Page:Nietzsche the thinker.djvu/178

162 which it is impossible to give the effect of in English) "von Ohngefähr," literally "by chance," the oldest nobility in the world, and says that the heaven above him is so pure and high, just because there is no spider or spider-web of reason there, because it is a dancing-ground for divine accidents, a divine table for divine dice and dice-players. And yet we are not to infer that Nietzsche reveres chance or accident for itself, and sometimes we find him describing it as a giant to be fought. So far as man is concerned, it is at best an opportunity, a situation from which something may be wrested. He speaks of compelling accidents to dance in measure like the stars. He instances the way in which a master of musical improvising will, if he strikes an accidental note, turn it to account—fitting it into the thematic framework and giving it a beautiful meaning and soul. He represents Zarathustra as superior to chance: the prophet uses it, boils it in his pot—indeed, only in this way does it become his eatable meat. undefined Nietzsche is perfectly aware that those who do not know how to use chance, may find in it their undoing.