The fire-dog

And this is the account of Zarathustra’s interview with the fire-dog: The earth, said he, hath a skin; and this skin hath diseases. One of these diseases, for example, is called “man.” And another of these diseases is…

Zarathustra calls the fire-dog a ventriloquist of the earth, embittered, mendacious and shallow, and denies that roaring revolutions are great events. He warns the statue-toppling subverters, and advises kings and churches to let themselves be overthrown so they may revive.

The greatest events—are not our noisiest, but our stillest hours.

Zarathustra says the world revolves inaudibly around the inventors of new values.

Thus spake I before the fire-dog: then did he interrupt me sullenly, and asked: “Church? What is that?” “Church?” answered I, “that is a kind of state, and indeed the most mendacious. But remain quiet, thou dissembling…

Asked what a church is, Zarathustra calls it the most mendacious kind of state. The fire-dog rages with envy at hearing that the state is thought the most important creature.

THE HEART OF THE EARTH IS OF GOLD.

Zarathustra tells of another fire-dog who speaks from the earth's heart and exhales gold and laughter. The first fire-dog, cowed, creeps back into his cave.