have one eye the stronger; the blind man may see deeper inwardly, and certainly hear better. To this extent, the famous theory of the survival of the fittest does not seem to be the only viewpoint from which to explain the progress of strengthening of a man or of a race.Nietzsche writes of the 'free spirit' or 'free thinker' (), and his role in society; a sort of proto-Übermensch, forming the basis of a concept he extensively explores in his later work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. A free spirit is one who goes against the herd, and "onwards along the path of wisdom" in order to better society. 'Better', for Nietzsche, appears to mean ordered toward the production of rare genius and is hardly to be confused with what 'a newspaper reader' as Nietzsche might put it, would expect. The essential thing to keep in mind in considering Zarathustra, in particular, is that Nietzsche presents Zarathustra as failing. Man in Society and Women and Child These two sections are made up of very short aphorisms on men's, women's and the child's nature or their 'evolution' in Nietzsche's subtle, anti-Darwinian sense. Scholar Ruth Abbey has commented of works from Nietzsche's 'middle period' that, "Contrary to the common classification of Nietzsche as a misogynist, the works of the middle period do not openly denigrate or dismiss women... Nietzsche's views on women were at this time more nuanced and less vitriolic than they became". In this section, Nietzsche remarks that the perfect woman is a "higher type of human being than the perfect man: also something much rarer". Man Alone with Himself Like sections six and seven, Nietzsche's aphorisms here are mostly short, but also poetic and at times could be interpreted as semi-autobiographical, in anticipation of the next volumes: "He who has come only in part to a freedom of reason cannot feel on earth otherwise than as a wanderer". Nietzsche also distinguishes the obscurantism of the metaphysicians and theologians from the more subtle obscurantism of Kant's critical philosophy and modern philosophical skepticism, claiming that obscurantism is that which obscures existence rather than obscures ideas alone: "The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence". Reception Within his lifetime, prior to his mental breakdown in 1889, few