COLUMBUS--Why should I not be glad? The New World is in them, underneath the Towers. When they have learned that they can not succeed: that all the Towers and all the machines and all the gold on earth can not crush down this unborn need in them for a true New World--then it will arise. CERVANTES--[_turns and looks at_ COLUMBUS.] You speak in Parables. COLUMBUS--I am a practical man. CERVANTES--I am sick of parables and stories. COLUMBUS--Good. You want history? The Book of Moses--is that history enough for your hard sense? Well, do you recall how the Lord led the children of Israel out of Egypt? They too crossed a Sea. But did they come into their promised land, their new world flowing with milk and honey, when they had crossed the sea? CERVANTES--Yes. After forty years. COLUMBUS--You are a shallow reader. Not one came into the Promised Land--not even Moses! They went into the wilderness, and they died. From Marah to the wilderness of Sin, from Horeb to the wilderness of Moab--they roamed, and rotted, and were dead forever! Not Aaron the Priest, not Miriam the mother, not Moses the Prophet came to the Promised Land. For it is written that the Seed shall die, ere Life may be reborn. CERVANTES--[_Incredulous._] If that is Death yonder across the sea, it is a death most stable and most splendid. COLUMBUS--Death is the most sumptuous song. This golden-towered America is but the Grave of Europe. CERVANTES--I do not understand. COLUMBUS--What do you find there? CERVANTES--Mighty stones---- COLUMBUS--Are not stones of Europe? CERVANTES--Gold---- COLUMBUS--Is not gold a lust of the old world? CERVANTES--Marvelous machines---- COLUMBUS--Did you, then, not know England, that you should think them new? CERVANTES--Never with us were gold and stone and iron of so high a glory. COLUMBUS--Does not Europe merit a high Sepulcher? CERVANTES--Still you speak in parables, my friend. COLUMBUS--[_Testily._] What would you have me say? Teach me the words for the New World, if you have them! Since its gold and its stones and its machines are unknown to the Old, what words can the old tongues give us? [CERVANTES _looks in silence to the west, while the weak eyes of_ COLUMBUS _watch him. Suddenly_, CERVANTES _clutches at the short man’s arm_.] CERVANTES--Look! Can’t you see?... No!... God, the Towers are falling! COLUMBUS--Glory to Jehovah! CERVANTES--They veer, they twist. They have sunk in this mire of men. COLUMBUS--The Seed shall rot. CERVANTES--They are a turmoil of blind maggots. Their world is become as were their souls--a quicksand. The gleaming Towers are gone! COLUMBUS--Now shall be the birth of the World which I discovered. CERVANTES--[_Sternly gazes west in a deep silence. Then he turns to his friend._] Gone is the city. Continents of chaos. What shall rise? COLUMBUS--The Dream of the Old World, at last--a New World! CERVANTES--Spain? COLUMBUS--Nay. Spain’s Grave is over there, with Europe’s.