‘_Holy Father, it is your task now!_’
‘DON CARLOS’
(Philip II. to the Grand Inquisitor).
I keep wanting to repeat these words to Bismarck. The pear is ripe
and the thing cannot be done without His Excellency. Do not stand on
ceremony, Count!
I do not marvel at what is being done, and I have no right to marvel—I
have long been crying out, Beware, beware!... I simply say farewell, and
that is hard. There is neither contradiction nor weakness in it. A man
may know very well that if his gout gets worse it will hurt him very
much: what is more, he may have a presentiment that it will get worse,
and that there is no way of stopping it: nevertheless, it will hurt him
just as much when it does come on.