Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/153

 OF THE PITIFUL

" My friends, a mocking speech hath come unto your friend : ' Behold Zarathustra ! Doth he not walk among us as among animals ? '

But it is better said thus : ' The perceiving one walketh among men as being animals.'

Man himself is called by the perceiving one : the animal with red cheeks.

How did he get them ? Was it not because he had occasion so often to be ashamed?

my friends ! Thus speaketh the perceiving one : ' Shame, shame, shame, that is the history of man ! '

That is why the noble one maketh it his law never to make anybody ashamed. He maketh it his law to be ashamed in presence of all that suffereth.

Verily, I like them not, the merciful who are blessed in their mercy. Too much they are lacking in the sense of shame.

If I must be pitiful, I do not wish to be called so ; and if I am so, I like to be so at a distance.

1 also like to veil my head and flee before being recognised ; and thus I ask you to do, my friends !

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