OF HIGHER MAN 421
��Have ye courage, O my brethren ? Are ye stout- hearted ? I do not mean courage in the presence of witnesses, but the courage of hermits and eagles, on which not even a God looketh any more.
Cold souls, mules, blind folk, drunk folk I do not call stout-hearted. Courage hath he who knoweth fear, but subdueth fear; he who seeth the abyss, but with pride.
He who seeth the abyss, but with an eagle's eyes ; he who grasp eth the abyss with an eagle's claws ; he hath courage.
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' Man is evil ' thus all the wisest men said unto me, as a comfort. Alas, if that be still true to-day ! For what is evil, is man's best power.
'Man must become better and more evil,' thus / teach. The evilest is necessary for the best of beyond-man.
It may have been well for that petty folk's preacher to suffer and bear the burden of man's sin. But I rejoice in the great sin as in my great comfort.
But such things are not said for long ears. Every word hath not its proper place in every mouth. These are fine, remote things. For them sheep's claws must not grasp !
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