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MEPHISTOPHeles.

Not any thing, my lord-poor men so fervent
And foolish are-I almost feel compassion.

Der Herr.

Dost thou know FAUST?

MEPHISTOPHELES.

The doctor?

Der Herr.

Yes: my servant.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Truly, he serves in a peculiar fashion;
Child though he be of human birth,
His food and drink are not of earth.

Foolish even he at times will feel

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The folly in such hopes to deal: —
His fancies hurry him afar;

Of heaven he asks its highest star;
Self-willed and spoiled, in mad pursuit,
Of earth demands its fairest fruit;
And all that both can give supplied,
Behold him still unsatisfied!

Der Herr.

Yes: for he serves in a perplexing scene,

That oft misleads him. Still his wILL is right;

Soon comes the time to lead him into light.
Now is the first prophetic green,

The hopes and promises of spring,

The unformed bud and blossoming;

And he who reared the tree and knows the clime Will seek and find fair fruit in fitting time.

MEPHISTOPHeles.

What will you wager you don't lose him yet,
With all his promise? Had I only freedom
On my own path with easy lure to lead him,
I've not a doubt of it I win the bet.

Der Berr.

As long as on the earth endures his life
To deal with him have full and free permission;
Man's hour on earth is weakness, error, strife.

MEPHISTOPHEles.

Cheerfully I agree to the condition;

I have no fancy for the dead: your youth,
With full fresh cheeks, tastes daintier to my tooth.
Should a corpse call, the answer at my house
Is, "Not at home." Cats like a tender mouse.

Der Herr.

Be it permitted: from his source divert
And draw this Spirit captive down with thee;
Till baffled and in shame thou dost admit,
"A good man, clouded though his senses be
By error, is no willing slave to it."

His consciousness of good will it desert

The good man?

-yea, even in his darkest hours Still doth he war with Darkness and the Powers

Of Darkness; for the light he cannot see

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Still round him feels; — and, if he be not free,
Struggles against this strange captivity.

MEPHISTOPHEles.

Well, this can neither make me fear nor fret ;
I cannot have a doubt about the bet.
Oh! in what triumph shall I crow at winning!
Dust he shall eat, and eat with pleasure yet,
Like that first SNAKE in my poor heraldry,
Who has been eating it from the beginning.
Der Herr.

Still visit here. With any thing but loathing
I look on folk like you. My work demands
Such servants. Of the Spirits of Denial
The pleasantest, that figures in Man's Trial,
Is old INIQUITY * in his Fool's clothing;
The VICE is never heavy upon hands:
Without the Knave the Mystery were nothing.
For MAN's activity soon tires,

(A lazy being at the best)

And sting and spur requires.

* In the original "Der Schalk" the droll of the old mysteries and moralities." The formal Vice Iniquity."― RICHARD THE THIRD. " — the old VICE, Who, with dagger of lath, In his rage and his wrath, Cries ah! ha! to the Devil."-TWELFTH NIGHT. The characters of the DEVIL and the VICE which were originally distinct became in the progress of the dramatic art soon blended into one. "The province of making the spectators merry descended from the Devil in the mystery to the Vice or Iniquity of the Morality, who originally personified some bad quality incident to human nature, as Pride, Lust, &c."-STRUTT. "Some traces of this antiquated exhibition are still retained in the rustic puppet-plays, in which I have seen the Devil very lustily belaboured by Punch, whom I hold to be the legitimate successor of the old Vice."-JOHNSON. The best account I know of the word "Der Schalk " is in KOLLER'S Faust Papers.

In indolent enjoyment Man would live,
And this companion, whom I therefore give,
Goads, urges, drives — is devil, and cannot rest.
But ye, true sons of God, be yours the sight
Of living Beauty and Eternal Light!
The Universal Soul, in which all move,
And live, and are, encompass you in love;
And all that flows unfixed and undefined
In glimmering phantasy before the mind,
Bid Thought's enduring chain for ever bind!
[Heaven closes.

MEPHISTOPHELES (alone).

I'm very glad to have it in my power
To see him now and then; he is so civil :
I rather like our good old governor
Think only of his speaking to the devil!

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