OF THE THREE METAMORPHOSES 27
All value hath been created, and all value created that is I. Verily, there shall be no more "I will."' Thus saith the dragon.
My brethren, wherefore is the lion in the spirit necessary? Wherefore doth the beast of burden that renounceth and is reverent not suffice?
To create new values—that even the lion is not able to do : but to create for itself freedom for new creating, for that the lion's power is enough.
To create for one's self freedom and a holy Nay even towards duty: therefore, my brethren, the lion is required.
To take for one's self the right to new values—that is the most terrible taking for a spirit able to bear the load and reverent. Indeed, for it a preying it is and the work of a beast of prey.
As its holiest it once loved 'thou shalt': now it must find illusion and arbitrariness even in the holiest, in order to prey for itself freedom from its love : the lion is required for that preying.
But tell me, my brethren, what can the child do which not even the lion could? Why must the preying lion become a child also?
The child is innocence and oblivion, a new starting, a play, a wheel rolling by itself, a prime motor, a holy asserting.
Ay, for the play of creating, my brethren, a holy asserting is wanted : it is its own will that the spirit
