Thus Spake Zarathustra - Penn State University

IN PART I. INCLUDING the Prologue, no very great difficultieswill appear. Zarathustra’s habit of designating a wholeclass of men or a whole school of thought by a singlefitting nickname may perhaps lead to a little confusionat first; but, as a rule, when the general drift of hisarguments is grasped, it requires but a slight effort ofthe imagination to discover whom he is referring to. Inthe ninth paragraph of the Prologue, for instance, it isquite obvious that “Herdsmen” in the verse “Herdsmen, Isay, etc., etc.,” stands for all those to-day who are theadvocates of gregariousness—of the ant-hill. And whenour author says: “A robber shall Zarathustra be called bythe herdsmen,” it is clear that these words may be takenalmost literally from one whose ideal was the rearing of ahigher aristocracy. Again, “the good and just,” throughoutthe book, is the expression used in referring to theself-righteous of modern times,—those who are quitesure that they know all that is to be known concerninggood and evil, and are satisfied that the values theirlittle world of tradition has handed down to them, areThus Spake Zarathustradestined to rule mankind as long as it lasts.298In the last paragraph of the Prologue, verse 7,Zarathustra gives us a foretaste of his teaching concerningthe big and the little sagacities, expounded subsequently.He says he would he were as wise as his serpent;this desire will be found explained in the discourse entitled“The Despisers of the Body”, which I shall haveoccasion to refer to later.bTHE DISCOURSESChapter I. The Three MetamorphosesTHIS OPENING DISCOURSE is a parable in which Zarathustradiscloses the mental development of all creators of newvalues. It is the story of a life which reaches its consummationin attaining to a second ingenuousness or in returningto childhood. Nietzsche, the supposed anarchist,