Every author pays close attention to how his
book starts and ends.
So before taking a closer look at Part One
of Beyond Good and Evil, I want to examine
Nietzsche’s opening and closing words, 
sections 1 and 296.
These are, as it were, bookends for the work.
A quick look at them now will give us some
idea of what to expect in between.
After summarizing each section, I will comment
on some themes to look for as we read the
rest of the book.
Section 1 focuses on the will to truth—our
seemingly innate desire to discover the truth
about ourselves and the world around us.
Nietzsche asks two important framing questions
in this section.
First, “What in us really wants ‘truth’?”
That is, what is the psychological origin
of the human desire for truth?
Second, the deeper question, what is the value
of this will to truth?
Why should we want truth at all, 
“why not rather untruth?
And uncertainty? Even ignorance?”
No philosopher has yet been bold enough to
risk these questions, Nietzsche notes.
It seems to him as though he is breaking new
ground here.
The final section, number 296, wraps up the book with 
an apostrophe addressed to Nietzsche’s thoughts.
He addresses his thoughts in this section
as though they were personified.
His thoughts, which were once so young and
new, now are becoming old and dull.
“Some of you are ready, I fear, to become
truths,” he says.
Nietzsche laments that he and philosophers
of his kind, “we mandarins with Chinese
brushes,” can only preserve and immortalize
thoughts that are fading or on the verge of
being lost.
The splendor of his thoughts in full bloom
does not come through in works like this.
As an author, Nietzsche serves these thoughts
in their afternoon or decline.
Nobody will guess from his work how marvelous
they looked in their morning, their ascendancy.
Yet these are the only thoughts he will serve,
with all the colors of his creative palette,
“you my old beloved—wicked thoughts!”
What are we to make of these bookend sections?
Nietzsche begins Beyond Good and Evil with
questions about our will to truth, questions
no philosopher has yet risked asking.
And he concludes with a lament that he has
only been able to express his “wicked thoughts”
as declining, losing their life and energy,
hardening into dull truths.
This suggests to me that Nietzsche thinks
the true value of his work will not be found
in a set of doctrines it produces, but in
something more dynamic.
As we read, we should watch for signs of the
energy, life, and perhaps joy Nietzsche thinks
lie behind his “Chinese brushes” version
of the ideas expressed in Beyond Good and Evil.
We should look to enter into the mind of the
author, to see these ideas as he saw them,
in the morning of their youth.
That wraps up my quick look at the first and
last sections of Beyond Good and Evil.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.
