by any one person, instead it is slowly built up upon the experiences of
many, experiences which show that when one thing is done, suffering is
what follows, and when another thing is done, happiness is what follows.
Of course there are a few, isolated taboos that are based instead on
human prejudices, but that doesn't translate into the abandonment of all
the experience of precedents. What comes when there are no longer any
taboos and traditions to break? Destruction. For as is seen time and
again, the rebellion of societies gains momentum, and while their
consequences are slow in gathering, in the end they multiply and force
those societies over the edge of power, bringing only suffering and
ruin.

"And not only are the experiences of the past wielded together into that
euphoria that eludes the rebellious--wisdom--but its constant state
controls the present and the future. What men have seen in the past
leads them in their future actions, and as a result, it is not the
future that controls the present and defines the past, but it is the
past which controls the present and defines the future. What sense is
there in abandoning the mountain of wisdom that the past has built up
and leaping blindly into hazy, unknown actions and institutions? The
past is steady, Jehu, and it is known; it is the only sensible way."
Thus spoke Wagner.

It was then the King's turn, and he said as follows:

"The past is the past, not the present nor the future, its time has been
spent, its part in the theater of life is over, it is extinct. Jehu,
Wagner speaks of us as rebelliously breaking taboos that were formed by
our forefathers, but that is not true. In the present more is known than
was known in the past, they had outdated views and opinions, and their