124 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, II
Once when the sea tossed them to and fro they believed they had landed on an island; but, behold, it was a slumbering monster !
False values and illusory words : these are the worst monsters for mortals, in them doom slum- bereth and waiteth long.
But at last it cometh and waketh and eateth and devoureth whatever made its tabernacle upon it.
Oh, look at the tabernacles made by these priests ! Churches they call their sweetly smelling dens.
Oh, that falsified light, that heavy air ! This place where the soul is not allowed to fly upwards unto its height !
But thus its faith commandeth ! ' On your knees up the stairs, ye sinners ! '
Verily, I would rather see the shameless than the sprained eyes of their shame and devotion !
Who created for himself such dens and stairs of penitence ? Was it not such as sought to hide themselves and were ashamed of the clear sky ?
And not until the clear sky shall again look through broken ceilings and down on grass and red poppy growing by broken walls, shall I again turn my heart unto the places of this God.
They called God what was opposite and painful unto them : and, verily, there was much of the heroic in their worship !
And they did not know how to love their God otherwise than by fixing man unto the cross.
�� �
