homines novi are coming to the helm—and women may be entering Parliament, too—and it is not easy to turn a private individual into a statesman with immense horizons.[1] All the same, the rule of the earth is actually in Anglo-Saxon hands, and Europe cannot go ahead without an understanding with England—the German element makes a good ferment, but it does not understand how to rule.[2]
Since Germany has become a "great power," France wins an altered significance as a power in the realm of culture (als Culturmacht).[3] There is no greater error than to think that the success of the German armies [in the Franco-Prussian War] proved anything in favor of German culture.[4] France is the seat of the most spiritual and refined culture in Europe, though one must know where to find it.[5] European noblesse-of feeling, taste, manners, in short, in every high sense—is France's work and invention. But it was the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and now the âme française is thin in comparison. France has been overcome by England and its "modern ideas"—Frenchmen having been the best soldiers of these ideas.[6] The French are infected too with the skepticism and weakness of will which belongs to modern Europe generally with its mishmash of classes and races, and which developes most just where culture has existed the longest."[7] Nietzsche evidently no longer looks for leadership from France, i.e., in his direction.h
Italy is too young to know what it wills and must first prove that it can will.[8] Nietzsche loved the Italians and wrote in Turin in 1885, "Quousque tandem, Crispi … Triple alliance: with the 'Empire' an intelligent people makes ever only a mésalliance."[9] He found there "much republican superiority (Vornehmheit)" and a way of demonstrating excellence and pride without vanity.[10] In the old cities, once states, there was
