Existentialism
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844 - 1900)
|
A
sublime one saw I today, a solemn one, a penitent of the
spirit: Oh, how my soul laughed at his ugliness! (thus
spake zarathustra) |
22.The
Bestowing Virtue
1.
WHEN Zarathustra had taken leave of the
town to which his heart was attached, the name of which is "The Pied
Cow," there followed him many people who called themselves his disciples,
and kept him company. Thus came they to a crossroads. Then Zarathustra
told them that he now wanted to go alone; for he was fond of going alone.
His disciples, however, presented him at his departure with a staff, on
the golden handle of which a serpent twined round the sun. Zarathustra
rejoiced on account of the staff, and supported himself thereon; then
spake he thus to his disciples:
Tell me, pray: how came gold to the highest
value? Because it is uncommon, and unprofiting, and beaming, and soft
in lustre; it always bestoweth itself.
Only as image of the highest virtue came
gold to the highest value. Goldlike, beameth the glance of the bestower.
Gold-lustre maketh peace between moon and sun.
Uncommon is the highest virtue, and unprofiting,
beaming is it, and soft of lustre: a bestowing virtue is the highest virtue.
Verily, I divine you well, my disciples:
ye strive like me for the bestowing virtue. What should ye have in common
with cats and wolves?
It is your thirst to become sacrifices
and gifts yourselves: and therefore have ye the thirst to accumulate all
riches in your soul.
Insatiably striveth your soul for treasures
and jewels, because your virtue is insatiable in desiring to bestow.
Ye constrain all things to flow towards
you and into you, so that they shall flow back again out of your fountain
as the gifts of your love.
Verily, an appropriator of all values must
such bestowing. love become; but healthy and holy, call I this selfishness.Another
selfishness is there, an all-too-poor and hungry kind, which would always
steal- the selfishness of the sick, the sickly selfishness.
With the eye of the thief it looketh upon
all that is lustrous; with the craving of hunger it measureth him who
hath abundance; and ever doth it prowl round the tables of bestowers.
Sickness speaketh in such craving, and
invisible degeneration; of a sickly body, speaketh the larcenous craving
of this selfishness.
Tell me, my brother, what do we think bad,
and worst of all? Is it not degeneration?- And we always suspect degeneration
when the bestowing soul is lacking.
Upward goeth our course from genera on
to super-genera. But a horror to us is the degenerating sense, which saith:
"All for myself."
Upward soareth our sense: thus is it a
simile of our body, a simile of an elevation. Such similes of elevations
are the names of the virtues.
Thus goeth the body through history, a
becomer and fighter. And the spirit- what is it to the body? Its fights'
and victories' herald, its companion and echo.
Similes, are all names of good and evil;
they do not speak out, they only hint. A fool who seeketh knowledge from
them!
Give heed, my brethren, to every hour when
your spirit would speak in similes: there is the origin of your virtue.
Elevated is then your body, and raised
up; with its delight, enraptureth it the spirit; so that it becometh creator,
and valuer, and lover, and everything's benefactor.
When your heart overfloweth broad and full
like the river, a blessing and a danger to the lowlanders: there is the
origin of your virtue.
When ye are exalted above praise and blame,
and your will would command all things, as a loving one's will: there
is the origin of your virtue.
When ye despise pleasant things, and the
effeminate couch, and cannot couch far enough from the effeminate: there
is the origin of your virtue.
When ye are willers of one will, and when
that change of every need is needful to you: there is the origin of your
virtue.
Verily, a new good and evil is it! Verily,
a new deep murmuring, and the voice of a new fountain!
Power is it, this new virtue; a ruling
thought is it, and around it a subtle soul: a golden sun, with the serpent
of knowledge around it.
2.
Here paused Zarathustra awhile, and looked
lovingly on his disciples. Then he continued to speak thus- and his voice
had changed:
Remain true to the earth, my brethren,
with the power of your virtue! Let your bestowing love and your knowledge
be devoted to be the meaning of the earth! Thus do I pray and conjure
you.
Let it not fly away from the earthly and
beat against eternal walls with its wings! Ah, there hath always been
so much flown-away virtue!
Lead, like me, the flown-away virtue back
to the earth- yea, back to body and life: that it may give to the earth
its meaning, a human meaning!
A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as
well as virtue flown away and blundered. Alas! in our body dwelleth still
all this delusion and blundering: body and will hath it there become.
A hundred times hitherto hath spirit as
well as virtue attempted and erred. Yea, an attempt hath man been. Alas,
much ignorance and error hath become embodied in us!
Not only the rationality of millennia-
also their madness, breaketh out in us. Dangerous is it to be an heir.
Still fight we step by step with the giant
Chance, and over all mankind hath hitherto ruled nonsense, the lack-of-sense.
Let your spirit and your virtue be devoted
to the sense of the earth, my brethren: let the value of everything be
determined anew by you! Therefore shall ye be fighters! Therefore shall
ye be creators!
Intelligently doth the body purify itself;
attempting with intelligence it exalteth itself; to the discerners all
impulses sanctify themselves; to the exalted the soul becometh joyful.
Physician, heal thyself: then wilt thou
also heal thy patient. Let it be his best cure to see with his eyes him
who maketh himself whole.
A thousand paths are there which have never
yet been trodden; a thousand salubrities and hidden islands of life. Unexhausted
and undiscovered is still man and man's world.
Awake and hearken, ye lonesome ones! From
the future come winds with stealthy pinions, and to fine ears good tidings
are proclaimed.
Ye lonesome ones of today, ye seceding
ones, ye shall one day be a people: out of you who have chosen yourselves,
shall a chosen people arise:- and out of it the Superman.
Verily, a place of healing shall the earth
become! And already is a new odour diffused around it, a salvation-bringing
odour- and a new hope!
3.
When Zarathustra had spoken these words,
he paused, like one who had not said his last word; and long did he balance
the staff doubtfully in his hand. At last he spake thus- and his voice
had changed:
I now go alone, my disciples! Ye also now
go away, and alone! So will I have it.
Verily, I advise you: depart from me, and
guard yourselves against Zarathustra! And better still: be ashamed of
him! Perhaps he hath deceived you.
The man of knowledge must be able not only
to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends.
One requiteth a teacher badly if one remain
merely a scholar. And why will ye not pluck at my wreath?
Ye venerate me; but what if your veneration
should some day collapse? Take heed lest a statue crush you!
Ye say, ye believe in Zarathustra? But
of what account is Zarathustra! Ye are my believers: but of what account
are all believers!
Ye had not yet sought yourselves: then
did ye find me. So do all believers; therefore all belief is of so little
account.
Now do I bid you lose me and find yourselves;
and only when ye have all denied me, will I return unto you.
Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall
I then seek my lost ones; with another love shall I then love you.
And once again shall ye have become friends
unto me, and children of one hope: then will I be with you for the third
time, to celebrate the great noontide with you.
And it is the great noontide, when man
is in the middle of his course between animal and Superman, and celebrateth
his advance to the evening as his highest hope: for it is the advance
to a new morning.
At such time will the down-goer bless himself,
that he should be an over-goer; and the sun of his knowledge will be at
noontide.
"Dead are all the Gods: now do we
desire the Superman to live."- Let this be our final will at the
great noontide! Thus spake Zarathustra.
_______________
Ce
qu'on fait n'est jamais compris mais seulement loué ou blâmé.
Nietzsche, Gay Science |
