Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Chapter LI. On Passing-by.
259 words | Chapter 36
Here we find Nietzsche confronted with his extreme opposite, with
him therefore for whom he is most frequently mistaken by the unwary.
“Zarathustra’s ape” he is called in the discourse. He is one of those
at whose hands Nietzsche had to suffer most during his life-time, and
at whose hands his philosophy has suffered most since his death. In this
respect it may seem a little trivial to speak of extremes meeting; but
it is wonderfully apt. Many have adopted Nietzsche’s mannerisms and
word-coinages, who had nothing in common with him beyond the ideas and
“business” they plagiarised; but the superficial observer and a large
portion of the public, not knowing of these things,—not knowing perhaps
that there are iconoclasts who destroy out of love and are therefore
creators, and that there are others who destroy out of resentment and
revengefulness and who are therefore revolutionists and anarchists,—are
prone to confound the two, to the detriment of the nobler type.
If we now read what the fool says to Zarathustra, and note the tricks of
speech he has borrowed from him: if we carefully follow the attitude
he assumes, we shall understand why Zarathustra finally interrupts him.
“Stop this at once,” Zarathustra cries, “long have thy speech and
thy species disgusted me.... Out of love alone shall my contempt and my
warning bird take wing; BUT NOT OUT OF THE SWAMP!” It were well if
this discourse were taken to heart by all those who are too ready to
associate Nietzsche with lesser and noiser men,—with mountebanks and
mummers.
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