Macmillan

212 BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
virtuous and sincere ass would learn in a short time to have
recourse to the furcaof Horace, naturam expellere: with
what results? "Plebeianism" usque recurret*
26s
At the risk of displeasing innocent ears, I submit that
egoismbelongsto the essence of a noble soul,I mean the
unalterable beliefthat to a beingsuch as "we,"other beings
must
naturallybe in subjection, and have to sacrificethemselves.
The
noble soul accepts the fact of his egoismwithout
question,and also without consciousness of harshness,constraint,
or
arbitrarinesstherein, but rather as
ifhe may have itsbasis in the primarylaw
"
of things:
a
somethingthat
sought
designation for it he would say: "It is justiceitself." He
acknowledgesunder certain circumstances,which made him
hesitate at first, that there are other equallyprivileged ones;
as soon as he has settled this questionof rank,he moves
among those equals and equallyprivileged ones
with the same
assurance, as regardsmodesty and delicate respect, which
he enjoys in intercourse with himself" in accordance with
an innate heavenlymechanism which all the stars understand.
It is an
additional instance of his egoism țhis artfulness
and self-limitationin intercourse with his "
equals every
star is a similar egoist;he honours himselfin them, and in
the rightswhich he concedes to them, he has no doubt that
the exchangeof honours and rights,as the essence of all
intercourse, belongsalso to the natural condition of things.
The noble soul givesas he takes,promptedby the passionate
and sensitive instinctof requital, which is at the root of his
nature. The notion of "favour" has,inter pares,neither sig-
" Horace's "Epistles,"I. x. 24.