One or two of the aphorisms are of peculiar interest to English readers. The essay (as it may almost be called) on Sterne (p. 60, No. 113) does ample justice, if not more than justice, to that wayward genius. The allusion to Milton (p. 77, No. 150) will come as somewhat of a shock to English readers, especially to those who hold that in Milton Art triumphed over Puritanism. It should be remembered, however, that Nietzsche’s view coincides with Goethe’s. The dictum that Shakespeare’s gold is to be valued for its quantity rather than its quality (p. 81, No. 162) also betrays a certain exclusiveness—a legacy from that eighteenth-century France which appealed so strongly to Nietzsche on its intellectual side. To Nietzsche, as to Voltaire, Shakespeare is after all “the great barbarian.” The title of the book may be explained from a phrase in _Thus Spake Zarathustra_: “Verily, even the greatest I found—all-too-human.” The keynote of these volumes is indeed disillusion and destruction. Nor is this to be wondered at, for all men must sweep away the rubbish before they can build. Hence we find here little of the constructive philosophy of Nietzsche—so far as he had a constructive philosophy. The Superman appears but faintly, the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence not at all. For this very reason, _Human, all-too-Human_ is perhaps the best starting-point for the study of Nietzsche. The difficulties in style and thought of the later work—difficulties that at times become well-nigh insuperable in _Thus Spake Zarathustra_—are here practically absent. The book may, in fact, almost be described as “popular,” bearing the same relation to Nietzsche’s later productions as Wagner’s _Tannhäuser_ and _Lohengrin_ bear to the _Ring_. The translator’s thanks are due to Mr. Thomas Common for his careful revision of the manuscript and many valuable suggestions. P. V. C. PREFACE. 1.