ABSTRACT
IT IS Napoleon's example which enables heroism to become the most important ideal and the reigning faith of the century. But he leaves it an ideal which is, nevertheless, confused and one which is not thought out to its conclusions. Even Napoleon is a hero with a bad conscience, and he needs the phrases whose insincerity he reveals only in secret. Even when he is talking, not about freedom and the republic, but about heroism itself, in which he really believes, a pale and uncertain praise of France and of the glory which outlasts centuries have to be mentioned first. The heroic deed, which they think all-important, is justified by its worshippers by appeals to God, or king, or country, and concepts which are almost mediaeval serve to hide the actual situation. Nietzsche alone tears off these trappings and thinks out the concept of heroism to its logical conclusions, achieving in the realm of thought what Napoleon had achieved in the realm of action. We feel we must compare him with a natural phenomenon, a raging thunderstorm, sweeping away the undergrowth of traditional concepts, of conventional and accepted beliefs, of comfortable morality. He shows that everything which seems to contradict mere heroism is rotten, and he destroys ruthlessly everything which stands in his way. Thanks to him, man can at last proclaim his belief in the ideal which is really worshipped—that of heroism—without looking for excuses to cover it.
