SCENE II: THE HOUSE OF LIFE.
SCENE: The cloudy realms of space. At a point, halls of illimitable and indescribable splendor, the colorings of the dawn. Beyond, a swirling belt of suns and satellites glittering thinly against the dark. Beyond this, in measureless nothingness, the suggestion of other clouds of suns and planets, spinning. At the center, the Presence, couched upon gold and porphyry, high-piled, cloud on cloud. Poles of outpouring thought, great flames, radiate from his brows; about him a nimbus of fire. He is now fully self-materialized and concentrated, but sits quiescent, weary, lonely, a compendium of vagrom, changeful, insane emotions and ideas. Immediately before him, BEAUTY, LOVE, PITY, HOPE, REASON—colorful shadows all—as well as beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, flowers, trees; men and women in cloudy, wraith-like masses. Above him, immense legions of CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM, figures of translucent light, radiant, choral. In the background, AMBITION; about him swirl, darkling, HATE, FEAR, GREED, DESPAIR, and behind them, cloud upon cloud, sinister figures, emissaries, dreams, the darker products of the Lord’s fancy.
SERAPHIM AND CHERUBIM
(Fanning with glittering wings.) Hail, our Creator! Hail, Lord! Do thou remain forever in thought our Creator, our Thinker! Blessed be thy reality! Hail! Hail!
BEAUTY
(Surveying from a glistering footstool, nearest of all the swarming universe.) Am I not beautiful, Lord? Am I not thy thought of Beauty? Art thou not content to think on me, thy first thought? And shall I not be thy last? Thou hast but commanded, and they worship me! Thou but thinkest, and I am supernal in beauty! (She smiles.) They worship me! They worship me!
THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE
(Broodingly.) Sweet thought—my dearest thought!
AMBITION
(Clanking ponderous armor, a cloudy giant in moody meditation.) We wait! We wait! He thinks not on us! He thinks not on us. Now are his thoughts of drooling pleasure—of Beauty, of Hope, Peace—pale nothings all—Seraphim and Cherubim, mere fluttering figures of light! Beauty reigns! Hope and Reason and Pity are at her feet! See how the universe peoples itself with these, his fancies! He dreams but fair dreams!