Ye are only bridges: may higher ones pass over upon you! Ye signify steps: so do not upbraid him who ascendeth beyond you into HIS height!
Zarathustra says the guests are not his right arm: they are too tender, too burdened and crooked, and no smith could hammer them straight. They are only bridges and steps.
- The higher menZarathustra tells the guests they are neither strong nor well-born enough to be his warriors or heirs.
- War, the warrior and courageHe treats his warriors without indulgence, and the sickly would tumble at the beating of his drums.
- The spirit of gravityHe says a mischievous dwarf squats in their corners.
What the critics said
Ludovici holds that Zarathustra's greeting confirms his thesis that the philosophy aims to give higher men the great hope, but harshly: Nietzsche would be a hard bed to higher men, making them harder, not easing their way.