Ah, that I knew how to lure you back with shepherds’ flutes! Ah, that my lioness wisdom would learn to roar softly! And much have we already learned with one another!
He hopes to lure his friends back with shepherds' flutes. His wild wisdom, born on the lonely mountains, now wanders the wilderness seeking the soft ground of his friends' hearts.
- Teacher and disciplesHe hopes to lure his friends back and to give his wisdom a place in their hearts.
- Friendship, neighbour-love and love of the farthestHis wisdom wants to lay its newest offspring on the soft sward of his friends' love.
What the critics said
Ludovici argues that Zarathustra, though Nietzsche's opus magnum, should not be read first: many chapters are nearly meaningless without knowledge of Nietzsche's life and friendships, and its philosophical views are best clarified by his other works, which he himself regarded as preparation for it.
Ludovici reads 'The Child with the Mirror' as Nietzsche's grief at the misinterpretation of his writings, and says it hints that a creator of new values is most obstructed by language itself, whose words are stamped with the race's long-ruling values, hence the obscurity of original thinkers.