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To be sure⁠—to make also the bad counter-reckoning against such religions, and to bring to light their secret dangers⁠—the cost is always excessive and terrible when religions do not operate as an educational and disciplinary medium in the hands of the philosopher, but rule voluntarily and paramountly , when they wish to be the final end, and not a means along with other means. Among men, as among all other animals, there is a surplus of defective, diseased, degenerating, infirm, and necessarily suffering individuals; the successful cases, among men also, are always the exception; and in view of the fact that man is the animal not yet properly adapted to his environment , the rare exception. But worse still. The higher the type a man represents, the greater is the improbability that he will succeed