OF GREAT EVENTS 187
when thy noise and smoke disappeared. What matter that a town became a mummy, and a statue lay in the mud !
And this word I tell the subverters of statues. Probably the greatest folly is to throw salt into the sea, and statues into the mud.
In the mud of your contempt the statue lay. But that very fact is its law, that out of contempt life and living beauty grow again !
With more god-like features it now ariseth, seducing by suffering ; and verily ! it will thank you one day fpr subverting it, ye subverters !
But with this counsel I counsel kings and churches and all that is weak from old age and virtue : allow yourselves to be subverted ! In order that ye may recover life, and that virtue may recover you!'
Thus I spake before the fiery dog; then it inter- rupted me sullenly and asked : ' Church ? What is that ? '
'Church?' I answered, 'that is a kind of state, viz., the most deceitful kind. But be quiet, thou hypo- critical dog ! Thou knowest thy kin best, I suppose !
The state is a hypocritical dog like thyself; like thyself it liketh to speak with smoke and roaring, in order to make believe, like thee, that it speaketh out of the womb of things.
For it wisheth absolutely to be the most important animal on earth, the state. And it is believed to be so.'
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