, a slight ostentation and exaggeration. He is only genuine so far as he can be objective; only in his serene totality is he still “nature” and “natural.” His mirroring and eternally self-polishing soul no longer knows how to affirm, no longer how to deny; he does not command; neither does he destroy. “ je ne méprise presque rien ”⁠—he says, with Leibniz: let us not overlook nor undervalue the presque ! Neither is he a model man; he does not go in advance of anyone, nor after, either; he places himself generally too far off to have any reason for espousing the cause of either good or evil. If he has been so long confounded with the philosopher , with the Caesarian trainer and dictator of civilization, he has had far too much honour, and what is more essential in him has been overlooked⁠—he is an instrument, something of a slave, though certainly the sublimest sort of slave, but nothing in himself⁠— presque rien