FAUST.

Peace, fiend! it will,

If that I feel, and if for the emotion

The frenzy call it, rather I still seek

A name and can find none if through the world
My fancy ranging seeks analogies

That are, and ever must remain, imperfect
If words that speak of time be insufficient
Even feebly to express this burning feeling,
And that, thus forced, I call it endless

Eternal

yes, eternal say you that Language like this is a Satanic lie?

deathless

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Yet I am right.

FAUST.

Hark ye

take this with you

no matter

I'll spare my lungs, and cease to argue further
But, as I said, take this with you;
What side a man adopts, or of what subject-
If he has but a tongue, he'll not want reasons
To prove him in the right: as now, for instance;
I'm tired of talk you then are in the right
You must be, sure, I have no help for it.

-

--

THE GARDEN.

MARGARET on FAUST's arm, MARTHA with MEPHISTOPHELES. Walking loiteringly up and down.

MARGARET.

You do but play with my simplicity,
And put me to the blush. A traveller
Learns such good nature

things

-

is so pleased with all

And every body: - my poor talk, I know,
Has no attraction, that could for a moment
Engage the attention of a man, who has
Seen so much of the world

FAUST.

One glance

One little word from thee, I value more
Than all the wisdom of th' world's wisest ones.

[Kisses her hand.

MARGARET..

How could you think of it?

It is so coarse

How could you kiss it? so hard is spoiled with all work

On every day how could it but be coarse?

My mother's habits are too close

Are too severe.

my tasks

[They pass on.

MARTHA.

And are you are you always travelling thus?

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Alas! that claims of business and of duty
Should force me to it. We feel pangs at parting
From many a spot where yet we may not loiter.

MARTHA.

In youth's wild days, it cannot but be pleasant
This idle roaming round and round the world,
With wildfire spirits, and heart disengaged:
But soon comes age and sorrow; and to drag,
Through the last years of life, down to the grave
A solitary creature like the wretch,
Who moves from prison on to execution
This must be bad for body and for soul.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

You make me shudder at the dreary prospect.

MARTHA.

Be wise secure yourself in time.

Yes!

- MARGARET.

out of sight, soon out of mind. I feel this courtesy is kind;

That you, who must have many a friend
Highly informed, should condescend

To speak with one in my poor station.

[They pass on.

Believe me, dearest, best beloved,

That, which the world calls information,
Is often but the glitter chilling

Of vanity and want of feeling.

Gifts, as they are, above all price, Heaven's holiest blessing should be thus Of their own worth unconscious!

That meekness, gentleness, the treasure Which Nature, who doth still impart

To all in love, and lavish measure,

Gives to the child, whom she loves dearest, Should

Your time is passed, then, much alone?

Faust.

13

MARGARET.

Why, yes; and then our house affairs,
Poor though they be, bring many cares.
We have no servant maid, and I

Must cook, knit, sew, must wash and dry;
Run far and near rise ere the light,
And not lie down till late at night.
And then my mother's temper's such,
In every thing she asks so much;
Of saving has so strict a sense,
And is so fearful of expense;
So anxious, so particular:

Not that our circumstances are

So limited, as not to give

The means like other folk to live.
The property my father had,

And died possessed of, was not bad:
A house, and garden here, that yields
Something worth while, and some town fields
Just at the gates. My days, somehow,
Are tolerably quiet now -

My brother earns a soldier's bread
Abroad; my little sister's dead.
Trouble enough I had with her,
Yet cheerfully would I incur

Ten times the toil

so dear was she.

FAUST.

A very angel, if like thee!