Macmillan

BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 39
ultra-moral:
with,would be distinguished negativelyas
nowadays when, at least amongst us immoralists, the
may be standingon the threshold of a periodwhich to begin
suspicion
arises that the decisive value of an action lies precisely
in that which is not intentional, and
that all itsintentionalness,
all that
to its surface or skin "
something,but conceals stillmore? In short,we believe
that the intention is only a signor symptom,
requiresan
"
explanationa sign,moreover, which has too
interpretations, and consequentlyhardlyany meaning
many
which first
in itself alone: that morality,in the sense in which it has
is seen, sensible, or "sensed" in it, belongs
which,like every sldn,betrays
intention-morality, has been a
perhapsa prematurenessor preliminariness, probably
been understood hitherto, as
prejudice,
somethingof the same rank as astrology and alchemy,
but in any case somethingwhich must be surmounted.
The surmountingof morality,in a certain sense even the
self-mountingof
"
morality ^letthat
be the name for the
longsecret labour which has been reserved for the most refined,
the most upright,and also the most wicked consciences
of to-day,as the livingtouchstones of the soul.
33
It cannot
be helped:the sentiment of surrender,of sacrifice
for one's neighbour,and all self-renunciation-morali
must be mercilessly called to account, and broughtto judgment
; justas the aestheticsof "disinterested contemplation,"
under which the emasculation of art nowadays seeks insidiously
enough to create itself a good conscience. There is
far too much witchery and sugar
in the sentiments "for
others" and "not for myself,"for one not needingto be
doublydistrustfulhere,and for one askingpromptly: "Are