But what are the higher tasks? Here Nietzsche is perfectly silent. What is the highest value, what is man’s standard of values by which we may judge and measure the valuable? What is the best for society? What are the greatest aims and ends in life? Are the material gains of society of supreme value? Is the building of railroads, telegraphs, telephones or factories of supreme value, or are the ends of life the writing of lyrics, painting of pictures, and the chiseling of statues? What will be reached with the superstate of society? If the end and purpose of human existence were known, we could decide whether it is worth while to expend human energy upon the increase of material well-being, whether it is preferable to conserve the energy for the attainment of spiritual joys, or whether the ethical efforts would be of the highest cosmic value. But the ultimate purpose being unknown, or even unknowable, what will be reached when the superman has been produced? What is he going to accomplish? What when the highest degree of accomplishment has been reached in science, art, literature and economics, what then? If all men were Aristoteles, Kants, Spencers, if all women were Sapphos, Mme. de Staëls or George Eliots, what then? Humanity would soon starve if it consisted of Apollos, Venuses and intellectual giants only. A Venus was not created to wash dishes, neither will an astronomer make a proficient bricklayer or a poet a good shoemaker, Hans Sachs to the contrary notwithstanding. The catch-phrase that society nowadays wants not the man who is a good machine but the man who can make one, sounds clever but is not true. The truth is that for every machine invented, we need hundreds and thousands of men to handle the same. A population consisting of supermen only, such as inventors, captains of industry, professional men, rulers, statesman, generals, poets, artists, etc., could not exist for any length of time. The different brands of reformers claim that, following their doctrines, it will lead to the highest advantage of humanity. But they fail to give the definition of advantage. What is the best for humanity? What is man’s purpose and aim in this world? What is meant by the fulfilment of man’s destiny? The answer is entirely meaningless, that the real aim is to be useful in real life, and only begs the question. What is life, what is it here for? Whence does man come, whither is he traveling?