No More Learning

Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly
so,—but only waiting for myself. And above all
did I learn standing and walking and running and
leaping and climbing and dancing.
This however is my teaching: he who wisheth
one day to fly, must first learn standing and walk-
ing and running and climbing and dancing :—one
doth not fly into flying!
With rope-ladders learned I to reach many a
window, with nimble legs did I climb high masts:
to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no
small bliss ;—
—To flicker like small flames on high masts: a
small light, certainly, but a great comfort to cast-
away sailors and shipwrecked ones!
By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my
truth; not by one ladder did I mount to the height
where mine eye roveth into my remoteness.
And unwillingly only did I ask my way—that
was always counter to my taste! Rather did I
question and test the ways themselves.
A testing and a questioning hath been all my
travelling:—and verily, one must also learn to
answer such questioning! That, however,—is my
taste:
r
1


## p. 239 (#351) ############################################

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY. 239
—Neither a good nor a bad taste, but my taste, of
which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.
"This—is now my way,—where is yours? " Thus
did I answer those who asked me "the way. " For
the way—it doth not exist!
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES.
Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around
me and also new half-written tables. When cometh
mine hour?
—The hour of my descent, of my down-going:
for once more will I go unto men.
For that hour do I now wait: for first must the
signs come unto me that it is mine hour—namely,
the laughing lion with the flock of doves.
Meanwhile do I talk to myself as one who hath
time. No one telleth me anything new, so I tell
myself mine own story.
2.
When I came unto men, then found I them
resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought
they had long known what was good and bad
for men.
An old wearisome business seemed to them all
discourse about virtue; and he who wished to sleep
well spake of " good " and " bad " ere retiring to rest.
This somnolence did I disturb when I taught


## p. 239 (#352) ############################################

238 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
Unhappy do I call all those who have only one
choice: either to become evil beasts, or evil beast-
tamers. Amongst such would I not build my
tabernacle.
Unhappy do I also call those who have ever to
wait,—they are repugnant to my taste—all the
toll-gatherers and traders, and kings, and other
landkeepers and shopkeepers.
Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly
so,—but only waiting for myself. And above all
did I learn standing and walking and running and
leaping and climbing and dancing.
This however is my teaching: he who wisheth
one day to fly, must first learn standing and walk-
ing and running and climbing and dancing :—one
doth not fly into flying!
With rope-ladders learned I to reach many a
window, with nimble legs did I climb high masts:
to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no
small bliss;—
—To flicker like small flames on high masts: a
small light, certainly, but a great comfort to cast-
away sailors and shipwrecked ones!
By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my
truth; not by one ladder did I mount to the height
where mine eye roveth into my remoteness.
And unwillingly only did I ask my way—that
was always counter to my taste! Rather did I
question and test the ways themselves.
A testing and a questioning hath been all my
travelling:—and verily, one must also Uarn to
answer such questioning! That, however,—is my
taste:
1


## p. 239 (#353) ############################################

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY. 239
—Neither a good nor a bad taste, but my taste, of
which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.
"This—is now my way,—where is yours? " Thus
did I answer those who asked me " the way. " For
the way—it doth not exist!
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES.
1.
Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around
me and also new half-written tables. When cometh
mine hour?
—The hour of my descent, of my down-going:
for once more will I go unto men.
For that hour do I now wait: for first must the
signs come unto me that it is mine hour—namely,
the laughing lion with the flock of doves.
Meanwhile do I talk to myself as one who hath
time. No one telleth me anything new, so I tell
myself mine own story.
When I came unto men, then found I them
resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought
they had long known what was good and bad
for men.
An old wearisome business seemed to them all
discourse about virtue; and he who wished to sleep
well spake of " good " and " bad " ere retiring to rest.
This somnolence did I disturb when I taught


## p. 239 (#354) ############################################

238 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
Unhappy do I call all those who have only one
choice: either to become evil beasts, or evil beast-
tamers. Amongst such would I not build my
tabernacle.
Unhappy do I also call those who have ever to
wait,—they are repugnant to my taste—all the
toll-gatherers and traders, and kings, and other
landkeepers and shopkeepers.
Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly
so,—but only waiting for myself. And above all
did I learn standing and walking and running and
leaping and climbing and dancing.
This however is my teaching: he who wisheth
one day to fly, must first learn standing and walk-
ing and running and climbing and dancing :—one
doth not fly into flying!
With rope-ladders learned I to reach many a
window, with nimble legs did I climb high masts:
to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no
small bliss ;—
—To flicker like small flames on high masts: a
small light, certainly, but a great comfort to cast-
away sailors and shipwrecked ones!
By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my
truth; not by one ladder did I mount to the height
where mine eye roveth into my remoteness.
And unwillingly only did I ask my way—that
was always counter to my taste! Rather did I
question and test the ways themselves.
A testing and a questioning hath been all my
travelling:—and verily, one must also learn to
answer such questioning! That, however,—is my
taste:
"1


## p. 239 (#355) ############################################

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY. 239
—Neither a good nor a bad taste, but my taste, of
which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.
"This—is now my way,—where is yours? " Thus
did I answer those who asked me " the way. " For
the way—it doth not exist!
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LVL—OLD AND NEW TABLES.
1.
Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around
me and also new half-written tables. When cometh
mine hour?
—The hour of my descent, of my down-going:
for once more will I go unto men.
For that hour do I now wait: for first must the
signs come unto me that it is mine hour—namely,
the laughing lion with the flock of doves.
Meanwhile do I talk to myself as one who hath
time. No one telleth me anything new, so I tell
myself mine own story.
When I came unto men, then found I them
resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought
they had long known what was good and bad
for men.
An old wearisome business seemed to them all
discourse about virtue; and he who wished to sleep
well spake of " good " and " bad " ere retiring to rest.
This somnolence did I disturb when I taught


## p. 240 (#356) ############################################

240
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
that no one yet knoweth what is good and bad :-
unless it be the creating one !
-It is he however who createth man's goal,
and giveth to the earth its meaning and its
future: he only effecteth it that aught is good and
bad.
And I bade them upset their old academic chairs,
and wherever that old infatuation had sat; I bade
them laugh at their great moralists, their saints,
their poets, and their Saviours.
At their gloomy sages did I bid them laugh,
and whoever had sat admonishing as a black scare-
crow on the tree of life.
On their great grave-highway did I seat myself,
and even beside the carrion and vultures—and I
laughed at all their bygone and its mellow decay-
ing glory.
Verily, like penitential preachers and fools did I
cry wrath and shame on all their greatness and
smallness. Oh, that their best is so very small !
Oh, that their worst is so very small! Thus did
I laugh.
Thus did my wise longing, born in the mountains,
cry and laugh in me; a wild wisdom, verily ! -my
great pinion-rustling longing.
And oft did it carry me off and up and away
and in the midst of laughter; then flew I quivering
like an arrow with sun-intoxicated rapture:
-Out into distant futures, which no dream hath
yet seen, into warmer souths than ever sculptor
conceived, where gods in their dancing are
ashamed of all clothes :
(That I may speak in parables and halt and


## p. 241 (#357) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 241
stammer like the poets: and verily I am ashamed
that I have still to be a poet! )
Where all becoming seemed to me dancing of
Gods, and wantoning of Gods, and the world
unloosed and unbridled and fleeing back to itself:—
—As an eternal self-fleeing and re-seeking of
one another of many Gods, as the blessed self-
contradicting, recommuning, and refraternising with
one another of many Gods :—
Where all time seemed to me a blessed mockery
of moments, where necessity was freedom itself,
which played happily with the goad of freedom :—
Where I also found again mine old devil and
arch-enemy, the spirit of gravity, and all that it
created: constraint, law, necessity and consequence
and purpose and will and good and evil:—
For must there not be that which is danced over,
danced beyond? Must there not, for the sake of
the nimble, the nimblest,—be moles and clumsy
dwarfs ? —
3-
There was it also where I picked up from the
path the word " Superman," and that man is some-
thing that must be surpassed.
—That man is a bridge and not a goal—rejoicing
over his noontides and evenings, as advances to new
rosy dawns:
—The Zarathustra word of the great noontide,
and whatever else I have hung up over men like
purple evening-afterglows.
Verily, also new stars did I make them see, along
with new nights; and over cloud and day and
9


## p. 242 (#358) ############################################

242
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
night, did I spread out laughter like a gay-coloured
canopy.
I taught them all my poetisation and aspiration :
to compose and collect into unity what is fragment
in man, and riddle and fearful chance ;-
-As composer, riddle-reader, and redeemer of
chance, did I teach them to create the future, and
all that hath been—to redeem by creating.
The past of man to redeem, and every " It was”
to transform, until the Will saith: “But so did I
will it! So shall I will it-".
-This did I call redemption ; this alone taught
I them to call redemption. -
Now do I await my redemption that I may go
unto them for the last time.
For once more will I go unto men: amongst them
will my sun set; in dying will I give them my
choicest gift!
From the sun did I learn this, when it goeth
down, the exuberant one: gold doth it then pour
into the sea, out of inexhaustible riches,-
-So that the poorest fisherman roweth even with
golden oars! For this did I once see, and did not
tire of weeping in beholding it. ---
Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down : now
sitteth he here and waiteth, old broken tales around
him, and also new tables-half-written.
Behold, here is a new table; but where are my
brethren who will carry it with me to the valley and
into hearts of flesh ? -


## p. 243 (#359) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 243
Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest
ones: be not considerate of thy neighbour! Man is
something that must be surpassed.
There are many divers ways and modes of sur-
passing: see thou thereto! But only a buffoon
thinketh: "man can also be overleapt"
Surpass thyself even in thy neighbour: and a
right which thou canst seize upon, shalt thou not
allow to be given thee!
What thou doest can no one do to thee again.
Lo, there is no requital.
He who cannot command himself shall obey.
And many a one can command himself, but still
sorely lacketh self-obedience!
5-
Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they
desire to have nothing gratuitously, least of all, life.
He who is of the populace wisheth to live
gratuitously; we others, however, to whom life
hath given itself—we are ever considering what
we can best give in return!
And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith:
"What life promiseth us, that promise will we keep
—to life! "
One should not wish to enjoy where one doth
not contribute to the enjoyment. And one should
not wish to enjoy!
For enjoyment and innocence are the most bash-
ful things. Neither like to be sought for. One
should have them,—but one should rather seek for
guilt and pain ! —.


## p. 244 (#360) ############################################

244 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
6.
O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacri-
ficed. Now, however, are we firstlings!
We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all
burn and broil in honour of ancient idols.
Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates.
Our flesh is tender, our skin is only lambs' skin :—
how could we not excite old idol-priests!
In ourselves dwelleth he still, the old idol-priest,
who broileth our best for his banquet. Ah, my
brethren, how could firstlings fail to be sacrifices!
But so wisheth our type; and I love those who
do not wish to preserve themselves, the down-going
ones do I love with mine entire love: for they go
beyond. —
To be true—that can few be! And he who can,
will not! Least of all, however, can the good be
true.
Oh, those good ones! Good men never speak the
truth. For the spirit, thus to be good, is a malady.
They yield, those good ones, they submit them-
selves; their heart repeateth, their soul obeyeth:
he, however, who obeyeth, doth not listen to himself!
All that is called evil by the good, must come
together in order that one truth may be born. O
my brethren, are ye also evil enough for this truth?
The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the
cruel Nay, the tedium, the cutting-into-the-quick—
how seldom do these come together! Out of such
seed, however—is truth produced!


## p. 245 (#361) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 245
Beside the bad conscience hath hitherto grown
all knowledge! Break up, break up, ye discerning
ones, the old tables!
8.
When the water hath planks, when gangways and
railings o'erspan the stream, verily, he is not be-
lieved who then saith: "All is in flux. "
But even the simpletons contradict him. "What? "
say the simpletons, "all in flux? Planks and rail-
ings are still over the stream! "
"Over the stream all is stable, all the values of
things, the bridges and bearings, all 'good' and
'evil': these are all stable ! "—
Cometh, however, the hard winter, the stream-
tamer, then learn even the wittiest distrust, and
verily, not only the simpletons then say: "Should
not everything—stand still? "
"Fundamentally standeth everything still "—that
is an appropriate winter doctrine, good cheer for
an unproductive period, a great comfort for winter-
sleepers and fireside-loungers.
"Fundamentally standeth everything still "—:
but contrary thereto, preacheth the thawing wind!
The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no plough-
ing bullock—a furious bullock, a destroyer, which
with angry horns breaketh the ice! The ice how-
ever breaketh gangways!
O my brethren, is not everything at present in
flux? Have not all railings and gangways fallen
into the water? Who would still hold on to
"good " and "evil "?
"Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind


## p. 246 (#362) ############################################

246 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
bloweth! "—Thus preach, my brethren, through all
the streets!
9-
There is an old illusion—it is called good and
evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers hath
hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.
Once did one believe in soothsayers and astro-
logers; and therefore did one believe, " Everything
is fate: thou shalt, for thou must! "
Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and
astrologers; and therefore did one believe, " Every-
thing is freedom: thou canst, for thou willest! "
O my brethren, concerning the stars and the
future there hath hitherto been only illusion, and
not knowledge; and therefore concerning good and
evil there hath hitherto been only illusion and
not knowledge!
10.
"Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay !
"—
such precepts were once called holy; before them
did one bow the knee and the head, and took off
one's shoes.
But I ask you: Where have there ever been
better robbers and slayers in the world than such
holy precepts?
Is there not even in all life—robbing and slaying?
And for such precepts to be called holy, was not
truth itself thereby—slain?
—Or was it a sermon of death that called holy
what contradicted and dissuaded from life? —O
my brethren, break up, break up for me the old
tables!


## p. 247 (#363) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 247
II.
It is my sympathy with all the past that I see
it is abandoned,—
—Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the
madness of every generation that cometh, and
reinterpreteth all that hath been as its bridge!
A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy,
who with approval and disapproval could strain and
constrain all the past, until it became for him a
bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cock-crowing.
This however is the other danger, and mine other
sympathy:—he who is of the populace, his thoughts
go back to his grandfather,—with his grandfather,
however, doth time cease.
Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might
some day happen for the populace to become master,
and drown all time in shallow waters.
Therefore, O my brethren, a new nobility is
needed, which shall be the adversary of all populace
and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew the
word "noble" on new tables.
For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds
of noble ones, for a new nobility! Or, as I once
said in parable: "That is just divinity, that there
are Gods, but no God! "
12.
O my brethren, I consecrate you and point you
to a new nobility: ye shall become procreators and
cultivators and sowers of the future;—
—Verily, not to a nobility which ye could pur-
chase like traders with traders' gold; for little
worth is all that hath its price.
/"


## p. 248 (#364) ############################################

248 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
Let it not be your honour henceforth whence ye
come, but whither ye go! Your Will and your feet
which seek to surpass you—let these be your new
honour!
Verily not that ye have served a prince—of what
account are princes now! —nor that ye have become
bulwark to that which standeth, that it may stand
more firmly.
Not that your family have become courtly at
courts, and that ye have learned—gay-coloured, like
the flamingo—to stand long hours in shallow pools:
(For ability-to-stand is a merit in courtiers; and
all courtiers believe that unto blessedness after
death pertaineth—permission-to-sit! )
Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your
forefathers into promised lands, which I do not
praise: for where the worst of all trees grew—the
cross,—in that land there is nothing to praise! —
—And verily, wherever this "Holy Spirit" led
its knights, always in such campaigns did—goats
and geese, and wryheads and guy-heads run
foremost! —
O my brethren, not backward shall your nobility
gaze, but outward! Exiles shall ye be from all
fatherlands and forefather-lands!
Your children s land shall ye love: let this love
be your new nobility,—the undiscovered in the
remotest seas! For it do I bid your sails search
and search!
Unto your children shall ye make amends for
being the children of your fathers: all the past
shall ye thus redeem! This new table do I place
over you!


## p. 249 (#365) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 249
13.
"Why should one live? All is vain! To live—
that is to thrash straw; to live—that is to burn
oneself and yet not get warm. "—
Such ancient babbling still passeth for " wisdom";
because it is old, however, and smelleth mustily,
therefore is it the more honoured. Even mould
ennobleth. —
Children might thus speak: they shun the fire
because it hath burnt them! There is much
childishness in the old books of wisdom.
And he who ever "thrasheth straw," why should
he be allowed to rail at thrashing! Such a fool
one would have to muzzle!
Such persons sit down to the table and bring
nothing with them, not even good hunger:—and
then do they rail: "All is vain! "
But to eat and drink well, my brethren, is verily
no vain art! Break up, break up for me the tables
of the never-joyous ones!
14.
"To the clean are all things clean"—thus say
the people. I, however, say unto you: To the
swine all things become swinish!
Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads
(whose hearts are also bowed down): "The world
itself is a filthy monster. "
For these are all unclean spirits; especially
those, however, who have no peace or rest, unless
they see the world from the backside—the back-
world's-men!


## p. 250 (#366) ############################################

250 THUS ZARATHUSTRA, III.
ZARATHUS
SPAKE THUS SPAKE To those do I say it to the face, although it sound
unpleasantly: the world resembleth man, in that
it hath a backside,-so much is true!
There is in the world much filth; so much is
true! But the world itself is not therefore a filthy
monster!
There is wisdom in the fact that much in the
world smelleth badly: loathing itself createth
wings, and fountain-divining powers !
In the best there is still something to loathe ;
and the best is still something that must be
surpassed ! -
O my brethren, there is much wisdom in the fact
that much filth is in the world ! -
15.
Such sayings did I hear pious back-world's-men
speak to their consciences, and verily without
wickedness or guile,-although there is nothing
more guileful in the world, or more wicked.
“Let the world be as it is! Raise not a finger
against it ! ”
“Let whoever will choke and stab and skin and
scrape the people : raise not a finger against it!
Thereby will they learn to renounce the world. ”
“And thine own reason—this shalt thou thyself
stifle and choke ; for it is a reason of this world,
thereby wilt thou learn thyself to renounce the
world. ”-
-Shatter, shatter, O my brethren, those old
tables of the pious! Tatter the maxims of the
world-maligners !


## p. 251 (#367) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 251
16.
"He who learneth much unlearneth all violent
cravings"—that do people now whisper to one
another in all the dark lanes.
"Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou
shalt not crave! "—this new table found I hanging
even in the public markets.
Break up for me, O my brethren, break up also
that new table! The weary-o'-the-world put it up,
and the preachers of death and the jailer: for lo, it
is also a sermon for slavery :—
Because they learned badly and not the best, and
everything too early and everything too fast;
because they ate badly: from thence hath resulted
their ruined stomach;—
—For a ruined stomach, is their spirit: it
persuadeth to death! For verily, my brethren, the
spirit is a stomach!
Life is a well of delight, but to him in whom the
ruined stomach speaketh, the father of affliction,
all fountains are poisoned.
To discern: that is delight to the lion-willed!
But he who hath become weary, is himself merely
"willed "; with him play all the waves.
And such is always the nature of weak men:
they lose themselves on their way. And at last
asketh their weariness: " Why did we ever go on
the way? All is indifferent! "
To them soundeth it pleasant to have preached
in their ears: "Nothing is worth while! Ye shall
not will! " That, however, is a sermon for slavery.
O my brethren, a fresh blustering wind cometh


## p. 252 (#368) ############################################

252 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
Zarathustra unto all way-weary ones; many noses
will he yet make sneeze!
Even through walls bloweth my free breath, and
in into prisons and imprisoned spirits!
Willing emancipateth: for willing is creating: so
do I teach. And only for creating shall ye learn!
And also the learning shall ye learn only from
me, the learning well! —He who hath ears let him
hear!
17-
There standeth the boat—thither goeth it over,
perhaps into vast nothingness—but who willeth to
enter into this " Perhaps "?
None of you want to enter into the death-boat!
How should ye then be world-weary ones!
World-weary ones! And have not even with-
drawn from the earth! Eager did I ever find you for
the earth, amorous still of your own earth-
weariness!
Not in vain doth your lip hang down :—a small
worldly wish still sitteth thereon! And in your
eye—floateth there not a cloudlet of unforgotten
earthly bliss?
There are on the earth many good inventions,
some useful, some pleasant: for their sake is the
earth to be loved.
And many such good inventions are there, that
they are like woman's breasts: useful at the same
time, and pleasant.
Ye world-weary ones, however! Ye earth-idlers!
You, shall one beat with stripes! With stripes shall
one again make you sprightly limbs.


## p. 253 (#369) ############################################

LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 253
For if ye be not invalids, or decrepit creatures,
of whom the earth is weary, then are ye sly
sloths, or dainty, sneaking pleasure-cats. And if
ye will not again run gaily, then shall ye-pass
away!
To the incurable shall one not seek to be a
physician : thus teacheth Zarathustra :-so shall ye
pass away!
But more courage is needed to make an end than
to make a new verse: that do all physicians and
poets know well. -
18.
O my brethren, there are tables which weariness
framed, and tables which slothfulness framed, cor-
rupt slothfulness : although they speak similarly,
they want to be heard differently. -
See this languishing one! Only a span-breadth
is he from his goal; but from weariness hath he
lain down obstinately in the dust, this brave one!
From weariness yawneth he at the path, at the
earth, at the goal, and at himself: not a step further
will he go,—this brave one!
Now gloweth the sun upon him, and the dogs lick
at his sweat: but he lieth there in his obstinacy
and preferreth to languish :-
-A span-breadth from his goal, to languish!
Verily, ye will have to drag him into his heaven
by the hair of his head—this hero!
Better still that ye let him lie where he hath lain
down, that sleep may come unto him, the comforter,
with cooling patter-rain.
Let him lie, until of his own accord he awakeneth,


## p. 254 (#370) ############################################

254 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
—until of his own accord he repudiateth all
weariness, and what weariness hath taught through
him!
Only, my brethren, see that ye scare the dogs
away from him, the idle skulkers, and all the
swarming vermin:—
—All the swarming vermin of the "cultured,"
that—feast on the sweat of every hero ! —
19.
I form circles around me and holy boundaries;
ever fewer ascend with me ever higher mountains:
I build a mountain-range out of ever holier
mountains. —
But wherever ye would ascend with me, O my
brethren, take care lest a parasite ascend with you!
A parasite: that is a reptile, a creeping, cringing
reptile, that trieth to fatten on your infirm and
sore places.
And this is its art: it divineth where ascending
souls are weary; in your trouble and dejection, in
your sensitive modesty, doth it build its loathsome
nest.
Where the strong are weak, where the noble are
all-too-gentle—there buildeth it its loathsome nest;
the parasite liveth where the great have small
sore-places.
What is the highest of all species of being, and
what is the lowest? The parasite is the lowest
species; he, however, who is of the highest species
feedeth most parasites.
For the soul which hath the longest ladder, and


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LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 255
can go deepest down : how could there fail to be
most parasites upon it? -
-The most comprehensive soul, which can run
and stray and rove furthest in itself; the most
necessary soul, which out of joy flingeth itself into
chance :-
-The soul in Being, which plungeth into Be-
coming; the possessing soul, which seeketh to attain
desire and longing :-
- The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh
itself in the widest circuit; the wisest soul, unto
which folly speaketh most sweetly :-
-The soul most self-loving, in which all things
have their current and counter-current, their ebb
and their flow :-oh, how could the loftiest soul fail
to have the worst parasites ?
20.
O my brethren, am I then cruel? But I say:
What falleth, that shall one also push!
Everything of to-day-it falleth, it decayeth; who
would preserve it! But 1-I wish also to push it !
Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into
precipitous depths ? – Those men of to-day, see
just how they roll into my depths!
A prelude am I to better players, O my brethren!
An example! Do according to mine example!
And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach I
pray you-to fall faster ! —
21.
I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a
swordsman,—one must also know whereon to use
swordsmanship!


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256 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet
and pass by, that thereby one may reserve oneself
for a worthier foe!
Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not
foes to be despised: ye must be proud of your
foes. Thus have I already taught.
For the worthier foe, O my brethren, shall ye
reserve yourselves: therefore must ye pass by
many a one,—
—Especially many of the rabble, who din your
ears with noise about people and peoples.
Keep your eye clear of their For and Against!
There is there much right, much wrong: he who
looketh on becometh wroth.
Therein viewing, therein hewing—they are the
same thing: therefore depart into the forests and
lay your sword to sleep!
Go your ways! and let the people and peoples
go theirs! —gloomy ways, verily, on which not a
single hope glinteth any more!
Let there the trader rule, where all that still
glittereth is—traders' gold. It is the time of kings
no longer: that which now calleth itself the people
is unworthy of kings.
See how these peoples themselves now do just
like the traders: they pick up the smallest advan-
tage out of all kinds of rubbish!
They lay lures for one another, they lure things
out of one another,—that they call "good neigh-
bourliness. " O blessed remote period when a
people said to itself: "I will be—master over
peoples! "
For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best


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LVI. —OLD AND NEW TABLES. 257
also willeth to rule! And where the teaching is
different, there—the best is lacking.
22.
If they had—bread for nothing, alas! for what
would they cry! Their maintainment—that is their
true entertainment; and they shall have it hard!
Beasts of prey, are they: in their " working "—
there is even plundering, in their "earning "—there
is even overreaching! Therefore shall they have
it hard!
Better beasts of prey shall they thus become,
subtler, cleverer, more man-like: for man is the
best beast of prey.
All the animals hath man already robbed of their
virtues: that is why of all animals it hath been
hardest for man.
Only the birds are still beyond him. And if
man should yet learn to fly, alas! to what height—
would his rapacity fly!
23-
Thus would I have man and woman: fit for war,
the one; fit for maternity, the other; both, how-
ever, fit for dancing with head and legs.
And lost be the day to us in which a measure
hath not been danced. And false be every truth
which hath not had laughter along with it!
24.
Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a
bad arranging! Ye have arranged too hastily: so
there followeth therefrom—marriage-breaking!
R
1


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258 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
And better marriage-breaking than marriage-
bending, marriage-lying! —Thus spake a woman
unto me: "Indeed, I broke the marriage, but first
did the marriage break—me!