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Page 84
STRANGER. Of course not! But they do at least mark well founded
appreciation, that neither envy nor lack of understanding can
shake.
CONFESSOR. You think so? It seems to me that human greatness
resides in the good opinion of others; and that, if this opinion
changes, the greatest can quickly dwindle into nothing.
STRANGER. The opinions of others have never meant much to me.
CONFESSOR. Haven't they? Really?
STRANGER. No one's been so strict with himself as I! And no one's
been so humble! All have demanded my respect; whilst they spurned
me and spat on me. And when at last I found I'd duties towards the
immortal soul given into my keeping, I began to demand respect for
this immortal soul. Then I was branded as the proudest of the
proud! And by whom? By the proudest of all amongst the humble and
lowly.
CONFESSOR. I think you're entangling yourself in contradictions.
STRANGER. I think so, too! For the whole of life consists of
nothing but contradictions. The rich are the poor in spirit; the
many little men hold the power, and the great only serve the little
men. I've never met such proud people as the humble; I've never met
an uneducated man who didn't believe himself in a position to
criticise learning and to do without it. I've found the
unpleasantest
of deadly sins amongst the Saints: I mean self-complacency. In my
youth I was a saint myself; but I've never been so worthless as I
was then. The better I thought myself, the worse I became.
CONFESSOR. Then what do you seek here?
STRANGER. What I've told you already; but I'll add this: I'm
seeking death without the need to die!
CONFESSOR. The mortification of your flesh, of your old self! Good!
Now keep still: the pilgrims are coming on their wooden rafts to
celebrate the festival of Corpus Christi.
STRANGER (looking to the right in surprise). Who are they?
CONFESSOR. People who believe in something.
STRANGER. Then help my unbelief! (Sunlight now falls on the
monstrance in the church above, so that it shines like a window
pane at sunset.) Has the sun entered the church, or. ...
CONFESSOR. Yes. The sun has entered. ...
(The first raft comes in from the right. Children clothed in white,
with garlands on their heads and with lighted lanterns in their
hands, are seen standing round an altar decked with flowers, on
which a white flag with a golden lily has been planted. They sing,
whilst the raft glides slowly by.)
Bless�d be he, who fears the Lord,
Beati omnes, qui timent Dominum,
And walks in his ways,
Qui ambulant in viis ejus.
Thou shalt feed thyself with the work of thy hands,
Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis;
Bless�d be thou and peace be with thee,
Beatus es et bene tibi erit.
(A second raft appears with boys on one side and girls on the
other. It has a flag with a rose on it.)
Thy wife shall be like a fruitful vine,
Uxor tua sicut vitis abundans,
Within thy house,
In lateribus domus tuae.
(The third raft carries men and women. There is a flag with fruit
upon it: figs, grapes, pomegranates, melons, ears of wheat, etc.)
Filii tui sicut novellae olivarum,
Thy children shall be like olive branches about thy table,
In circuitu mensae tuae.
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