



the type of noble souls: they.
1.
Here do I sit and wait, old broken tables around me and also new half-written tables. When cometh mine hour?
--The hour of my descent, of my down-going: for once more will I go untomen.
For that hour do I now wait: for first must the signs come unto me that itis MINE hour--namely, the laughing lion with the flock of doves.
Meanwhile do I talk to myself as one who hath time. No one telleth meanything new, so I tell myself mine own story.
2.
When I came unto men, then found I them resting on an old infatuation: allof them thought they had long known what was good and bad for men.
An old wearisome business seemed to them all discourse about virtue; and hewho wished to sleep well spake of "good" and "bad" ere retiring to rest.
This somnolence did I disturb when I taught that NO ONE YET KNOWETH what isgood and bad:--unless it be the creating one!
--It is he, however, who createth man's goal, and giveth to the earth itsmeaning and its future: he only EFFECTETH it THAT aught is good or bad.
And I bade them upset their old academic chairs, and wherever that oldinfatuation had sat; I bade them laugh at their great moralists, theirsaints, their poets, and their Saviours.
At their gloomy sages did I bid them laugh, and whoever had sat admonishingas a black scarecrow on the tree of life.
On their great grave-highway did I seat myself, and even beside the carrionand vultures--and I laughed at all their bygone and its mellow decayingglory.
Verily, like penitential preachers and fools did I cry wrath and shame onall their greatness and smallness. Oh, that their best is so very small!Oh, that their worst is so very small! Thus did I laugh.
Thus did my wise longing, born in the mountains, cry and laugh in me; awild wisdom, verily!--my great pinion-rustling longing.
And oft did it carry me off and up and away and in the midst of laughter;then flew I quivering like an arrow with sun-intoxicated rapture:
--Out into distant futures, which no dream hath yet seen, into warmersouths than ever sculptor conceived,--where gods in their dancing areashamed of all clothes:
(That I may speak in parables and halt and stammer like the poets: andverily I am ashamed that I have still to be a poet!)
Where all becoming seemed to me dancing of Gods, and wantoning of Gods, andthe world unloosed and unbridled and fleeing back to itself:--
--As an eternal self-fleeing and re-seeking of one another of many Gods, asthe blessed self-contradicting, recommuning, and refraternising with oneanother of many Gods:--
Where all time seemed to me a blessed mockery of moments, where necessitywas freedom itself, which played happily with the goad of freedom:--
Where I also found again mine old devil and arch-enemy, the spirit ofgravity, and all that it created: constraint, law, necessity andconsequence and purpose and will and good and evil:--
For must there not be that which is danced OVER, danced beyond? Must therenot, for the sake of the nimble, the nimblest,--be moles and clumsydwarfs?--
3.
There was it also where I picked up from the path the word "Superman," andthat man is something that must be surpassed.
--That man is a bridge and not a goal--rejoicing over his noontides andevenings, as advances to new rosy dawns:
--The Zarathustra word of the great noontide, and whatever else I have hungup over men like purple evening-afterglows.
Verily, also new stars did I make them see, along with new nights; and overcloud and day and night, did I spread out laughter like a gay-colouredcanopy.
I taught them all MY poetisation and aspiration: to compose and collectinto unity what is fragment in man, and riddle and fearful chance;--
--As composer, riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance, did I teach them tocreate the future, and all that HATH BEEN--to redeem by creating.
The past of man to redeem, and every "It was" to transform, until the Willsaith: "But so did I will it! So shall I will it--"
--This did I call redemption; this alone taught I them to callredemption.--
Now do I await MY redemption--that I may go unto them for the last time.
For once more will I go unto men: AMONGST them will my sun set; in dyingwill I give them my choicest gift!
--So that the poorest fisherman roweth even with GOLDEN oars! For this didI once see, and did not tire of weeping in beholding it.--
Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sitteth he here andwaiteth, old broken tables around him, and also new tables--half-written.
4.
Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brethren who will carry itwith me to the valley and into hearts of flesh?--
Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest ones: BE NOT CONSIDERATE OFTHY NEIGHBOUR! Man is something that must be surpassed.
There are many divers ways and modes of surpassing: see THOU thereto! Butonly a buffoon thinketh: "man can also be OVERLEAPT."
Surpass thyself even in thy neighbour: and a right which thou canst seizeupon, shalt thou not allow to be given thee!
What thou doest can no one do to thee again. Lo, there is no requital.
He who cannot command himself shall obey. And many a one CAN commandhimself, but still sorely lacketh self-obedience!
5.
Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothingGRATUITOUSLY, least of all, life.
He who is of the populace wisheth to live gratuitously; we others, however,to whom life hath given itself--we are ever considering WHAT we can bestgive IN RETURN!
And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith: "What life promiseth US,that promise will WE keep--to life!"
One should not wish to enjoy where one doth not contribute to theenjoyment. And one should not WISH to enjoy!
For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like tobe sought for. One should HAVE them,--but one should rather SEEK for guiltand pain!--
6.
O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however, arewe firstlings!
We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in honourof ancient idols.
Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates. Our flesh is tender,our skin is only lambs' skin:--how could we not excite old idol-priests!
IN OURSELVES dwelleth he still, the old idol-priest, who broileth our bestfor his banquet. Ah, my brethren, how could firstlings fail to besacrifices!
But so wisheth our type; and I love those who do not wish to preservethemselves, the down-going ones do I love with mine entire love: for theygo beyond.--
7.
To be true--that CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all,however, can the good be true.
Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit, thusto be good, is a malady.
They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart repeateth,their soul obeyeth: HE, however, who obeyeth, DOTH NOT LISTEN TO HIMSELF!
All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that onetruth may be born. O my brethren, are ye also evil enough for THIS truth?
BESIDE the bad conscience hath hitherto grown all KNOWLEDGE! Break up,break up, ye discerning ones, the old tables!
8.
When the water hath planks, when gangways and railings o'erspan the stream,verily, he is not believed who then saith: "All is in flux."
But even the simpletons contradict him. "What?" say the simpletons, "allin flux? Planks and railings are still OVER the stream!
"OVER the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges andbearings, all 'good' and 'evil': these are all STABLE!"--
Cometh, however, the hard winter, the stream-tamer, then learn even thewittiest distrust, and verily, not only the simpletons then say: "Shouldnot everything--STAND STILL?"
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--that is an appropriate winterdoctrine, good cheer for an unproductive period, a great comfort forwinter-sleepers and fireside-loungers.
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--: but CONTRARY thereto,preacheth the thawing wind!
The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullock--a furiousbullock, a destroyer, which with angry horns breaketh the ice! The icehowever--BREAKETH GANGWAYS!
O my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all railingsand gangways fallen into the water? Who would still HOLD ON to "good" and"evil"?
"Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind bloweth!"--Thus preach, mybrethren, through all the streets!
9.
There is an old illusion--it is called good and evil. Around soothsayersand astrologers hath hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.
Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did onebelieve, "Everything is fate: thou shalt, for thou must!"
Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFOREdid one believe, "Everything is freedom: thou canst, for thou willest!"
O my brethren, concerning the stars and the future there hath hitherto beenonly illusion, and not knowledge; and THEREFORE concerning good and evilthere hath hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!
10.
"Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay!"--such precepts were once calledholy; before them did one bow the knee and the head, and take off one'sshoes.
But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and slayers inthe world than such holy precepts?
Is there not even in all life--robbing and slaying? And for such preceptsto be called holy, was not TRUTH itself thereby--slain?
--Or was it a sermon of death that called holy what contradicted anddissuaded from life?--O my brethren, break up, break up for me the oldtables!
withtraders' gold; for.
11.
It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,--
--Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every generationthat cometh, and reinterpreteth all that hath been as its bridge!
A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy, who with approval anddisapproval could strain and constrain all the past, until it became forhim a bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cock-crowing.
This however is the other danger, and mine other sympathy:--he who is ofthe populace, his thoughts go back to his grandfather,--with hisgrandfather, however, doth time cease.
Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for thepopulace to become master, and drown all time in shallow waters.
Therefore, O my brethren, a NEW NOBILITY is needed, which shall be theadversary of all populace and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew theword "noble" on new tables.
For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds of noble ones, FOR A NEWNOBILITY! Or, as I once said in parable: "That is just divinity, thatthere are Gods, but no God!"
12.
O my brethren, I consecrate you and point you to a new nobility: ye shallbecome procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future;--
--Verily, not to a nobility which ye could purchase like traders withtraders' gold; for little worth is all that hath its price.
Let it not be your honour henceforth whence ye come, but whither ye go!Your Will and your feet which seek to surpass you--let these be your newhonour!
Verily, not that ye have served a prince--of what account are princes now!--nor that ye have become a bulwark to that which standeth, that it maystand more firmly.
Not that your family have become courtly at courts, and that ye havelearned--gay-coloured, like the flamingo--to stand long hours in shallowpools:
(For ABILITY-to-stand is a merit in courtiers; and all courtiers believethat unto blessedness after death pertaineth--PERMISSION-to-sit!)
Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your forefathers into promisedlands, which I do not praise: for where the worst of all trees grew--thecross,--in that land there is nothing to praise!--
--And verily, wherever this "Holy Spirit" led its knights, always in suchcampaigns did--goats and geese, and wryheads and guyheads run FOREMOST!--
O my brethren, not backward shall your nobility gaze, but OUTWARD! Exilesshall ye be from all fatherlands and forefather-lands!
Your CHILDREN'S LAND shall ye love: let this love be your new nobility,--the undiscovered in the remotest seas! For it do I bid your sails searchand search!
Unto your children shall ye MAKE AMENDS for being the children of yourfathers: all the past shall ye THUS redeem! This new table do I placeover you!
13.
"Why should one live? All is vain! To live--that is to thrash straw; tolive--that is to burn oneself and yet not get warm.--
Such ancient babbling still passeth for "wisdom"; because it is old,however, and smelleth mustily, THEREFORE is it the more honoured. Evenmould ennobleth.--
Children might thus speak: they SHUN the fire because it hath burnt them!There is much childishness in the old books of wisdom.
And he who ever "thrasheth straw," why should he be allowed to rail atthrashing! Such a fool one would have to muzzle!
Such persons sit down to the table and bring nothing with them, not evengood hunger:--and then do they rail: "All is vain!"
But to eat and drink well, my brethren, is verily no vain art! Break up,break up for me the tables of the never-joyous ones!
14.
"To the clean are all things clean"--thus say the people. I, however, sayunto you: To the swine all things become swinish!
Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads (whose hearts are alsobowed down): "The world itself is a filthy monster."
For these are all unclean spirits; especially those, however, who have nopeace or rest, unless they see the world FROM THE BACKSIDE--thebackworldsmen!
TO THOSE do I say it to the face, although it sound unpleasantly: theworld resembleth man, in that it hath a backside,--SO MUCH is true!
There is in the world much filth: SO MUCH is true! But the world itselfis not therefore a filthy monster!
There is wisdom in the fact that much in the world smelleth badly:loathing itself createth wings, and fountain-divining powers!
In the best there is still something to loathe; and the best is stillsomething that must be surpassed!--
O my brethren, there is much wisdom in the fact that much filth is in theworld!--
15.
Such sayings did I hear pious backworldsmen speak to their consciences, andverily without wickedness or guile,--although there is nothing moreguileful in the world, or more wicked.
"Let the world be as it is! Raise not a finger against it!"
"Let whoever will choke and stab and skin and scrape the people: raise nota finger against it! Thereby will they learn to renounce the world."
"And thine own reason--this shalt thou thyself stifle and choke; for it isa reason of this world,--thereby wilt thou learn thyself to renounce theworld."--
--Shatter, shatter, O my brethren, those old tables of the pious! Tatterthe maxims of the world-maligners!--
16.
"He who learneth much unlearneth all violent cravings"--that do people nowwhisper to one another in all the dark lanes.
"Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou shalt not crave!"--this newtable found I hanging even in the public markets.
Break up for me, O my brethren, break up also that NEW table! The weary-o'-the-world put it up, and the preachers of death and the jailer: for lo,it is also a sermon for slavery:--
Because they learned badly and not the best, and everything too early andeverything too fast; because they ATE badly: from thence hath resultedtheir ruined stomach;--
--For a ruined stomach, is their spirit: IT persuadeth to death! Forverily, my brethren, the spirit IS a stomach!
Life is a well of delight, but to him in whom the ruined stomach speaketh,the father of affliction, all fountains are poisoned.
To discern: that is DELIGHT to the lion-willed! But he who hath becomeweary, is himself merely "willed"; with him play all the waves.
And such is always the nature of weak men: they lose themselves on theirway. And at last asketh their weariness: "Why did we ever go on the way?All is indifferent!"
TO THEM soundeth it pleasant to have preached in their ears: "Nothing isworth while! Ye shall not will!" That, however, is a sermon for slavery.
O my brethren, a fresh blustering wind cometh Zarathustra unto all way-weary ones; many noses will he yet make sneeze!
Even through walls bloweth my free breath, and in into prisons andimprisoned spirits!
Willing emancipateth: for willing is creating: so do I teach. And ONLYfor creating shall ye learn!
And also the learning shall ye LEARN only from me, the learning well!--Hewho hath ears let him hear!
17.
There standeth the boat--thither goeth it over, perhaps into vastnothingness--but who willeth to enter into this "Perhaps"?
None of you want to enter into the death-boat! How should ye then beWORLD-WEARY ones!
World-weary ones! And have not even withdrawn from the earth! Eager did Iever find you for the earth, amorous still of your own earth-weariness!
Not in vain doth your lip hang down:--a small worldly wish still sitteththereon! And in your eye--floateth there not a cloudlet of unforgottenearthly bliss?
There are on the earth many good inventions, some useful, some pleasant:for their sake is the earth to be loved.
And many such good inventions are there, that they are like woman'sbreasts: useful at the same time, and pleasant.
Ye world-weary ones, however! Ye earth-idlers! You, shall one beat withstripes! With stripes shall one again make you sprightly limbs.
For if ye be not invalids, or decrepit creatures, of whom the earth isweary, then are ye sly sloths, or dainty, sneaking pleasure-cats. And ifye will not again RUN gaily, then shall ye--pass away!
To the incurable shall one not seek to be a physician: thus teachethZarathustra:--so shall ye pass away!
But more COURAGE is needed to make an end than to make a new verse: thatdo all physicians and poets know well.--
18.
O my brethren, there are tables which weariness framed, and tables whichslothfulness framed, corrupt slothfulness: although they speak similarly,they want to be heard differently.--
See this languishing one! Only a span-breadth is he from his goal; butfrom weariness hath he lain down obstinately in the dust, this brave one!
From weariness yawneth he at the path, at the earth, at the goal, and athimself: not a step further will he go,--this brave one!
Now gloweth the sun upon him, and the dogs lick at his sweat: but he lieththere in his obstinacy and preferreth to languish:--
--A span-breadth from his goal, to languish! Verily, ye will have to draghim into his heaven by the hair of his head--this hero!
Better still that ye let him lie where he hath lain down, that sleep maycome unto him, the comforter, with cooling patter-rain.
Let him lie, until of his own accord he awakeneth,--until of his own accordhe repudiateth all weariness, and what weariness hath taught through him!