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Page 122
MELCHER. You ought to answer that yourself, and indeed in this way.
It is the Powers themselves who promulgate contemporary opinion, as
they develop in _apparent_ circles. Hegel, the philosopher of the
present, himself dimorphous, for both a 'left'-minded and a
'right'-minded Hegel can always be quoted, has best explained the
contradictions of life, of history and of the spirit, with his own
magic formula. Thesis: affirmation; Antithesis: negation;
Synthesis: comprehension! Young man, or rather, comparatively young
man! You began life by accepting everything, then went on to
denying everything on principle. Now end your life by comprehending
everything. Be exclusive no longer. Do not say: either--or, but:
not only--but also! In a word, or two words rather, Humanity and
Resignation!
Curtain.
SCENE III
CHAPEL OF THE MONASTERY
[Choir of the Monastery Chapel. An open coffin with a bier cloth
and two burning candles. The CONFESSOR leads in the STRANGER by the
hand. The STRANGER is dressed in the white shirt of the novice.]
CONFESSOR. Have you carefully considered the step you wish to take?
STRANGER. Very carefully.
CONFESSOR. Have you no more questions?
STRANGER. Questions? No.
CONFESSOR. Then stay here, whilst I fetch the Chapter and the
Fathers and Brothers, so that the solemn act may begin.
STRANGER. Yes. Let it come to pass.
(The CONFESSOR goes out. The STRANGER, left alone, is sunk in
thought.)
TEMPTER (coming forward). Are you ready?
STRANGER. So ready, that I've no answer left for you.
TEMPTER. On the brink of the grave, I understand! You'll have to
lie in your coffin and appear to die; the old Adam will be covered
with three shovelfuls of earth, and a De Profundis will be sung.
Then you'll rise again from the dead, having laid aside your old
name, and be baptized once more like a new-born child! What will
you be called? (The STRANGER does not reply.) It is written:
Johannes, brother Johannes, because he preached in the wilderness
and ...
STRANGER. Do not trouble me.
TEMPTER. Speak to me a little, before you depart into the long
silence. For you'll not be allowed to speak for a whole year.
STRANGER. All the better. Speaking at last becomes a vice, like
drinking. And why speak, if words do not cloak thoughts?
TEMPTER. _You_ at the graveside. ... Was life so bitter?
STRANGER. Yes. My life was.
TEMPTER. Did you never know one pleasure?
STRANGER. Yes, many pleasures; but they were very brief and seemed
only to exist in order to make the pain of their loss the sharper.
TEMPTER. Can't it be put the other way round: that pain exists in
order to make joy more keen?
STRANGER. It can be put in any way.
(A woman enters with a child to be baptized.)
TEMPTER. Look! A little mortal, who's to be consecrated to
suffering.
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