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renaissance; by the morality of the slave, all that
morality which proceeds from contact with wretchedness
as the highest virtue, from the denial of life, from
the hatred for the happy and the strong.
This continual praising of the unselfish, self-sacrificing
person, as contrasted to that person who lays all his
strength on self-preservation, self-development, and
development of power, does not by any means spring from
a spirit of unselfishness. The neighbor commends
unselfishness because he has the profit of it. If he thought
himself unselfish, he would reject all that which would
be to his advantage. Herein lies the fundamental
contradiction of this morality, that the motive for it is in
conflict with its principles. It is proclaimed for the
advantage of the unsuccessful men, and generally has
no more zealous or ardent advocates than that kind of
unsuccessful men who do not have enough independent
spiritual life to be able to live in the world of their
own ideas, but do have so-called culture enough to suffer
under it, and whose existence is at heart envy.
Whatever qualities and culture such men have are
strengthened by anguish; they live in a constant longing for
vengeance on those whom they think are happy.
Dostoyevski developed into a colossal example of this
type. With the worst ill-treatment of his life behind
him, and now poor, soon in debt, and in continual
endless debt, dependent on publishers, whose advances
furnish him his means of subsistence, he is to begin anew
to make his way into literature.
The first book which he wrote after his return from
Siberia, “The Injured and Oppressed,” does not belong
to his best works, but it contains characters of which his
first book had already given a hint, and which re-appear
later. He had brought back with him from Siberia a
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