God?—the sum of my tendencies, uttered, unuttered, definite, innate; Me the individual, my special differentia—not thee, but me unevolved, guessing at myself unegged; that is God if God there be. Christ was the deepest, Napoleon was the deepest, he of Weimar was the deepest: to be yourself, that is the deepest— That is to be God.
Thou shalt love thyself more than thy neighbor. Sound trumpet, thrust rapier, cleave unto thyself: selfward we go, godhood be ours!
Unique in all time is my unquotable self: God in the dungeon of me, fear-shackled, thonged in the cords of the past. Into the light at this moment, thou long-buried ONE; sternly, defiantly, joyously, I lift Thee into the light! Long hast thou lain in crypts, and thy eyes are still closed; mute is God's tongue, as silent as dreams.
Sound trumpet, thrust rapier, I cleave to myself, though spiked to a cross and rabbled by Doubt!
Publication History
The Shadow-Eater [1915/17 and 1923]
1923 Edition Text Changes
- unegged; that > unegged; ⁋ That
- deepest: to be > deepest: ⁋ To be
- self: God > self: ⁋ God
- ONE; sternly > One; ⁋ Sternly
- closed; mute > closed; ⁋ Mute