used him
to defend Catholicism, and Protestants use him even to-day to attack
Catholicism. He was a fine fellow!

STRANGER. Then what's your view?

MELCHER. We have no views here; we've faith, as I've told you already.
And that's why we've only one head--placed exactly above the heart.
(Pause.) In the meantime let's look at number seven in the catalogue.
Ah, Napoleon! The creation of the Revolution itself! The Emperor of the
People, the Nero of Freedom, the suppressor of Equality and the 'big
brother' of Fraternity. He's the most cunning of all the two-headed, for
he could laugh at himself, raise himself above his own contradictions,
change his skin and his soul, and yet be quite explicable to himself in
every transformation--convinced, self-authorised. There's only one other
man who can be compared with him in this; Kierkegaard the Dane. From
the beginning he was aware of this parthenogenesis of the soul, whose
capacity to multiply by taking cuttings was equivalent to bringing forth
young in this life without conception. And for that reason, and so as
not to become life's fool, he wrote under a number of pseudonyms, of
which each one constituted a 'stage on his life's way.' But did you
realise this? The Lord of life, in spite of all these precautions, made
a fool of him after all. Kierkegaard, who fought all his life against
the priesthood and the professional preachers of the State Church,
was eventually forced of necessity to become a professional preacher
himself! Oh yes! Such things do happen.

STRANGER. The Powers That Be play tricks....

MELCHER. The Powers play tricks on tricksters, and delude the arrogant,
particularly those who alone believe they possess truth and knowledge!
Number eight in the catalogue. Victor Hugo. He split himself into
countless parts. He was a peer of France, a Grandee of Spain, a friend
of Kings, and the socialist author of _Les Miserables_. The peers
naturally called him a renegade, and the socialists a reformer. Number
nine. Count Friedrich Leopold von Stollberg. He wrote a fanatical book
for the Protestants, and then suddenly became a Catholic! Inexplicable
in a sensible man. A miracle, eh? A little journey to Damascus,
perhaps? Number ten. Lafayette. The heroic upholder of freedom,
the revolutionary, who was forced to leave France as a suspected
reactionary, because he wanted to help Louis XVI; and then was captured
by the Austrians and carried off to Olmuetz as a revolutionary!