must work for each other. We have
thought that educated men should not work, and that men who work should
not be educated. We have congested work and congested education and
congested wealth. The good things of the world are for all, and if there
were an even distribution there would be no want, no wretchedness. The
rich for the most part waste and destroy, and of course the many have
to toil in order to make good this waste. When we can convince fifty-one
per cent of the people that righteousness is only a form of
self-preservation, that mankind is an organism and that we are all parts
of the whole, the battle will be won. [_Rises and paces the floor, still
talking_] I spoke last night to five thousand people, and the way they
listened and applauded and applauded and listened, revealed how hungry
the people are for truth. The hope of the world lies in the middle
class--the rich are as ignorant as the poverty-stricken. A way must be
devised to reach the rich--I can do it. Inaction, idleness, that is the
curse. Life is fluid, and only running water is pure. Stagnation is
death. Turbulent Rome was healthy, but quiescent Rome was soft,
feverish, morbid, pathological. Now, take Hamlet--what man ever had more
opportunities? Heir to the throne--beauty, power, youth, intellect--all
were his! What wrecked him? Why, inaction; he sat down to muse, instead
of being up and doing. He wrangled, dawdled, dreamed, followed
soothsayers, and consulted mediums until his mind was mush----

HELENE. [_Rising quickly_] Mad from the beginning!

[Lassalle and the two men to whom he was talking jump, turn,
stare.]

HELENE. Mad from the beginning, I say!

[The two friends at once quit Lassalle and move off arm in arm
talking, leaving Lassalle and Helene eyeing each other across the
sofa. Her eyes flash defiance; he relaxes, smiles, paying no
attention to her contradiction concerning Hamlet. He kneels on the
sofa and leans toward her.]

LASSALLE. Ah, this is how you look! This is you! Yes, yes, it is as I
thought. It is all right!

FRAU HOLTHOFF. [_Bustling forward_] Oh, I forgot you had not met--allow
me to introduce----

LASSALLE. [_Waving the Frau away, walks around the sofa taking Helene by
the arm_] What is the necessity of introducing us! People who know each
other do not have to be introduced. You know who I am, and you are
Brunhilde, the Red Fox.

[Leads her around and seats her on the sof