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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



cal, philosophical, or theological design in each 

 of his principal plays ! l Something not unlike 

 this might perhaps be expected in the case of 

 Goethe, and more particularly with regard to the 

 Second Part of " Faust." All the English critics, 

 as well as the translators, " fight shy " of it, so 

 that really the great majority of foreign readers 

 scarcely know of its existence. But a deep-see- 

 ing, subtly inventive and expounding genius at 

 length came to light in the person of William 

 Kyle. His cabalistic book is entitled " An Ex- 

 position of the Symbolic Terms of the Second 

 Part of 'Faust;' " which "proves itself to be a 

 dramatic treatment of the modern history of Ger- 

 many." s Alluding to this Second Part, a writer 

 in the Saturday Review observed that it was " too 

 hopelessly mystical " not to find a great number 

 of profound admirers in Germany. One of these 

 students, and a sincere one, let us frankly and 

 unhesitatingly admit, is Herr Kyle. To examine 

 this remarkably German book is of course impos- 

 sible in this paper. We can only observe that an 

 elucidatory diagram is given in the page preced- 

 ing the introduction, something like a trapezium, 

 or rather an imperfect square with Nothing inside; 

 and we must then proceed at one vigorous dash 

 through all the physical elements, and their respec- 

 tive symbolic signification, etc., and come to the 

 last act. We are here informed that " Faust has 

 already accomplished a part of his prescribed 

 task. . . . This consisted in hemming the bounds 

 of the sea." This rather bold figure of rhetoric 

 is explained to mean " rendering it more adapted 

 for the service of the rational man ; i. e., the great 

 ocean of (religious) sentiment existing in the 

 breast of the German nation." And this task 

 " attracted the attention of ideal genius since the 

 year 1750." The great names of Kant, Jacobl, 

 Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Feuerbach, Strauss, and 

 others, are then adduced as apostles of this work, 

 which was to culminate in Faust ! He is the 

 ideal genius of rationalism, as Mephisto is " the 

 spirit of religious dogmatism." The era of " ideal 

 toleration now begins, and" (without a word 

 about real toleration) " Faust is reconciled to the 

 imagination of the world at large." How this 

 fine finishing up releases him from his soul's bond 

 one cannot well perceive ; but we are now told 

 that "he ascends into heaven, guided by the 

 ideal of eternal love." It is added, casually, that 

 " royalty, aristocracy, and the Church, are no 



> See an excellent translation by Dora L. Schmitz. 

 G. Bell, 1877. 



2 Nuremberg : J. A. Stein. Loudon : Trlibner & 

 Co. 



more visible. Henceforth, ideal genius is to be 

 regarded as the sacred power of the world at 

 large." Finally (and it is with extreme prepara- 

 tions and difficulty that we are allowed ever to 

 get to any finality) Margaret pleads for her lover 

 and seducer, who caused her evil-doing and pathet- 

 ically tragic death, and "appeals to the higher 

 power iu heaven — to the ideal of eternal love." 



" Mater Gloriosa. 

 Komm 1 hebe dich zu hOhern Spharcn 1 

 Wenn er dich ahnet, folgt er nach." 



Our author, Herr Kyle, does not stop even 

 here; but we must; and we take leave of him 

 with great respect for what is evidently his sin- 

 cere belief in this highly-poetical omnium gathe- 

 rum and cryptological gallimaufry, called the Sec- 

 ond Part, of " Faust." 



One closing word as to the use — not the mere 

 utility, but the public or private acts and advan- 

 tages — derivable from the great preternatural 

 powers which the three philosophical heroes of 

 these three wonderful dramas have obtained by 

 forbidden and perilous means. Beyond personal 

 enjoyments and sundry magic pranks, they really 

 seem not to have had the least idea what to do 

 with their new faculties and endowments. Mr. 

 Hewlett, in a recently-published essay on " The 

 Devil in English Poetry," remarks, and for the 

 first time we believe, that the various acts of 

 Marlowe's Faustus in necromantic travels and 

 tricks are so comparatively trifling that the tragic 

 scene of his terrific death seems almost like an 

 anti-climax. This is a pregnant piece of criti- 

 cism; for I consider that the same thing may 

 very nearly be said of the other two great dramas 

 on this subject. What use do the philosophical 

 heroes make of their preternatural powers ? The 

 best things done — that is, the most poetical of them 

 — are where Marlowe's Faustus exclaims, " Have 

 I not made blind Homer sing to me ? " — when 

 he has heard the " melodious harp (of Orpheus) 

 that built the walls of Thebes ; "—and when we 

 witness his rapturous love-scene with Helen of 

 Troy. The rest of his thaumaturgic feats are, 

 for the most part, coarse nonsense, whoever 

 wrote them. In "El Magico Prodigioso " we 

 hear of mountains being made to shift sides — of 

 trees being frightened at the menacing groans 

 Cyprian utters— that flowers faint away— that 

 the birds hush their sweet melodies at his weighty 

 incantations (prodigios graves) — that wild beasts 

 are dazzled and confused, etc.; and, after all 

 this, Cyprian says, boastively, he has now made 

 it evident that his esludio infernal has not been 

 in vain ! In fact, he is now able to teach his 



