V
THE RELIGION OF SUFFERING
Nietzsche wrote of religion disparagingly as an
intoxicant, and yet by his own religion he was
intoxicated. No one ever acted more strangely
or became more excited under the influence of
personal religion than Nietzsche. It is no reproach
to religion that it changes reasonable beings to
emotional beings. And yet there is associated
with religion a false emotionalism and sentimentalism
that we call morbidity, a desire to be miserable
and to make other people miserable, a wearing of
weeds on festival days, pessimism and "God grant
we may all be as well two months hence," a living
with death and a loving of the gruesome.
Gloominess is a danger for the Slav soul as with us it is for the Celtic. The bright energy of the Teuton is lacking. It is not worth while making things or working for position. The mind is free and questioning. There is no sense of—
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and the action fine,
