We may surmise, each after his own kind, Where sense and goal of life doth lie for each. I altogether lack the power to prove According to the science of today, What spirit-teaching I have here received: But clear within my heart I feel and know My soul would die without this spirit-lore, As would my body, if deprived of blood. And thou, dear doctor, 'gainst our cause dost fight With many words, and what thou now hast told Of thy life's conflict lends them weight indeed Even with those who do not understand Thy learned argument. Yet would I ask (Enter Theodora.) Exactly why it is that hearts of men Receive the word of Spirit readily, As though self-understood: yet when man seeks Food for his spirit in such learned words As thou didst use his heart grows chill and cold. THEODORA: Although I am at home 'mid just such men As circle round me here, yet strangely sounds This speech I have just heard. CAPESIUS: What strangeness there? THEODORA: I may not say. Do thou, Maria, tell. MARIA: Our friend has oftentimes explained to us What strange experiences come to her. One day she felt herself completely changed, And none could understand her altered state. Estrangement met her wheresoe'er she turned Until she came into our circle here. Not that we fully understand ourselves What she possesses and what no one shares. Yet we are trained by this our mode of thought The unaccustomed to appreciate, And feel with every mood of humankind. One moment in her life, our friend perceived, All that seemed hers aforetime, disappear; The past was all extinguished in her soul. And since these wondrous changes came to her, This mood of soul hath oft renewed itself; It doth not long endure; and other times She lives her life as ordinary folk. Yet whensoe'er she falls into this state, The gift of memory doth fade away. She loseth from her eyes the power to see And senseth her surroundings, seeing not. With a peculiar light her eyes then glow, And pictured forms appear to her. At first They seemed like dreams; anon they grew so clear, That we could recognize without a doubt Some prophecy of distant future days. Full many a time have we seen this occur. CAPESIUS: It is just this that little pleaseth me Amongst these men; who mingle with good sense And logic, superstition's fallacies. 'Twas ever thus where men have walked this path. MARIA: If thou canst still speak so, thou dost not yet Perceive our attitude towards these things. STRADER: