Wood and Stone: A Romance

Wood and Stone: A Romance

The following narrative gathers itself round what is, perhaps, one of the most absorbing and difficult problems of our age; the problem namely of getting to the bottom of that world-old struggle between the well-constituted and the ill-constituted, which the writings of Nietzsche have recently called so startlingly to our attention. Is there such a thing at all as Nietzsches born and trained aristocracy? In other words, is the secret of the universe to be reached only along the lines of Power, Courage, and Pride? Or,on the contrary,is the hidden and basic law of things, not Power but Sacrifice, not Pride but Love? Granting, for the moment, that this latter alternative is the true one, what becomes of the drastic distinction between well-constituted and ill-constituted? In a universe whose secret is not self-assertion, but self-abandonment, might not the well-constituted be regarded as the vanquished, and the ill-constituted as the victors? In other words, who, in such a universe, are the well-constituted? But the difficulty does not end here. Supposing we rule out of our calculation both of these antipodal possibilities,both the universe whose inner fatality is the striving towards Power, and the universe whose inner fatality is the striving towards Love,will[viii] there not be found to remain two other rational hypotheses, either, namely, that there is no inner fatality about it at all, that the whole thing is a blind, fantastic, chance-drifting chaos; or that the true secret lies in some subtle and difficult reconciliation, between the will to Power and the will to Love? ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 53157
Author: Powys, John Cowper
Release Date: Sep 28, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English