, forgotten by
mankind. As a brightminded man you will easily understand--"

"Pardon me. I did not understand you, and if you will permit me I--But
why do you make them swear?"

"My friend, the soul of man, believing itself free and constantly
suffering from this spurious freedom, is demanding fetters for
itself--to some these fetters are an oath, to others a vow, to still
others simply a word of honour. You will give me your word of honour,
will you not?"

"I will."

"And by this you are simply striving to enter the harmony of the world,
where everything is subjected to a law. Is not the falling of a stone
the fulfilment of a vow, of the vow called the law of gravitation?"

I shall not go into detail about this conversation and the others that
followed. The obstinate and unrestrained youth, who had insulted me by
calling me liar, became one of my warmest adherents.

I must return to the others. During the time that I talked with the
young man, the desire for penitence among my charming proselytes reached
its height. Not patient enough to wait for me, they commenced in a state
of intense ecstasy to confess to one another, giving to the room an
appearance of a garden where dozens of birds of paradise were twittering
at the same time. When I returned, each of them separately unfolded her
agitated soul to me....

I saw how, from day to day, from hour to hour, terrible chaos was
struggling in their souls with an eager inclination for harmony and
order; how in the bloody struggle between eternal falsehood and immortal
truth, falsehood, through inconceivable ways, passed into truth, and
truth became falsehood. I found in the human soul all the forces in the
world, and none of them was dormant, and in the mad whirlpool each soul
became like a fountain, whose source is the abyss of the sea and whose
summit the sky. And every human being, as I have learned and seen, is
like the rich and powerful master who gave a masquerade ball at his
castle and illuminated it with many lights; and strange masks came from
everywhere and the master greeted them, bowing courteously, and vainly
asking them who they were; and new, ever stranger, ever more terrible,
masks were arriving, and the master bowed to them ever more courteously,
staggering from fatigue and fear. And they were laughing and whispering
strange words about the eternal chaos, whence they came, obeying the
call of the master. And lights were burning in the castle--and in