contempt of all the principal instincts of life; to posit falsely the existence of a "soul," of a "spirit," in order to be able to defy the body; to spread the feeling that there is something impure in the very first prerequisite of life--in sex; to seek the principle of evil in the profound need of growth and expansion--that is to say, in severe self-love (the term itself is slanderous); and conversely to see a higher moral value--but what am I talking about?--I mean the _moral value per se,_ in the typical signs of decline, in the antagonism of the instincts, in "selflessness," in the loss of ballast, in "the suppression of the personal element," and in "love of one's neighbour" (neighbouritis!). What! is humanity itself in a state of degeneration? Has it always been in this state? One thing is certain, that ye are taught only the values of decadence as the highest values. The morality of self-renunciation is essentially the morality of degeneration; the fact, "I am going to the dogs," is translated into the imperative," Ye shall all go to the dogs"--and not only into the imperative. This morality of self-renunciation, which is the only kind of morality that has been taught hitherto, betrays the will to nonentity--it denies life to the very roots. There still remains the possibility that it is not mankind that is in a state of degeneration, but only that parasitical kind of man--the priest, who, by means of morality and lies, has climbed up to his position of determinator of values, who divined in Christian morality his road to power. And, to tell the truth, this is my opinion. The teachers and I leaders of mankind--including the theologians--have been, every one of them, decadents: hence their) transvaluation of all values into a hostility towards; life; hence morality. _The definition of morality;_ Morality is the idiosyncrasy of decadents, actuated by a desire _to avenge themselves with success upon life._ I attach great value to this definition. 8