What if
a demon
were to creep
after you
one
night,
in your
loneliest
loneliness,
and say,
‘This
life which
you live must
be lived
by you
once again
and innumerable
times
more; and
every
pain and
joy and
thought
and sigh
must come
again
to you, all
in the
same sequence.
The
eternal
hourglass
will again
and again
be turned
and you
with
it, dust
of the
dust!’ Would
you throw
yourself
down and
gnash your
teeth
and curse
that
demon? Or
would
you answer,
‘Never
have I heard
anything
more divine’?
