neglected--perhaps forgot--to give them even the most modest endowment of respectable, of upright, of _cleanly_ instincts.... Between ourselves, they are not even men.... If Islam despises Christianity, it has a thousandfold right to do so: Islam at least assumes that it is dealing with _men_.... 60. Christianity destroyed for us the whole harvest of ancient civilization, and later it also destroyed for us the whole harvest of _Mohammedan_ civilization. The wonderful culture of the Moors in Spain, which was fundamentally nearer to _us_ and appealed more to our senses and tastes than that of Rome and Greece, was _trampled down_ (--I do not say by what sort of feet--) Why? Because it had to thank noble and manly instincts for its origin--because it said yes to life, even to the rare and refined luxuriousness of Moorish life!... The crusaders later made war on something before which it would have been more fitting for them to have grovelled in the dust--a civilization beside which even that of our nineteenth century seems very poor and very "senile."--What they wanted, of course, was booty: the orient was rich.... Let us put aside our prejudices! The crusades were a higher form of piracy, nothing more! The German nobility, which is fundamentally a Viking nobility, was in its element there: the church knew only too well how the German nobility was to be _won_.... The German noble, always the "Swiss guard" of the church, always in the service of every bad instinct of the church--_but well paid_.... Consider the fact that it is precisely the aid of German swords and German blood and valour that has enabled the church to carry through its war to the death upon everything noble on earth! At this point a host of painful questions suggest themselves. The German nobility stands _outside_ the history of the higher civilization: the reason is obvious.... Christianity, alcohol--the two _great_ means of corruption.... Intrinsically there should be no more choice between Islam and Christianity than there is between an Arab and a Jew. The decision is already reached; nobody remains at liberty to choose here. Either a man is a Chandala or he is not.... "War to the knife with Rome! Peace and friendship with Islam!": this was the feeling, this was the _act_, of that great free spirit, that genius among German emperors, Frederick II. What! must a German first be a genius, a free spirit, before he can feel _decently_? I can't make out how a German could ever feel _Christian_.... 61.