Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale Read Free Book Online

behold without envy even an excessive happiness!
    Bless the cup that wants to overflow, that the waters may flow golden from him and bear the reflection of your joy over all the world!
    Behold! This cup wants to be empty again, and Zarathustra wants to be man again.
    Thus began Zarathustra’s down-going.
    2
    Zarathustra went down the mountain alone, and no one met him. But when he entered the forest, an old man, who had left his holy hut to look for roots in the forest, suddenly stood before him. And the old man spoke thus to Zarathustra:
    ‘This wanderer is no stranger to me: he passed by here many years ago. He was called Zarathustra; but he has changed.
    ‘Then you carried your ashes to the mountains: will you today carry your fire into the valleys? Do you not fear an incendiary’s punishment?
    ‘Yes, I recognize Zarathustra. His eyes are clear, and no disgust lurks about his mouth. Does he not go along like a dancer?
    ‘How changed Zarathustra is! Zarathustra has become – a child, an awakened-one: what do you want now with the sleepers?
    ‘You lived in solitude as in the sea, and the sea bore you. Alas, do you want to go ashore? Alas, do you want again to drag your body yourself?’
    Zarathustra answered: ‘I love mankind.’
    ‘Why’, said the saint, ‘did I go into the forest and the desert? Was it not because I loved mankind all too much?
    ‘Now I love God: mankind I do not love. Man is too imperfect a thing for me. Love of mankind would destroy me.’
    Zarathustra answered: ‘What did I say of love? I am bringing mankind a gift.’
    ‘Give them nothing,’ said the saint. ‘Rather take something off them and bear it with them – that will please them best; if only it be pleasing to you!
    ‘And if you want to give to them, give no more than an alms, and let them beg for that!’
    ‘No,’ answered Zarathustra, ‘I give no alms. I am not poor enough for that.’
    The saint laughed at Zarathustra, and spoke thus:’ See to itthat they accept your treasures! They are mistrustful of hermits, and do not believe that we come to give.
    ‘Our steps ring too lonely through their streets. And when at night they hear in their beds a man going by long before the sun has risen, they probably ask themselves: Where is that thief going?
    ‘Do not go to men, but stay in the forest! Go rather to the animals! Why will you not be as I am – a bear among bears, a bird among birds?’
    ‘And what does the saint do in the forest?’ asked Zarathustra.
    The saint answered: ‘I make songs and sing them, and when I make songs, I laugh, weep, and mutter: thus I praise God.
    ‘With singing, weeping, laughing, and muttering I praise the God who is my God. But what do you bring us as a gift?’
    When Zarathustra heard these words, he saluted the saint and said: ‘What should I have to give you! But let me go quickly, that I may take nothing from you!’ And thus they parted from one another, the old man and Zarathustra, laughing as two boys laugh.
    But when Zarathustra was alone, he spoke thus to his heart: ‘Could it be possible! This old saint has not yet heard in his forest that God is dead !’
    3
    When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest of the towns lying against the forest, he found in that very place many people assembled in the market square: for it had been announced that a tight-rope walker would be appearing. And Zarathustra spoke thus to the people:
    I teach you the Superman . Man is something that should be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
    All creatures hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and do you want to be the ebb of this great tide, and return to the animals rather than overcome man?
    What is the ape to men? A laughing-stock or a painfulembarrassment. And just so shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment.
    You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now man is more of an ape than any