way.[1] Indeed, what does "coming out right" mean, save as we have some notion of what is right? Nietzsche is opposed to leaving things to chance—and it may be counted one of his distinctions in the future that he restored rationality (in the large sense) to its proper place as the ruler of the world—something to be quite distinguished from the faith that rationality, with a big R, does rule the world—and that he helped to make man the sovereign creator of his own destiny.
A word which Nietzsche often uses is "Züchtung"; its meaning is training or breeding, a practical equivalent being purposive selection. It is something that Burbank is doing in California in the realm of plant life. Nietzsche, however, uses the term in a large sense and comprehends under it all the means, physical, social, spiritual, that may be used for producing the great result at which he aims.[2] Sometimes he uses "Erziehung," meaning education, not in our conventional, but in the broadest sense. "Züchtung," however, brings out more clearly the necessary factor of selection.[3] Let us observe, he urges, nature and history and see in what way notable results have been reached unconsciously and perhaps clumsily and by very slow methods in the past; then, taking things into our own hands, let us see if the results we aim at cannot be reached in a similar way, but more surely and with less waste of time and force. Let an organized mankind test Darwin's assertions by experiment—even if the experimentation covers centuries and millenniums and we have to turn the whole earth into experiment stations. Let it be proved whether apes can be developed into men, and lower races into higher races, and whether from the best mankind has at present to show, something still higher can be reared.[4] The Chinese have made trees that bear roses on one side and pears on the other—and where are the limits to be set to the possibilities of selective human breeding? Historical processes may be improved upon: granting that races and racial
- ↑ Will to Power, § 243.
- ↑ Cf. the excellent remarks of Nietzsche's sister, Werke (pocket ed.), VII, p. xi.
- ↑ "Züchtung" is contradistinguished from "Erziehung" by F. Rittelmeyer, one of the most discriminating German writers on Nietzsche (Friedrich Nietzsche und die Religion, p. 59).
- ↑ Werke, XII, 191, §§ 408-9; cf. Dawn of Day, § 551; Werke (pocket ed.), V, 396, § 13.
