OF OLD AND NEW TABLES 293
ogers, and therefore they believed : ' All is fate. Thou shalt ; for thou must ! '
Then at another time they mistrusted all fortune- tellers and astrologers, and therefore they believed : 'All is freedom. Thou canst; for thou wilt.'
O my brethren, as to the stars and the future there hath only been illusion, not knowledge. And therefore, as to good and evil, there hath also been illusion only, not knowledge !
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'tThou shalt not rob ! ' ' Thou shalt not commit manslaughter ! ' Such words were once called holy ; before them the folk bent their knees and heads and took off their shoes.
But I ask you : Where in the world have there ever been better robbers and murderers than such holy words ?
Is there not in all life robbing and manslaughter? And by calling such words holy, did they not murder truth itself?
Or was it a sermon of death, to call that holy which contradicted all life and counselled against it? O my brethren, break, break the old tables !
ii
My pity for all that is past is in seeing that it is exposed
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