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 dog! Thou surely knowest thine own species best! Like thyself the state is a dissembling dog; like thee doth it like to speak with smoke and roaring—to make believe, like thee, that it speaketh out of the heart of things. For it seeketh by all means to be the most important creature on earth, the state; and people think it so."
