84 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, I
better than bellows : they inflate things and then make them emptier than ever.
Thou callest thyself free? I wish to hear thy dominating thought, not that thou hast escaped a yoke.
Art thou such a one as to be permitted to escape a yoke ? Many there are who threw away everything they were worth when they threw away their servitude.
Free from what ? What doth that concern Zara- thustra ? Clearly thine eyes shall answer : free for what ?
Canst thou give thyself thine evil and thy good, hanging thy will above thee as a law ? Canst thou be thine own judge and the avenger of thine own law ?
Terrible it is to be alone with the judge and avenger of one's own law. Thus a star is cast out into the void and into the icy breath of solitude.
To-day thou still sufferest from the many, thou : to-day thou hast still thy courage and thy hopes entire.
But one day loneliness will weary thee, one day thy pride will writhe and thy courage gnash its teeth. One day thou wilt cry : ' I am alone.'
One day thou wilt see no longer what is high for thee, and much too close what is low for thee ; and what is sublime for thee will make thee afraid as if it were a ghost. One day thou wilt cry: 'All is false.'
There are feelings which tend to slay the lonely one ; if they do not succeed they must themselves die ! But art thou able to be a murderer ?
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