Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/207

With most implicit unconditional faith,
Sure of the right path if I follow'd thee.
To day, for the first time, dost thou refer
Me to myself, and forced me to make
Election between thee and my own heart.

WALLENSTEIN.
Soft cradled thee thy Fortune till to day;
Thy duties thou couldst exercise in sport,
Indulge all lovely instincts, act for ever
With undivided heart. It can remain
No longer thus. Like enemies, the roads
Start from each other. Duties strive with duties.
Thou must needs chuse thy party in the war
Which is now kindling 'twixt thy friend and him
Who is thy Emperor.

MAX.
War! is that the name?
War is as frightful as heaven's pestilence,
Yet it is good, is it heaven's will as that is.
Is that a good war, which against the Emperor
Thou wagest with the Emperor's own army?
O God of heaven! what a change is this.
Beseems it me to offer such persuasion
To thee, who like the fix'd star of the pole
Wert all, I gaz'd at, on life's trackless ocean?
O! what a rent thou makest in my heart!
The ingrained instinct of old reverence,
The holy habit of obediency,
Must I pluck live asunder from thy name?
Nay, do not turn thy countenance upon me—

It