OF APOSTATES
��"Alas! doth everything lie withered and gray that of late stood green and many-coloured on this meadow? And how much honey of hope carried I hence into my bee-hives !
These young hearts have all become old and not even old ! only weary, vulgar, indolent. They call it : 'We have become pious once more.'
Of late I saw them run out on brave feet at early morning. But their feet of perception have wearied, and now they even slander the bravery of their morn- ing !
Verily, many a one of them once lifted his feet like a dancer, the laughter in my wisdom making signs unto him. Then he changed his mind. Just now I have seen him creep crooked unto the cross.
Round light and freedom they once fluttered, like midges and young poets. A little older, a little colder and quickly they have become obscurantists and mumblers and stay-at-homes.
Did their heart lose its courage, because loneliness devoured me like a whale? Did their ear hearken
258
�� �
