172 HUMANISM x 



It is clear, then, that in point of profundity Faust s 

 pessimism cannot vie with that of Mephistopheles ; you 

 might string together the woes of a dozen Fausts and yet 

 fail to fathom the clarified depths of Mephisto s world- 

 negating indignation. And Mephisto s pessimism is not 

 merely profound ; it is also individual. It is neither the 

 regulation abstraction of the text-books, nor derived from 

 any bookish source whatever. It takes its peculiar colour 

 ing from his personal character. 



Mephistopheles is essentially a cheerful pessimist. 

 Cheerful pessimism sounds paradoxical, and I hardly 

 think that an abstract logic, scorning the lessons of 

 psychology, would credit its existence. But if we 

 consider the point psychologically it will seem natural 

 enough. It is only in its primary form that pessimism 

 is incompatible with cheerfulness ; the lapse of time 

 here, too, may work the strangest transformations. Now 

 Mephistopheles is very old ; indeed, it is mainly his preter 

 natural age that renders him a supernatural being. His 

 pessimism, therefore, is likewise very old ; it has confronted 

 the inane spectacle of life s nothingness for aeons. If there 

 fore we would understand him, we must seize this clue : 



Bedenkt der Teufel, der ist alt, 

 So werdet alt ihn zu verstehn. 



Now in ordinary life the pessimist rarely grows old. 

 Pessimism is not a creed conducive to longevity. But 

 even within the narrow limits of ordinary life it seems 

 hardly possible that pessimistic emotion should long retain 

 the intensity of its first outburst. Here, as elsewhere, 

 time must surely dull the sharpness of the initial agony. 

 If we can endure to live on at all we must always 

 somehow adapt ourselves to life. Passionate pain must 

 smoulder down into settled sentiment, which becomes less 

 emotional and more intellectual as it grows older. Now 

 Mephistopheles has long survived the discovery of the 

 vanity of life. For untold ages he has lived with, and 

 despite, this thought, as a critical spectator of all life s 

 futile cruelties. And so he has grown accustomed to its 

 presence 



