When he who was exhausted came forth with the bearing of a very active and energetic man (when degeneration implied a certain excess of spiritual and nervous discharge), he was _mistaken_ for the wealthy man. He inspired terror. The cult of the madman is also always the cult of him who is rich in vitality, and who is a powerful man. The fanatic, the one possessed, the religious epileptic, all eccentric creatures have been regarded as the highest types of power: as divine. This kind of strength which inspires terror seemed to be, above all, divine: this was the starting-point of authority; here _wisdom_ was interpreted, hearkened to, and sought. Out of this there was developed, everywhere almost, a _will_ to "deify," _i.e.,_ to a typical degeneration of spirit, body, and nerves: an attempt to discover the road to this higher form of being. To make oneself ill or mad, to provoke the symptoms of serious disorder--was called getting stronger, becoming more superhuman, more terrible and more wise. People thought they would thus attain to such wealth of power, that they would be able to _dispense_ it. Wheresoever there have been prayers, some one has been sought who had something to give away. What led astray, here, was the experience of intoxication. This increases the feeling of power to the highest degree, therefore, to the mind of the ingenuous, it is _power._ On the highest altar of power _the most intoxicated man_ must stand, the ecstatic. (There are two causes of _intoxication_: superabundant life, and a condition of morbid nutrition of the brain.) 49. _Acquired,_ not inherited exhaustion: (1) inadequate _nourishment,_ often the result of ignorance concerning diet, as, for instance, in the case of scholars; (2) erotic precocity: the damnation more especially of the youth of France--Parisian youths, above all, who are already dirtied and ruined when they step out of their _lycées_ into the world, and who cannot break the chains of despicable tendencies; ironical and scornful towards themselves--galley-slaves despite all their refinement (moreover, in the majority of cases, already a symptom of racial and family decadence, as all hypersensitiveness is; and examples of the infection of environment: to be influenced by one's environment is also a sign of decadence); (3) alcoholism, not the instinct but the habit, foolish imitation, the cowardly or vain adaptation to a ruling fashion. What a blessing a Jew is among Germans! See the obtuseness, the flaxen head, the blue eye, and the lack of intellect in the face, the language, and the bearing; the lazy habit of stretching the limbs, and the need of repose among Germans--a need which is not the result of overwork, but of the disgusting excitation and over-excitation caused by alcohol. 50. _A theory of exhaustion._--Vice, the insane (also artists), the criminals, the anarchists--these are not the _oppressed_ classes, but _the outcasts_ of the community of all classes hitherto.