42 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, I
why I love and embrace it, now with me it sitteth on golden eggs.'
Thus thou shalt stammer praising thy virtue.
Once having passions thou calledst them evil. Now however thou hast nothing but thy virtues : they grow out of thy passions.
Thou laidest thy highest goal upon these passions : then they became thy virtues and delights.
And though thou wert from the stock of the choleric, or of the voluptuous, or of the religiously frantic, or of the vindictive :
At last all thy passions grew virtues, and all thy devils angels.
Once thou hadst wild dogs in thy cellar; but at last they changed into birds and sweet singers.
Out of thy poisons thou brewedst a balsam for thee ; thou didst milk thy cow of sorrow now thou drinkest the sweet milk of its udder.
And from this time forth, nothing evil groweth out of thee, unless it be the evil that groweth out of the struggle of thy virtues.
My brother, if thou hast good luck, thou hast one virtue and no more : thus thou walkest more easily over the bridge.
It is a distinction to have many virtues, but a hard lot ; and many having gone to the desert killed them- selves, because they were tired of being the battle and battlefield of virtues.
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