The people in the market-place

When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest town which adjoineth the forest, he found many people assembled in the market-place; for it had been announced that a rope-dancer would give a performance. And Zarathustra spake…

In the market-place Zarathustra teaches that man is to be surpassed, as the ape is to man. He describes the hour of great contempt and calls the Superman the lightning and the frenzy. The crowd laughs and asks to see the rope-dancer.

Zarathustra, however, looked at the people and wondered. Then he spake thus: Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous…

Zarathustra says man is a bridge and not a goal. He lists those he loves, all of them willing to perish for the sake of what is to come.

When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he again looked at the people, and was silent. “There they stand,” said he to his heart; “there they laugh: they understand me not; I am not the mouth for these ears. Must one…

Zarathustra decides to appeal to their pride and speaks of the last man. The crowd cheers and asks him to make them last men. He is saddened and says he is not the mouth for these ears.

Then, however, something happened which made every mouth mute and every eye fixed. In the meantime, of course, the rope-dancer had commenced his performance: he had come out at a little door, and was going along the…

A buffoon leaps over the rope-dancer, who falls beside Zarathustra. The dying man fears the devil and hell. Zarathustra says there is neither and promises to bury him.

When Zarathustra went one day over the great bridge, then did the cripples and beggars surround him, and a hunchback spake thus unto him: “Behold, Zarathustra! Even the people learn from thee, and acquire faith in thy…

On the great bridge a hunchback asks Zarathustra to heal the cripples so that the people will believe him. Zarathustra answers that he sees worse: 'reversed cripples' who are one huge organ, like the ear as big as a man.

I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open: they do not forgive me for not envying their virtues. They bite at me, because I say unto them that for small people, small virtues are necessary—and because it is…

Zarathustra describes how the small people bite at him, gossip about him, shield their children from his eyes and offer him a prickly praise. He stays courteous to them as to small annoyances.

For they are moderate also in virtue,—because they want comfort. With comfort, however, moderate virtue only is compatible. To be sure, they also learn in their way to stride on and stride forward: that, I call their…

Zarathustra lists their faults: hobbling progress, acting, hypocritical rulers who claim to serve, and a modest pursuit of small happiness. He calls their so-called virtue cowardice and their moderation mediocrity.

Ye ever become smaller, ye small people! Ye crumble away, ye comfortable ones! Ye will yet perish— —By your many small virtues, by your many small omissions, and by your many small submissions! Too tender, too yielding:…

He cries to the winds that the small ones crumble away. A great tree needs hard roots around hard rocks, and even their omissions weave the future.