For must there not be that which is danced over, danced beyond? Must there not, for the sake of the nimble, the nimblest,- be moles and clumsy dwarfs?-
191
3.
There was it also where I picked up from the path the word “Superman,” and that man is something that must be overcome.
-That man is a bridge and not a goal- rejoicing over his noontides and evenings, as advances to new rosy dawns:
-The Zarathustra word of the great noontide, and whatever else I have hung up over men like purple evening-afterglows.
Also new stars did I make them see, along with new nights; and over cloud and day and night, did I spread out laughter like a gay-colored canopy.
I taught them all my poetisation and aspiration: to compose and collect into unity what is fragment in man, and riddle and fearful chance;-
-As composer, riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance, did I teach them to create the future, and all that has been- to redeem by creating.
The past of man to redeem, and every “It was” to transform, until the Will says: “But so did I will it! So shall I will it-“
-This did I call redemption; this alone taught I them to call redemp-tion.- –
Now do I await my redemption- that I may go to them for the last time.
For once more will I go to men: amongst them will my sun set; in dy-ing will I give them my choicest gift!
From the sun did I learn this, when it goes down, the exuberant one: gold does it then pour into the sea, out of inexhaustible riches,-
-So that the poorest fisherman rows even with golden oars! For this did I once see, and did not tire of weeping in beholding it.- –
Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sits he here and waits, old broken law-tablets around him, and also new law-tablets- half-written.
192
4.
Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brothers who will carry it with me to the valley and into hearts of flesh?-
Thus demands my great love to the remotest ones: be not considerate of your neighbor! Man is something that must be overcome.
There are many divers ways and modes of overcoming: see you thereto! But only a fool thinks: “man can also be overleapt.”
Overcome yourself even in your neighbor: and a right which you can seize upon, shall you not allow to be given you!
What you do can no one do to you again. Lo, there is no requital.
He who cannot command himself shall obey. And many a one can command himself, but still sorely lacks self-obedience!
193
5.
Thus wishes the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothing gratuit-ously, least of all, life.
He who is of the rabble wishes to live gratuitously; we others, however, to whom life has given itself- we are ever considering what we can best give in return!
And verily, it is a noble dictum which says: “What life promises us, that promise will we keep- to life!”
One should not wish to enjoy where one does not contribute to the en-joyment. And one should not wish to enjoy!
For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like to be sought for. One should have them,- but one should rather seek for guilt and pain!-
194
6.
O my brothers, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however, are we firstlings!
We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in honor of ancient idols.
Our best is still young: this excites old palates. Our flesh is tender, our skin is only lambs’ skin:- how could we not excite old idol-priests!
In ourselves dwells he still, the old idol-priest, who broils our best for his banquet. Ah, my brothers, how could firstlings fail to be sacrifices!
But so wishes our type; and I love those who do not wish to preserve themselves, the down-going ones do I love with my entire love: for they go beyond.-
195
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, thus to be good, is a malady.
They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart re-peats, their soul obeys: yet he who obeys, does not listen to himself!
All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that one truth may be born. O my brothers, are you also evil enough for this truth?
The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the cruel No, the tedium, the cutting-into-the-quick- how seldom do these come together! Out of such seed, however- is truth produced!
Beside the bad conscience has hitherto grown all knowledge! Break up, break up, you discerning ones, the old law-tablets!
196
8.
When the water has planks, when gangways and railings o’erspan the stream, verily, he is not believed who then says: “All is in flux.”
But even the simpletons contradict him. “What?” say the simpletons, “all in flux? Planks and railings are still over the stream!
“Over the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges and bearings, all ‘good’ and ‘evil’: these are all stable!”-
Comes, however, the hard winter, the stream-tamer, then learn even the wittiest distrust, and verily, not only the simpletons then say: “Should not everything- stand still?”
“Fundamentally stands everything still”- that is an appropriate winter doctrine, good cheer for an unproductive period, a great comfort for winter-sleepers and fireside-loungers.
“Fundamentally stands everything still”-: but contrary thereto, preaches the thawing wind!
The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullock- a furious bullock, a destroyer, which with angry horns breaks the ice! The ice however- – breaks gangways!
O my brothers, is not everything at present in flux? Have not all rail-ings and gangways fallen into the water? Who would still hold on to “good” and “evil”?
“Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind blows!”- Thus preach, my brothers, through all the streets!
197
9.
There is an old illusion- it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers and astrologers has hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.
Once did one believe in soothsayers and astrologers; and therefore did one believe, “Everything is fate: you shall, for you must!”
Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and there-fore did one believe, “Everything is freedom: you can, for you will!”
O my brothers, concerning the stars and the future there has hitherto been only illusion, and not knowledge; and therefore concerning good and evil there has hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!
198
10.
“You shall not rob! you shall not kill!”- such precepts were once called sacred; before them did one bow the knee and the head, and take off one’s shoes.
But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and killers in the world than such sacred precepts?
Is there not even in all life- robbing and killing? And for such precepts to be called sacred, was not truth itself thereby- slain?
-Or was it a sermon of death that called sacred what contradicted and dissuaded from life?- O my brothers, break up, break up for me the old law-tablets!
199
11.
It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,-
-Abandoned to the favor, the spirit and the madness of every genera-tion that comes, and reinterprets all that has been as its bridge!
A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy, who with approval and disapproval could strain and constrain all the past, until it became for him a bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cock-crowing.
This however is the other danger, and my other sympathy:- he who is of the rabble, his thoughts go back to his grandfather,- with his grand-father, however, does time cease.
Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for the rabble to become master, and drown all time in shallow waters.
Therefore, O my brothers, a new nobility is needed, which shall be the adversary of all rabble and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew the word “noble” on new law-tablets.
For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds of noble ones, for a new nobility! Or, as I once said in parable: “That is just divinity, that there are gods, but no God!”
200
12.
O my brothers, I consecrate you and point you to a new nobility: you shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future;-
-not to a nobility which you could purchase like traders with traders’ gold; for little worth is all that has its price.
Let it not be your honor henceforth whence you come, but where you go! Your Will and your feet which seek to overcome you- let these be your new honor!
Not that you have served a prince- of what account are princes now!-nor that you have become a bulwark to that which stands, that it may stand more firmly.
Not that your family have become courtly at courts, and that you have learned- gay-colored, like the flamingo- to stand long hours in shallow pools:
(For ability-to-stand is a merit in courtiers; and all courtiers believe that to blessedness after death pertains- permission-to-sit!)
Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your forefathers into promised lands, which I do not praise: for where the worst of all trees grew- the cross,- in that land there is nothing to
