Act I: Scene II. — A Room at Justice Hathorne's. A Clock in The, Corner, Enter Hathorne and Mather

HATHORNE.You are welcome, reverend sir, thrice welcome hereBeneath my humble roof.

MATHER.I thank your Worship.

HATHORNE.Pray you be seated. You must be fatiguedWith your long ride through unfrequented woods.

MATHER.You know the purport of my visit here,--To be advised by you, and counsel with you,And with the Reverend Clergy of the village,Touching these witchcrafts that so much afflict you;And see with mine own eyes the wonders toldOf spectres and the shadows of the dead,That come back from their graves to speak with men.

HATHORNE.Some men there are, I have known such, who thinkThat the two worlds--the seen and the unseen,The world of matter and the world of spirit--Are like the hemispheres upon our maps,And touch each other only at a point.But these two worlds are not divided thus,Save for the purposes of common speech,They form one globe, in which the parted seasAll flow together and are intermingled,While the great continents remain distinct.

MATHER.I doubt it not. The spiritual worldLies all about us, and its avenuesAre open to the unseen feet of phantomsThat come and go, and we perceive them not,Save by their influence, or when at timesA most mysterious Providence permits themTo manifest themselves to mortal eyes.

HATHORNE.You, who are always welcome here among us,Are doubly welcome now. We need your wisdom,Your learning in these things to be our guide.The Devil hath come down in wrath upon us,And ravages the land with all his hosts.

MATHER.The Unclean Spirit said, "My name is Legion!"Multitudes in the Valley of Destruction!But when our fervent, well-directed prayers,Which are the great artillery of Heaven,Are brought into the field, I see them scatteredAnd driven like autumn leaves before the wind.

HATHORNE.You as a Minister of God, can meet themWith spiritual weapons: but, alas!I, as a Magistrate, must combat themWith weapons from the armory of the flesh.

MATHER.These wonders of the world invisible,--These spectral shapes that haunt our habitations,--The multiplied and manifold afflictionsWith which the aged and the dying saintsHave their death prefaced and their age imbittered,--Are but prophetic trumpets that proclaimThe Second Coming of our Lord on earth.The evening wolves will be much more abroad,When we are near the evening of the world.

HATHORNE.When you shall see, as I have hourly seen,The sorceries and the witchcrafts that torment us,See children tortured by invisible spirits,And wasted and consumed by powers unseen,You will confess the half has not been told you.

MATHER.It must be so. The death-pangs of the DevilWill make him more a Devil than before;And Nebuchadnezzar's furnace will be heatedSeven times more hot before its putting out.

HATHORNE.Advise me, reverend sir. I look to youFor counsel and for guidance in this matter.What further shall we do?

MATHER.Remember this,That as a sparrow falls not to the groundWithout the will of God, so not a DevilCan come down from the air without his leave.We must inquire.

HATHORNE.Dear sir, we have inquired;Sifted the matter thoroughly through and through,And then resifted it.

MATHER.If God permitsThese Evil Spirits from the unseen regionsTo visit us with surprising informations,We must inquire what cause there is for this,But not receive the testimony borneBy spectres as conclusive proof of guiltIn the accused.

HATHORNE.Upon such evidenceWe do not rest our case. The ways are manyIn which the guilty do betray themselves.

MATHER.Be careful. Carry the knife with such exactness,That on one side no innocent blood be shedBy too excessive zeal, and on the otherNo shelter given to any work of darkness.

HATHORNE.For one, I do not fear excess of zeal.What do we gain by parleying with the Devil?You reason, but you hesitate to act!Ah, reverend sir! believe me, in such casesThe only safety is in acting promptly.'T is not the part of wisdom to delayIn things where not to do is still to doA deed more fatal than the deed we shrink from.You are a man of books and meditation,But I am one who acts.

MATHER.God give us wisdomIn the directing of this thorny business,And guide us, lest New England should becomeOf an unsavory and sulphurous odorIn the opinion of the world abroad!

I never hear the striking of a clockWithout a warning and an admonitionThat time is on the wing, and we must quickenOur tardy pace in journeying Heavenward,As Israel did in journeying Canaan-ward!

HATHORNE.Then let us make all haste; and I will show youIn what disguises and what fearful shapesThe Unclean Spirits haunt this neighborhood,And you will pardon my excess of zeal.

MATHER.Ah, poor New England! He who hurricanoedThe house of Job is making now on theeOne last assault, more deadly and more snarledWith unintelligible circumstancesThan any thou hast hitherto encountered!