No More Learning

now is it all over with our cries of distress. Now are our minds
and hearts open and enraptured. Little is lacking for our spirits to
become wanton.

There is nothing, O Zarathustra, that groweth more pleasingly on earth
than a lofty, strong will: it is the finest growth. An entire landscape
refresheth itself at one such tree.

To the pine do I compare him, O Zarathustra, which groweth up like
thee--tall, silent, hardy, solitary, of the best, supplest wood,
stately,--

--In the end, however, grasping out for ITS dominion with strong, green
branches, asking weighty questions of the wind, the storm, and whatever
is at home on high places;

--Answering more weightily, a commander, a victor! Oh! who should not
ascend high mountains to behold such growths?

At thy tree, O Zarathustra, the gloomy and ill-constituted also refresh
themselves; at thy look even the wavering become steady and heal their
hearts.

And verily, towards thy mountain and thy tree do many eyes turn to-day;
a great longing hath arisen, and many have learned to ask: 'Who is
Zarathustra? '

And those into whose ears thou hast at any time dripped thy song and thy
honey: all the hidden ones, the lone-dwellers and the twain-dwellers,
have simultaneously said to their hearts:

'Doth Zarathustra still live? It is no longer worth while to live,
everything is indifferent, everything is useless: or else--we must live
with Zarathustra! '

'Why doth he not come who hath so long announced himself? ' thus do many
people ask; 'hath solitude swallowed him up? Or should we perhaps go to
him? '

Now doth it come to pass that solitude itself becometh fragile and
breaketh open, like a grave that breaketh open and can no longer hold
its dead. Everywhere one seeth resurrected ones.

Now do the waves rise and rise around thy mountain, O Zarathustra. And
however high be thy height, many of them must rise up to thee: thy boat
shall not rest much longer on dry ground.

And that we despairing ones have now come into thy cave, and already no
longer despair:--it is but a prognostic and a presage that better ones
are on the way to thee,--

--For they themselves are on the way to thee, the last remnant of
God among men--that is to say, all the men of great longing, of great
loathing, of great satiety,

--All who do not want to live unless they learn again to HOPE--unless
they learn from thee, O Zarathustra, the GREAT hope! "

Thus spake the king on the right, and seized the hand of Zarathustra in
order to kiss it; but Zarathustra checked his veneration, and stepped
back frightened, fleeing as it were, silently and suddenly into the far
distance. After a little while, however, he was again at home with his
guests, looked at them with clear scrutinising eyes, and said:

"My guests, ye higher men, I will speak plain language and plainly with
you. It is not for YOU that I have waited here in these mountains. "

("'Plain language and plainly? ' Good God! " said here the king on the
left to himself; "one seeth he doth not know the good Occidentals, this
sage out of the Orient!

But he meaneth 'blunt language and bluntly'--well! That is not the worst
taste in these days! ")

"Ye may, verily, all of you be higher men," continued Zarathustra; "but
for me--ye are neither high enough, nor strong enough.

For me, that is to say, for the inexorable which is now silent in me,
but will not always be silent. And if ye appertain to me, still it is
not as my right arm.

For he who himself standeth, like you, on sickly and tender legs,
wisheth above all to be TREATED INDULGENTLY, whether he be conscious of
it or hide it from himself.

My arms and my legs, however, I do not treat indulgently, I DO NOT TREAT
MY WARRIORS INDULGENTLY: how then could ye be fit for MY warfare?

With you I should spoil all my victories. And many of you would tumble
over if ye but heard the loud beating of my drums.

Moreover, ye are not sufficiently beautiful and well-born for me. I
require pure, smooth mirrors for my doctrines; on your surface even mine
own likeness is distorted.

On your shoulders presseth many a burden, many a recollection; many a
mischievous dwarf squatteth in your corners. There is concealed populace
also in you.

And though ye be high and of a higher type, much in you is crooked and
misshapen. There is no smith in the world that could hammer you right
and straight for me.

Ye are only bridges: may higher ones pass over upon you! Ye signify
steps: so do not upbraid him who ascendeth beyond you into HIS height!

Out of your seed there may one day arise for me a genuine son and
perfect heir: but that time is distant. Ye yourselves are not those unto
whom my heritage and name belong.

Not for you do I wait here in these mountains; not with you may I
descend for the last time. Ye have come unto me only as a presage that
higher ones are on the way to me,--

--NOT the men of great longing, of great loathing, of great satiety, and
that which ye call the remnant of God;

--Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! For OTHERS do I wait here in these
mountains, and will not lift my foot from thence without them;

--For higher ones, stronger ones, triumphanter ones, merrier ones, for
such as are built squarely in body and soul: LAUGHING LIONS must come!

O my guests, ye strange ones--have ye yet heard nothing of my children?
And that they are on the way to me?

Do speak unto me of my gardens, of my Happy Isles, of my new beautiful
race--why do ye not speak unto me thereof?

This guests'-present do I solicit of your love, that ye speak unto me of
my children. For them am I rich, for them I became poor: what have I not
surrendered,

--What would I not surrender that I might have one thing: THESE
children, THIS living plantation, THESE life-trees of my will and of my
highest hope! "

Thus spake Zarathustra, and stopped suddenly in his discourse: for his
longing came over him, and he closed his eyes and his mouth, because
of the agitation of his heart. And all his guests also were silent, and
stood still and confounded: except only that the old soothsayer made
signs with his hands and his gestures.




LXXII. THE SUPPER.

For at this point the soothsayer interrupted the greeting of Zarathustra
and his guests: he pressed forward as one who had no time to lose,
seized Zarathustra's hand and exclaimed: "But Zarathustra!

One thing is more necessary than the other, so sayest thou thyself:
well, one thing is now more necessary UNTO ME than all others.

A word at the right time: didst thou not invite me to TABLE? And here
are many who have made long journeys. Thou dost not mean to feed us
merely with discourses?

Besides, all of you have thought too much about freezing, drowning,
suffocating, and other bodily dangers: none of you, however, have
thought of MY danger, namely, perishing of hunger-"

(Thus spake the soothsayer. When Zarathustra's animals, however, heard
these words, they ran away in terror. For they saw that all they
had brought home during the day would not be enough to fill the one
soothsayer. )

"Likewise perishing of thirst," continued the soothsayer. "And although
I hear water splashing here like words of wisdom--that is to say,
plenteously and unweariedly, I--want WINE!

Not every one is a born water-drinker like Zarathustra. Neither doth
water suit weary and withered ones: WE deserve wine--IT alone giveth
immediate vigour and improvised health! "

On this occasion, when the soothsayer was longing for wine, it happened
that the king on the left, the silent one, also found expression for
once. "WE took care," said he, "about wine, I, along with my brother the
king on the right: we have enough of wine,--a whole ass-load of it. So
there is nothing lacking but bread. "

"Bread," replied Zarathustra, laughing when he spake, "it is precisely
bread that anchorites have not. But man doth not live by bread alone,
but also by the flesh of good lambs, of which I have two:

--THESE shall we slaughter quickly, and cook spicily with sage: it is
so that I like them. And there is also no lack of roots and fruits,
good enough even for the fastidious and dainty,--nor of nuts and other
riddles for cracking.

Thus will we have a good repast in a little while. But whoever wish to
eat with us must also give a hand to the work, even the kings. For with
Zarathustra even a king may be a cook. "

This proposal appealed to the hearts of all of them, save that the
voluntary beggar objected to the flesh and wine and spices.

"Just hear this glutton Zarathustra! " said he jokingly: "doth one go
into caves and high mountains to make such repasts?

Now indeed do I understand what he once taught us: Blessed be moderate
poverty! ' And why he wisheth to do away with beggars. "

"Be of good cheer," replied Zarathustra, "as I am. Abide by thy
customs, thou excellent one: grind thy corn, drink thy water, praise thy
cooking,--if only it make thee glad!

I am a law only for mine own; I am not a law for all. He, however, who
belongeth unto me must be strong of bone and light of foot,--

--Joyous in fight and feast, no sulker, no John o' Dreams, ready for the
hardest task as for the feast, healthy and hale.

The best belongeth unto mine and me; and if it be not given us, then do
we take it:--the best food, the purest sky, the strongest thoughts, the
fairest women! "--

Thus spake Zarathustra; the king on the right however answered and said:
"Strange! Did one ever hear such sensible things out of the mouth of a
wise man?

And verily, it is the strangest thing in a wise man, if over and above,
he be still sensible, and not an ass. "

Thus spake the king on the right and wondered; the ass however, with
ill-will, said YE-A to his remark. This however was the beginning of
that long repast which is called "The Supper" in the history-books. At
this there was nothing else spoken of but THE HIGHER MAN.




LXXIII. THE HIGHER MAN.

1.

When I came unto men for the first time, then did I commit the anchorite
folly, the great folly: I appeared on the market-place.

And when I spake unto all, I spake unto none. In the evening, however,
rope-dancers were my companions, and corpses; and I myself almost a
corpse.

With the new morning, however, there came unto me a new truth: then did
I learn to say: "Of what account to me are market-place and populace and
populace-noise and long populace-ears! "

Ye higher men, learn THIS from me: On the market-place no one believeth
in higher men. But if ye will speak there, very well! The populace,
however, blinketh: "We are all equal. "

"Ye higher men,"--so blinketh the populace--"there are no higher men, we
are all equal; man is man, before God--we are all equal! "

Before God! --Now, however, this God hath died. Before the populace,
however, we will not be equal. Ye higher men, away from the
market-place!

2.

Before God! --Now however this God hath died! Ye higher men, this God was
your greatest danger.

Only since he lay in the grave have ye again arisen. Now only cometh the
great noontide, now only doth the higher man become--master!

Have ye understood this word, O my brethren? Ye are frightened: do your
hearts turn giddy? Doth the abyss here yawn for you? Doth the hell-hound
here yelp at you?

Well! Take heart! ye higher men! Now only travaileth the mountain of the
human future. God hath died: now do WE desire--the Superman to live.

3.

The most careful ask to-day: "How is man to be maintained? " Zarathustra
however asketh, as the first and only one: "How is man to be SURPASSED? "

The Superman, I have at heart; THAT is the first and only thing to
me--and NOT man: not the neighbour, not the poorest, not the sorriest,
not the best. --

O my brethren, what I can love in man is that he is an over-going and a
down-going. And also in you there is much that maketh me love and hope.

In that ye have despised, ye higher men, that maketh me hope. For the
great despisers are the great reverers.

In that ye have despaired, there is much to honour. For ye have not
learned to submit yourselves, ye have not learned petty policy.

For to-day have the petty people become master: they all preach
submission and humility and policy and diligence and consideration and
the long et cetera of petty virtues.

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 Superman'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, I love you,
because ye know not to-day how to live, ye higher men! For thus do YE
live--best!

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 _I_ 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!

6.

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 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 _I_ 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.

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 and what is small, what is straight and 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 distrustful.

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.

Such persons vaunt about not lying: but inability to lie is still far
from being love to truth. Be on your guard!

Freedom from fever is still far from being knowledge! 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 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 eye 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 uncleanliness. 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 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, 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!

15.

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 yourselves, 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, O, 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! "

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 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 laughter, 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 happiness, there are
club-footed ones from the beginning. 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 yourselves 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 melanopic and
melancholic!

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 laughter, 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.

1.

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 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,--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. --

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-glances, gladly-hurting?

"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,
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 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!
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, steal'th 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!




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!