(_c_) _The extolling of harshness_ and the scorn for human love--pity, charity, benevolence. Here again, the modern ‘clerks’ are the _moralists_ of realism. They are not content to remind the world that harshness is necessary in order ‘to succeed’ and that charity is an encumbrance, nor have they limited themselves to preaching to their nation or party what Zarathustra preached to his disciples: ‘Be hard, be pitiless, and in this way dominate.’ They proclaim the moral nobility of harshness and the ignominy of charity. This teaching, which is the foundation of Nietzsche’s work, need not surprise one in a country which has not provided the world with a single great apostle,[126] but it is very remarkable in the land of Vincent de Paul and the defender of the Calas. Lines like the following, which might be an extract from the _Genealogy of Morals_, seem to me something wholly new coming from the pen of a French moralist: ‘This perverted pity has degraded love.[127] It has been given the name of charity, and the weak have received its dew. Night after night the seed of this calamity has been scattered. It conquers the earth. It fills the solitary places. In whatever country you go, you cannot go about for a single day without meeting this withered face with its commonplace gestures, inspired by the sole desire of prolonging its shameful life.’[128] There again we can observe how the modern realists have advanced beyond their predecessors. When Machiavelli declares that ‘a Prince in order to maintain his power is forced to govern in a manner contrary to charity and humanity’, he is simply saying that to act contrary to charity may be a practical necessity, but he does not in the least vouch that charity is a degradation of the soul. This teaching is the contribution of the nineteenth century to the moral education of mankind.