Could ye
CONCEIVE
a God?
Thus Spake Zarathustra- A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Would that there came preachers of SPEEDY death! Those would be the
appropriate storms and agitators of the trees of life! But I hear only
slow death preached, and patience with all that is "earthly. "
Ah! ye preach patience with what is earthly? This earthly is it that
hath too much patience with you, ye blasphemers!
Verily, too early died that Hebrew whom the preachers of slow death
honour: and to many hath it proved a calamity that he died too early.
As yet had he known only tears, and the melancholy of the Hebrews,
together with the hatred of the good and just--the Hebrew Jesus: then
was he seized with the longing for death.
Had he but remained in the wilderness, and far from the good and just!
Then, perhaps, would he have learned to live, and love the earth--and
laughter also!
Believe it, my brethren! He died too early; he himself would have
disavowed his doctrine had he attained to my age! Noble enough was he to
disavow!
But he was still immature. Immaturely loveth the youth, and immaturely
also hateth he man and earth. Confined and awkward are still his soul
and the wings of his spirit.
But in man there is more of the child than in the youth, and less of
melancholy: better understandeth he about life and death.
Free for death, and free in death; a holy Naysayer, when there is no
longer time for Yea: thus understandeth he about death and life.
That your dying may not be a reproach to man and the earth, my friends:
that do I solicit from the honey of your soul.
In your dying shall your spirit and your virtue still shine like an
evening after-glow around the earth: otherwise your dying hath been
unsatisfactory.
Thus will I die myself, that ye friends may love the earth more for my
sake; and earth will I again become, to have rest in her that bore me.
Verily, a goal had Zarathustra; he threw his ball. Now be ye friends the
heirs of my goal; to you throw I the golden ball.
Best of all, do I see you, my friends, throw the golden ball! And so
tarry I still a little while on the earth--pardon me for it!
Thus spake Zarathustra.
XXII. THE BESTOWING VIRTUE.
1.
When Zarathustra had taken leave of the town to which his heart was
attached, the name of which is "The Pied Cow," there followed him many
people who called themselves his disciples, and kept him company. Thus
came they to a crossroad. Then Zarathustra told them that he now wanted
to go alone; for he was fond of going alone. His disciples, however,
presented him at his departure with a staff, on the golden handle of
which a serpent twined round the sun. Zarathustra rejoiced on account
of the staff, and supported himself thereon; then spake he thus to his
disciples:
Tell me, pray: how came gold to the highest value? Because it is
uncommon, and unprofiting, and beaming, and soft in lustre; it always
bestoweth itself.
Only as image of the highest virtue came gold to the highest value.
Goldlike, beameth the glance of the bestower. Gold-lustre maketh peace
between moon and sun.
Uncommon is the highest virtue, and unprofiting, beaming is it, and soft
of lustre: a bestowing virtue is the highest virtue.
Verily, I divine you well, my disciples: ye strive like me for the
bestowing virtue. What should ye have in common with cats and wolves?
It is your thirst to become sacrifices and gifts yourselves: and
therefore have ye the thirst to accumulate all riches in your soul.
Insatiably striveth your soul for treasures and jewels, because your
virtue is insatiable in desiring to bestow.
Ye constrain all things to flow towards you and into you, so that they
shall flow back again out of your fountain as the gifts of your love.
Verily, an appropriator of all values must such bestowing love become;
but healthy and holy, call I this selfishness. --
Another selfishness is there, an all-too-poor and hungry kind, which
would always steal--the selfishness of the sick, the sickly selfishness.
With the eye of the thief it looketh upon all that is lustrous; with the
craving of hunger it measureth him who hath abundance; and ever doth it
prowl round the tables of bestowers.
Sickness speaketh in such craving, and invisible degeneration; of a
sickly body, speaketh the larcenous craving of this selfishness.
Tell me, my brother, what do we think bad, and worst of all? Is it not
DEGENERATION? --And we always suspect degeneration when the bestowing
soul is lacking.
Upward goeth our course from genera on to super-genera. But a horror to
us is the degenerating sense, which saith: "All for myself. "
Upward soareth our sense: thus is it a simile of our body, a simile of
an elevation. Such similes of elevations are the names of the virtues.
Thus goeth the body through history, a becomer and fighter. And the
spirit--what is it to the body? Its fights' and victories' herald, its
companion and echo.
Similes, are all names of good and evil; they do not speak out, they
only hint. A fool who seeketh knowledge from them!
Give heed, my brethren, to every hour when your spirit would speak in
similes: there is the origin of your virtue.
Elevated is then your body, and raised up; with its delight, enraptureth
it the spirit; so that it becometh creator, and valuer, and lover, and
everything's benefactor.
When your heart overfloweth broad and full like the river, a blessing
and a danger to the lowlanders: there is the origin of your virtue.
When ye are exalted above praise and blame, and your will would command
all things, as a loving one's will: there is the origin of your virtue.
When ye despise pleasant things, and the effeminate couch, and cannot
couch far enough from the effeminate: there is the origin of your
virtue.
When ye are willers of one will, and when that change of every need is
needful to you: there is the origin of your virtue.
Verily, a new good and evil is it! Verily, a new deep murmuring, and the
voice of a new fountain!
Power is it, this new virtue; a ruling thought is it, and around it a
subtle soul: a golden sun, with the serpent of knowledge around it.
2.
Here paused Zarathustra awhile, and looked lovingly on his disciples.
Then he continued to speak thus--and his voice had changed:
Remain true to the earth, my brethren, with the power of your virtue!
Let your bestowing love and your knowledge be devoted to be the meaning
of the earth! Thus do I pray and conjure you.
Let it not fly away from the earthly and beat against eternal walls with
its wings! Ah, there hath always been so much flown-away virtue!
Lead, like me, the flown-away virtue back to the earth--yea, back
to body and life: that it may give to the earth its meaning, a human
meaning!
A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as well as virtue flown away
and blundered. Alas! in our body dwelleth still all this delusion and
blundering: body and will hath it there become.
A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as well as virtue attempted and
erred. Yea, an attempt hath man been. Alas, much ignorance and error
hath become embodied in us!
Not only the rationality of millenniums--also their madness, breaketh
out in us. Dangerous is it to be an heir.
Still fight we step by step with the giant Chance, and over all mankind
hath hitherto ruled nonsense, the lack-of-sense.
Let your spirit and your virtue be devoted to the sense of the earth,
my brethren: let the value of everything be determined anew by you!
Therefore shall ye be fighters! Therefore shall ye be creators!
Intelligently doth the body purify itself; attempting with intelligence
it exalteth itself; to the discerners all impulses sanctify themselves;
to the exalted the soul becometh joyful.
Physician, heal thyself: then wilt thou also heal thy patient. Let it be
his best cure to see with his eyes him who maketh himself whole.
A thousand paths are there which have never yet been trodden; a thousand
salubrities and hidden islands of life. Unexhausted and undiscovered is
still man and man's world.
Awake and hearken, ye lonesome ones! From the future come winds with
stealthy pinions, and to fine ears good tidings are proclaimed.
Ye lonesome ones of to-day, ye seceding ones, ye shall one day be a
people: out of you who have chosen yourselves, shall a chosen people
arise:--and out of it the Superman.
Verily, a place of healing shall the earth become! And already is a new
odour diffused around it, a salvation-bringing odour--and a new hope!
3.
When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he paused, like one who had not
said his last word; and long did he balance the staff doubtfully in his
hand. At last he spake thus--and his voice had changed:
I now go alone, my disciples! Ye also now go away, and alone! So will I
have it.
Verily, I advise you: depart from me, and guard yourselves against
Zarathustra! And better still: be ashamed of him! Perhaps he hath
deceived you.
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also
to hate his friends.
One requiteth a teacher badly if one remain merely a scholar. And why
will ye not pluck at my wreath?
Ye venerate me; but what if your veneration should some day collapse?
Take heed lest a statue crush you!
Ye say, ye believe in Zarathustra? But of what account is Zarathustra!
Ye are my believers: but of what account are all believers!
Ye had not yet sought yourselves: then did ye find me. So do all
believers; therefore all belief is of so little account.
Now do I bid you lose me and find yourselves; and only when ye have all
denied me, will I return unto you.
Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones;
with another love shall I then love you.
And once again shall ye have become friends unto me, and children of one
hope: then will I be with you for the third time, to celebrate the great
noontide with you.
And it is the great noontide, when man is in the middle of his course
between animal and Superman, and celebrateth his advance to the evening
as his highest hope: for it is the advance to a new morning.
At such time will the down-goer bless himself, that he should be an
over-goer; and the sun of his knowledge will be at noontide.
"DEAD ARE ALL THE GODS: NOW DO WE DESIRE THE SUPERMAN TO LIVE. "--Let
this be our final will at the great noontide! --
Thus spake Zarathustra.
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA. SECOND PART.
"--and only when ye have all denied me, will I return unto you.
Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones;
with another love shall I then love you. "--ZARATHUSTRA, I. , "The
Bestowing Virtue. "
XXIII. THE CHILD WITH THE MIRROR.
After this Zarathustra returned again into the mountains to the solitude
of his cave, and withdrew himself from men, waiting like a sower who
hath scattered his seed. His soul, however, became impatient and full of
longing for those whom he loved: because he had still much to give them.
For this is hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep
modest as a giver.
Thus passed with the lonesome one months and years; his wisdom meanwhile
increased, and caused him pain by its abundance.
One morning, however, he awoke ere the rosy dawn, and having meditated
long on his couch, at last spake thus to his heart:
Why did I startle in my dream, so that I awoke? Did not a child come to
me, carrying a mirror?
"O Zarathustra"--said the child unto me--"look at thyself in the
mirror! "
But when I looked into the mirror, I shrieked, and my heart throbbed:
for not myself did I see therein, but a devil's grimace and derision.
Verily, all too well do I understand the dream's portent and monition:
my DOCTRINE is in danger; tares want to be called wheat!
Mine enemies have grown powerful and have disfigured the likeness of
my doctrine, so that my dearest ones have to blush for the gifts that I
gave them.
Lost are my friends; the hour hath come for me to seek my lost ones! --
With these words Zarathustra started up, not however like a person in
anguish seeking relief, but rather like a seer and a singer whom the
spirit inspireth. With amazement did his eagle and serpent gaze upon
him: for a coming bliss overspread his countenance like the rosy dawn.
What hath happened unto me, mine animals? --said Zarathustra. Am I not
transformed? Hath not bliss come unto me like a whirlwind?
Foolish is my happiness, and foolish things will it speak: it is still
too young--so have patience with it!
Wounded am I by my happiness: all sufferers shall be physicians unto me!
To my friends can I again go down, and also to mine enemies! Zarathustra
can again speak and bestow, and show his best love to his loved ones!
My impatient love overfloweth in streams,--down towards sunrise and
sunset. Out of silent mountains and storms of affliction, rusheth my
soul into the valleys.
Too long have I longed and looked into the distance. Too long hath
solitude possessed me: thus have I unlearned to keep silence.
Utterance have I become altogether, and the brawling of a brook from
high rocks: downward into the valleys will I hurl my speech.
And let the stream of my love sweep into unfrequented channels! How
should a stream not finally find its way to the sea!
Forsooth, there is a lake in me, sequestered and self-sufficing; but the
stream of my love beareth this along with it, down--to the sea!
New paths do I tread, a new speech cometh unto me; tired have I become--
like all creators--of the old tongues. No longer will my spirit walk on
worn-out soles.
Too slowly runneth all speaking for me:--into thy chariot, O storm, do I
leap! And even thee will I whip with my spite!
Like a cry and an huzza will I traverse wide seas, till I find the Happy
Isles where my friends sojourn;--
And mine enemies amongst them! How I now love every one unto whom I may
but speak! Even mine enemies pertain to my bliss.
And when I want to mount my wildest horse, then doth my spear always
help me up best: it is my foot's ever ready servant:--
The spear which I hurl at mine enemies! How grateful am I to mine
enemies that I may at last hurl it!
Too great hath been the tension of my cloud: 'twixt laughters of
lightnings will I cast hail-showers into the depths.
Violently will my breast then heave; violently will it blow its storm
over the mountains: thus cometh its assuagement.
Verily, like a storm cometh my happiness, and my freedom! But mine
enemies shall think that THE EVIL ONE roareth over their heads.
Yea, ye also, my friends, will be alarmed by my wild wisdom; and perhaps
ye will flee therefrom, along with mine enemies.
Ah, that I knew how to lure you back with shepherds' flutes! Ah, that
my lioness wisdom would learn to roar softly! And much have we already
learned with one another!
My wild wisdom became pregnant on the lonesome mountains; on the rough
stones did she bear the youngest of her young.
Now runneth she foolishly in the arid wilderness, and seeketh and
seeketh the soft sward--mine old, wild wisdom!
On the soft sward of your hearts, my friends! --on your love, would she
fain couch her dearest one! --
Thus spake Zarathustra.
XXIV. IN THE HAPPY ISLES.
The figs fall from the trees, they are good and sweet; and in falling
the red skins of them break. A north wind am I to ripe figs.
Thus, like figs, do these doctrines fall for you, my friends: imbibe
now their juice and their sweet substance! It is autumn all around, and
clear sky, and afternoon.
Lo, what fullness is around us! And out of the midst of superabundance,
it is delightful to look out upon distant seas.
Once did people say God, when they looked out upon distant seas; now,
however, have I taught you to say, Superman.
God is a conjecture: but I do not wish your conjecturing to reach beyond
your creating will.
Could ye CREATE a God? --Then, I pray you, be silent about all Gods! But
ye could well create the Superman.
Not perhaps ye yourselves, my brethren! But into fathers and forefathers
of the Superman could ye transform yourselves: and let that be your best
creating! --
God is a conjecture: but I should like your conjecturing restricted to
the conceivable.
Could ye CONCEIVE a God? --But let this mean Will to Truth unto you,
that everything be transformed into the humanly conceivable, the humanly
visible, the humanly sensible! Your own discernment shall ye follow out
to the end!
And what ye have called the world shall but be created by you: your
reason, your likeness, your will, your love, shall it itself become! And
verily, for your bliss, ye discerning ones!
And how would ye endure life without that hope, ye discerning ones?
Neither in the inconceivable could ye have been born, nor in the
irrational.
But that I may reveal my heart entirely unto you, my friends: IF there
were gods, how could I endure it to be no God! THEREFORE there are no
Gods.
Yea, I have drawn the conclusion; now, however, doth it draw me. --
God is a conjecture: but who could drink all the bitterness of this
conjecture without dying? Shall his faith be taken from the creating
one, and from the eagle his flights into eagle-heights?
God is a thought--it maketh all the straight crooked, and all that
standeth reel. What? Time would be gone, and all the perishable would be
but a lie?
To think this is giddiness and vertigo to human limbs, and even vomiting
to the stomach: verily, the reeling sickness do I call it, to conjecture
such a thing.
Evil do I call it and misanthropic: all that teaching about the one, and
the plenum, and the unmoved, and the sufficient, and the imperishable!
All the imperishable--that's but a simile, and the poets lie too much. --
But of time and of becoming shall the best similes speak: a praise shall
they be, and a justification of all perishableness!
Creating--that is the great salvation from suffering, and life's
alleviation. But for the creator to appear, suffering itself is needed,
and much transformation.
Yea, much bitter dying must there be in your life, ye creators! Thus are
ye advocates and justifiers of all perishableness.
For the creator himself to be the new-born child, he must also
be willing to be the child-bearer, and endure the pangs of the
child-bearer.
Verily, through a hundred souls went I my way, and through a hundred
cradles and birth-throes. Many a farewell have I taken; I know the
heart-breaking last hours.
But so willeth it my creating Will, my fate. Or, to tell you it more
candidly: just such a fate--willeth my Will.
All FEELING suffereth in me, and is in prison: but my WILLING ever
cometh to me as mine emancipator and comforter.
Willing emancipateth: that is the true doctrine of will and
emancipation--so teacheth you Zarathustra.
No longer willing, and no longer valuing, and no longer creating! Ah,
that that great debility may ever be far from me!
And also in discerning do I feel only my will's procreating and evolving
delight; and if there be innocence in my knowledge, it is because there
is will to procreation in it.
Away from God and Gods did this will allure me; what would there be to
create if there were--Gods!
But to man doth it ever impel me anew, my fervent creative will; thus
impelleth it the hammer to the stone.
Ah, ye men, within the stone slumbereth an image for me, the image of my
visions! Ah, that it should slumber in the hardest, ugliest stone!
Now rageth my hammer ruthlessly against its prison. From the stone fly
the fragments: what's that to me?
I will complete it: for a shadow came unto me--the stillest and lightest
of all things once came unto me!
The beauty of the Superman came unto me as a shadow. Ah, my brethren! Of
what account now are--the Gods to me! --
Thus spake Zarathustra.
XXV. THE PITIFUL.
My friends, there hath arisen a satire on your friend: "Behold
Zarathustra! Walketh he not amongst us as if amongst animals? "
But it is better said in this wise: "The discerning one walketh amongst
men AS amongst animals. "
Man himself is to the discerning one: the animal with red cheeks.
How hath that happened unto him? Is it not because he hath had to be
ashamed too oft?
O my friends! Thus speaketh the discerning one: shame, shame,
shame--that is the history of man!
And on that account doth the noble one enjoin upon himself not to abash:
bashfulness doth he enjoin on himself in presence of all sufferers.
Verily, I like them not, the merciful ones, whose bliss is in their
pity: too destitute are they of bashfulness.
If I must be pitiful, I dislike to be called so; and if I be so, it is
preferably at a distance.
Preferably also do I shroud my head, and flee, before being recognised:
and thus do I bid you do, my friends!
May my destiny ever lead unafflicted ones like you across my path, and
those with whom I MAY have hope and repast and honey in common!
Verily, I have done this and that for the afflicted: but something
better did I always seem to do when I had learned to enjoy myself
better.
Since humanity came into being, man hath enjoyed himself too little:
that alone, my brethren, is our original sin!
And when we learn better to enjoy ourselves, then do we unlearn best to
give pain unto others, and to contrive pain.
Therefore do I wash the hand that hath helped the sufferer; therefore do
I wipe also my soul.
For in seeing the sufferer suffering--thereof was I ashamed on account
of his shame; and in helping him, sorely did I wound his pride.
Great obligations do not make grateful, but revengeful; and when a small
kindness is not forgotten, it becometh a gnawing worm.
"Be shy in accepting! Distinguish by accepting! "--thus do I advise those
who have naught to bestow.
I, however, am a bestower: willingly do I bestow as friend to friends.
Strangers, however, and the poor, may pluck for themselves the fruit
from my tree: thus doth it cause less shame.
Beggars, however, one should entirely do away with! Verily, it annoyeth
one to give unto them, and it annoyeth one not to give unto them.
And likewise sinners and bad consciences! Believe me, my friends: the
sting of conscience teacheth one to sting.
The worst things, however, are the petty thoughts. Verily, better to
have done evilly than to have thought pettily!
To be sure, ye say: "The delight in petty evils spareth one many a great
evil deed. " But here one should not wish to be sparing.
Like a boil is the evil deed: it itcheth and irritateth and breaketh
forth--it speaketh honourably.
"Behold, I am disease," saith the evil deed: that is its honourableness.
But like infection is the petty thought: it creepeth and hideth, and
wanteth to be nowhere--until the whole body is decayed and withered by
the petty infection.
To him however, who is possessed of a devil, I would whisper this word
in the ear: "Better for thee to rear up thy devil! Even for thee there
is still a path to greatness! "--
Ah, my brethren! One knoweth a little too much about every one! And many
a one becometh transparent to us, but still we can by no means penetrate
him.
It is difficult to live among men because silence is so difficult.
And not to him who is offensive to us are we most unfair, but to him who
doth not concern us at all.
If, however, thou hast a suffering friend, then be a resting-place for
his suffering; like a hard bed, however, a camp-bed: thus wilt thou
serve him best.
And if a friend doeth thee wrong, then say: "I forgive thee what thou
hast done unto me; that thou hast done it unto THYSELF, however--how
could I forgive that! "
Thus speaketh all great love: it surpasseth even forgiveness and pity.
One should hold fast one's heart; for when one letteth it go, how
quickly doth one's head run away!
Ah, where in the world have there been greater follies than with the
pitiful? And what in the world hath caused more suffering than the
follies of the pitiful?
Woe unto all loving ones who have not an elevation which is above their
pity!
Thus spake the devil unto me, once on a time: "Even God hath his hell:
it is his love for man. "
And lately, did I hear him say these words: "God is dead: of his pity
for man hath God died. "--
So be ye warned against pity: FROM THENCE there yet cometh unto men a
heavy cloud! Verily, I understand weather-signs!
But attend also to this word: All great love is above all its pity: for
it seeketh--to create what is loved!
"Myself do I offer unto my love, AND MY NEIGHBOUR AS MYSELF"--such is
the language of all creators.
All creators, however, are hard. --
Thus spake Zarathustra.
XXVI. THE PRIESTS.
And one day Zarathustra made a sign to his disciples, and spake these
words unto them:
"Here are priests: but although they are mine enemies, pass them quietly
and with sleeping swords!
Even among them there are heroes; many of them have suffered too much--:
so they want to make others suffer.
Bad enemies are they: nothing is more revengeful than their meekness.
And readily doth he soil himself who toucheth them.
But my blood is related to theirs; and I want withal to see my blood
honoured in theirs. "--
And when they had passed, a pain attacked Zarathustra; but not long had
he struggled with the pain, when he began to speak thus:
It moveth my heart for those priests. They also go against my taste; but
that is the smallest matter unto me, since I am among men.
But I suffer and have suffered with them: prisoners are they unto me,
and stigmatised ones. He whom they call Saviour put them in fetters:--
In fetters of false values and fatuous words! Oh, that some one would
save them from their Saviour!
On an isle they once thought they had landed, when the sea tossed them
about; but behold, it was a slumbering monster!
False values and fatuous words: these are the worst monsters for
mortals--long slumbereth and waiteth the fate that is in them.
But at last it cometh and awaketh and devoureth and engulfeth whatever
hath built tabernacles upon it.
Oh, just look at those tabernacles which those priests have built
themselves! Churches, they call their sweet-smelling caves!
Oh, that falsified light, that mustified air! Where the soul--may not
fly aloft to its height!
But so enjoineth their belief: "On your knees, up the stair, ye
sinners! "
Verily, rather would I see a shameless one than the distorted eyes of
their shame and devotion!
Who created for themselves such caves and penitence-stairs? Was it not
those who sought to conceal themselves, and were ashamed under the clear
sky?
And only when the clear sky looketh again through ruined roofs, and down
upon grass and red poppies on ruined walls--will I again turn my heart
to the seats of this God.
They called God that which opposed and afflicted them: and verily, there
was much hero-spirit in their worship!
And they knew not how to love their God otherwise than by nailing men to
the cross!
As corpses they thought to live; in black draped they their corpses;
even in their talk do I still feel the evil flavour of charnel-houses.
And he who liveth nigh unto them liveth nigh unto black pools, wherein
the toad singeth his song with sweet gravity.
Better songs would they have to sing, for me to believe in their
Saviour: more like saved ones would his disciples have to appear unto
me!
Naked, would I like to see them: for beauty alone should preach
penitence. But whom would that disguised affliction convince!
Verily, their Saviours themselves came not from freedom and freedom's
seventh heaven! Verily, they themselves never trod the carpets of
knowledge!
Of defects did the spirit of those Saviours consist; but into every
defect had they put their illusion, their stop-gap, which they called
God.
In their pity was their spirit drowned; and when they swelled and
o'erswelled with pity, there always floated to the surface a great
folly.
Eagerly and with shouts drove they their flock over their foot-bridge;
as if there were but one foot-bridge to the future! Verily, those
shepherds also were still of the flock!
Small spirits and spacious souls had those shepherds: but, my brethren,
what small domains have even the most spacious souls hitherto been!
Characters of blood did they write on the way they went, and their folly
taught that truth is proved by blood.
But blood is the very worst witness to truth; blood tainteth the purest
teaching, and turneth it into delusion and hatred of heart.
And when a person goeth through fire for his teaching--what doth that
prove! It is more, verily, when out of one's own burning cometh one's
own teaching!
Sultry heart and cold head; where these meet, there ariseth the
blusterer, the "Saviour. "
Greater ones, verily, have there been, and higher-born ones, than those
whom the people call Saviours, those rapturous blusterers!
And by still greater ones than any of the Saviours must ye be saved, my
brethren, if ye would find the way to freedom!
Never yet hath there been a Superman. Naked have I seen both of them,
the greatest man and the smallest man:--
All-too-similar are they still to each other. Verily, even the greatest
found I--all-too-human! --
Thus spake Zarathustra.
XXVII. THE VIRTUOUS.
With thunder and heavenly fireworks must one speak to indolent and
somnolent senses.
But beauty's voice speaketh gently: it appealeth only to the most
awakened souls.
Gently vibrated and laughed unto me to-day my buckler; it was beauty's
holy laughing and thrilling.
At you, ye virtuous ones, laughed my beauty to-day. And thus came its
voice unto me: "They want--to be paid besides! "
Ye want to be paid besides, ye virtuous ones! Ye want reward for virtue,
and heaven for earth, and eternity for your to-day?
And now ye upbraid me for teaching that there is no reward-giver,
nor paymaster? And verily, I do not even teach that virtue is its own
reward.
Ah! this is my sorrow: into the basis of things have reward and
punishment been insinuated--and now even into the basis of your souls,
ye virtuous ones!
But like the snout of the boar shall my word grub up the basis of your
souls; a ploughshare will I be called by you.
All the secrets of your heart shall be brought to light; and when ye
lie in the sun, grubbed up and broken, then will also your falsehood be
separated from your truth.
For this is your truth: ye are TOO PURE for the filth of the words:
vengeance, punishment, recompense, retribution.
Ye love your virtue as a mother loveth her child; but when did one hear
of a mother wanting to be paid for her love?
It is your dearest Self, your virtue. The ring's thirst is in you: to
reach itself again struggleth every ring, and turneth itself.
And like the star that goeth out, so is every work of your virtue: ever
is its light on its way and travelling--and when will it cease to be on
its way?
Thus is the light of your virtue still on its way, even when its work
is done. Be it forgotten and dead, still its ray of light liveth and
travelleth.
That your virtue is your Self, and not an outward thing, a skin, or
a cloak: that is the truth from the basis of your souls, ye virtuous
ones! --
But sure enough there are those to whom virtue meaneth writhing under
the lash: and ye have hearkened too much unto their crying!
And others are there who call virtue the slothfulness of their vices;
and when once their hatred and jealousy relax the limbs, their "justice"
becometh lively and rubbeth its sleepy eyes.
And others are there who are drawn downwards: their devils draw them.
But the more they sink, the more ardently gloweth their eye, and the
longing for their God.
Ah! their crying also hath reached your ears, ye virtuous ones: "What I
am NOT, that, that is God to me, and virtue! "
And others are there who go along heavily and creakingly, like carts
taking stones downhill: they talk much of dignity and virtue--their drag
they call virtue!
And others are there who are like eight-day clocks when wound up; they
tick, and want people to call ticking--virtue.
Verily, in those have I mine amusement: wherever I find such clocks I
shall wind them up with my mockery, and they shall even whirr thereby!
And others are proud of their modicum of righteousness, and for the sake
of it do violence to all things: so that the world is drowned in their
unrighteousness.
Ah! how ineptly cometh the word "virtue" out of their mouth! And when
they say: "I am just," it always soundeth like: "I am just--revenged! "
With their virtues they want to scratch out the eyes of their enemies;
and they elevate themselves only that they may lower others.
And again there are those who sit in their swamp, and speak thus from
among the bulrushes: "Virtue--that is to sit quietly in the swamp.
We bite no one, and go out of the way of him who would bite; and in all
matters we have the opinion that is given us. "
And again there are those who love attitudes, and think that virtue is a
sort of attitude.
Their knees continually adore, and their hands are eulogies of virtue,
but their heart knoweth naught thereof.
And again there are those who regard it as virtue to say: "Virtue
is necessary"; but after all they believe only that policemen are
necessary.
And many a one who cannot see men's loftiness, calleth it virtue to see
their baseness far too well: thus calleth he his evil eye virtue. --
And some want to be edified and raised up, and call it virtue: and
others want to be cast down,--and likewise call it virtue.
And thus do almost all think that they participate in virtue; and at
least every one claimeth to be an authority on "good" and "evil. "
But Zarathustra came not to say unto all those liars and fools: "What do
YE know of virtue! What COULD ye know of virtue! "--
But that ye, my friends, might become weary of the old words which ye
have learned from the fools and liars:
That ye might become weary of the words "reward," "retribution,"
"punishment," "righteous vengeance. "--
That ye might become weary of saying: "That an action is good is because
it is unselfish.
