Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/98

 64 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, I

idol: thus it buyeth for itself the splendour of your virtue and the glance of your proud eyes.

With you the state will bait the hook for the much- too-many ! Ay, a piece of hellish machinery was in- vented then, a horse of death, rattling in the attire of godlike honours !

Ay, the death of many was invented then, death which praiseth itself as life : verily, a welcome service unto all preachers of death !

What I call the state is where all are poison- drinkers, the good and the evil alike. What I call the state is where all lose themselves, the good and the evil alike. What I call the state is where the slow suicide of all is called 'life.'

Look at those superfluous ! They steal the works of inventors and the treasures of wise men : their theft they call education and for them everything turneth into disease and hardship !

Look at those superfluous ! Diseased they ever are, they vomit bile and call it newspaper. They devour but cannot digest each other.

Look at those superfluous ! They acquire riches and become poorer thereby. They seek power, and first the crow-bar of power, much money these im- potent ones.

See how they climb, these swift apes ! They climb over each other and thus drag themselves into the mud and depths.

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