"Then they shall ask: 'Still lives he, our father Zarathustra? What, can our father Zarathustra be still alive? Does our old father, Zarathustra, still love his children?' "The wind breathes, the wind breathes, the moon shines bright--Oh my far-off, far-off children, why are ye not here, with your father? The wind breathes no cloud passes over the sky, the world sleeps. Oh, joy! Oh, joy!" Nietzsche omitted this page from his work. Perhaps he felt ashamed of so plain and so melancholy an avowal. The fourth part of _Zarathustra_ found no publisher. A few months earlier Schmeitzner had informed Nietzsche that "the public would not read his aphorisms." He now contented himself with stating that the public had chosen to ignore _Zarathustra;_ and there the matter rested, so far as he was concerned. Nietzsche then made certain overtures which only hurt his pride and had no result; then he took a more dignified course and had the manuscript printed at his own expense in an edition limited to forty copies. To tell the truth, his friends were not so numerous. He found seven consignees--none of whom were truly worthy. If we may guess, these were the seven: his sister--whose loss he never ceased to deplore; Overbeck -a strict friend, an intelligent reader, but cautious and reserved; Burckhardt, the Basle historian--who always replied to Nietzsche's messages, but was too polite to be easily fathomed; Peter Gast--the faithful disciple whom, no doubt, Nietzsche found too faithful and obedient; Lanzky--his good companion of the wintertide; Rohde--who scarcely disguised the ennui that these forced readings gave him. These were the seven, we may presume, who received copies of the work, and not all of them troubled to read this fourth and last section, the interlude which ends, and yet does not complete, _Thus Spake Zarathustra._ [9] Phrase in a passage from _Ecce Homo._ [10] "Oh Lebens Mittag! Feierliche Zeit! Oh Sommergarten! Unruhig Glück im Stehn und Spahn und Warten! Der Freunde harr' Ich, Tag und Nacht bereit; Wo bleibt ihr, Freunde? Kommt! s'ist Zeit! s'ist Zeit!" CHAPTER VII THE FINAL SOLITUDE I _Beyond Good and Evil_ The lyrical work was abandoned. At moments Friedrich Nietzsche was to regret and wish to resume it; but these were brief velleities. "Henceforth," he wrote (this time the assurance is exact), "I shall speak, and not Zarathustra."