Thou goest the way to thy greatness: here shall no one steal after
thee! Thy foot itself hath effaced the path behind thee, and over it
standeth written: Impossibility. 184
From the gateway, This Moment, there runneth a long eternal lane
_backwards:_ behind us lieth an eternity.
Must not whatever _can_ run its course of all things, have already run
along that lane? Must not whatever _can_ happen of all things have
already happened, resulted, and gone by?
And if everything have already existed, what thinkest thou, dwarf, of
This Moment? Must not this gateway also--have already existed?
And are not all things closely bound together in such wise that This
Moment draweth all coming things after it? _Consequently_--itself also?
For whatever _can_ run its course of all things, also in this long lane
_outward--must_ it once more run!--
And this slow spider which creepeth in the moonlight, and this
moonlight itself, and thou and I in this gateway whispering together,
whispering of eternal things--must we not all have already existed? 186
And must we not return and run in that other lane out before us, that
long weird lane--must we not eternally return? 190-191
All things are baptised at the font of eternity, and beyond good and
evil; good and evil themselves, however, are but fugitive shadows and
damp afflictions and passing clouds.
Verily, it is a blessing and not a blasphemy when I teach that "above
all things there standeth, the heaven of chance, the heaven of
innocence, the heaven of hazard, the heaven of wantonness."
"Of Hazard"--that is the oldest nobility in the world; that gave I back
to all things; I emancipated them from bondage under purpose.
This freedom and celestial serenity did I put like an azure bell above
all things, when I taught that over them and through them, no "eternal
will"--willeth.
This wantonness and folly did I put in place of that will, when I
taught that "In everything there is one thing impossible--rationality!"
201
I pass through this people and keep mine eyes open: they do not forgive
me for not envying their virtues.
They bite at me, because I say unto them that for small people, small
virtues are necessary--and because it is hard for me to understand that
small people are _necessary!_ 203