They are contrary unto my taste—all the publicans and shopkeepers and kings and other keepers of lands and shops.
Verily, I have also learnt to wait, and from the bottom,—but only to wait for myself. And I learned to stand and to walk and to run and to jump and to climb and to dance over all things.
But this is my teaching: whoever wisheth to learn to fly one day, must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance. One doth not learn flying by flying!
By ladders of rope I learned to climb up unto many a window; with swift legs I climbed up high masts. To sit on high masts of perception seemed unto me no small bliss,—
To flicker on high masts like small flames— although a small light, yet a great comfort for sailors driven out of their course and for shipwrecked folk!
By many ways and modes I have come unto my truth; not on one ladder I climbed up unto the height, where mine eye roveth into my distance.
And I have always asked other folk for the way unwillingly. That hath ever been contrary unto my taste! Rather have I asked and tried the ways for myself.
A trying and asking hath all my walking been. And, verily, one must also learn how to answer such questioning! But that—is my taste—
