It is idle to remind us that Nietzsche touched life at other points, and that in his flaming incoherence you will find contradictions of this vision. For it was this vision of Attila, and no other, that conquered the imagination of Prussia. She desired all Europe for an Empire, and after that the seas, and at last the world. It needed but one further step in this mysticism of the madhouse to decree divine honours to the Kaiser.
Now let Nietzsche speak for himself. Thus spake Zarathustra on the morality of war—
“You shall love peace as a means to new wars, and a short peace better than a long....
“I do not counsel you labour, I do not counsel you peace, but victory. Let your labour be a conflict, and your peace a victory....
“It was said of old that a good cause sanctifies war; but I say to you that a good war sanctifies any cause.”
As to what he meant by a “good” war he leaves us in no doubt. He meant simply a war in which a victorious Prussia would slay and burn without measure and without pity.
“My brothers, I place above you this new Table of the Law: Be hard!”
* * * * *
Zarathustra washes, with shame, his hands, because they have aided someone who was suffering. “Nay, I labour to cleanse my very soul” of the sin of pity, he adds.
“I dream,” he cries, “of an association of men who would be whole and complete, who would know no compromise, and who would give themselves the name of destroyers....”