The stupid hound! There he takes to his heels With his tongue lolling out. He’ll be finely sold. It delights me to humbug an ass like that. He to give himself airs, and to lord it forsooth! He’s a mighty lot, truly, to swagger about! He’ll scarcely grow fat at his present trade;— He’ll soon drop from his perch with his whole apparatus.— H’m, I’m not over-safe in the saddle either; I’m expelled, one may say, from self-owning nobility.[145] [_A shooting star is seen; he nods after it._ Greet all friends from Peer Gynt, Brother Starry-Flash! To flash forth, to go out, and be naught at a gulp— [_Pulls himself together as though in terror, and goes deeper in among the mists; stillness for awhile; then he cries_: Is there no one, no one in all the whirl,— In the void no one, and no one in heaven—! [_He comes forward again further down, throws his hat upon the ground, and tears at his hair. By degrees a stillness comes over him._ So unspeakably poor, then, a soul can go Back to nothingness, into the grey of the mist. Thou beautiful earth, be not angry with me That I trampled thy grasses to no avail. Thou beautiful sun, thou hast squandered away Thy glory of light in an empty hut. There was no one within it to hearten and warm;— The owner, they tell me, was never at home. Beautiful sun and beautiful earth, You were foolish to bear and give light to my mother. The spirit is niggard and nature lavish; And dearly one pays for one’s birth with one’s life.— I will clamber up high, to the dizziest peak; I will look once more on the rising sun, Gaze till I’m tired o’er the promised land; Then try to get snowdrifts piled up over me. They can write above them: “Here _No One_ lies buried”; And afterwards,—then——! Let things go as they can. CHURCH-GOERS. [_Singing on the forest path._] Oh, morning thrice blest, When the tongues of God’s kingdom Struck the earth like to flaming steel! From the earth to his dwelling Now the heirs’ song ascendeth In the tongue of the kingdom of God. PEER. [_Crouches as in terror._] Never look there! _there_ all’s desert and waste.— I fear I was dead long before I died. [_Tries to slink in among the bushes, but comes upon the cross-roads._ THE BUTTON-MOULDER. Good morning, Peer Gynt! Where’s the list of your sins? PEER. Do you think that I haven’t been whistling and shouting As hard as I could? THE BUTTON-MOULDER. And met no one at all? PEER.