Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/271

 MADÁCH behold this power that rules me, so that I am in royself a separate entity and yet part of the whole. LUCIFER, '' l am !" Idle words ! You were and you will be. Existence is an eternal becoming and decaying. It ADAM. Show me the future. Show me clearly and fully why I strive and wherefore I suffer. EvE, And show me also, if in ali this renewing and creating my charms shall not fade and decay. LUCIFER. So be it l So be it ! Enchantment cover these two. Show them clearly in a vision the dimmest, most di stant, future. And lest they lose heart and ftee ere they venture on the conftict, show them how sterile their goal, how hard the struggle, how artificial the game. ln the clouded sky, l will leave one brigbt glimmer which shall delude thern-the illusion, the palpable image of the future- hope. FROM SCENE VII. ADAM (AS TANCRED). I should like to cast away my sword and repair to the shady forests of my northern home where pure morals and a man's worth still count, a spot as yet untouched by these false ages, did not an inner voice warn me that I am destined to create them anew. LUCIFER. Vain toil ! You will never succeed by yourself alone in conquer· ing the spirit of the time. The stream rushes on-who can stand agaiost it ? You must swim with it or perish. He who does great t hings, and is called great, is only he who understands his age. He does not create it, he finds his ideas in it. The crowing of the cock does not bring the dawn. The cock only crows because day dawn s. Those despised ones yonder who go out to meet a martyr's death are an advance guard in the course of the ages. New ideas have dawned in them and they are dying for beliefs which their children will some day breathe in, like the very air. But enough of this. Look to your camp l What is happening there ? R