x CONCERNING MEPHISTOPHELES 179 



been to Mephisto that we owe them, but rather to his 

 ingenuity in amusing himself than to his desire to 

 ruin others. He seems to make his one solitary 

 attempt at tempting in the excursion into Auerbach s 

 cellar, but even there a doubt remains. If Mephisto 

 meant it as a serious temptation to drunkenness, how 

 are we to explain the incorrigible frivolity with which 

 he sacrifices all prospect of success by playing pranks 

 upon the worthy topers ? Does he not here, as always, 

 prejudice his alleged design by a reckless pursuit of the 

 moment s joke ? And after that Mephisto only obeys 

 orders, and finds the ways and means for the whims of 

 Faust. 1 His position is indeed sufficiently abject. He 

 is ruled by Faust, and overruled by the Lord, and 

 perfectly aware of it. But he manages none the less 

 to get some fun out of his servitude, and is never in 

 better form than when, quite gratuitously and without 

 the least advantage to his supposed design, he is taking 

 Faust s pupils for him and playing the professor. And 

 after all, as he knows that in any case he can accomplish 

 nothing, he does not greatly care what he does. Never 

 theless, it is somewhat curious that he does not play the 

 fool still more extensively, stays so long with Faust, and 

 abstains from wrecking the joint enterprises in which they 

 were engaged. I can only suppose that he must have 

 found Faust personally amusing, and that his restless 

 striving was interesting to a mind which could never 

 delude itself into thinking any end worth the attaining. 



Nevertheless, it is very remarkable that even Mephisto- 

 pheles cannot save Faust without a miracle. That is the 

 great flaw, psychologically speaking, in the poem. The 

 Faust we meet at first has sunk to such a state that 

 a moral miracle alone can save him. He has almost, 

 if not wholly, lost the taste for life, the faith in life, and 

 the vitality to respond to the new vistas which Mephisto s 

 art displays. To offer such a man all the delights of 



1 It is true that, as in tradition bound, he takes Faust with him to the 

 Walpurgisnacht. But was not Faust by this time wearying of Gretchen and 

 ready to desert her ? So Mephisto points out with calm scorn in repelling Faust s 

 coarse reproaches (scene in the Field). 



