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has been drawn. He never gets out of the circle of lines. The sick man has been turned into “the sinner”⁠—and now for a few thousand years we never get away from the sight of this new invalid, of “a sinner”⁠—shall we ever get away from it?⁠—wherever we just look, everywhere the hypnotic gaze of the sinner always moving in one direction (in the direction of guilt, the only cause of suffering); everywhere the evil conscience, this “ greuliche thier ,” to use Luther’s language; everywhere rumination over the past, a distorted view of action, the gaze of the “green-eyed monster” turned on all action; everywhere the wilful misunderstanding of suffering, its transvaluation into feelings of guilt, fear of retribution; everywhere the scourge, the hairy shirt, the starving body, contrition; everywhere the sinner breaking himself on the ghastly wheel of a restless and morbidly eager conscience; everywhere mute pain, extreme fear, the agony of a tortured heart, the spasms of an unknown happiness, the shriek for “redemption.” In point of fact, thanks to this system of procedure, the old depression, dullness, and fatigue were absolutely conquered, life itself became very interesting again, awake, eternally awake, sleepless, glowing, burnt away, exhausted and yet not tired⁠—such was the figure cut by man, “the sinner,” who was initiated into these mysteries. This grand old wizard of an ascetic priest fighting with depression⁠—he had clearly triumphed, his kingdom had come: men no longer grumbled at pain, men panted after pain: “ More pain! More pain!” So for centuries on end shrieked the demand of his acolytes and initiates. Every emotional excess which hurt; everything which broke, overthrew, crushed, transported, ravished; the mystery of torture-chambers, the ingenuity of hell itself⁠—all this was now discovered, divined, exploited, all this was at the service of the wizard, all this served to promote the triumph of his ideal, the ascetic ideal. “ My kingdom is not of this world ,” quoth he, both at the beginning and at the end: had he still the right to talk like that?⁠—Goethe has maintained that there are only thirty-six tragic situations: we would infer from that, did we not know otherwise, that Goethe was no ascetic priest. He⁠—knows more.