Four Mystery Plays

Four Mystery Plays

The Soul's Awakening

Scene 4

(The Manager and Romanus, pausing in their walk, speak as follows.)

Manager:
Thou know'st the mystic friends of Hilary,
And I perceive in thee a clever man
With power to give at all times judgment sure
Both in life's work and in the mystic arts:
And so I value thy considered thought.
But how shall I make sense of what thou sayst?
That Strader's friends should stay in spirit-realms
And not as yet use their clairvoyant powers
Upon the fashioning of things of sense
Seems right to thee. But will the selfsame path
For Strader not be just as dangerous?
His spirit methods seem to prove to me
That nature-spirits always blind his eyes
As soon as strong desire for personal deeds
Drives him to seek some outer work in life.
Within oneself, as all true mystics know,
Those forces must develop in their strength
In order to oppose these enemies;
But Strader's sight, it seems, is not yet ripe
To see such foes upon his spirit-path.

Romanus:
Yet those good spirits who conduct such men
As stand as yet outside the spirit-realms,
Have not yet left his side, but guide his steps.
These spirits ever pass the mystics by,
When they do make their pact with other beings
Who are of service for their spirit mood.
In Strader's methods I can plainly feel
How nature-spirits still give to his self
The fruits of their benign activity.

Manager:
So 'tis by feeling only thou art led
To think good spirits work in Strader's case;
Thou off'rest little and demandest much.

Are these the spirits I must henceforth ask
If I continue active in this place
Where for so long I have been privileged
To serve the work-plans and that spirit true
Which Hilary's own father ever loved,
And which I still hear speaking from his grave,
E'en if his son hath no more ears for it?
What saith this spirit of that brave strong man
When he perceives these crazy spirits now
Which his son tries to bring within his house?
I know that spirit who for ninety years
Lived in his body. He it was who taught
To me the truest secrets of my work
In those old days when he could work himself,
The while his son crept off to mystic fanes,

Romanus:
My friend, canst thou indeed be unaware
How highly this same spirit I revere?
His servant certainly was that old man
Whom for a pattern thou didst rightly choose.
And I myself have striv'n to serve him too
From childhood's days up to the present time.
Yet I too crept away to mystic fanes; —
I planted truly deep within my soul
What they were willing to bestow on me.
But reason swept aside the temple mood
When at the door it entered into life;
I knew that in this way I best could bring
This mood's strong forces into earthly life; —
From out the temple none the less I brought
My soul into my work. And it is well
That soul by reason should not be disturbed.

Manager:
And dost thou find that Strader's spirit-way
Is even distantly akin to thine?
I find myself at thy side ever free
From spirit-beings Strader brings to me.
I clearly feel, e'en in his random speech,
How elemental spirits, quick with life,
By word and nature pour themselves through him
Revealing things the senses cannot grasp.
It is just this that keeps me off from him

Romanus:
This speech, my friend, doth strike me to the heart.
Since I drew nigh to Strader I have felt
Those very thoughts which come to me through him
To be endowed with quite peculiar power;
They sway me just as if they were mine own.
And one day I reflected: What if I
Owe to his soul not to myself the power
Which let me ripen to maturity!
Hard on this feeling came a second one
What if for all that makes me of some use
In life and work and service for mankind
I am indebted to some past earth-life?

Manager:
I feel precisely thus about him too.
When one draws near to him, the spirit which
Doth work through him moves powerfully one's soul.
And if thy strong soul must succumb to him,
How shall I manage to protect mine own
If I unite with him in this his work?

Romanus:
It will depend on thee alone to find
The right relation 'twixt thyself and him.
I think that Strader's power will not harm me
Since in my thought I have conceived a way
In which he may have made that power his own.

Manager:
Have made — his own — such power — and over thee —
A dreamer — over thee — the man of deeds!

Romanus:
If one might dare to make a guess that now
Some spirit lives its life in Strader's frame
Who in some earlier earth-life had attained
To most unusual altitude of soul;
Who knew much which the men of his own time
Were still too undeveloped to conceive.
Then it were possible that in those days
Thoughts in his spirit did originate,
Which by degrees could make their way to earth
And mingle in the common life of men;
And that from this source people like myself
Have drawn their capability for work —
The thoughts which in my youth I seized upon,
And which I found in my environment,
Might well have been this spirit's progeny!

Manager:
And dost thou think it justifiable
To trace back thoughts to Strader and none else
That hold a value for mankind's whole life?

Romanus:
I were a dreamer if I acted thus.
I spin no dreams about mankind's whole life
With eyes fast closed. I ne'er had use for thoughts
That show themselves and forthwith fade away.
I look at Strader with wide-open eyes
And see what this man's nature proves to be,
What qualities he hath and how he acts,
And that wherein he fails; — and then I know
I have no option left me but to judge
Of his endowments as I have just done.
As if this man had stood before mine eyes
Already many hundred years ago,
So do I feel him in my spirit now —
And that I am awake — I know full well.
I shall to Hilary lend my support;
For that which must will surely come to pass.
So think his project over once again.

Manager: