II, Theaterstücke 25, Professor Bernhardi. Komödie in fünf Akten (Ärztestück, Junggesellenstück), Seite 963

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25 PrSsor Bernhand
48 PROFESSOR BERNHARDI: A PLAY
Bernhardi: Thereby Your Reverence surely
executed the measure of your responsibility;
but perhaps the effect which this testimony
produced, might be some reward.
Priest: I doubt, Professor, if its effect will
be favorable to me outside of the court-room.
But you can imagine, Professor, that I did not
come here for the purpose of recapitulating
my testimony before the court. That which
prompts me to call upon you at this late hour
is the fact that I have a further admission to
to make to you.
Bernhardi A further admission?
Priest: Before the court, I expressed my
conviction that you did not act with hostile
intentions towards me or my church. Now I
feel myself prompted to admit that in this
special case—understand, Professor, in this
special case—you acted correctly in your ca¬
pacity as a physician, and that you only obey¬
ed your duty as I did mine.
Bernhardi: Do I understand you aright?
You admit that I could not have acted differ¬
ently?
Priest: Not as a physician.
Bernhardi: If this is your real opinion,
Your Reverence, I must say that you had bet¬
ter opportunity, or perhaps the only proper
chance, to admit it a few hours ago.
Priest: I need not assure you that it was
not lack of courage that sealed my lips; other¬
wise should Ithen be here, Professor?
Bernhardi: What then?
Priest: I will tell you. That which silenced
me in court was the conviction which came to
—.
box 31/8
PROFESSOR BERNHARDI: A PLAY 49
me by holy inspiration, that one word more
might cause infinite damage to a truly sacred
cause; the most sacred in the world to me.
Bernhardi: I cannot imagine, that for a
courageous man like you, Your Reverence,
there could be anything more sacred than the
truth. Nothing.
Priest: What! Nothing more sacred than
intangible truth for which I might have stood
until the end in this single case? You don't
mean that. Should I have acknowledged that
you had the right to send me away from the
death-bed of a Christian—a sinner—the ene¬
mies of the church would certainly have abused
such a declaration far beyond my responsi¬
bility. The slight truth that I had uttered
would have been twisted and misinterpreted,
so that it would have become a lie. And what
would have been the result of that? I should
have appeared as a renegade, a traitor, not
only before those to whom I owe obedience, but
even before my God.
Bernhardi: Then why do you do it now?
Priest: Because at the very instant I re¬
ceived that inspiration, I pledged myself to
make the confession to you personally, some¬
thing which the public would have misunder¬
stood and misconstrued.
Bernhardi: I
thank you for this, Your
Reverence, and let me express the hope that
vou will never again be put into the position to
have to testify publicly in a cause where greater
things are at stake than my humble self. For it
might happen, that what appears to me in this
instance, as your own personal scruple, might