Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/404

 37O THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV

looking sullen, " thou actor from the bottom ! Thou art false. Why speakest thou of truth ?

Thou peacock of peacocks, thou sea of vanity, what didst thou play before me, thou evil wizard ? In whom was it purposed to make me believe, when thou wail- edst in such a shape ? "

" The penitent of spirit" said the old man. "He it was whom I played; (thou didst once thyself invent this word)

The poet and wizard who at last turneth his spirit against himself, the changed one who freezeth to death because of his evil knowledge and his evil conscience.

And now confess it ! It took thee a long time, O Zarathustra, to find out mine art and lie ! Thou be- lievedst in my need, when thou heldest my head with both hands.

I heard thee wail : ' They have loved him too little, they have loved him too little ! ' In deceiving thee so far, my wickedness rejoiced within me."

" Probably thou hast deceived more acute ones than I am," said Zarathustra sternly. " I am not on the watch for deceivers, I must be without prudence. Thus my lot willeth.

But thou must deceive. So far I know thee. Thou must always have two, three, four or five meanings! Even what thou hast now confessed, was not nearly true enough or false enough for me !

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