Macmillan

such
as
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 211
264
It cannot be effaced from a man's soul what his ancestors
have preferablyand most constantlydone: whether they
were perhapsdiligenteconomisers attached to a desk and
a cash-box,modest and citizen-likein their desires, modest
also in their virtues;or whether they were accustomed to
commanding from morning tillnight,fond of rude pleasures
and probablyof stillruder duties and responsibilities;
or
whether,finally, at one time or another,theyhave sacrificed
possession, in order to live wholly
old privileges of birth and
for their faith" for their
"
"God,
men of an inexorable
and sensitiveconscience, which blushes at every compromise.
It is quiteimpossiblefor a man not to have the qualities
and
predilections of his parents and ancestors in his constitution,
whatever appearances may suggest to the contrary.
This is the problemof race. Granted that one knows something
of the parents,it is admissible to draw a conclusion
about the child: any kind of offensiveincontinence, any kind
of sordid envy, or of
"
clumsy self-vauntingthe three things
which togetherhave constituted the genuineplebeiantype
in all times
"
must pass over to the child,as surelyas
bad blood;and with the helpof the best education and culture
one will only succeed in deceivingwith regardto such
"
heredity. And what else does education and culture try to
do nowadays! In our very democratic, or rather, very plebeian
age, "education" and "culture" must be essentially
the art of
"
deceivingdeceivingwith regardto origin,with
regardto the inherited plebeianismin body and soul. An
educator who nowadays preachedtruthfulness above everything
else,and called out constantlyto his pupils:"Be true!
Be natural! Show yourselvesas you are!" "
even
such a