And neighbor trunks with crushing weight bear down,
And falling, fill the hills with hollow thunders,—­
Then to the cave secure thou leadest me,
Then show’st me mine own self, and in my breast
The deep, mysterious miracles unfold. 
And when the perfect moon before my gaze
Comes up with soothing light, around me float
From every precipice and thicket damp
The silvery phantoms of the ages past,
And temper the austere delight of thought.

That nothing can be perfect unto Man
I now am conscious.  With this ecstasy,
Which brings me near and nearer to the Gods,
Thou gav’st the comrade, whom I now no more
Can do without, though, cold and scornful, he
Demeans me to myself, and with a breath,
A word, transforms thy gifts to nothingness. 
Within my breast he fans a lawless fire,
Unwearied, for that fair and lovely form: 
Thus in desire I hasten to enjoyment,
And in enjoyment pine to feel desire.

(MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)

MEPHISTOPHELES

Have you not led this life quite long enough? 
How can a further test delight you? 
’Tis very well, that once one tries the stuff,
But something new must then requite you.

FAUST

Would there were other work for thee! 
To plague my day auspicious thou returnest.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well!  I’ll engage to let thee be: 
Thou darest not tell me so in earnest. 
The loss of thee were truly very slight,—­
comrade crazy, rude, repelling: 

[Illustration]

One has one’s hands full all the day and night;
If what one does, or leaves undone, is right,
From such a face as thine there is no telling.

FAUST

There is, again, thy proper tone!—­
That thou hast bored me, I must thankful be!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Poor Son of Earth, how couldst thou thus alone
Have led thy life, bereft of me? 
I, for a time, at least, have worked thy cure;
Thy fancy’s rickets plague thee not at all: 
Had I not been, so hadst thou, sure,
Walked thyself off this earthly ball
Why here to caverns, rocky hollows slinking,
Sit’st thou, as ’twere an owl a-blinking? 
Why suck’st, from sodden moss and dripping stone,
Toad-like, thy nourishment alone? 
A fine way, this, thy time to fill! 
The Doctor’s in thy body still.

FAUST

What fresh and vital forces, canst thou guess,
Spring from my commerce with the wilderness? 
But, if thou hadst the power of guessing,
Thou wouldst be devil enough to grudge my soul the blessing.

MEPHISTOPHELES