Capesius spake words of deep import Which can reveal the truth if they proceed From that same spirit which can guide mankind Toward true love, in progress of the Earth, But which but error upon error heap When they are fashioned by an evil mind And in the soul transform themselves to ill. 'Tis true that Lucifer doth show himself As bearer of the light to man's soul-sight When it would seek to gaze on spirit-space. But then the human soul will always wish To waken also in its inmost depths What it can only gaze on and admire. Although upon his beauty it may look Ne'er may it fall 'neath Lucifer's fell sway Lest he should gain the power to work within. When he, the bearer of the light, sends forth His rays of wisdom and the worlds are filled With haughty sense of self, and with full light Each creature's personality shines forth A pattern of his own imperious self, Then may the inmost being of the soul Build up on this appearance, and rejoice In all its senses, whilst it radiates The joy of wisdom, all around, that lives In its own self and loves to feel alive. But, more than any other spirit, man Requires a God who doth not only ask For admiration when his outward form Reveals itself in glory to the soul, But One who radiates His highest power When He Himself doth dwell within man's soul, And loving unto death foretelleth life. A man may turn to Lucifer and feel Inspired by beauty, or some splendour bright: And yet so live his life within himself That Lucifer can ne'er find entrance there; But to that other Spirit man doth cry, When he can fathom his own self aright: 'The goal of love for earthly souls--'tis this Not I, but Christ, doth live within me now.' BENEDICTUS (turning to Maria): And when her soul shall to her spirit bow As she hath vowed to Lucifer, it shall, Then through her power on to the temple stream With all that leads unto the health of Earth. And Christ will kindle in the hallowed place Of wisdom warming rays of spirit-love. What she can thus accomplish in the world Is done because the course of her own life Is bound up closely with that knot of fate Which Karma spins in human lives on Earth. In some long-past existence, it was she Who caused the son to leave his father's home; And now she leads the son to him again. The soul, which in Thomasius now dwells In former life was to that one which now Fulfils itself within Capesius, As son to father bound by ties of blood. The father will not now through Lucifer Demand the debt Maria owes to him, For by Christ's power, the debt hath been annulled. MAGNUS BELLICOSUS (speaking to Hilary and Benedictus, but frequently turning to Felix Balde and Dame Balde):