Majesty! this
tone, with either of us, is hardly--"

"Speak on. I like to hear you. I don't feel hurt that you know of this.
I regard you as part of the daylight that was to ripen my resolve."

"Well then, all that is to ripen must needs be subjected to currents of
air and even to storms. But I shall bring you no storm, and shall not
even speak of the fact that whoever deserts the faith into which he was
born, insults his parents; nor shall I tell you that the ceremonies to
which we have been accustomed from youth, are the soul's mother-tongue.
All that does not address itself to the mind. Mind and reason are the
parents of conscious man. It is our duty to live up to our convictions,
and I can, therefore, find no fault with a change of religion based
upon conviction. But it seems to me, Your Majesty, that your change of
faith is simply superficial or, if it be deeper, only from love for
your husband. You know, however, that I view all these things from an
entirely different standpoint. I believe I know the spring in paradise,
whence flows the stream that on earth is divided into so many little
rivulets; and these again, to use the words of my friend Eberhard,
Countess Irma's father, furnish the power for the mills that grind out
sermons. Your Majesty knows that the legend of the four streams that
flowed from the tree Igdrasil, which is found in the most beautiful of
all books, the Bible, is also to be found in our old German Saga."

"Very well--but I beg of you, my dear friend, spare me your literary
curiosities."

"Your Majesty," resumed Gunther, "as long as we remain in the faith of
our fathers, we can enjoy great latitude of opinion. Our thoughts can
reach far beyond its confines, and no inquisition has power over us:
but, as soon as we profess another religion, we forfeit the right to be
free. It is our duty to live up to it. One who is noble by birth can
afford to admit civil equality, but he who has had nobility conferred
on him, cannot do so. Will Your Majesty permit me to say one word more?
I regard it as fortunate for mankind in general, and our German
fatherland in particular, that there is a diversity of religious
beliefs. That of itself tends to preserve feelings of humanity, for
thus we cannot help seeing that there are different forms of soul
utterances for one and the same thing. A multiplicity of sects affords
the best protection against fanaticism and, moreover, helps to prove
that religious forms