Chapter 40 Wisdom of the Second World

The heights are not scary, but the slopes are! On the slope, the eyes look down, but the hands climb up.This double will makes the heart dizzy. Alas, friends, can you guess the double will in my heart? My slopes and perils are my eyes projecting upwards, while my hands want to hang and support in--deep! My will is attached to man, to whom I am bound by chains, for I am drawn to the superman: so my other will goes there. So I live blindly among people: as if I didn't know them at all: just so that my hand doesn't lose all faith in hard objects. I don't know you people: this darkness and comfort has always surrounded me.For every rascal I sit before the porch, I ask, "Who will deceive me?"

My first lesson of human wisdom is: Allow myself to be deceived, and not defend myself against the deceiver. Alas, if I defend myself against the crowd, how can the crowd be the anchor of my balloon!I shall be easily snatched away, sucked to high places! This providence rules my fate, and I must have no foresight. Whoever does not want to die of thirst in the crowd must learn to drink from all cups; whoever wants to stay clean in the crowd must learn to wash himself with sewage. And this is what I have often consoled myself with: "Be brave! Cheer up! Old and strong heart! You are defeated in a bad fortune: enjoy it as your own happiness!"

My second worldly wisdom is this: I endure the vain than the proud. Is not vilified vanity the mother of all tragedies?But where pride is slandered, something greater than pride grows. For life to be a good play, it must be well acted: therefore it must have good parts. I think all vain people are good characters: they play and want others to see them--their whole spirit is in this will. They act out for each other, discover each other; I like to watch life beside them,--it's a cure for the blues. So I endure the vain because they are the doctors of my melancholy; because they relate me to the crowd as they do to the theatre.

And who can fathom the whole depth of the humility of the vain!I was kind to him, and sympathized with their humility. From you he will learn self-confidence; he feeds on your eyes and feeds on your praises. He loves to hear your lies, so long as you speak them in praise of him: for from the deepest part of his heart he sighs, "What am I!" If true morality is not knowing it: Well, the vain man does not know his humility! —— My third piece of human wisdom is this: Let not your timidity tire me of the show of the wicked. I am delighted to see the wonders of the hot sun: tigers and palm trees and rattlesnakes.

Among men the hot sun has good hatches, and among the wicked there are many wonders. It is true, I do not think that the wise among you are really wise: nor do I think that the wicked among men are so legendary. I often shake my head and ask myself: rattlesnake, why do you still wag your tails? Indeed, evil also has a future!The hottest south has yet to be discovered. Many of the heinous things that are now called are no more than twelve feet wide and three months long!But one day bigger dragons will come to the world. In order for Superman to have his dragons, non-super dragons are not enough to be called Superman: many hot suns have to shine on the humble and ancient forests!

Your wild cat must evolve into a tiger, and your poisonous frog into a crocodile: because a good hunter must have a good prey! Really, good and upright people, you have many things to laugh at, especially your fear of the so-called "devil"! Your souls are too alien to greatness, and you will find the superman in the good to be terrible! You sages and scholars, you shall flee from the sun of wisdom, where the Superman bathes his nakedness with pleasure! O you high men whom I have seen!This is my laugh at your doubts and my secret: I guess you will still call my superman a devil!

Alas, I am weary of the higher and the best: I long to rise from their "heights" higher and farther, to the Superman! When I see the best of these naked, I shudder: so my wings carry me far into the future. To farther futures, farther south than the artist ever dreamed: where the gods are ashamed to dress! O neighbours, and companions, I wish you would be dressed in disguise, vain, honorable, like those who are good and upright,— I too will sit with you in masquerade—so that I cannot recognize you or myself: this is my last mortal wisdom. Thus spake Zarathustra.