periodically growing and waning sug- 
 gestive influences of inheritance, tradition, education, 
 and of the philistine masses in matters which do not 
 belong to his field of originality, and in matters of 
 sport, religion, superstition, custom, mystic beliefs, 
 skepticism, spiritism, animism, anthropomorphism. 
 Rare is the genius who succeeds in freeing himself from 
 the influence of prejudices, errors, false sympathies 
 and antipathies, capitalistic selfishness and perverted 
 standards of life which are continually instilled into the 
 minds of men at school, church, in the press, books, 
 from the political platform, etc. 
 
 Suggestion, and particularly hypnotic suggestion, in 
 contradistinction to logical persuasion, is a deceitful 
 way of making people believe that they sense, perceive, 
 think, feel, desire, what in reality they do not. It is in 
 individual life the analog of the deceitful method 
 used in political and commercial life by new men (ho- 
 mines novi, Streber, arrivistes, self-seekers, climbers, 
 . . .) when they try to intrude into the caste or closed 
 ranks of the successful or socially prominent. Since 
 
342 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the sudden and undisguised intrusion of a new idea into 
 the unthinking or philistine mind, and of a new man into 
 the ruling or successful caste, arouses opposition, criti- 
 cism, severe examination; it is necessary to introduce 
 them gradually, imperceptibly, in disguise, when the rul- 
 ing ideas or the ruling men are too weak to resist, or 
 are asleep, or have their attention diverted in other 
 directions ; it is necessary to bribe or to hoodwink into 
 silence the few opponents that remain awake, etc. 
 
 Of course, in a genuinely democratic state where 
 every man has access to the administration of public 
 affairs and where everything goes on in broad daylight, 
 there is no room for deceitful ways of becoming prom- 
 inent. Likewise with individual relations : There is no 
 opportunity for the use of deceitful ways of suggestion 
 and hypnotism with democratically-minded, unpreju- 
 diced, broad-minded individuals in whom every kind of 
 ideas find easy access and meet with acceptance merely 
 on the basis of their objectivity. Socialistic, scientific 
 education, in contradistinction to the stultifying edu- 
 cation of theologians, hired historians, capital-owned 
 teachers, does not take advantage of the children's im- 
 maturity and credulity in order to instil its teachings 
 into their minds ; scientific or socialistic education does 
 not base its teaching upon suggestion, hypnotization, 
 terrorization, deceit, upon notions which are not within 
 the children's sphere of daily experience and interests. 
 Honest politics and an honest church do not take ad- 
 vantage of the people's ignorance, poverty, intellectual 
 blindness, ungrounded fears ; they do not need secrecy, 
 mysteriousness, bluff, advertisement, pomp, parades, 
 ceremonies, etiquette, bribing or control of the press; 
 all they need is persuasion, enlightenment, appeal to 
 the people's own feelings and interests. 
 
 How Suggestion Works. — The only difference be- 
 tween mechanical, physical, chemical, physiological, 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 343 
 
 psychical and social phenomena is the increasing degree 
 of complexity. Thus : attraction, gravitation, affinity, 
 assimilation, love, social solidarity and intercourse are 
 analogous phenomena of increasing complexity, gov- 
 erned by the same law with increasing interference of 
 other laws. Sympathy and antipathy, looked at from 
 a physical point of view, could be reduced to phenomena 
 of equalization of two opposite degrees of similar emo- 
 tional states of consciousness : One suffering less in one 
 respect sympathizes with another one imagined as suf- 
 fering more in the same respect ; one enj oying less in 
 one respect feels antipathy for one enjoying more in 
 the same respect. Lack of sympathy, of emotional 
 equalization, is due to a state of insulation, isolation of 
 one of the parties concerned in this act : The capitalis- 
 tic class, insulated within the sphere of industrial and 
 selfish interests, fails to sympathize with the poor men's 
 sufferings, although taken individually the capitalist 
 may be or can be made broad-hearted; the class of av- 
 erage men, enclosed in the insulating medium of actual, 
 daily, bodily needs, is unapproachable for the disin- 
 terested spiritual pursuits of the men of genius, al- 
 though the average men broken up into smaller groups 
 can be easily approached by genial, original ideas. The 
 emotional genius works through sympathetic equaliza- 
 tion, he breaks the insulating, dielectric medium sepa- 
 rating poor and rich classes, nations, races, . . . ; the 
 active genius breaks the insulating, misoneistic medium 
 between idea and act, he rubs off the psychical rust, he 
 prompts to action by acting himself. 
 
 The suggestive influence exerted by the man of genius 
 upon the mass is analogous to the equilibration of tem- 
 peratures when a hot and a cold body are brought into 
 contact. Just as the hot body loses heat, so does the 
 man of genius and his ideals lose in loftiness when he 
 comes in soul-contact with common mortals. Society 
 
344 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 degrades the man of genius, but it elevates the average 
 man; in society, the genius simulates banality, and the 
 average man simulates originality, loftiness of ideals, 
 until the simulation becomes partially reality. The 
 equilibration of mental temperatures starts with simu- 
 lation, but ends with conviction. Only the genius who 
 does not act directly upon the people can maintain 
 himself on a high level. 
 
 The average and the pseudo-superior men stand as 
 individuals on a much lower plane, whereas the superior 
 men stand as individuals on a much higher plane, than 
 as members of society, of a public institution, than as 
 holders of public functions, as shareholders of public 
 opinion, and upholders of customs and tradition. Horde 
 life, social, guild life, acts as an inexorable leveler. 
 It levels up the philistines, and it levels down the su- 
 perior men who have no sufficient economic independ- 
 ence to act directly or indirectly upon the masses and 
 upon the guild or profession to which they naturally 
 stand the nearest, but of which they keep at a distance 
 in order to preserve their intellectual independence, in 
 order to remain unbiased and unrestrained in their 
 search for the unknown. Woe to the genius who cannot 
 sacrifice, in case of irreconcilable conflict, the joys of 
 economic security, solidarity, family affection, to his 
 stronger impulses towards the as yet solitary, unin- 
 habited land of truth! In the society of intellectual 
 men, of scholars, of thinkers, women learn to suppress, 
 to dissimulate their vain, prosaic, explosive, emotional, 
 vulnerable natures and simulate tolerance, reasonable- 
 ness, cool reflection, idealism. 
 
 It is very hard to impose an original idea upon so- 
 ciety, for no one dares to differ from the others; but 
 no sooner has an original idea begun to be looked upon 
 favorably by a few representatives of a social class than 
 all the members of the class hasten to profess it, for 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 345 
 
 no one dares to remain behind them. As we see, the 
 same cause which makes social life an almost insur- 
 mountable obstacle to originality at its beginning, 
 makes it the best vehicle or medium for the propagation 
 of original ideas, as soon as the ideas are approved by 
 the leaders. Socialism or anti-parasitism progresses 
 slowly because the so-called leading or ruling class — 
 for very obvious and personal reasons — is opposed to 
 it ; whereas other intellectual and emotional movements 
 (Reformation, Renaissance, . . .) which have first won 
 the favor of rulers, have made quick progress among the 
 masses also. 
 
 Suggestion, after having diverted the victim's atten- 
 tion, brings into the foreground of his consciousness 
 what was in the background; it aggregates states of 
 consciousness that were before in a state of dis-aggre- 
 gation ; it gives them the first impulse towards passing 
 over into act; and transformed into acts, it gives them 
 direction. A retrograde suggestion works in the con- 
 trary sense: it changes an oriented, directed, well-regu- 
 lated, purposeful, serious activity into a disoriented, 
 chaotic, aimless, playful activity ; it reduces action to 
 mere impulses or to a system of pure ideas ; it first 
 diverts the attention from the system of ideas, it then 
 dissolves it, or disaggregates it in the darkness of un- 
 consciousness. 
 
 The suggestion exerted by geniuses, in order to be 
 efficient, must work from the distance, and intermit- 
 tently ; for geniuses form a minority, and a minority 
 can defeat a majority either indirectly, through intimi- 
 dation, from a distance, giving itself the appearance of 
 a majority, or directly by attacking it intermittently, 
 for a short time, at different points. Thus, geniuses 
 have little influence in the country, where they live in 
 direct contact with the majority; in cities, the mass 
 of average men are broken up into small minorities, so 
 
346 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 that they are easily attacked, assailed by original ideas. 
 Ideas of universal value gain in momentum, influ- 
 ence, prestige, impelling force with increasing spatial 
 and temporal distance between their initiators and the 
 masses to be worked upon: Contemporaries being in 
 close contact with the masses can never exert any pro- 
 gressive influence upon the latter ; the dead rule the hv- 
 ing, not so much in virtue of what they have really been 
 or done during their lifetime, but in virtue of the mo- 
 mentum, idealization, purification, divinization, author- 
 ity, accretions which their ideas and personalities have 
 acquired through the long historical distance traversed, 
 through the many traditional transmissions. A na- 
 tion, a race, a continent that learns and receives an im- 
 pulse towards progress from another nation, race, con- 
 tinent, is not necessarily inferior to the latter. It only 
 shows thereby that it has less tolerance, less respect 
 for its own geniuses or prophets than for foreign or 
 distant geniality. It only shows that, in order to pro- 
 gress more quickly and sooner, an external impulse is 
 needed in addition to internal tendencies. There was a 
 time when the Orient was the teacher of Europe; now 
 Europe, in its turn, reacts on Asia which seemed to 
 have lost its progressing power. Contemporary gen- 
 iuses would never act efficiently and progressively upon 
 the masses if they were not psychically isolated from 
 the latter, if they were not sufficiently isolated and insu- 
 lated in order to escape the gravitating towards the 
 greater mass of philistines, if the mass of philistines — 
 owing to the principle of the division of labor — were not 
 sufficiently split up into smaller, comparatively isolated 
 groups which are thus prevented from uniting their 
 puUing-down influences upon the minority of geniuses. 
 By being split up into smaller groups the philistines 
 become more accessible to the uplifting influences of 
 geniuses, because these philistine groups are acted upon 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MASSES 347 
 
 separately and successively, certain social classes being 
 elevated first to a higher intellectual and moral level, 
 others later, and so on. 
 
 With increasing facilities of traveling and of emi- 
 grating, the intelligent, open-eyed and original individ- 
 uals leave their towns and countries, where they have 
 neither the prestige nor the courage, nor the appropri- 
 ate means to enlighten others. From the distance, from 
 their adoptive fatherland, under the shield of anonym- 
 ity or of economic independence, their messages gain in 
 prestige, their words can be more impartially, more 
 objectively and more safely listened to; they can 
 speak more openly and sincerely to their remote, per- 
 sonally unknown countrymen than to their personally 
 known fellow-immigrants ; they can shed more light 
 upon distant plg,ces than they are allowed to shed upon 
 their immediate vicinity. 
 
 Between similar psychical elements there exists a mu- 
 tual influence in the shape of association, suggestion, 
 fusion ; between dissimilar psychical elements, such as 
 sensory and motor, sensation and imagination, there is 
 a mutual influence of induction: the intensity of a be- 
 lief, and of a conviction, decreases when there comes 
 the moment of its being communicated or put into prac- 
 tise, just as the pressure in a transformer sinks when 
 any kind of resistance is inserted in its circuit. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 APPRECIATION 
 
 GROSSE SEELEN VERSUS KLEINE SEELEN 
 
 Aus Hass, Gier, neidisch Murren 
 
 Besteht das Seelen-Leben 
 
 Der niedrigen Creaturen, 
 
 Die fest am Schmutze kleben. 
 
 Sie haben von dem Geiste 
 Zwar aiisserlich den Schein. 
 Es ist doch drin das meiste 
 Nur Sehmutz und eragemein. 
 
 Stets heuchelt es das Gute 
 
 Und hascht nur nach dem Schein. 
 
 Gift fliesst in seinem Blute: 
 
 Nie wird ein Mensch draus, nein ! 
 
 Drum lasst die kleinen Seelen 
 In ihrem Schmutze wuhlen. 
 Das tut vor Neid sich qualen 
 Und wohl im Sehmutz sich fiihlen. 
 
 Dies tut vor Aerger bellen, 
 Wenn hoch am Himmel steiget 
 Der Mond auf Aether- Wellen 
 Und nicht zu ihm sich neiget. 
 
 Dies kann nur in Intriguen 
 Sein kleinlich Herz erlaben. 
 In Dreck und Faulnis Uegen 
 Und krahen wie die Raben. 
 
 Drum, wer den Drang nach oben 
 In sich, zum Edlen fuhlt, 
 Der fliege ! Moge toben 
 Im Sehmutz was unten wiihlt. 
 
 O. L. S. 
 Sniatyn, Oct. 8, 190S. 
 34S 
 
APPRECIATION 349 
 
 Singur in lume: e a ta s6rta, 
 
 Sermane poete, sermane cugetator; 
 
 Sufletu-ti pururi fu litera m6rta 
 
 Acelor din juru-ti, si-adesea tuturor. 
 
 Tu sim^i durere cat fntregul norod, 
 
 Nevoile sale sunt ale tale nevoi, 
 
 Suferl cu dtnsul chinul, jalea ce'l rod, 
 
 Cu el trapreuna te svtrcolesci in noroi. 
 
 Nimeni, dar nimeni nu simte cu tine 
 
 Ce flacari de patimi s'aprlnd In picptul teu; 
 
 Nimeni n'aude a tale suspine, 
 
 Cdnd mintea ti-o mistui cu ginduri mii mereu ! 
 
 O. L. S. 
 
 Berlin, April 4, 1901. 
 
 Difficulties in Appreciation. — Our knowledge and ap- 
 preciation of things, of the outer world, proceeds in a 
 similar way as our progressive knowledge and appre- 
 ciation of men, of the inner world. It proceeds from 
 the surface to the interior ; from the near to the dis- 
 tant; from the dynamic, movable, changeable, ephem- 
 eral to the static, steady, permanent, eternal ; from the 
 brilliant, eye-catching, obtrusive, to the modest, hidden 
 from view, unobtrusive ; from the noisy, boisterous, sen- 
 sational to the calm, reflective ; from dazzling, mysti- 
 fying sophistries to plain but sublime truth ; from mere 
 formal, external beauty to complete, internal beauty; 
 from the macrocosm to the microcosm ; from the acci- 
 dental, unessential to the constant, essential; from ap- 
 pearance, form, to reality, essence, substance ; from the 
 superficial, noisemaking, self-advertising, self-glorlfying 
 semi- and pseudo-superior men to the deep, modest, con- 
 templative, self-effacing, genuine superior men. 
 
 An uneducated fool, or lunatic, is an object of laugh- 
 ter and fun for children, whereas the nonsense talk of 
 an educated borderland-lunatic is taken seriously even 
 by clear-headed thinkers ; and causes them to waste time 
 and mental energy in trying to read a meaning into 
 what has none. 
 
350 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 Little souls appreciate men according to their 
 clothes, Dr financial rank ; and thoughts, according to 
 their wording. Since deep thoughts are obscure to 
 them, or do not convey any meaning to them, they con- 
 clude that any mystical, confused language, any com- 
 bination of high-sounding, rare words, conceal deep 
 thoughts. Hence, their admiration for mystical writ- 
 ers, for true or simulated mysticism, and their contempt 
 for clear thinkers. 
 
 If language is a garment for our thoughts, it follows 
 that it has to fit them, i. e., that the flourished, con- 
 crete, picturesque, dramatic language which is fit to 
 express emotional thoughts, is not adapted to express 
 abstract, scientific and philosophic truths ; for these are 
 of such sublime simplicity, are so rich in content that 
 no adorned linguistic garment can add anything to 
 their value, it can only divert our attention from the 
 truths or thoughts themselves and cause it to be con- 
 sumed entirely in evoking the concrete pictures and 
 images conveyed by the words. To talk philosophy in 
 picturesque, metaphoric language, in personifications, 
 will be looked upon some day as we now look upon 
 science expressed in mythological language. Pseudo- 
 superior men, if they happen to be authors, always hunt 
 for adorned, grandiloquent, picturesque, or mystical 
 language in order to divert our attention from the com- 
 mon-place truth or untruth clothed in it, in order to 
 gain a wider circle of readers and admirers among lay- 
 men who cannot grasp how deep thoughts or truths 
 can be concealed behind clear, transparent, simple lan- 
 guage, just as they underestimate the depth of a river 
 if its water is limpid and hence its bottom visible. 
 
 Nul n'est prophete dans son pays, because the or- 
 dinary mortals expect to see originality in everything, 
 even in hereditary, physiological and habitual acts. 
 Such little self-esteem do they unconsciously betray 
 
APPRECIATION 351 
 
 that they expect the superior men to be altogether dif- 
 ferent from them in every respect. 
 
 To acknowledge the merits of one who is in a posi- 
 tion to compel acknowledgment through himself, does 
 not certainly require any intellectual honesty on our 
 part: simple self-interest, and tactics, advise us to do 
 so, especially if we have to deal with a self-seeking, self- 
 asserting individual. 
 
 It is an easy matter to bow before the acknowledged 
 merit; but to find it out for one's self or to dethrone 
 sham merit, requires genuine critical ability, an intel- 
 lect and a morality above the average. This inability 
 and unwillingness to expose intellectual impostors and 
 to acknowledge or accept genuine original ideas is es- 
 pecially pronounced in our parasitical, self-appointed 
 critics and in our vain academicians and college profes- 
 sors who carry the unscrupulous competitive, pug- 
 nacious spirit of the economic world and the narrow- 
 minded chauvinism, caste spirit, sectarianism of the 
 political arena over into the intellectual world. 
 
 The value of average men lies in their muscular 
 strength or skill and in their capacity of associating 
 themselves with others ; they shine by reflecting the light 
 thrown upon them by the groups or social constellations 
 to which they belong; they are satellites revolving 
 around, and moving or advancing with, the leaders of 
 the group who, in their turn, revolve around distant, 
 to the great mass invisible, geniuses, those majestic 
 solitary stars of the human species, whose intense hght, 
 first accessible but to the psychological telescopes of a 
 selected minority, endures and reaches the naked eyes 
 of the great mass of common mortals many, many years 
 after their extinction. 
 
 The Philistine mistakes the popularizer, the journal- 
 ist, for the original man, for the thinker ; the brainless, 
 pleasure-seeking fraternity-student for the real, knowl- 
 
352 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 edge-seeking student; the musical performer for the 
 composer; the reciter for the poet; the professor of 
 philosophy for the philosopher ; the law-giver, the ruler, 
 for the law originator, social reformer, social benefac- 
 tor ; the flatterer, the demagogue for a friend, an al- 
 truist ; the preacher for the moral genius ; the gossiping 
 writer for a novelist ; the phrase-monger for an orig- 
 inal man ; the actor for the dramatist ; in a word, he 
 mistakes the pseudo- or self-styled and semi-superior 
 men for the genuine superior men whom they merely 
 impersonate, or echo, and whose inspirations they carry 
 out but slowly, imperfectly, incompletely, unfaithfully. 
 This mistake in appreciation is due to the fact that the 
 pseudo- and semi-superior men are nearer and more 
 similar to the philistines ; and, driven by vanity or ma- 
 terial interests, they obtrude themselves upon the notice 
 of, make themselves known and apparently understood 
 by, the masses. 
 
 It is strange that men, the supposedly brainiest ani- 
 mals, should be least capable of distinguishing a genu- 
 ine leader from an impostor. Instead of following the 
 genuine leader, i. e., the man who is willing to stand 
 at their head, at the place of greatest danger and hard- 
 ship, they worship dignified-looking scoundrels, cowards 
 masquerading as heroes, parasites posing as guides, 
 who hide themselves behind or in the midst of their ad- 
 herents in order to use the latter as shields to protect 
 themselves against attacks or as a ladder upon which 
 to climb to prominent, privileged, secure, well-en- 
 trenched, unassailable positions. Men are the only ani- 
 mals that fight their leader's battles against his rivals ; 
 the other gregarious animals let the candidates for lead- 
 ership fight it out among themselves, and then follow 
 the conqueror, that is, the strongest. 
 
 The value or importance of negligible quantities is 
 usually over-estimated when, by their being added, an 
 
APPRECIATION 353 
 
 equilibrium is disturbed, a turning of the scales occurs. 
 Thus, we over-estimate men of little talent, and pseudo- 
 superior men, when the}' espouse the cause of lofty 
 ideals floating in the air, and on the point of being real- 
 ized. He who has a fine scent to find out ideals of this 
 sort, and knows how to drift with the stream, has not 
 only the advantage of being mistaken for an ideal man, 
 but he can also with impunity gratify his grosser ma- 
 terialistic cravings. A pseudo-superior man conceals 
 his lack of noble sentiments behind apparently altru- 
 istic acts, and by an effusion of simulated sentiments 
 he conceals his unwillingness to act. Under the mask of 
 an apparent even-mindedness, reflective calmness, grav- 
 ity, the pseudo-superior men conceal their frivolity, 
 petty-mindedness, their obtuse, frozen, self-centered 
 heart ; under the mask of an ever-smiling, kind-looking 
 physiognomy, they conceal the lack of social sentiments, 
 the lack of genuine sympathy. The assumed air of 
 gravity — which is but a refined form of the terrifying 
 or bullying instinct of beasts — is also intended to 
 frighten others into submission and respect. 
 
 The masses in their appreciation of a superior man 
 do not know how to distribute their praise and admira- 
 tion. They either admire everything he said or did, 
 even his faults, vagaries, intellectual weeds, semi-insane 
 acts : or they ridicule everything in him, even his most 
 humanitarian, most significant fertilizing ideas and ac- 
 tions. They do not know how to combine in due pro- 
 portion, how to harmonize, praise and blame one 
 and the same person; they do not understand how a 
 sane, superior mind may be insane, deficient in some 
 respects ; they do not understand how a man who is 
 superior to them may have the same weaknesses like 
 many of them; they rather prefer to see in these weak- 
 nesses mere appearances, or necessary concomitants of 
 the higher qualities. 
 
354 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The mass, in its appreciation of men and things, 
 confuses extremes; for it takes into consideration un- 
 essential, superficial similarities. Thus, ordinary mor- 
 tals mistake an insane man for a genius, and vice versa ; 
 for genius and insanity often go together, and both are 
 original; they mistake nonsense for depth of thought, 
 for both are inaccessible to their understanding. The 
 philistines can not grasp that the originality of the 
 insane is equivalent to a deficiency in Inhibitory capac- 
 ity, to a despotism of vanity, whereas the originality of 
 the genius means a surplus of energy ; that the incom- 
 prehensibility of deep thought lies in its abstractness, 
 in the vastness of its views, whereas that of nonsense 
 lies in the incoherency between the ideas. 
 
 The genuine superior man may dislike posthumous 
 fame, he may complain of the lack of admiration and 
 recognition on the part of the masses during his life- 
 time ; but for the progress of society as a whole, the in- 
 gratitude of the contemporaries is very advantageous. 
 For the admired genius falls, against his will, under the 
 spell of mass suggestion. In exchange for the admira- 
 tion shown to him, he has to tolerate the puerilities, the 
 bodily and mental malformations, the nonsensical and 
 grotesque beliefs of the masses ; nay, more, he has to in- 
 vent eulogistic theories in defense thereof, he has to 
 make a compromise between his lofty pure ideals and the 
 terre-a-terre impure aspirations of the multitude. 
 
 Those who maintain that geniuses have to be encour- 
 aged in their creative work by admiration, social recog- 
 nition, material assistance, do not know the real nature 
 of geniuses ; they do not know the spontaneous, the irre- 
 sistibly impulsive, the self-rewarding character of gen- 
 ius ; they do not know how necessary psychical isola- 
 tion, social obscurity or lack of social prominence, is 
 for the preservation of the loftiness and the purity of 
 genial creations. 
 
APPRECIATION 355 
 
 The envious praises one man in order to be able the 
 better to decry another one, or he praises a part of a 
 man's merits in order to open an easy access for his 
 censuring the more essential merits. Praise is, with the 
 envious, a means, a tool of his hidden destructive inten- 
 tions, a means of getting the appearance of impartiality 
 and thus gaining the confidence of his readers or of his 
 audience. 
 
 Language and thought are a discontinuous, inade- 
 quate translation of our conscious mental activity, or 
 rather a synthesis of its most prominent parts ; con- 
 scious activity, in its turn, is discontinuous with re- 
 spect to our sub- and un-conscious mental activity ; the 
 latter is a discontinuous translation of external influ- 
 ences acting continually upon our senses. Hence, the 
 difficulty of reading the real thoughts of a genius be- 
 hind his words, especially when he reads new meanings 
 into old words. 
 
 Artistic and technological geniuses clothe their cre- 
 ations in tangible, palpable, concrete forms. Hence, 
 their greater chance of being appreciated during their 
 lifetime and by their own nation than thinkers, scien- 
 tists, philosophers, whose merits belong to the invisible, 
 but very real, world of ideas, of morality. Moreover, 
 the creations of the former are usually of an actual, 
 direct utility to mankind; whereas scientific and philo- 
 sophic creations are of a future, potential or indirect 
 usefulness. 
 
 The mania for experimenting and calculating in mod- 
 ern psychology is so widespread and highly esteemed 
 that it is carried on and allowed even there where the 
 same results are already attained in a much less la- 
 borious way through observation, even there where no 
 real results are reached or likely to be reached. This 
 is a case of scientific idolatry, fetichism for numbers 
 and apparatus. We forget that experimenting, cal- 
 
356 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 culating, are only instruments of verification, means of 
 the human intellect; that their returns are in propor- 
 tion to the capital, stock of knowledge and ability we 
 bring with us before entering upon the business of 
 experimenting, calculating, deducing formulas. Our 
 respect for the experimental method is transferred over 
 to the experimenter and his work, even if he has no 
 aim before his eyes and attains no goal, even if the 
 conclusions drawn from his piles of figures and pseudo- 
 facts are so poor that to say about them "parturivMt 
 monies, nascitur ridicuhis mus" would be a compli- 
 ment. 
 
 An intelligence that can be read on one's face is an 
 intelligence that exists merely on the sur-face; for 
 genuine intellectual activity is going on deeper, it does 
 not easily betray itself on the surface. A lively face 
 may characterize a man of fine perception, a smart, 
 open-eyed and clever man ; but disinterested intellect is 
 not continually on the alert to find out what is going 
 on in the external world. On the contrary, deep, inner 
 mental activity goes often together with a seemingly 
 sleepy face, with intermittent perceptional obtuseness. 
 
 Under normal circumstances, and excepting cases of 
 physiognomical mimicry (positive mimicry or the simu- 
 lating and expressing of feelings that one does not 
 feel ; negative mimicry or suppressing the expression of 
 one's inner state of mind), one's physiognomy reveals 
 and betrays not so much or not so clearly the momen- 
 tary state of mind, the acquired temperament or char- 
 acter, the feelings and motives one is conscious of, the 
 surface of the soul, what one is, the soul of the individ- 
 ual, one's thinking, ... as it does reveal and betray 
 the usual or relatively permanent state of mind, the 
 inherited temperament and character, the feelings and 
 motives one is not conscious of, the depths or bottom 
 of the soul, what one tends to be in virtue of hereditary 
 
APPRECIATION 357 
 
 influences, the soul of the ancestors, one's feeling. . . . 
 The genius has neither the stupid, expressionless or 
 monoexpressional face of the philistine nor the wide- 
 awake face and alert eye of the superficially, prac- 
 tically intelligent business man. His physiognomy ex- 
 presses calmness, serenity, dreaminess, sojourn in the 
 far-away realms of Thought, no or only partial partici- 
 pation in what is actually going on around him. 
 
 Our parasite-infested social organization, with its 
 despotical, deceitful, predatory ruling class at the top 
 and the downtrodden, oppressed, fear-stricken toiling 
 masses at the bottom, has brought about a curious lack 
 of correspondence, nay, a curious contradiction between 
 physiognomy and character or intelligence. Thus we 
 see members of the predatory class in whom the ability 
 of mimicking, simulating, exclusively cultivating and ex- 
 aggerating the form, outer appearance or manifesta- 
 tion of whatever is commonly held in high esteem has 
 reached such a degree of perfection that it is not only 
 inborn, organic, but is also expressed in their anatomic 
 features : They are deception incarnate or personified ; 
 they have larger heads, higher foreheads, more expres- 
 sive eyes, a more defying or challenging attitude, a more 
 smiling and confidence-inspiring face, in short, a more 
 intelligent-, kind-, or brave-looking physiognomy than 
 the intellectual proletarians in comparison with whom 
 they unmask themselves as intellectual pygmies and 
 cowards ; they improve upon the outer appearance of 
 their parvenu ancestors, while neglecting to prevent the 
 escape of even the little content of shrewdness which 
 enabled the latter to rise on the backs of the toilers. 
 Whereas among the members of the toiling class — who 
 must hide, repress, give up all individual pecuharities 
 and serve merely as tools of the exploiting class — we 
 meet with men whose intelligence seems to have escaped 
 persecution by hiding itself behind a stupid- or insignifi- 
 
358 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 cant-looking face, whose real courage cannot be guessed 
 from their inherited timid look and shrunken body, 
 whose good nature and self-sacrificing love of men seems 
 to be contradicted by their sorrowful, sour, or embit- 
 tered faces : The indelible marks of stultification, fear, 
 submission, worry, left on their faces, tell the class or 
 race to which they belong, but do not betray their real 
 individuality, their hidden streams of thoughts, their 
 noble, courageous, hopeful, tender hearts beating 
 within their rough, hardened, ugly bodies. 
 
 Every man, superior or inferior, has to be appre- 
 ciated in his own sphere of interests ; for interest is the 
 main prerequisite for the attention: what we are not 
 interested in, we do not attend to ; what we do not at- 
 tend to, we are inclined to overlook, to judge illogically. 
 A poet of genius may be a poor logical thinker ; a deep 
 philosopher may be a superficial scientist, but he re- 
 mains none the less a deep philosopher. 
 
 The true genius must be more or less of a philoso- 
 pher ; for, even if he be not a born philosopher, advanc- 
 ing far enough in the field of his own specialty, he must 
 necessarily trespass sooner or later on the fields of the 
 other sciences and arts, and thus be brought before the 
 question. What is the connection between all sciences, 
 what is the underlying reality, harmony ; in other words, 
 he becomes philosophically-minded. 
 
 The speculative thinker, the philosopher, is too much 
 interested in general, final, comprehensive views, in 
 higher syntheses of concepts, in Weltanschauungen, 
 to spend his energy in observation, experimenting, which 
 must necessarily confine themselves to a single aspect 
 of a single class of facts; just as the workingman in 
 our specialized, complex modem industrial organiza- 
 tion confines his work to an almost infinitesimal detail; 
 whereas the manager, the financial speculator, turn 
 their attention to the entire complex field of a certain 
 
APPRECIATION 359 
 
 industry, to the entire actual and possible field of pro- 
 duction, distribution, transportation, selling, consump- 
 tion, influencing or bribing the government, etc. Just 
 as in the industrial world, an intelligent, sober, greedy, 
 ambitious, unscrupulous, hypocritical workingman may 
 rise to the dignity of a foreman in a special department 
 of the factory, industrial or commercial concern ; then, 
 judging by analogy, he may come to acquire a super- 
 ficial but for business purposes sufficiently accurate 
 knowledge of the work carried on in the other depart- 
 ments of the concern; and finally, at a more advanced 
 age, he may rise to the top, to the dignity of an active 
 partner, manager, etc. : just so, in the intellectual world, 
 an observer or experimenter of superior intelligence may 
 advance to the dignity of a scientist; by analogy with 
 his own specialty, he may acquire a tolerable knowl- 
 edge of other allied sciences ; and may finally, when ad- 
 vanced in age, rise to the top of philosophical specula- 
 tion. Just as, in the industrial world, a man of inborn 
 commercial proclivities, and financially well situated, in 
 order to open a manufacturing business, must not 
 necessarily start as a simple specialized workingman, 
 but may simultaneously gather information about all 
 the factory operations and their order of sequence, im- 
 portance, etc.; just so, in the intellectual world, a man 
 with inborn speculative ability, and with an independent 
 character, may simultaneously assimilate the obser- 
 vations and the experiments made by the scientific work- 
 ers in the various connected fields of knowledge, and 
 then he may begin to speculate on the basis of these as- 
 similated, and very seldom personally worked-out, 
 knowledges. Just as workingmen rest contented with 
 simple, little varied, not specially nor artfully prepared 
 food; just so, in the intellectual world, the scientific 
 workingman, i. e., the pure observer or experimenter, 
 the non-speculative scientist, rests content with brute. 
 
360 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 primitive, unvaried intellectual food, i. e., with mere 
 meaningless, uninterpreted, brute observations of a 
 single kind. Whereas the intellectual aristocrat, the 
 thinker, needs a larger range of varied, specially pre- 
 pared intellectual food, i. e., he needs all sorts of ob- 
 servations gleaned in all scientific fields and variously 
 interpreted, analyzed, and synthetized. 
 
 The speculative thinker is endowed by Nature with 
 an intellectual capital, i. e., with inborn abilities of 
 drawing the most intellectual profit out of single ex- 
 periences, or with the inborn ability of forming general 
 views, conceptions, hypotheses. He very seldom de- 
 scends into the low regions of brute facts and of per se 
 insignificant details, in order to verify, modify, his old 
 hypotheses and acquire suggestions for new ones. Usu- 
 ally he leaves detailed verifications and modifications of 
 his general views to the scientists, observers, experiment- 
 ers who, inheriting less or no intellectual capital, confine 
 their field of activity to working out the suggestions 
 of the former and preparing the raw material needed 
 by the former for further intellectual constructions. 
 This is the role of scientists, and especially of pure ob- 
 servers or pure experimenters, although they like to 
 disown their anonymous intellectual employer, or bene- 
 factor, and although they try now and then to become 
 independent of him. 
 
 Reputation, success, presupposes ability, among 
 other qualities ; but the converse is not necessarily true : 
 Ability alone does not lead to reputation. Opportunity 
 being given, a lesser degree and even a mere semblance 
 of superiority is sufficient for attaining reputation. 
 Hence, living superior men cannot be appreciated ac- 
 cording to their reputation. Nor is it fair to consider 
 with Gal ton a man superior to his fellow-men just be- 
 cause he happens to have a good reputation, an in- 
 fluential position, the opportunity of exerting power. 
 
APPRECIATION 361 
 
 making noise, appropriating and putting into practise 
 others' ideas, and — in short — of doing what any normal 
 average man could do in his place. 
 
 C P* 
 
 A- 
 A'- 
 
 
 JL. 
 
 ff 
 
 The analytical writer who moves in straight lines 
 only, i. e., who deals with a single line of thought at a 
 time, has more chance of being read and understood by 
 many, and of gaining quickly reptuation, wealth, etc., 
 than the synthetical writer who while describing the 
 part cannot refrain from giving an idea of the whole, 
 and while following up a definite line of thought ABCD 
 cannot refrain from little digressions, from at least in- 
 dicating on his way the collateral lines of thought, an- 
 alogous or parallel lines A' B' C D', the super- and 
 subordinated thoughts connected therewith, the prin- 
 ciples and the possible applications, etc. The synthetic 
 thinker naturally writes less books than the analytical 
 thinker, let alone than the purely erudite writer; for he 
 offers in one work so many new and fruitful ideas, each 
 of which would be used by an analytical writer to fill 
 a volume by diluting it in a mass of unnecessary de- 
 tails, illustrations, repetitions of commonplace knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 To have abilities is one thing ; to know how to trans- 
 form them into wealth, fame, success, is a quite different 
 thing, is an ability apart ; to get wealth, fame, success, 
 by exploiting others' abilities, is a third kind of ability, 
 although an immoral and parasitical one. If genius 
 and fame were necessarily bound up together, we should 
 know the names of those innumerable geniuses of the 
 people who have condensed their wisdom in proverbs. 
 
362 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 their noble sentiments in the folk-literature, instead of 
 spreading them out in voluminous printed books. Not 
 the genuine original man who is never in a hurry to 
 publish his original ideas as soon as they arise in his 
 mind but waits until he sees them grouping themselves 
 into an harmonious whole, not this Spinoza-type of 
 thinkers become famous during their lifetime ; but those 
 pseudo- and semi-superior men who spread their slight- 
 est original ideas into magazine articles, those who un- 
 derstand how to exploit actuality, how to fight and talk 
 about one-sided, immature theories and movements on 
 account of their being sensational, actual, in fashion, 
 i. e., fit for ostentation of superiority, and on account 
 of their authors being men of established reputation, 
 and not on account of the intrinsic and permanent value 
 of the theories themselves. In our present individualis- 
 tic society based upon an inexorable, unscrupulous com- 
 petition among its members, the main requirement to 
 get and to keep a position is not so much the specific 
 ability to perform one's duties as the unearned privilege 
 of having been born into an influential family, the abil- 
 ity to please or, rather, to flatter one's superiors, the 
 ability to conceal one's poverty, ignorance or inca- 
 pacity, the ability to exploit one's social inferiors and 
 willingness to share the spoils with superiors. 
 
 Only those who hopefully and naively rush straight 
 and whole-souled into the uncertain battle of life, with- 
 out any arriere-pensee or mental reservation to de- 
 sert the field of battle, to take the roundabout way of 
 parasitism and hypocrisy in case of imminent danger 
 or failure, to break with the moral code as soon as it 
 becomes a hinderance to their success ; only those, I say, 
 begin soon to feel the burden of life's tasks and respon- 
 sibilities, become paralyzed by the fear of failure, are 
 exposed to premature breakdown, are exposed to being 
 inexorably thrust back by life's stumbling-blocks into 
 
APPRECIATION 363 
 
 the abyss of misery, apathy, vegetation, and insanity. 
 
 In the so-called sociable man, the critical sense is. 
 over-active, over-zealous when he has to deal with the 
 disinherited and exploited class, with homines novi, 
 with superior men unknown to public opinion ; and the 
 same critical sense falls asleep, nay, it becomes under- 
 active when he has to deal with wealthy, prominent or 
 illustrious men. In the over-active, hypercritical stage, 
 he sees common-place, banality, defects where there is 
 true originality, genuine merit ; in the under-active, hyp- 
 ocritical stage, he tries to see the reverse, his parvi- 
 fying eyes become magni-fying. The so-called sociable 
 man is' superficial in all respects : in his thinking, feel- 
 ing, and acting. He is friendly with everybody, but a 
 friend of nobody. He talks about everything, but at 
 bottom he understands nothing. 
 
 Superiority in intelligence can never be tested, except 
 by means of original work. For knowledge may be 
 merely verbal or memorized, reasoning about old sub- 
 jects may be merely an analogical reasoning, made by 
 analogy with memorized reasoned-out problems. The 
 difference between real and verbal knowledge is the fact 
 that the possessor of real knowledge can draw further 
 conclusions from it and make practical application 
 of it. 
 
 Just as there are so-called sons of good families who 
 find access everywhere without being asked for legitima- 
 tion, without being controlled as to whether they be- 
 long there, so there are words, phrases, sentences of 
 good repute, which being handled by any humbugger in 
 discussing any scientific, philosophic, or literary matter, 
 give him the appearance of a thinking man, because our 
 respect for those stereotyped expressions prevents us 
 from testing their legitimation in a certain context. In 
 other words, the thoughtless, superficial humbugger 
 hides himself behind expressions that mean something to 
 
364 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 others, but are empty words to him; he exploits sym- 
 bols of thought, just as dishonest politicians and deal- 
 ers exploit symbols of patriotic, domestic, etc., senti- 
 ments. What is true of stereotyped, sanctioned ex- 
 pressions holds good, although in a lesser degree, of 
 language in general: A thoughtless or superficial man 
 can speak without his thoughtlessness being detected; 
 because we, naive people, are used to see thoughts be- 
 hind language. 
 
 Just as philistines, and even psychologists, especially 
 the so-called ethnical psychologists, are usually unable 
 to understand the psyche of individuals belonging to 
 other classes, countries, nationalities or epochs, owing 
 to external, superficial, or acquired, imitated differences 
 in language, manners, customs, clothing, etc., which the 
 former mistake for fundamental or inborn differences ; 
 just so do the masses of philistines, living in very low 
 intellectual regions, misunderstand and even ignore or 
 doubt the existence of the intellectual heights with their 
 broad horizons and pure moral atmosphere where the 
 genuine superior men live : the only superior men whom 
 the masses admire and hail as such, are the semi- and 
 pseudo-superior men who live at an intellectual level 
 sufficiently high to enable them to see and to ape the 
 loftiness of genuine superior men, but very near the 
 low region of common mortals to be within the visible 
 range of these and to dazzle them with the light of their 
 economic success and prominence. 
 
 Since lucrative occupations or serious activities are 
 nowadays very seldom a matter of choice and of specific 
 ability, it follows that a man's character, dominant in- 
 terest and ability, betrays itself much better in, or can 
 much better be appreciated or inferred from, the kind 
 of amusement, play activity or unremunerative occu- 
 pation in which he freely, preferably and sincerely takes 
 delight, i. e., in which he does not indulge for the mere 
 
APPRECIATION 365 
 
 sake of interested or disinterested sociability; for in 
 play or in revery man expresses or vents his impulses 
 which have been partly or entirely suppressed during 
 his bread-winning activity. Thus the pseudo-scientist, 
 whose scientific investigations are mostly plagiarisms 
 and a mere instrument for enrichment or gratification 
 of vanity, will never seek relaxation in disinterested in- 
 vestigations, discussions, conversations not pertaining 
 to or not in connection with his specialty, but will 
 rather do anything else or idle away his leisure time. 
 The genuine thinker finds relaxation only in self-imposed 
 intellectual pursuits, revery, lectures, reading, instruc- 
 tive and thought-stimulating conversations, walks or 
 travels that furnish unlooked-for material for reflec- 
 tion, but never in the philistine's games or aimless 
 muscular exercises. The business man who does not 
 get sufficient satisfaction or profit out of his business, 
 and who is in business, not for a mere livelihood, but 
 out of greed or rapacity, finds relaxation in gambling, 
 card-playing, ball games, races and prize-fights, which 
 mimic the exciting competition or warfare of the busi- 
 ness world. The wage slave who drudges day after 
 day, year after year, without any hope for better cir- 
 cumstances will find pleasure — if he is not yet entirely 
 stultified — in listening to agitators or pioneers of a 
 better social order; if stupid, he will find pleasure in 
 forgetfulness, sleep, thoughtlessness, or illusory hopes 
 and happiness induced by intoxicants, narcotics, joking, 
 mutual teasing, lotteries, betting, etc. The pseudo- 
 ruler who in modem times has no more chances of fight- 
 ing and killing men, and who does not really care to 
 leave the world a little better than he found it, will in- 
 dulge during his leisure time in boxing, hunting, killing 
 animals, or in intrigues, secret vindictiveness, schemes 
 of boosting and immortalizing himself. Of the great 
 mass of modem women, for whom love is the main or 
 
366 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 only business in life, those who are serious-minded, sex- 
 ually honest and not actually in love will find relaxation 
 in the reading of novels that deal with love affairs ; the 
 sexually dishonest spend their leisure time on flirta- 
 tions, in frequent visits to resorts for pleasure-seekers ; 
 the married and sexually honest women of the well-to- 
 do class find pleasure in gossip, aimless and endless talk, 
 slander, private philanthropy, dilettantism, etc. ; only 
 the poor workingmen's wives who are faithful to their 
 domestic duties can hardly find time for amusement. 
 The idler whose entire time is filled out merely by play, 
 wasteful consumption, pleasure-seeking, love-making, 
 etc., is at an even lower level than animals which have 
 at least one serious pursuit in life, viz., securing of food 
 for themselves and their progeny. The honest man who 
 takes seriously his duties as a bread-winner and who 
 hardly ekes out a living for his family does not seek 
 any relaxation or amusement ; the individual who is so 
 fortunate as to follow a profession which is at the same 
 time his vocation, i. e., the realization of his natural 
 abilities or interests, is not much in need of relaxation. 
 He who really likes his work and considers it as his 
 life calling never seeks or finds pleasure in an activity 
 of an opposite kind. Thus the genuine philanthropist 
 does not find pleasure in joining in the plutocrat's fa- 
 vorite faultfinding with the poor; the genuine scholar 
 could not waste his time on gossip, platitudes, petty 
 ambitions, athletics ; the genuine, vocational athlete 
 sincerely abhors intellectual pursuits ; the genuine, dis- 
 interested leader of men cannot find time for idle 
 amusements ; the genuine labor leader does not feel 
 at ease at the table or in the parlors of the exploiters ; 
 and so on. 
 
 Admiration without Adherence. — We may admire a 
 great thinker without admitting his theories, if we keep 
 in mind that the fundamental ideas upon which he con- 
 
APPRECIATION 367 
 
 sciously or unconsciously is building, are often im- 
 posed, impressed upon him through physiological or 
 social heredity. He may have built a masterly, logical, 
 intellectual edifice upon a shaky, illogical foundation. 
 Hence, we cannot always take the amount of solid ob- 
 jective truth attained by a genius as a criterion of his 
 greatness. Objectivity is the true criterion for those 
 geniuses who are at liberty to choose their basis of 
 foundation. Logic, consistency, is a general criterion 
 for the greatness of all geniuses. The writings of the 
 genius are harmonious organic wholes, intellectual or- 
 ganisms rather than complete, systematical arrange- 
 ments of related knowledge. The reverse holds of the 
 non-original writers. 
 
 Treatment of Superior Men and Their Social Use- 
 fulness. — ^We treat men, not according to their merits, 
 or according to what they are, but according to what 
 they pretend to be, according to their claims or pre- 
 tensions. The pseudo-superior man takes advantage 
 of this natural mixture of cowardice and pohteness of 
 the average civihzed man; whereas the true superior 
 man is toO' modest, too reticent, too absorbed in higher 
 pursuits to ask for the treatment he deserves. Instinc- 
 tively, or out of fear, cowardice and self-interest, we 
 bow before, and give importance to, those who assume 
 an air of importance, usurp authority, and do not shirk 
 any foul means that may be necessary in order to keep 
 it up. 
 
 The ideal man, the straight-minded, the poor, are 
 exposed to having their merits turned into defects, or 
 ignored, or at best under-rated, and to having their de- 
 fects over-rated, if not entirely invented. For they 
 have no time, patience, opportunity, or ability to pro- 
 claim their own rights and merits. Nor can they com- 
 pete with the pseudo-superior men who boldly, per- 
 sistently, and loudly impress their superiority, their 
 
GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 claims on honor and respectful treatment, upon the in- 
 tellectually blind masses, which have neither the cour- 
 age, nor the need, nor the means of verifying the jus- 
 tification, the foundation of such claims. By pseudo- 
 superior I do not mean a man wholly destitute of merit 
 arid of usefulness for mankind. Superiority cannot be 
 simulated, imitated, by him who has none. Simulation 
 means to exaggerate what we have in a small quantity ; 
 to give the appearance of actuality, permanence, vol- 
 untariness to what occurred in the past, occasionally, 
 spontaneously ; to give the appearance of altruism, sym- 
 pathy with others, to what is in reality egotism, sym- 
 pathy with ourselves or self-pity. 
 
 The usefulness and harmfulness of the pseudo-supe- 
 rior man is in the intellectual world the same as that of 
 the middlemen in the commercial and economic world. 
 They are a necessary evil as long as producers and 
 consumers, I mean geniuses and people thirsty for 
 knowledge, are widely apart, are not in immediate con- 
 tact, are not united into one and the same class. The 
 semi-superior men (poets, novelists, literary writers, 
 emotional geniuses, most social reformers) are more 
 honest, socially more useful, because less selfish, intel- 
 lectual intermediators between the great original, in- 
 dependent, solitary thinkers and the masses than the 
 pseudo-superior men (most professors, professional 
 preachers and moralists, journalists, leaders, profes- 
 sional or imitative writers, i. e., writers without in- 
 spiration, academical philosophers, sectarian and of- 
 ficial scientists . . .). The prominent and influential 
 pseudo-superior men are too well trained and born 
 actors to betray their real characters, their real 
 thoughts, feelings, and doings. But no matter how skil- 
 fully they may deceive themselves, the masses, and even 
 sincere historians, they cannot conceal their meanness 
 and hypocrisy from the scrutinizing eye of the inde- 
 
APPRECIATION 369 
 
 pendent truth-lovers who, unfortunately, are as yet 
 such rarcB aves, who, in their appreciation of such her- 
 metically sealed individualities, guide themselves by the 
 maxim, "TeU me whom you favor, and I'll tell you who 
 you are" ; "Do you favor hypocrites, mercenary or 
 venal panegyrists, and self-seekers, then you belong to 
 the same class." 
 
 The morally pseudo-superior men (professional mor- 
 alists, preachers, most leaders and organizers of philan- 
 thropic, labor, political, ethical, . . . institutions) 
 pose as intermediators between the moral geniuses and 
 the masses. The moral geniuses supply, without ex- 
 pecting and without getting any other remuneration but 
 inner moral satisfaction, ethically original ideas, 
 schemes for bettering the condition of the people, for 
 raising the moral level, for increasing human solidarity. 
 And the financial or exploiting class supply the ma- 
 terial means for the support of such institutions, on 
 condition that the pseudo-superior men, in their ap- 
 parent altruistic work, do not interfere with, or be- 
 tray, the criminal and parasitical methods of the ex- 
 ploiters. The moral genius is too distinterested, too 
 honest, to accept support from the ruling and exploit- 
 ing class on such conditions. On the other hand, he is 
 too poor and too lonely to be able to carry on the holy 
 fight on his own account. Moral progress is, therefore, 
 left mostly in the hands of pseudo-superior men who are 
 willing to make a compromise between their own con- 
 victions and their personal interests ; who — in other 
 words — are quite willing, although not very eager, to 
 serve the people if their own interests are also furthered 
 by so doing. A radical, quick, complete, real cure of 
 social evils cannot, of course, be expected from such 
 semi-mercenary defenders of morality. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man is rather a hindrance to 
 than a factor or promoter of truth, ;morality, art, 
 
870 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 progress, social happiness. He turns everything into 
 a profession, into a business, into a source of personal 
 profit. He embraces the cause of a new truth, idea, 
 sentiment, rehgious, social or ethical movement, if, so 
 long as and in so far only as, it can be made profitable 
 to himself. But he lives just as well and at the same 
 time on the prejudices, fears, superstitions, ignorance, 
 quarrels, ... of the masses, as he lives on the higher 
 pursuits, inventions, lofty ideals, peace aspirations of 
 superior men. Like the middlemen of the economic 
 world, he has no real interest either in producers or in 
 consumers, either in employers or in employees, either in 
 the ruler or in the ruled, either in defendants or in plain- 
 tiff^s, etc. He cheats both out of their possessions ; he 
 keeps both asunder, while making believe that he tries 
 to bring them together ; he keeps up and instigates class 
 struggles or antagonisms, under the mask of working 
 for reconciliation. He is neither interested in the ces- 
 sation of social evils nor in the victory of the good ; for 
 this would mean the end of his lucrative and glorious 
 parasitical career. His craving for power or authority 
 is but a mitigated and disguised form of rapacity. The 
 pseudo-superior men are the merchants of the intellec- 
 tual world: they commercialize, capitalize, sell, nay, 
 they often also take the credit for, the ethical, religious, 
 scientific ideas which they steal from the intellectual 
 producers or geniuses ; whereas the dealers in material 
 commodities cannot so easily avoid giving some credit 
 and paying something to their victims, that is, to the 
 economic producers. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man, while giving himself the 
 appearance of furthering human progress, is in reality 
 a hindrance in its path. He who has no ability whatso- 
 ever of doing, inventing, composing, writing, ruling, 
 guiding, constitutes himself a critic, counselor, and has 
 the audacity of setting down, prescribing, or teaching 
 
APPRECIATION 371 
 
 the methods of acting, the rules of invention and com- 
 position, the forms of writing, the standards of lan- 
 guage, the laws to be obeyed by the masses and by the 
 geniuses. He who thrives by circumventing, transgress- 
 ing, violating the laws constitutes himself a legisla- 
 tor and enforcer of laws. The pseudo-superior men 
 invent all kinds of handicapping devices to keep the 
 superior men and the masses in bondage; they invent 
 all kinds of legal, financial and other networks for cap- 
 turing the fruits of the people's labor. They turn the 
 originally or supposedly useful institutions into sources 
 of gain for themselves, into means of enslaving the 
 masses and of holding back the aspiring, high-soaring 
 geniuses. Fortunately, however, they get sometimes 
 caught in their own nets of legal fiction and of empty 
 idealistic, patriotic talk, and have to stick therein un- 
 til they find a way out of it; but meanwhile the genu- 
 inely ideal men and the masses regain an ever-increasing 
 part of their lost freedom. And lately the economic, 
 financial, commercial, political, educational, and other 
 apparatus have become so complicated, so labyrinthine, 
 so interdependent, so international in character that 
 they promise to grow beyond the concerted and imme- 
 diate control of pseudo-superior men, and hence to be- 
 come ready to be taken over by the entire nation, nay, 
 by the whole intelligent and honest portion of mankind. 
 Under the actual reign of hypocrites, of pseudo-su- 
 perior men, fostered by the competitive struggle for ex- 
 istence, there is no danger in talking idealism ; for every 
 one does so, even the crassest, most incarnate material- 
 ist. The superior man, the idealistj becomes an ob- 
 ject of hatred, a bete noire, when he is so naive as 
 to act as he thinks and speaks, when he is so naive as 
 to think that all those who talk idealism are with him, 
 while in reality they are against him, for the ideal 
 principles which they proclaim are not meant for every- 
 
372 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 day use. Unsuccessful, he stands alone ; successful, he 
 has the whole world on his side; all the hypocritical 
 pseudo-idealists vie with each other in greeting, hailing, 
 proclaiming him as their leader, master, and what not. 
 
 The ideal man is the enfant terrible of his friends 
 and acquaintances. They like him privately, but keep 
 away from him in their public and social life where they 
 are wearing the same mask like all the rest. The ideal 
 man is badly disillusioned if from the friendship shown 
 him privately by everybody he infers that he may count 
 upon it in public life. 
 
 The lot of the ideal superior man was, is, and will 
 always be : abnegation, solitude. Socrates, despised 
 by the sophists, his contemporaries, and condemned by 
 the then ruling pseudo- and semi-superior men, would 
 not be better oiF to-day if through some miraculous 
 chance he should reappear upon earth : the professors 
 of philosophy, or the modem sophists, and the political 
 leaders who constantly quote and glorify him, would 
 be ashamed of counting him among their friends or 
 guests. And those who to-day preach in the name 
 of Jesus, would keep away from him as from an un- 
 sociable, inadaptable, eccentric revolutionist, should he 
 be so unfortunate as to reappear among them. Nay, 
 I am afraid, they would soon excommunicate him from 
 the Christian Church, for he could hardly refrain from 
 denouncing it as being everything else but Christian 
 in spirit. 
 
 Mutual Appreciation Between Superior and Average 
 Man. — The genuine superior men are ridiculed — not al- 
 ways openly — by average and pseudo-superior men for 
 their modesty, simplicity, unpretentiousness, for their 
 belief in the phantom of immortality, eternity. And 
 the superior man, in his turn, pities the average and 
 pseudo-superior men for their ephemeral pursuits, illu- 
 sory and perishable pleasures. In reality, both classes 
 
APPRECIATION 373 
 
 misunderstand one another. Both act logically, for 
 they can not do any better. What is illusion, unattain- 
 able, of little use, an uneventful life for one class, may 
 be real, attainable, the only good, an eventful life for 
 the other class. He who has to expect everything from 
 the actual local society, in the midst of which he lives, 
 can not act like the idealist who acts for eternity, for 
 the whole of mankind. 
 
 The clear-headed, truth-loving, altruistic, genuine 
 superior man merely feels bored, but not personally in- 
 sulted, by the writings of mystical, obscure, word- and 
 self-worshiping, rigoristic, pseudo-superior men ; where- 
 as the latter get irritated, feel personally insulted when 
 compelled toperusethe impersonal writings of the former. 
 
 Every individual, in his appreciation of others, can 
 not help taking himself, at best his own aspirations, as 
 a unit of measure, as a standard. The matter-of-fact, 
 truth-loving, clearheaded, . . . individual can not help 
 being a little prejudiced against, hence unjust to, the 
 formal, insincere, vainglorious, self-glorifying, mystical 
 men. His contempt for untruthfulness and obscurity 
 makes him underestimate the little amount of good qual- 
 ities and the talent of the latter. But still more unjust 
 is the self-seeker, insincere, mystical, . . . towards the 
 truth-loving individual; he appreciates, however, the 
 greater skill, the greater talent in individuals of his 
 own class, if such an appreciation does not harm his 
 own glory or Interests. Every one admires and betrays 
 himself in others, i.e., he admires in others his own 
 attainments and aspirations. The insincere and the 
 masses of blind imitators, however, express verbal, ex- 
 ternal, interested admiration for any type of men whom 
 fortune has favored with success and popularity. 
 Hence, if we have no way of judging others by means 
 of our own eyes, it is not enough to collect indiscrim- 
 inately the opinions of critics. We must give most 
 
374. GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 weight to the opinions of truth-loving colleagues whose 
 interests are neither in conflict nor bound up with those 
 of the individual whose merits are to be appreciated; 
 we must give more weight to inner, autonomous, ac- 
 tive, unconsciously betrayed admiration than to out- 
 ward, heteronomous, passive, deliberately expressed ad- 
 miration. We must consider not so much what verdict 
 one passes on the individual to be appreciated as we 
 have to see who passes it; not so much who criticizes 
 as why he does so. A genius is very seldom a good 
 critic. He finds too easily expression for indescribable 
 thoughts and feelings ; he finds too easily answers to 
 questions that others ask in vain, to be able to appre- 
 ciate the value, adequateness, and inaccessibility of his 
 findings to others. He has too peculiar and irrepressi- 
 ble ways of his own to be able to appreciate the ways, 
 means, methods employed by other geniuses. Taking 
 himself as a standard, the genius usually fails to see 
 the importance and value of lesser talent to the great 
 mass. He stands too high above mere talent to be able 
 to appreciate, to estimate correctly distances traversed 
 in those low regions, to be able to appreciate differences 
 between philistines and talented men, or differences be- 
 tween various degrees of talent. He is in a better po- 
 sition, however, to appreciate greater geniuses than 
 himself and also geniuses who stand immediately below 
 him, if they belong to his own class or, at least, to a 
 related class, i. e., he can appreciate geniuses who stand 
 nearer to him horizontally or vertically, but he has no 
 real understanding for geniuses of a quite difi'erent 
 type or class. The born critic, who stands midway be- 
 tween the average mind and talent, but much below 
 genius, is in a better position to appreciate, to esti- 
 mate correctly, talent and differences in taJent; but 
 is less able to appreciate differences between geniuses. 
 The man of genius may, however, be a good critic in 
 
APPRECIATION 375 
 
 fields of activity where he has mere taste, or mere tal- 
 ent but no originality. 
 
 We can estimate correctly the value and significance 
 of men, institutions, ideas that are not too much above 
 noT too much below us. Thus the semi-scientific ob- 
 server or experimenter who scoffs at speculative think- 
 ers in general, at speculation and generalizations in 
 fields of knowledge untrodden by, and unknown to, him, 
 feels proud, however, if he himself succeeds in attain- 
 ing some general view, some speculative conclusion or 
 hypothesis in his own field of activity; because he is 
 able to appreciate the loftiness and guiding influence 
 of speculation in his own specialty. To take another 
 example from the industrial world: the plain work- 
 ingman who sees the necessity, the raison d'etre of 
 a foreman, may fail, however, to see the importance of 
 an engineer, of a superintendent. If the self-conceited 
 finds fault with everything and with everybody who 
 does not bow humbly before his imaginary highness; 
 it is because he wants to throw into relief his own self- 
 important personality; it is because he wants to prove 
 his own greatness and perfection by finding everything 
 small and imperfect, and because he finds pleasure in 
 robbing others of their hard-earned repute. He spares 
 those only who are willing to pay tribute to him and 
 to become his intellectual vassals. 
 
 But if the genuinely superior man finds faults, im- 
 perfections, pettiness, . . . ; it is not because he is 
 blind to merits, perfection, greatness ; it is not in order 
 to extol his own merits, or because he enjoys belittling 
 everything. If it were so, he would spare his ad- 
 mirers, he would take delight in his being unique and 
 different from others. As a matter-of-fact, he can not 
 help finding the littleness of others when he measures 
 them with the standards of his own greatness, achieve- 
 ments and aspirations. 
 
376 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The pseudo-superior men display great ingenuity in 
 belittling all the genuinely superior qualities of the 
 genius. Thus the philosophical sagacity which does 
 not allow itself to be blinded by outer appearances, 
 superficial differences between various epochs, histori- 
 cal changes and apparent progress, as to the hidden 
 realities, deep-seated similarities, real stagnation, is 
 described as lack of historical sense; the refusal of 
 the genius to join in frivolous, stultifying amusements 
 brings upon him the charge of lacking the sense for 
 humor ; the moral genius is charged with unfitness, 
 impracticality, inadaptability, anarchistic propensities, 
 etc., when he condemns the competitive, laisser-favre 
 system of earning a livelihood because it brings social 
 prominence and material success to greedy, vain, 
 megalomaniacal, one-sided degenerates who devote their 
 entire time to the accumulation of money and of power, 
 and who are entirely deficient in morals, altruistic con- 
 cerns, intellectual needs ; many-sidedness and mental 
 fertility is decried as inability to stick to the point, 
 inability to concentrate his attention, as evasion of the 
 issue ; his frankness, open-heartedness, lack of distrust, 
 his kind-heartedness, unsophisticatedness, disinterested 
 love of knowledge and of men, his idealism preserved 
 in the midst of our cruel, prosaic, corrupt, predatory 
 regime, are labeled as childishness, naivete, foolishness. 
 Strange that the genius' cosmopolitism, his indifference 
 to and disrespect for the accidental, artificial, com- 
 pulsory, transitory, unimportant national and racial 
 distinctions have not yet been baptized as lack of the 
 geographical sense. His subordination of material, 
 personal, immediate interests to truth, and to spiritual, 
 general, remote interests has been attributed to unfit- 
 ness, tactlessness, lack of business ability or some other 
 deficiency, as if all kinds of unfitness were blameworthy 
 — even if it is unfitness for evil — , as if a deficiency in 
 
APPRECIATION 377 
 
 one kind of ability could account for the presence of 
 an ability in some other direction, as if movement or 
 activity could be accounted for by lack of ability or 
 of opportunity to rest and stay inactive, as if the ability 
 to rise higher could be explained by the inability to 
 stop at a lower level, as if unfitness for the actual, 
 prosaic, egoistic, predatory social organization were 
 sufficient to explain the fitness for, and ability to strive 
 after, a more ideal, cooperative, altruistic human so- 
 ciety. As a matter-of-fact, it requires nowadays much 
 more ability, intelligence, self-reliance, love of men, 
 courage, foresight, farsightedness, and a higher kind 
 of fitness or adaptability (active or progressive 
 adaptability) to get along by straight, honest, socially 
 useful work than by roundabout, deceptive, parasitical, 
 flattering, or so-called business methods; to pursue 
 big, generally and lastingly useful things than to rest 
 satisfied with accomplishing little, momentarily or only 
 personally useful things ; to abandon, or abstain from, 
 petty ambitions, the pursuit of wealth and popularity 
 than to persist therein; to fight the usurpers of power, 
 the exploiters, the pseudo-rulers, the self-styled or sham 
 aristocrats, to fight the prejudices and ignorance of 
 the masses, to cure the masses of their intellectual 
 blindness in order to render them capable of self- 
 help and cooperation with their real leaders and friends 
 than to flatter or serve those in authority, to take 
 advantage of the people's prejudices, ignorance, blind- 
 ness and other weaknesses; to express new, original, 
 bold, broad ideas in plain ordinary language than to 
 clothe old, commonplace, cowardly, narrow views in 
 unusual, obscure, abstract, original, bold-sounding 
 language. It is not his hatred of the parasitical or 
 power-seeking minority, but his love of the honest 
 masses, that drives the moral genius — be he socialist, 
 anarchist or communist — to preach contempt for, and 
 
378 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 rebellion against the rule of the so-called upper class. 
 Of course, the pseudo-superior men are prone to accuse 
 him of arousing class hatred, which sounds better to 
 them than the more correct expression "hatred of a 
 parasitic minority" ; they are not so prone, however, to 
 give him the credit for eradicating by this means the 
 really dangerous and ruinous ungrounded hatreds, 
 prejudices, dissensions, obtaining between races, na- 
 tions, professions, religious sects, political parties and 
 other such artificial divisions created or kept up by 
 the parasitical minorities for exploitation purposes. 
 
 Self-appreciation. — In addition to a lack of differ- 
 entiation between sentiment and reason, between wish 
 for superiority and the belief in one's superiority, there 
 is another minor reason why women are more self-con- 
 ceited than men, the rich more than the poor, children 
 more than grown-ups, the socially prominent pseudo- 
 superior men more than the socially obscure genuine 
 superior men, viz., the fact that the former are not 
 only very seldom contradicted in whatever they main- 
 tain, especially in the opinions entertained about them- 
 selves, but they are continually courted by favor- 
 seekers and all sorts of flatterers. 
 
 The pseudo-superior man is self-complacently en- 
 grossed in what he knows or thinks he knows, and in 
 his superiority over the masses. The genuine superior 
 man is rather preoccupied by what he does not know 
 yet, by what he yearns to know, and by his inferiority 
 to the ideals pursued. The aristocratic philistine's 
 and the pseudo-superior man's self-idealization and 
 idealization of the statits quo is a sign of their un- 
 progressiveness, of their purely deceptive originality. 
 It also shows that they are dimly conscious of their 
 deficiencies as well as of their inability for self-im- 
 provement, for fearless self-scrutiny, for improving 
 their environment, for really satisfying their inborn 
 
APPRECIATION 879 
 
 human aspiring impulse. 
 
 Usually great minds launch into the intellectual 
 world ideas the range of which they themselves do not 
 know or can not foresee. In other words, they form 
 concepts, laws ; they advance general views without 
 knowing the numberless particular cases falling under 
 them, without suspecting their immense sphere of ap- 
 plicability. The disciples of such great men are usually 
 so naive as to think that these are able to grasp 
 and draw all the consequences from their own original 
 ideas, and hence feel sorely disappointed if they dis- 
 cover in their masters the same intellectual blindness 
 as in philistines with respect to some conclusions and 
 applications drawn from their own theories in a way 
 which seems so obvious, so quasi self-evident to the 
 former, to the disciples. 
 
 The superior man can better appreciate his own 
 creations after a certain lapse of time, and especially 
 after having brought to light better creations. He 
 judges the earlier productions in the light of the 
 latter; he also forgets the amount of work expended 
 on the former, and thus becomes able to appreciate 
 them more objectively; for personally the genius takes 
 his creations to heart in proportion to the amount of 
 labor and suiFering they have cost him. 
 
 The sub- and un-conscious which appear so proble- 
 matic and mysterious to the psychologist, to the 
 thinker, to the man whose mental activity has reached 
 the climax of clearness or consciousness, are not in 
 reality more mysterious than consciousness itself. Nay, 
 the sub- and un-conscious may be considered less prob- 
 lematical than the conscious, for they represent in our 
 mental or subjective world the data, the cradle and the 
 grave of all thoughts, just as chaos, disorder, an- and 
 dis-harmony, disconnection, ... in the external or 
 objective world give birth to and then threaten to 
 
380 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 swallow the cosmos. Order, harmony, connection, clear- 
 ness, consciousness, thinking, serious activity, are sub- 
 sequent to, derived from, and exposed to easily relapse 
 back into, disorder, disharmony, disconnection, vague- 
 ness, sub- and un-consciousness, thoughtlessness, play- 
 activity. All new, original, thinking is spontaneous, 
 involuntary: It springs from sub-consciousness, and 
 rises to the day-light of consciousness, conquering all 
 the obstacles and overcoming all the voluntary efforts 
 made to repress it on account of the pains resulting 
 from its dislocating and severing old organized systems 
 of feelings and beliefs. Like many child-bearing 
 women, most original thinkers do not love their new 
 conceptions while being pregnant with them, nor im- 
 mediately after having given birth to them. The love 
 of the thinker for his original conceptions or spiritual 
 children grows, like the love of ordinary men for their 
 progeny, with the exertions made in their behalf, witli 
 the exertions made in order to defend, protect, develop 
 and perfection them. 
 
 Only the superior man endowed with objective self- 
 introspection can appreciate himself. The criterion 
 of self-appreciation of the average man is the esteem 
 shown him by his fellow citizens. His resentment of 
 criticism and hatred for critically-minded individuals 
 proves, however, that he is dimly conscious of his lack 
 of praiseworthy qualities. If the pseudo-superior man 
 is so thirsty for popularity, honors, titles, high posi- 
 tions, and so eager to make others believe in qualities 
 that he has not or that he possesses to but a slight 
 extent; it is not only because he wants to deceive 
 others, but also because he wants to deceive himself; 
 it is because his power or capacities can not keep pace 
 with his indomitable ambition. He believes in his own 
 significance in proportion as he succeeds in making 
 others believe therein, in proportion with the praises 
 
APPRECIATION 381 
 
 bestowed on him by others. He believes so little in 
 his own merits, and has so few of them, that he needs 
 to be persuaded and hypnotized by others into believ- 
 ing in his own greatness. Dissatisfied with his real self, 
 he looks for consolation in an auto- and hetero-sug^ 
 gested self. 
 
 Criteria of Genius. — The different kinds of genius 
 are practically incommensurable, i. e., each must be ap- 
 preciated by means of a qualitatively and quantitatively 
 different standard, or criterion. The criteria of emo- 
 tional, observational, theoretical, technical, moral 
 genius are respectively the amount of beauty, ob- 
 jectivity (reality), truth and logical consistency, 
 utility, social happiness they can produce. This does 
 not mean that in a work of art, for instance, we have 
 to disregard totally the amount of truth, reality, util- 
 ity, morality that it may contain. It merely means 
 that a work of art has first of all to be appreciated 
 according to the amount of beauty it contains, for this 
 is its specific or primary quality or aim ; but it must 
 also contain implicitly, as secondary qualities, a cer- 
 tain amount of truth, reality, utility, morality, vary- 
 ing between a minimum and a maximum below or 
 above which it ceases to be a work of art; a perfect 
 work of art contains a maximum of beauty, and an 
 optimum of secondary ends. If two works of art are 
 equally beautiful, then the other criteria must be called 
 upon, in order to appreciate their comparative excel- 
 lence, i. e., the one which is nearer the optimum of 
 truth, reality, etc., will be considered a product of 
 greater genius. In the light of this theory it seems 
 to me that both theories, that of art for art's sake, and 
 that of art as being necessarily moral, socially useful, 
 appear as equally childish, one-sided and short-sighted. 
 A work of art, a novel, must not necessarily have a 
 moral or other purpose. If, in addition to a beautiful 
 
382 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 form or description, it contains implicitly, sugges- 
 tively, a certain amount of truth and of moral teaching, 
 we praise it the more highly. If, however, the teachings 
 are too explicit, the work ceases to be a work of art. 
 If so many so-called novels with a purpose prove dis- 
 tasteful, it is not because art is incompatible with 
 ethics or because art does not serve ethical purposes. 
 It is either because the novel is too artificial, unreal, 
 improbable, a mere makeshift, intellectually dishonest, 
 i. e., it pretends to draw or extract a moral lesson from 
 supposedly historical, real, or probable events when 
 in reality the moral lesson was ready made and secretly 
 slipped into the excogitated or manufactured narrative 
 to be afterwards seemingly found therein, just as the 
 magician pretends to get out of an empty hat a bird 
 kept hidden in his sleeve. Or the novel with a moral 
 purpose, the drama with a moral denouement, may be a 
 real work of art, but its readers and critics happen to 
 belong to the dishonest, selfish, parasitical, predatory, 
 capitalistic class, to whom ethics is distasteful under 
 any form, no matter whether implicit or exphcit, 
 clothed or naked, illustrated or in abstracto. We 
 judge of men and their achievements according to their 
 promises, claims, pretensions, according to what we 
 expect of them. If we are struck by, and hence tend 
 to over-rate, animal flashes of intelligence, it is because 
 animals do not lay any claim to intelligence and be- 
 cause we do not expect to find any reasoning power 
 in them; whereas the intelligence of human imbeciles, 
 which is certainly superior to the intelligence of many 
 an animal, does not strike us at all, because men in 
 general and the imbeciles in particular pride them- 
 selves on their "smartness" without displaying any in 
 their behavior. Likewise with men's works: a work 
 which is moral in purpose and origin, but adopts the 
 form of an artistic or literary work, exposes itself to 
 
APPRECIATION 383 
 
 being under-rated and not valued even for what it is, 
 if it does not do what it pretends to, if it fails to 
 justify its artistic pretensions. Thus many a theme 
 expounded in the form of a poem would be more valu- 
 able and more appreciated if it were expressed in plain 
 prose. 
 
 Although the criteria of genius are stiU in their 
 qualitative, subjective, arbitrary stage, a certain use 
 can and is tacitly, implicitly, unconsciously being made 
 of them. It is hard to decide, for instance, between 
 two purely lyrical poets both of whom lend adequate 
 expression to the same human passions. But if one of 
 them is capable of interspersing philosophical reflec- 
 tion, i. e., if in addition to beauty he gives us implicitly 
 a certain amount of knowledge or truth, we declare 
 him as the greater poet even if he does not give a more 
 adequate expression to our sentiments than the other 
 one. Of two purely scientific or philosophic thinkers 
 he is the greater whose generaUzations are wider, i. e., 
 allow a survey of a larger field of phenomena. Of two 
 thinkers whose conceptions are equally broad, he is the 
 greater who is more many-sided, i. e., who, in addition 
 to truth, off^ers poetry, utility, moral ideas also. 
 
 Appreciation and Reward of Genius Under the Capi- 
 talist Regime. — Just as in our anarchical, predatory 
 economic world the workers or producers are not suffi- 
 ciently organized to elect their supervisors, chiefs, 
 leaders, rulers among the most many-sided, most broad- 
 minded and most broad-hearted in their own ranks (i. 
 e., among those whose love is not confined to a few 
 particular individuals, and whose skill or interest does 
 not spend itself entirely on a single line of pursuit, but 
 is distributed among the essential operations of all the 
 correlated works of one and the same industry), and 
 have therefore to bow to slave-hunting self-imposed 
 superiors, who are themselves incapable of production, 
 
384 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 or to superiors imposed by parasitical rulers and by 
 exploiters; just so in the intellectual world the genuine 
 or vocational poets, artists, dramatists, scientists, phi- 
 losophers, inventors or other creative thinkers, are too 
 poor and too scattered to elect their own critics among 
 the most many-sided in their own ranks (i. e., among 
 those whose creative and appreciative ability is not en- 
 tirely concentrated upon a single genre, but is rather 
 distributed among the most essential features of all 
 correlated genres), and must therefore bow to self- 
 anointed power- or fame-seeking pseudo-critics or to 
 professionals, capital-employed censors (publishers, 
 editors, book-reviewers, readers, official preachers and 
 educators) who, being themselves aborted thinkers, 
 mentally sterile, incapable of intellectual production, 
 incapable of unbiased judgment and often devoid even 
 of taste, monopolize the channels of publicity and thus 
 arrogate to themselves the privilege of dictating what 
 and how shall be written or said, the privilege of sitting 
 in judgment on others' creations, the privilege of dis- 
 tributing praises and honors among their vassals, the 
 privilege of arbitrarily giving or withdrawing the day- 
 light of publicity, the privilege of undeservedly taking 
 the credit for having discovered or encouraged some 
 geniuses who would have risen anyhow as their genre 
 happens to be in general demand, the privilege of es- 
 caping the blame for having discouraged, corrupted, 
 annihilated or driven into prostitution so many other 
 geniuses who are in advance of their times or, more 
 correctly, not in favor with our exploiters. 
 
 So long as the intellectual producers depend for 
 notoriety on such pseudo-critics or disguised censors, 
 and depend for a living solely on their works, which 
 the idle rich alone can afford to purchase, if their 
 superficial, vacillating, capricious, sportful literary or 
 artistic tastes and their self-conceit happen to be grati- 
 
APPRECIATION 385 
 
 fied thereby; so long as the means of production and 
 transportation in the economic world, and the sources 
 of information and the channels of publicity — the 
 socialistic channels not excepted — in the intellectual 
 world are not collectively owned and democratically 
 managed or controlled, but remain monopolized by a 
 few cliques, coteries, parasitical minorities, which more 
 often cooperate than compete ; so long, I say, as this 
 anarchic state of affairs is tolerated, it stands to rea- 
 son that only those pervertible, muddle-headed writers 
 will be given access to the channels of publicity (the 
 press, the pulpit, the platform, professorships, etc.) 
 who are willing to serve the interests of the capitalist 
 robbers, to take orders from and to set great store 
 by the praises of the incompetent usurpers of power, 
 to prostitute themselves, to suppress and distort trutli 
 on command, to intoxicate the people with empty 
 humor and exciting sensations, to hypnotize the masses 
 into the worship of fake heroes and into the pursuit 
 of spurious aims of life ; whereas those honest and clear- 
 headed intellectual producers who stand up for truth, 
 for the enlightenment, emancipation and uplift of the 
 human species, and who do not care for the honors or 
 titles bestowed by incompetent pseudo-critics, are 
 mercilessly driven out of the field into obscu^rity, ridi- 
 cule, poverty, despair and robbed of everything except 
 the ethereal hope for posthumous fame. Under such a 
 regime of capital-owned channels of publicity and capi- 
 tal-employed pseudo-critics there is no success for the 
 great original thinkers who first spend their best years 
 in conscientiously producing some work worthy of pub- 
 lic attention and gratitude, and then begin to think 
 of how to approach the public; all the honor, credit 
 and material success is reaped by the unscrupulous 
 phrase-mongers who first monopolize the channels of 
 publicity or hunt for popularity in order to win ar. 
 
386 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 audience, and then sell to the people, at the highest 
 prices, the intellectual products stolen or cheaply 
 bought from such poor, unpopular, unobtrusive origi- 
 nal thinkers; just as in the economic world it is not 
 the indispensable services of the tillers of the soil or 
 of the industrial workers that are well remunerated or 
 at least appreciated, but the sham , services of un- 
 scrupulous financial speculators who first push them- 
 selves as harmless or even beneficial intermediators be- 
 tween consumers and producers (and also between the 
 latter and the tools of production), and then begin to 
 drive the two parties further and further apart in 
 order to levy a heavy toU on both. The college pro- 
 fessors and the other official scientists, who own or 
 edit scientific, philosophic, psychologic journals and 
 bulletins, do not aim at creating channels for the dis- 
 semination of knowledge, as they profess to do. Their 
 real but hidden aim, apart from financial gain, is to 
 levy toll on the poor original students and non-official 
 thinkers whom they have it in their power to debar from 
 the consumers of knowledge, just as the robber barons 
 and the pirates of the medieval ages used to intercept 
 the wagons and ships of the merchants on their way 
 to the market ; another parasitic aim of these intel- 
 lectual robbers is to constitute themselves and their 
 satellites into a company for mutual advertising and 
 immortalizing; they also aim at exacting undeserved 
 recognition from the popular writers of other cities 
 and countries in exchange for the recognition which 
 they give the latter in their magazines or bulletins. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 
 
 Normal and Abnormal Ideals. — A sane mind looks 
 into the future for the realization of ideals ; a diseased, 
 senile or exhausted mind idealizes the past. What is 
 true of an individual, holds also of an entire epoch, a 
 literary school. There are epochs, schools of hope, 
 of a surplus of energy, and epochs of depression, de- 
 spair, of a minus in vital energy. 
 
 The ideals of morbid, exhausted, decadent, weak, 
 despairing, insane, impotent, unproductive individuals 
 lie in the past, in the realm of vain dreams, and spring 
 from a desire for outside help. Such ideals find their 
 expression in romanticism, idealistic or nebulous phi- 
 losophy, mysticism, aspiration after Nirvana, ances- 
 tor-worship, animal worship (totemism), slavish hero- 
 worship, magic, belief in miracles and in a Messiah, 
 fatalism, dogmatism, worship of gods, paternal and 
 hierarchical govenunent, blind reverence for official or 
 institutional wisdom, for conventions, traditions, prece- 
 dents, stereotyped ways of acting, fashions, pleasure- 
 seeking, slave-hunting, warfare, militarism, parasitism, 
 deception. . . . Whereas the ideals of vigorous, 
 healthy, hopeful, progressive, sane, productive, self- 
 reliant, resourceful individuals lie in the future, in the 
 realm of possibilities, and spring from a desire for pur- 
 poseful activity, for self-realization. Such ideals find 
 their expression in realism, the fearless facing of facts, 
 scientific research, clear thinking, free thought or in- 
 tellectual boldness, belief in causation and economic 
 
 387 
 
388 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 determinism, worship of humanity, democracy, popu- 
 larization of knowledge, socialism, communism, an- 
 archism, cooperation, fairness, sincerity, reverence for 
 logic or reason. Ancestor-worship, idealization of the 
 "fathers," worship of the dead, goes together with and 
 is but the reverse side of the blind genuflection before 
 the powers that be or before the self-constituted rulers. 
 The latter impress upon the masses the unquestioned 
 reverence for the "fathers," just as they lend their 
 support to all the other above-mentioned correlated 
 stultifying cults, in order to secure posthumous glory 
 for themselves and in order to prevent even posterity 
 from attempting to scrutinize their motives and doings. 
 Sane and Insane Genius. — The creation of the genius 
 is the intellectual analogon of childbirth, and is pre- 
 ceded by intellectual pregnancy. Bodily pregnancy 
 and childbirth cause bodily disturbances, and some- 
 times also brain and mind disturbances. Likewise, in- 
 cubation and creation or elaboration of original ideas 
 produce brain and mind disorders, and sometimes even 
 bodily derangements. If the body and the mind are 
 hereditarily less resistant or degenerate, the disturb- 
 ances do not remain confined to transient, slight, minor 
 ill-being, perversions, errors, illusions, confusions, mys- 
 ticism, but assume a persistent character of chronic 
 diseases, mental aberrations, delusions, incontroUable 
 hallucinations, insanity, and may even end with death. 
 But to say with the famous, immortal Lombroso that 
 degeneration, insanity are causes, conditions, or mere 
 stimuli of genius, of creation, is just as erroneous 
 as to say that puerperal fever, puerperal ailments end- 
 ing sometimes in insanity and death are productive, or 
 merely adjuvant causes of childbirth. If Lombroso, 
 in his answer to the objections of Max Nordau, that 
 typically sane genius and living contradiction of Lom- 
 broso's theory, brings forward cases of geniuses having 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 389 
 
 been insane, or rather mentally unstable before having 
 created anything, I answer that this is due to early 
 intellectual pregnancy or incubation of original ideas, 
 and to psychical degeneration, i. e., inherited feeble 
 resistivity to mental strains caused by intellectual 
 pregnancy. If in some distant future science will be 
 able to prevent conception of original ideas and espe- 
 cially multiple, simultaneous conceptions in degen- 
 erated geniuses, by preventing them from entering into 
 close communion with Nature, or with the fertilizing 
 ideas of others, or rather with too complex an environ- 
 ment, just as conception and pregnancy can be pre- 
 vented in women ; then, these geniuses will be imparted 
 negative immunity from, and will be guarded against, 
 insanity and death. Just as presumably our first fe- 
 male ancestors were unable to stand the strain caused 
 by childbirth and for many generations died after the 
 birth of the first child or became sterile through abor- 
 tion, before our species became more fecund, more 
 resistant to these strains; just so with intellectual 
 childbirth or creation: Many become insane during 
 the incubation, or after the creation of original ideas, 
 or become sterile after the first original creation, and 
 afterward rest contented with adopting or stealing 
 others' intellectual children. Few are as yet the sane 
 geniuses who to the end of their life remain fertile, 
 capable of resisting the mental strain involved in crea- 
 tion, capable of conquering the slight ill-being caused 
 thereby. Few are those sane geniuses who can resist 
 the temptation of conceiving and of elaborating too big 
 ideas which stretch the mental faculties to their break- 
 ing point, beyond the point of recuperation, beyond 
 the point of recoverable stable equilibrium. It will take 
 many, many generations before the majority of men 
 will become intellectually fertile, will become sane 
 geniuses of one kind or another. 
 
390 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 The philistine is mentally sterile or unproductive. 
 
 Most pseudo-superior men, the graphomaniacs, the 
 pseudo-active men, the nebulous, mystic, verbose 
 writers, the loquacious individuals, are abnormally 
 creative or aborted thinkers. They give birth to shape- 
 less, amorphous, non-viable, fragmentary, unripe or 
 monstrous, impracticable mock ideas. Conscious of 
 their inability to offer quality, completeness, ori^nal- 
 ity, results, they draw attention to their mock prolific- 
 ness, quantity, efforts, voluminousness. Instead of 
 patiently producing and rearing a certain number of 
 clear, practicable, harmoniously developing ideas, they 
 give birth to innumerable aborted, dismembered mock 
 ideas and pseudo-generalizations which, although look- 
 ing different from one another, are in reality abortive 
 attempts at grasping and expressing the same few, but 
 to them unattainable, thoughts. What drives these 
 unripe thinkers to seek relief in morbid, incessant, aim- 
 less activity, in abortion, in the premature expulsion 
 of their intellectual fetus, and to thrust their sham 
 ideas upon an unwilling audience, is their horror of 
 the lonely, secluded life of inner meditation entailed 
 by the growing spiritual embryos, their inability to 
 get over the inner disturbances, dislocations and re- 
 adjustments caused by the expansion of the new ideas, 
 their fear of an impending mental breakdown in conse- 
 quence of the disturbances caused by this state of in- 
 tellectual pregnancy, as well as their vanity or morbid 
 craving for fame and impatience to boast of their 
 original ideas. And the poor devils whose minds are 
 thrown in contact with these still-born, miscarried, 
 pestiferous decadent pseudo-ideas, become intellec- 
 tually poisoned for life. 
 
 Leisure is not such an important condition for the 
 manifestation of genius, of intellectual originality, 
 as is psychical isolation, psychical independence. In 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 391 
 
 fact, there arise just as few geniuses among the idle 
 social classes as among the paupers. In villages, in 
 small compact communities, where every individual is 
 known and watched in all his doings by the others, a 
 sane-minded individual cannot afford or dare to mani- 
 fest his peculiarities without attracting antipathy, 
 social ostracism, and hence endangering his very exist- 
 ence; he cannot afford to differ openly from his fel- 
 low-men; he cannot refuse to partake in common 
 beliefs, practises, customs, no matter how absurd he 
 may consider them. In a small, undifferentiated com- 
 munity economic dependence goes together with intel- 
 lectual dependence or rather stagnation, for public 
 opinion rules there despotically. In such primitive 
 communities, the only original individuals are the insane 
 and the semi-insane whose impulsiveness prevents them 
 from taking into consideration the risk which they run 
 by showing themselves different from their fellow-men. 
 With the increase of cities, of the division of labor, of 
 the anonymous ways of earning a livelihood, the com- 
 munity splits up horizontally and vertically into many 
 classes and sub-classes ; one and the same individual 
 may belong economically to one sub-class, intellectually 
 to another one, or to many simultaneously, or to none, 
 emotionally to others ; the psychical isolation or free- 
 dom of thought increases ; sane geniuses get many op- 
 portunities of expressing their thoughts and carrying 
 out their ideals, although not in the sub-class where they 
 belong and on which they depend economically. We 
 see, therefore, that genius and insanity will part com- 
 pany in a more civilized, more differentiated, more 
 tolerant human society. The few cases, however, which 
 Lombroso cites of non-gregarious animals (domestic 
 dogs, monkeys, . . . ) which showed genius and 
 nervosity at the same time, prove that the physiological 
 causes oif insane genius are more important than 
 
392 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 the social. 
 
 The mental horizon of a sane genius is like a serene 
 sky, illuminated by the sun in all its splendor ; whereas 
 that of the insane genius resembles that of a heavily 
 clouded sky, traversed from time to time by the daz- 
 zling but quickly disappearing flashes of lightning, pre- 
 ceded and followed by melancholy, lugubrious darkness. 
 There is continuity, connection, between all the succes- 
 sive acquisitions of the sane genius ; he never falls from 
 the height he has reached. The insane genius is in- 
 ferior to his own creations, he becomes a stranger to 
 his own spiritual children. 
 
 The sane genius, as well as the misanthropic genius, 
 behave timidly, awkwardly, and do not feel at ease in 
 philistine society. The diff^erence is that the sane genius 
 does not like it if too much self-denial is asked of him ; 
 whereas the misanthropic genius hates it, even if he is 
 economically independent, and no self-denial is expected 
 of him. 
 
 The average man is suggestible, subjective-minded, 
 credulous; the superior man is objective-minded. In 
 the insane genius, auto-suggestibility is despotical, an- 
 archical, of the fixed-idea type; the sane genius is 
 democratically minded, consistent, mentally har- 
 monious. 
 
 A sane speculative thinker traverses a complete 
 circuit; his thoughts start from facts, from reality, 
 and, sooner or later, come back to the world of facts. 
 An abnormal philosophical speculation starts from a 
 minimum of facts, from a bit of reality, and, after 
 awhile, it is short-circuited, it loses itself and gets 
 drowned in the vast ocean of pure ideas, without ever 
 coming back to the light of dry land, to the real world 
 in which the streams of thought took their origin. The 
 so-called idealistic philosophers are either humbugs or, 
 if sincere, theoretically insane, but not practically, i. 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 393 
 
 e., they entertain insane ideas, but do not act accord- 
 ingly as really insane people do. A sane man may 
 advocate an insane theory; and vice versa: an insane 
 man may advocate a sane theory. But they do not 
 put it into practise. The test of sanity and of insanity 
 is not only the quality, but also the quantity and the 
 motor energy of one's theories, opinions. 
 
 The insane genius pays for his superiority with men- 
 tal deficiencies, disproportion, disharmony; he gains 
 very much in one direction to lose in others; he pro- 
 gresses by compensation. The sane genius or the great 
 talent, however, progresses by additions. He may, 
 however, pay for this mental progress with a bodily 
 regress or early stagnation; for the harmonious de- 
 velopment of his head with under-development in the 
 rest of the body. The normal superior man is inteUect- 
 uaHy richer than the average man, he differs from the 
 latter in quantity alone; the abnormal differs in kind. 
 
 Normality, Abnormality, Adaptation. — If I have 
 enumerated in various parts of this mosaic-built, semi- 
 aphoristical and therefore incoherent-looking essay so 
 many characteristics and abilities of geniuses, it does 
 not mean that every genius possesses them all, at any 
 moment, and in every subject-matter or problem. It 
 only means that a genius may possess all these abilities 
 at certain moments, called moments of inspiration, and 
 some of them at any moment. It only means that a 
 genius may display all these abilities sometimes or ex- 
 ceptionally in a general survey of the whole field of 
 human knowledge, and often or usually in but a limited 
 field. It only means that the genius possesses more of 
 these characteristics than the mere talented man; and 
 that the balanced genius possesses more of these char- 
 acteristics, possesses them more steadily, mixed with 
 less deficiencies than the unbalanced genius. He who 
 rises to the highest summits of comprehension and of 
 
394 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 human sympathy is more exposed to falling into the 
 abyss of delusion and insanity than the average mind 
 which never swings much above the point of mental 
 inertia and indiiFerence, which never ventures above 
 the soHd ground of common sense. Abnormalities, in- 
 consistencies, which are hedenklich in an average man, 
 have nothing surprising about them in nascent, imma- 
 ture, inexperienced, easily exhaustible or in decaying 
 geniuses. What is surprising is that sane-minded men 
 of talent mistake the vagaries of tired, or of broken- 
 down geniuses for precious revelations, for profound 
 intuitions ; and bestow the same uncritical veneration 
 and praise on the most patent non-sense, short-comings 
 and immoral advices coming from the mouth of a genius 
 as on his veritable superhuman conceptions, merits, and 
 broad-hearted teachings. The fact that many men of 
 genius have had fits of nervousness, of mental dis- 
 equilibrium, during their childhood, before the so-called 
 creative stage, does not speak in favor of Lombroso's 
 theory that genius is an effect of degeneration, of 
 masked epileptoid convulsions. For a genius is creative 
 all the time, hence is always exposed to mental exhaus- 
 tion. Only his creative spirit is not so persistent, not 
 so apparent, during childhood when it confines itself to 
 reconstructing,, rediscovering, understanding the intel- 
 lectual acquisitions of the race, upon which as a foun- 
 dation it will continue in later years to build new 
 intellectual edifices. In childhood the actual difference, 
 the actual divergence between the proclivities of the 
 genius and those of other mortals is too slight or too 
 much repressed to be visible to the untrained eyes. 
 Potentially, however, the difference is as great in the 
 beginning as it ever will be in later years. 
 
 There is more permanence, stability, continuity in 
 our tendencies, abilities, than in our activity, achieve- 
 ments; more in the direction of our tendencies than 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 395 
 
 in their point of application and actual magnitude; 
 there is more permanence of selfhood in our activity 
 taken as a whole than in our single activities; in the 
 resultant of co-working abilities than in non-collaborat- 
 ing abilities; more in our physiological, emotional, 
 inherited, sub-conscious personality, than in our 
 psychical, intellectual, acquired, conscious personality ; 
 more in our imitative, practical than in our creative, 
 theoretical life; there is more permanence, harmony, 
 non-contradiction of selfhood in vital and essential 
 questions, in a normal than in an abnormal individual; 
 more in the ideal, aims, methods, than in the real, means, 
 subject-matter; more in the grown-up, mature, than 
 in the child, immature ; there is more normality, equilib- 
 rium, harmony in many-sided, scientifical, philosophical, 
 than in one-sided, artistical, technological geniuses and 
 talents ; more in truth-, essence-, thought-seeking than 
 in beauty-, form-, phraseology-seeking authors. 
 
 To declare with Lombroso that genius — no matter 
 whether many-sided or one-sided — is an abnormality, 
 a morbid deviation, an intellectual monstrosity means 
 to assume that the human species is a static, finished 
 product of nature; it means to assume, as Lombroso 
 in one of his shorter essays actually did, that intel- 
 lectual stagnation and inertia is the usual condition of 
 mankind, and progress is a mere anomaly, an excep- 
 tional effect of disturbances, persecution, agitation. 
 Those, however, who believe that the human species is 
 still growing intellectually and morally, if no longer 
 bodily; and that its apparent stagnation is due to its 
 being infected with parasites, oppressors, intra-social 
 criminals : those, I say, do not look to the average man 
 for intellectual or moral normality, but to the fortu- 
 nate few — to the many-sided and to the moral geniuses 
 — ^who renounce the pursuit of material success and 
 of the favor of parasites, in order to escape the en- 
 
396 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 slavement which goes therewith and which would hinder 
 the free, harmonious, socially useful development of 
 their souls. To set down the intellectual and moral 
 norm for all times for the human species, whose growth 
 is not yet finished, by merely including ourselves in the 
 calculation, i. e., by taking the average intellectual 
 and moral status of the oppressed masses of living men, 
 who under present conditions can never grow to intel- 
 lectual and moral maturity, is just as wrong as to 
 calculate the average stature of a race, nation, or 
 social class, without excluding from the calculation the 
 statures of children, i. e., of the still growing genera- 
 tions, as well as the statures of cripples, dwarfs or 
 individuals with arrested development. To obtain the 
 intellectual and moral norm of the human species, we, 
 the adherents of evolutionism, ought to take into con- 
 sideration, not only the actualities, not only the con- 
 temporary generations, not only the distribution in 
 space of mankind, but also its potentialities, tendencies, 
 future generations, distribution in time; but since this 
 cannot be done, i. e., since the norm of a growing thing 
 cannot be set down by striking the average of its 
 abnormal, i. e., undeveloped, stunted, aborted speci- 
 mens, the only way of finding such a norm is to look 
 to the few finished specimens, I mean to the many- 
 sided and moral geniuses, who have escaped the thwart- 
 ing influences of our anarchical, competitive, or preda- 
 tory organization. The consistent evolutionist inverts 
 Lombroso's way of measuring normality, and re-en- 
 thrones the genius, thus coming back to a purified, 
 discriminating, enlightened form of the plain man's 
 hero-worship: he does not take the modern average 
 man as a norm, but considers, on the contrary, every 
 man who is short of genius or at least of many- 
 sided, higher life interests as an abnornial, thwarted, 
 aborted, crippled, undeveloped human specimen; be-, 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 397 
 
 cause he knows that under a future orderly, wisely 
 regulated, socialistic, solidary, universally coopera- 
 tive regime the types of men who are to-day the rule 
 will form an exception, a mere deviation from the then 
 widely-spread mental superiority; he also knows that 
 under modern oppressive conditions mental superiority 
 must be rare, because in its tendency to grow and rise 
 upwards towards the light of truth and warmth of love 
 it is often crushed by the rigid barriers of caste, cus- 
 tom, conventionality, petty-mindedness, despotic or 
 parasitic institutions, whereas philistinism that never 
 grows upwards as far as the oppressive, artificial, 
 parasite-made barriers, as well as perverted or down- 
 ward growth through the dark subsoil of materialism, 
 ignorance, secrecy, intrigue, servilism, escape oppres- 
 sion. Our capitalistic or predatory social organiza- 
 tion, wherein only those men are tolerated who are 
 one-sidedly developed or specialized into tools, is mainly 
 responsible for the present divorcement between bodily 
 and mental growth, between affective or moral develop- 
 ment and intellectual development, and even between 
 the various intellectual faculties: it is responsible for 
 the existence of a majority of mentally abnormal or 
 undeveloped philistines and of quite a number of bodily 
 abnormal or undeveloped but mentally developed — al- 
 though one-sidedly — geniuses. 
 
 Normal and Abnormal Origmality. — To disregard, 
 to violate social prejudices, customs, manners, tradi- 
 tions, is a sign either of normal and progressive or of 
 abnormal and regressive originality. It is progressive 
 if we violate them on account of their being or having 
 become meaningless, burdensome, dangerous. It is re- 
 gressive from the individual's standpoint, although it 
 may be progressive for society as a whole, if we violate 
 them out of inadaptability, impulsiveness, hysterical 
 lack of modesty and desire to attract attention. The 
 
398 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 former originality is calm, patient, persuading, unob- 
 trusive; the latter is noisy, hasty, harsh, obtrusive, 
 provoking. 
 
 Normal and progressive discontentedness or emo- 
 tional originality does not vent itself on trivial, unim- 
 provable, insignificant, harmless, blameless, . . . men, 
 things or institutions ; it does not vent itself in petty, 
 personal, envious, malicious, evil-minded criticisms. 
 Normal and progressive intellectual originality or in- 
 ventiveness does not grapple with verbal, dialectical, 
 unsolvable, unworthy, fruitless, time-wasting problems. 
 Normal and progressive restlessness or volitional 
 originality does not undertake to carry out imprac- 
 ticable, Utopian, irrational, petty schemes ; unlike the 
 restlessness of the morbidly vain, of the unscrupulously 
 materialistic pseudo-leader, it does not spend itself in 
 unnecessary changes, or in purely formal, perishable, 
 abortive, deceptive innovations. 
 
 Abnormal, morbid artistic originality (impression- 
 ism, luminism, pointilism, futurism, orphism. sensa- 
 tionalism, compositionalism, synchronism, cubism, 
 . . . ) divorces form from content, lays stress upon 
 trivial details to the neglect of the whole, is impatient 
 to learn its own technique while attempting to do what 
 is not within its domain or power, sacrifices either mat- 
 ter to substance or substance to matter, seeks notoriety 
 by eccentric means, is too egotistic to become disin- 
 terestedly absorbed in the pursuit of beauty, shows in- 
 capacity for both observation and creative imagina- 
 tion; in short, it is parasitical, deceptive, rapacious, 
 greedy for success, appearance-hunting like its coun- 
 terpart in the economic world, viz., capitalism or com- 
 mercialism. 
 
 Man is the animal which possesses per excellentiam 
 the ability of adapting his physical and his social 
 environment to himself, of creating an adequate en- 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 399 
 
 vironment instead of adapting himself to the actual 
 environment. This ability is expressed in industry and 
 in social reform. Therefore, we do not measure, we 
 do not test the bodily health of man by the conforma- 
 tion of the body to the physical environment. Or, more 
 correctly, the conformation of the human body to the 
 physical environment is not an adequate test of bodily 
 health. Just so the complete conformation of man's 
 mind with his social environment (manners, customs, 
 beliefs, etc.) is not an adequate test of sanity; for 
 there is a progressive non-conformation just as there 
 is a regressive one. Hence, the social test of insanity 
 is not conclusive, is not tnaassgebend if applied alone. 
 In times of social disorder, anarchy and upheavals, 
 in times when the government slumbers impotently, we 
 see rise to social prominence or popularity personali- 
 ties of obscure origin which have been entirely un- 
 noticed, disregarded in times of order and of an awake, 
 active government. Just so in an individual's mental 
 hfe, during a condition of disturbed sleep, of insanity, 
 while the highest, teleological, regulative, self-preserva- 
 tive brain centers slumber impotently, we see emerge 
 into consciousness percepts, memories, wild, intuitive, 
 revealing imaginations, original thoughts and abilities 
 which the individual has never before been conscious 
 of, which he unconsciously used to repress, to disregard, 
 to relegate to the darkest nooks and corners of his 
 mind. Just as in a really and completely, and not only 
 apparently and partially, well-ordered community, aU 
 the capable individuals — regardless of their descent 
 and of their personal relations with the rulers — will 
 have a voice in matters of general interest ; just so in a 
 sane genius, in a normally original individual, every 
 valuable thought is seized upon by consciousness, even 
 if it is not related to the dominant self-preservative 
 ideas, even if and while these dominant ideas are awake. 
 
400 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 active, and in power. 
 
 It is difficult to attain, but easy to lose, the equilib- 
 rium of the intellectual functions. 
 
 Common Sense, Science, Speculation. — Common 
 sense regards aU knowledge as simple, self-evident. It 
 is easily satisfied by apparent, superficial, tautological 
 proofs. It regards theoretical considerations as ficti- 
 tious, unreal. It regards empirical, sense data as 
 ultimate, indisputable, universal, independent of time 
 and place. 
 
 Speculation tends to look upon all knowledge — even 
 axioms and data of our senses — as complicated and in 
 need of proof. It sees difficulties and mysteries every- 
 where, even where there are none. No amount of proof 
 satisfies it. It gives to theoretical considerations, to 
 negligible factors, more importance than, or at best 
 just as much importance as, to practical factors. It 
 relegates to infinity the threshold separating data and 
 facts from inferences and hypotheses. 
 
 Between these two extreme attitudes of mind — be- 
 tween the common sense of the plain man or of the 
 materialist simplist, and the wild speculation of aca- 
 demical or sensational philosophy — stands Science and 
 Common sense Philosophy which gives proportional 
 weight to theory and to practise, and tries to discrimi- 
 nate clearly between fact and inference, between cer- 
 tainty and probability. 
 
 Mental normality, in its ideal sense, is possessed by 
 a privileged minority of talented men. Even with them 
 it extends over a short part of their life, over the age 
 of maturity from which there is yet to be subtracted 
 the time given to sleep, reverie, etc. 
 
 He is not abnormal who fails to adapt himself to 
 continually changing circumstances, varying now in 
 one direction and now in an opposite direction. For 
 to be adapted to doubt, or uncertainty, means to re- 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 401 
 
 gress in sensibility, to become a brute. A normal man 
 rather commits suicide than accept such a regressive 
 adaptation. 
 
 Since human society is not yet organized on the 
 basis of rewarding genuine merit, it follows that an 
 ambitious, fame-seeking genius has to be regarded as 
 less adapted than a wise, unambitious genius. 
 
 Since reason is of late appearance in human society, 
 in other words, since the human soul is younger than 
 the human body, it follows that bodily adaptation is 
 possessed by the majority, whereas psychical adapta- 
 tion is still the prerogative of the minority. Hence, 
 agreement with the majority is no test of psychical 
 normality. The majority is objective and sane in the 
 domain of perceptions; whereas in the domain of con- 
 ceptions or reasoning this privilege is as yet the prop- 
 erty of the few. 
 
 Animals are bodily better adapted than men, but 
 psychically men are better off. Bodily adaptation is 
 possible in certain actual circumstances only, whereas 
 psychical adaptation provides for potential, possible 
 circumstances. 
 
 The lower or more primitive races — owing to their 
 abundant pigmentation which absorbs all excessive and 
 hence detrimental heat, and particularly the tissue-de- 
 stroying actinic rays of sunlight — are bodily better 
 adapted than the higher races ; the philistines — owing 
 to their better developed muscular system — are bodily 
 better adapted than the men of genius. But psychical 
 adaptation does much more than compensate for de- 
 ficiencies in bodily adaptation. 
 
 The Philistine's entire vital energy being pressed into 
 the service of mere bodily self-preservation and pro- 
 creation, whereas the superior man's vital energy is 
 largely directed into the channels of intellectual and 
 moral expansion or creation, we understand why the 
 
402 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 former is bodily better adapted, i. e., he is capable of 
 greater physical exertion, he is better fitted to cope 
 with — but unable to free himself from — the vicissitudes 
 of our chaotic predatory social organization, he is also 
 less sensitive to physical pain, let alone to the psychical 
 painfulness of humiliation, of oppression, of economic 
 insecurity or dependence and of monotonous routine 
 work, and therefore less eager to change the status 
 quo or the existing social disorder. 
 
 Parallel with this regressive or degenerative method 
 of the philistine of preserving himself in the midst of 
 our predatory regime by dropping off his sensitiveness 
 and his higher aspirations, we see his equally inefficient 
 method of unconsciously trying to preserve the race 
 by procreating more human beings than our parasitical 
 classes and the adverse circumstances can destroy. 
 And, of course, the pseudo-superior man, the pseudo- 
 leader, who is the spokesman of the parasitical minor- 
 ity, encourages the philistine to persist along this 
 path which leads straight into the traps laid by 
 our industrial slave-hunters ; he fulminates against 
 what he calls "race suicide," that is, against the 
 superior man's method of simultaneously preserving 
 and uplifting the race by procreating fewer human 
 beings of a higher quality and better provided-for so 
 that they shall be in a position to escape the clutches 
 or snares of predatory individuals, to fight against 
 instead of submitting to the destructive social and 
 physical conditions. 
 
 An idea, a sentiment, a conscious reaction, are in 
 comparison with an instinct, an emotion, an habitual 
 reaction, what an adventitious organ or function is in 
 comparison with a permanent organ or function. The 
 idea arises in consequence of a momentary surplus of 
 mental energy; whereas the instinct entering into 
 activity under the impulse of a perception draws its 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 403 
 
 energy from a specific reserve fund. In other words: 
 The instincts are psychical permanent organs entering 
 into action under certain constantly or frequently re- 
 curring conditions ; whereas ideas, thoughts, are ad- 
 ventitious psychical organs or functions arising under 
 the pressure of novel circumstances. Adaptation to 
 social environment can be effected in two ways: either 
 by doing what others in a similar situation do, or by 
 trying to win the sympathy and understanding of 
 others for novel ways of acting. The first method of 
 adaptation being easier, I mean the method of imita- 
 tion and of suppressing one's original individuality, 
 has become instinctive, has become a permanent 
 psychical function ; whereas the second method, I mean 
 the method of invention or originality, requiring too 
 much mental energy or the withdrawal of our mental 
 energy from other social functions, has remained an 
 adventitious psychical function found only in geniuses 
 and in insane people. 
 
 Mysticism. — In the brain of the mystic, the isola- 
 tion and the insulation of the nervous cells seems to be 
 weakened, or destroyed. Hence, so many short-circuits 
 in his nervous currents : where the normal man has dis- 
 tinct or connected ideas, the mystic seems to have 
 fusion, identification of ideas. Mystical minds stretch 
 their concepts so as to include and cover everything; 
 but the result of this stretching is that the concepts 
 burst at last and end by containing nothing at aU, 
 by being reduced to empty words, to concepts consist- 
 ing of mere extension and devoid of intension. 
 
 Upon the summit of thought, the mystics, the ideal- 
 istic philosophers, seem to get a sort of intellectual 
 dizziness, their vision becomes confused, their judgment 
 bewildered, they do not find their way back to the con- 
 crete world. Even when they succeed in coming down 
 to the world of facts, the mental dizziness seems not to 
 
404 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 give up the firm hold it got on them. 
 
 A combination of words does not necessarily express 
 a thought ; a grammatical or verbal question does not 
 always imply a logical question; one and the same 
 form does not necessarily enclose one and the same 
 substance. A true, logical question suggests more or 
 less the answer ; it arises from our becoming conscious 
 of an idea having been disconnected from its usual 
 ideational milieu, or of an idea not yet brought in 
 connection with old ones, not yet supra-, co-, or 
 subordinated. A merely verbal question is taken seri- 
 ously by naive, intellectually timid men only. The aris- 
 ing of empty, formal, purely verbal questions in a 
 human mind seems to be a symptom of a nascent mental 
 disequilibration, anarchy, dissociation: The servant 
 gets mastery over his master who has grown old or 
 debile ; form, language, overpowers thought ; words 
 enter into new combinations without there being any 
 reasonable need, any higher conscious order; reason is 
 dethroned, and semi-insane mysticism begins to reign. 
 
 Mathematical Mysticism. — The contradictions or 
 antinomies arising from mathematical speculations are 
 due to the following facts : To facilitate the compre- 
 hension of real events we simplify them, we abstract for 
 instance from the extension of moving bodies and speak 
 of moving points. We make abstraction of time or 
 duration, and speak of velocity, acceleration, etc., at a 
 certain moment. If it were convenient to make ab- 
 straction of the movement also, we would speak with 
 Zeno of movement as consisting of rest-elements, just 
 as we consider the point as the ultimate element of 
 space, and the moment as the ultimate element of time. 
 Forgetting that this is a mere convenient or useful 
 abstraction, simplification, fictitious substitute for a 
 complex reality, we imagine that a point can really 
 move in space, we imagine that statistical averages have 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 405 
 
 real existence. Now, since a line may for convenience 
 be considered as consisting of an infinite number of 
 points, we conclude that a point moving over a line 
 ought to traverse it in an infinite time. But as a mat- 
 ter of fact, a point having no extension, no real exist- 
 ence, cannot be a constituent part of any real thing, 
 nor can it really move in space. In addition to this 
 source of mathematical puzzles consisting in mistaking 
 abstractions, symbols and words for the real thing and 
 thought which they stand for or symbolize, there is 
 another source due to the fact that in mathematics we 
 operate upon the quantity of the figure or of a thing, 
 forgetting that the quality also changes with the 
 changing quantity. It is true that in mathematics the 
 quality or essence of a figure does not depend so much 
 on its quantity or size, that the magnitude of an angle, 
 for instance, is independent of the length of its sides ; 
 but if we diminish the sides until they become zero, we 
 do not need to feel surprised that the angle vanishes 
 also, for an angle does not consist of a mere vertex or 
 point. If mathematical quality does not vary with 
 variations in quantity, this does not mean that the 
 former persists after the vanishing of the latter. Con- 
 tinuity, straightness, simplicity to the naked eye, be- 
 come discontinuity, crookedness, complexity to the eye 
 armed with a microscope. Hence mathematical con- 
 tinuity, straightness, simplicity, perfection, are pri- 
 marily the product of imperfect knowledge, of real per- 
 cepts, and only secondarily they may be conceived as 
 ideal constructs of our mind, as intentional simplifi- 
 cations. 
 
 Mysticism is either the dawn or the decay, the de- 
 cline of scientific, clear knowledge. It is the crepuscu- 
 lar light, and not the day-light of knowledge, and still 
 less a higher kind of light or celestial light as the semi- 
 insane mystics would have us believe. It is either the 
 
406 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 beginning of original thought, or the end of all think- 
 ing, the end of logic, a relapse into primitive confusion 
 or childish thinking which does not see any relations 
 at all or suspects relations everywhere between any 
 disparate things. 
 
 The conception by primitive thinkers of animism, 
 of the soul hypothesis, of metempsychosis (reincarna- 
 tion, migration of souls), of Karma (Moera, Fate), 
 of mind cure, etc., was certainly a manifestation of 
 progressive mystical thinking; it was a first, crude, 
 groping attempt at extending old, materialistic, 
 anthropomorphic theories and at grafting new hypo- 
 theses upon them so as to account respectively for the 
 dimly and newly perceived one-ness of man with Nature, 
 for the peculiarity of the dream realm, for atavistic 
 heredity, for the chain of causal sequences, for the in- 
 fluence of suggestion and of the mind upon the body, 
 etc. But the revival of the same crude beliefs and 
 practises under modem names and under the scientific 
 garb of the corresponding more advanced hypotheses 
 (spiritism, theosophy. Christian Science, etc.) is cer- 
 tainly a manifestation of regressive mysticism, of a 
 decaying intelligence in the adherents, and of sordid 
 humbug in the leaders. 
 
 Mental laziness, incapacity, impotence, aspires to the 
 acquisition of knowledge, without any intellectual 
 effort, through so-called revelation, inspiration, intui- 
 tion, speculation, dialectics, mystical, occult or super- 
 natural channels, communion with spirits, etc. It has 
 no patience for the acquisition of knowledge through 
 observation, experimentation, comparing, analyzing, 
 synthesizing of sense data, or through continual re- 
 flection. Likewise, the intellectually dishonest prefer 
 to dwell in the misty, dark regions of wild, verbal specu- 
 lation, where their tricks and ignorance cannot so 
 easily be detected as in the lighted regions of honest. 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 407 
 
 scientific, matter-of-fact investigation. 
 
 This intellectual parasitism, dishonesty, laziness, im- 
 pulsiveness, incapacity of observing patiently and of 
 thinking logically, clearly, coherently or consistently; 
 this desire to quickly obtain supernatural knowledge 
 or ready-made spiritual wealth and possessions, to 
 wrest from Nature her secrets and to easily exert 
 power over her, by mere intellectual gambling, i. e., by 
 merely relying upon magic, miracles, chance, revela- 
 tion, trickery, and not by laborious, gradual, slow but 
 firm acquisition, has its analogue in the economic world 
 in financial gambling, speculation, reliance upon chance 
 and trickery, by means of which both the degenerate, 
 predatory classes and the hopelessly struggling pariahs 
 try to get rich quick, to wrest from others their ready- 
 made wealth and possessions, to acquire power over the 
 toiling or producing masses, because they themselves 
 lack either the ability or the opportunity to produce, 
 create and accumulate patiently, slowly but securely. 
 
 The knowledge of and about the abstract, unknown, 
 psychical, intangible, general, functional, dynamical, 
 begins by being almost identical with, then is merely 
 grasped and retained by analogy with or in terms of, 
 and finally becomes independent of, the knowledge about 
 the concrete, known, physical, tangible, particular, 
 structural, statical. The nebulous, unstable thinker, 
 after having reached for a while the third stage of ab- 
 stract knowledge, usually relapses into the second, i. 
 e., into that of analogy ; and finally into the first, i. e., 
 into tliat of concretizing, personifying, the abstract and 
 retaining merely its verbal form or expression. He 
 ends by talking trivialities, commonplace truth, or 
 even puerilities and tautologies in abstract, philosoph- 
 ical language ; he ends by talking about ideas and feel- 
 ings as if they were things, about imaginary things as 
 if they were real things, about scientific laws as if they 
 
408 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 were external forces, about relations as if they were 
 facts, about concepts as if they were percepts, about re- 
 lated concepts as if they were identical, and vice versa. 
 
 Regressive Genius. — Abilities which are declining 
 with the advance of the human species, like muscular 
 ability, non-voluntary imitation, pictorial thinking, etc., 
 if found in an extraordinary degree in an individual, 
 may be considered as retrogressive genius. (Athletes, 
 acrobats, certain actors, spiritistic mediums, calculat- 
 ing genius or calculation by means of mental imagery, 
 etc.) 
 
 Just as the concrete, personification- and archaism- 
 abounding, pictorial language of the poet, when used 
 for thought expression, indicates a more primitive, 
 regressive, emotional, unilateral way of thinking, while 
 indicating at the same time a more advanced, intel- 
 lectualized, complex way of feeling; just so the 
 grimaces, gesticulations, sympathetic bodily move- 
 ments, voluntary control over more facial muscles than 
 average men have, indicate in the actor a more primi- 
 tive, regressive, impetuous, elemental, simple, undif- 
 ferentiated way of feeling and of artistic expression, 
 while indicating at the same time a more advanced, 
 socialized way of acting upon and reacting to one's 
 fellow-men than fighting, killing, quarreling. 
 
 Psychic Poison. — The psychic organism has its 
 pathogenic, and also its inoffensive and collaborating 
 microbes, like the physiological organism. There is a 
 psychical, as well as a physiological, self-poisoning re- 
 sulting from an incomplete elimination of useless, un- 
 digestible, absurd, self-contradictory, superfluous ideas. 
 Our intellectual, like our physical, atmosphere is in- 
 fested by all sorts of mental excrements, microbes, 
 parasites, still-born pseudo-concepts produced by de- 
 generate geniuses or pseudo-geniuses. Ideas that can- 
 not be digested, assimilated by our mind, or eliminated 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 409 
 
 as waste material, cause a mental constipation which 
 is not less harmful than a stomachal or intestinal con- 
 stipation. 
 
 A normal body has always, in health and in disease, 
 healthy appetites, i. e., it craves for such food and 
 drink as make for harmonious growth, for the main- 
 tenance or for the restoration of bodily equilibrium. 
 A degenerated body has unhealthy appetites, i. e., it 
 craves for intoxicating, exciting, or stupefying food 
 and drink which yields greater momentary pleasure 
 than healthy food, but makes for decay, for increasing 
 distintegration, disequilibration. Just so a normal 
 mind craves for healthy intellectual food, for clear 
 knowledge, for attainable truth, for moderate emotions, 
 for reality; whereas a degenerated mind craves for in- 
 toxicating, ecstasy-producing, stupefying intellectual 
 food, for mystical ideas, for insoluble problems, for 
 stirring emotions, for puzzling and horrifying beliefs, 
 for illusions. 
 
 The producer of and the dealer in alcoholic liquor 
 recruit their consumers mostly from those to whom a 
 plain, regular, domestic life is inaccessible, or distaste- 
 ful. Just so the superior degenerates, the pseudo- 
 philosophers, the pseudo-prophets, the mystical writers, 
 the producers of psychical intoxicants, recruit their 
 admirers, adherents, and readers mostly from those to 
 whom plain truth is unattainable, distasteful, or not 
 sufficiently stimulating. If the spread of alcoholism 
 seems quicker and more extensive than it is, it is mainly 
 because intoxicated people are more noise-making, more 
 unruly, more obtrusive than the sober, home-loving 
 citizens with healthy appetites. Just so with the pro- 
 ducers and consumers of psychical intoxicants: they 
 seem more numerous, more important than they really 
 are on account of their noisiness, obtrusiveness, self- 
 styled fame. This is true of the artistic fads and 
 
410 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 literary aberrations of poor degenerates who are far 
 from being as pernicious as one could infer from Nor- 
 dau's masterly work "Degeneration," but harm only less 
 gifted degenerates of their own kind without intending 
 to do so ; on the contrary, they administer to others the 
 dope of their own making, in which they themselves look 
 for salvation and happiness. It is also true to a lesser 
 extent of the mystic, occult doctrines and practises 
 (spiritism, theosophy, etc.), which are revived by semi- 
 conscious charlatans, and from which the masses are 
 immune. Unfortunately, however, there is a much more 
 dangerous class of morally perverted individuals who 
 — in exchange for fat salaries or privileges given them 
 by exploiters — manufacture mental narcotics and in- 
 toxicants, from which they themselves abstain, but 
 which they force upon the toiling masses in the guise 
 of supposedly wholesome intellectual food or medicines, 
 under the cloak of official religion, public education, pa- 
 triotic oratory, political guidance, important news, sug- 
 gested enthusiasm for sport, athletics, ball games, etc. 
 These mental intoxicants and narcotics dealt out from 
 the pulpit, from the platform, in the classroom, in 
 newspapers, under false pretenses and with the label of 
 respectability or official approval, are much more dan- 
 gerous and hence much more in need of being dealt with 
 by a prohibitionist party than the generally condemned 
 alcoholic beverages, which are not forced upon anybody 
 and which at least bring some real relief to the hope- 
 less, helpless, overworked, overstrained victims of our 
 predatory regime, and which drown more criminality 
 than they unchain. What narcotics can be more perma- 
 nently mind-deadening and more injurious to the 
 progress of mankind; what narcotics could more in- 
 escapably paralyze the critical judgment of the masses 
 and maintain them in stupidity, automatic submissive- 
 ness than the worship a,t the shrine of patriotic fetishes 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 411 
 
 (the flags, national self-conceit, the words constitution^ 
 liberty, etc.) kept up by politicians; the vain, soporific 
 hopes aroused by pseudo-rulers ; the hocus-pocus dealt 
 out by priests and their invocation of divine wrath or 
 of miraculous help ; the ancestor-worship, stupid con- 
 tentedness, thanksgiving for imaginary gifts, and the 
 adulterated historical knowledge inculcated at school; 
 the theological non-sense stuffed into the still weak 
 infantile minds before they have acquired the power 
 to resist stultification and hypnotization ; the inten- 
 tional misrepresentation and denigration of the doc- 
 trines of free thinkers, agitators, genuine friends of 
 the people ; the exciting, fraudulent, concocted news 
 dealt out by the press? 
 
 Sea! and Mental Superiority. — Women are, as a rule, 
 born philistines, i. e., they lack genuine intellectual 
 needs and ideal or moral aspirations. And gallantry, 
 that devilish invention of idle, parasitical, sensual men, 
 encourages them to persist in their natural state of 
 mental torpor. Intellectual functions being relatively 
 permanent, organic, primary functions in men — on ac- 
 count of unknown physiological reasons, and on ac- 
 count of the constant pressure of the struggle for life, 
 of competition, of the unshiftable burden of responsi- 
 bility — and only occasional, adventitious, intermit- 
 tent, secondary in women; we understand why they 
 cause or go together with more disharmony, abnormali- 
 ties, contradictions, exhaustion, compensatory de- 
 ficiencies, in women than in men; we understand why 
 superior men are more many-sided, more balanced, 
 truer to their sex than superior women ; we understand 
 why after the cessation of coUege life, and after the 
 cessation of the stimuli of sexual selection, more women 
 than men relapse into their natural state of philistin- 
 ism, conservatism, emotionalism, superstition, narrow, 
 petty-minded and prosaic pursuits ; we understand why 
 
412 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 for women, knowledge, or truth, is still a means to 
 success, and has not yet become an end-in-itself. 
 
 With women, reason and love of Truth are as yet 
 intermittent, occasional, unstable, purely theoretical 
 functions. Neither Reason, abstract logical principles, 
 nor purely disinterested sentiments have any guiding 
 influence on their activity which flows wholly from self- 
 interest, instincts, alternating emotions, habits, sug- 
 gestions coming from acknowledged and self-styled 
 local authorities, imitation of mere outer appearances. 
 A woman may appeal to Reason and even to Philosophy 
 in order to inspire love to intellectual men, or when 
 she has to behttle unattainable material and vain 
 possessions, or when she has to criticize another 
 woman's conduct, or when she has to justify her own 
 past conduct; but in her own actual afl'airs she fails 
 to make such an appeal. An intelligent man, after 
 having won the love of a woman who agrees to become 
 his life companion, will no longer make any efi^ort to 
 win the love of other women ; whereas even very intelli- 
 gent married women cannot resist their mania of use- 
 lessly, aimlessly, thoughtlessly making conquests 
 among men. Of the moral and disinterested senti- 
 ments, woman possesses but condescending pity for 
 the bodily and the social inferiors — for their palpable 
 and physical ailments only — and maternal altruism; 
 but she has no sense for justice, for impersonal duty, 
 for disinterested and constant friendship, for a higher 
 altruism that embraces all social classes, all nations, 
 and races, which transcends personal interests. Ma- 
 ternal altruism is her only redeeming and ennobling 
 mental feature. In Religion woman seeks self-preser- 
 vation; but she ignores the metaphysical aspect, the 
 cosmical sentiments and consciousness. In women, the 
 intellectual functions are still subservient to, and un- 
 differentiated derivatives or mere appendices of, the 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 413 
 
 self-preservative and reproductive instincts. Love- 
 afFairs are for woman, particularly for the sex-parasite, 
 not only and not so much a matter of pure sexual at- 
 traction, a source of sexual pleasure, as they are for 
 men ; but they are also or rather a source of intellectual 
 pleasure, a source for gratifying vanity, a source for 
 dispelling ermui or empty-mindedness, a source for 
 gratifying the need of exerting power over others, a 
 means of ascertaining her own value or importance and 
 of rising in social rank, a means of approaching and 
 gaining the friendship of prominent and of superior 
 men on whom she has no hold except through her sexual 
 charms. A love-afFair to woman means everything, 
 her entire life; whereas to man it means one episode, 
 one aspect, one constituent part of his life. Even in- 
 tellectual women cannot help engaging in some higher 
 pursuit out of love for a certain man, or with a view 
 of gaining the admiration of men, with the more or less 
 conscious aim of making their intellectual attainments 
 subservient to their sexual and material pursuits. If 
 the low-class women join in the frivolous, lascivious talk 
 of low-class men, it is not out of sensuality. The aver- 
 age or normal woman is not sensual; for the so-called 
 "free-loving" women, i. e., women of masculine sensual- 
 ity, as a rule, do not give birth to children, hence can- 
 not propagate their kind. It is because this is the only 
 matter next to the matter of dress or personal adorn- 
 ment in which they feel competent to mix in, and which 
 — they think — lends them some importance. Because 
 women expect from love so many gratifications which 
 a single man is very seldom able to satisfy, we under- 
 stand why women, as a rule, are more discontented 
 with married life than men, we understand why women 
 lack soul chastity, i. e., they are platonically or 
 mentally polygamous while they remain bodily or 
 sensually monogamous. 
 
414 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 If Spencer's theory of sex-inheritance is wrong, i. 
 e., if it is true that daughters may inherit from fathers 
 and sons from mothers, it foUows that woman's mental 
 inferiority is rather constitutionally, physiologically 
 than socially determined ; it follows that the difference 
 in treatment, in early training (which, by the way, is 
 mostly in the hands of the mothers), in social condition, 
 betwetti the sexes, is not so much due to man's despotism 
 and physical strength (primitive man was not much 
 stronger than woman), is not so much a cause as an 
 effect of woman's intellectual inferiority. The truth is 
 that men are more often tyrannized by women than 
 vice versa ; that physical strength is a negligible factor 
 in the shaping of human relations ; moreover, no 
 amount of oppression could repress intelligence alto- 
 gether, it can only hinder inteUigence from manifest- 
 ing itself in certain directions. Whereas, as we 
 know, the manifestations of woman's intellect have 
 remained inferior in every direction, even in specifi- 
 cally feminine occupations. If it is true that in 
 times of war, of famine, of storm and stress, of 
 poverty, of ill nutrition, of inner commotion, hence of 
 unusual brain activity, women give birth to more boys 
 than girls, this fact would be another corroboration 
 of the theory that woman's intellectual inferiority, like 
 that of the females among the other mammals, has a 
 physiological foundation, and that, hence, most of the 
 so-called superior women are as yet to be considered 
 abnormal. Thus, although female geniuses do not ad- 
 vance theoretically as far as male geniuses, still the 
 discrepancy, disharmony or difference in pace between 
 their intellect or reason and their instincts or practise 
 is much more pronounced than in male geniuses. 
 
 Women unite the empty-mindedness, thoughtlessness, 
 of the philistine men, and the deceitful mania for posing 
 or for making impression of the pseudo-superior men. 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 415 
 
 without having the latter's embryonal superiority. If 
 we select at random two equal groups of men and of 
 women, 90 per cent, of the female group will cluster 
 very close around the level of philistinism : it will show 
 uniformity, lack of mental variability. Whereas the 
 male group will be scattered over a wide area, above and 
 below the philistine level: it will cluster around several 
 types (genius, talent, taste or critical ability, philistin- 
 ism, weak-mindedness, imbecility, idiocy, insanity). 
 
 t/ltn 
 •mmen 
 
 Insjnitit ImbtdlitU Itkul: PhilistMsr' 
 
 
 Tilent Oenlua 
 
 Or, more correctly, representing the various mental sta- 
 tus by various arcs of a circle, and measuring the fre- 
 quency along the radius, we get the following diagram : 
 
 tfinfufe • ' 
 
 Women, as a rule, are horn philistines : Their intel- 
 lectual needs remain rudimentary, they persist in con- 
 
416 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 suiting fortune-tellers, clairvoyants . . . ; they per- 
 sist in identifying the church with the seat of Religion, 
 titles with merits . . . , even if they are brought up in 
 colleges and in the midst of intellectual men. Whereas 
 men, as a rule, are made philistines by circumstances, 
 social pressure, exploitation, oppression. In spite of 
 the most stupefying drudgery to which they are sub- 
 jected, we see working men flocking to listen to words 
 of enlightenment. In spite of abject misery we see 
 hungry, homeless tramps devouring a bit of newspaper 
 or a book that happened to fall into their hands. 
 
 The female individual is probably the older, more 
 primitive form of living being than the male. Or, more 
 correctly, the most primitive form of living being, the 
 parthenogenetic, hermaphroditic, or self-reproductive 
 individual, branched otF at a certain early period, when 
 bodily progress was predominating over psychical prog- 
 ress, into female individuals which were still partheno- 
 genetic and differed but little from the original type, 
 and into male individuals endowed with less racial or 
 instinctive traits, but more capable of inheriting the 
 acquired characters, more energetic, more capable of 
 variation and adaptation, and whose primary role was 
 to fertilize the females, to stimulate their reproduction. 
 In course of time the functions of the male became more 
 BAimerous, even their sexual role advanced from a mere 
 ,/stimulating to a contributory role. I surmise that in 
 the case when the female lends herself to sexual inter- 
 course without any attraction towards or love for 
 the male, the role of the latter is merely stimulating, 
 but not cooperative. Now, if the female inherits and, 
 like the child, recapitulates, the organized, racial, 
 primitive characteristics, but not the recent, func- 
 tional variations, we understand why the female is 
 superstitious, conservative, confused-minded, irritable, 
 impulsive, intolerant, despotical, vindictive, unsociable 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 417 
 
 and in spite of her being protected against the 
 uncertain struggles of life, is still greedy, deceitful, 
 envious, untruthful, selfish, unintellectual, craving for 
 power and caste distinction, incapable of disinterested 
 friendship ; we understand why the progress of woman 
 will always be behind that of man ; we understand why 
 women will never truly inherit any higher aspirations, 
 for these do not become so easily a general or common 
 property of the species. Man is destined to supply 
 woman with all the necessaries of life ; to make woman 
 progressive, he must see to it that progressiveness 
 passes from the possession of a few, of a privileged 
 class, into the possession of all. Woman's progress 
 comes normally through education and inheritance, and 
 not spontaneously nor through direct stimulation from 
 the cosmico-social environment. The normal, typical 
 woman has neither the strength nor the opportunity 
 of being exposed, and hence of reacting spontaneously, 
 to the direct blows and impacts coming from the sur- 
 rounding world. The spontaneous, original actions are 
 left over for men, and especially for the men of genius 
 who stand nearest to the periphery of the marching 
 human phalanx; and only those reactions which have 
 proved useful, adequate, are being transmitted by way 
 of social and physiological inheritance to the bulk of 
 the army whose core is occupied by women and children. 
 But since human psychical progress is not yet finished, 
 has not yet reached its limit like bodily progress, and 
 necessitates therefore ever new adjustments which can 
 be quickly but not efficiently transmitted through edu- 
 cation, and efficiently but slowly and too late through 
 heredity; it follows unavoidably that most of woman's 
 reactions or ways of thinking, feeling, and acting must 
 needs remain antiquated, behind the times. 
 
 Genius and Paramnesia, Amnesia, Perceptional Ob- 
 tuseness and Other Apparent Deficiencies. — In param- 
 
418 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 nesia, it is said, one mistakes an actual perception, 
 thought, recollection, and — I may add — emotion, . . . 
 for a past one; the patient has, with every new experi- 
 ence, the feeling of having experienced it before. Now, 
 it seems to me that this before of the paramnesiac is not 
 wholly a creation of his : he only mistakes a near, re- 
 cent past, an instant, for a remote, indefinite, distant 
 past, for the simple reason that his distracted or ab- 
 sorbed mind gives so little attention to actual experi- 
 ences that these do not persist, remain vague in 
 memory, do not get linked to other experiences ; the 
 men and objects before his eyes, the events going on' 
 in his presence, get such little hold of his attention 
 which is almost entirely absorbed by organic sensations, 
 inner experiences, revery, conceptual thinking, that 
 they easily drop out of his consciousness (or rather out 
 of his marginal consciousness) to be soon brought back 
 into it because of their persistence or continuance. 
 Usually the recollection of very remote experiences is 
 very vague. Now, the paramnesiac infers unconsciously 
 backwards from the vagueness of his recollections, due 
 to vague, incomplete perceptions, to the remoteness of 
 the experiences which are in reality actual or rather 
 intermittently dropped and renewed instead of being 
 quasi-continuous as in a normally non-preoccupied 
 mind. 
 
 I surmise that a slight degree of paramnesia must 
 be a familiar experience even to balanced thinkers, to 
 men who are often deeply, but not hypnotically, ab- 
 sorbed in following out long trains of thoughts and of 
 reasonings. For, while they are mentally absorbed, 
 they have to repress constantly recurring perceptions 
 tending to get a hold of their attention; they have to 
 fight against the emotions aroused by these perceptions, 
 and against the trains of thoughts associated there- 
 with. Only people who get totally absorbed in their 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 419 
 
 thoughts, i. e., whose perceptive centers are totally 
 shut up while the inner processes are going on ; and 
 also those who never follow any thought very far and 
 seriously, who very seldom have thoughts called up by 
 remote or past impressions ; and especially people who 
 confine their mental activity to mere perceptions, to 
 mere looking-on without any commentation on or in- 
 terpretation of what they perceive: such people, of 
 course, can never have par amnesic illusions. 
 
 The superior man's continual inner mental activity, 
 mental absorption or conceptual thinking — owing to its 
 frequent drafts upon the energy of the next lower 
 brain organs (active memory, active perception or ob- 
 servation) and also owing to its incipient centrifugal, 
 outgoing or motor currents, which often overflow into 
 the centripetal, ingoing or sensory channels — is re- 
 sponsible for his perception being functionally or tem- 
 porarily obtuse and sluggish. It is not so nAich his 
 passive or receptive perception as his active or inter- 
 pretative perception that is affected: While absorbed, 
 he may hear and see, but he does not understand what 
 he hears and sees, because he is too busy digesting, 
 assimilating, correlating the experiences, impressions, 
 teachings of the past. And, of course, what we call 
 the genius' paramnesia, amnesia, forgetfulness, absent- 
 mindedness simply means that the imperfectly, slowly, 
 inattentively perceived impressions cannot be remem- 
 bered as clearly as impressions received when the mind 
 is unpreoccupied, empty, hungry, ready to absorb any- 
 thing that comes along. To see with Lombroso a 
 symptom of degeneration, an abnormality, in the genius' 
 absent-mindedness or inability to receive new impres- 
 sions while digesting old ones, or to see what is going 
 on in his vicinity while looking far ahead into the 
 future ; in his apparent amnesia or inability to remem- 
 ber what he has not clearly perceived; in his unprac- 
 
420 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 ticality or inability to attend at the same time to 
 details, particular cases, immediate ends and to wholes, 
 general interests, remote ends ; in his tactlessness or 
 inability to both pursue truth and justice and in- 
 gratiate himself with the truth-hating rich parasites ; 
 in his unsociability or inability to both indulge in re- 
 flection, meditation and enjoy the company of the 
 thoughtless, frivolous philistines ; in his unadaptedness 
 or inability to both conform with the old order, travel 
 along the beaten path, respect empty conventionalities, 
 bow before monarchs and other such drones, and pave 
 the way for a new, better, equitable, democratic social 
 order, etc. ; in short : to see with Lombroso an abnor- 
 mality in the genius' inability to perform two successive 
 or even mutually exclusive tasks at the same time is 
 certainly just as absurd as to blame a man for not being 
 able to stuff himself with new food while his stomach 
 is full, or to blame him for not being able to be in 
 two different places at the same time, or to blame him 
 for not being able to focus his eyes upon both near 
 and distant objects at the same time. It is much more 
 logical to see degeneracy, abnormality or, at best, ar- 
 rested development in the pseudo-superior man's one- 
 sidedness and in the philistine's inability to rise above 
 or go beyond mere suggestibility, passive or receptive 
 perception; in his inability to compare, harmonize or 
 throw off the contradictory empty beliefs imposed upon 
 him by his various exploiters ; in his inability to see 
 the incompatibility between his professed opinions and 
 his practise. To see in the superior man's contempt 
 for and unproficiency in philistine methods and pursuits 
 — such as submissiveness, blind imitation, mental 
 passivity, worship of brutal, muscular energy, of ma- 
 terial success, of size, quantity, forms, pursuit of ma- 
 terial success and of bodily comfort as ends-in-them- 
 selves, compliance with conventions and fashions, self- 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 421 
 
 degrading hero-worship, reliance upon the outside help 
 and guidance of gods, good luck, leaders, quacks — a 
 sign of inferiority or of maladjustment, and to see in 
 his smaller stature or weaker muscles a sign of degen- 
 eration, is just as absurd as to see in man a degenerate 
 animal because he is inferior to his animal cousins in 
 muscular strength, swiftness, visual and olfactive 
 acuity, etc. What need has man of developing his 
 senses, of relying on and of training his muscles when 
 he can manufacture tools, machines, weapons and when 
 his intellect is capable of conjuring up the inexhausti- 
 ble hidden forces of Nature and of compelling them to 
 do his work? But, just as it is not advisable to en- 
 tirely discard the petroleum lamp when we have at our 
 disposal the much better gas and electric light, just 
 so is it not advisable to entirely neglect our muscular 
 ability. Only it would be a waste of time to try in 
 vain to attain the agility of apes when we have much 
 better weapons and more inexhaustible resources at our 
 disposal. The genius despises the philistine's methods 
 or paths, because if followed blindly to the end beyond 
 the cross-road they turn out to be blind alleys. The 
 genius, too, starts by traveling along the philistine 
 paths, but he leaves them as soon as he meets with bet- 
 ter, broader, onward and upward leading paths. Still 
 more absurd is it to consider as abnormal not only the 
 superior man's differences from the average man, but 
 also his sharing in the latter's weaknesses, such as 
 vanity (although he is more entitled than anybody else 
 to feeling proud), inconsistency (as if there were a 
 man absolutely free from inconsistencies, especially 
 when his intellect is always in advance of his instincts, 
 practise and surroundings), etc. Since the genius or 
 the precursor of the super-man — who, by the way, will 
 be the exact antipode of Nietzsche's fictitious, confused, 
 capitalistic conception of a brutal, anti-Christian, 
 
422 GENERAL TYPES OF SUPERIOR MEN 
 
 egotistic, unsociable, anti-social, slave-hunting, preda- 
 tory, destructive super-man — cannot help coming of a 
 phihstine ancestry, and is nothing but a more normally, 
 harmoniously, many-sidedly, freely developed human 
 being, it follows that he cannot be expected to either 
 differ entirely from the common mortal or use all the 
 lower abilities of the latter in addition to his better 
 weapons. 
 
 What has been said about the genius' apparent 
 mental deficiencies accompanying his inner absorption 
 applies also to his nervous derangements following upon 
 intense or prolonged intellectual labor. If geniuses 
 suffer from nervous exhaustion, mental depression, 
 lowered potential, melancholia, epileptic seizures ; and 
 if many of them eventually break down or become in- 
 sane under the combined load of mental exertion and 
 social prejudices, ostracism, ridicule, adverse circum- 
 stances, persecution; what does it prove.'' It merely 
 proves that one cannot both spend and keep his money 
 or energy ; it proves that if one works hard, one must 
 expect to get tired; it proves that even an intellectual 
 giant must pay a penalty if he overtaxes his strength ; 
 it proves that even geniuses are not entirely immune 
 against social disapproval ; it proves that pioneer work 
 is beset with many dangers ; but it does not prove in 
 the least that genius and degeneration, intellectual crea- 
 tions and epileptic convulsions, are equivalent, for this 
 would be tantamount to saying that energy is equiva- 
 lent with the fatigue or weakness resulting from its ex- 
 penditure. The genius takes delight in> testing and ap- 
 plying his intellectual ability or strength, his capacity 
 for original thinking or mental exertion, and is liable 
 therefore to often overestimate and hence overtax his 
 own powers; just as the athlete, who is nothing but a 
 more brutal, more primitive and hence more robust type 
 of philistine, takes such delight in feeling his muscular 
 
NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY 423 
 
 strength and dexterity that he often attempts the im- 
 possible and meets therefore with accidents. Whereas 
 the ordinary philistine is exempt from both bodily and 
 mental self-inflicted or self-caused accidents, for his 
 self-protecting instinct prevents him from attempting 
 what he feels unable to accomplish. His misoneism is 
 not an aversion to any change, to anything that is 
 new, as the great Lombroso, the inventor of this term, 
 was inclined to think ; it is merely an aversion to mental 
 exertion or to original, unconventional thinking, orig- 
 inating from his inability to do so and dictated by a 
 healthy and self-protecting instinct. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ability and aim, 16 
 
 and interest, 128 
 
 and opportunity, 87 
 
 and success, 361 
 Abnormal, 335, 250, 266 
 
 ideal, 387 
 
 originality, 398 
 
 progress, 92 
 Abnormality, 397, 420 
 Aborted thinker, 390 
 Abortion, 390 
 Absent-mindedness, 419 
 Absolute, 243, 249, 254 
 Abstract, 139, 249, 404 
 Abulia, 188 
 Academic language, 181 
 
 philosopher, 219, 258, 338 
 Academicians, 64, 97, 170, 174, 
 
 294, 386 
 Acquired characters, 84, 113 
 Acrobat, 408 
 Acting, 189 
 
 and thinking, 301 
 Actinic rays, 401 
 Activity, 102, 136, 305, 324 
 
 automatic activity, 13, 323 
 
 conscious activity, 13 
 
 play activity, 197 
 
 serious activity, 197 
 Action and reaction, 23, 24, 312, 
 
 331, 322 
 Actor, 268 
 
 AdaptabiUty, 45, SO, 377 
 Adaptation, 45, 46, 347, 403 
 
 active and passive adaptation, 
 55, 398 
 
 bodily and psychical adapta- 
 tion, 47, 48, 50, 108, 401 
 
 negative adaptation, 45 
 
 social adaptation, 48 
 Adaptedness, SO 
 Adherence, 335, 338, 366 
 Admiration, 296, 309, 312, 331, 
 354, 366, 373 
 
 Adolescence, 95 
 Affections, 41 
 
 of Philistines, 43 
 
 of superior men, 43, 281 
 Affective blindness, 118 
 After-image, 248 
 Aggressiveness, 64, 292 
 Agitator, 26, 28, 305 
 Agriculture, 48 
 Aim and ability, 16 
 
 and activity, 306 
 
 and means, 16 
 
 of art, science, philosophy, 
 125 
 Alcoholism, 317, 409 
 Altruist, 283 
 Ambition, 286 
 Amnesia, 419 
 Amusement, 262, 319, 364 
 Analogy, 179 
 Analysis, 124, 125, 215 
 Analytic thinker, 361 
 Anarchism, 210, 385 
 Anarchist, 236, 361, 320, 376, 
 
 388 
 Ancestor-worship, 387, 411 
 Anharmony, 40, 298 
 Animal, 47, 96, 352, 401 
 
 instinct, 20 
 
 intelligence, 105, 111, 33S 
 Animism, 325, 406 
 Antagonism, 76, 120, 130 
 Anthropocentric, 38 
 Anticipation of the future, 295 
 Antinomy, 240 
 Anti-parasitism, 345 
 Anti-social, 300 
 Apathy, 287 
 Aphoristic writer, 371 
 Apperception, 37, 228 
 Appreciation of artists, 355 
 
 of men, 373 
 
 of superior men, 353, 367 
 
 of pseudo-superior men, 353 
 
 425 
 
INDEX 
 
 Appreciation of artists, dif- 
 ficulties of appreciation, 349 
 
 mutual appreciation, 372 
 Approbation, 293, 303 
 A priori, 244 
 Aquiline nose, 317 
 Archaic language, 181, 408 
 Archimedes, 102 
 Aristocrat, 65, 96, 101, 336, 259, 
 
 263, 326 
 Aristocratic philistine, 67, 74, 
 
 77, 79, 83, 378, 280, 378 
 Art, 122, 187 
 
 and ethics, 382 
 
 for art's sake, 381 
 Artist, 117, 136, 130 
 
 philosopher-artist, 139 
 Art-philistine, 39 
 
 Aspiration, 387, 309 
 
 Assimilation of ideas, 32, 337, 
 338 
 
 Association. See contact, so- 
 cial life 
 
 Atavism, 52, 406 
 
 Atheist, 120 
 
 Athlete, 366, 408, 423 
 
 Athletics, 410 
 
 Atmosphere, 408 
 
 Atrophy, 95 
 
 Attention, 36, 168, 176, 225 
 
 Attitude toward the established 
 order, 57, 58, 307 
 
 Attraction, 254, 343 
 
 Authorship, 270 
 
 Auto-hypnosis, 268 
 
 Autoscopy, 217 
 
 Average man. See philistine 
 
 Baby, 20, 23, 229 
 
 Ball games, 334, 365 
 
 Beauty, 39, 186, 255 
 
 Beggar, 326 
 
 Belief, 166, 253, 254 
 
 Bergson, Henri, 161-165, 201 
 
 212, 234, 375 
 Bible, 338 
 Blind alleys, 421 
 Boasting, 31 
 
 Books, 19, 108, 373, 330, 338 
 Book-readers, 330 
 Brain, 27, 93, 178 
 Broad-heartedness, 170 
 -mindedness, 170 
 
 Buddha, 315 
 Bullying, 384, 330 
 Business, 393, 365 
 
 Calculating genius, 408 
 Capital, intellectual, 337, 360 
 CapitaUsm, 90, 105, 108, 357, 
 
 300, 383, 397 
 Capitalist, 236, 320, 337 
 Capitalistic ethics, 360 
 
 literature, 100, 360. 
 
 logic, 363 
 
 philosophy, 361 
 
 world-conception, 257, 320 
 Captain of industry, 18, 96 
 Carnivorous animal, 336 
 Catalysis, intellectual, 159, 272 
 Categoric imperative, 181 
 Categories of thought, 172, 231 
 Causation, 211, 223, 246 
 Cause of laughter, 213 
 Causes of philistinism,. 96 
 Cerebral fatigue, 206 
 Change, 220 
 Charity, 261, 311, 366 
 Childbirth, 281, 388 
 Children, 24, 83, 85, 95, 106, 198, 
 
 228, 234, 235, 247, 342 
 Christianity, 338, 372 
 Christian Science, 406 
 Christmas presents, 311 
 Church, 76, 98, 181, 341 
 City, 92, 94, 103, 345, 391 
 
 -dweller, 224 
 Civilization, 54, 325 
 Clairvoyant, 12 
 Class, 229, 233 
 
 distinction, 98 
 
 hatred, 378 
 
 struggle, 257 
 
 parasitic class, 217, 234, 402 
 Classification, 230 
 
 of sciences, 144, 217 
 
 of superior men, 140, 144 
 Clearness, 232, 239 
 Clear-headed thinker, 159, 373, 
 
 335, 373 
 CUque, 378 
 Cogitation, 118 
 Cold-blooded animals, 47 
 Colonization, 325 
 Command, 341 
 
 Commercial philistine, 228, 292 
 Common sense, 39, 400 
 
INDEX 
 
 4.27 
 
 Communicativeness, 69, 280 
 Communist, 236, 325 
 Commutator, 184 
 Compensation, 93, 393 
 Competition, 64, 259, 261, 336 
 Complexity, 52, 141, 179, 343 
 Comprehensiveness, 222 
 Compulsion, 318 
 Concept, 119, 231 
 Conception, 328, 251, 389 
 Conceptualist, 348, 313 
 Concrete. 8ee abstract 
 Conflict, 122, 386 
 Gonfucms, 316 
 Confused-mindedness, 23, 44, 
 
 132, 406 
 Consciousness, 13, 14, 28, 121, 
 
 166, 176, 184, 223, 35S 
 Conservation, 329 
 Conservatism, 69, 76, 98, 181 
 Consistency, 300, 367 
 Constancy, 311, 231, 341, 364 
 Contact with everyday life, 130, 
 193 
 
 with men, 103, 104, 106, 107, 
 334 
 Contemplativeness, 136, 302 
 Contempt of court, 121, 263 
 Contingency, 240 
 Continuity, 405 
 Contradiction, 40, 240, 404 
 Conversation, 108, 311 
 Cooperation, 64, 167, 328, 337, 
 
 338 
 Cornelia, 280 
 Cosmopolitism, 376 
 Courage, 285, 307 
 Creation, 196 
 
 and imitation, 156 
 Crime, 337, 388, 390, 336, 337 
 Criterion of genius, 381 
 
 of intelligence, 363 
 
 of normality, 401 
 
 of sanity, 399 
 ' of truth, 351, 253 
 Critic, 274, 277, 394, 339, 374, 
 
 384 
 Crowd, 104 
 Cubism, 398 
 Curves of development, 150 
 
 Dance, 119, 126 
 Dancer, 269 
 Day-dreaming, 204-206 
 
 Deception, 39, 67-68, 183, 233, 
 
 259, 375, 341, 363 
 Deduction. See induction 
 Degenerate, 50, 52, 93, 95, 106. 
 
 335, 309, 337, 388, 409, 419 
 Delusion, 250 
 Demagogue, 334, 336 
 Democracy, 37-28, 107, 109, 342, 
 
 388 
 Description, 191 
 Desire, 57, 166 
 Detective, 336 
 Diderot, 316 
 Differentiation, 27, 36, 57, 107, 
 
 109, 123, 172 
 Dignity. See gravity 
 Dilettantism, 81 
 Diplomat, 183, 292 
 Disciple and master, 106, 379 
 Discontentedness, 318, 398 
 Disharmony, 210, 298 
 Dishonesty, intellectual, 63, 165, 
 
 406 
 Dissociation, 31, 118, 286, 404 
 Dissolution, 37 
 Distraction, 250 
 Divisibility of matter, 240 
 Division of labor, 92, 103, 109, 
 
 317 
 Dizziness, intellectual, 38, 403 
 Dog, 384 
 
 Dogma, 73-74, 306, 332 
 Doubt, 354 
 
 Dramatic activity, 304 
 Dream, 304-206 
 Duplicity, 261, 314 
 Dynamist, 220 
 
 Eccentricity, 324 
 Economic cause of philistinism, 
 96 
 
 dependence, 94, 106 
 
 security, 90 
 Economy of thought, 52, 251 
 Ecstasy, 45 
 Ecto-derma, 86 
 Effort, 129 
 Ego, 230 
 Egocentric, 38 
 Egotism, 141 
 Elasticity, mental, 332 
 Electricity, static, 177 
 Electron, 220 
 Eliot, Oeorge, 280 
 
428 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Emancipation of Negroes, 310 
 Emotion, 118, 179, 282 
 Emotional liarmony, 41 
 
 genius, 38 
 
 individual, 183, 241 
 
 intoxication, 38, 102 
 Empirical, 244 
 Energist. See dynamist 
 Energy, 148, 244, 246 
 Enfant terrible, 372 
 Ennui, 221, 413 
 Entiiusiasm, 121, 195 
 Envious, the praise of the, 355 
 Environment, 55, 84, 86, 87, 330 
 Epiphenomenon, 14 
 Equilibration of temperaturesi 
 
 343 
 Equilibrium, 210, 409 
 
 mental equilibrium, 45, 49 
 
 moral equilibrium, 339 
 Erect posture, 110 
 Error, 156, 246 
 Erudition, 20, 270 
 Esprit de corps, 63 
 Esthetic enjoyment, 282 
 Eternity, 241 
 Ether, 230, 353 
 Ethical culturist, 270, 315 
 
 psychologist, 143, 277 
 Ethics, 361, 363, 388 
 Ethnical psychologist, 364 
 Ethology, 387 
 Eucken, Rudolf, 163 
 Euphemism, 361 
 Europe, 346 
 Euphoria, 173 
 Evolution of aspirations, 387 
 
 of hypotheses, 318 
 
 of knowledge, 339, 349, 407 
 
 of man, 36, 396 
 
 of mental processes, 36 
 
 of society, 27, 137 
 
 of superior men, 137 
 
 formula of evolution, 54 
 Exaggeration, 190, 204, 295 
 Exchange, 110 
 Existence, 243, 244 
 Experience, 35, 122, 195, 238, 
 
 230, 243 
 Experimental fad, 355 
 Experimentation, 134, 319 
 Experimenter, 145, 148, 159, 359 
 Exploitation. See parasitism 
 Explorer, 18, 133, 295 
 
 Explosiveness. See irritability 
 Exposition, 134 
 Extremes, 337 
 
 Facts, 318 
 Fad, 79, 409, 
 Faith, 216, 317 
 Fame, 313, 354 
 Family, 327 
 Fashion, 79 
 Fatalism, 387 
 "Fathers," 388 
 Faultfinding, 375 
 Fear, 6S, 79, 94, 108, 319 
 Fertility, intellectual, 102 
 Fetishism in science, 355 
 patriotic fetishism, 410 
 Figurative language, 180 
 First cause, 126 
 Flag worship, 311 
 Flirtation, 81, 366 
 Fluorescent, 96 
 Flynn, Elizabeth Ov/rley, 280 
 Folk-literature, 362 
 Fool, 237 
 Form and content, 22, S3, 178- 
 
 179, 330, 398 
 Formula of evolution, 54 
 Frankness, 376 
 Free love, 413 
 Freud, Sigmund, 207 
 Frivolousness, 96 
 Frontal lobes, 25 
 Futurism, 398 
 
 Gallantry, 411 
 Oalton, 360 
 Gambling, 312, 365 
 
 intellectual gambling, 407 
 Games, 262, 313 
 Gang, 320 
 
 spirit, 63 
 Genius, 36, 231 
 
 adaptation of, 48 
 
 affective life of, 42, 281 
 
 aims of, 17 
 
 appreciation of, 233 
 
 awkwardness of, 31, 291 
 
 criterion of, 381 
 
 general characteristics of, 11 
 
 reward of, 89 
 
 sanity of, 388, 393 
 
 self-appreciation of, 294 
 
 spontaneity of, 32 
 
INDEX 
 
 429 
 
 Genius, universality of, 18, 368 
 
 variability of, 63 
 Geographic sense, 376 
 Germ plasm, 84 
 German language, 182 
 Oilman, Charlotte Perkins, 280 
 Goethe, 138, 280 
 Ooldman, Em/ma, 380 
 Gossip, 387 
 Government, 310 
 Grafting of ideas, 14, 406 
 Grandiloquence, 33, 134, 181, 
 
 393, 360 
 Grandomania, 63, 154, 294 
 Graphomania, 172 
 Gravity, 384, 363 
 Greed, 146, 308, 309 
 Gregarious, 103 
 Oroog, 198 
 
 Hairsplitting, 181 
 Happiness, 343, 286, 292 
 
 social, 160, 336 
 Harmony, 298 
 
 emotional, 41 
 
 mental, 40 
 Hegel, 336 
 Behnholtz, 338 
 Herd Ufe, 104, 344 
 Heredity. See inheritance 
 Heritage of genius, 61, 86 
 Heroism, 308 
 Hero-worship, 31, 387, 431 
 
 new hero-worship, the, 396 
 Hetairae, 87 
 
 Hierarchy, intellectual, 146, 146. 
 383 
 
 logical, 330 
 Historian, 134, 343 
 Historic sense, 376 
 Homogeneity, 354 
 Honesty, intellectual, 80 
 Horace, 279 
 Horizon, intellectual, 19, 30, 
 
 331, 393 
 Humanism, 117 
 Humility, 120 
 Humor, 303, 376 
 Hypercritical, 363 
 Hypnotic state, 168, 337, 341 
 Hypocrisy, 194, 333, 359 
 Hypothesis, 318 
 Hysteria, 31, 118 
 Hysterical, 31, 317, 369 
 
 Idea, 118, 303, 403 
 
 fixed, 13 
 
 free, 122 
 Ideal, 58, 167, 187, 302, 303, 310 
 
 normat 387 
 Ideal human life, 72 
 Idealism. See romantic phi- 
 losophy 
 Idealist, ethical, 313 
 Idealization, 69, 77 
 Ignorance, 360 
 Illusion, 167, 306, 343, 247, 
 
 350 
 Imagination, 114, 133, 186, 338, 
 
 249 
 Imitation, 20, 94, 104, 156, 403 
 Immanence, 246 
 Immigrant, 236, 364 
 ImmortaUty, 353, 366, 296, 340 
 'Impervious to truth, 166 
 Implicit, 135, 219, 382 
 Impressibility, 38, 117 
 Incentives, 99 
 Incongruity, 202, 213 
 Incubation, 377, 388 
 Independence, economic, 369 
 
 psychical, 88, 390 
 Individual, 88, 156 
 Individuality. See personality 
 Induction, 134, 316, 347 
 Industrial unionism, 69 
 Inertia, intellectual, 36, 33, 311, 
 
 250 
 Infinity, 341 
 Influence of artists, 329 
 
 of books, 19, 338 
 
 of masses, 316, 341, 354 
 
 of mystics, 334 
 
 of plays, 340 
 
 of thinkers, 330, 340 
 Inheritance, 85 
 Inhibition, 323 
 Insane, 45, 92, 220, 226, 237, 
 
 260, 253, 364, 391 
 Inspiration, 167, 371 
 Instinct, 113, 130, 402 
 Instrumentalism, 248 
 Insult, 24 
 Intolerance, 98 
 Intuition, 34, 164, 167, 234 
 Intellectual needs, 72-73 
 
 prostitution, 266, 333 
 
 wealth, 168, 160 
 Intellectuals, 331 
 
430 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Intelligence, 338, 356 
 
 human and animal, 25, 46, 
 110 
 Interest, 17, 141, 337, 339 
 
 and ability, 18, 128 
 Interpretation, 114, 333 
 Intimidation, 94. See bullying 
 Intoxication, 13, 100, 103, 136, 
 
 365, 409, 410 
 Invention, 111 
 Irritability, 343, 384, 386 
 Isolation, 56, 103 
 
 James, William, 57, 163 
 Jaws, 318 
 
 Jesus, 361, 315, 373 
 Jew, 56 
 Jocularity, 334 
 Journalist, 365 
 Jungle, 319 
 
 Jurisprudence, 387, 329 
 Juvenile types, 138, 269 
 
 Kant, 181, 240 
 Karma, 406 
 Key, Ellen, 280 
 Knowing and doing, 133 
 Knowledge, 221 
 
 acquisition of, 214, 216, 406 
 
 evolution of, 329, 349, 407 
 
 organs of, 237 
 
 real, 363 
 
 of others, 189, 315, 333, 233, 
 336, 341 
 
 of self, 100, 220, 293, 380 
 Kropoikin, 154 
 
 Labor, standard of value, 366 
 Language, dishonest, 131, 180, 
 183, 361 
 
 evolution of, 53 
 
 German, 183 
 
 honest, 175 
 
 mystical, 317, 334, 350 
 
 Philistine, 69-70, 175 
 
 thought and, 360, 366 
 Latent, 83, 343, 345 
 Laughter, 313 
 Law of conservation, 365 
 
 scientific laws, 309 
 Laziness, 46, 306, 406 
 Leaders, 36, 104, 138, 134, 391, 
 313, 316, 33^ 362, 366 
 
 Le Bon, GuHave, 336 
 Legal machinery, 289 
 Libel, 131 
 Linguistic poverty, 158 
 
 wealth, 22, 173 
 Literature, 123, 190 
 Loeb, Jacques, 368 
 Logic, 331, 337 
 
 capitalistic, 313 
 Lombroso, 93, 172, 388, 391, 394, 
 
 395, 409, 423 
 Loria, A chile, 98 
 Love of animals, 201, 235 
 
 of approbation, 293 
 
 of knowledge, 279 
 
 of men, 377 
 
 sexual, 130, 366, 413 
 Luxury, 72, 168, 309 
 
 Macrocosm, 216 
 Magazines, 331 
 Magazine-readers, 330 
 Magic, 121, 387, 407 
 Maladjustment, 53, 265, 420 
 Man and animal, 25, 92 
 
 of action, 134, 304 
 Many-sidedness, 130, 292, 376 
 Market value, 168 
 Martyrs, 305 
 Marx, Karl, 98, 164, 315 
 Materialist, moral, 313, 317 
 
 philosophical. See realist 
 Mathematical mysticism, 404 
 Mathematics, 179 
 Matter and motion, 118, 302, 
 
 220, 267 
 Mature, 121, 138, 305 
 Meaning, 332 
 Means and ends, 313 
 Medium, spiritistic, 12, 408 
 Melancholia, 432 
 Meliorism, 67 
 Memory, 30, 133, 141, 196, 337, 
 
 339, 249 
 Mental harmony, 40 
 
 inertia, 24, 99, 211 
 
 processes, 15, 17, 139, 140, 
 238, 304 
 Merz, Karl, 157 
 Messiah, 387 
 Metaphor, 350 
 Metaphysician, 133 
 Metaphysics, 133, 140, 319 
 Metempsychosis, 406 
 
INDEX 
 
 431 
 
 Method, 124, 125 
 of progress, 55 
 •"Microcosm, 216 
 Microscope, 254 
 Middle class, 101, 198 
 Middlemen, 110, 306, 370 
 Militarism, 387 
 Mimicry, 314, 366 
 Mind cure, 406 
 Mind and matter, 212, 222, 233, 
 
 231 
 Miracle, 255, 387, 407 
 Miser, 308 
 
 Misanthropy, 278, 392 
 Misogyny, 280 
 Misoneism, 17, 44, 69, 76, 96, 
 
 423 
 Missionary, 295 
 Modesty, 80, 367 
 Momentum, 346 
 Monopsychism, 208 
 Moral genius, 27, 39, 40, 150, 
 
 178, 227, 278, 295, 326, 335, 
 
 369 
 Philistine, 39, 283 
 Morality, 266, 387, 290, 362 
 Moses, 315 
 Mother Jones, 280 
 Mother-thought, 14 
 Munro, 111 
 Miinsterherg, 78 
 Muscles, 421 
 Music, 119, 179, 157, 269 
 Myopy, intellectual, 115 
 Mystic, 272, 334, 407 
 Mysticism, 119, 387, 403-404 
 Myth, 156, 167 
 Mythology, 350 
 
 Nation, 217 
 
 National peculiarities, 56 
 
 Needs, 89 
 
 and luxuries, 72 
 Negativism, 209 
 Nerves, 27, 221, 224 
 Nervousness, 422 
 Newspapers, 98, 331, 410 
 Newspaper-reader, 330 
 Nietzsche, 421 
 Nirvana, 46, 387 
 Nominalism, 248, 313 
 Nordau, Max, 153, 268, 388, 410 
 Norm, 396 
 Normality, 396, 397, 399, 400 
 
 Noumena. 8ee things-in-them- 
 
 selves 
 NoveUst, 139, 140, 196, 277, 319 
 Novel-reader, 190, 331 
 Novels, 366, 382 
 Nutritive genius, 176 
 parasite, 177 
 
 Object. Hee thing 
 Objective and subjective, 101 
 
 thinker, 115, 234, 241 
 Obscure language, 317 
 Observation, 114, 142, 225, 238 
 Observer, 16, 114, 1-13, 145, 359, 
 
 375 
 Occupation, 364 
 Oligo-ideism, 136, 305 
 Opportunity, 87 
 Orator, 270. 314 
 Organism, 93, 177, 178 
 Organization, 278 
 Origin of art, 200 
 
 of genius, 84, 92 
 
 of life, 214 
 
 of mind, 268 
 Originality, 74, 108 
 
 abnormal, 178 
 
 disguised, 166 
 
 formal, 157 
 
 morbid, 160 
 
 normal, 397 
 
 pseudo, 157, 160 
 
 real, 158 
 
 verbal, 178 
 Ostracism, 422 
 Overestimation, 352 
 Overpopulation, 259 
 
 Pain, 33 
 
 Painter, 269 
 
 Parable, 167 
 
 Paramnesia, 418 
 
 Parasitism, 94, 98, 121, 132, 234, 
 
 258, 262, 316, 319 
 Parietal lobes, 25 
 Parvenu, 95 
 
 Patriotism, 57, 311, 410 
 Peace, international, 97, 137 
 Pedant, 60, 186 
 Pedigree, 263 
 Penology, 288 
 Perception, 37, 122, 227, 229, 
 
 250, 338 
 Perceptional level, 113 
 
432 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Personality, 28, 29, 31, 230 
 
 unstable, 268 
 Perspective, 136, 217 
 Persuasion, 318, 341 
 Philanthropist, 366 
 Philistine, 24, 29, 30, 34, 225, 
 315, 333 
 
 affections of, 333 
 
 aims of, 17, 203 
 
 intellectual needs of, 72 
 
 origin of, 76 
 
 predatory, 59, 284, 319 
 
 proletarian, 59, 67, 78, 277, 
 280, 284 
 
 variability of, S3 
 Philoneism, 17, 44 
 Philosopher, 16, 115, 130, 150, 
 214 
 
 academical, 124, 202, 219 
 
 -poet, 191-192 
 
 realistic, 152 
 Philosophy, 122, 123, 127, 208 
 Phobia, 52, 121 
 Phrase-monger, 385 
 Physiognomy, 353, 356 
 Pictorial thinking, 208, 408 
 Pigmentation, 401 
 Pioneer, 63 
 
 Piracy, intellectual, 386 
 Plant, 47, 176 
 Platitude, 158, 265 
 Play, 23, 197, 364, 380 
 Pleasure, 212 
 Poet, 117, 123, 146, 177, 194, 271 
 
 and psychologist, 147 
 
 and thinker, 137, 147 
 Poetry, 186 
 Point, 405 
 
 of view, 15, 125, 247, 26S 
 Poison, 213 
 
 mental, 390, 408 
 Politeness, 291 
 Politician, 214, 270, 302, 314, 
 
 411 
 Polygamy, 413 
 Polyhistor, 131 
 Polyideist, 147 
 Popularity, 309 
 Potentiality, 84, 113, 186, 242, 
 
 244, 337 
 Poverty, 99, 102 
 Practise, 298 
 
 Pragmatism, 57, 117, 248, 257 
 Prayer, 121 
 
 Preachers, 253, 270, 295, 299, 
 
 336 
 Predatory instincts, 66, 93 
 
 regime, 28, 288, 301, 319 
 Predisposition, 227 
 Pregnancy, intellectual, 388 
 Prejudice, 98, 168, 304 
 Preperception, 169 
 Presbytia, intellectual, 115 
 Pressure, 305 
 Prevision, 244 
 Primary qualities, 251 
 Professions, 317, 336 
 Professor. See academician 
 Progress, 52, 92, 108, 329 
 
 of genius, 90 
 
 of knowledge, 220 
 Proverb, 361 
 
 Pseudo-generalization, 390 
 Pseudo-superior men, 58-59, 60, 
 94, 269 
 
 aims of, 18 
 
 aspirations, 310 
 
 deceitfulness of, 29, 61, 64, 
 66 
 
 knowledge of, 19, 60, 143 
 
 language of, 175, 261 
 
 ostentation of, 65, 362 
 
 self-advertisement of, 305 
 
 sociability of, 279 
 Psychiatrist, 142, 145, 265 
 Ppycho-analysis, 13 
 Psychologist, 142, 188, 232, 277 
 Psychology, 186, 191 
 Public opinion, 281, 306 
 Publicity, channels of, 384 
 Publisher, 384 
 
 Quality and quantity, 15, 110, 
 
 244, 267, 405 
 Quest of truth, 168 
 Questionnaire, 171-172 
 Quick-witted, 22 
 
 Race, 55 
 
 suicide, 402 
 Reading, 19 
 Realism, 387 
 
 philosophical, 152, 220 
 
 sociological, 153 
 Reality, 100, 190, 251, 255 
 Reason, 120, 121, 251, 332 
 Recreation, 365 
 Red tape, 327 
 
Index 
 
 433 
 
 tleform, 97 
 Reformation, 346 
 Reformer, 303, 303 
 Regressive adaptation, 401 
 
 genius, 408 
 Rejuvenation, 327 
 Relation, 221 
 Relativity of knowledge, 241, 
 
 242 
 Religion, 98, 120, 238, 311 
 Renaissance, 345 
 Reproduction, 83, 150, 159 
 Reputation, 360 
 Respiration, 59 
 Resonance, 337 
 Resurrectioii, 296 
 Reticence, 284 
 Revelation, 324, 406 
 Revery. See day-dream 
 Revolutionist, 330, 331 
 Reward, 364, 313, 328, 383, 386 
 Rhythm, 126, 334 
 Rihot, 188 
 Robber baron, 386 
 Romantic philosophy, 208, 249, 
 
 403 
 Romanticism, 387 
 Bousaeaw, 109 
 Rulers, 339, 345, 357, 365 
 
 Sane genius, 388 
 Savage, 76, 224, 234, 382, 333 
 Scholar, 19, 20 
 Scholasticism, 257 
 School, 341 
 Schopenhauer, 80 
 Schreiner, Olive, 280 
 Science, 133, 133, 137 
 Scientist, 16, 117, 160 
 Sculptor, 369 
 Secondary qualities, 252 
 Secrecy, 121, 384 
 Self-advertisement, 305 
 
 -appreciation, 293, 378 
 
 -conceit, 97, 264, 286, 375, 378 
 
 -esteem, 293, 350 
 
 -importance, 65 
 
 -instruction, 18 
 
 -seeker, 241 
 Sensation, 36, 227, 250 
 Sensational plane, 113 
 Senses, 351 
 Sense of humor, 376 
 Sensitiveness, 337, 403 
 
 Sentiment, 403 
 Sentimental, 118, 138, 183 
 Serious activity, 33, 197, 307 
 Servilism, 336, 317 
 Sex and intellectual superiority, 
 411 
 
 inheritance, 414 
 Shock, 226 
 Short circuit, 403 
 Simplification, 404 
 Simulation, 61, 70, 315, 368 
 Sinclair, Upton, 319 
 Single standard, 261 
 Skepticism, 303 
 SkiU, 129 
 Sleep, 245 
 Smart set, 290 
 Snobbism, 23 
 Sociability, 68, 70, 71, 363 
 Social causes of phiUstinism, 
 93 
 
 causes of insanity, 391 
 
 happiness, 150, 325 
 
 Ufe, 102, 104, 344 
 
 organism, 26, 93, 357 
 
 pressure, 31, 95, 108, 432 
 
 significance, 23 
 
 usefulness, 368 
 Socialism. 59, 90, 106, 109, 255, 
 
 388, 325, 343, 345, 388 
 Socialist, 236, 320 
 Socrates, 361, 372 
 Solipsism, 308 
 Solitude, 30, 70, 376, 371 
 Sollier, 317 
 
 Somnambulist, 306, 337 
 Sophist, 117, 348, 257, 372 
 Soul, 406 
 Spar go, John, 321 
 Specialism, 130 
 Specific energy, 33 
 Speculation, 39, 124, 140, 393, 
 
 400 
 Speculative thinker, 131, 148, 
 
 168, 219, 358 
 Spencer, 54, 153, 198, 361, 414 
 Spinoza, 80, 362 
 Spiritism, 245, 353, 406 
 Spontaneity, 33, 94, 166, 333, 
 
 344 
 Spontaneous variation, 83 
 Statistics, 39, 171, 353 
 Sterility, intellectual, 33, 390 
 Still-born ideas, 408 
 
434 
 
 INDEX 
 
 striving after power, 66, 370 
 
 after truth, 73 
 Struggle for existence, 96, 224, 
 
 317 
 Stupidity, 250 
 Style, 171, 180 
 Sub-conscious, 12, 13, 121, 222, 
 
 379 
 Subject and predicate, 320 
 Subjective thinker, 116 
 Subject-matter, 131-122 
 Submissiveness, 31, 104, 323 
 Success, 168, 391, 303, 360, 362, 
 
 376 
 Suggestion, 103, 156, 340, 381 
 mechanism of, 156, 340, 345 
 retrograde, 345 
 Superficiality, 172, 314 
 Superior man. See genius 
 Superiority, true and false, 60 
 Superman, 421 
 Superstition, 214 
 Surplus of energy, 33, 77, 79, 
 
 89, 166 
 Survival, 96, 290, 301 
 Suspension of thinking, 48 
 Suspiciousness, 284 
 Symbols, 405 
 Sympathetic vibrations, 226, 
 
 337 
 Sympathy, 330, 343 
 Synthesis, 215 
 Synthetic philosophy, 215 
 thinker, 361 
 
 Tact, 130, 376, 420 
 Talent, 11 
 
 Talkativeness, 172, 280 
 Tarbell, Ida M., 380 
 Taste, 339 
 Teachableness, 20 
 Technologist, 114, 143 
 Tedious, 221 
 Teleological, 13 
 Telescope, 186, 351 
 Terrorism, 121, 318 
 Theft, 263, 366 
 
 Theology, 139, 334, 342, 406, 411 
 Theory, 201, 210, 298 
 Theosophy, 334 
 Thing, 221, 229 
 
 Things-in-themselves, 221, 249 
 Thinker, 115, 117, 123, 134, 185, 
 305 
 
 Thinking, 71, 99, 108, 169, 184 
 
 and acting, 301 
 
 function of, 184 
 
 of Philistines, 33 
 
 of superior men, 32 
 Thirst for knowledge, 19, 145, 
 
 322 
 Thought and language, 172, 404 
 
 pride, 23 
 
 wealth, 158, 160, 173 
 Titles, 394, 380 
 Tolstoy, 109 
 Tools, 113 
 Torpor, mental, 12 
 Totemism, 387 
 Trade unions, 59 
 Tramp, 132 
 Transcendental, 244 
 Transference of affection, 43 
 Travel, 347 
 
 Treatment of men, 170, 258, 
 292, 335, 367 
 
 of words, 174 
 Tropism, 268 
 Truth, 218, 243, 253 
 
 absolute, 243, 249 
 
 criterion of, 351, 253 
 
 quest of, 168 
 
 and error, 247 
 
 from the capitalist point of 
 view, 257, 320 
 Types of adaptation, 49 
 
 of pseudo-superior men, 317 
 
 of readers, 19 
 
 Uncertainty, economic, 99, 102, 
 
 168 
 Understanding, 320, 231, 233 
 Unemployment, 266-267 
 Unicellular organisms, 107, 177 
 Uniformity of nature, 209 
 United States, 103, 117, 270 
 Utility, 255 
 
 Vagabondage, 326 
 
 Vanity, 24, 308, 314, 317, 431 
 
 Variability, 45, 52, 53, 83, 415 
 
 Varnhagen, Bahel, 280 
 
 Vector, 217 
 
 Vegetarian, 335 
 
 Velocity, 25 
 
 Venality, 31 
 
 Verbosity, 23, 273, 289, 334 
 
INDEX 
 
 Villager, 224 
 
 Vocational education, 267 
 Volition, 188 
 Volitional courage, 284 
 
 genius, 38, 285 
 Voluntary, 166 
 
 Wagner, 167, 179 
 
 Wanderlust, 133 
 
 War, 269, 387 
 
 Ward, Lester, 259 
 
 Waste of energy, 91, 328 
 
 Wealth, 313 
 
 Wealthy, 24, 95, 100, 235, 378 
 
 Weight, 253 
 
 Whole, 342 
 
 Wisdom, 281, 286 
 
 Wit, 202, 277 
 
 Woman, 20, 34, 38, 42, 46, 54, 
 82, 141, 158, 196, 241, 293, 
 296, 344, 366, 411, 414 
 self-conceit of, 378 
 sex-parasitism of, 82, 362, 
 
 296, 310 
 superior women, 87, 414 
 variability of, 415 
 Word-idolatry, 180, 181, 274 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 280 
 Workers, 86, 101, 111, 132, 217. 
 
 237, 363, 290, 337, 386 
 Wundt, 153 
 
 Yankee, 56 
 
 Zeno, 404 
 Zetkin, Clara, 380