What I'm about to tell you is the narrative of the next two centuries. I'm going to tell what will happen, what must happen: Nihilism's triumph. This history can already be written; necessity is at work in bringing it about. This future has already been announced by a hundred distinct omens; like a destiny, it heralds its arrival everywhere, and all ears are already pricked for this melody of tomorrow. Our entire European civilization has long been suffering in an agony of suspense that grows from decade to decade, as if in anticipation of a catastrophe: restless, violent, helter-skelter, like a river that will reach its bourne, and refuses to reflect-yea, that even dreads contemplation.
