The very obscure and arbitrary notion that humanity has a general duty to perform, and that, as a whole, it is striving towards a goal, is still in its infancy. Perhaps we shall once more be rid of it before it becomes a "fixed idea." ... But humanity does not constitute a whole: it is an indissoluble multiplicity of ascending and descending organisms--it knows no such thing as a state of youth followed by _maturity_ and then age. But its strata lie confused and superimposed--and in a few thousand years there may be even younger types of men than we can point out to-day. Decadence, on the other hand, belongs to all periods of human history: everywhere there is refuse and decaying matter, such things are in themselves vital processes; for withering and decaying elements must be eliminated. Under the empire of Christian prejudice _this question was never put at all_: the purpose of life seemed to lie in the salvation of the individual soul; the question whether humanity might last for a long or a short time was not considered. The best Christians longed for the end to come as soon as possible;--concerning the needs of the individual, _there seemed to be no doubt whatsoever._ ... The duty of every individual for the present was identical with what it would be in any sort of future for the man of the future: the value, the purpose, the limit of values was for ever fixed, unconditioned, eternal, one with God.... What deviated from this eternal type was impious, diabolic, criminal. The centre of gravity of all values for each soul lay in that soul itself: salvation or damnation! The salvation of the _immortal_ soul! The most extreme form of _personalisation...._ For each soul there was only one kind of perfection; only one ideal, only one road to salvation.... The most extreme form of the principle of _equal rights,_ associated with an optical magnification of individual importance to the point of megalomania.... Nothing but insanely important souls, revolving round their own axes with unspeakable terror.... *** Nobody believes in these assumed airs of importance any longer to-day: and we have sifted our wisdom through the sieve of contempt. Nevertheless the _optical habit_ survives, which would fain measure the value of man by his proximity to a certain _ideal maw._ at bottom the personalisation view is upheld as firmly as that of the _equality of rights as regards the ideal._ In short: people _seem to think that they know_ what _the ultimate desideratum_ is in regard to the ideal man....