43.
Concerning the notion "decadence." (1) Scepticism is a result of decadence: just as spiritual debauchery is.
(2) Moral corruption is a result of decadence (the weakness of the will and the need of strong stimulants).
(3) Remedies, whether psychological or moral, do not alter the march of decadence, they do not arrest anything; physiologically they do not count.
A peep into the enormous futility of these pretentious "reactions"; they are forms of anæsthetising oneself against certain fatal symptoms resulting from the prevailing condition of things; they do not eradicate the morbid element; they are often heroic attempts to cancel the decadent man, to allow only a minimum of his deleterious influence to survive.
(4) Nihilism is not a cause, but only the rationale of decadence.
(5) The "good" and the "bad" are no more than two types of decadence: they come together in all its fundamental phenomena.
(6) The social problem is a result of decadence.
(7) Illnesses, more particularly those attacking the nerves and the head, are signs that the defensive strength of strong nature is lacking; a proof of this is that irritability which causes pleasure and pain to be regarded as problems of the first order.
44.