This is your most unpardonable obstinacy: you have the power, and you will not rule."-
And I answered: "I lack the lion's voice for all commanding."
Then was there again spoken to me as a whispering: "It is the still words which bring the storm. Thoughts that come with doves' footsteps guide the world.
O Zarathustra, you shall go as a shadow of that which is to come: thus will you command, and in commanding go foremost."-
And I answered: "I am ashamed."
Then was there again spoken to me without voice: "You must yet become a child, and be without shame.
The pride of youth is still upon you; late have you become young: but he who would become a child must overcome even his youth."-
And I considered a long while, and trembled. At last, however, did I say what I had said at first. "I will not."
Then did a laughing take place all around me. Alas, how that laughing lacerated my bowels and cut into my heart!
And there was spoken to me for the last time: "O Zarathustra, your fruits are ripe, but you are not ripe for your fruits!
So must you go again into solitude: for you shall yet become mellow."-
And again was there a laughing, and it fled: then did it become still around me, as with a double stillness. I lay, however, on the ground, and the sweat flowed from my limbs.
-Now have you heard all, and why I have to return into my solitude. Nothing have I kept hidden from you, my friends.
But even this have you heard from me, who is still the most reserved of men- and will be so!
Ah, my friends! I should have something more to say to
