Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/68

 "Never!"

"Then thou wilt not do for our covenant!—Lead him away brethren."

"Reject me not rashly, reverend father, condemn me not untried. First tell me, what you demand, and what the covenant of your brethren exacteth? Then I'll be candid, and own myself, if nothing forbid it, wholly yours."

"We demand nothing of thee, Carlos, bur the very thing thou hast refused to do. To be one of us, thou must dissolve all the ties, which consecrate man to man. Our property is all of this world. Slay thy father, plunge a poniard in thy mother's breast, and, with open arms, will we receive thee. When humanity casts thee off, when the laws persecute thee, a scourge of the state, then be welcome among us. But our covenant disdains the tear of pity."—

"Horrid!"

"And why horrid?—Don't we offer compensation? For one talent expended, thou'lt here find a million of gain. Is it nothing to thee, to call the whole vast world thine? Is it