Anger and love thy soul did learn to know When thy thoughts dwelt yet far from spirit-life. Nature in all her beauty to enjoy, And pluck the fruits of art,--these didst thou strive To make thy life's sole content and its wealth. Merry thy laughter, as a child can laugh Who hath not known as yet life's shadowed fears. And thus thou learn'dst to understand life's joy, And mourn its sadness, each in its own time, Before thy dawning conscience grew to seek Of sorrow and of happiness the cause. A ripened fruit of many lives that soul, That enters earth's domains, and shows such moods. Its childlike nature is the blossoming And not the ground-root of its character. And such a soul alone was I to choose As mediator for the God, who sought The power to work within our human world. And now thou learnest that thy nature must Transform itself into its opposite, When it flows forth to other human souls. The spirit in thee ripens whatsoe'er In human nature can attain the realm Of vast eternity; and much it slays That is but part of transitory realms. And yet the sacrifices of such deaths Are but the seeds of immortality, All that which blossoms forth from death below Must grow unto the higher life above. MARIA: E'en so it is with me. Thou giv'st me light: But light that doth deprive me of my sight, And sunder me from mine own self in twain. Then do I seem some spirit's instrument No longer master of myself. No more Do I endure that erstwhile form of mine Which only is a mask and not the truth. JOHANNES: O friend, what ails thee? Vanished is the light That filled thine eye: as marble is thy frame. I grasp thine hand and find it cold as death. BENEDICTUS: My son, full many trials have come to thee; And now thou stand'st before life's hardest test. Thou seest the carnal covering of thy friend; But her true self doth float in spirit-spheres Before mine eyes. JOHANNES: See! Her lips move; she speaks. MARIA: