JAMES, after a long pause. 
                          Why doth
The Master lead us up into this mountain?

PETER. 
He goeth up to pray.

JOHN. 
                 See where He standeth
Above us on the summit of the hill! 
His face shines as the sun! and all his raiment
Exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller
On earth can white them!  He is not alone;
There are two with him there; two men of eld,
Their white beards blowing on the mountain air,
Are talking with him.

JAMES. 
                    I am sore afraid!

PETER. 
Who and whence are they?

JOHN. 
                    Moses and Elias!

PETER. 
O Master! it is good for us to be here! 
If thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles;
For thee one, and for Moses and Elias!

JOHN. 
Behold a bright cloud sailing in the sun! 
It overshadows us.  A golden mist
Now hides them from us, and envelops us
And all the mountains in a luminous shadow! 
I see no more.  The nearest rocks are hidden.

VOICE from the cloud. 
Lo! this is my beloved Son!  Hear Him!

PETER. 
It is the voice of God.  He speaketh to us,
As from the burning bush He spake to Moses!

JOHN. 
The cloud-wreaths roll away.  The veil is lifted;
We see again.  Behold!  He is alone. 
It was a vision that our eyes beheld,
And it hath vanished into the unseen.

CHRISTUS, coming down from the mountain. 
I charge ye, tell the vision unto no one,
Till the Son of Man is risen from the dead!

PETER, aside. 
Again He speaks of it!  What can it mean,
This rising from the dead?

JAMES. 
                   Why say the Scribe! 
Elias must first come?

CHRISTUS. 
                      He cometh first,
Restoring all things.  But I say to you,
That this Elias is already come. 
They knew him not, but have done unto him
Whate’er they listed, as is written of him.

PETER, aside. 
It is of John the Baptist He is speaking.

JAMES. 
As we descend, see, at the mountain’s foot,
A crowd of people; coming, going, thronging
Round the disciples, that we left behind us,
Seeming impatient, that we stay so long.

PETER. 
It is some blind man, or some paralytic
That waits the Master’s coming to be healed.

JAMES. 
I see a boy, who struggles and demeans him
As if an unclean spirit tormented him!

A CERTAIN MAN, running forward. 
Lord!  I beseech thee, look upon my son. 
He is mine only child; a lunatic,
And sorely vexed; for oftentimes he falleth
Into the fire and oft into the water. 
Wherever the dumb spirit taketh him
He teareth him.  He gnasheth with his teeth,
And pines away.  I spake to thy disciples
That they should cast him out, and they could not.