Thurah’s epistle continued on, alluding along the way to articles from sev-
eral issues ofThe Moment, to which Thurah referred in little footnotes. The
result was a poetic pastiche that presented Kierkegaard’s Christianity, hostile
as it was to the life of the flesh, as sheer spiritual masochism.
Spiritual suffering, there’s the beauty—
’Tis every Christian’s bounden duty.
Christian pain is so divine,
In (or out of) your right mind,
And folks with little oddities
Will find themselves at their hearts’ ease.Thurah was also fascinated with the pyromaniacal “fire chief,” whom he
identified both with Kierkegaard and with Nero, who had set fire to Rome.
Next Thurah turned his attention to Kierkegaard’s personal wealth, which
made it so easy (though hypocritical) for him to demand asceticism of others:
Everything to you was given.
You’ve never had to earn a living.
The Christian feels your painful lash,
But you have never lacked for cash.
You are the rich inheritor
Of dry-goods merchant Kierkegaard,
And all here in the city know
He left you gold, in drifts, like snow.
Your face can smile, your humor dances,
For you yourself take no real chances.
And, oh! what rogues, these foolish pastors
Who, unlike me, cannot be masters,
But “fish for people—my, how greedy!”
Because they’re needy!
“Just follow me. The Lord has said
That I must live, but not earn bread....”
It’s splendid when you think of how
You ran from that engagement vow
That once you to a woman gave
Who said she’d follow to your grave.
But you continued, on and on,
To test the patience of someone
Who, after all, could only bear so much.
And you were out to make her learn that such