x CONCERNING MEPHISTOPHELES 169 



than the poet in his sketch of Mephistophelianism. Clear, 

 candid, and consistent, Mephistopheles records his incisive 

 and uncompromising protest against the whole order of 

 the world, and scorns to practise any concealment of his 

 meaning. If his doctrine has escaped detection, it has 

 been by reason of his Bismarckian frankness in divulging 

 it. One can only suppose that people have been too 

 much distracted by the show of his diabolism to perceive 

 this, too greatly fascinated by the horns and hoofs of his 

 ruminant mask to recognise beneath his pranks the 

 corroding wit, the Galgenhumor, of a despairing sage. 



Yet from the first his words were plain. In his very 

 first interview with Faust he reveals himself 



Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint, 



Und das mit Recht ; denn alles, was entsteht, 



1st wert, dass es zu Grunde geht ; 



Drum besser war s, dass nichts entstiinde. 



And similarly in the Prologue in Heaven he had 

 protested against the misery and futility of existence, 

 and when the Lord asked him whether he would ever 

 come only to bring accusations against his creation and 

 to disapprove of everything 



Kommst du nur immer anzuklagen ? 

 1st auf der Erde ewig dir nichts recht ? 



he at once replies 



Nein, Herr ! ich find es dort, wie immer, herzlich schlecht. 



It is this conviction of the intrinsic worthlessness of 

 existence that turns him into an agency of destruction. 

 Not-being is preferable to Being, and so it is good to 

 destroy. But it is unnecessary to hate : Mephisto, 

 though as a good pessimist he heartily wishes our extinc 

 tion, is not the enemy of mankind. Nay, he even pities 

 the wretches whose torment is his function, and sickens 

 of his job 



Die Menschen dauern mich in ihren Jammertagen, 

 Ich mag sogar die Armen selbst nicht plagen. 



