(3) It has now become the will to be _happy_--and nothing else! "Blessedness" stands for something self-evident, that no longer requires any justification--everything else (the way to live and let live) is only a means to an end.... But what follows is the result of a _low order of thought,_ the fear of pain, of defilement, of corruption, is great enough to provide ample grounds for allowing everything to go to the dogs.... This is a _poor_ way of thinking, and is the sign of an exhausted race; we _must_ not allow ourselves to be deceived. ("Become as little children." Natures _of the same order_: Francis of Assisi, neurotic, epileptic, visionary, like Jesus.) 222. The _higher_ man distinguishes himself from the _lower_ by his fearlessness and his readiness to challenge misfortune: it is a sign of _degeneration_ when eudemonistic values begin to prevail (physiological fatigue and enfeeblement of will-power). Christianity, with its prospect of "blessedness," is the typical attitude of mind of a suffering and impoverished species of man. Abundant strength will be active, will suffer, and will go under: to it the bigotry of Christian salvation is bad music and hieratic posing and vexation. 223. _Poverty, humility, and chastity_ are dangerous and slanderous ideals; but like poisons, which are useful cures in the case of certain diseases, they were also necessary in the time of the Roman Empire. All ideals are dangerous: because they lower and brand realities; they are all poisons, but occasionally indispensable as cures. 224. God created man, happy, idle, innocent, and immortal: our actual life is a false, decadent, and sinful existence, a punishment.... Suffering, struggle, work, and death are raised as objections against life, they make life questionable, unnatural--something that must cease, and for which one not only requires but also _has_--remedies! Since the time of Adam, man has been in an abnormal state: God Himself delivered up His Son for Adam's sin, in order to put an end to the abnormal condition of things: the natural character of life is a _curse_; to those who believe in Him, Christ restores normal life: He makes them happy, idle, and innocent. But the world did not become fruitful without labour; women do not bear children without pain; illness has not ceased: believers are served just as badly as unbelievers in this respect. All that has happened is, that man is delivered from _death_ and _sin--_two assertions which allow of no verification, and which are therefore emphasised by the Church with more than usual heartiness. "He is free from sin,"--not owing to his own efforts, not owing to a vigorous struggle on his part, but _redeemed by the death of the Saviour,_--consequently, perfectly innocent and paradisaical.