I + 

When Zarathustra was again on the continent, he did not go straightway to his mountains and his cave, but made many wanderings and questionings, and ascertained this and that; so that he said of himself jestingly: “Lo, a river that floweth back unto its source in many windings!” For he wanted to learn what had taken place among men during the interval: whether they had become greater or smaller. And once, when he saw a row of new houses, he marvelled, and said: + 

“What do these houses mean? Verily, no great soul put them up as its simile! + 

“Did perhaps a silly child take them out of its toy-box? Would that another child put them again into the box! + 

“And these rooms and chambers⁠—can men go out and in there? They seem to be made for silk dolls; or for dainty-eaters, who perhaps let others eat with them.” + 

And Zarathustra stood still and meditated. At last he said sorrowfully: “There hath everything become smaller! + 

“Everywhere do I see lower doorways: he who is of my type can still go therethrough, but⁠—he must stoop! + 

“Oh, when shall I arrive again at my home, where I shall no longer have to stoop⁠—shall no longer have to stoop before the small ones!”⁠—And Zarathustra sighed, and gazed into the distance.⁠— + 

The same day, however, he gave his discourse on the bedwarfing virtue. + 