174 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, II
my fishbones, shells, and stinging leaves shall tickle the noses of dissemblers !
Bad air is always around you and your meals. For your lascivious thoughts, your lies and secrecies are in the air!
Dare first to believe yourselves yourselves and your intestines! He who doth not believe himself lieth ever.
A God's mask ye hang before yourselves, ye 'pure.' In a God's mask hid itself your horrible coiled worm.
Verily, ye deceive, ye ' contemplative ' ! Zarathustra also hath been the dupe of your god-like hides. He did not find out the coiling of the snakes by which they were stuffed.
Once I thought I saw a God's soul play in your plays, ye pure perceivers ! No better art I once thought existed than your arts !
The filth of snakes and the bad odour were hidden from me by distance. So was the fact that the cun- ning of a lizard crept lasciviously about.
But I stepped close unto you. Then the day came unto me, and now it cometh unto you, the moon's flirtation is at an end !
Look there ! Detected and pale she standeth there before the dawn of the day !
There it cometh already, the glowing one, its love unto earth cometh ! All sun-love is innocence and creative desire.
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