Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah! it findeth out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves!
Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became of the conflict, and now your weariness serveth the new idol!
Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of good consciences,--the cold monster!
Everything will it give YOU, if YE worship it, the new idol: thus it purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes.
It seeketh to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yea, a hellish artifice hath here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honours!
Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as life: verily, a hearty service unto all preachers of death!
You don't have to look far here to find out.
I'd say it's funny that I didn't remember that passage, but reading Also Sprach Zarathustra is like hitting yourself in the head repeatedly with a 2x4. It does feel good when you quit.
Oops! Forgot to H/T William Norman Grigg at Lewrockwell.com
2 comments:
Al, neither do I recall that passage - reading to be done.
Worse, between you and TF you got me tardising to my 20s and reading "Dream of Gerontius" again. Hard going, now, as I have enough consciousness of mortality without adding to it.
You know, that passage is actually pretty incomprehensible if you don't know what he's talking about. I don't know "Dream of Gerontius." I'll take a look at it.
Post a Comment