ABE:
(cheerfully, his face flushed)
Evil? How can any force be evil?
That’s merely a matter of direction!
MAN:
(approaches them)
You’re wrong. God is in those willow marshes.
God in a very subtle aspect and sometimes—
that which is not God.
ABE:
But of course! All created things contain some
breath of His life Who made them. It’s only
beautiful to hold that He created nothing dead!
I like to think that even in decay there’s life.
Take an inert stone...what holds its particles
together? We understand it as little as gravity
or why a needle always turns to the ‘North.’
Both things may be a mode of life.
MAN:
You think a compass has a soul, city-dweller?
The crowd laughs.
SWEDEN:
(puts hand on ABE’S shoulder,
turns him around)
Our friend merely suggests that the myster
