A peep into the _enormous futility_ of these pretentious "reactions"; they are forms of anæsthetising oneself against certain fatal symptoms resulting from the prevailing condition of things; they do not eradicate the morbid element; they are often heroic attempts to cancel the decadent man, to allow only a minimum of his _deleterious influence_ to survive. (4) Nihilism is not a cause, but only the _rationale_ of decadence. (5) The "good" and the "bad" are no more than two types of decadence: they come together in all its fundamental phenomena. (6) The _social problem_ is a result of _decadence._ (7) Illnesses, more particularly those attacking the nerves and the head, are signs that the _defensive_ strength of strong nature is lacking; a proof of this is that irritability which causes pleasure and pain to be regarded as problems of the first order. 44. _The most common types of decadence_: (1) In the belief that they are remedies, cures are chosen which only precipitate exhaustion;--this is the case with Christianity (to point to the most egregious example of mistaken instinct);--this is also the case with "progress." (2) The _power of resisting_ stimuli is on the wane--chance rules supreme: events are inflated and drawn out until they appear monstrous ... a suppression of the "personality," a disintegration of the will; in this regard we may mention a whole class of morality, the altruistic, that which is incessantly preaching pity, and whose most essential feature is the weakness of the personality, so that it _rings in unison,_ and, like an over-sensitive string, does not cease from vibrating ... extreme irritability.... (3) Cause and effect are confounded: decadence is not understood as physiological, and its results are taken to be the causes of the general indisposition:--this applies to all religious morality. (4) A state of affairs is desired in which suffering shall cease; life is actually considered the cause of all ills--_unconscious_ and insensitive states (sleep and syncope) are held in incomparably higher esteem than the conscious states; hence a _method_ of life. 45. Concerning the hygiene of the "weak." All that is done in weakness ends in failure. Moral: do nothing. The worst of it is, that precisely the strength required in order to stop action, and to cease from reacting, is most seriously diseased under the influence of weakness: that one never reacts more promptly or more blindly than when one should not react at all.