Atheist, Antichristian, and Amoralist are the titles with which Nietzsche most fondly decorates himself, and they do not of themselves suggest that the man who thus describes himself is worthy of serious attention. But though Nietzsche's paradoxes and epigrams are hardly likely to take an important or permanent place in the movement of modern thought, it cannot be denied that his literary gifts, combined with ethical and social conclusions so extreme as to pique even the most jaded appetite, make him, in some sort, what he claimed to be, a European phenomenon.

In Germany he has succeeded to the vogue of Schopenhauer and the more popularity of Von Hartmann.

During his lifetime, the sober occupants of philosophical chairs complained that he wast the philosopher a la mode.

Nietzsche has been writing since 1872, and has been aggressively before the public since his attack on Strauss in 1873, but it is only since he became insane, in 1889, that he has become more widely known, and something like a "Nietzschecult" has sprung up among certain circles in Germany and France. In this country, a knowledge of his bizarre genius is still more recent. Eventually, a complete translation of his works has been done. Although they may not have been widely read, they have been reviewed in various quarters; and the crass diatribes of Max Nordau's 'Degeneration' have doubtless introduced him to many readers. Nietzsche's name has accordingly began to flow from the pen of the ready writer.

It might be rash, however, to assume that this measure of fame necessarily implied any very exact acquaintance with Nietzsche's ideas or their relation to the main currents of contemporary thought.