The whole setting suddenly changers to the SCENE VIII. ADAM again as Kepler, is seen with his head bowed over the writing-table. LUCIFER, as his Famulus, stands beside him and taps him on the shoulder. The morning dawns grey.

LUCIFER
Adam, awake! This time the knife falls not.

ADAM rising
Oh, where am I, and where are fled my dreams?

LUCIFER
The dreams passed with the rapture of the night.

ADAM
In this sick time and in this aging breast
Can only wine fumes greatness then create?
Majestic visions opened to mine eyes;
Who seeth not the spark of God is blind,
Though it be dimmed with foulness and with blood.
How mighty was the virtue and the sin;
Yea, both were crowned with wonder and with awe.
Resistless force on either set its seal.
Ah, why did I awake to gaze around
And better mark the evil of this age
Where sin lies hid beneath a smiling mask
And narrow custom is for virtue held.

LUCIFER
The ecstasy of a wine drunken night
Yields to the grey despondency of dawn.

EVE coming out of the arbour
Begone from me; my heart deceived me not,
Thou wouldest have me take my husband’s life!
Dost thou think she whom thou didst falsely name
Thy heart’s ideal plays the murderess?

THE THIRD COURTIER
For God’s sake calm thyself; if we be heard,
Disgrace and shame shall come upon us both.

ADAM
And these two women, were they but a dream?
What mean I? ’Twas one woman in two shapes
That changed, as change the tumults of my fate,
Like to a wave that gleams and then grows dark.

EVE
Ah, so, with thee disgrace outweigheth all!
Thou carest not for crime, so it be hid,
Thou knight whose name must be beyond reproach!
Woe to you, thus at woman do ye mock,
Until the ancient pride of chastity
She cast away as prejudice, and then
Ye look with scornful smile upon the wretch
Ye use as the base tool of your desires -
Begone! Henceforth I see thee nevermore.

THE THIRD COURTIER
Thou art too much distressed. We shall be held
Fit food for mirth if we so solemnly
Treat things of every day. And we shall meet
Again with smiles and kisses, and of that
Which now hath happened we shall speak no more.
Lady, farewell.
Departs

EVE
      The miserable hound!
See now, here am I, with my sin and tears.
Exit

ADAM
It was then but a dream, and ’tis the end.
But not the end of all, for stronger is
The idea than matter. Violence
May destroy matter; the idea lives
For ever, and I feel my visions grow
In height majestic, making all things pure,
Until, though slowly, they shall fill the world.

LUCIFER
Dawn grows apace. The youths already wait
Impatient for the master to appear
That they may gather wisdom from his words.
He rings a bell fitted to the observatory.

ADAM
Ah, do not make a mock of my poor art;
I blush for shame when men do praise my skill.

LUCIFER
Yet dost thou not teach many brilliant youths?

ADAM
I teach not, but do only fill their minds
With sounding words they cannot understand.
They have no skill to choose this path or that,
The ignorant admire, and deem that we
Summon up spirits with these wondrous words,
And yet ’tis all a ruse, a clever play
Of some glib conjurer before his booth.
A STUDENT enters with quick steps and goes on to the balcony.

STUDENT
In thy great kindness thou didst bid me come,
And promised me that thou wouldst satisfy
My thirst for wisdom and that thou wouldst grant
That I should travel further on the path
Of knowledge, than for others it were meet.

ADAM
’Tis true, ’tis true, thy diligence is great
And makes thee worthy of this privilege.

STUDENT
Lo, I am here and tremble with desire
That into Nature’s workshop I may look,
To grasp the whole, and better to enjoy:
To feel my greater knowledge, and be lord
Both in the world of matter and of mind.

ADAM
Thou wouldest much. Thou, but a tiny speck,
To grasp the wonder of the universe!
For lordship, pleasure, knowledge thou dost ask,
And if thy heart failed not within thy breast
And thou shouldst gain all this, thou wert a god.
Ask less. Perchance thou mayest less attain.

STUDENT
Reveal, great master, what thou wilt to me
Of secret wisdom. All shall profit me,
For I feel that I nothing comprehend.

ADAM
I see that thou art worthy. So, ’tis well.
And I will lead thee to the inmost shrine
And thou shalt see the truth as I do see;
But listens not some uninitiate?
For truth is terrible, and deadly if
It reach the people in this present age.
The time shall come, ah, would it were here now,
When men shall speak the truth upon the streets,
But then the People will have come of age.
Give me thy hand, and swear not to betray
What thou shalt hear! So, hearken to my words.

STUDENT
I tremble with desire and reverence.

ADAM
What didst thou say to me a moment since?

STUDENT
‘I nothing comprehend.’ ’Tis but the truth.

ADAM speaking with caution
Nor I myself; nor any man beside.
Philosophy is but the poetry
Of unknown things that we have not yet grasped.
Of many doctrines ’tis the best for man,
For in itself it findeth calm delight
Midst broidered phantasies of its own world.
But it has other rivals numberless,
Who draw, with solemn faces, in the sand,
And prove most wisely that straight lines be curved,
Naming the circle sanctuary, till
A man should laugh to see the comedy,
When all is done with such a solemn grace.
And while with anxious breast and beating heart
All would avoid the drawings in the sand,
There lie hid snares to trap the overbold
Who step beyond the border of the pit,
And thus thou seest, ever in our path
Stands idle folly, held as piety,
To guard the threshold of authority.

STUDENT
I understand thee. Shall this ever be?

ADAM
The time shall come when all this shall be mocked.
The statesman whom have considered great,
The orthodox ones that we have admired,
Posterity shall deem comedians,
When greatness that is true shall take their place:
Men of simplicity and naturalness,
Who only leap when they must cross a trench
And take their road there where the way is clear.
And then that science which, deep, intricate,
Now leads to madness, though no man shall learn,
Yet all will understand, for truth shall dawn.

STUDENT
It was, then, in this language clear and plain
That, long ago, the first Apostles spoke.
Yet even though all else be vanity,
Take not from me the faith I hold in art.
And to learn art we must submit to rules.

ADAM
Art, too, is then most perfect when concealed
In such a way it is not perceived.

STUDENT
Must we then halt at cold reality?
The quest of the ideal fires our work.

ADAM
’Tis true into the work it breathes a soul,
And doth with Nature give it equal rights,
And bringeth it to plenitude of life,
When else it were a creature dead and cold.
Yet when for the ideal thou dost strive
Think not great, living Nature to outdo:
And leave the pattern and the rule aside.
He that hath strength and God within his heart
Shall be an orator or he shall grave
With cunning chisel, or sweet music make,
And sobs shall wring his breast if he have grief,
And if joy bring him slumber, he shall smile,
Though by new ways he will attain the goal.
And by his work shall precepts new set forth:
Abstraction, to a puny race of dwarfs
Fetters perchance may give, but never wings.

STUDENT
Then tell me, master, what is left for me
Who have in study passed so many nights?
Am I then equal only to the dolt,
And is my labour only all in vain?

ADAM
’Tis not in vain, for now thou hast the right
To look in scorn upon its tempting snares.
Who turns his back on danger never faced,
He is a craven. But the hero proved,
The brawler’s challenge safely may ignore,
Suspicion cannot touch his courage calm.
Then take these yellowed parchments, and these books,
Mildew and dust lie thick upon the leaves.
Cast all into the fire. These make us lack
The strength to walk untrammelled on our way
And spare us from the effort of clear thought,
These bring the errors of past centuries
To prejudice the new and growing age.
Into the fire with them. Let us go forth.
Why dost thou ever ponder, while life speeds,
Within the dimness of four narrow walls
To learn what is a song, if woods be green?
Dost thou think life flies with so tardy wings
That thou wilt study theory till thy death?
We two will bid the school a long farewell.
Thy golden youth shall lead thee to the joy
Of sunlight and the merry dance and song.
to Lucifer
Lead, enigmatic Spirit Guardian,
Me to that new world which shall come to be
If it shall comprehend the ideals
Of a great man, and to the hidden thought
Give free speech spoken in true liberty,
On the accursed dust of ruins old.