SCENES FROM A PLAY
303
costs to recover his freedom? To the government party? To the opposi–
tion party? To the ruling class? To the oppressed class? And
if
the idea
of good and evil be inseparably bound up with that of a sanction–
reward or punishment-then what is good and what is evil in a society
in which virtue is punished and vice rewarded? And if technical com–
petence in the craft of evil were to eliminate all risk and sanction, would
this mean also that all distinction between good and evil would thereby
be effaced? In the end, how it happened I don't know, but these reflec–
tions left me no peace. My whole being was seized by a new, painful,
implacable tension, such as I had never known before. I simply couldn't
and wouldn't resign myself to impunity. I hadn't believed in God for
many years, but I suddenly began longing, with ail the strength of my
soul, for Him to exist. I began to invoke Him, crying into the void. I
needed Him urgently in order not to succumb to insanity and chaos.
The most frightful punishment imaginable seemed to me infinitely pre–
ferable to placid acceptance of a world in which the problem of evil
could be solved by a little cunning and dexterity of execution.
If
I finaily
decided to confess everything, taking no thought of the consequences, it
was with the deliberate intent of setting up order once again between
the world and myself, of restoring the ancient boundary between good
and evil, without which I couldn't go on living any more. Now....
DoN
PAOLO
(who for some time has been anxiously watching the valley
and the mountain path).
Luigi, it's getting late, we'd better go inside.
Luigi, thank you for coming. Will you stay here till tomorrow?
MuRICA.
If
you want me to. You know, I've stiii got a lot of things
to teii you.
DoN PAor.o. I do want you to.
They both leave the garden and enter the znn just as the
LANDLADY
app~ars
in the doorway.
