_Morality regarded as an attempt at establishing human pride._--The "Free-Will" theory is anti-religious. Its ultimate object is to bestow the right upon man to regard himself as the _cause_ of his highest states and actions: it is a form of the growing _feeling of pride._ Man feels his power his "happiness"; as they say: there must be a will behind these states--otherwise they do not belong to him. Virtue is an attempt at postulating a modicum of will, past or present, as the necessary antecedent to every exalted and strong feeling of happiness: if the will to certain actions is regularly present in consciousness, a sensation of power may be interpreted as its result. This is a _merely psychological point of view,_ based upon the false assumption that nothing belongs to us which we have not consciously willed. The whole of the teaching of responsibility relies upon the ingenuous psychological rule that the will is the only cause, and that one must have been aware of having willed in order to be able to regard _one's self_ as a cause. _Then comes the counter-movement_--that of the moral-philosophers. These men still labour under the delusion that a man is responsible only for what he has willed. The value of man is then made a _moral value_: thus morality becomes a _causa prima_; for this there must be some kind of principle in man, and "free will" is posited as _prima causa._ The _arrière pensée_ is always this: If man is not a _causa prima_ through his will, he must be irresponsible,--therefore he does not come within the jurisdiction of morals,--virtue or vice is automatic and mechanical.... In short: in order that man may respect himself he must be capable of becoming evil. 289. _Theatricalness_ regarded as the result of "Free Will" morality. It is a step in the _development of the feeling of power itself_ to believe one's self to be the author of one's exalted moments (of one's perfection) and to have _willed_ them.... (Criticism: all perfect action is precisely unconscious and not deliberate; consciousness is often the expression of an imperfect and often morbid constitution. _Personal perfection regarded as determined by will, as an act of consciousness,_ as reason with dialectics, is a caricature, a sort of self-contradiction.... Any degree of consciousness renders perfection _impossible._ ... A form of _theatricalness_.) 290. The _moral hypothesis,_ designed with a view to _justifying God,_ said: evil must be voluntary (simply in order that the _voluntariness of goodness_ might be believed in); and again, all evil and suffering have an _object which is salvation_. The notion "guilt" was considered as something which had no connection at all with the ultimate cause of existence, and the notion "punishment" was held to be an educating and beneficent act, consequently an act proceeding from a _good_ God.