458 
; NATHANs 
No, sultan, 
him I knew not. 
SALADIN. 
God knows him. 
NATHAN. 
As he knows 
the-chaos, from whose deep the light arose. 
It does not therefore now exist. Thou art 
not 
the first, whom he has imperceptibly 
allew'd thro’ crimes to find out virtue’s path. 
What boots the das been, so the is be right. 
God will not ask the just man’s virtue to 
atone the sinner’s trespass, will not punish 
the worthy for the faulty Saladin. 
SALADIN. 
Yet not unoften the amended man 
dies of his sins. 
NATHAN, 
Dies of some law of nature. 
SALIDIN. , 
What is this fear then? what this ee 
struggling, 
these rackingtortures of avenging conscience ? 
NATHAN. 
A proof of tenderer virtuous feelings, of 
abhorrence against vice. It is—perhaps 
the working of thy fever, of strain’d nerves 
and fiurried spirits. 
SALADIN. 
*Tis no doubtful pang 
obscure and undefin’d, but clear perception 
that I have not liv’d as a man should live, 
It is the palpitation of aculprit 
advancing to his judge. Conscience, my Na- 
; than, 
is no disease. 
NATHAN. 
Strive not against thy peace ; 
do not o’erlook thy virtues ; shove not from 
thee 
the consolations which on penitence 
God has bestow’d. 
SALADIN. 
God ? Where has he bestow’d it ? 
How am I sure of that ; And is not God 
a friend to order ? Values he no longer 
the laws he made, no longer loves his 
creatures? 
Who breaks thro’ those, or sacrifices these, 
can God befriend? Indeed for men like us, 
whem groping after truth but leaves be- 
wilder’d, 
awhom virtue fills with pride or fills with 
doubt; 
faith isa precious thing. Beside the grave 
where a man strays alone ; where other souls 
no longer buoy him up with fellow feelings 5 
where all is changing; and between fo be 
aad xot to be the dread avyss is yawning ; - 
where all that seem’din life, truth, action, 
fact, 
dwindles to a lie; where even reason’s torch 
amid the wide and vacant gulph isquench’d, 
O Nathan, Nathan, faith is precious there. 
Critical Survey of Lessing's Works. 
in blood upto my girdle. 
[June f, 
NATHAN. 
Who takes it from thee, my good Saladin 5 
why may’st thou not believe whate’er thou 
wilt? 
SALADIN.: 
No longer, Nathan, now; no longer now. 
NATHAN.. 
Does not thy prophet teach thee, like mine me, 
that God is merciful, that he forgives. 
_SALADINe 
Keep for thyself thy talismanic ring, 
and do not mock at the poor trodden worm 
e’en in the dust. 
NATHAN. 
For God’s sake no; no}; no. 
Sultan, if with my blood I could procure 
thee 
rest—O! how willingly. 
SALADIN, 
Give, give, conviction, 
In certainty is placed the might of truth. 
Doubt is its foe; a fatal grub chat bores 
deeper and deeper to the pith o’the root, 
until the fair flower withers. It is shrivell’d, 
faded fur me ; and round about me lie 
the fallow petals scatter’. All their power, 
the fragrance they once shed across my soul, 
isgone. Thendie, die, Saladin: thy lot 
be heaven, or hell, or everlasting nothing: 
die, die, for here is darknessall. Thy road 
is yonder over graves—o’er slaughter—felds : 
thick sown with skulls of men—well mois- 
ten’d too 
with human gore. Who was the sower here? 
Who with his sabre plough’d the reeking soil? 
Who? 3 
NATHAN. 
Saladin, what ails thee, Saladin—=~ 
SALADIN. 
I, I, ’twas I, the valorous Saladin, 
Twas I, who mow’d these heaps of dead. 
NATHAN. 
My Sultan, 
<P recollect thyself. 
SALADIN. 
Ha! now I stand 
*T was well fought, 
my watriors, nobly slaughter’d.——Bury them: 
for fear their God should see them, and re- 
venge 
on us their blood. 
NATHAN. . 
Dost thou know me no longer: ? 
God, god, have pity on him! 
/SALADIN. 
What of pity. 
Behold in me the mighty Saladin, 
the conqueror of the world. The east is his . 
Down with thy arms, or die! 
NATHAN. 
Canst thou not know 
thy Nathan any longer ? 
SALADIN. 
Get thee gone; 
I will not deal with thee, jew, usurer, cheat. 
hence with thy ware; "tis trash ; sell, sell, te 
fools, 
- Avant. 
