_"Purification of taste"_ can only be the result of the _strengthening_ of the type. Our society to-day represents only the cultivating systems, the cultivated man is _lacking._ The great _synthetic man,_ in whom the various forces for attaining a purpose are correctly harnessed together, is altogether wanting. The specimen we possess is the _multifarious_ man, the most interesting form of chaos that has ever existed: but _not_ the chaos _preceding_ the creation of the world, but that following it: _Goethe_ as the most beautiful expression of the type (_completely and utterly un-Olympian_!)[3] [Footnote 3: The Germans always call Goethe the Olympian.--Tr.] 884. Handel, Leibniz, Goethe, and Bismarck, are characteristic of the _strong German type._ They lived with equanimity, surrounded by contrasts. They were full of that agile kind of strength which cautiously avoids convictions and doctrines, by using the one as a weapon against the other, and reserving absolute freedom for themselves. 885. Of this I am convinced, that if the rise of great and rare men had been made dependent upon the voices of the multitude (taking for granted, of course, that the latter knew the qualities which belong to greatness, and also the price that all greatness pays for its self-development), then there would never have been any such thing as a great man! The fact that things pursue their course _independently_ of the voice of the many, is the reason why, a few astonishing things have taken place on earth. 886. _The Order of Rank in Human Values._ _(a)_ A man should not be valued according to isolated acts. _Epidermal actions._ Nothing is more rare than a _personal_ act. Class, rank, race, environment, accident--all these things are much more likely to be expressed in an action or deed than the "personality" of the doer. _(b)_ We should on no account jump to the conclusion that there are many people who are personalities. Some men are but conglomerations of personalities, whilst the majority are not even _one._ In all cases in which those average qualities preponderate, which ensure the maintenance of the species, to be a personality would involve unnecessary expense, it would be a luxury in fact, it would be foolish to demand of anybody that he should be a personality. In such circumstances everybody is a channel or a transmitting vessel. _(c)_ A "personality" is a relatively _isolated_ phenomenon; in view of the superior importance of the continuation of the race at an average level, a personality might even be regarded as something _hostile to nature._ For a personality to be possible, timely isolation and the necessity for an existence of offence and defence, are prerequisites; something in the nature of a walled enclosure, a capacity for shutting out the world; but above all, a much _lower degree of sensitiveness_ than the average man has, who is too easily infected with the views of others.