'Tis life that they weave, And help create, In up-springing men, They shatter the earth And densify air; That change may appear In strenuous growth. Such strenuous growth Fills spirits with joy Who feel that they weave A life which creates. LUNA: They thoughtfully mould, Alert to create In flexible stuff; They sharpen the edge And flatten the face, And cunningly build The clearly-cut forms; That clearly-cut forms The will may inspire With cunning to build, Alert to create. THE OTHER PHILIA: They gather the blooms And use without care The magical works; They dream of the true And guard 'gainst the false; That germs which lie hid May wake into life. And clairvoyant dreams Make clear unto souls The magical web That forms their own life. (These four soul-forces disappear towards the left; Johannes, who during the preceding events was deep in meditation, rouses himself.) JOHANNES: 'And clairvoyant dreams Make clear unto souls The magical web That forms their own life.' These are the words that still distinctly ring Within my soul; that which I saw before Passed in confusion out of my soul's ken. Yet what a power stirs in me, when I think; 'The magical web That forms their own life.' (He relapses once more into meditation; there appears to him as a thought-form of his own a group composed of: The Spirit of Johannes' Youth, with Lucifer on its right and Theodora's soul on its left.) THE SPIRIT OF JOHANNES' YOUTH: The life within thy wishes feeds my life, My breath drinks thirstily thy youthful dreams; I am alive when thou dost not desire To force thy way to worlds I cannot find. If in thyself thou losest me, I must Do grievous painful service to grim shades:-- O guardian of my life ... forsake me not. LUCIFER: He never will forsake thee,--I behold Deep in his nature longings after light Which cannot follow in Maria's steps. And when the radiance which is born of them Doth fully light Johannes' artist-soul It must bear fruit; nor will he be content To cast this fruit away in yonder realm Where love divorced from beauty reigns alone. His self will no more seem of worth to him Which fain would cast his best gifts to the shades Because it sets by knowledge too much store. When wisdom shall throw light on his desires Their glorious worth will be revealed to him; He only can think them of little worth So long as they hide darkly in the soul. Until they can attain to wisdom's light I will be thy protector--through the light I find deep-seated in the human soul.