But at least give me time—— No, indeed, I’m not fit; I’m completely dumbfounded! BEGRIFFENFELDT. A man who has fathomed the Sphinx’s meaning! A man who’s himself! PEER. Ay, but that’s just the rub. It’s true that in everything I am myself; But here the point is, if I follow your meaning, To be, so to phrase it, outside oneself. BEGRIFFENFELDT. Outside? No, there you are strangely mistaken! It’s here, sir, that one is oneself with a vengeance; Oneself, and nothing whatever besides. We go, full sail, as our very selves. Each one shuts himself up in the barrel of self, In the self-fermentation he dives to the bottom,— With the self-bung he seals it hermetically, And seasons the staves in the well of self. No one has tears for the other’s woes; No one has mind for the other’s ideas. We’re our very selves, both in thought and tone, Ourselves to the spring-board’s uttermost verge,— And so, if a Kaiser’s to fill the Throne, It is clear that you are the very man. PEER. O would that the devil——! BEGRIFFENFELDT. Come, don’t be cast down; Almost all things in nature are new at the first. “Oneself”;—come, here you shall see an example; I’ll choose you at random the first man that comes—— [_To a gloomy figure._ Good-day, Huhu? Well, my boy, wandering round For ever with misery’s impress upon you? HUHU.[102] Can I help it, when the people, Race[103] by race, dies untranslated.[104] [_To PEER GYNT._ You’re a stranger; will you listen? PEER. [_Bowing._] Oh, by all means! HUHU.