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.
even he at times will feel

Foolish

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.

Still his WILL is right;

Yes: for he serves in a perplexing scene,

That oft misleads him.

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 Herr.

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;

likes temptations

I have no fancy for the dead: your youth, of this world. With full fresh cheeks, tastes daintier to my tooth.

Should a corpse call,

the answer at my house Is, "Not at home." My play is cat and 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 for the light he cannot see

Of Darkness;

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

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Aye! feelings that have no abiding
Short struggles - Give him to my guiding
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.

Here too take your own course

In the concern, with anything 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 indolent enjoyment Man would live,
And this companion, whom I therefore give,
Goads, urges, drives is devil and cannot rest.
But ye, pure sons of God, be yours the sight
Of Beauty, each hour brighter and more bright!
The Life, in all around, below, above

That ever lives and works

the Infinite

Enfold you in the happy bonds of love!
And all that flows unfixed and undefined
In glimmering phantasy before the mind,
Bid Thought's enduring chain for ever bind!

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!

TIME, Night.

SCENE, A high-arched, narrow, Gothic chamber

FAUST at his desk - restless.

ALAS! I have explored

FAUST.

Philosophy, and Law, and Medicine;
And over deep Divinity have pored,
Studying with ardent and laborious zeal;
And here I am at last, a very fool,

With useless learning curst,

No wiser than at first!

Here am I boast and wonder of the school;

Magister, Doctor, and I lead

These ten years past, my pupils' creed;
Winding, by dexterous words, with ease,

Their opinions as I please.

And now to feel that nothing can be known!

This is a thought that burns into my heart.
I have been more acute than all these triflers,
Doctors and authors, priests, philosophers;
Have sounded all the depths of every science.
Scruples, or the perplexity of doubt,

Torment me not, nor fears of hell or devil.

But I have lost all peace of mind:
Whate'er I knew, or thought I knew,
Seems now unmeaning or untrue.
The fancy too has died away,
The hope, that I might, in my day,
Instruct, and elevate mankind.

Thus robbed of learning's only pleasure,
Without dominion, rank, or treasure,

Without one joy that earth can give,

were I a dog

so live?

Could dog
Therefore to magic, with severe
And patient toil, have I applied
Despairing of all other guide,
That from some Spirit J might hear
Deep truths, to others unrevealed,
And mysteries from mankind sealed;
And never more, with shame of heart,
Teach things, of which I know no part.
Oh, for a glance into the earth!
To see below its dark foundations,
Life's embryo seeds before their birth
And Nature's silent operations.

Thus end at once this vexing fever

repeated ever.

Beautiful Moon! Ah! would that now,
For the last time, thy lovely beams
Shone on my troubled brow!
Oft by this desk, at middle night,
I have sat gazing for thy light,