“I know it, Your Highness,” interrupted Helmer.
The prince had been speaking with animated voice and his cheeks were flushed. Now he seized Chlodwig’s hand. “So then, tell me! You who are a poet and therefore something of a prophet; you who would raise goodness to the level of a motive force for political action,—tell me, how would you help the people?”
“What people? Mine? Is it impossible to help one people alone. In our day of universal international intercourse and trade, every country is dependent on every other. One nation cannot by itself be rich, happy, and independent. The nations are not hermits; they form a community. In my kingdom, could I put down capitalism, could I do away with war, if others threatened me with it; if I took down my own tariff walls, could I break through the limitations of the others? There is no individual happiness—‘reciprocally’—‘coöperatively’—‘mutually’: those are the adverbs without which no blissful verb can be conjugated.”
“Then what would you do?”
“Seek to make alliances with my fellow-royalties. I should—yet I have no perfected plan of action in my mind, Prince. Only one thing is quite clear: the mechanicians have won over a new element which for many thousands of years they never dared hope to enter into. There is also a spiritual, a moral upper ocean into which hitherto no one has ventured to steer the so-called ship of State. I cherish the faith that by this time among the potentates, one—the Zeppelin—is born and will work and accomplish, and dare obstinately, confidently, prophetically, in spite of all doubts, all resistance; and will let his ship mount up into those heights of light.... Pardon me, Prince, I have one great fault into which I am always falling: speaking far too much in metaphors.”
“Pardonable in a poet.”
“But you wished to hear something concrete, positive,—in this respect I have served you ill.”
“No; your Zeppelin picture gives me a quite correct orientation. First one must gather from the light of reason, even if no experience answers for it, that a thing is feasible; then one must will and dare. The individual manipulations will come into play later.”
Helmer gazed at the prince. A warm wave of liking for him arose in his heart; then instantly this same heart seemed to contract as if under a cold pressure. The thought of Franka ... how natural it would be that she should love that man....
As if Victor Adolph had read the poet’s thoughts, he asked: “You are an old acquaintance of Fräulein Garlett’s, are you not?”