Behold the sign, before whose spell The hosts of darkness bow. He swells, his hairs stand up, he feels it now. Abandoned being, canst thou read the token On earth transpierced atrociously? Fast behind the stove hemmed in, MEPHISTOPHELES comes forth from behind the stove, -dressed like a travelling scholar; the smoke falls. What is the matter,-what your worship's will? FAUST. So! this is it. This is the poodle's seed, MEPHISTOPHELES. Most learned Sir, accept my salutation, FAUST. What is thy name? MEPHISTOPHELES. The question seems but vain For one who holds the world in such disdain, FAUST. But when of such as you the name we know, The name declares it: we no more require, * Baalzebub, or Beelzebub, the master of flies; Abaddon (Heb.), Apollyon (Gr.), destroyer or exterminator; Diabolus, the calumniator. Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable; Doing or suffering; but of this be sure, MEPHISTOPHEles. A portion of that power, That ever Evil wills, Good ever to create. FAUST. Well, well, but how shall I this problem penetrate? MEPHISTOPHEles. The Spirit am I that denies evermore, And that with justice, all creation Richly deserves annihilation; Better it were that nought had ever been. "Tis thus all things, that are by your word sin, Destruction, in short evil, meant, Are my peculiar element. FAUST. Thou callest thyself a part, yet standest whole by me. To do ought good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to His high will MEPHISTOPHEles. The unpretending truth is all I tell to thee. Part of the part am I, that at the first was all;* Part of the darkness that brought forth the light, That proud light that doth now in question call, The ancient rank and space of mother Night. * Chaos and his dark pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned, Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreadful name If some other place, From your dominions won, the etherial king I travel this profound: direct my course : Paradise Lost. Yet it succeeds not, for howe'er it strives, FAUST. Aye, now I see your worthy trade; MEPHISTOPHELES. And truly I have little progress made; In spite of every obstinate endeavour, All I have tried has been without success: Nox, one of the most ancient of the heathen deities, daughter of Chaos, who gave birth to the Day and the Night from her amour with her brother Erebus, son of Darkness and Chaos, a rude and shapeless mass of matter, which the poets supposed existed before the formation of the world. Hesiod first asserted it, and it is probably obscurely drawn from Moses, being copied from the annals of Sanchoniathon, whose age is fixed as antecedent to the siege of Troy. |