Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/515

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Blaspheme not; though surely you have loved this dead man

[Approaching the body.] Loved, and led him astray—Nay, not I!

Led astray like Cain. Led astray like Judas.—Your God is a spendthrift God, Galileans! He wears out many souls.

Wast thou not then, this time either, the chosen one—thou victim on the altar of necessity?

What is it worth to live? All is sport and mockery.—To will is to have to will.

Oh my beloved—all signs deceived me, all auguries spoke with a double tongue, so that I saw in thee the mediator between the two empires.

The third empire shall come! The spirit of man shall re-enter on its heritage—and then shall offerings of atonement be made to thee, and to thy two guests in the symposium.

[He goes out.

[Rising, pale.] Basil—did you understand the heathen's speech?

No,—but it dawns on me like a great and