On the one hand is Philosophy, bidding me stand firm; on the other, my sweetheart reproaching me with coldness and faithlessness.  But should Erasmus Montanus for any reason renounce his conviction, hitherto his one virtue?  No, indeed, by no means.  Yet here is necessity, which knows no law.  If I do not submit in this, I shall make both myself and my sweetheart miserable.  She will die of grief, and all the world will hate me and reproach me with my faithlessness.  Ought I abandon her, when she has loved me constantly for so many years?  Ought I be the cause of her death?  No, that must not be.  Still, consider what you are doing, Erasmus Montane, Musarum et Apollonis pulle!  Here you have the chance to show that you are a true philosophus.  The greater the danger, the larger the laurel wreath you win inter philosophos.  Think what your commilitiones will say when they hear something like this:  “He is no longer the Erasmus Montanus who hitherto has defended his opinions to the last drop of his blood.”  If common and ignorant people reproach me with unfaithfulness to my sweetheart, philosophi, for their part, will exalt me to the skies.  The very thing which disgraces me in the eyes of the one party crowns me with honor among the other.  I must therefore resist the temptation.  I am resisting it.  I conquer it.  I have already conquered it.  The earth is round.  Jacta est alea.  Dixi.  (Calls.) Jacob!

SCENE 7

(Enter Jacob.)

Montanus.  Jacob, the letter which you delivered to me from my sweetheart has had no influence upon me.  I adhere to what I have said.  The earth is round, and it shall never become flat as long as my head remains on my shoulders.

Jacob.  I believe, too, that the earth is round, but if any one gave me a seed-cake to say it was oblong, I should say that it was oblong, for it would make no difference to me.

Montanus.  That might be proper for you, but not for a philosophus whose principal virtue is to justify to the uttermost what he once has said.  I will dispute publicly on the subject here in the village and challenge all who have studied.

Jacob.  But might I ask Mossur one thing:  If you win the disputation, what will be the result?

Montanus.  The result will be that I shall have the honor of winning and shall be recognized as a learned man.

Jacob.  Mossur means a talkative man.  I have noticed, from people here in the village, that wisdom and talking are not the same thing.  Rasmus Hansen, who is always talking, and whom no one can stand against in the matter of words, is granted by every one to have just plain goose sense.  On the other hand, the parish constable, Niels Christensen, who says little and always gives in, is admitted to have an understanding of the duties of chief bailiff.

Montanus.  Will you listen to the rascal?  Faith, he’s trying to argue with me.