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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
humble occupations ; We have peasants ; servants , fctttflerrtsv beggars , soldiers , &c . ; Faustns and bis famulus appear aitetrtig them , and the old contest is renewed .- A mysterious ddg j # to& them in their walk , and , unobserved , goes with Faust us Uy his ?
apartment . He opens a volurfre ^ and re ads— - * In the beginrftng was the word : ' on Which hfe utters a soliloquy &f presnttiptudiis interpretation . Word , he thinks , cannot be meant ; it should be sense ( Sinn ) : that dissatisfies him—it must be power ( die Kraft ) . Finally he adopts ^ ' In the beginning was the deed ( Thctt )/ - — During this spoken meditation the dog howls—ttib hofly Words
are a torment to him : the dismal accompaniment is succeeded by invisible spirits , who sing responses to the rash soliloquies of the philosopher . At length Mephistopheles appears in his propel * person , and a subtle dialogue ensues , in which the author attempts the impossible . —Why don ' t God Almighty kill the devil ? is the question put by many a child to his father : fathers fire generally vrise enattgh to declihe afiswerirtg . We are Far front thinking that Goethe has found the word of the riddle , yet we know not where a nearer approximation is to be found thsta in the following : —
• FauStus ( repeating his qtfestidii to the spirit ) . —Who art fhoii , thfch ?'MephiHopheled answers—• Eiri Theil von jener Kraft c Die stets das BOse will , und stets das Gute schafft . ( A portion of that power which , ever willing evil , &vet produces good . ) ' Faustus . —What means the riddling word ? * Meph . —I am the Spirit that ever denies * and that justly ; for all that arises deserves but to perish : and better were it * therefore , were nothing- to arise * Hence , all that you call sin , destruction , in one word ,
evil , is my proper element . ' Faiisius . —Thou callest thyself a part , and standest yet entire before me ! 4 Meph . —It Is , irfdeed , a modest truth I utter , when man—a little world of folly—deems himself a whole . I am a part of ( hat part which at the beg-irfriing was all . A part of the darkness which beg'at the lig ' ht ; that proud light tvhich no \ v disputes with its mother nig"ht her rank and her precedence . Yet light still prospers not ; for 9 witfi all its struggles , it does but stick to bodies 3 from bcfdies it streanrts , and bodies it makes fair : body stays its progress , and therefore hope I that , with body , soon ' twill perish I '
In this curious speech it is to be remarked what Use our author has made of the speculations of the earliest philosophers on the origin of thirigs . The demon proceeds in & passionate , yet ironical declamation against the Vvorks df the creation . — How many have I buried ! anfd yet fresh blood is ever drfcttlatihg anew . It drives oftfc tfaad ! A thotis&tid buds are spfihglrig from' air arid water as from the earth , in dry arrd moist , In hot and cold ; so
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 747, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/27/
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