As an onlooker only, in safety ensconced,—
See thinkers perish and martyrs bleed,
See empires founded and vanish away,—
See world-epochs grow from their trifling seeds;
In short, I will skim off the cream of history.—
I must try to get hold of a volume of Becker,
And travel as far as I can by chronology.—
It's true—my grounding's by no means thorough,
And history's wheels within wheels are deceptive;—
But pooh; the wilder the starting-point,
The result will oft be the more original.—
How exalting it is, now, to choose a goal,
And drive straight for it, like flint and steel!
[With quiet emotion.
To break off all round one, on every side,
The bonds that bind one to home and friends,—
To blow into atoms one's hoarded wealth,—
To bid one's love and its joys good night,—
All simply to find the arcana of truth,—
[Wiping a tear from his eye.
That is the test of the true man of science!—
I feel myself happy beyond all measure.
Now I have fathomed my destiny's riddle.
Now 'tis but persevering through thick and thin!
It's excusable, sure, if I hold up my head,
And feel my worth, as the man, Peer Gynt,
Also called Human-life's Emperor.—
I will own the sum-total of bygone days;
I'll nevermore tread in the paths of the living.
The present is not worth so much as a shoe-sole;
All faithless and marrowless the doings of men;
Their soul has no wings and their deeds no
weight; [Shrugs his shoulders.
And women,—ah, they are a worthless crew!
[Goes off.
