"Following nature" naturally means following our
inclinations; nothing is more disastrous. Virtue necessitates self
denial, effort, living by ideals, which are late and artificial
products. It is actually true, in its metaphorical way, that we need
to be born again, to be turned about, converted, saved from ourselves.
The "natural" man is the "carnal" man; the "spiritual" man, while
potential in us all, needs to be fostered and stimulated by every
possible means if life is to be serene and full and beautiful. The
difference between the "natural" man and the moral man is the
difference between the untrained child, capricious, the victim of
a thousand whims and longings, and the man of formed character
whom we respect and trust. Morality is, of course, in a sense, natural
too-everything that exists is natural; but in the sense in which the word
has a specific meaning, it is flatly opposed to that making-over, that
readjustment of our impulses, which is the very differentia of morality.
There is, indeed, a eulogistic sense of the word "natural"; to Rousseau
the "return to nature" meant the abandonment of needless artificiality
and silly convention. But except in this sense, what is "natural" has
no particular merit. The great achievements of man have consisted
not in following natural, primitive instincts, but in controlling and
disciplining those instincts.
If we were to imitate nature in making the survival of the fittest
our aim, we should return to the barbaric ruthlessness of ancient Sparta
or Rome, exposing infants, killing the feeble and insane, and becoming
just such cold-blooded pursuers of efficiency as Nietzsche admires.
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