(_Melody the same as “Behold the Power.” To be sung without lining._) NOXUS PODUNKUS (_Scratching one ear and making a supreme effort to think._) A charming sight! A charming sight! The world is indeed progressing! Allow us to congratulate you, my dears and dearesses! Allow us! Allow us! Perfection is at hand! It has been long in coming, but now, as I might say, it has reached its destination. Souffle! Souffle! (_A pannier is brought and fed him._) As I was saying to those last dear battalions who so gracefully testified to our Peace and Progress, Security and the like, it now becomes my duty to read from our revered and Sacred Questions--the compendium, as you know, of all our Knowledge, Law, Intelligence--Questions Five, Six, Seven and Eight--I believe that is the allotted number, is it not? (_Thirty-one Dizzards nod._)--and as I do so will you please answer in unison so that all may know--the world--the universe indeed--how well we understand, how firmly we know, believe, that which has brought us to our present state of peace and comfort, our ease of mind and body. (_Reads._) Question Five--Question Five--ah yes! Just as I thought! (_Reads, one hand up._) “There is a God, is there not? We know that, do we not?” THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DIVISIONS (_Jabbing their batons into the ground, tossing them in the air and then catching them again._) There is! There is! We do! We do! What joy to know ’tis true, true, true! (_At this ninety-nine Moonshees, who have risen to a sitting position, fall back, murmuring “Splendid! Splendid! Wonderful!” The Hoddy-Doddys exclaim the same thing and practice at sword-play with their feather-dusters, while the Dizzards play at leap-frog and the Zanys beat each other with their empty wind-bags. The five thousand Nizys plunge their heads into the souffle but withdraw them quickly and ladle out cones to the mass. The two thousand Loobies and Gaberlunzies read many enchanting passages as the audience applauds, after which the Dizzards resume normal positions and lay about them with their stuffed clubs._) NOXUS PODUNKUS (_Scratching his nose and making another great effort to think, the while he beats the railing before him._) Ah, yes! That is it! “There is! We do!” It is on our knowledge of that that we rest so peacefully, all else being of no importance. (_Reads._) Question Six--(_pauses_)--“He is on His Throne, is He not? We know that, do we not?” THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DIVISIONS (_Jigging_) He is! He is! We do! We do! This truth is ever new and true! NOXUS PODUNKUS