The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-06


 soaring. unfettered genius of youth anC ended in the calm, super-earthly light O great poetfcal vision and great worldly wisdom combined.
 A library could be filled with the books and articles that have been written a commentaries, analyses and elucidation' of this wonderful creation. But to apply schola sticism and analytical logic ti Faust is to do something to whicf the whole scheme of the poem Is op posed
 Faust" tears away the letters Of ma teriaI knowledge. The scaling-ladder oi logic, ridiculously inadequate, is sent clat- tering into the depth. Goethe demands oi his readers that they shall not clint painfully upward. holding fast to pain fuI argument, but that they shall fly with him into heights where the sou knows what the brain cannot grasp. IN a vaulted. dim, Gothical room, sur
 rounded with the fantastic appliances 4 of sixteenth century science, sat Dr. Faust, pondering. defeated. His furrowed face, his rapt, absent glance, showed no less than his tangled hair and stream ing unkempt beard that here was a stu dent who had forgotten the world in his his search for knowledge.
 He had indeed forgotten and lost the world; but, losing it. he had lost the ends of knowledge; and having attained all known science. he found 1t empty useless, meaningless.
 Surrendering himself to bitter disap- pointment he murmIred;
 ''Now I know all of philosophy, now I have studied to the end of law and medi- cine, and, alasl have come to the bot tom of even theology. I am as wise as in the beginning. True, I know more than the rest-doctors, masters, lawyers and priests. I am troubled by neither doubt nor scruples. am afraid of neither hell nor devil Yet I have gained only that all joy has gone from me. Impris- oned among my mountains of books, dust covered. worm-eatenl Surrounded with glasses tubes and instruments stuffed full of ancestral rubbishi That is my worldl What a worldl
 ''Come. then, aid me, oh magiel Tell me through spiritual might and lips, what rules the inmost world. Show me crea- tion-force and germ. that l may no longer rummage in words, words, wordsp'
 He opened a great brown folio and studied 1t earnestly, till he came to the mystic sign that represented the Spirit of Earth.
 q will challenge youl' said the pale scholar. You seem nearest to mel You shall reveal yourself to me and were it to cost my lifeI'
 He drew the sign of the spirit in the air. A red flame pulsed through the room In Its glare monstrous, wonderful form stood, bending blazing eyes on the man who had dared to call 1.-the man who now turned his face away in terror.
 Long have you pondered, long have you groped about my domaini" thundered the appearance. And is this you, Faust, a timidly writing worm?"
 'T will not flee before you, creature of nameg said Faust, gathering all his pow CTS. q, Faust, am your peer, equal to youP
 The spirit spoke;
 In currents of Life. in storms of Deed, Up and down I wave.
 Weaving to and froi
 Creation and grave.
 An eternal flow,
 A restless weaving,
 A flaming living,
 At the roaring loom of Time I plod And spin the living raiment of Godl
 In a rapture that carried him away, Faust exclaimed. joyously; "I am near to thee, mighty spirit. that sweepest the worldl I am near to thee"
 You are near only to the spirit that you can understand-not to mel" pro- nounced the apparition. It vanished, leav- ing Faust prostrate. He muttered in de- spair: T. image of Godl And not even near the Spirit of Earthr'
 He strode to his vta1s and took one Pouring its fluid into crystal cup he said:
 'I am a worm and all this rubbish here of books and clements and chemicals is so much dust in which burrow blindly, Shall think to find here what desire ? Shall continue in thousand books to read that mankind has tortured itself for evermore-that here and there one happy one may have lived? This juice shows me the open sea. The mirror of the flood gleams at my feet To new and unknown shores a new day seems to beckon. will dare to force the portal from which men shrink in dread. I will prove that human dignity fears not to mount to the gods"
 He lifted the crystal to his lips: but before he could drink, the air awoke and resounded to the peal of all the bells of the old town. and through the broken silence of the night there scared the passicn of Easter song.
 Dr. Faust lowered the cup. T hear the message" said he. though I have lost belief. The miracle Is the dear child of faith alone. cannot rise to that sphere whence the beautiful tidings flow. But still but still. tn ese strains draw me back to life Oh sound on, sound on. sweet songs of heavenl The earth has me again~
 But though he returned to earth, it was only to more bitter striving for the unattainable In vain did earth dis play here miracle of spring to the seek ar who could not believe in miracle. In vain did the wakening of tree and stream, the renewed creation play ap- pear before the eyes of him who had lost faith. He wandered in the cloud hung passes of time and had no guide. The Spirit of Evil, sinking covertly through the world, beheld the vastly