Macmillan

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BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 131
209
As to how far the new warlike age on which we Europeans
have evidentlyentered may perhapsfavour the growth of
another and stronger kind of scepticism, I should like to
myselfpreliminarily merelyby a parable,which the
express
lovers of German historywill alreadyunderstand. That
unscrupulousenthusiast for big, handsome grenadiers(who,
as King of Prussia,broughtinto beinga military and sceptical
"
genius and therewith, in reality, new and now triumphantly
emerged type of German), the problematic,crazy
father of Frederick the Great,had on one pointthe very
knack and lucky grasp of the genius: he knew what was
then lackingin Germany, the want of which was a hundred
times more alarming and serious than any
social form "
lack of culture and
ill-willto the young Frederick resulted from
the anxietyof a profound instinct. Men were lacking;and
he suspectedțo his bitterest regret, that his own son was
not man enough. There, however, he deceived himself;
but who would not have deceived himself in his place?
He saw his son lapsedto atheism țo the esprit, to the pleasant
frivolity of clever Frenchmen "
saw in the background
the great bloodsuckerțhe spiderscepticism; he suspectedthe
incurable wretchedness of a heart no longer hard enough
either for evil or good,and of a broken will that no longer
commands, is no longer able to command. Meanwhile,
however,there grew up in his son that new kind of harder
and more
"
dangerousscepticismwho knows to what extent
it was encouragedjustby his father's hatred and the icy
melancholyof a will condemned to solitude?" the scepticism
of daringmanliness, which is closelyrelated to the genius
for war and conquest, and made its firstentrance into Ger-