Thus Spake Zarathustra · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
LXXV. SCIENCE.
Ye free spirits, whither hath your freedom gone! Ye almost seem to me to resemble those who have long looked at bad girls dancing naked: your souls themselves dance! In you, ye higher men, there must be more of that which the magician calleth his evil spirit of magic and deceit:—we must indeed be different. And verily, we spake and thought long enough together ere Zarathustra came home to his cave, for me not to be unaware that we ARE different. We SEEK different things even here aloft, ye and I. For I seek more SECURITY; on that account have I come to Zarathustra. For he is still the most steadfast tower and will— —To-day, when everything tottereth, when all the earth quaketh. Ye, however, when I see what eyes ye make, it almost seemeth to me that ye seek MORE INSECURITY, —More horror, more danger, more earthquake. Ye long (it almost seemeth so to me—forgive my presumption, ye higher men)— —Ye long for the worst and dangerousest life, which frighteneth ME most,—for the life of wild beasts, for forests, caves, steep mountains and labyrinthine gorges. And it is not those who lead OUT OF danger that please you best, but those who lead you away from all paths, the misleaders. But if such longing in you be ACTUAL, it seemeth to me nevertheless to be IMPOSSIBLE.
“ZARATHUSTRA!” cried all of them there assembled, as if with one voice, and burst out at the same time into a great laughter; there arose, however, from them as it were a heavy cloud. Even the magician laughed, and said wisely: “Well! It is gone, mine evil spirit! And did I not myself warn you against it when I said that it was a deceiver, a lying and deceiving spirit? Especially when it showeth itself naked. But what can _I_ do with regard to its tricks! Have _I_ created it and the world? Well! Let us be good again, and of good cheer! And although Zarathustra looketh with evil eye—just see him! he disliketh me—: —Ere night cometh will he again learn to love and laud me; he cannot live long without committing such follies. HE—loveth his enemies: this art knoweth he better than any one I have seen. But he taketh revenge for it—on his friends!” Thus spake the old magician, and the higher men applauded him; so that Zarathustra went round, and mischievously and lovingly shook hands with his friends,—like one who hath to make amends and apologise to every one for something. When however he had thereby come to the door of his cave, lo, then had he again a longing for the good air outside, and for his animals,—and wished to steal out.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.