Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/270

 256 HUNGARIAN LITERATD RE EvE. One thing makes me proud, that I am the future mother of mankind. LuciFER (aside). That's the woman's sublimest ideal-to make guilt and pain ever­ lasting on earth. ADAM. What have I to thank Him for ? That I exist ? Is not the fruit of my own labour my reward for the pains of this existence ? I must win the delight of a cooling drink through torturiDg thirst. I must pay for the ardour and glad sweetness of kisses with wearlness and heaviness. Have I tom off the bonds of gratitude, and am I free to build my own fate-and sometimes, groping, to destroy what I planned-you were indeed not needed to help me in this. I could have done as much by my own strength alone. You. have not tom away the chain that bound my body to this earth. A mere hair it is-oh l the infamy of it l-that hems me in and fetters my soul. I long to soar but I sink down. My eye and my ear refuse their service when I boldly attempt to solve the enigma of space. And when imagination draws me into higher spheres, · hunger gnaws me and drags me down again full of shame, to the earth on which I wander. LUCIFER. Yes, those fetters are stronger than I. ADAM. Then you are indeed a poor weak spirit. What if this gossamer, this nothing, which myriads of beings scarcely notice-in whose web they revel joyously thinking they aré free, but which a few chosen spirits only divine-defy your power. LUCIFER. Indeed, 'tis only this which can defy me, because 'tis spirit like I am. Do you imagine that because a power works secretly and silently that it is not strong ? Belleve me, there rests in darkness that which can shatter, can create a world and every bead would tum giddy ·at sight of it. Only what limits the span of earthly time, only the work of men roars and glows. ADAM•. Then let me-I feel the atrength within me-for one moment