Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/286

250 have rifled. You have scarcely even tolerated these our most beneficent deities. You have scarcely suffered the pious to cherish them secretly in their hearts. And now you would also break down the temple of gratitude which I have dedicated to them in my heart; you would rob me of the grateful belief that I am indebted to the immortals for a new and much-to-be-coveted benefaction;—for may not renown be so termed?

The one God of heaven is my witness that

The one God! There we have it again! So are you always. What intolerance! Contrast yourselves with us. Do we say that our gods are the only ones? Do we not esteem both the gods of the Egyptians and that Jewish Jehovah, who has certainly done great things among his people? But you, on the contrary,—and a man like you, too, Ursulus—! Are you a Roman born of Grecian race? The one God! What barbarous effrontery!

You have promised to hate no man for his convictions' sake.

That I have promised; but neither will I suffer you to treat us too insolently. These envoys have not come to? That is to say, in other words, that the great and divine Dionysus, whose especial gift it is to reveal what is hidden,—that he is not as powerful now as in bygone ages. Ought I to suffer this? Is it not overweening audacity? Am I not forced to call you to account?