man for all the purposes of life, -- even as a possible
benefactor in poverty and distress. He might not see
his way to toss me his purse, like a hero of Alexander
Dumas, but I should expect from him an intelligent
sympathy and a genuine disposition to study my prob-
lem, to consider what I were still good for, and to secure
for me that recognition which would enable me to live
as a self-respecting, contributory member of society.
And on any other ground have I a claim to his considera-
tion? No doubt this would exclude a consideration of
the incapables. But the absolutely incapable ought not
to be considered. Yet it is a question whether any one
in whom the light of intelligence still shines is ever
absolutely incapable and may not under proper social
arrangements still be worth while as a member of human
society.

The philosophy of these lectures is thus a philosophy
of self-assertion. But no doctrine of a blind and animal
"will to power." Of will to power, certainly, -- but of
power through comprehensive intelligence, which in
human society is the final source of power. What I
stand for is not the senseless self-assertion of the glorified
brute, or of the intoxicated genius, claiming a special
and paradoxical exemption from ordinary responsibil-
ity, but the more definite, more determined, and more
effective self-assertion of the clear-sighted, and there-
fore -- as I hold -- generous, man.

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