Thus Spake Zarathustra - Penn State University

Pars. 3 and 4Friedrich Nietzsche“The Bestowing Virtue” (see Note on Chapter XXII.).Many of the paragraphs will be found to be merely reminiscentof former discourses. For instance, par. 3 recalls“Redemption”. The last verse of par. 4 is important. Freedomwhich, as I have pointed out before, Nietzsche considereda dangerous acquisition in inexperienced or unworthyhands, here receives its death-blow as a generaldesideratum. In the first Part we read under “The Way ofthe Creating One”, that freedom as an end in itself doesnot concern Zarathustra at all. He says there: “Free fromwhat? What doth that matter to Zarathustra? Clearly,however, shall thine eye answer me: free for what?” Andin “The Bedwarfing Virtue”: “Ah that ye understood myword: ‘Do ever what ye will—but first be such as canwill.’”Par. 5Here we have a description of the kind of altruism Nietzscheexacted from higher men. It is really a comment uponPar. 6This refers, of course, to the reception pioneers ofNietzsche’s stamp meet with at the hands of their contemporaries.Par. 8Nietzsche teaches that nothing is stable,—not even values,—noteven the concepts good and evil. He likens lifeunto a stream. But foot-bridges and railings span thestream, and they seem to stand firm. Many will be remindedof good and evil when they look upon these structures;for thus these same values stand over the streamof life, and life flows on beneath them and leaves themstanding. When, however, winter comes and the streamgets frozen, many inquire: “Should not everything—standstill? Fundamentally everything standeth still.” But soonthe spring cometh and with it the thaw-wind. It breaks317