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STREPHON. You saw her when you barged into us as we were dancing. She is four. THE NEWLY BORN. How I should have hated her twenty minutes ago! But I have grown out of that now. THE HE-ANCIENT. Good. That hatred is called jealousy, the worst of our childish complaints. Martellus, dusting his hands and puffing, returns from the grove. ARJILLAX. Ancients: I should like to make a few studies of you.
ARJILLAX. High what? PYGMALION. High-po-tential. The Life Force is not so simple as you think. A high-potential current of it will turn a bit of dead tissue into a philosopher's brain. A low-potential current will reduce the same bit of tissue to a mass of corruption.
You must take what he gives you, or leave it if you are not worthy of it. Ho! May I not leave it because it is not worthy of me? ARJILLAX. Of you! Hold your silly tongue, you conceited humbug. What do you know about it? ECRASIA. I know what every person of culture knows: that the business of the artist is to create beauty.
ARJILLAX. If you come to that, what interest can you find in the statues of smirking nymphs and posturing youths you stick up all over the place? ECRASIA. You did not ask that when your hand was still skilful enough to model them. ARJILLAX. Skilful! You high-nosed idiot, I could turn such things out by the score with my eyes bandaged and one hand tied behind me. But what use would they be?
MARTELLUS. Yet one would like to follow them; to enter into their life; to grasp their thought; to comprehend the universe as they must. ARJILLAX. Getting old, Martellus? MARTELLUS. Well, I have finished with the dolls; and I am no longer jealous of you. That looks like the end. Two hours sleep is enough for me. I am afraid I am beginning to find you all rather silly. STREPHON. I know.
Until today your works have been full of beauty; and I have been the first to point that out. ARJILLAX. Thank you for nothing. People have eyes, havnt they, to see what is as plain as the sun in the heavens without your pointing it out? ECRASIA. You were very glad to have it pointed out. You did not call me a conceited humbug then. You stifled me with caresses.
ECRASIA. I discovered your genius before anyone else did. Is that true, or is it not? ARJILLAX. Everybody knew I was an extraordinary person. When I was born my beard was three feet long. ECRASIA. Yes; and it has shrunk from three feet to two. Your genius seems to have been in the last foot of your beard; for you have lost both.
I'm not fit to die. I will never bite anyone again. I will tell the truth. I will do good. Is it my fault if I was not made properly? Kill him; but spare me. I have done no harm: she has. Kill her if you like: you have no right to kill me. THE NEWLY BORN. Do you hear that? They want to have one another killed. ARJILLAX. Monstrous! Kill them both. THE HE-ANCIENT. Silence.
MARTELLUS. You know him quite well. Pygmalion. That soulless creature! A scientist! A laboratory person! ARJILLAX. Pygmalion produce a work of art! You have lost your artistic senses. The man is utterly incapable of modelling a thumb nail, let alone a human figure. MARTELLUS. That does not matter: I have done the modelling for him. ARJILLAX. What on earth do you mean?
You have to keep sane, you know. The two Ancients look at one another; shrug their shoulders; and address themselves to their departure. THE HE-ANCIENT. We are staying too long with you, children. We must go. All the young people rise rather eagerly. ARJILLAX. Dont mention it. THE SHE-ANCIENT. It is tiresome for us, too.
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