What they taught, and disbelieved it,
But as handed down received it;
What they taught with no misgiving
Robbed themselves and me of living.

But see sitting in brown study
One of these same bright and muddy,
In the clear obscure, the glimmer 330
Of the grey light growing dimmer;
There he sits as first I found him,

With the rough brown sheepskin round him.
Then he seemed to me right clever,
Great man of the place; however,
That was all in the gone-bye time

-The world's nonage: now 'tis my time.

I know him now; he cannot catch me now-
That day is over: at him, anyhow.

If, old sir, your bald head in Lethe's pool 8345
Hath not been soaked, you may with those

slant eyes

The scholar of an old day recognize.

But now remember I am out of school,
And rid of academic rods and rule.

You, sir, are just the same as long ago;

I am not what I was, I'd have you know.

Meph. I am so glad my bell hath hither brought youEven when a boy, no common boy I thought you:

The grub and chrysalis denote

The future butterfly's gay coat. 8350

I well remember your delighted air,

Your peaked lace collar and your flowing hair:
Proud, child, you were of that same curly pate.
You never wore the queue and crown-

It had not to your day come down.

And now to find you in a Sweden tête,
Determined, resolute, from head to foot.

Oh! come not home with that imperious frown,

The barefaced terrors of the Absolute.

Bac. Old gentleman, we are in the old place; 360 But change of time has come and changed the case. 'Tis out of season to affect

This motley two-edged dialect,

You long ago might play at make-believe :
Small art need any man employ,

To fool an unsuspecting boy,

Whom no one now will venture to deceive.

Meph. If, speaking to the young, pure truth one speaks,

It little suits the callow yellow beaks;

Years come and, what they heard from us, when brought 6370 Back by their own experience dearly bought,

They deem it all the fruit of their own. skull

Speak of their master as supremely dull.

Bac. Or as a knave, for who that deals with youth

Speaks, face to face, direct the honest truth;

Your teacher still will strengthen or dilute,

Palates of pious children as may suit.

Meph. Learning and Teaching-there's a time for each; Your time for learning's over: you can teach.

Moons many since we met-some suns have rolled; 8380

You must have gained experience manifold.

Bac. Experience! foam and bubble, and its name

Not to be mentioned with the Spirit's claim.

Confess it

nothing was till this day done

Worth doing in Science-Science there was none.

Meph. I have thought so long-I had always a thick skull;

I now confess to "silly-shallow-dull."

Bac. That so delights me !-some hope of you yet!

The first old man with brains I have ever met.

Meph. I dug for gold, I found but cinders horrid; 390

I cried them up for treasures rich and rare.

Bac. Confess then that your barefaced bald old forehead

Is nothing better than the dead skulls there.

Meph. [calmly]. Friend! you are most discourteously replying.

Bac. Courtesy in plain German, that means lying.
Meph. [moving with his wheel chair towards the proscenium,
addressing the audience]. Light-air-no quarter up
there! You'll be civil!

You're sure to show your kindness to the devil.
Bac. It is the very height of impudence,
That what is dead and gone should make pretence
Of being in existence. Man's life lives 400

But in the blood-and the blood, where, in truth,
Stirs it so vigorously as in youth?

The young blood lives, aye! and in eager strife
Shapes to itself a new life out of life.

There all is progress! something still is done—

The feeble falls, the active presses on.

We have won half the world-yes! youthful man
Hath won it; meanwhile what have you been doing?
Slept, nodded, dreamed, weighed, thought, plan after
plan

Suggesting still, and languidly pursuing? 8410

Old age is a cold fever's feeble flame,

Life's peevish winter of obstruction chilling,
Man is at thirty dead, or all the same—

'Twere better kill you while you are worth killing.
Meph. To this the devil himself can nothing add.

Bac. Devil? Devil there can be none without my willing.

Meph. [aside]. The devil's close by to trip you up, my lad.

Bac. [exultingly]. This is the noble mission of the young

8420

Earth into being at my bidding sprung;
The sun in pomp I led up from the sea,
The moon in all her changes followed me.
For me in beauty walked the glorious day,
The green earth blossomed to adorn my way.
'Twas at my beck upon that primal night,

The proud stars shed through heaven their spreading light.

Rescued is Man, and by what hand but mine,

From galling bondage of the Philistine?

I-for the Spirit speaks within me-freed
Follow the inward light where it may lead,

Fearless and fast, with rapture-beaming mind, 30

Glory before me, and the Dark behind.

Meph. Original! move onward in your pride.

Oh how the spirit would sink mortified,

Could you but know that long ago
All thoughts, whatever, dull or clever,
That cross the twilight of your brain,
Have been o'er and o'er again
Occupying other men.

Yet, have no fears for him ;-in a few years
The absurd works off, the ferment clears, 8940
The folly will subside, perhaps refine;

The must at last is wine, and no bad wine.

[To the younger part of the audience who do not applaud

Too bad to see the auditors so cold!

And yet I must forgive the young beholder
His lack of sympathy. The devil is old.
To understand him better, boys, grow older!

II

LABORATORY

In the fashion of the Middle Ages. Cumbrous, heavy apparatus for fantastic purposes

Wagner [at the furnace]. The bell! how fearfully it chimed!

With what a shudder, thrilling through

These old walls, smoke-begrimed!

The agony of hopes and fears

8480

That tortured me is at an end.

The cloudy darkness clears.

From deep within the phial glows

A living ring of fire, that throws

Far its red light, and through the night,
As from the carbuncle, in bright

Lightning-like lustre flows.

And now and now!-at last 'tis come! pearly white !

a pure clear

Oh that I may not lose it this time-Hark!
Again! A something rattling at the door.
Meph. [entering]. Welcome! I bring such luck as in

my power.

8460

Wagner [anxiously]. Welcome ! To come just at the planet hour!

[In a low voice]. Hush! not a breath, while you look on

intent.

A mighty work of wonderful event

Is at the moment of accomplishment

A man is being made!

Meph. [in a whisper]. A man and will it Be soon done? are your lovers in the skillet ?

Wagner. Heaven help you! the romance of action, passion,

Father and mother, is quite out of fashion. 8470
I've shown up pretty well that idle pother-
The thought of child by no means implies mother:
The tender point from which life sprang and started
Is gone-clean gone-the glory all departed.
The eager impulse from within that pressed,
Received and gave, and, prompt to manifest
Itself, went on advancing by degrees,

The nearest first, the foreign next to seize,

Is from its dignity deposed, dethroned,

From this day forward, disallowed, disowned. 8483

No doubt the old views may still for the brute beast

Answer, but man, high-gifted man at least,
Will have a higher, purer form of birth.

[Turns to the hearth Look yonder! see the flashes from the hearth! Hope for the world dawns there, that, having laid The stuff together of which man is made, The hundredfold ingredients mixing, blending (For upon mixture is the whole depending), If then in a retort we slowly mull it,

Next to a philosophic temper dull it, 490
Distil and re-distil, at leisure thin it,
All will come right, in silence, to a minute.

[Turning again to the hearth
'Tis forming-every second brings it nearer—
And my conviction becomes stronger, clearer.
What Nature veils in mystery, I expect
Through the plain understanding to effect;
What was organization will at last

Be with the art of making crystals classed.

Meph. Who has lived long will never be surprisedNothing in the world is new. I've long ago