Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/91

 OF THE PREACHERS OF DEATH 57

Whenever they meet with a diseased or an old man or a corpse they say : ' Life hath been refuted.'

But only they themselves are refuted and their eye that seeth only that one face of existence.

Wrapped in thick melancholy and hungry for those little accidents which produce death they wait with clenched teeth.

Or: they reach out for sweetmeats and so doing mock their own childishness : they cling to the straw of their life and mock because they are hanging on a straw.

Their wisdom is : 'A fool he who remaineth alive ; but to that extent we are fools ! And that is the greatest folly of life ! '

' Life is but suffering ' others say, and they do not lie. Well then, see that you die ! See to it that life which is but suffering come to an end.

And let this be the teaching of your virtue : ' Thou shalt kill thyself ! thou shalt steal thyself away ! '

' Lust is sin,' the preachers of death say, ' let us turn aside and produce no children ! '

'Giving birth is toilsome,' say the others, 'why give birth ? One giveth birth to unhappy ones only ! ' And they also are preachers of death.

'Pity is needed' a third section say. 'Accept from me whatever I have ! Accept from me what- ever I am. The less am I bound unto life ! '

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