The barbarians showed that the ability o_f keeping within the bounds of moderation_ was not in the scope of their powers: they feared and slandered the passions and instincts of nature--likewise the aspect of the ruling Cæsars and castes. On the other hand, there arose the suspicion that all _restraint_ is a form of weakness or of incipient old age and fatigue (thus La Rochefoucauld suspects that "virtue" is only a euphemism in the mouths of those to whom vice no longer affords any pleasure). The capacity for restraint was represented as a matter of hardness, self-control, asceticism, as a fight with the devil, etc. etc. The natural _delight_ of æsthetic natures, in measure; _the pleasure derived from the beauty of measure,_ was _overlooked_ and _denied,_ because that which was desired was an anti-eudæmonistic morality. The belief in the pleasure which comes of restraint has been lacking hitherto--this pleasure of a rider on a fiery steed! The moderation of weak natures was confounded with the restraint of the strong! In short, the best things have been blasphemed because weak or immoderate swine have thrown a bad light upon them--the best men have _remained concealed_--and have often _misunderstood_ themselves. 871. _Vicious_ and _unbridled people_: their depressing influence upon the _value of the pussions._ It was the appalling barbarity of morality which was principally responsible in the Middle Ages for the compulsory recourse to a veritable "league _of_ virtue"--and this was coupled with an equally appalling exaggeration of all that which constitutes the value of man. Militant "civilisation" (taming) is in need of all kinds of irons and tortures in order to maintain itself against terrible and beast-of-prey natures. In this case, contusion, although it may have the most nefarious influences, is quite natural: that which _men of power and will are able to demand of themselves_ gives them the standard for what they may also allow themselves. Such natures are the very opposite of the _vicious_ and the _unbridled;_ although under certain circumstances they may perpetrate deeds for which an inferior man would be convicted of vice and intemperance. In this respect the concept, "_all men are equal before God_" does an extraordinary amount of harm; actions and attitudes of mind were forbidden which belonged to the prerogative of the strong alone, just as if they were in themselves unworthy of man. All the tendencies of strong men were brought into disrepute by the fact that the defensive weapons of the most weak (even of those who were weakest towards themselves) were established as a standard of valuation.