Let the _New Testament only be read as a book of seduction_: in it virtue is appropriated, with the idea that public opinion is best won with it,--and as a matter of fact it is a very modest kind of _virtue,_ which recognises only the ideal gregarious animal and nothing more (including, of course, the herdsmen): a puny, soft, benevolent, helpful, and gushingly-satisfied kind of virtue which to the outside world is quite devoid of pretensions,--and which separates the "world" entirely from itself. The _crassest arrogance_ which fancies that the destiny of man turns around it, and it alone, and that on the one side the community of believers represents what is right, and on the other the world represents what is false and eternally to be reproved and rejected. The most _imbecile hatred_ of all things in power, which, however, never goes so far as to touch these things. A kind of _inner detachment_ which, outwardly, leaves everything as it was (servitude and slavery; and knowing how to convert _everything_ into a means of serving God and virtue). 211. Christianity is possible as the _most private_ form of life; it presupposes the existence of a narrow, isolated, and absolutely unpolitical society--it belongs to the conventicle. On the other hand, a "Christian _State_," "Christian politics," are pieces of downright impudence; they are lies, like, for instance, a Christian leadership of an army, which in the end regards "the God of hosts" as chief of the staff. Even the Papacy has never been able to carry on politics in a Christian way...; and when Reformers indulge in politics, as Luther did, it is well known that they are just as ardent followers of Machiavelli as any other immoralists or tyrants. 212. Christianity is still possible at any moment. It is not bound to any one of the impudent dogmas that have adorned themselves with its name: it needs neither the teaching of the _personal God,_ nor of _sin,_ nor of _immortality,_ nor of _redemption,_ nor of _faith_; it has absolutely no need whatever of metaphysics, and it needs asceticism and Christian "natural science" still less. Christianity is a _method of life,_ not a system of belief. It tells us how we should behave, not what we should believe. He who says to-day: "I refuse to be a soldier," "I care not for tribunals," "I lay no claim to the services of the police," "I will not do anything that disturbs the peace within me: and if I must suffer on that account, nothing can so well maintain my inward peace as suffering"--such a man would be a Christian. 213.