Cébès: Who is with you?

Simon: The voice of my living soul!

I have heard men mourn their misfortunes, but what misfortune can there be?

None.

—It grows dark.

Cébès: It is night.

Simon: Watch the road and speak more softly.

The dry brambles shiver; the branches creak or sway without a sound; the brooks gurgle among the reeds.

We stand in the midst of space, with all about us the blackness,

The melancholy of Earth.