Man, however, is the most courageous animal: thereby hath he overcome every animal. With sound of triumph hath he overcome every pain; human pain, however, is the sorest pain.

Courage slayeth also giddiness at abysses; and where doth man not stand at abysses! Is not seeing itself seeing abysses?

Courage is the best slayer; courage slayeth also fellow-suffering. Fellow-suffering, however, is the deepest abyss; as deeply as man looketh into life, so deeply also doth he look into suffering.

Courage, however, is the best slayer, courage which attacketh; it slayeth even death itself, for it saith: ‘Was that life? Well! Once more!’

In such speech, however, there is much sound of triumph. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

2

‘Halt, dwarf!’ said I. ‘Either I—or thou! I, however, am the stronger of the two—thou knowest not mine abysmal thought! It—couldst thou not endure!’

Then happened that which made me lighter: for the dwarf sprang from my shoulder, the prying sprite! And it squatted on a stone in front of me. There was however a gateway just where we halted.

‘Look at this gateway, dwarf!’ I continued. ‘It hath two faces. Two roads come together here; these hath no one yet gone to the end of.

This long lane backwards, it continueth for an eternity. And that long lane forward—that is another eternity.

They are antithetical to one another, these roads; they directly abut on one another—and it is here, at this gateway, that they come together. The name of the gateway is inscribed above: “This Moment.”

But should one follow them further—and ever further and further on—thinkest thou, dwarf, that these roads would be eternally antithetical?’

‘Everything straight lieth,’ murmured the dwarf, contemptuously. ‘All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle.’

‘Thou spirit of gravity,’ said I wrathfully, ‘do not take it too lightly! Or I shall let thee squat where thou squattest, Haltfoot— and I carried thee high!’

‘Observe,’ continued I, ‘This Moment! From the gateway, This Moment, there runneth a long eternal lane backwards; behind us lieth an eternity.

Must not whatever can run its course of all things, have already run along that lane? Must not whatever can happen of all things have already happened, resulted, and gone by?

And if everything have already existed, what thinkest thou, dwarf, of This Moment? Must not this gateway also—have already existed?

And are not all things closely bound together in such wise that This Moment draweth all coming things after it? Consequently— itself also?

For whatever can run its course of all things, also in this long lane outward—must it once more run!

And this slow spider which creepeth in the moonlight, and this moonlight itself, and thou and I in this gateway whispering together, whispering of eternal things—must we not all have already existed?

—And must we not return and run in that other lane out before us, that long weird lane—must we not eternally return?’