Sentence:  Man does desire an ideal <WSD>Superman</WSD> with such energy as he can spare from his nutrition, and has in every age magnified the best living substitute for it he can find. His least incompetent general is set up as an Alexander; his King is the first gentleman in the world; his Pope is a saint. He is never without an array of human idols who are all nothing but sham <WSD>Supermen</WSD>. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An imagined superior type of human being representing a new stage of human development; an übermensch, an overman. (from 1903.)