Have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern
and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly: "I seek God!
I seek God!" As there were many people standing about who did not
believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement. Why? is he lost? said
one. Has he strayed away like a child? said another. Or does he keep himself
hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea voyage? Has he emigrated?
- the people cried out laughingly, all in a hubbub. The insane man jumped
into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. "Where is God
gone?" he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,
you and I! We are all his murderers! But how have we done it? How were
we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole
horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither
does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns? Do we not dash
on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there
still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness?
Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not
night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light
lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the grave-diggers
who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine putrefaction? - for even
Gods putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How
shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest
and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death
under our knife - who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could
we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to
devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not
ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it? There never
was a greater event - and on account of it, all who are born after us belong
to a higher history than any history hitherto!" Here the madman was
silent and looked again at his hearers; they also were silent and looked
at him in surprise. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, so that
it broke in pieces and was extinguished. "I come too early,"
e then said. "I am not yet at the right time. This prodigious event
is still on its way, and is traveling - it has not yet reached men's ears.
Lightning and thunder need time, the light of the stars needs time, deeds
need time, even after they are done, to be seen and heard. This deed is
as yet further from them than the furthest star - and yet they have done
it themselves!" It is further stated that the madman made his way
into different churches on the same day, and there intoned his Requiem
aeternam deo. When led out and called to account, he always gave the reply:
"What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs and monuments
of God?" |