The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder Page B

of tattered.
    ANTROBUS:
    Yes.—Remember, Maggie, we almost lost them once before? And when we finally did collect a few torn copies out of old cellars they ran in everyone’s head like a fever. They as good as rebuilt the world.
    Pauses, book in hand, and looks up.
    Oh, I’ve never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for—whether it’s a field, or a home, or a country. All I ask is the chance to build new worlds and God has always given us that. And has given us
    Opening the book
    voices to guide us; and the memory of our mistakes to warn us. Maggie, you and I will remember in peacetime all the resolves that were so clear to us in the days of war. We’ve come a long ways. We’ve learned. We’re learning. And the steps of our journey are marked for us here.
    He stands by the table turning the leaves of a book.
    Sometimes out there in the war,—standing all night on a hill—I’d try and remember some of the words in these books. Parts of them and phrases would come back to me. And after a while I used to give names to the hours of the night.
    He sits, hunting for a passage in the book.
    Nine o’clock I used to call Spinoza. Where is it: “After experience had taught me—”
    The back wall has disappeared, revealing the platform. FRED BAILEY carrying his numeral has started from left to right. MRS. ANTROBUS sits by the table sewing.
    BAILEY:
    â€œAfter experience had taught me that the common occurrences of daily life are vain and futile; and I saw that all the objects of my desire and fear were in themselves nothing good nor bad save insofar as the mind was affected by them; I at length determined to search out whether there was something truly good and communicable to man.”
    Almost without break HESTER , carrying a large Roman numeral ten, starts crossing the platform. GLADYS appears at the kitchen door and moves toward her mother’s chair.
    HESTER:
    â€œThen tell me, O Critias, how will a man choose the ruler that shall rule over him? Will he not choose a man who has first established order in himself, knowing that any decision that has its spring from anger or pride or vanity can be multiplied a thousand fold in its effects upon the citizens?”
    HESTER disappears and IVY , as eleven o’clock starts speaking.
    IVY:
    â€œThis good estate of the mind possessing its object in energy we call divine. This we mortals have occasionally and it is this energy which is pleasantest and best. But God has it always. It is wonderful in us; but in Him how much more wonderful.”
    As MR. TREMAYNE starts to speak, HENRY appears at the edge of the scene, brooding and unreconciled, but present.
    TREMAYNE:
    â€œIn the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth; And the Earth was waste and void; And the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Lord said let there be light and there was light.”
    Sudden black-out and silence, except for the last strokes of the midnight bell. Then just as suddenly the lights go up, and SABINA is standing at the window, as at the opening of the play.
    SABINA:
    Oh, oh, oh. Six o’clock and the master not home yet. Pray God nothing serious has happened to him crossing the Hudson River. But I wouldn’t be surprised. The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.
    She comes down to the footlights.
    This is where you came in. We have to go on for ages and ages yet.
    You go home.
    The end of this play isn’t written yet.
    Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus! Their heads are full of plans and they’re as confident as the first day they began,—and they told me to tell you: good night.

Afterword
    Â 
    Overview
    Thornton Wilder began writing The Skin of Our Teeth (then titled The Ends of the