elligence
to change your company. You've had too much to do with skirts, my son.
Skirts raise dust, and dust lies on eyes and breast.... Come and sit
down. We'll have a chat.... (He takes the STRANGER jocularly by the ear
and leads him round the table.) Sit down and tremble, young man! (They
both sit down.) Well? What shall we do? Call for wine--and a woman? No!
That's too old a trick, as old as Doctor Faust! Bon! We modern are in
search of mental dissipation.... So you're on your way to those holy men
up there, who think that they who sleep can't sin; to the cowardly ones,
who've given up the battle of life, because they were defeated once or
twice; to those that bind souls rather than free them.... And talking of
that! Has any saintly man ever freed you from the burden of sin? No!
Do you know why sin has been oppressing you for so long? Through
renunciation and abstinence, you've grown so weak that anyone can seize
your soul and take possession of it. Why, they can even do it from a
distance! You've so destroyed your personality that you see with strange
eyes, hear with strange ears and think strange thoughts. In a word
you've murdered your own soul. Just now, didn't you speak well of the
enemies of mankind; of Woman, who made a hell of paradise? You needn't
answer me; I can read your answer in your eyes and hear it on your lips.
You talk of pure love for a woman! That's lust, young man, lust after a
woman, which we have to pay for so dearly. You say you don't desire her.
Then why do you want to be near her? You'd like to have a friend? Take a
male friend, many of them! You've let them convince you you're no woman
hater. But the woman gave you the right answer; every healthy man's a
woman hater, but can't live without linking himself to his enemy, and
so must fight her! All perverse and unmanly men are admirers of women!
How's it with you now? So you saw those invalids and thought yourself
responsible for their misery? They're tough fellows, you can believe
me; they'll be able to leave here in a few days and go back to their
occupations. Oh yes, lying Erik's a wag! But things have gone so far
with you, that you can't distinguish between your own and other people's
children. Wouldn't it be a great thing to escape from all this? What do
you say? Oh, I could free you... but I'm no saint. Now we'll call old
Maia. (He whistles between his fingers: MAIA appears.) Ah, there you
are! Well, what are you doing here? Have you any