292 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
of conditions, external and internal. He is like the 
watch which changes its rate of movement at all sorts 
of intervals, that will run off the whole twenty-four 
hours in a minute, and then will not move at all fora 
day to come. He must have a hard head who would 
butt against the stone wall of society and make an im- 
pression upon it. The sound nervous system is one 
well buried in skull and flesh. It knows not the “pride 
of vibrancy,” the “ bliss of the beautiful,” nor the mys- 
tic ‘sensations of the elect mind.” It has no love for 
the “flowers of evil,” the “litany of Satan,” nor any 
aspect of what Starr King called the “rotten side of 
things.” It is satisfied with the life and duties of to- 
day, and can find pleasure in these rather than in frantic 
attempts to seize the unknown day after to-morrow.* 
The sober man will not believe that “that which is pro- 
found loves the mask,” nor that what actually “occurs 
is spoiled for art.” To him, as to Marcus Aurelius, 
“the gods are still at the head of the administration, 
and they will have nothing but the best.” So in that 
part of the universe where he finds himself he finds also 
his duty. 
“The normal man,” Nordau wisely says, ‘with his 
clear mind, logical thought, sound judgment, and strong 
will, sees where the degenerate only 
gropes. He plans and acts where the 
latter dozes and dreams. He drives him without effort 
from all the places where the life-springs of Nature 
bubble up; and, in possession of all the good things 
of the earth, he leaves to the impotent degenerate the 
shelter of the hospital, lunatic asylum, and prison in 
contemptuous pity. Let us imagine the drivelling Zoro- 
aster of Nietsche with his cardboard lions, eagles, and 
The normal man. 
* ‘*Erst das Uebermorgen gehort mir.”—NIETSCHE. 
