story of your sorrows comes as a logical
sequence. You accept this logic?

STRANGER. Yes. Punish me!

PRIOR. No. I don't punish; when I was a child I did--similar things. But
will you now promise to forget this history of your own sufferings for
all time and never to recount it again?

STRANGER. I promise! If only he whom I took advantage of could forgive
me.

PRIOR. He has already. Isn't that so, Pater Isidor?

ISIDOR (who was the DOCTOR in the first part of 'The Road to Damascus,'
rising). With my whole heart!

STRANGER. It's you!

ISIDOR. Yes. I.

PRIOR (to FATHER ISIDOR). Pater Isidor, say a word, just one.

ISIDOR. It was in the year 1856 that I had to endure my torture. But
even in 1854 one of my brothers suffered in the same way, owing to a
false accusation on my part. (To the STRANGER.) So we're all guilty and
not one of us is without blemish; and I believe my victim had no clear
conscience either. (He sits down.)

PRIOR. If we could only stop accusing one another and particularly
Eternal Justice! But we're born in guilt and all resemble Adam! (To the
STRANGER.) There was something you wanted to know, was there not?

STRANGER. I wanted to know life's inmost meaning.

PRIOR. The very innermost! So you wanted to learn what no man's
permitted to know. Pater Uriel! (PATER URIEL, who is blind, rises. The
PRIOR speaks to the STRANGER.) Look at this blind father! We call him
Uriel in remembrance of Uriel Acosta, whom perhaps you've heard of? (The
STRANGER makes a sign that he has not.) You haven't? All young people
should have heard of him. Uriel Acosta was a Portuguese of Jewish
descent, who, however, was brought up in the Christian faith. When he
was still fairly young he began to inquire--you understand--to inquire
if Christ were really God; with the result that he went over to the
Jewish faith. And then he began research into the Mosaic writings and
the immortality of the soul, with the result that the Rabbis handed him
over to the Christian priesthood for punishment. A long time after
he returned to the Jewish faith. But his thirst for knowledge knew
no bounds, and he continued his researches till he found he'd reached
absolute nullity; and in despair that he couldn't learn the final secret
he took his own life with a pistol shot. (Pause.) Now look at our good
father Uriel here. He, too, was once very young and anxious to know; he
always wanted to be in the forefront of every modern movement, and he