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    "endpoint": "/api/sources/goethe-works/faust/faust-i/07-scene-4-the-study-compact.json"
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  "work": {
    "slug": "faust-i",
    "name": "Faust I (1808)"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "goethe-works",
      "name": "Works of Goethe",
      "url": "/sources/goethe-works/"
    },
    {
      "slug": "faust",
      "name": "Faust (Parts I and II)",
      "url": "/sources/faust/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 7,
    "slug": "07-scene-4-the-study-compact",
    "title": "Scene IV — The Study (The Compact)",
    "of": 28,
    "words": 4129,
    "text": "Faust.\n\nA KNOCK? Come in! Again my quiet broken?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n'T is [!\nFaust.\n\nCome in!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThrice must the words be spoken.\n\nFaust.\nCome in, then!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThus thou pleasest me.\nI hope we 'll suit each other well ;\n\nFor now, thy vapors to dispel,\n\n86 Faust.\n\nI come, a squire of high degree,5'\n\nIn scarlet coat, with golden trimming,\n\nA cloak in silken lustre swimming,\n\nA tall cock's-feather in my hat,\n\nA long, sharp sword for show or quarrel, —\nAnd IJ advise thee, brief and flat,\n\nTo don the self-same gay apparel,\n\nThat, from this den released, and free,\n\nLife be at last revealed to thee!\n\nFaust.\n\nThis life of earth, whatever my attire,\nWould pain me in its wonted fashion.%*\nToo old am I to play with passion ;\n\nToo young, to be without desire.\n\nWhat from the world have I to gain?\nThou shalt abstain — renounce — refrain |\nSuch is the everlasting song\n\nThat in the ears of all men rings, —\nThat unrelieved, our whole life long,\nEach hour, in passing, hoarsely sings.\n\nIn very terror I at morn awake,\n\nUpon the verge of bitter weeping,\n\nTo see the day of disappointment break,\n\nScene IV. 87\n\nTo no one hope of mine — not one — its promise keep-\ning : —\n\nThat even each joy's presentiment\n\nWith wilful cavil would diminish,\n\nWith grinning masks of life prevent\n\nMy mind its fairest work to finish!\n\nThen, too, when night descends, how anxiously\n\nUpon my couch of sleep I lay me:\n\nThere, also, comes no rest to me,59\n\nBut some wild dream is sent to fray me.\n\nThe God that in my breast is owned\n\nCan deeply stir the inner sources ;\n\nThe God, above my powers enthroned,\n\nHe cannot change external forces.\n\nSo, by the burden of my days oppressed,\n\nDeath is desired, and Life a thing unblest !\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAnd yet is never Death a wholly welcome guest.\n\nFaust.\n\nO fortunate, for whom, when victory glances,\nThe bloody laurels on the brow he bindeth!\n\nWhon, after rapid, maddening dances,\n\n88 Faust.\n\nIn clasping maiden-arms he findeth!\nO would that I, before that spirit-power,\nRavished and rapt from life, had sunken!\n\n-\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAnd yet, by some one, in that nightly hour,\n\nA certain liquid was not drunken.\n\nFaust.\n\nEavesdropping, ha! thy pleasure seems to be.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nOmniscient am I not; yet much is known to me.\n\nFaust.\n\nThough some familiar tone, retrieving\n\nMy thoughts from torment, led me on,\nAnd sweet, clear echoes came, deceiving\n\nA faith bequeathed from Childhood's dawn,\nYet now I curse whate'er entices\n\nAnd snares the soul with visions vain ;\nWith dazzling cheats and dear devices\nConfines it in this cave of pain!\n\nCursed be, at once, the high ambition\n\nScene IV. 89\n\nWherewith the mind itself deludes |!\n\nCursed be the glare of apparition\n\nThat on the finer sense intrudes!\n\nCursed be the lying dream's impression\n\nOf name, and fame, and laurelled brow!\nCursed, all that flatters as possession,\n\nAs wife and child, as knave and plow!\nCursed Mammon be, when he with treasures\nTo restless action spurs our fate!\n\nCursed when, for soft, indulgent leisures,\n\nHe lays for us the pillows straight!\n\nCursed be the vine's transcendent nectar, —\nThe highest favor Love lets fall!\n\nCursed, also, Hope !— cursed Faith, the spectre!\n\nAnd cursed be Patience most of all]!\n\n~ Cuorus or Spirits (invisible)\nWoe! woe!\nThou hast it destroyed,\nThe beautiful world,\nWith powerful fist :\nIn ruin 't is hurled,\nBy the blow of a demigod shattered |\nThe scattered\n\ngO\n\nFaust.\n\nFragments into the Void we carry,\nDeploring\n\nThe beauty perished beyond restoring.\nMightier\n\nFor the children of men,\nBrightlier\n\nBuild it again,\n\nIn thine own bosom build it anew!\nBid the new career\n\nCommence,\n\nWith clearer sense,\n\nAnd the new songs of cheer\n\nBe sung thereto!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThese are the small dependants\n\nWho give me attendance.\n\nHear them, to deeds and passion\n\nCounsel in shrewd old-fashion !\n\nInto the world of strife,\n\nOut of this lonely life\n\nThat of senses and sap has betrayed thee,\nThey would persuade thee. —\n\nScene LV.\n\nThis nursing of the pain forego thee,\nThat, like a vulture, feeds upon thy breast !\nThe worst society thou find'st will show thee\nThou art a man among the rest.\n\nBut 't is not meant to thrust\n\nThee into the mob thou hatest !\n\nI am not one of the greatest,\n\nYet, wilt thou to me entrust\n\nThy steps through life, I ll guide thee, —\nWill willingly walk beside thee, —\n\nWill serve thee at once and forever\n\nWith best endeavor,\n\nAnd, if thou art satisfied,\n\nWill as servant, slave, with thee abide.\n\nFaust.\n\nAnd what shall be my counter-service therefor ?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThe time is long: thou need'st not now insist.\n\nFaust.\nNo—no! The Devil is an egotist,\nAnd is not apt, without a why or wherefore,\n\n\"For God's sake,\" others to assist.\n\n92 Faust.\n\nSpeak thy conditions plain and clear! »\n\nWith such a servant danger comes, I fear.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nHere, an unwearied slave, Ill wear thy tether,\nAnd to thine every nod obedient be:\nWhen There again we come together,\n\nThen shalt thou do the same for me.\n\nFaust.\nThe There my scruples naught increases.\nWhen thou hast dashed this world to pieces,\nThe other, then, its place may fill.\n\nHere, on this earth, my pleasures have their sources ;\n\nYon sun beholds my sorrows in his courses ;\nAnd when from these my life itself divorces,\nLet happen all that can or will!\n\nIll hear no more: 't is vain to ponder\n\nIf there we cherish love or hate,\n\nOr, in the spheres we dream of yonder,\n\nA High and Low our souls await.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nIn this sense, even, canst thou venture.\n\nCome, bind thyself by prompt indenture,\n\nScene LV.\n\nAnd thou mine arts with joy shalt see:\n\nWhat no man ever saw, I 'Il give to thee.\n\nFaust.\n\nCanst thou, poor Devil, give me whatsoever ?\nWhen was a human soul, in its supreme endeavor,\nE'er understood by such as thou?\n\nYet, hast thou food which never satiates, now, —\nThe restless, ruddy gold hast thou,\n\nThat runs, quicksilver-like, one's fingers through, —\nA game whose winnings no man ever knew, —\n\nA maid, that, even from my breast,\n\nBeckons my neighbor with her wanton glances,\n\n_ And Honor's godlike zest,\n\nThe meteor that a moment dances, —\n\nShow me the fruits that, ere they 're gathered, rot,™\nAnd trees that daily with new leafage clothe them!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nSuch a demand alarms me not: |\nSuch treasures have I, and can show them.\nBut still the time may reach us, good my friend,\n\nWhen peace we crave and more luxurious diet.\n\n™\n\n94 Faust.\n\nFaust.\nWhen on an idler's bed I stretch myself in quiet,\nThere let, at once, my record end!\nCanst thou with lying flattery rule me,\nUntil, self-pleased, myself I see, —\nCanst thou with rich enjoyment fool me,\nLet that day be the last for me!\nThe bet I offer.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nDone!\n\nFaust.\nAnd heartily !\n\nWhen thus I hail the Moment flying :\n\"Ah, still delay — thou art so fair!' %\nThen bind me in thy bonds undying,\nMy final ruin then declare!\nThen let the death-bell chime the token,\nThen art thou from thy service free!\nThe clock may stop, the hand be broken,\nThen Time be finished unto me!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nConsider well: my memory good is rated.\n\nScene IV. 95\n\nFaust.\nThou hast a perfect right thereto.\nMy powers I have not rashly estimated :\nA slave am I, whate'er I do —\n\nIf thine, or whose? 't is needless to debate it.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThen at the Doctors'-banquet I, to-day,\nWill as a servant wait behind thee.\nBut one thing more! Beyond all risk to bind thee,\n\nGive me a line or two, I pray.\n\nFaust.\nDemand'st thou, Pedant, too, a document?\nHast never known a man, nor proved his word's intent?\nIs 't not enough, that what I speak to-day\nShall stand, with all my future days agreeing ?\nIn all its tides sweeps not the world away,\nAnd shall a promise bind my being?\nYet this delusion in our hearts we bear:\nWho would himself therefrom deliver ?\nBlest he, whose bosom Truth makes pure and fair!\nNo sacrifice shall he repent of ever.\n\nNathless a parchment, writ and stamped with care,\n\n96 Faust.\n\nA spectre is, which all to shun endeavor. —\nThe word, alas! dies even in the pen,\n\nAnd wax and leather keep the lordship then.\nWhat wilt from me, Base Spirit, say ? —\nBrass, marble, parchment, paper, clay?\n\nThe terms with graver, quill, or chisel, stated?\n\nI freely leave the choice to thee.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nWhy heat thyself, thus instantly,\nWith eloquence exaggerated ?\nEach leaf for such a pact is good ;\nAnd to subscribe thy name thou 'It take a drop of blood.\n\nFaust.\n\nIf thou therewith art fully satisfied,\nSo let us by the farce abide.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nBlood is a juice of rarest quality.\n\n| Faust.\nFear not that I this pact shall seek to sever!\nThe promise that I make to thee\n\nScene LV. 97\n\nIs just the sum of mine endeavor.\n\nI have myself inflated all too high ;\n\nMy proper place is thy estate:\n\nThe Mighty Spirit deigns me no reply,\nAnd Nature shuts on me her gate.\n\nThe thread of Thought at last is broken,\nAnd knowledge brings disgust unspoken.\nLet us the sensual deeps explore,\n\nTo quench the fervors of glowing passion!\nLet every marvel take form and fashion\nThrough the impervious veil it wore !\nPlunge we in Time's tumultuous dance,\nIn the rush and roll of Circumstance!\nThen may delight and distress,\n\nAnd worry and success,\n\nAlternately follow, as best they can:\n\nRestless activity proves the man!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nFor you no bound, no term is set.\nWhether you everywhere be trying,\nOr snatch a rapid bliss in flying,\nMay it agree with you, what you get!\nOnly fall to, and show no timid balking.\n\n98 faust.\n\nFaust.\n\nBut thou hast heard, 't is not of joy we're talking.\n\nI take the wildering whirl, enjoyment's keenest pain,\nEnamored hate, exhilarant disdain.\n\nMy bosom, of its thirst for knowledge sated,\n\nShall not, henceforth, from any pang be wrested,\n\nAnd all of life for all mankind created °5\n\nShall be within mine inmost being tested :\n\nThe highest, lowest forms my soul shall borrow,\n\nShall heap upon itself their bliss and sorrow,\n\nAnd thus, my own sole self to all their selves expanded,\n\nI too, at last, shall with them all be stranded!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nBelieve me, who for many a thousand year\nThe same tough meat have chewed and tested,\nThat from the cradle to the bier\n\nNo man the ancient leaven has digested !\n\nTrust one of us, this Whole supernal\n\nIs made but for a God's delight!\n\nHe dwells in splendor single and eternal,\n\nBut ws he thrusts in darkness, out of sight,\nAnd you he dowers with Day and Night.\n\nScene LV.\n\n| Faust.\nNay, but I will!\n_ MEPHISTOPHELES.\nA good reply !\nOne only fear still needs-repeating :\nThe art is long, the time is fleeting.\nThen let thyself be taught, say I!\nGo, league thyself with a poet,\nGive the rein to his imagination,\nThen wear the crown, and show it,\nOf the qualities of his creation, —\nThe courage of the lion's breed,\nThe wild stag's speed,\nThe Italian's fiery blood,\nThe North's firm fortitude!\nLet him find for thee the secret tether\nThat binds the Noble and Mean together,\nAnd teach thy pulses of youth and pleasure\nTo love by rule, and hate by measure!\nI'd like, myself, such a one to see:\n\nSir Microcosm his name should be.\n\nFaust.\n\nWhat am I, then, if 't is denied my part\n\n100 Faust\n\nThe crown of all humanity to win me,\n\nWhereto yearns every sense within me?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nWhy, on the whole, thou 'rt — what thou art.\nSet wigs of million curls upon thy head, to raise thee,\nWear shoes an ell in height, — the truth betrays thee,\n\nAnd thou remainest — what thou art.\n\nFaust.\nI feel, indeed, that I have made the treasure\nOf human thought and knowledge mine, in vain ;\nAnd if I now sit down in restful leisure,\nNo fount of newer strength is in my brain:\nI am no hair's-breadth more in height,\n\nNor nearer to the Infinite.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nGood Sir, you see the facts precisely\nAs they are seen by each and all.\nWe must arrange them now, more wisely,\nBefore the joys of life shall pall.\nWhy, Zounds! Both hands and feet are, truly —\n\nAnd head and virile forces — thine:\n\nScene LV. . 101\n\nYet all that I indulge in newly,\n\nIs't thence less wholly mine?\n\nIf I've six stallions in my stall,\n\nAre not their forces also lent me?\n\nI speed along, completest man of all,\n\nAs though my legs were four-and-twenty.\nTake hold, then! let reflection rest,\n\nAnd plunge into the world with zest !\n\nI say to thee, a speculative wight\n\nIs like a beast on moorlands lean,\n\nThat round and round some fiend misleads to evil plight,\nWhile all about lie pastures fresh and green.\n\nFaust.\n\nThen how shall we begin?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nWe 'll try a wider sphere.\n\nWhat place of martyrdom is here!\nIs 't life, I ask, is 't even prudence,\nTo bore thyself and bore the students ?\nLet Neighbor Paunch to that attend !\nWhy plague thyself with threshing straw forever?\nThe best thou learnest, in the end\n\n102 Faust.\n\nThou dar'st not tell the youngsters — never !\n\nI hear one's footsteps, hither steering.\n\nFaust.\n\nTo see him now I have no heart.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nSo long the poor boy waits a hearing, |\nHe must not unconsoled depart.\nThy cap and mantle straightway lend me!\nI 'll play the comedy with art.\n\n(He disguises himself.)\n\nMy wits, be certain, will befriend me.\n\nBut fifteen minutes' time is all I need;\n\nFor our fine trip, meanwhile, prepare thyself with speed !\n\n[Exit Faust.\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n(In Faust's long mantle.)\n\nReason and Knowledge only thou despise,\nThe highest strength in man that lies!\n\nLet but the Lying Spirit bind thee\n\nWith magic works and shows that blind thee,\n\n4 __—_—\n\nScene IV. 103\n\nAnd I shall have thee fast and sure ! &—\n\nFate such a bold, untrammelled spirit gave him,\n\nAs forwards, onwards, ever must endure;\n\nWhose over-hasty impulse drave him\n\nPast earthly joys he might secure.\n\nDragged through the wildest life, will I enslave him,\n\nThrough flat and stale indifference ;\n\nWith struggling, chilling, checking, so deprave him\n\nThat, to his hot, insatiate sense,\n\nThe dream of drink shall mock, but never lave him:\n\nRefreshment shall his lips in vain implore —\n\nHad he not made himself the Devil's, naught could save\nhim,\n\nStill were he lost forevermore!\n(4 STUDENT enters.)\n\nSTUDENT,\nA short time, only, am I here,\nAnd come, devoted and sincere,\nTo greet and know the man of fame,\n\nWhom men to me with reverence name.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nYour courtesy doth flatter me:\n\n104 Faust.\n\nYou see a man, as others be.\n\nHave you, perchance, elsewhere begun?\n\nSTUDENT.\nReceive me now, I pray, as one\nWho comes to you with courage good,\nSomewhat of cash, and healthy blood: ©\nMy mother was hardly willing to let me;\nBut knowledge worth having I fain would get me.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThen you have reached the right place now.\n\nSTUDENT.\nI 'd like to leave it, I must avow;\nI find these walls, these vaulted spaces\nAre anything but pleasant places.\nT is all so cramped and close and mean ;\nOne sees no tree, no glimpse of green,\nAnd when the lecture-halls receive me,\n\nSeeing, hearing, and thinking leave me.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAll that depends on habitude.\n\nSo from its mother's breasts a child\n\nScene LV. 105\n\nAt first, reluctant, takes its food,\n\nBut soon to seek them is beguiled.\n\nThus, at the breasts of Wisdom clinging,\n\nThou 'It find each day a greater rapture bringing.\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nI 'll hang thereon with joy, and freely drain them ;\n\nBut tell me, pray, the proper means to gain them.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nExplain, before you further speak,\nThe special faculty you seek.\n\nSTUDENT.\nI crave the highest erudition ;\nAnd fain would make my acquisition\nAll that there is in Earth and Heaven,\n\nIn Nature and in Science too.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES,\nHere is the genuine path for you;\n\nYet strict attention must be given.\n\nSTUDENT.\nBody and soul thereon I '1l wreak ;\n\nYet, truly, I've some inclination\n\n106 faust.\n\nOn summer holidays to seek\n\nA little freedom and recreation.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nUse well your time! It flies so swiftly from us;\nBut time through order may be won, I promise.\nSo, Friend, (my views to briefly sum,) .\nFirst, the collegium logicum.\nThere will your mind be drilled and braced,\nAs if in Spanish boots 't were laced,\nAnd thus, to graver paces brought,\n\"T will plod along the path of thought,\nInstead of shooting here and there,\nA will-o'-the-wisp in murky air.\nDays will be spent to bid you know,\nWhat once you did at a single blow,\nLike eating and drinking, free and strong, —\nThat one, two, three! thereto belong.\nTruly the fabric of mental fleece\nResembles a weaver's masterpiece,\nWhere a thousand threads one treadle throws,\nWhere fly the shuttles hither and thither,\nUnseen the threads are knit together,\n\nAnd an infinite combination grows.\n\nScene LV. 107\n\nThen, the philosopher steps in\n\nAnd shows, no otherwise it could have been:\nThe first was so, the second so,\n\nTherefore the third and fourth are so;\n\nWere not the first and second, then\n\nThe third and fourth had never been.\n\nThe scholars are everywhere believers,\n\nBut never succeed in being weavers.\n\nHe who would study organic existence,\n\nFirst drives out the soul with rigid persistence ;\nThen the parts in his hand he may hold and class,\nBut the spiritual link is lost, alas!\n\nEnchetresin nature, this Chemistry names,°7\n\nNor knows how herself she banters and blames!\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nI cannot understand you quite.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nYour mind will shortly be set aright, -\nWhen you have learned, all things reducing,\n\nTo classify them for your using.\n\nSTUDENT.\nI feel as stupid, from all you 've said,\n\nAs if a mill-wheel whirled in my head!\n\n108 Faust.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAnd after — first and foremost duty — |\nOf Metaphysics learn the use and beauty !\n\nSee that you most profoundly gain\n\nWhat does not suit the human brain!\n\nA splendid word to serve, you 'l] find\n\nfe oe\n\nFor what goes in — or won't go in — your mind.\n\nBut first, at least this half a year,\n\nTo order rigidly adhere ;\n\nFive hours a day, you understand,\n\nAnd when the clock strikes, be on hand!\n\nPrepare beforehand for your part. 7\nWith paragraphs all got by heart,\n\nSo you can better watch, and look\n\nThat naught is said but what is in the book :\n\nYet in thy writing as unwearied be,\n\nAs did the Holy Ghost dictate to thee! 68\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nNo need to tell me twice to do it!\nI think, how useful 't is to write;\nFor what one has, in black and white,\n\nOne carries home and then goes through it.\n\nScene LV. 109\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nYet choose thyself a faculty !\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nI cannot reconcile myself to Jurisprudence.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nNor can I therefore greatly blame you students :\nI know what science this has come to be.\n\nAll rights and laws are still transmitted\n\nLike an eternal sickness of the race, —\n\nFrom generation unto generation fitted,\n\nAnd shifted round from place to place.\n\nReason becomes a sham, Beneficence a worry :\nThou art a grandchild, therefore woe to thee!\nThe right born with us, ours in verity,\n\nThis to consider, there 's, alas! no hurry.\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nMy own disgust is strengthened by your speech:\nO lucky he, whom you shall teach!\nI've almost for Theology decided.\n\nLIO Faust.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nI should not wish to see you here misguided:\n\nFor, as regards this science, let me hint\n\n*T is very hard to shun the false direction ;\n\nThere 's so much secret poison lurking in 't,\n\nSo like the medicine, it baffles your detection.\nHear, therefore, one alone, for that is best, in sooth,\nAnd simply take your master's words for truth.\n\nOn words let your attention centre! °9\n\nThen through the safest gate you 'Il enter\n\nThe temple-halls of Certainty.\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nYet in the word must some idea be.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nOf course! But only shun too over-sharp a tension,\nFor just where fails the comprehension,\n\nA word steps promptly in as deputy.\n\nWith words 't is excellent disputing ;\n\nSystems to words 't is easy suiting ;\n\nOn words 't is excellent believing ;\n\nNo word can ever lose a jot from thieving.\n\nScene LV. 111\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nPardon! With many questions I detain you,\nYet must I trouble you again.\n\nOf Medicine I still would fain\n\nHear one strong word that might explain you.\nThree years is but a little space,\n\nAnd, God! who can the field embrace?\n\nIf one some index could be shown,\n\n\"T were easier groping forward, truly.\n§roping y\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES (aside).\n\nI'm tired enough of this dry tone, —\nMust play the Devil again, and fully.\n\n(Aloud.)\n\nTo grasp the spirit of Medicine is easy :\n\nLearn of the great and little world your fill,\n\nTo let it go at last, so please ye,\n\nJust as God will! |\n\nIn vain that through the realms of science you may drift ;\nEach one learns only —just what learn he can:\n\n' Yet he who grasps the Moment's gift,\n\nHe is the proper man.\n\nWell-made you are, 't is not to be denied,\n\n112 | faust.\n\nThe rest a bold address will win you;\n\nIf you but in yourself confide,\n\nAt once confide all others in you.\n\nTo lead the women, learn the special feeling!\nTheir everlasting aches and groans,\n\nIn thousand tones,\n\nHave all one source, one mode of healing ;\n\n_ And if your acts are half discreet,\n\nYou 'll always have them at your feet.\n\nA title first must draw and interest them,\nAnd show that yours all other arts exceeds ;\nThen, as a greeting, you are free to touch and test them,\nWhile, thus to do, for years another pleads.\nYou press and count the pulse's dances,\n\nAnd then, with burning sidelong glances,\nYou clasp the swelling hips, to see\n\nIf tightly laced her corsets be.\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nThat 's better, now! The How and Where, one sees.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nMy worthy friend, gray are all theories,\nAnd green alone Life's golden tree.\n\nScene IV. 113\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nI swear to you, 't is like a dream to me.\nMight I again presume, with trust unbounded,\nTo hear your wisdom thoroughly expounded?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nMost willingly, to what extent I may.\n\nSTUDENT.\n\nI cannot really go away:\nAllow me that my album first I reach you, —\n\nGrant me this favor, I beseech you!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAssuredly.\n(He writes, and returns the book.)\nSTUDENT (reads).\n\nEritis stcut Deus, scientes bonum et malum.\n\n(Closes the book with reverence, and withdraws.)\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nFollow the ancient text, and the snake thou wast ordered\nto trample!\nWith all thy likeness to God, thou 'It yet be a sorry example!\n\n114 Faust.\n\n(Faust enters.)\n\nFaust.\n\nNow, whither shall we go?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAs best it pleases thee.\nThe little world, and then the great, we 'll see.7°\nWith what delight, what profit winning,\nShalt thou sponge through the term beginning !\n\nFaust.\nYet with the flowing beard I wear,\nBoth ease and grace will fail me there.\nThe attempt, indeed, were a futile strife ;\nI never could learn the ways of life.\nI feel so small before others, and thence\n\nShould always find embarrassments.7*\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nMy friend, thou soon shalt lose all such misgiving :\n\nBe thou but self-possessed, thou hast the art of living!\n\nFaust.\n\nHow shall we leave the house, and start?\n\nWhere hast thou servant, coach and horses?\n\nScene IV. 115\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nWe 'Il spread this cloak with proper art,\n\nThen through the air direct our courses.\n\nBut only, on so bold a flight,\n\nBe sure to have thy luggage light.\n\nA little burning air, which I shall soon prepare us,\nAbove the earth will nimbly bear us,\n\nAnd, if we're light, we 'Il travel swift and clear:\n\nI gratulate thee on thy new career ! 7\n\n116 Faust.\n\nV.\nAUERBACH'S CELLAR IN LEIPZIG.73\nCaROuSAL OF JOLLY COMPANIONS.",
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