loving corruptible things, as such, together with the process of becoming in general. Nietzsche expresses a very similar insight, in *Thus Spoke Zarathustra*: Have you ever said Yes to a single joy? O my friends, then you said Yes too to *all* woe. All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if ever you wanted one thing twice, if ever you said, "You please me, happiness! Abide, moment!" then you wanted *all* back. All anew, all eternally, all entangled, ensnared, enamored--oh, then you *loved* the world. Eternal ones, love it eternally and evermore; and to woe too, you say: go, but return! *For all joy wants--eternity* (*Portable Nietzsche* 435). Leaving aside Nietzsche's notion of eternal recurrence, his position is quite close to that of Spinoza. Reminiscent of Spinoza's *intellectual love of God*, Nietzsche posits *love of fate* as his "formula for greatness": My formula for greatness in a human being is *amor fati*: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it--all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary--but *love* it (*Ecce Homo* 258). This is not to say that Nietzsche's *greatness* and Spinoza's *blessedness* are identical, but only that they are closely related. *Greatness*, which we may provisionally define as *extraordinary success in a finite context*, depends on conditions external to our essence (God's external help/fortune), whereas *blessedness* depends on our "internal virtue" (God's internal help). Having granted this distinction, I would argue that true greatness can only be attributed to those individuals who, in addition to external success, are characterized by the especially appropriate manner in which they relate to the power which grounds them and, consequently, to their own essence. By virtue of their right relation to themselves and to God, such people have, experienced true blessedness. To ...
