The Passing of Mars

A Modern Morality Play

By
MARGUERITE WILKINSON
Author of “In Vivid Gardens” and“By a Western Wayside”

Once, long ago, a peasant greatly desired to visithis king that he might obtain of him judgment andequity, and perhaps find favor. But he said withinhimself, “I am a faulty man; a homespun smock willscarce commend me to a king. I will stay at homeand let others plead my case.” And when his casewas taken before the king, (who was a good and justman) the king said, “Why did he not come himself?Homespun I can forgive if a man bring his soul andstand before me bravely. I will have no dealings withgo-betweens.”

Here then, is my work, faulty, and plainly clad, butbrave enough to go humbly before you who read andthink, and by your thinking rule. If it find favor, itcan be clothed anew in finer raiment. If judgment andequity prevail against it, surely it is well enoughshrouded.

Copyright, 1915, by Marguerite Wilkinson

To the memory of
my father,
a strong and valiant lover of the soul of man, and
to his brave mate
my mother

Mars, the ancient god of war.

Soul of Man, his immortal enemy.

Capital,		in cartoon costumes.
Labor,

Religion, two personalities.

Cult, the bastard brother of Religion, a fantastic poseur.

Flip, a modern, the sophisticated intellect of large cities.

Science, a strong youth in laboratory costume.

Poetry, a serene old bard with a lyre.

Music, a fair woman.

Glamour, her seducer, wearing tinsel.

Trade, a harlot.

The Old Mother, a plain sibyl of the people.

Men, women and children of the fighting nations of Europe in national peasant costumes.

THE SCENE

The World Field, at harvest time and set of sun.On the right is The World Inn, and, in front of it,on the ground, a prostrate figure, clad in blackand bound, Soul of Man. On the left, near thefront, are trees and flowers, piles of fruit and vegetables,a wagon load of grain, and, in the foreground,