And dost thou find that Strader's spirit-way Is even distantly akin to thine? I find myself at thy side ever free From spirit-beings Strader brings to me. I clearly feel, e'en in his random speech, How elemental spirits, quick with life, By word and nature pour themselves through him Revealing things the senses cannot grasp. It is just this that keeps me off from him. ROMANUS: This speech, my friend, doth strike me to the heart. Since I drew nigh to Strader I have felt Those very thoughts which come to me through him To be endowed with quite peculiar power. They cleft me just as if they were mine own. And one day I reflected: What if I Owe to his soul not to myself the power Which let me ripen to maturity! Hard on this feeling came a second one; What if for all that makes me of some use In life and work and service for mankind I am indebted to some past earth-life? MANAGER: I feel precisely thus about him too. When one draws near to him, the spirit which Doth work through him moves powerfully one's soul. And if thy strong soul must succumb to him, How shall I manage to protect mine own If I unite with him in this his work? ROMANUS: It will depend on thee alone to find The right relation 'twixt thyself and him. I think that Strader's power will not harm me Since in my thought I have conceived a way In which he may have made that power his own. MANAGER: Have made--his own--such power--and over thee-- A dreamer--over the--the man of deeds! ROMANUS: If one might dare to make a guess that now Some spirit lives its life in Strader's frame Who in some earlier earth-life had attained To most unusual altitude of soul; Who knew much which the men of his own time Were still too undeveloped to conceive. Then it were possible that in those days Thoughts in his spirit did originate Which by degrees could make their way to earth And mingle in the common life of men; And that from this source people like myself Have drawn their capability for work-- The thoughts which in my youth I seized upon, And which I found in my environment, Might well have been this spirit's progeny! MANAGER: And dost thou think it justifiable To trace back thoughts to Strader and none else That hold a value for mankind's whole life? ROMANUS: