adversaries of the ordered world.
Capesius:
Take then thine own reward where’t may be found.
The impulse that doth drive the souls of men
To seek true spirit-heights within themselves
Set their own measure, their own order make.
Creation were not possible for man
If others wished to claim what he had made.
The song that trills from out the linnet’s throat
Sufficeth for itself; and so doth man
Find his reward, when in his fashioning work
He doth experience creative joy.
(Lightning and thunder.)
Spirit:
It is not meet to grudge me my reward.
If ye yourselves cannot repay the debt
Then tell the woman, who endowed your souls
With power, that she must pay instead of you.
(Exit.)
Capesius:
He hath departed. Whither turn we now?
To find our way aright in these new worlds
Must be, it seems, the first care of our minds.
Strader:
To follow confidently the best way,
That we can find, with sure but cautious tread,
Methinks should lead us straightway to the goal.
Capesius:
Rather should we be silent as to goal.
That we shall find if we courageously
Obey the impulse of our inner self,
Which speaks thus to me: ‘Let Truth be thy guide;
May it unfold strong powers within thyself
And mould them with the noblest fashioning
In all that thou shalt do; then must thy steps
Attain their destined goal, nor go astray.’
Strader:
Yet from the outset it were best our steps
Should not lack consciousness of their true goal,
If we would be of service unto men
And give them happiness. He, who would serve
Himself alone, doth follow his own heart;
But he, who wills to serve his neighbour best,
Must surely know his life’s necessities.
(The Other Maria, also in soul-form, emerges from the rocks, covered with precious stones.)
But see! What wondrous being’s this? It seems
As though the rock itself did give it birth.
From what world-depths do such strange forms arise?
The Other Maria:
I wrest my way through solid rock, and fain
Would clothe in human speech its very will;
I sense earth’s essence and with human brains
I fain would think the thoughts of Earth herself.
I breathe the purest airs of life, and shape
The powers of air to feel as doth mankind.
Strader:
Then thou canst not assist us in our quest.
For far aloft from men’s endeavour stands
All that which must abide in nature’s realm.
Capesius:
Lady, I like thy words, and I would fain
Translate thy form of speech into mine own.
The Other Maria:
Most strange doth seem to me your proud discourse.
For, when ye speak yourselves, unto mine ear
Your words do sound incomprehensible.
But if I let them echo in my heart
And issue in new form, they spread abroad
O’er all that lives in mine environment
And solve for me its hidden mystery.
Capesius:
If this, thy speech, be true, then change for us
Into thy speech, that nature may respond,
The question of the true worth of our lives.
For we ourselves lack power to question thus
Great mother nature that we may be heard.
The Other Maria:
In me ye only see an humble maid
Of that high spirit-being, which doth dwell
In that domain whence ye have just now come.
There hath been given me this field of work
That here in lowliness I may show forth
Her mirrored image unto mortal sense.
Capesius:
So then we have just fled from that domain
Wherein our longing could have been assuaged?
The Other Maria:
And if ye do not find again the way,
Your efforts shall be fruitless evermore.
