The Madman
                 (excerpt from "The Joyful Wisdom")
                      by: Friedrich Nietzsche


	Have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning
lighted a lantern and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly:
"I seek God! I seek God!" -- As there were many people standing about
who did not believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement. Why!
is he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a child? said another.
Or does he keep himself hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a
sea-voyage? Has he emigrated? -- the people cried out laughingly, all
in a hubbub. The insane man jumped into their midst and transfixed
them with his glances. "Where is God gone?" he called out, "I mean to
tell you! We have killed him, -- you and I! We are all his murderers!
But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who
gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when
we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Away
from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways,
forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we
not stray as though infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe
upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually,
darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning?
Do we not hear the noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do
we not smell the divine putrefaction? -- for even Gods putrefy! God is
dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him!  How shall we console
ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the
mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death
under our knife, -- who will wipe the blood from us? With what water
could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we
have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us?
Shall not we ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of
it? There was never a greater event, -- and on account of it, all who
are born after us belong to a higher history than any history
hitherto!" -- Here the madman was silent and looked again at his
hearers; they were also silent and looked at him in surprise. At last
he threw his lantern on the ground, so that it broke into pieces and
was extinguished. "I come too early," he then said, "I am not come at
the right time. The prodigious event is still on its way, and is
traveling, -- it has not yet reached men's ears. Lightning and thunder
time, the light of the stars needs time, deeds need time, even after
they are done, to be seen and heard. This deed is as yet further from
them than the furthest star, -- and yet they have done it!" -- It is
further stated that the madman made his way into different churches on
the same day, and there intoned his Requiem aeternam deo.

		-Friedrich Nietzsche from "The Joyful Wisdom"