_In short_: what is the price paid for the _improvement_ supposed to be due to morality?--The unhinging of _reason,_ the reduction of all motives to fear and hope (punishment and reward); _dependence_ upon the tutelage of priests, and upon a formulary exactitude which is supposed to express a divine will; the implantation of a "conscience" which establishes a false science in the place of experience and experiment: as though all one had to do or had not to do were predetermined--a kind of contraction of the seeking and striving spirit;--_in short_: the worst _mutilation_ of man that can be imagined, and it is pretended that "the good man" is the result. Practically speaking, all reason, the whole heritage of intelligence, subtlety, and caution, the first condition of the priestly canon, is arbitrarily reduced, when it is too late, to a simple _mechanical_ process: conformity with the law becomes a purpose in itself, it is the highest purpose; _Life no longer contains any problems_;--the whole conception of the world is polluted by the notion of _punishment_; --Life itself, owing to the fact that the _priests life_ is upheld as the _non plus ultra_ of perfection, is transformed into a denial and pollution of life;--the concept "God" represents an aversion to Life, and even a criticism and a contemning of it. Truth is transformed in the mind, into _priestly_ prevarication; the striving after truth, into the _study of the Scriptures,_ into the way to _become a theologian._ 142. _A criticism of the Law-Book of Manu._--The whole book is founded upon the holy lie. Was it the well-being of humanity that inspired the whole of this system? Was this kind of man, who believes in the _interested_ nature of every action, interested or not interested in the success of this system? The desire to improve mankind--whence comes the inspiration to this feeling? Whence is the concept improvement taken? We find a class of men, _the sacerdotal class,_ who consider themselves the standard pattern, the highest example and most perfect expression of the type man. The notion of "improving" mankind, to this class of men, means to make mankind like themselves. They believe in their own superiority, they _will_ be superior in practice: the cause of the holy lie is _The Will to Power...._ Establishment of the dominion: to this end, ideas which place a _non plus ultra_ of power with the priesthood are made to prevail. Power acquired by lying was the result of the recognition of the fact that it was not already possessed physically, in a military form.... Lying as a supplement to power--this is a new concept of "truth."