128 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, II
All the secrets of your foundation shall be brought unto light ; and when ye will lie in the sun harrowed and crushed, your lie will be separated from your truth.
For this is your truth : ye are too cleanly for the filth of the words : revenge, punishment, reward, retaliation.
Ye love your virtue as the mother doth her child ; but did anybody ever hear of a mother wishing to be paid for her love ?
It is your dearest self, your virtue. The thirst of the ring is within you. To reach itself again, for that purpose every ring struggleth and turneth.
And every work of your virtue resembleth a star extinguished. Its light is still on the way and travel- leth on. When will it have ceased to be on the way ?
Thus the light of your virtue is still on the way, even when the work hath been done. Be it forgotten or dead, its beam of light still liveth and travelleth.
That your virtue is your self, and not anything strange, a skin, a mantle : that is the truth from the foundation of your soul, ye virtuous !
But to be sure there are men who call the agony under the whip virtue ; and ye have listened too much unto their crying !
And there are others who call the putrefaction of their vices virtue ; and when their hatred and their jealousy for once stretch their limbs, their justice awakeneth and rubbeth its sleepy eyes.
And there are others who are drawn downwards :
�� �
