There were no need of arsenals and forts.
Nor will a plea of ignorance avail. I have shown you glimmers of the past. I have told you the needs of the present. I have given you a gleam along the pathway of the future. By its light you may find the right path, you may see to walk in it, you may arrive safely at the journey’s end. Up! follow the gleam!
As Education says, “Up! follow the gleam!” the lights are turned off. Education steps behind the curtain, her hand holding the light being withdrawn last, so that the gleam remains after she has “faded” from sight. During the moment of darkness, Any City resumes his chair, and when the lights are turned on, is seen, as in the Prologue, fast asleep.
EPILOGUE
THE GLEAM
Any City (opening his eyes, as if waking from sleep). What a dream I have had! No, I believe it was what the seers of old would call a vision, for a light seemed to be with me always. (Picks up tax paper and opens it.) Well, dream or vision, I have learned a lesson. I will follow the gleam! By the gleam I see my path—I will cut off my hand before I cut one cent from this school appropriation! By the light of the gleam I will follow the path—I will give more, and more, and more, that my children may be educated in the knowledge and practice of Democracy. By the gleam I shall reach the goal—the democratic education of every soul in America. Only by thus following the gleam may I make certain that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.