id Harry good-bye and cheer him on his path toward becoming an Immortal. Harry, again in the first person, compares what the Treatise says of him with a poem he has written about the wolf. He finds them both true and unbearable. He recalls the successive crises in his life, the despair, and the new self-knowledge he has gained each time at the cost of increased loneliness. He will not go through this again. He will end it, commit suicide. But first, the Magic Theater. After nights of search he finds the peddler, who directs him to a seedy tavern. Here he meets the bar girl Hermine, who introduces him to the prostitute Maria and the jazz musician Pablo. With Hermine as guide, Harry learns to dance and to enjoy sex and the night life of the city. He joins the revelers at a masked ball. Pablo, as master of ceremonies, invites Harry into the Magic Theater. Here, in a series of dreamlike adventures, Harry fights a war against automobiles, makes love to all the women he has ever loved, commits an imaginary murder, and prepares to be executed. Instead, he is condemned to go on living. Pablo rebukes him for messing up his magic with reality. Harry acknowledges that he will go on trying to face his inner self, and perhaps learn to do better next time....
