The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-06

Faust" He was S2 years old when he wrote the last words for 1t.
 The first part. which is the tragedy of Margaret. was published in 1908.
 Faust" is a life-work such as the world will not often see-begun in the wild. soaring. unfettered genius of youth and enoed in the calm. super earthly light of great poetical vision and great worldly wisdom combined.
 A library Could be filled with the books and articles that have been writ ten as commentaries. analyses and elu- citations of this wonderful creation. But to apply scholasticism and analyti- cal logic to Faust is to do something to which the whole scheme of the poem Is opposed.
 Faust" tears away the letters of ma terial knowledge. The scaling ladder of logic, ridiculously inadequate. is sent clattering into the depth Goethe de- mands of his readers that they shal, not climb painfully upward. holding fast to painful argument but that they shall fly with him into heights where the soul knows what the brain cannol grasp.
 In a vaulted, dim, Gothical room. sur rounded with the fantastic appliances of sixteenth century science. sat Dr. Faust, pondering, defeated. His fur rowed face, his rapt, absent glance. showed no less than his tangled hair and streaming unkempt beard that here was a student who had forgotten the world in his search for knowledge
 He hadA indeed forgotten and lost the world; but losing it, he had lost the ends of knowIedge; and having attain ed all known science, he found 1t empty, useless meaningless.
 Surrendering himself to bitter disap- pointment, he murmured:
 Now know all of philosophy. now I have studied to the end of law and all haN bottom of even theology. I am as wise as in the beginning. True, l know more than the rest-doctors masters, lawyers and priests. I am troubled by neither doubt nor scruples. I am afraid of neither hell nor devil. Yet have gained only that all joy has gone from me. Imprisoned among my mountains of books, Undiscovered, worm-eaten! Surrounded with glasses, tubes and instruments stuffed full of ancestral rubbish! That is my worldi
 'Come. then, aid me, oh magic! Tell me through spiritual might and lips, what rules the inmost world. Show me creation force and germ, thatz1 may no longer rummage in words, words, words"
 He opened great brown folio and studied it earnestly, till he came to the mystic sign that represented the Spirit Of Earth.
 T win challenge your said the pale scholar. You seem nearest to me- You shall reveal yourself to me, and were it to cost my life"
 He drew the sign of the spirit in the air A red flame pulsed through the room. In its glare a monstrous,' wonderful form stood, bending blazin7 eyes on the man who had dared to call st-the man who now turned his face away in terror.
 Long have you pondered. long have you groped about my domain!" thun- 1ered the appearance And is this you. Faust. timidly writing worm?'
 ''I will not flee before you, creature of fianew said Faust gathering all his powers. T, Faust. am your peer, equal to your
 The spirit spoksi
 In currents of Life. in storms of Deed.
 Up and down I wave,
 Weaving to and fro:
 Creation and grave.
 An eternal flow
 A restless weaving.
 A flaming living,
 At the roaring loom of Time plod And spin the living raiment of God. |
 Tn a rapture that carried him away. Faust exclaimed. joyously: T am near to thee. mighty spirit, that sweepest the world! I am near to thee"
 You are near only to the spirit that you can understand-not to me!' pro- nounced the apparition. It vanished leaving Faust prostrate. He muttered in despair: 'T image of God. And not even near the Spirit of Earth!'
 He strode to his vials and took one. Pouring its fluid into a crystal cup, he said:
 T am a worm, and all this rubbish here of books and elements and chem fcaIs is so much dust in which bur row blindly Shall think to find here what I desire? Shall I continue in d thousand books to read that mankind has tortured itself forever -more-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 peckOn. I will dare to force the portal from which men shrink in dread. I will prove that hu- man 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 passion ol Ed5loE SOHS
 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. I cannot rise to that sphere whence beautiful tidings How. But still, but still, these strains draw me back 10 life. Oh, sound on, sweet songs of Heaven! The earth has me again."
 But though he returned to earth, it was only to more bitter striving for the linattainable In vain did earth dis play her miracle of Spring to the seek CT who could not believe in miracle. In vain did the awakening of tree and stream the renewed creation play ap~ near 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 aspiring soul and longed to pull down such noble game. worth ten thousand stolid ones. Garbed in bright red with a cocks feather on his hat, Mephisto- pheles appeared before him ana urged him to leave his hermit study and come forth into the world.
 What can you give me. poor devil?' asked Faust. contemptuously. Food that does not sate. Red gold that rest lessly runs through the fingers like quicksilver A gamble at which no one wins. maid who eyes my neighbor while she is in my arms. Honor, the Npleasure of gods. that vanishes like q meteor"
 Nay. I will show you that which you have never seen" said Mephistopheles. "Go with me. I will be your serv-
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