wills it, he even seeks it out, provided that he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. Not suffering, but the senselessness of suffering was the curse which till then lay spread over humanity⁠— and the ascetic ideal gave it a meaning! It was up till then the only meaning; but any meaning is better than no meaning; the ascetic ideal was in that connection the “ faute de mieux ” par excellence that existed at that time. In that ideal suffering found an explanation ; the tremendous gap seemed filled; the door to all suicidal Nihilism was closed. The explanation⁠—there is no doubt about it⁠—brought in its train new suffering, deeper, more penetrating, more venomous, gnawing more brutally into life: it brought all suffering under the perspective of guilt