Chapter 54 Part Three Three Evil Things One

In a dream, a dream before the most recent morning, I stood on a peninsula— Out of the world; I hold a scale and weigh the world. Alas, the purple dawn came too soon: she wakes me with her splendor, the envious one!She was always jealous of my morning glory. My dream thinks that the world is like this: it can be measured by those who have time, weighed by delicate measurers, can be flown by strong feathers, and can be guessed by divine solvers. My dream, a brave sailor, half ship, half whirlwind, silent like a butterfly, strong like a vulture eagle: how it weighs the world today with its patience and ease!

My wisdom that mocks all "infinite worlds," my laughing, sober, day-wisdom, says to it in silence: "Where the force is, there the number reigns, for she has greater power. " My dream is neither new, nor old, nor fearful nor supplicant, contemplating this finite world with certainty:— Like a round apple springing itself into my hand, a ripe golden apple with soft skin: thus the world offered itself to me:— Like a tree with broad boughs and upright beckons to me, with twisted branches like chairs and footstools on which travellers rest; so the world towers over my peninsula:—

Like a jewel-chest held in a slender hand—a jewel-chest that delights admiring eyes: Thus is the world presented before me today:— --It is not yet a love which is a riddle enough to frighten man, nor a solution enough to put his intelligence to sleep:--Today, what is called evil in the world seems to me a good, human thing. How thankful I am for my morning dream, for I weighed the world this morning!This dream, this comforter of the heart, came to me like a good human thing! I can do the same during the day!Having learned and imitated its merits, I am now willing to put the three worst things on the scales, and weigh them with the utmost humaneness. ——

Those who teach blessings also teach curses: What are the three most cursed things in the world?I'm willing to put them on my scale.Lust, passion for power, and selfishness: these three things are the most cursed and have the worst notoriety since ancient times— I would have weighed them as well as I could. Get up, then!There's the peninsula, there's the sea - it's sticky and joyously billowing towards me, the old and faithful monster with a thousand heads I love! Arise, then, here I hold the scales on the surging sea: I have chosen a witness too - I have chosen you, you lone tree of the sea, my beloved tree of rich boughs! ——

On what bridge is the transition from the present to the future?By what oppression does the higher bow down to the lower?What commanded the highest still upward? - Now the scales are balanced and stable!At one end I cast three heavy questions, and at the other end three heavy answers.