the law. That was the first
sin, the first mouthful of the apple.

JOHNNY B. So it was, so it was. The law is the worst loss. The ancient
law was for the benefit of all. It is the law of the English is the
only sin.

MARTIN. When there were no laws men warred on one another and man to
man, not with one machine against another as they do now, and they grew
hard and strong in body. They were altogether alive like Him that made
them in His image, like people in that unfallen country. But presently
they thought it better to be safe, as if safety mattered, or anything
but the exaltation of the heart and to have eyes that danger had made
grave and piercing. We must overthrow the laws and banish them!

JOHNNY B. It is what I say, to put out the laws is to put out the whole
nation of the English. Laws for themselves they made for their own
profit and left us nothing at all, no more than a dog or a sow.

BIDDY. An old priest I see, and I would not say is he the one was here
or another. Vexed and troubled he is, kneeling fretting, and ever
fretting, in some lonesome, ruined place.

MARTIN. I thought it would come to that. Yes, the church too ... that
is to be destroyed. Once men fought with their desires and their fears,
with all that they call their sins, unhelped, and their souls became
hard and strong. When we have brought back the clean earth and
destroyed the law and the church, all life will become like a flame of
fire, like a burning eye.... Oh, how to find words for it all ... all
that is not life will pass away!

JOHNNY B. It is Luther's church he means, and the humpbacked discourse
of Seaghan Calvin's Bible. So we will break it and make an end of it.

MARTIN [_rising_]. We will go out against the world and break it and
unmake it. We are the army of the Unicorn from the Stars! We will
trample it to pieces. We will consume the world, we will burn it away.
Father John said the world has yet to be consumed by fire. Bring me
fire.

ANDREW. Here is Thomas coming! [_All except_ MARTIN _hurry into next
room._ THOMAS _comes in._]

THOMAS. Come with me, Martin. There is terrible work going on in the
town! There is mischief gone abroad! Very strange things are happening!

MARTIN. What are you talking of? What has happened?

THOMAS. Come along, I say; it must be put a stop to! We must call to
every decent man!... It is as if the devil himself had gone through the
town on a blast and set every drinking house open!

MA