# Scene 9

*A pleasant, sunny morning landscape, in a terraced garden overlooking a town with many factories.*

*Benedictus, Capesius, Maria, Thomasius, and Strader are discovered walking up and down and engaged in leisurely conversation. Benedictus wears a white biretta and is in his white robe, but without the golden stole.*

*Capesius:*  
Here is the place, where Benedictus oft  
In soft warm sunlight of a summer morn  
Gave himself to his pupils that they might  
In reverent mood receive his wisdom's words.  
Out yonder lies what ever must divide  
With pitiless intent the souls of men  
From all the wondrous beauty of the earth,  
That nature's God doth shower so bounteous here.  
In yon waste sea of houses in the town  
Doth Benedictus ever nobly strive  
To heal this human woe by deeds of love.  
And when with human words so wise and true  
He tells his pupils of the spirit-world,  
He seeks for hearts, which free creative power  
That here reveals itself in wakening souls,  
Hath filled with sunshine and with love for men.  
I, too, may now behold the happiness  
Which through his words doth reach the heart of man.  
Since he in love hath underta'en the task  
Of guiding me within the spirit-world:  
And now when I may feel that he is near  
I shall again discover mine own self.

*Benedictus:*  
Within the circle of my pupils here  
Through free-will acts of others and thyself  
A knot shall one day loosen in the threads  
Which Karma spins in lives of men on earth.  
Thy life itself will help to loose this knot.  
In hearts of men who give themselves in truth  
To follow wisdom, which I serve myself,  
Thou cant by thine own power discover those  
Joined unto whom thou wilt complete the work  
For which in spirit thou hast been prepared.

*Capesius:*  
Thee have I known, and I will follow thee.  
As I held converse with mine inmost soul,  
When I had been allowed to hear thy words  
Within the spirit-realm in their true form,  
And thou hadst brought me to myself again,  
Then could I see portrayed in spirit-light  
The aims which in the progress of the earth  
I was to follow in my future lives.  
And now I know that thou didst choose for me  
The one right way for this to be revealed.

*Benedictus:*  
Thomasius and Strader will henceforth  
United with thyself accomplish much  
That best may serve to further human health.  
They have prepared the soul-powers which are theirs  
With such intent since first the Earth began  
That they can join to form a trinity  
With thine own spirit in the cosmic course.

*Capesius:*  
So I must thank my fate's unbending powers  
Which seemed at first incomprehensible,  
That when the rightful moment came at last  
My life's aim suddenly revealed itself.

*(He pauses meditatively.)*

How wonderfully hast thou led me on:  
It seemed at first as if I strove in vain  
To enter with my spirit consciously  
Into those worlds which by thy words are placed  
So thoughtfully before the souls of men.  
For many years I could find nought but thoughts  
When in thy writings I absorbed myself.  
And then, quite suddenly, around me flowed  
The spirit-world in its reality;  
I scarce knew how to find myself aright  
Within my former more accustomed world.

*Benedictus:*  
That would have hid the spirit-life from thee  
For ever by its strong effective power  
Unless the stronger forces of *this* life  
Had first reduced it to a shadow dim.  
Thou therefore, must with fullest spirit-sight  
Behold thyself upon the threshold grim  
Where other men only begin to see.

*(During the last words Strader walks up to Capesius and the three go away together: after a short time Benedictus returns with Strader.)*

*Strader:*  
It gave deep pain, within mine inmost self  
And weighed with heavy pressure on my soul  
When on awaking to myself I found  
I was again within my body pent  
From which thy words had given me release.  
My deadened soul-life first tormented me  
On my return, yet 'twas not only pain;  
For it brought forth in me the memory  
Of all I lived through ere I saw with dread  
What I could learn from Ahriman himself,  
That every thought must cease its progress there.  
I had to ask myself why I was set  
By Benedictus' word within this realm  
Where souls alone are taken into count  
And only those are valued which can help  
Towards the objects, which that power desires  
To make his own through deeds that I have done.  
He, in his wisdom, wanted to select  
Twelve helpers from the number of mankind.

*Benedictus:*  
Yet 'tis well known to thee why all these souls,  
Which Ahriman showed forth, drew near to thee,  
When he would force himself upon their fates.

*Strader:*  
That also bitter pain revealed to me:  
It showed how in a former life on Earth  
I was united to a brotherhood  
Which now hath formed again its mystic league,  
And how those people stood towards myself,  
Who were in their true nature then revealed.  
And I could feel quite sure that Ahriman  
Will use the bond, which e'en in future lives  
Must ever surely bind their souls to mine.

*Benedictus:*  
The cosmic powers do so direct their deeds  
That these with cosmic progress may unite  
By following in wisdom number's laws.  
The sign how this direction is fulfilled  
Shows itself clearly to the outer sense,  
If it doth watch the Sun upon the course  
He takes throughout the constellations twelve.  
It is his place amongst those very signs  
Which shows how on the Earth things come to pass  
In strict succession in long course of time.  
So Ahriman desired to mould the souls  
Of those who are united thus to thee  
To powers from whence thy work might shine afar.  
He also wished to follow number's laws  
In binding their soul-nature unto thine.

*Strader:*  
Since I have learned the sense of number's law,  
So shall I too succeed in rescuing  
My work from out the realm of Ahriman  
And offering it to the gods of Earth.

*Benedictus:*  
It was through Ahriman thou hadst to learn  
The sense of number in the universe;  
So was it needful for thine own soul's good.  
'Twas spirit-pupilship that guided thee  
Into that realm, which thou didst need to know  
If thy creative power should bloom aright.

*(Exeunt Benedictus and Strader. Maria and Thomasius appear from the other side.)*

*Maria:*  
Johannes, knowledge hath thy soul acquired  
From truth's cold realms. No longer wilt thou now  
Weave only in thy pictures that which souls,  
Still pent within the body, live in dreams,  
For far from cosmic progress are those thoughts  
Which but as self-begotten show themselves.

*Thomasius:*  
'Tis love of self—although they may pretend  
'Tis thirst for knowledge maketh them do this.

*Maria:*  
Whoe'er desires to dedicate himself  
To human progress and perform such work  
As shall in course of time prove living force  
Must first entrust himself unto those powers  
Who work in deep realities and bring,  
Where order with confusion aye doth fight,  
The rhythmic law of number and its power.  
For knowledge only hath true active life,  
That can reveal itself within the soul  
When it can bring to men, still clothed in flesh,  
The memory of life in spirit-realms.

*Thomasius:*  
My course of life is thus made clear to me.  
I have to feel myself a twofold man.  
Through Benedictus' help and through thine own  
I am a being independent, strong,  
Whose forces do not yet belong to self—  
To mine own self that stirs within me still.  
Ye now have given me a manhood new  
Who must be willing to give other men  
What he hath gained by spirit-pupilship.  
He must devote himself unto the world  
As best he can: naught from mine other self  
Must mingle and disturb what now at last  
He hath as true self-knowledge recognized.  
Contained in his own world he will go on,  
If his own strength and help from both his friends  
Shall in the future serve to form his fate.

*Maria:*  
Whether thou walk'st in error or in truth  
Thou canst keep ever clear the view ahead,  
Which lets thy soul press farther on its path,  
If thou dost bravely bear necessities  
Imposed upon thee by the spirit-realm.