Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/281

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FOURTH BOOK
245

derogation of science than an open scorn in which any presumptuous priest or artist indulges? You fall short of the strong sense of truth and reality; you do not feel grieved and worried when discovering that science is opposed to your feelings; you do not know the intense longing for knowledge, ruling as law over you; you are not conscious of a duty in the craving to be ever present with your eyes wherever knowledge prevails, to secure all things that have been discerned. You do not know that which you treat with such toleration! And only because you do not know it you succeed in affecting such gracious airs. You, forsooth you, would cast about exasperate and fanatical glances if science would for once cast its flashing eyes upon your faces. What then do we care whether you are showing toleration to a phantom, and not even to us? Never mind us!

271

Festive mood.—Those very people who are most eager in the aspiration after power experience an indescribably pleasant sensation when feeling themselves overpowered. Sinking suddenly and deeply into a feeling as into a whirlpool! Suffering the reins to be snatched from our hands and watching a movement whose end is unknown. Who is it, what is it that renders is this service ?—for it is a great service; we are so happy and breathless, and conscious of an exceptional