Thou knowest it well: the fainthearted devil in thee, which would fain fold its arms, and place its hands in its bosom, and take it easier:⁠—this fainthearted devil persuadeth thee that “there is a God!”

Thereby , however, dost thou belong to the light-dreading type, to whom light never permitteth repose: now must thou daily thrust thy head deeper into obscurity and vapour!

And verily, thou choosest the hour well: for just now do the nocturnal birds again fly abroad. The hour hath come for all light-dreading people, the vesper hour and leisure hour, when they do not⁠—“take leisure.”

I hear it and smell it: it hath come⁠—their hour for hunt and procession, not indeed for a wild hunt, but for a tame, lame, snuffling, soft-treaders’, soft-prayers’ hunt⁠—