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25. Profarrnhandi box 31/8
62 PROFESSOR BERNHARDI: A PLAYT
you begin to understand—to pardon everything
—and then where is the charm of life, if yon
cannot love or hate any more?
Bernhardi: Oh, one goes on loving and hat¬
ing; but when I stood opposite Flint, really,
my last vestige of resentment vanished. Yon
should have heard him. I could not be angry
with him.
Winkler: The Minister always liked you, I
assure you.
Bernhardi: And now this confession of the
Sister's, this revision. I have to flee from all
this noise that is being made around me, sim¬
ply because the people are beginning to real¬
ize that I was right.
Winkler: Professor, what are you think¬
ing of? That is only your imagination—that
you were right.
Bernhardi: Have the kindness to explain?
According to your idea, I should have let His
Reverence—
Winkler: Certainly you should have, my
dear Professor. You were not born to be a.
reformer—
Bernhardi: Reformer?
Winkler: As little as I. For we both do not
feel ready to go to the bitter end and risk all,
even our life, for our convictions. That is why
the only decent thing for us to do, is not to
mix in such matters. There is nothing in it.
What would you have gained, in the end, if
you had saved that poor thing that last fright,
on her death-bed. Seems like solving the social
problem by presenting,a villa to some poor
.—
PROFESSOR BERNHARDI: A PLAY 63
starving devil.
Bernhardi: But you forget that I did what I
considered right in a special case.
Winkler: That was just the mistake you
made. If one always did the right thing—that
is, in the abstract sense—began early in the
morning and continued to do so all day long,
without taking into consideration the sur¬
rounding circumstances, one would surely land
in jail before nightfall.
Bernhardi: And let me tell you, my dear
friend, vou would have acted exactly as I did.
Winkler: Possibly—and then I would have
been—excuse me—just such a fool as you.
Curtain.
ase