The light that shines in men as learning's fruit Must needs give nourishment to all the powers Which serve world-cycles in the earth's dark depths. Already now a long time have they starved Well-nigh entirely reft of sustenance. For that which grows today in human brains Doth only serve the surface of the earth, And doth not penetrate unto its depths. Some strange new superstition now doth haunt These clever human heads: they turn their gaze Unto primeval origins of earth And will but spectres see in spirit spheres, Thought out by vain illusion of the sense. A merchant surely would consider mad A purchaser, who would speak thus to him: 'The mists and fog, that hover in the vale, Can certainly condense to solid gold; And with such gold thou shalt be paid thy debt.' The merchant will not willingly await To have his ducats made from fog and mist; And yet whene'er his soul doth thirst to find Solution of the riddles set by life, Should science offer him such payments then For spirit needs and debts, right willingly Will he accept whole solar systems built Out of primeval world-containing fog. The teacher who discovers some unknown And luckless layman, who hath raised himself To heights of science or of scholarship Without examinations duly passed Will surely threaten him with his contempt. Yet science doth not doubt that without proof And without spirit earth's primeval beasts Could change themselves to men by their own power. THEODOSIUS: Why dost thou not thyself reveal to men The sources of this light of thine, which streams Forth from thy soul with such resplendent ray? FELIX BALDE: A fancy-monger and a man of dreams They call me, who are well-disposed to me: But others think of me as some dull fool Who, all untaught of them, doth follow out His own peculiar bent of foolishness. RETARDUS: Thou show'st already how untaught thou art By the simplicity of this thy speech: Thou dost not know that men of science have Sufficient shrewdness to make just the same Objection to themselves as unto thee. And if they make it not they know well why. FELIX BALDE: I know full well that they are shrewd enough To understand objections they have made, But not so shrewd as to believe in them. THEODOSIUS: What must we do that we may forthwith give The powers of earth what they do need so much? FELIX BALDE: So long as on the earth men only heed Such men as these, who wish not to recall Their spirit's primal source, so long will starve The mineral forces buried in earth's depths. THE OTHER MARIA: