

11*9 



ai pan fait sortir, je lea ai Uvisols oil ill rftaienk 99. ATOS-TOIU (ait den 



oini.l.-tt.-N os i pas fait, Je n'si put d'argent. 



lomeotique u-t-il fuit du foil <luu* ma chatubro ? 32. II en u 



4-vous Totre poHbiblo pour vuuir domain ? 84. 



mou possible pour venir do bouuu liuuro. 35. Noun flmea bier quartnto 

 lieuos en Mice beurei. 



EXBBCISK 125 (Vol. II., page 106). 



1. Why does that workman pretend to be nick ? 2. Ho pretend* to 

 bo sick because he but uo wish to work. 3. Doe* not that student 

 play tbe learuod man ? 4. He does not play the 1( .mi.-.l MI.UI, he plays 

 the fool. 5. Does it become that young man to p!uy the inaat 



vomes nobody to pliiy tli-- impertinent. 7. Does that matter? 



is of no consequence whatever. 9. Can that concern those 



risers? 10. That does not concern them at all. 11. Are you 



not very much grieved (vexed) at that ? 12. We are Tory sorry for it, 



but we cannot help it. 13. Has not your partner become a jeweller? 



14. No, Sir, he has turned puiutor. 15. Has not that mechanic turned 



glazier? Hi. He has become u turner, and his brother has become a 



17. Has not the milliner lm<l her huir cut? 18. She bos had 



19. Do you not rise as soon as it is daylight ? 20. Yes, Sir, I 



riso very early. 21. Is it not moonlight? 22. It is very light, but it 



is not moonlight. 23.' Is the living good in America? 24. Tho living 



is good in America, provisions (there) are cheap. 



EXERCISE 126 (Vol. U., page 106). 



1. Ce monsieur ne fait-il pas le savant ? 2. II fait le seignenr et le 

 f ou a la fois. 3. Ce garcon ne fait-il pas le malade ? 4. II fait le 

 m:il;ule, il u'a pas envie d'etudier ses lemons. 5. Quand vous n'avez pas 

 envio de travailler, faites-vous le malade? 6. Je ne fais jamais le 

 malade. 7. Fait-il de la boue aujourd'hui ? 8. II ne fait pas de boue, 

 il fait de la poussiere. 9. Fera-t-il clair de lune ce soir ? 10. II ne fern 

 pas clair de lune, il fora tres obscur. 11. Fait-il bon ici ? 12. II y 

 fait tres bon. 13. Fait-il trop cbaud ou trop f roid ? 14. II ue fait ici 

 ni trop chaud ni trop froid. 15. Vous ferez-vous couper les cheveux ? 

 16. Je me suis fait couper les cheveux hier matin. 17. Ne voulez-voua 

 pas aller a la maison ? il commence a so faire tard. 18. Ne fait-il pas 

 tres obscur debars ? 19. .11 ne fait pas obscur, il fait clair de lune. 20. 

 Le vitrier ue s'est-il pas fait orfevre ? 21. II ne s'est pas fait orfevre, 

 il s'est fait soldat. 22. Cela fait-il quelque chose a M. votre frere ? 

 23. Cela ne lui fait rien. 24. N'otes-vous pas fache de cela ? 25. J'eu 

 Buis filchd, mais je ne puis qu'y faire. 26. Pourquoi vous faites-vous 

 raser ? 27. Force quo je ne puis me raser moi-meme. 28. N'avez- 

 vous pas fait mal a ces enfants ? 29. Jo ne leur ai pas fait mol. 30. 

 Vous etes-vous fait mal au bras ? 31. Non, Monsieur, mais je me suis 

 fait mal a la tete. 32. M 1|L ' votre scenr ne s'est-elle pas fait mal a la 

 main? 33. Elle s'est fait mal a la main, et ma mere s'est fait mal an 

 coude. 34. Ne vous etes-vous pas fait mal a la tete? 35. Je ne me 

 suis pas fait mal a la tete, mais je me suis fait mal a la main. 



GREAT BOOKS. 



XV.-GOETHE'S " FAUST.". 



FEW legends have had a greater and wider popularity than that 

 of Dr. Fauatus, the wicked magician, who, for a few years of 

 unrestrained indulgence, bartered his soul to the Prince of 

 Darkness. The story is of German origin, and appears to havo 

 sprang up towards the latter end of the sixteenth century. By 

 some writers, the legendary Fanstus has been identified with 

 the celebrated inventor of printing, and this is probably the 

 usual impression ; but the misconception arose in comparatively 

 modern times. Nevertheless, there is a real personality at the 

 back of this imaginary figure. Faust was a friend of Para- 

 celsus and Cornelius Agrippa, and is mentioned by Melancthon, 

 Luther, and other writers of the same period, as a learned 

 man and scientific inquirer. In those days of general ignorance, 

 such men were often regarded as necromancers and dealers in 

 unholy lore ; and it would seem that Faust, so far from par- 

 ticipating in the religious zeal awakened by the Reformation, 

 allowed himself a certain freedom in the discussion of theological 

 dogmas, which shocked the more strictly disposed. A atory 

 based on the supposed life of the sorcerer was published in 

 Germany in 1587, and a ballad on the same subject appeared in 

 England in the following year. The fiction became popular 

 at once, and something like a Faustus literature speedily arose. 

 The old English tale of "Dr. Faustus" is a wild and extra- 

 vagant notion, compounded of supernatural adventure, pic- 

 turesque description, scholastic learning, and ribald buffoonery ; 

 sometimes really poetic and impressive, at others mean, vulgar, 

 and foolish to the last degree. The date of its publication is 

 uncertain, but it could not have been long after the issue of the 



German work already mentioned. It doubtless furnished to 

 the old English dramatist, Christopher Marlowe, bis play on 

 the same subject, which wan first acted in 1589 or 1590 : a 

 very unequal and ill-ordered production, often flat and worth- 

 loss, but occasionally revealing a depth and intensity of pension 

 which .Shakespeare could hardly hare surpassed. In our own 

 days, we havo had two musical production* by celebrated com- 

 posers on this attractive subject ; and Retzseh, the German 

 artist, has familiarised us with the figures of Faust and 

 Mepbistopheles, of Margaret and Valentine, and with tbe other 

 characters of the wondrous story. 



But undoubtedly the chief modern creator of the character 

 of Fauat is Goethe, of whose great drama Betzsch's designs 

 are the fitting illustrations, and the works of Gounod and 

 Berlioz are the lyrical exponents. The First Part of Goethe's 

 principal work was published in 1806, and the conclusion 

 did not appear until a later date ; but the subject had en- 

 gaged the author's attention for many years, and some 

 portions were written as early as 1774 and 1775. The 

 various scenes were remodelled in 1797, and the poem, as it 

 now stands, was completed in 1801. The "Faust" of Goethe 

 is the old mediaeval legend, interpreted in a philosophising 

 spirit that is altogether modern. Marlowe had painted his 

 hero after a coarse and easily-apprehended fashion. Faustus, 

 as presented by him, is simply a student who, weary with the 

 ordinary results of knowledge, sells himself to the Tempter 

 for worldly riches, for the gratification of sensual desires, 

 and for the pride of exalting his power, by extraordinary 

 arts, above all the potentates of the world. Many of his 

 actions consist of the most ridiculous practical jokes, such 

 as any conjuror at a fair could perform ; and, from these ho 

 passes to the enjoyments of a commonplace debauchee. In 

 the conception of Goethe, Faust is a far higher being. Ho 

 is a man tormented with a consuming desire for absolute 

 knowledge with the ambition of raising himself to the level 

 and the nature of a god. It is only when he has discovered 

 the vanity of Knowledge that he enters into a compact with 

 Mephistopheles for the obtaining of Happiness. But the 

 pursuit of happiness for its own sake, and as the sole object 

 of life, is always demoralising, and Faust soon enters on a 

 career of vice. The general course of the story the sorrows 

 of Margaret, the slaughter of Valentine, and the other incidents 

 of the drama need not be here related. These things are 

 incapable of summary treatment, and depend for their power 

 on the peculiar art with which the poet has unfolded and illus- 

 trated the leading ideas by which his mind was possessed. 



This extraordinary work was not long in producing its effect 

 in Germany. It seized at once on the popular mind and on 

 the higher intellect, and no poem has been made the subject of 

 a larger amount of comment, except the " Divina Commedia " 

 of Dante. Touching on the character of Mephistopheles, 

 Thomas Carlyle has said that he " comes before us, not arrayed 

 in the terrors of Cocytus and Phlegethon, but with natural, 

 indelible deformity of wickedness. He is the Devil, not of 

 superstition, but of knowledge. Such a combination of perfect 

 understanding with perfect selfishness, of logical life with moral 

 death, so universal a denier both in heart and head, is un- 

 doubtedly a child of Darkness, an emissary of the primeval 

 Nothing, and may stand, in his merely spiritual deformity, at 

 once potent, dangerous, and contemptible, as the best and only 

 genuine Devil of these latter times." This combination of 

 knowledge with selfishness, of intellectual power with a disre- 

 gard of moral responsibility, of boundless curiosity with de- 

 fective conscience, is indeed one of the least encouraging 

 symptoms of our age ; and Goethe has anticipated it in tho 

 character of Mephistopheles. The Tempter in " Faust " is a 

 Deing absolutely perfect in his badness. He has no hesitation, 

 no revulsion of feeling, no remorse, no sorrow for the better 

 life which ho denies and outrages, no aspiration except towards 

 illimitable evil, no despair of any higher ends. Tet some critics 

 have doubted the propriety of this conception. Hallam has 

 observed that " there is an awful melancholy about Marlowe's 

 Mephistopheles, perhaps more expressive than the malignant 

 mirth of that fiend in the renowned work of Goethe ; " and 

 Charles Lamb (whose intensely English feeling, however, put 

 him out of sympathy with most foreign productions) regarded 

 the German poem as a mere vulgar melodrama in comparison 

 with the Elizabethan play. The determination of this point 



