Henceforth thou wilt live on in sacrifice If thou dost freely sacrifice thyself.
Thou wilt bear fruit on earth in human deeds If I myself may tend the fruits for thee.
JOHANNES (speaking out of his meditation, as in the previous scene):
The brethren in the temple showed themselves To my soul-sight, resembling in their form Men whose appearance I already know. Yet Benedictus seemed a spirit too. He who stood on his left seemed like that man Who through the feelings only would draw nigh The spirit-realms. The third resembled him, Who doth but recognize the powers of life When they show forth through wheels and outward works. The fourth I do not know. The wife who saw The spirit's light after her husband's death, I recognized in her own inmost being. And Felix Balde came just as in life.
(The Spirit of the Elements stands in the same place.)
Thou calledst me. What wouldst thou hear of me?
Two men did I present unto the earth Whose spirit-powers were fructified through thee. They found their soul's awakening in thy words When meditation dry had lamed them both. Thy gifts to them make thee my debtor too. Their spirit doth not of itself suffice To render full repayment unto me For all the service which I did for them.
For many years one of these men did come To our small cottage, that he might obtain The strength that lent unto his words their fire. Later he brought the other with him too; And so they two consumed the fruits, whose worth Was then unknown to me: but little good Did I receive from them as recompense. Their kind of knowledge to our son they gave, With good intent indeed, but yet the child Found nought therein but death unto his soul. He grew to manhood steeped in all the light, His father Felix, through the spirit-speech, Taught him from fountains and from rocks and hills: To this was joined all that had lived and grown In my own soul from my first childhood's years; And yet our son's clear spirit-sense was killed By the deep gloom of sombre sciences. Instead of some blithe happy child, there grew A man of desert soul and empty heart. And now forsooth thou dost demand of me That I should pay what they do owe to thee!
It must be so, for thou at first didst serve The earthly part in them; and so through me The spirit bids thee now complete the work.