Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/109

 OF THE FRIEND 75

pathy. Perhaps in thee he liketh the unmoved eye and the look of eternity.

Let thy sympathy with thy friend be hidden under a hard shell, on it thou shalt break thy tooth in biting. Thus thy sympathy will have delicacy and sweetness.

Art thou unto thy friend fresh air and solitude and bread and medicine? Many a one cannot loose his own chains and yet is a saviour unto his friend.

Art thou a slave ? If thou be, thou canst not be a friend. Art thou a tyrant ? If thou be, thou canst not have friends.

Far too long a slave and a tyrant have been hidden in woman. Therefore woman is not yet capable of friendship : she knoweth love only.

In the love of woman there is injustice and blindness unto everything she loveth not. And even in the know- ing love of woman there is still, along with light, sur- prise and lightning at night.

Yet woman is not capable of friendship : women are still always cats and birds. Or, in the best case, cows.

Yet woman is not capable of friendship. But say, ye men, which of you is capable of friendship ?

Oh ! for your poverty, ye men, and your avarice of soul ! As much as ye give unto your friend, I will give unto mine enemy, and will not become poorer thereby.

There is comradeship : oh, that there were friend- ship ! "

Thus spake Zarathustra.

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