No More Learning

[They go out together. ]



SCENE--The Wood on the edge of the Moor.

MARMADUKE (alone)


MARMADUKE Deep, deep and vast, vast beyond human thought,
Yet calm. --I could believe, that there was here
The only quiet heart on earth. In terror,
Remembered terror, there is peace and rest.


[Enter OSWALD]


OSWALD Ha! my dear Captain.



MARMADUKE A later meeting, Oswald,
Would have been better timed.


OSWALD Alone, I see;
You have done your duty. I had hopes, which now
I feel that you will justify.


MARMADUKE I had fears,
From which I have freed myself--but 'tis my wish
To be alone, and therefore we must part.


OSWALD Nay, then--I am mistaken. There's a weakness
About you still; you talk of solitude--
I am your friend.


MARMADUKE What need of this assurance
At any time? and why given now?
OSWALD Because
You are now in truth my Master; you have taught me
What there is not another living man
Had strength to teach;--and therefore gratitude
Is bold, and would relieve itself by praise.


MARMADUKE Wherefore press this on me?

OSWALD Because I feel
That you have shown, and by a signal instance,
How they who would be just must seek the rule
By diving for it into their own bosoms.
To-day you have thrown off a tyranny
That lives but in the torpid acquiescence
Of our emasculated souls, the tyranny
Of the world's masters, with the musty rules
By which they uphold their craft from age to age:
You have obeyed the only law that sense
Submits to recognise; the immediate law,
From the clear light of circumstances, flashed
Upon an independent Intellect.
Henceforth new prospects open on your path;
Your faculties should grow with the demand;
I still will be your friend, will cleave to you
Through good and evil, obloquy and scorn,
Oft as they dare to follow on your steps.


MARMADUKE I would be left alone.


OSWALD (exultingly)
I know your motives!
I am not of the world's presumptuous judges,
Who damn where they can neither see nor feel,
With a hard-hearted ignorance; your struggles
I witness'd, and now hail your victory.


MARMADUKE Spare me awhile that greeting.


OSWALD It may be,
That some there are, squeamish half-thinking cowards,
Who will turn pale upon you, call you murderer,
And you will walk in solitude among them.
A mighty evil for a strong-built mind! --
Join twenty tapers of unequal height
And light them joined, and you will see the less
How 'twill burn down the taller; and they all
Shall prey upon the tallest. Solitude! --
The Eagle lives in Solitude!


MARMADUKE Even so,
The Sparrow so on the house-top, and I,
The weakest of God's creatures, stand resolved
To abide the issue of my act, alone.


OSWALD _Now_ would you?