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 we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it? There never was 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 also were silent and looked at him in surprise. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, so that it broke in pieces and was extinguished. "I come too early," he then said, "I am not yet at the right time. This prodigious event is still on its way, and is travelling,--it has not yet reached men's ears. Lightning and thunder need 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 æternam deo._ When led out and called to account, he always gave the reply: "What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs and monuments of God?"-- 126. _Mystical Explanations._--Mystical explanations are regarded as profound; the truth is that they do not even go the length of being superficial. 127.