Flattered, cursed. Oh! know you not
Care? Know you not Anxiety?

Faust. I've but run through the world; and all, that 1349

pleased

Or promised pleasure, eagerly have seized:

What fled I thought no more of, nor pursued
Even with a wish the evanescent good:

Desired, and had, and new desires then formed,
And thus through life impetuously stormed.
In power and greatness first 'twas mine to live;
And now, in wisdom's walks contemplative.
Of Earth I know enough. To aught beside
Of other worlds all access is denied.

Madness! to search beyond with prying eyes,/30
And feign or fancy brethren in the skies.

Let Man look round him here! Here plant his foot!
The world is to the active never mute.

We know but what we grasp. What need have we
Of thoughts that wander through eternity?
Your demons of above, and of below,

At their free pleasure let them come and go.
Of goblins' freaks the wise nor knows nor cares,
But says,
"I go my own way, and they theirs."
And thus, come good, come evil, let him stride 135/
Onward and onward-still unsatisfied!

Care. Whom I once have made my own

All the life of life finds gone.

Gloom of more than night descending
On his steps is still attending.

Morning never on his path

Rises. Sunset none he hath.

Shape unchanged, and senses whole,
-But with darkness of the soul.
Having all things, and possessing
Nothing; poisoning every blessing;
At each change of fortune whining,/352
In abundance poor and pining;
All things, speak they joy or sorrow
Still postponing to the morrow;
Ever of the future thinking;
Ever from the present shrinking;
And the dream goes on for ever,
And the coming time comes never.

Faust. Cease! you talk nonsense.

of me.

You'll make nothing

I will not listen to a word of it. Off with thee!

This wild witch-litany is bad

Enough to drive the wisest mad.

1353

Care. Will he come, or will he go?
Who can answer yes or no?
Purposes postponed, forsaken,
All resolve is from him taken.
On the beaten road he loses
Still his way, and bypaths chooses;
Still some devious track pursuing,
All things still by slant lights viewing;
Helplessly on friends relying; 135
Scarcely living, yet not dying;
His is endless vacillation,
* Not despair, not resignation-
× Restless-never more partaking
Calm of sleep or joy of waking;
All that others do resenting;
All that he hath done repenting;
All he hath not done regretting;
All he ought to do forgetting;

Lingering, leaving; longing, loathing;/355
Ripe for Hell and good for nothing!
Faust. Ill-boding spectres! you in many ways
The current of man's happiness derange,
And even the calm of uneventful days

Cloud and perplex, and into torture change.

I know from demons none can make him free,
*Break the strong bands that spirit to spirit unite;
But creeping Care, lower as thou wilt, thy might
I never will acknowledge. Hence with thee!
Care. Feel it then! As fast I flee, 1756
With a curse I part from thee;

K

Men are blind their whole life long.
Faustus, at life's closing, be

Blind. My curse I breathe on thee.

Faust [blind]. Deeper and deeper fast comes on the

night,

But pure within shines unobstructed light;

What I've thought out I hasten to fulfil.
The Master's bidding is the true power still.

Up, serfs, to work! and let my bold design
* Before the eyes in outward beauty shine. /357
Up, lazy serfs up all seize shovel and spade,
Set to work briskly where the lines are laid.
To perfect the great work I plan demands
One ruling spirit and a thousand hands!

Mephistopheles [leading the way as overseer].
Come on! come on! come in! come in!
Ye Lemures, patched together;

Nerves, muscles, loose bones, bags of skin,
Half-naturals, come hither!

Chorus of Lemures.

Enter LEMURES

We are at hand; and your command

As we half understood it, 1358

Is that we drain a patch of land
Apt to be overflooded.

The pointed stakes, they all are here,
And chains with which to measure.

If we but knew what we've to do ;

Pray tell us what's your pleasure?

Meph. Little need here of science, or of skill, Or measuring lines; if but the longest will

At his full length lay him down on the ground,
And the rest of you scrape the sods up round, 13
Just to mark the dimensions-it is what

We have done for our fathers all-man's common lot.
Aye, dig away—just lengthen out that square,
Scoop the sand up-make the hole deeper there.

-Still from the palace to the narrow house
Beside it-the one road! 'Twas ever thus.

کے

*

Lem. [digging with bantering gestures].

I lived and loved, and I was young,

And thought it was so sweet ;

And I was young, and played and sung,
And merry went my feet.

1360

But now old Age, the spiteful knave,

<Has hit me with his crutch:

I stumbled on an open grave,

Their heedlessness was such!

Faust [coming out of the Palace, feeling his way along the door-posts].

What a delight to heart and ear

This stir of spades at work to hear;
All, that owe service for their land,
Are active in the work at hand,
-Earth with itself to reconcile,
Fix limits to the wild waves' race,

1360

And bind the sea with firm embrace.

Meph. Aye, and for us you're working all the while.

Oh what a banquet will your dam and dike

To Neptune the sea-devil give belike;

*Any way, they and you both go to ruin.

The Elements for evermore are doing

Our work. Our sworn friends, they and we are one:
All things still into nothing running on!

Bring hither man on man,

Labourers in crowds, as many as you can; 32
Give all they wish or want; pay any price;
Press them into the works; persuade, entice.

Let me each day know what they have been doing;
Let true account be given me-take thou heed

No time be lost--how dike and dam proceed.

Meph. [half aloud]. With other dam and dike, it would

appear

Than that which soon will tuck him in-most clear,
That the old man has little business here.

Faust [to himself]. Along the mountain range a poison

ous swamp

O'er what I've gained breathes pestilential damp./363

To drain the fetid pool off-were that done,
Then were, indeed, my greatest triumph won.
To many millions ample space 'twould give,
Not safe, indeed, from inroad of the sea,

But yet, in free activity to live.

-Green fruitful fields, where man and beast are
found

XDwelling contentedly on the new ground;
Homes, nestling in the shelter of the hill
XUprolled by a laborious people's skill;

A land like paradise within the mound,

Though the sea rave without to o'erleap its bound,
Or nibbling at it, sapping, plashing, win

Its way, impetuously to rush in.

All, with one impulse, haste to the sea-wall,
Repel the mischief that endangers all.
For this one only object do I live,

To the absorbing thought myself I give.

Freedom like life-the last best truth we learn-
Man still must conquer, and in conquering earn;
And, girded thus by danger, childhood here
Grey age and man and boy work out the year.
Oh! could I see such throngs, could I but stand
With a free people, and upon free land !
Then might I to such moment of delight

XSay, "Linger with me, thou that art so bright!"
Ne'er shall the traces of my earthly day

Perish in lapsing centuries away.

Anticipating moment such as this,

Even now do I enjoy the highest bliss!

[Sinks back; LEMURES lay him on the ground Meph. And this the spirit that nothing can appease!

7364

No joys give him content, no pleasures please

Still hankering after strange stray fantasies.
The empty moment, that amused him last,
Infatuated, he would fain hold fast.

He, who against me made so stiff a stand,
Time is his master now-aye, there he is,

The grey old man stretched out upon the sand.
The clock stands still.