Thus Spoke Nietzsche: Prologue 2
Zarathustra descended alone from the mountains, encountering no one. But when he came into the forest, all at once there stood before him an old man who had left his holy cottage to look for roots in the woods. And thus spoke the old man to Zarathustra:
"No stranger to me is this wanderer: many years ago he passed this way. Zarathustra he was called, but he has changed. At that time you carried your ashes to the mountains; would you now carry your fire into the valleys? Do you not fear to be punished as an arsonist?
Yes, I recognize Zarathustra. His eyes are pure, and around his mouth there hides no disgust. Does he not walk like a dancer?
Zarathustra has changed, Zarathustra has become a child, Zarathustra is an awakened one; what do you now want among the sleepers? You lived in your solitude as in the sea, and the sea carried you. Alas, would you now climb ashore? Alas, would you again drag your own body?"
Zarathustra answered: "I love man."
"Why," asked the saint, "did I go into the forest and the desert? Was it not because I loved man all-too-much? Now I love God, man I love not. Man is for me too imperfect a thing. Love of man would kill me."
Zarathustra answered: "Did I speak of love? I bring men a gift."
"Give them nothing!" said the saint. "Rather, take part of their load and help them to hear it--that will be best for them, if only it does you good! And if you want to give them something, give no more than alms, and let them beg for that!"
"No," answered Zarathustra. "I give no alms. For that I am not poor enough."
The saint laughed at Zarathustra and spoke thus: "Then see to it that they accept your treasures. They are suspicious of hermits and do not believe that we come of gifts. Our steps sound too lonely through the streets. And what if at night, in their beds, they hear a man walk by long before the sun has risen--they probably ask themselves, where is the thief going?
Do not go to man. Stay in the forest! Go rather even to the animals! Why do you not want to be as I am--a bear among bears, a bird among birds?"
"And what is the saint doing in the forest?" asked Zarathustra.
The saint answered: "I make songs and sing them; and when I make songs, I laugh, cry, and hum: thus I praise God. With singing, crying, laughing, and humming I praise the god who is my god. But what do you bring us as a gift?"
When Zarathustra had heard these words he bade the saint farewell and said: "What could I have to give you? But let me go quickly lest I take something from you!" And thus they separated, the old one and the man, laughing as two boys laugh.
But when Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it be possible? This old saint in the forest has not yet heard anything of this, that God is dead?!"