poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency!"

  The hour when ye say: "What good is my justice! I do not see that
I am fervour and fuel. The just, however, are fervour and fuel!"

  The hour when we say: "What good is my pity! Is not pity the cross
on which he is nailed who loveth man? But my pity is not a
crucifixion."

  Have ye ever spoken thus? Have ye ever cried thus? Ah! would that
I had heard you crying thus!

  It is not your sin- it is your self-satisfaction that crieth unto
heaven; your very sparingness in sin crieth unto heaven!

  Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the
frenzy with which ye should be inoculated?

  Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that lightning, he is that
frenzy!-

  When Zarathustra had thus spoken, one of the people called out:
"We have now heard enough of the rope-dancer; it is time now for us
to. see him!" And all the people laughed at Zarathustra. But the
rope-dancer, who thought the words applied to him, began his
performance.

                            4.

  Zarathustra, however, looked at the people and wondered. Then he
spake thus:

  Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman- a
rope over an abyss.

  A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous
looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.

  What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what
is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going.

  I love those that know not how to live except as down-goers, for
they are the over-goers.

  I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers,
and arrows of longing for the other shore.

  I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for
going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to the
earth, that the earth of the Superman may hereafter arrive.

  I love him who liveth in order to know, and seeketh to know in order
that the Superman may hereafter live. Thus seeketh he his own
down-going.

  I love him who laboureth and inventeth, that he may build the
house for the Superman, and prepare for him earth, animal, and
plant: for thus seeketh he his own down-going.

  I love him who loveth his virtue: for virtue is the will to
down-going, and an arrow of longing.

  I love him who reserveth no share of spirit for himself, but wanteth
to be wholly the spirit of his virtue: thus walketh he as spirit
over the bridge.

  I love him who maketh his virtue his inclination and destiny:
thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no
more.

  I love him who desireth not too many virtues. One virtue is more
of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for one's destiny
to cling to.

  I love him whose soul is lavish, who wanteth no thanks and doth
not give back: for he always bestoweth, and desireth not to keep for
himself.

  I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favour, and
who then asketh: "Am I a dishonest player?"- for he is willing to
succumb.

  I love him who scattereth golden words in advance of his deeds,
and always doeth more than he promiseth: for he seeketh his own
down-going.

  I love him who justifieth the future ones, and redeemeth the past
ones: for he is willing to succumb through the present ones.

  I love him who chasteneth his God, because he loveth his God: for he
must succumb through the wrath of his God.

  I love him whose soul is deep even in the wounding, and may
succumb through a small matter: thus goeth he willingly over the
bridge.

  I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgetteth himself, and
all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going.

  I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his