THE UGLIEST MAN 385
Be it a God's, be it men's pity : pity is contrary unto shame. And not to will to help may be nobler than that virtue which readily giveth assistance.
But that is to-day called virtue indeed by all petty folk : viz., pity. They feel no reverence for great mis- fortune, for great ugliness, for great failure.
Over all these I gaze into the distance, as a dog gazeth over the backs of dense flocks of sheep. They are petty gray folk with good wool and good will.
As a heron gazeth scornfully over shallow ponds, with its head laid back, thus I gaze on the dense crowd of gray small waves and wills and souls.
Too long have they been admitted to be right, these petty folk. Thus at last they have also been given power. Now they teach : ' Good is only what the petty folk approve.'
And it is to-day called truth what that preacher hath said, who sprung from themselves, that strange saint and advocate of the petty folk who proclaimed of himself: 'I I am the truth.'
This immodest one hath now for a long time reared the crest of the petty folk he who taught no small error when he taught : ' I am the truth.'
Hath an immodest one ever been answered more politely ? But thou, O Zarathustra, didst pass him by and say : ' Nay ! Nay ! Three times Nay ! '
Thou didst warn folk of his error, thou wert the
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