No More Learning

Whatever is of the effeminate type, whatever
originateth from the servile type, and especially
the populace-mishmash:—that wisheth now to be
master of all human destiny—O disgust! Disgust!
Disgust!
That asketh and asketh and never tireth: "How
is man to maintain himself best, longest, most
pleasantly? " Thereby—are they the masters of
to-day.
These masters of to-day—surpass them, O my
brethren—these petty people: they are the Super-
man's greatest danger!
Surpass, ye higher men, the petty virtues, the
petty policy, the sand-grain considerateness, the
ant-hill trumpery, the pitiable comfortableness, the
"happiness of the greatest number "—!
And rather despair than submit yourselves.
And verily, 1 love you, because ye know not
to-day how to live, ye higher men! For thus do
ye live—best!


## p. 353 (#539) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 353
4-
Have ye courage, O my brethren? Are ye stout-
hearted? Not the courage before witnesses, but
anchorite and eagle courage, which not even a God
any longer beholdeth?
Cold souls, mules, the blind and the drunken, I
do not call stout-hearted. He hath heart who
knoweth fear, but vanquisheth it; who seeth the
abyss, but with pride.
He who seeth the abyss, but with eagle's eyes,—
he who with eagle's talons graspeth the abyss: he
hath courage.
5-
"Man is evil"—so said to me for consolation, all
the wisest ones. Ah, if only it be still true to-day!
For the evil is man's best force.
"Man must become better and eviler "—so do /
teach. The evilest is necessary for the Superman's
best.
It may have been well for the preacher of the
petty people to suffer and be burdened by men's
sin. I, however, rejoice in great sin as my great
consolation. —
Such things, however, are not said for long ears.
Every word, also, is not suited for every mouth.
These are fine, far-away things: at them sheep's
claws shall not grasp!
G.
Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put
right what ye have put wrong?
Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger
Z


## p. 353 (#540) ############################################

352
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originateth fro
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master of all hui
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is man to main
pleasantly? " Th
to-day.
These masters o
brethren—these pet
man's greatest dangi
Surpass, ye highe;
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ant-hill trumpery, the
"happiness of the great'
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## p. 353 (#541) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 355
ccially when they will great things! For
>ivaken distrust in great things, these subtle
coiners and stage-players :—
ntil at last they are false towards themselves,
-eyed, whited cankers, glossed over with
words, parade virtues and brilliant false
, good care there, ye higher men! For
is more precious to me, and rarer, than
is to-day not that of the populace? The
2 however knoweth not what is great or
mall, what is straight or what is honest:
cently crooked, it ever lieth.
9.
good distrust to-day, ye higher men, ye
d ones! Ye open-hearted ones! And
reasons secret! For this to-day is that
lace.
e populace once learned to believe
ons, who could—refute it to them
easons?
e market-place one convinceth with
reasons make the populace dis-
uth hath once triumphed there, then
vith good distrust: "What strong
t for it? "
;uard also against the learned!
because they are unproductive!
ithered eyes before which every


## p. 354 (#542) ############################################

354 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
couches for you sufferers? Or show you restless,
miswandering, misclimbing ones, new and easier
footpaths?
Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! Always more,
always better ones of your type shall succumb,—
for ye shall always have it worse and harder. Thus
only—
—Thus only groweth man aloft to the height
where the lightning striketh and shattereth him:
high enough for the lightning!
Towards the few, the long, the remote go forth
my soul and my seeking: of what account to me
are your many little, short miseries!
Ye do not yet suffer enough for me! For ye
suffer from yourselves, ye have not yet suffered
from man. Ye would lie if ye spake otherwise!
None of you suffereth from what / have
suffered.
7-
It is not enough for me that the lightning no
longer doeth harm. I do not wish to conduct it
away: it shall learn—to work for me. —
My wisdom hath accumulated long like a cloud,
it becometh stiller and darker. So doeth all wisdom
which shall one day bear lightnings. —
Unto these men of to-day will I not be light, nor
be called light. Them—will I blind: lightning of
my wisdom! put out their eyes!
8.
Do not will anything beyond your power: there
is a bad falseness in those who will beyond their
power.


## p. 355 (#543) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 355
Especially when they will great things! For
they awaken distrust in great things, these subtle
false-coiners and stage-players :—
—Until at last they are false towards themselves,
squint-eyed, whited cankers, glossed over with
strong words, parade virtues and brilliant false
deeds.
Take good care there, ye higher men! For
nothing is more precious to me, and rarer, than
honesty.
Is this to-day not that of the populace? The
populace however knoweth not what is great or
what is small, what is straight or what is honest:
it is innocently crooked, it ever lieth.
9.
Have a good distrust to-day, ye higher men, ye
enheartened ones! Ye open-hearted ones! And
keep your reasons secret! For this to-day is that
of the populace.
What the populace once learned to believe
without reasons, who could—refute it to them
by means of reasons?
And on the market-place one convinceth with
gestures. But reasons make the populace dis-
trustful.
And when truth hath once triumphed there, then
ask yourselves with good distrust: "What strong
error hath fought for it? "
Be on your guard also against the learned!
They hate you, because they are unproductive!
They have cold, withered eyes before which every
bird is unplumed.


## p. 356 (#544) ############################################

356 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
Such persons vaunt about not lying: but in-
ability to lie is still far from being love to truth-
Be on your guard!
Freedom from fever is still far from being know-
ledge! Refrigerated spirits I do not believe in.
He who cannot lie, doth not know what truth is.
10.
If ye would go up high, then use your own legs!
Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat
yourselves on other people's backs and heads!
Thou hast mounted, however, on horseback?
Thou now ridest briskly up to thy goal? Well,
my friend! But thy lame foot is also with thee on
horseback 1
When thou reachest thy goal, when thou
alightest from thy horse: precisely on thy height,
thou higher man,—then wilt thou stumble!
11.
Ye creating ones, ye higher men! One is only
pregnant with one's own child.
Do not let yourselves be imposed upon or put
upon! Who then is your neighbour? Even if
ye act " for your neighbour "—ye still do not create
for him!
Unlearn, I pray you, this " for," ye creating ones:
your very virtue wisheth you to have naught to do
with "for" and "on account of" and "because. "
Against these false little words shall ye stop your
ears.
"For one's neighbour," is the virtue only of the


## p. 357 (#545) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 357
petty people: there it is said "like and like," and
"hand washeth hand" :—they have neither the
right nor the power for your self-seeking!
In your self-seeking, ye creating ones, there is the
foresight and foreseeing of the pregnant! What
no one's eyes hath yet seen, namely, the fruit—this,
sheltereth and saveth and nourisheth your entire
love.
Where your entire love is, namely, with your
child, there is also your entire virtue! Your work,
your will is your " neighbour": let no false values
impose upon you!
12.
Ye creating ones, ye higher men! Whoever
hath to give birth is sick; whoever hath given
birth, however, is unclean.
Ask women: one giveth birth, not because it
giveth pleasure. The pain maketh hens and poets
cackle.
Ye creating ones, in you there is much unclean-
ness. That is because ye have had to be mothers.
A new child: oh, how much new filth hath also
come into the world! Go apart! He who hath
given birth shall wash his soul!
13-
Be not virtuous beyond your powers! And seek
nothing from yourselves opposed to probability!
Walk in the footsteps in which your fathers'
virtue hath already walked! How would ye rise
high, if your fathers' will should not rise with you?
He, however, who would be a firstling, let him


## p. 357 (#546) ############################################

356 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
Such persons vaunt about not lying: but in-
ability to lie is still far from being love to truth.
Be on your guard!
Freedom from fever is still far from being know-
ledge! Refrigerated spirits I do not believe in.
He who cannot lie, doth not know what truth is.
10.
If ye would go up high, then use your own legs!
Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat
yourselves on other people's backs and heads!
Thou hast mounted, however, on horseback?
Thou now ridest briskly up to thy goal? Well,
my friend! But thy lame foot is also with thee on
horseback!
When thou reachest thy goal, when thou
alightest from thy horse: precisely on thy height,
thou higher man,—then wilt thou stumble!
11.
Ye creating ones, ye higher men! One is only
pregnant with one's own child.
Do not let yourselves be imposed upon or put
upon! Who then is your neighbour? Even if
ye act " for your neighbour "—ye still do not create
for him!
Unlearn, I pray you, this " for," ye creating ones:
your very virtue wisheth you to have naught to do
with "for" and "on account of" and "because. "
Against these false little words shall ye stop your
ears.
"For one's neighbour," is the virtue only of the



## p. 357 (#547) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 357
petty people: there it is said "like and like," and
"hand washeth hand" :—they have neither the
right nor the power for your self-seeking!
In your self-seeking, ye creating ones, there is the
foresight and foreseeing of the pregnant! What
no one's eyes hath yet seen, namely, the fruit—this,
sheltereth and saveth and nourisheth your entire
love.
Where your entire love is, namely, with your
child, there is also your entire virtue! Your work,
your will is your "neighbour": let no false values
impose upon you!
12.
Ye creating ones, ye higher men! Whoever
hath to give birth is sick; whoever hath given
birth, however, is unclean.
Ask women: one giveth birth, not because it
giveth pleasure. The pain maketh hens and poets
cackle.
Ye creating ones, in you there is much unclean-
ness. That is because ye have had to be mothers.
A new child: oh, how much new filth hath also
come into the world! Go apart! He who hath
given birth shall wash his soul!
13-
Be not virtuous beyond your powers! And seek
nothing from yourselves opposed to probability!
Walk in the footsteps in which your fathers'
virtue hath already walked! How would ye rise
high, if your fathers' will should not rise with you?
He, however, who would be a firstling, let him


## p. 358 (#548) ############################################

358 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
take care lest he also become a lastling! And
where the vices of your fathers are, there should ye
not set up as saints!
He whose fathers were inclined for women, and
for strong wine and flesh of wildboar swine; what
would it be if he demanded chastity of himself?
A folly would it be! Much, verily, doth it seem
to me for such a one, if he should be the husband
of one or of two or of three women.
And if he founded monasteries, and inscribed
over their portals: "The way to holiness,"—I
should still say: What good is it! it is a new
folly!
He hath founded for himself a penance-house
and refuge-house: much good may it do! But I
do not believe in it.
In solitude there groweth what any one bringeth
into it—also the brute in one's nature. Thus is
solitude inadvisable unto many.
Hath there ever been anything filthier on earth
than the saints of the wilderness? Around them.
was not only the devil loose—but also the swine.
14.
Shy, ashamed, awkward, like the tiger whose
spring hath failed—thus, ye higher men, have I
often seen you slink aside. A cast which ye made
had failed.
But what doth it matter, ye dice-players! Ye
had not learned to play and mock, as one must
play and mock! Do we not ever sit at a great
table of mocking and playing?
And if great things have been a failure with you.


## p. 359 (#549) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 359
have ye yourselves therefore—been a failure?
And if ye yourselves have been a failure, hath man
therefore—been a failure? If man, however, hath
been a failure: well then! never mind!
IS-
The higher its type, always the seldomer doth a
thing succeed. Ye higher men here, have ye not
all—been failures?
Be of good cheer; what doth it matter? How
much is still possible! Learn to laugh at your-
selves, as ye ought to laugh!
What wonder even that ye have failed and only
half-succeeded, ye half-shattered ones! Doth not
—man's future strive and struggle in you?
Man's furthest, profoundest, star-highest issues,
his prodigious powers—do not all these foam
through one another in your vessel?
What wonder that many a vessel shattereth!
Learn to laugh at yourselves, as ye ought to laugh!
Ye higher men, Oh, how much is still possible!
And verily, how much hath already succeeded!
How rich is this earth in small, good, perfect things,
in well-constituted things!
Set around you small, good, perfect things, ye
higher men. Their golden maturity healeth the
heart. The perfect teacheth one to hope.
16.
What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on
earth? Was it not the word of him who said:
"Woe unto them that laugh now! "
\


## p. 360 (#550) ############################################

360 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
Did he himself find no cause for laughter on the
earth? Then he sought badly. A child even
findeth cause for it.
He—did not love sufficiently: otherwise would
he also have loved us, the laughing ones! But he
hated and hooted us; wailing and teeth-gnashing
did he promise us.
Must one then curse immediately, when one doth
not love? That—seemeth to me bad taste. Thus
did he, however, this absolute one. He sprang
from the populace.
And he himself just did not love sufficiently;
otherwise would he have raged less because people
did not love him. All great love doth not seek
love :—it seeketh more.
Go out of the way of all such absolute ones!
They are a poor sickly type, a populace-type: they
look at this life with ill-will, they have an evil eye
for this earth.
Go out of the way of all such absolute ones!
They have heavy feet and sultry hearts :—they do
not know how to dance. How could the earth be
light to such ones!
17.
Tortuously do all good things come nigh to
their goal. Like cats they curve their backs, they
purr inwardly with their approaching happiness,—
all good things laugh.
His step betrayeth whether a person already
walketh on his own path: just see me walk! He,
however, who cometh nigh to his goal, danceth.
And verily, a statue have I not become, not yet


## p. 361 (#551) ############################################

LXXHI—THE HIGHER MAN. 361
do I stand there stiff, stupid and stony, like a
pillar; I love fast racing.
And though there be on earth fens and dense
afflictions, he who hath light feet runneth even
across the mud, and danceth, as upon well-
swept ice.
Lift up your hearts, my brethren, high, higher!
And do not forget your legs! Lift up also your
legs, ye good dancers, and better still, if ye stand
upon your heads!
18.
This crown of the laugher, this rose-garland
crown: I myself have put on this crown, I myself
have consecrated my laughter. No one else have
I found to-day potent enough for this.
Zarathustra the dancer, Zarathustra the light one,
who beckoneth with his pinions, one ready for
flight, beckoning unto all birds, ready and prepared,
a blissfully light-spirited one :—
Zarathustra the soothsayer, Zarathustra the
sooth-laugher, no impatient one, no absolute one,
one who loveth leaps and side-leaps; I myself
have put on this crown!
19.
Lift up your hearts, my brethren, high, higher!
And do not forget your legs! Lift up also your
legs, ye good dancers, and better still if ye stand
upon your heads!
There are also heavy animals in a state of happi-
ness, there are club-footed ones from the beginning.


## p. 362 (#552) ############################################

362
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
Curiously do they exert themselves, like an elephant
which endeavoureth to stand upon its head.
Better, however, to be foolish with happiness than
foolish with misfortune, better to dance awkwardly
than walk lamely. So learn, I pray you, my
wisdom, ye higher men : even the worst thing hath
two good reverse sides,-
-Even the worst thing hath good dancing-legs :
so learn, I pray you, ye higher men, to put your-
selves on your proper legs !
So unlearn, I pray you, the sorrow-sighing, and
all the populace-sadness! Oh, how sad the buffoons
of the populace seem to me to-day! This to-day,
however, is that of the populace.
20.
Do like unto the wind when it rusheth forth from
its mountain-caves : unto its own piping will it
dance; the seas tremble and leap under its footsteps.
That which giveth wings to asses, that which
milketh the lionesses :-praised be that good, unruly
spirit, which cometh like a hurricane unto all the
present and unto all the populace,
-Which is hostile to thistle-heads and puzzle-
heads, and to all withered leaves and weeds :-
praised be this wild, good, free spirit of the storm,
which danceth upon fens and afflictions, as upon
meadows !
Which hateth the consumptive populace-dogs,
and all the ill-constituted, sullen brood :-praised
be this spirit of all free spirits, the laughing storm,
which bloweth dust into the eyes of all the melan-
opic and melancholic!


## p. 363 (#553) ############################################

LXXIII. —THE HIGHER MAN. 363
Ye higher men, the worst thing in you is that
ye have none of you learned to dance as ye ought
to dance—to dance beyond yourselves! What doth
it matter that ye have failed!
How many things are still possible! So learn to
laugh beyond yourselves! Lift up your hearts, ye
good dancers, high! higher! And do not forget the
good laughter!
This crown of the laugher, this rose-garland
crown: to you my brethren do I cast this crown!
Laughing have I consecrated; ye higher men, learn,
I pray you—to laugh!
LXXIV. —THE SONG OF MELANCHOLY.
When Zarathustra spake these sayings, he stood
nigh to the entrance of his cave; with the last
words, however, he slipped away from his guests,
and fled for a little while into the open air.
"O pure odours around me," cried he, "O
blessed stillness around me! But where are mine
animals? Hither, hither, mine eagle and my
serpent!
Tell me, mine animals: these higher men, all of
them—do they perhaps not smell well? O pure
odours around me! Now only do I know and feel
how I love you, mine animals. "
—And Zarathustra said once more: "I love you,
mine animals! " The eagle, however, and the
serpent pressed close to him when he spake these
words, and looked up to him. In this attitude were
they all three silent together, and sniffed and sipped


## p. 364 (#554) ############################################

364
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
the good air with one another. For the air here
outside was better than with the higher men.
2.
Hardly, however, had Zarathustra left the cave
when the old magician got up, looked cunningly
about him, and said: “He is gone!
And already, ye higher men—let me tickle you
with this complimentary and flattering name, as he
himself doeth—already doth mine evil spirit of
deceit and magic attack me, my melancholy devil,
-Which is an adversary to this Zarathustra from
the very heart : forgive it for this ! Now doth it
wish to conjure before you, it hath just its hour;
in vain do I struggle with this evil spirit.
Unto all of you, whatever honours ye like to
assume in your names, whether ye call yourselves
'the free spirits' or 'the conscientious,' or “the
penitents of the spirit,' or 'the unfettered,' or 'the
great longers,'—
-Unto all of you, who like me suffer from the
great loathing, to whom the old God hath died, and
as yet no new God lieth in cradles and swaddling
clothes—unto all of you is mine evil spirit and
magic-devil favourable.
I know you, ye higher men, I know him,-1
know also this fiend whom I love in spite of me,
this Zarathustra: he himself often seemeth to me
like the beautiful mask of a saint,
-Like a new strange mummery in which mine
evil spirit, the melancholy devil, delighteth :- I love
Zarathustra, so doth it often seem to me, for the
sake of mine evil spirit. -


## p. 365 (#555) ############################################

LXXIV. —THE SONG OF MELANCHOLY. 365
But already doth it attack me and constrain me,
this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight devil:
and verily, ye higher men, it hath a longing-
-Open your eyes ! —it hath a longing to come
naked, whether male or female, I do not yet know :
but it cometh, it constraineth me, alas! open your
wits!
The day dieth out, unto all things cometh now
the evening, also unto the best things; hear now,
and see, ye higher men, what devil--man or woman
—this spirit of evening-melancholy is ! ”
Thus spake the old magician, looked cunningly
about him, and then seized his harp.
3.
In evening's limpid air,
What time the dew's soothings
Unto the earth downpour,
Invisibly and unheard-
For tender shoe-gear wear
The soothing dews, like all that's kind-
gentle-
Bethinkst thou then, bethinkst thou, burning
heart,
How once thou thirstedest
For heaven's kindly teardrops and dew's down-
droppings,
All singed and weary thirstedest,
What time on yellow grass-pathways
Wicked, occidental sunny glances
Through sombre trees about thee sported,
Blindingly sunny glow-glançes, gladly-hurting ?


## p. 365 (#556) ############################################

364 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
the good air with one another. For the air here
outside was better than with the higher men.
Hardly, however, had Zarathustra left the cave
when the old magician got up, looked cunningly
about him, and said: "He is gone!
And already, ye higher men—let me tickle you
with this complimentary and flattering name, as he
himself doeth—already doth mine evil spirit of
deceit and magic attack me, my melancholy devil,
—Which is an adversary to this Zarathustra from
the very heart: forgive it for this! Now doth it
wish to conjure before you, it hath just its hour:
in vain do I struggle with this evil spirit.
Unto all of you, whatever honours ye like to
assume in your names, whether ye call yourselves
'the free spirits' or 'the conscientious,' or 'the
penitents of the spirit,' or 'the unfettered,' or 'the
great longers,'—
—Unto all of you, who like me suffer from the
great loathing, to whom the old God hath died, and
as yet no new God lieth in cradles and swaddling
clothes—unto all of you is mine evil spirit and
magic-devil favourable.
I know you, ye higher men, I know him,—I
know also this fiend whom I love in spite of me,
this Zarathustra: he himself often seemeth to me
like the beautiful mask of a saint,
:—Like a new strange mummery in which mine
evil spirit, the melancholy devil, delighteth :—I love
Zarathustra, so doth it often seem to me, for the
sake of mine evil spirit. —
v


## p. 365 (#557) ############################################

LXXIV. —THE SONG OF MELANCHOLY. 365
But already doth it attack me and constrain me,
this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight devil:
and verily, ye higher men, it hath a longing—
—Open your eyes! —it hath a longing to come
naked, whether male or female, I do not yet know:
but it cometh, it constraineth me, alas! open your
wits!
The day dieth out, unto all things cometh now
the evening, also unto the best things; hear now,
and see, ye higher men, what devil—man or woman
—this spirit of evening-melancholy is! "
Thus spake the old magician, looked cunningly
about him, and then seized his harp.
In evening's limpid air,
What time the dew's soothings
Unto the earth downpour,
Invisibly and unheard—
For tender shoe-gear wear
The soothing dews, like all that's kind-
gentle—:
Bethinkst thou then, bethinkst thou, burning
heart,
How once thou thirstedest
For heaven's kindly teardrops and dew's down-
droppings,
All singed and weary thirstedest,
What time on yellow grass-pathways
Wicked, occidental sunny glances
Through sombre trees about thee sported,
Blindinglysunny glow-glances, gladly-hurting?


## p. 366 (#558) ############################################

366 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
"Of truth the wooer? Thou ? "—so taunted
they—
"Nay! Merely poet!
A brute insidious, plundering, grovelling,
That aye must lie,
That wittingly, wilfully, aye must lie:
For booty lusting,
Motley masked,
Self-hidden, shrouded,
Himself his booty—
He—of truth the wooer?
Nay! Mere fool! Mere poet!
Just motley speaking,
From mask of fool confusedly shouting,
Circumambling on fabricated word-bridges,
On motley rainbow-arches,
'Twixt the spurious heavenly
And spurious earthly,
Round us roving, round us soaring,—
Mere fool! Mere poet!
He—of truth the wooer?
Not still, stiff, smooth and cold,
Become an image,
A godlike statue,
Set up in front of temples,
As a God's own door-guard:
Nay! hostile to all such truthfulness-statues,
In every desert homelier than at temples,
With cattish wantonness,
Through every window leaping
Quickly into chances,
Every wild forest a-sniffing,
v


## p. 367 (#559) ############################################

LXXIV. —THE SONG OF MELANCHOLY. 367
Greedily-longingly, sniffing,
That thou, in wild forests,
'Mong the motley-speckled fierce creatures,
Shouldest rove, sinful-sound and fine-coloured,
With longing lips smacking,
Blessedly mocking, blessedly hellish, blessedly
bloodthirsty,
Robbing, skulking, lying-roving :-
Or unto eagles like which fixedly,
Long adown the precipice look,
Adown their precipice :--
Oh, how they whirl down now,
Thereunder, therein,
To ever deeper profoundness whirling !
Then,
Sudden,
With aim aright,
With quivering flight,
On lambkins pouncing,
Headlong down, sore-hungry,
For lambkins longing,
Fierce 'gainst all lamb-spirits,
Furious-fierce 'gainst all that look
Sheeplike, or lambeyed, or crisp-woolly,
-Grey, with lambsheep kindliness!
Even thus,
Eaglelike, pantherlike,
Are the poet's desires,
Are thine own desires 'neath a thousand guises,
Thou fool! Thou poet !


## p. 368 (#560) ############################################

368
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
Thou who all mankind viewedst-
So God, as sheep-:
The God to rend within mankind,
As the sheep in mankind,
And in rending laughing-
That, that is thine own blessedness!
Of a panther and eagle-blessedness!
Of a poet and fool—the blessedness! ”--
In evening's limpid air,
What time the moon's sickle,
Green, 'twixt the purple-glowings,
And jealous, stealth forth :
-Of day the foe,
With every step in secret,
The rosy garland-hammocks
Downsickling, till they've sunken
Down nightwards, faded, downsunken :-
Thus had I sunken one day
From mine own truth-insanity,
From mine own fervid day-longings,
Of day aweary, sick of sunshine,
-Sunk downwards, evenwards, shadowwards :
By one sole trueness
All scorched and thirsty :
-Bethinkst thou still, bethinkst thou, burning
heart,
How then thou thirstedest ?
That I should banned be
From all the trueness !
Mere fool! Mere poet!


## p. 369 (#561) ############################################

LXXV. -SCIENCE.
369
LXXV. -SCIENCE.
Thus sang the magician; and all who were
present went like birds unawares into the net of his
artful and melancholy voluptuousness. Only the
spiritually conscientious one had not been caught :
he at once snatched the harp from the magician
and called out: “Air! Let in good air! Let in
Zarathustra! Thou makest this cave sultry and
poisonous, thou bad old magician!
Thou seducest, thou false one, thou subtle one,
to unknown desires and deserts. And alas, that
such as thou should talk and make ado about the
truth!
Alas, to all free spirits who are not on their
guard against such magicians! It is all over with
their freedom : thou teachest and temptest back
into prisons,-
-Thou old melancholy devil, out of thy lament
soundeth a lurement: thou resemblest those who
with their praise of chastity secretly invite to
voluptuousness ! ”
Thus spake the conscientious one; the old
magician, however, looked about him, enjoying his
triumph, and on that account put up with the
annoyance which the conscientious one caused him.
“Be still! ” said he with modest voice, “good songs
want to re-echo well; after good songs one should
be long silent.
Thus do all those present, the higher men.
Thou, however, hast perhaps understood but little
2 A


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370
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV.
of my song?