x CONCERNING MEPHISTOPHELES 171 



no longer sustain even the ideal to which he had 

 sacrificed his life. So he despairs even of knowledge. 

 As a last wild attempt he tries the short cut of magic. 

 But the spirit world does not open out its splendours 

 to the invocations of lassitude and fear. Faust shows 

 himself deficient in the daring needed to meet the Earth- 

 spirit as an equal, and so he is repulsed. Then in 

 humiliation and disgust he turns to question the worth 

 of life in the characteristic phrases of a bookworm ! 



Soil ich vielleicht in tausend Biichern lesen, 

 Dass iiberall die Menschen sich gequalt, 

 Dass hie und da ein Gliicklicher gewesen ? 



He makes a first, and therefore ineffectual, attempt to 

 poison himself, but (a true German !) is restrained by 

 sentimental reminiscences of the faith of his childhood. 

 This scene alone would be enough to prove that he has 

 in no wise overcome the love of life. He does well, 

 therefore, to confess 



Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach, in meiner Brust ! 



whereof the one clings closely to his earthly life. It is 

 hard to suppose that his life is in serious danger ; so 

 feeble an attempt at suicide is not the symptom of a 

 serious pessimism. 



In his second interview with Mephisto, Faust is more 

 impressive. His tedium vitae rises to the superb de 

 nunciation of life which begins 



In jedem Kleide werd ich wohl die Pein 

 Des engen Erdenlebens fiihlen, 



and culminates in the comprehensive curse which ends 



Fluch sei der Hoffnung ! Fluch dem Glauben ! 

 Und Fluch vor alien der Geduld ! 



This forms the high-water mark of Faustian pessimism. 

 But even here the skilled psychologist will note an 

 undertone of nervous irritation and impatience which 

 stamps it as a passing ebullition, provoked, perhaps, by 

 the stimulating presence of Mephisto. 



