Macmillan

INTRODUCTION
ix
Human" ("MenscklichesAUzu Mensckliches") ,
Nietzsche's
illness compelledhim to resignhis professorship at Bale;
and two more years saw the appearance of 'The Dawn of
Day" ("M or gemot en"), his firstbook
of constructive thinking.
The remainder of his life was spent in a fruitless
endeavor to regainhis health. For eightyears, duringall
of which time he was busilyengagedin writing, he soughta
climate that would revive him "
visiting in turn Sils-Maria in
Switzerland, Genoa,Monaco, Messina,Grunewald,Tautenburg,Rome,
Naumburg, Nice, Venice,Mentone, and the
Riviera. But to no avail. He was constantlyilland for
the most part alone,and this perturbedand restlessperiod
of his life resolved itselfinto a continuous struggleagainst
melancholy and physicalsuffering.During these eight
years Nietzsche had written "Thus Spake Zarathustra"
drab and uneventful.
In January,1889, an apopleptic fitmarked the beginning
of the end. Nietzsche's manner suddenlybecame alarming.
He exhibited numerous eccentricities, so grave as to mean
but one thing: his mind was seriously affected. There has
long been a theory that his insanitywas of gradualgrowth,
that,in fact,he was unbalanced from birth. But there is
("Also SprackZarathustra"), "The Joyful Wisdom" ("La
Gaya Scienza"),"Beyond Good and Evil" ("JenseitsGute
und Bose"),"The Genealogy of Morals" ("Zur Genealogie
der Moral"), "The Case of Wagner," "The Twilightof the
Idols" {"Gdtzenddmmerung"), "The Antichrist" ("Der
Antichrist"), "Ecce Homo," "Nietzsche contra Wagner,'*
and an enormous number of notes which were to constitute
his final and culminatingwork, "The Will to Power" ("Die
Wille zur Macht"). The events during this ptnod. of
Nietzsche's career were few. Perhaps the most important
was his meetingwith Lou Salome. But even this episode had
small bearingon his life,and has been greatlyemphasized
by biographers because of its isolation in an existence outwardly
no evidence to substantiatethis theory. The statement that
without foundation.
his books were those of a madman is entirely
His works were thoughtout in the most clarified
manner; in his intercourse with his friends he was restrained
showed
and normal; and his voluminous correspondence
no