We must realise _all_ that has been accumulated as the result of the highest moral _idealism_: how almost _all other values_ have crystallised round it. This shows that it has been desired for _a very long time_ and with the _strongest passions_--and that it has not yet been attained: otherwise it would have _disappointed_ everybody (that is to say, it would have been followed by a more moderate valuation). The _saint_ as the _most powerful type_ of man: _this_ ideal it is which has elevated the value of moral perfection so high. One would think that the whole of science had been engaged in proving that the _moral_ man is the most _powerful_ and most godly.--The conquest of the senses and the passions--everything inspired _terror_;--the unnatural seemed to the spectators to be _supernatural_ and _transcendental...._ 360. Francis of Assisi: amorous and popular, a poet who combats the order of rank among souls, in favour of the lowest. The denial of spiritual hierarchy--"all alike before God." Popular ideals: the good man, the unselfish man, the saint, the sage, the just man. O Marcus Aurelius! 361. I have declared war against the anæmic Christian ideal (together with what is closely _I_ related to it), not because I want to annihilate it, but only to put an end to its _tyranny_ and clear the way for other _ideals,_ for _more robust_ ideals.... The _continuance_ of the Christian ideal belongs to the most desirable of desiderata: if only for the sake of the ideals which wish to take their stand beside it and perhaps above it--they must have opponents, and strong ones too, in order to grow _strong_ themselves. That is why we immoralists require the _power_ of _morality,_ our instinct of self-preservation insists upon our opponents maintaining their strength--all it requires is to _become master of them_. C. _Concerning the Slander of the so-called Evil Qualities_. 362. Egoism and its problem! The Christian gloominess of La Rochefoucauld, who saw egoism in everything, and imagined that he had therefore _reduced_ the worth of things and virtues! In opposition to him, I first of all tried to show that nothing else _could_ exist save egoism,--that in those men whose _ego_ is weak and thin, the power to love also grows weak,--that the greatest lovers are such owing to the strength of their _ego,_--that love is an expression of egoism, etc. As a matter of fact, the false valuation aims at the interest of those who find it useful, whom it helps--in fact, the herd; it fosters a pessimistic mistrust towards the basis of Life; it would fain undermine the most glorious and most well-constituted men (out of fear); it would assist the lowly to have the upper hand of their conquerors; it is the cause of universal dishonesty, especially in the most useful type of men. 363. Man is an indifferent egoist: even the cleverest regards his habits as more important than his advantage. 364.