"Zarathustra becomes gradually more grand. His doctrine develops with his grandeur.
"The Eternal Return shines like a sun setting on the last catastrophe."
"In the last section great synthesis of him who creates, who loves, who destroys."
In the month of August, Nietzsche had indicated a dénouement. His condition of mind was then very bad, and his work suffered in consequence. He now took up the draft again, and tried to make the best of it.
It was a drama which he had the ambition to write. He places his action in an antique frame, in a city devastated by the pest. The inhabitants wish to commence a new era. They seek a lawgiver; they call Zarathustra, who descends among them, followed by his disciples.
"Go," said he to them, "announce the Eternal Return."
The disciples are afraid and avow it.
"We can endure thy doctrine," they say, "but can this multitude?"
"We must make an experiment with truth!" answers Zarathustra. "And if the truth should destroy humanity, so be it!"
The disciples hesitate again. He commands: "I have put in your hands the hammer which must strike men; strike!"