No More Learning

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY.
i.
My mouthpiece—is of the people: too coarsely
and cordially do I talk for Angora rabbits. And
still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink-fish
and pen-foxes.
My hand—is a fool's hand: woe unto all tables
and walls, and whatever hath room for fool's
sketching, fool's scrawling!
My foot—is a horse-foot; therewith do I trample
and trot over stick and stone, in the fields up and
down, and am bedevilled with delight in all fast
racing.
My stomach—is surely an eagle's stomach? For
it preferreth lamb's flesh. Certainly it is a bird's
stomach.
Nourished with innocent things, and with few,
ready and impatient to fly, to fly away—that is
now my nature: why should there not be something
of bird-nature therein!
And especially that I am hostile to the spirit
of gravity, that is bird-nature: and verily, deadly
hostile, supremely hostile, originally hostile! Oh,
whither hath my hostility not flown and misflown!
Thereof could I sing a song and will sing
it: though I be alone in an empty house, and must
sing it to mine own ears.
Other singers are there, to be sure, to whom only
the full house maketh the voice soft, the hand
eloquent, the eye expressive, the heart wakeful:—
those do I not resemble. —


## p. 235 (#333) ############################################

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY. 235
2.
He who one day teacheth men to fly will have
shifted all landmarks; to him will all landmarks
themselves fly into the air; the earth will he
christen anew—as " the light body. "
The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse,
but it also thrusteth its head heavily into the heavy
earth: thus is it with the man who cannot yet fly.
Heavy unto him are earth and life, and so
willeth the spirit of gravity! But he who wisheth to
become light, and be a bird, must love himself:—
thus do / teach.
Not, to be sure, with the love of the sick and
infected, for with them stinketh even self-love!
One must learn to love oneself—thus do I teach
—with a wholesome and healthy love: that one
may endure to be with oneself, and not go roving
about.
Such roving about christeneth itself "brotherly
love "; with these words hath there hitherto been
the best lying and dissembling, and especially by
those who have been burdensome to every one.
And verily, it is no commandment for to-day and
to-morrow to learn to love oneself. Rather is it of
all arts the finest, subtlest, last and patientest.
For to its possessor is all possession well con-
cealed, and of all treasure-pits one's own is last
excavated—so causeth the spirit of gravity.
Almost in the cradle are we apportioned with
heavy words and worths: "good" and "evil "—so
calleth itself this dowry. For the sake of it we are
forgiven for living.


## p. 236 (#334) ############################################

236 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, III.
And therefore suffereth one little children to
come unto one, to forbid them betimes to love
themselves—so causeth the spirit of gravity.
And we—we bear loyally what is apportioned
unto us, on hard shoulders, over rugged mountains!
And when we sweat, then do people say to us:
"Yea, life is hard to bear! "
But man himself only is hard to bear! The
reason thereof is that he carrieth too many
extraneous things on his shoulders. Like the
camel kneeleth he down, and letteth himself be well
laden.
Especially the strong load-bearing man in whom
reverence resideth. Too many extraneous heavy
words and worths loadeth he upon himself—then
seemeth life to him a desert!
And verily! Many a thing also that is our own
is hard to bear! And many internal things in man
are like the oyster—repulsive and slippery and
hard to grasp ;—
So that an elegant shell, with elegant adornment,
must plead for them. But this art also must one
learn: to have a shell, and a fine appearance, and
sagacious blindness!
Again, it deceiveth about many things in man,
that many a shell is poor and pitiable, and too much
of a shell. Much concealed goodness and power
is never dreamt of; the choicest dainties find no
tasters!
Women know that, the choicest of them: a little
fatter, a little leaner—oh, how much fate is in so
little!
Man is difficult to discover, and unto himself most


## p. 237 (#335) ############################################

LV. —THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY.
237
difficult of all ; often lieth the spirit concerning the
soul. So causeth the spirit of gravity.
He, however, hath discovered himself who saith :
This is my good and evil : therewith hath he
silenced the mole and the dwarf, who say: “Good
for all, evil for all. ”
Verily, neither do I like those who call every-
thing good, and this world the best of all. Those
do I call the all-satisfied.
All-satisfiedness, which knoweth how to taste
everything,—that is not the best taste! I honour
the refractory, fastidious tongues and stomachs,
which have learned to say “I” and “Yea" and
“Nay. ”
To chew and digest everything, however-that
is the genuine swine-nature! Ever to say YE-A-
that hath only the ass learnt, and those like it!
Deep yellow and hot red-so wanteth my taste-
it mixeth blood with all colours. He, however, who
whitewasheth his house, betrayeth unto me a white-
washed soul.
With mummies, some fall in love ; others with
phantoms: both alike hostile to all flesh and
blood—oh, how repugnant are both to my taste !
For I love blood.
And there will I not reside and abide where
every one spitteth and speweth : that is now my
taste, ~rather would I live amongst thieves and
perjurers. Nobody carrieth gold in his mouth.
Still more repugnant unto me, however, are all
lickspittles; and the most repugnant animal of man
that I found, did I christen "parasite": it would
not love, and would yet live by love.


## p. 238 (#336) ############################################

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 :


## p. 239 (#337) ############################################

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.
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 (#338) ############################################

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:
r
1


## p. 239 (#339) ############################################

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.
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 (#340) ############################################

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 (#341) ############################################

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.
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 (#342) ############################################

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:
r
1


## p. 239 (#343) ############################################

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.
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 (#344) ############################################

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 (#345) ############################################

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.
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 (#346) ############################################

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
land keepers 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 (#347) ############################################

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.
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 (#348) ############################################

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
land keepers 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:
r
1


## p. 239 (#349) ############################################

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.
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 (#350) ############################################

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:
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.