ls Prometheus, is reasonable; let him but recognise their
supremacy, and he will be free of the heights of Olympus, from which
he would rule the earth. "Yes," is the reply, "to be their burggrave,
and defend their Heaven! My offer is more reasonable; their wish is to
be a partner with me, and my thought is to have nothing to
participate with them; they cannot rob me of what I have, and what
they have, let them guard. Here is mine, and here is thine, and so are
we apart." "But what is thine?" inquires Epimetheus; and the reply is,
"The circle which my activity fulfils--_Der Kreis, den meine
Wirklichkeit erfuellt_." And here follows one of the passages in the
dialogue which, as expressing the pantheistic conception of the
universe, gave occasion to the quarrel of the philosophers, to be
presently noted. "Thou standest alone," is the comment of Epimetheus
on the claim to independent self-subsistence asserted by Prometheus;
"thou standest alone; thy self-will fails to appreciate the bliss of
the gods--thou, thine, the world and heaven, all feel themselves one
intimate whole." Repelled like Mercury, Epimetheus departs, and
Minerva, in whom Prometheus acknowledges his sole inspirer and
instructress, appears. Minerva, who declares that she honours her
father Zeus and loves Prometheus, repeats the offer of Zeus to animate
the clay images if Prometheus will acknowledge his sovereignty; but
when Prometheus passionately refuses to accept the offer, she bursts
forth: "And they shall live! to fate and not to the gods it pertains
to bestow life and to take it. Come, I conduct thee to the source of
all life, which Jupiter may not close against us. They shall live, and
through thee!"

Of the second Act only two Scenes were written. In the first, Mercury,
proclaiming in Olympus that Minerva has given life to the clay images
of Prometheus, calls on Zeus to destroy the new creatures with his
thunder. Zeus calmly replies that they will only increase the number
of his servants, and Mercury, changing his tone, prays that he may be
sent to "the poor earthborn folk," to announce the goodness and wisdom
of the father of all. "Not yet," is the reply. "In the newborn rapture
of youth they dream that they are like unto the gods. Not till they
need thee will they listen to thy words. Leave them to their own
life!" In the second Scene, we see Prometheus in a valley at the base
of Olympus, surrounded by the new race of animated beings engaged in
bus