We know of no American periodical which stands for Nietzsche's views, except, perhaps, The Lion's Paw (Chicago) which claims to follow no one. In the last years of the nineteenth century Clarence L. Swartz published at Wellesley, Mass., an egoistic periodical called the I. This magazine is no longer in existence, but Mr. Swartz is very active in the International Intelligence Institute whose aims are universal language, universal nationality and universal peace. He still maintains the same philosophical view which he held as editor of the I, but his philosophical egoism has led him in far different paths from those of Nietzsche—into the paths of peace and not of struggle. He expresses his present conception as follows:
"In the last analysis there is no right but might. Such is the common ordinary rule of every-day life, from which there is no escape, even were escape desirable. Any attempt to overthrow or circumvent or even dispute the exercise of this prerogative of the mighty is but to assert or oppose a greater might. Expediency always dictates how might should be exercised. Politically, I hold that the non-coercion of the non-invasive individual is the part of wisdom. The individual is supreme, and should be preserved as against society, for in no other way can evolution perform its perfect work."
The Free Comrade edited by J. Wm. Lloyd and Leonard Abbott, an avowedly socialistic and individualistic paper, originally under the sole editorship of Lloyd, stood for Nietzsche and his egoism, but can no longer be said to do so.
[1] A. Tille, Von Darwin bis Nietzsche. R. Steiner, Wahrheit und Wissenschaft; Die Philosophie der Freiheit; and F. Nietzsche, ein Kämpfer gegen seine Zeit.
We have already mentioned the biography of Nietzsche published by the philosopher's sister, Frau E. Förster-Nietzsche. A characterization, disavowed by Nietzsche's admirers, was written by Frau Lou Andreas Salome, under the title F. Nietzsche in seinen Werken. Other works kindred in spirit are Schellwien's Der Geist der neueren Philosophie, 1895, and Der Darwinismus, 1896; also Adolf Gerecke, Die Aussichtslosigkeit des Moralismus; Schmitt, An der Grenzscheide zweier Weltalter; Károly Krausz, Nietzsche und seine Weltanschauung.
[2] Henri Lichtenberger, La Philosophie de Nietzsche. Paris, Alcan, 1898
[3] We may mention incidentally that a contributor to Ohne Staat reproduced one of the Homilies of St Chrysostom, in which he harangues after the fashion of the early Christian preachers against wealth and power. The state's attorney, not versed in Christian patristic literature, seized the issue and placed the man who quoted the old Byzantine saint behind the prison bars. In the issue of Nov., 1898, Dr. Eugen Heinrich Schmitt mentions the case and says: "Thus we have an exact and historical proof that the liberty of speech and thought was incomparably greater in miserable, servile Byzantium than it is now in the much more miserable and more servile despotism of modern Europe." Does not Dr. Schmitt overlook the fact that in the days of Byzantine Christianity the saints were protected by the mob, which was much feared by the imperial government and was kept at bay only by a nominal recognition of its claims and beliefs?
[4] Other recent English Nietzschean literature is as follows: Grace Neal Dolson, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1901; Oscar Levy, The Revival of Aristocracy, 1906; A. R. Orage, Fried. Nietzsche, the Dionysion Spirit of the Age, 1906; A. R. Orage, Nietzsche in Outline and Alphorism; Henry L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche; M. A. Mügge, Friedrich Nietzsche: His Life and Work; Anthony M. Ludovici, Who Is to Be Master of the World?
[5] Published by Adolph Mueller, Chicago.