It does not suffice for you to see in what ignorance man and beast now live; you must also have and learn the _desire_ for _ignorance._ It is necessary that you should know that without this form of ignorance life itself would be impossible, that it is merely a vital condition under which, alone, a living organism can preserve itself and prosper: a great solid belt of ignorance must stand about you. 610. Science--the transformation of Nature into concepts for the purpose of governing Nature--that is part of the rubric _means._ But the _purpose_ and _will_ of mankind must grow in the same way, the intention in regard to the whole. 611. _Thought_ is the strongest and most persistently exercised function in all stages of life--and also in every act of perception or apparent experience! Obviously it soon becomes the _mightiest_ and _most exacting_ of all functions, and in time tyrannises over other powers. Ultimately it becomes "passion in itself." 612. The right to great passion must be reclaimed for the investigator, after self-effacement and the cult of "objectivity" have created a false order of rank in this sphere. Error reached its zenith when Schopenhauer taught: _in the release from passion and_ in will alone lay the road to "truth," to knowledge; the intellect freed from will _could not help_ seeing the true and actual essence of things. The same error in art: as if everything became _beautiful_ the moment it was regarded without will. 613. The contest for supremacy among the passions, and the dominion of one of the passions over the intellect. 614. To "humanise" the world means to feel ourselves ever more and more masters upon earth. 615. Knowledge, among a higher class of beings, will also take new forms which are not yet necessary. 616. That the _worth of the world_ lies in our interpretations (that perhaps yet other interpretations are possible somewhere, besides mankind's); that the interpretations made hitherto were perspective valuations, by means of which we were able to survive in life, _i.e._ in the Will to Power and in the growth of power; that every _elevation of man_ involves the overcoming of narrower interpretations; that every higher degree of strength or power attained, brings new views in its train, and teaches a belief in new horizons--these doctrines lie scattered through all my works. The world that _concerns us at all_ is false--that is to say, is not a fact; but a romance, a piece of human sculpture, made from a meagre sum of observation; it is "in flux"; it is something that evolves, a great revolving lie continually moving onwards and never getting any nearer to truth--for there is no such thing as "truth." 617. _Recapitulation_:-- To _stamp_ Becoming with the character of Being--this is the highest _Will to Power._ _The twofold falsification,_ by the senses on the one hand, by the intellect on the other, with the view of maintaining a world of being, of rest, of equivalent cases, etc.