Father Hudson. Surely it was wrong;
The hero should receive the hero's meed.
Leader of Men. The gods that made him hero had left out
The drop of meekness which preserves the rest
From self-destruction.
Father Hudson. Will he kill himself?
Leader of Men. More than a suicide.—
A living death
Takes up its habitation in his heart.
Father Hudson. Little I understand, but greatly pity.
You, who have mastered all philosophy,
Can surely soothe him.
Leader of Men. None can reach the man.
He is beyond the boundaries of speech,
And goes the paths of blindness.
Would'st thou, O Father, see the invisible,
And know what agitates your placid mind?
Father Hudson. Show me: I can receive it.
[The following Invocation is sung by the Leader of the Women in a clear contralto voice.]
Leader of Women. Spirit of the unseen habitation,
Walking distress,
Blighting presence, Nemesis, Evil,
Good-in-Darkness,
Passing from breast to breast,
Reaching easily all men,
And the vine in the orchard,
And the thick clusters of the grape,
And the bending branches of the young peach trees,
When the south wind blows death upon their pride,—
O intimate undoing! In what form walkest thou here?
Treason. [Without.] Who calls?