sentiments which this incident recalls are tenderly expressed, but not in that impassioned and pathetic strain which the occasion might have been expected to inspire." 66 FAUST. Why seek ye here, ye tones of Heaven, On softer hearts your soothing influence try ; I could be happy, though deceived. I dare not lift my thoughts towards the spheres, From whence that heavenly sound salutes my ears; And yet that anthem's long-remember'd strain Revives the scenes of sinless youth again, When, on the stillness of the sabbath-day, Heaven in that peal seem'd pouring from above, While saints might wish with joy like mine to pray. Impell❜d me from the haunts of man ; I form'd myself a new creation, While tears of Christian fervour ran. This very song proclaim'd to childhood's ear The solemn tide for joys for ever past, And memory, waking while the song I hear, Arrests my strides, and checks me at the last. Sound on, blest strain, your task almost is done; Tears force their way, and earth regains her son.” "A very silly namby-pamby scene succeeds between worthy artizans and others of their class,— going, as the Cockneys call it, a holiday-making. Faust and Wagner, and then an old peasant, are introduced. The dialogue between them hath oc casional touches of poetry and of natural feeling, but still it is not of a very high order. The description of the season is not better than the spring has been described a thousand times; but the kindly gratitude of the peasant, for the assistance which Faust and his father had given to the people by their skill during a pestilence, is pleasing and natural; and there is prodigious effect in Faust's account of the result of his father's alchemy. I suspect Lord Francis did not clearly understand the passage in the original; for he has so translated it as to make it almost seem as if Faust and his father exasperated the plague by their medicines,-whereas Faust is alluding to the deleterious effects of the gold which his father had alchemically made." FAUST. "A little onward-far as yonder stone- And mortified myself with fast and prayer. With tears, and sighs, and prayers as vague, And stay the ravage of the plague. And, after many a crabb'd receipt, And mingled contraries in one. There was a lion red, a friar bold, Who married lilies in their bath of gold, With fire then vex'd them from one bridal bed Into another, thus he made them wed. This was the scene from whence our skill Our mixtures did their work more sure Their blessings on the murderer's head. "An account of the feeling of his insatiable curiosity, which soon follows, is full of beautiful and lofty poetry. It is one of the gems of the book." FAUST. "Happy in error's sea who finds the land, Or o'er delusion's waves his limbs can buoy ; And what we know, we know not to employ. And yields to death but to recruit his fires; To track the monarch, as his orb retires. I watch'd him, as he sought the west; Beneath his feet creation slept, Each summit blood-red bright, each vale at rest, To the mind's flight opposed its precipice. On rush'd my soul to drink the eternal light. Seas roll'd beneath, and skies above me rose. Blest dream! It vanish'd in its loveliest prime. Alas! no mortal wings may succour those Which lift the mind upon its flight sublime. Yet nourish'd in the bosom's core The impulse dwells which bids us onward press. When the lark mounts till it can mount no more, To wake its thrilling song of happiness, When o'er the pines the eagle soaring On poising wing appears to rest, When marshy wastes and seas exploring, The crane speeds to his native nest. WAGNER. "I have had fancies, but for such as these Heaven, like the prophet's scroll, seems open'd too. FAUST. "One impulse you have left alone. Oh! let the other rest unknown. Alas! in me two souls at variance dwell,— Glad realms, to which it fain would fly; To whom the reign of middle air is given, O'er foreign climes at will to range, Should tempt my avarice to exchange! WAGNER. "For mercy's sake, invoke no more The troop whose being is known too well! When the north blows, I know whose frosty fang Upon the panting chest, and husky lungs. Who calm the fever and refresh the plain; Prompt listeners to what heard shall make us grievePrompt slaves to serve their masters, and deceive." "While they are thus discoursing, a black hound is seen circling inwards, nearer and nearer, around them." |