Although Lessing was not a poetical genius like Goethe, the power and acuteness of his mind were so eminent, the force of his critical faculties was so penetrating, that his treatment of a subject of so much depth and intrinsic poetry would have been of the highest interest.  This expectation is also justified by the few sketches of single scenes which are all that remain of his plans.  One of the latter is, indeed, also in so far remarkable, as we see from it that Lessing’s mind inclined to the modern view, according to which Faustus ought to be and would be finally saved.  One of the devils describes him, before temptation, as “a solitary, thinking youth, entirely devoted to wisdom,—­living, breathing, only for wisdom and knowledge,—­renouncing every passion but the one for truth,—­highly dangerous to thee [Satan] and to us all, if he were ever to be a teacher of the people.”  Satan resolves at once to seduce and destroy him.  But Faustus’s good angel has mercy on him.  He buries him in a deep sleep, and creates in his place a phantom, with which the cheated devils try successfully the whole process of temptation and seduction.  All this appears to Faustus in a dream.  He awakes; the Devil discovers his error, and flies with shame and fury, and Faustus, thanking Providence for its warning, clings to truth and virtue more firmly than ever.

The other plan, to judge from the fragment we possess, is less fanciful, and seems to follow more closely the popular tradition, according to which the temptations of Faustus were by no means external, but lay deep in his individual mind.  In one of its lightly-sketched scenes, the poet has evidently availed himself of the one from the Miracle-Book heretofore mentioned, and, indeed, with a great deal of force.  Faustus, impatient and annoyed at the slow process of human action, desires the quickest servant from hell, and successively cites seven spirits.  One after another he rejects.  The arrows of the plague, the wings of the winds, the beams of light, are all not quick enough for him.  The fifth spirit rises:—­

“Faustus.  How quick art thou?

“Fifth Spirit.  As quick as the thoughts of men.

“Faustus.  That is something!—­But the thoughts of men are not always quick.  They are slothful when truth and virtue demand them.  Thou canst be quick, if thou wilt.  But who will warrant me thy being always quick?—­No, I trust thee as little as I ought to have trusted myself.—­Ah!—­(to the sixth spirit.) Now tell me how quick thou art!

“Sixth Spirit.  As quick as the vengeance of the Avenger.

“Faustus.  Of the Avenger?  Of what Avenger?

“Sixth Spirit.  Of the All-powerful, the Terrible, who has kept vengeance for himself alone, because vengeance is his delight.

“Faustus.  Devil, thou blasphemest, for I see thou art trembling!—­Quick, thou sayest, as the vengeance of——­no! he may not be named among us!  Quick, thou sayest, is his vengeance?  Quick?  And I still live?  And I still sin?