In my "Genealogy of Morals" I give the first psychological explanation of the concepts underlying those two antithetical things, a _noble_ morality and a _ressentiment_ morality, the second of which is a mere product of the denial of the former. The Judaeo-Christian moral system belongs to the second division, and in every detail. In order to be able to say Nay to everything representing an _ascending_ evolution of life--that is, to well-being, to power, to beauty, to self-approval--the instincts of _ressentiment_, here become downright genius, had to invent an _other_ world in which the _acceptance of life_ appeared as the most evil and abominable thing imaginable. Psychologically, the Jews are a people gifted with the very strongest vitality, so much so that when they found themselves facing impossible conditions of life they chose voluntarily, and with a profound talent for self-preservation, the side of all those instincts which make for _decadence_--_not_ as if mastered by them, but as if detecting in them a power by which "the world" could be _defied_. The Jews are the very opposite of _decadents_: they have simply been forced into _appearing_ in that guise, and with a degree of skill approaching the _non plus ultra_ of histrionic genius they have managed to put themselves at the head of all _decadent_ movements (--for example, the Christianity of Paul--), and so make of them something stronger than any party frankly saying _Yes_ to life. To the sort of men who reach out for power under Judaism and Christianity,--that is to say, to the _priestly_ class--_decadence_ is no more than a means to an end. Men of this sort have a vital interest in making mankind sick, and in confusing the values of "good" and "bad," "true" and "false" in a manner that is not only dangerous to life, but also slanders it. 25.