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I have just deposited with peculiar pleasure in poor Pygmalion’s dustbin, not cured you of this silly image-making! Arjillax Why did you model them as young things, you fool? If Pygmalion had come to me, I should have made ancients of them for him. Not that I should have modelled them any better. I have always said that no one can beat you at your best as far as handwork is concerned. But this job required brains. That is where I should have come in. Martellus Well, my brainy boy, you are welcome to try your hand. There are two of Pygmalion’s pupils at the laboratory who helped him to manufacture the bones and tissues and all the rest of it. They can turn out a couple of new automatons; and you can model them as ancients if this venerable pair will sit for you. Ecrasia Decisively. No. No more automata. They are too disgusting. Acis Returning from the temple. Well, that’s done. Poor old Pyg! Ecrasia Only fancy, Acis! Arjillax wants to make more of those abominable things, and to destroy even their artistic character by making ancients of them. The Newly Born You won’t sit for them, will you? Please don’t. The He-Ancient Children, listen. Acis Striding down the steps to the bench and seating himself next Ecrasia. What! Even the Ancient wants to make a speech! Give it mouth, O Sage. Strephon For heaven’s sake don’t tell us that the earth was once inhabited by Ozymandiases and Cleopatras. Life is hard enough for us as it is. The He-Ancient Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful. What I wanted to tell you is that ever since men existed, children have played with dolls. Ecrasia You keep using that word. What are dolls, pray? The She-Ancient What you call works of art. Images. We call them dolls. Arjillax Just so. You have no sense of art; and you instinctively insult it. The He-Ancient Children have been known to make dolls out of rags, and to caress them with the deepest fondness. The She-Ancient Eight centuries ago, when I was a child, I made a rag doll. The rag doll is the dearest of all. The Newly Born Eagerly interested. Oh! Have you got it still? The She-Ancient I kept it a full week. Ecrasia Even in your childhood, then, you did not understand high art, and adored your own amateur crudities. The She-Ancient How old are you? Ecrasia Eight months. The She-Ancient When you have lived as long as I have⁠— Ecrasia Interrupting rudely. I shall worship rag dolls, perhaps. Thank heaven I am still in my prime. The He-Ancient You are still capable of thanking, though you do not know what you thank. You are a thanking little animal, a blaming little animal, a⁠— Acis A gushing little animal. Arjillax And, as she thinks, an artistic little animal. Ecrasia Nettled. I am an animated being with a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. If your Automata had been properly animated, Martellus, they would have been more successful. The She-Ancient That is where you are wrong, my child. If those two loathsome things had been rag dolls, they would have been amusing and lovable. The Newly Born here would have played with them; and you would all have laughed and played with them too until you had torn them to pieces; and then you would have laughed more than ever. The Newly Born Of course we should. Isn’t that funny? The He-Ancient When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth. Strephon Yes; and take all the fun out of it. The She-Ancient Do not be so embittered because your sweetheart has outgrown her love for you. The Newly Born will make amends. The Newly Born Oh yes: I will be more than she could ever have been. Strephon Psha! Jealous! The Newly Born Oh no. I have grown out of that. I love her now because she loved you, and because you love her. The He-Ancient That is the next stage. You are getting on very nicely, my child. Martellus Come! what is the truth that was hidden in the rag doll? The He-Ancient Well, consider why you are not content with the rag doll, and must have something more closely resembling a real living creature. As you grow up you make images and paint pictures. Those of you who cannot do that make stories about imaginary dolls. Or you dress yourselves up as dolls and act plays about them. The She-Ancient And, to deceive yourself the more completely, you take them so very very seriously that Ecrasia here declares that the making of dolls is the holiest work of creation, and the words you put into the mouths of dolls the sacredest of scriptures and the noblest of utterances. Ecrasia Tush! Arjillax Tosh! The She-Ancient Yet the more beautiful they become the further they retreat from you. You cannot caress them as you caress the rag doll. You cannot cry for them when they are broken or lost, or when you pretend they have been unkind to you, as you could when you played with rag dolls. The He-Ancient At last, like Pygmalion, you demand from your dolls the final perfection of resemblance to life. They must move and speak. The She-Ancient They must love and hate. The He-Ancient They must think that they think. The She-Ancient They must have soft flesh and warm, blood. The He-Ancient And then, when you have achieved this as Pygmalion did; when the marble masterpiece is dethroned by the automaton and the homo by the homunculus; when the body and the brain, the reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, as Ecrasia says, stand before you unmasked as mere machinery, and your impulses are shown to be nothing but reflexes, you are filled with horror and loathing, and would give worlds to be young enough to play with your rag doll again, since every step away from it has been a step away from love and happiness. Is it not true? The She-Ancient Speak, Martellus: you who have travelled the whole path. Martellus It is true. With fierce joy I turned