urch that was for so
long its sole embodiment and is still, alone, its adequate
representative, that it has fostered virtues which retard progress.
Progress, in the view of the German philosopher who explicitly made this
charge, is merely natural both in its action and its end; and Nature, as
we are well aware, knows nothing of forgiveness or compassion or
tenderness: on the contrary she moves from lower to higher forms by
forces that are their precise opposite. The wounded stag is not
protected by his fellows, but gored to death; the old wolf is torn to
pieces, the sick lion wanders away to die of starvation, and all these
instincts, we are informed, have for their object the gradual
improvement of the breed by the elimination of the weak and ineffective.
So should it be, he tells us, with man, and the extreme Eugenists echo
his teaching. Christianity, on the other hand, deliberately protects the
weak and teaches that the sacrifice of the strong is supreme heroism.
Christianity has raised hospitals and refuges for the infirm, seeking to
preserve those very types which Nature, if she had her way, would
eliminate. Christianity, then, is the enemy of the human race and not
its friend, since Christianity has retarded, as no other religion has
ever succeeded in retarding, the appearance of that superman whom Nature
seeks to evolve.... It is scarcely to be wondered at that the teacher of
such a doctrine himself died insane.

A parallel doctrine is taught largely to-day by persons who call
themselves practical and businesslike. Meekness and gentleness and
compassion, they tell their sons, are very elegant and graceful virtues
for those who can afford them, for women and children who are more or
less sheltered from the struggle of life, and for feeble and ineffective
people who are capable of nothing else. But for men who have to make
their own way in the world and intend to win success there, a more stern
code is necessary; from these there is demanded such a rule of action as
Nature herself dictates. Be self-confident and self-assertive then, not
meek. Remember that the weakness of your neighbour is your own
opportunity. Take care of number one and let the rest take care of
themselves. A man does not go into the stock-exchange or into commerce
in order to exhibit Christian virtues there, but business qualities. In
a word, Christianity, so far as it affects material or commercial or
political progress, is a weakness rather th