Every honest one’s step speaketh; the cat however, stealeth along over the ground. Lo! catlike doth the moon come along, and dishonestly.⁠—

This parable speak I unto you sentimental dissemblers, unto you, the “pure discerners!” You do I call⁠—covetous ones!

Also ye love the earth, and the earthly: I have divined you well!⁠—but shame is in your love, and a bad conscience⁠—ye are like the moon!

To despise the earthly hath your spirit been persuaded, but not your bowels: these, however, are the strongest in you!

And now is your spirit ashamed to be at the service of your bowels, and goeth byways and lying ways to escape its own shame.

“That would be the highest thing for me”⁠—so saith your lying spirit unto itself⁠—“to gaze upon life without desire, and not like the dog, with hanging-out tongue: