3/6 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV
Had I come in vain into these forests and moun- tains ? Then my heart resolved to seek another, the most pious of all those who believe not in God, to seek Zarathustra ! "
Thus said the old man and gazed with keen eyes on him who stood in front of him. But Zarathustra seized the hand of the old pope and contemplated it a long while with admiration.
Then he said : " See there, thou venerable one, what a beautiful long hand ! It is the hand of one that hath always given the benediction. But now it holdeth him tight whom thou seekest, myself, Zara- thustra.
It is I, ungodly Zarathustra, who say : ' Who is ungodlier than I, that I may enjoy his teaching?"
Thus spake Zarathustra and pierced with his glance the thoughts and back-thoughts of the old pope, who at last began :
" He who loved Him and possessed him most, hath now lost him most !
Behold, I myself am probably at present of us two the ungodlier one ? But who could rejoice over that ? "
" Thou servedst him unto the very last ? " asked Zarathustra thoughtfully after a deep silence, " thou knowest, how he died ? Is it true what folk say, that he was suffocated by pity ?
That he saw how man hung on the cross, and could
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