ucated man who
didn't believe himself in a position to criticise learning and to do
without it. I've found the unpleasantest of deadly sins amongst the
Saints: I mean self-complacency. In my youth I was a saint myself; but
I've never been so worthless as I was then. The better I thought myself,
the worse I became.

CONFESSOR. Then what do you seek here?

STRANGER. What I've told you already; but I'll add this: I'm seeking
death without the need to die!

CONFESSOR. The mortification of your flesh, of your old self! Good! Now
keep still: the pilgrims are coming on their wooden rafts to celebrate
the festival of Corpus Christi.

STRANGER (looking to the right in surprise). Who are they?

CONFESSOR. People who believe in something.

STRANGER. Then help my unbelief! (Sunlight now falls on the monstrance
in the church above, so that it shines like a window pane at sunset.)
Has the sun entered the church, or....

CONFESSOR. Yes. The sun has entered....

(The first raft comes in from the right. Children clothed in white, with
garlands on their heads and with lighted lanterns in their hands, are
seen standing round an altar decked with flowers, on which a white flag
with a golden lily has been planted. They sing, whilst the raft glides
slowly by.)

Blessed be he, who fears the Lord,
Beati omnes, qui timent Dominum,
And walks in his ways,
Qui ambulant in viis ejus.
Thou shalt feed thyself with the work of thy hands,
Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis;
Blessed be thou and peace be with thee,
Beatus es et bene tibi erit.

(A second raft appears with boys on one side and girls on the other. It
has a flag with a rose on it.)

Thy wife shall be like a fruitful vine,
Uxor tua sicut vitis abundans,
Within thy house,
In lateribus domus tuae.

(The third raft carries men and women. There is a flag with fruit upon
it: figs, grapes, pomegranates, melons, ears of wheat, etc.)

Filii tui sicut novellae olivarum,
Thy children shall be like olive branches about thy table,
In circuitu mensae tuae.

(The fourth raft is filled with older men and women. The flag has a
representation of a fir-tree under snow.)

See, how blessed is the man,
Ecce sic benedicetur homo,
Who feareth the Lord,
Qui timet Dominum!

(The raft glides by.)

STRANGER. What were they singing?

CONFESSOR. A p