IV

THE STUDY

FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

A knock? Come in! Again my quiet broken?

MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis I!

FAUST

Come in!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Thrice must the words be spoken.

FAUST

Come in, then!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Thus thou pleasest me. I hope we’ll suit each other well; For now, thy vapors to dispel, I come, a squire of high degree, In scarlet coat, with golden trimming, A cloak in silken lustre swimming, A tall cock’s-feather in my hat, A long, sharp sword for show or quarrel,— And I advise thee, brief and flat, To don the self-same gay apparel, That, from this den released, and free, Life be at last revealed to thee!

FAUST

This life of earth, whatever my attire, Would pain me in its wonted fashion. Too old am I to play with passion; Too young, to be without desire. What from the world have I to gain? Thou shalt abstain—renounce—refrain! Such is the everlasting song That in the ears of all men rings,— That unrelieved, our whole life long, Each hour, in passing, hoarsely sings. In very terror I at morn awake, Upon the verge of bitter weeping, To see the day of disappointment break, To no one hope of mine—not one—its promise keeping:— That even each joy’s presentiment With wilful cavil would diminish, With grinning masks of life prevent My mind its fairest work to finish! Then, too, when night descends, how anxiously Upon my couch of sleep I lay me: There, also, comes no rest to me, But some wild dream is sent to fray me. The God that in my breast is owned Can deeply stir the inner sources; The God, above my powers enthroned, He cannot change external forces. So, by the burden of my days oppressed, Death is desired, and Life a thing unblest!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And yet is never Death a wholly welcome guest.

FAUST

O fortunate, for whom, when victory glances, The bloody laurels on the brow he bindeth! Whom, after rapid, maddening dances, In clasping maiden-arms he findeth! O would that I, before that spirit-power, Ravished and rapt from life, had sunken!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And yet, by some one, in that nightly hour, A certain liquid was not drunken.

FAUST

Eavesdropping, ha! thy pleasure seems to be.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Omniscient am I not; yet much is known to me.

FAUST

Though some familiar tone, retrieving My thoughts from torment, led me on, And sweet, clear echoes came, deceiving A faith bequeathed from Childhood’s dawn, Yet now I curse whate’er entices And snares the soul with visions vain; With dazzling cheats and dear devices Confines it in this cave of pain! Cursed be, at once, the high ambition Wherewith the mind itself deludes! Cursed be the glare of apparition That on the finer sense intrudes! Cursed be the lying dream’s impression Of name, and fame, and laurelled brow! Cursed, all that flatters as possession, As wife and child, as knave and plow! Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures To restless action spurs our fate! Cursed when, for soft, indulgent leisures, He lays for us the pillows straight! Cursed be the vine’s transcendent nectar,— The highest favor Love lets fall! Cursed, also, Hope!—cursed Faith, the spectre! And cursed be Patience most of all!

CHORUS OF SPIRITS (invisible)

Woe! woe!
Thou hast it destroyed,
The beautiful world,
With powerful fist:
In ruin ’tis hurled,
By the blow of a demigod shattered!
The scattered
Fragments into the Void we carry,
Deploring
The beauty perished beyond restoring.
Mightier
For the children of men,
Brightlier
Build it again,
In thine own bosom build it anew!
Bid the new career
Commence,
With clearer sense,
And the new songs of cheer
Be sung thereto!
Done!
And heartily!

[Exit FAUST.

MEPHISTOPHELES (In FAUST’S long mantle.) Reason and Knowledge only thou despise, The highest strength in man that lies! Let but the Lying Spirit bind thee With magic works and shows that blind thee, And I shall have thee fast and sure!— Fate such a bold, untrammelled spirit gave him, As forwards, onwards, ever must endure; Whose over-hasty impulse drave him Past earthly joys he might secure. Dragged through the wildest life, will I enslave him, Through flat and stale indifference; With struggling, chilling, checking, so deprave him That, to his hot, insatiate sense, The dream of drink shall mock, but never lave him: Refreshment shall his lips in vain implore— Had he not made himself the Devil’s, naught could save him, Still were he lost forevermore! (A STUDENT enters.) STUDENT A short time, only, am I here, And come, devoted and sincere, To greet and know the man of fame, Whom men to me with reverence name. MEPHISTOPHELES Your courtesy doth flatter me: You see a man, as others be. Have you, perchance, elsewhere begun? STUDENT Receive me now, I pray, as one Who comes to you with courage good, Somewhat of cash, and healthy blood: My mother was hardly willing to let me; But knowledge worth having I fain would get me. MEPHISTOPHELES Then you have reached the right place now. STUDENT I’d like to leave it, I must avow; I find these walls, these vaulted spaces Are anything but pleasant places. Tis all so cramped and close and mean; One sees no tree, no glimpse of green, And when the lecture-halls receive me, Seeing, hearing, and thinking leave me. MEPHISTOPHELES All that depends on habitude. So from its mother’s breasts a child At first, reluctant, takes its food, But soon to seek them is beguiled. Thus, at the breasts of Wisdom clinging, Thou’lt find each day a greater rapture bringing. STUDENT I’ll hang thereon with joy, and freely drain them; But tell me, pray, the proper means to gain them. MEPHISTOPHELES Explain, before you further speak, The special faculty you seek. STUDENT I crave the highest erudition; And fain would make my acquisition All that there is in Earth and Heaven, In Nature and in Science too. MEPHISTOPHELES Here is the genuine path for you; Yet strict attention must be given. STUDENT Body and soul thereon I’ll wreak; Yet, truly, I’ve some inclination On summer holidays to seek A little freedom and recreation. MEPHISTOPHELES Use well your time! It flies so swiftly from us; But time through order may be won, I promise. So, Friend (my views to briefly sum), First, the collegium logicum. There will your mind be drilled and braced, As if in Spanish boots ’twere laced, And thus, to graver paces brought, ’Twill plod along the path of thought, Instead of shooting here and there, A will-o’-the-wisp in murky air. Days will be spent to bid you know, What once you did at a single blow, Like eating and drinking, free and strong,— That one, two, three! thereto belong. Truly the fabric of mental fleece Resembles a weaver’s masterpiece, Where a thousand threads one treadle throws, Where fly the shuttles hither and thither. Unseen the threads are knit together. And an infinite combination grows. Then, the philosopher steps in And shows, no otherwise it could have been: The first was so, the second so, Therefore the third and fourth are so; Were not the first and second, then The third and fourth had never been. The scholars are everywhere believers, But never succeed in being weavers. He who would study organic existence, First drives out the soul with rigid persistence; Then the parts in his hand he may hold and class, But the spiritual link is lost, alas! Encheiresin natures, this Chemistry names, Nor knows how herself she banters and blames! STUDENT I cannot understand you quite. MEPHISTOPHELES Your mind will shortly be set aright, When you have learned, all things reducing, To classify them for your using. STUDENT I feel as stupid, from all you’ve said, As if a mill-wheel whirled in my head! MEPHISTOPHELES And after—first and foremost duty—Of Metaphysics learn the use and beauty! See that you most profoundly gain What does not suit the human brain! A splendid word to serve, you’ll find For what goes in—or won’t go in—your mind. But first, at least this half a year, To order rigidly adhere; Five hours a day, you understand, And when the clock strikes, be on hand! Prepare beforehand for your part With paragraphs all got by heart, So you can better watch, and look That naught is said but what is in the book: Yet in thy writing as unwearied be, As did the Holy Ghost dictate to thee! STUDENT No need to tell me twice to do it! I think, how useful ’tis to write; For what one has, in black and white, One carries home and then goes through it. MEPHISTOPHELES Yet choose thyself a faculty! STUDENT I cannot reconcile myself to Jurisprudence. MEPHISTOPHELES Nor can I therefore greatly blame you students: I know what science this has come to be. All rights and laws are still transmitted Like an eternal sickness of the race,— From generation unto generation fitted, And shifted round from place to place. Reason becomes a sham, Beneficence a worry: Thou art a grandchild, therefore woe to thee! The right born with us, ours in verity, This to consider, there’s, alas! no hurry. STUDENT My own disgust is strengthened by your speech: O lucky he, whom you shall teach! I’ve almost for Theology decided. MEPHISTOPHELES I should not wish to see you here misguided: For, as regards this science, let me hint ’Tis very hard to shun the false direction; There’s so much secret poison lurking in ’t, So like the medicine, it baffles your detection. Hear, therefore, one alone, for that is best, in sooth, And simply take your master’s words for truth. On words let your attention centre! Then through the safest gate you’ll enter The temple-halls of Certainty. STUDENT Yet in the word must some idea be. MEPHISTOPHELES Of course! But only shun too over-sharp a tension, For just where fails the comprehension, A word steps promptly in as deputy. With words ’tis excellent disputing; Systems to words ’tis easy suiting; On words ’tis excellent believing; No word can ever lose a jot from thieving. STUDENT Pardon! With many questions I detain you. Yet must I trouble you again. Of Medicine I still would fain Hear one strong word that might explain you. Three years is but a little space. And, God! who can the field embrace? If one some index could be shown, ’Twere easier groping forward, truly. MEPHISTOPHELES (aside) I’m tired enough of this dry tone,— Must play the Devil again, and fully.

(Aloud)

To grasp the spirit of Medicine is easy: Learn of the great and little world your fill, To let it go at last, so please ye, Just as God will! In vain that through the realms of science you may drift; Each one learns only—just what learn he can: Yet he who grasps the Moment’s gift, He is the proper man. Well-made you are, ’tis not to be denied, The rest a bold address will win you; If you but in yourself confide, At once confide all others in you. To lead the women, learn the special feeling! Their everlasting aches and groans, In thousand tones, Have all one source, one mode of healing; And if your acts are half discreet, You’ll always have them at your feet. A title first must draw and interest them, And show that yours all other arts exceeds; Then, as a greeting, you are free to touch and test them, While, thus to do, for years another pleads. You press and count the pulse’s dances, And then, with burning sidelong glances, You clasp the swelling hips, to see If tightly laced her corsets be. STUDENT That’s better, now! The How and Where, one sees. MEPHISTOPHELES My worthy friend, gray are all theories, And green alone Life’s golden tree. STUDENT I swear to you, ’tis like a dream to me. Might I again presume, with trust unbounded, To hear your wisdom thoroughly expounded? MEPHISTOPHELES Most willingly, to what extent I may. STUDENT I cannot really go away: Allow me that my album first I reach you,— Grant me this favor, I beseech you! MEPHISTOPHELES Assuredly. (He writes, and returns the book.) STUDENT (reads)

Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum.

(Closes the book with reverence, and withdraws) MEPHISTOPHELES Follow the ancient text, and the snake thou wast ordered to trample! With all thy likeness to God, thou’lt yet be a sorry example! (FAUST enters.) FAUST Now, whither shall we go? MEPHISTOPHELES As best it pleases thee. The little world, and then the great, we’ll see. With what delight, what profit winning, Shalt thou sponge through the term beginning! FAUST Yet with the flowing beard I wear, Both ease and grace will fail me there. The attempt, indeed, were a futile strife; I never could learn the ways of life. I feel so small before others, and thence Should always find embarrassments. MEPHISTOPHELES My friend, thou soon shalt lose all such misgiving: Be thou but self-possessed, thou hast the art of living! FAUST How shall we leave the house, and start? Where hast thou servant, coach and horses? MEPHISTOPHELES We’ll spread this cloak with proper art, Then through the air direct our courses. But only, on so bold a flight, Be sure to have thy luggage light. A little burning air, which I shall soon prepare us, Above the earth will nimbly bear us, And, if we’re light, we’ll travel swift and clear: I gratulate thee on thy new career!