University of Virginia Library

SCENE VII.

Enter a Student.
STUDENT.
I am but fresh arrived to-day,
And come my best respects to pay,
To a man whose name, from boor to Kaiser,
None, without veneration, mention.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
I feel obliged by your attention!
You see a man than other men no wiser:
Have you made inquiry elsewhere?

STUDENT.
Beseech you, sir, be my adviser!
I come with money enough and to spare,
With fresh young blood, and a merry heart,
On my college career to start:
My mother sent me, not without hesitation,
To pick up here some useful information.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
A better place you could not find.

STUDENT.
To speak the truth, 'tis not much to my mind.
Within these narrow cloister walls,
These antiquated gothic halls,
I feel myself but ill at ease;
No spot of green I see, no trees,
And 'mid your formal rows of benches,
I almost seem to lose my senses.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
That all depends on custom: Thus we see
A child, whose mouth at first is slow
Its native mother's breast to know,
Soon learns to nurse itself with glee.
Ev'n thus will you, each day you live,
On the breasts of wisdom better thrive.

STUDENT.
'Twere my delight to do so even now;
But, in the first place, you must tell me how?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Before you can receive my lessons
You must make choice of the professions.

STUDENT.
I aim at universal erudition,
And whatsoever of great or splendid
In heaven or earth is comprehended,
Science and Nature's wide extent,
I seek to know from your tuition.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
There you are on the proper scent;
Only beware of too much distraction.

STUDENT.
My soul and body are girt for action,
And yet I cannot choose but praise
A little freedom and merriment,
On pleasant summer holidays.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Redeem the time, for fast it fleets away,
But Order teaches us its course to stay.
First, therefore, would you do as I do,
To study logic I advise you.
There will your mind be properly dress'd,
And in Spanish boots uplaced,
That thus, with the greater consideration,
On the path of thought it may creeping go,
And not with flickering gyration,
Will-o'-the-wisp it to and fro.
There will you learn that a stroke of thinking,
Which you had practised once as free
And natural as eating and drinking,
Cannot be made without one! two! three!
True, it should seem that the fabric of thought
Is like a web by cunning master wrought,
Where one stroke moves a thousand threads,
The shuttle shoots backwards and forwards between,
The slender threads flow together unseen,
And one with the others thousand-fold weds:
Then steps the philosopher forth to shew
How of necessity it must be so:
If the first be so, the second is so,
And therefore the third and the fourth is so;
And unless the first and the second before be,
The third and the fourth can never more be.
Such is the language of all the schools,
And yet, with all their learned endeavour,
And all their syllogistic rules,
Not one of them e'er became a weaver.
He who strives to know a thing well
Must first the spirit within expel,
Then can he count the parts in his hand,
Only without the spiritual band.
Encheiresis naturæ, 'tis clept in Chemistry,
Thus laughing at herself, albeit she knows not why.

STUDENT.
I must confess I can't quite comprehend you.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
In this respect will time soon mend you,
When you have learned to decompose,
And in classes and orders to dispose.

STUDENT.
I feel as stupid to all he has said,
As a mill-wheel were whirling round in my head.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
After logic, first of all,
To the study of metaphysics fall!
There strive to know what ne'er was made
To go into the human head;
For what is within and without its command
A high-sounding word is always at hand.
But chiefly, for the first half year,
Let order in all your studies appear.
Five lectures a-day, that no time be lost!
And with the clock be at your post!
Come not, as some, without preparation,
And well his learned paragraphs con you all,
To be able to say, when you hear his oration,
That it nothing contains but what stands in his manual;
Yet not the less take down his words in writing,
As if the Holy Spirit were inditing!

STUDENT.
I shall not quickly give you cause
To repeat so weighty a clause;
For what black upon white is written,
We take it home, a tangible possession.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
But, as I said, you must choose a profession.

STUDENT.
With Law, I must confess, I never was much smitten.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
I should be loath to force your inclination,
Myself have some small skill in legislation;
For human laws and rights from sire to son,
Like an hereditary ill, flow on;
From generation dragged to generation,
And creeping slow from place to place.
Reason is changed to nonsense, good to evil,
Art thou a grandson, woe betide thy case!
Of Law they prate, most falsely clept the Civil,
But as to right, with which we all are born,
They name it not, or name it but to scorn.

STUDENT.
Your words have much increased my detestation.
O happy he, to whom such guide points out the way!
And now, I almost feel an inclination
To give Theology the sway.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
I have no wish to lead you astray.
As to this science, 'tis so hard t'eschew
The false way, and to hit upon the true,
And so much hidden poison lurks within,
That's scarce distinguished from the medicine.
Methinks that here 'twere safest done
That you should listen but to one,
And jurare in verba magistri
Is the best maxim to assist ye.
Upon the whole, I counsel thee
To stick to words as much as may be,
For such will still the surest way be
Into the temple of certainty.

STUDENT.
But surely every word must have a meaning.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Yes, but we must not probe too anxiously its meaning;
For, just when our ideas fail us,
A well-coined word may best avail us.
Words are best weapons in disputing,
In system-building and uprooting,
To words most men will swear, though mean they ne'er so little,
From words one cannot filch a single tittle.

STUDENT.
I crave your pardon, sir, if I appear
Your time with many questions to detain;
But if it be not irksome, I would fain
On Medicine, too, some pithy maxim hear.
Three years, God knows, fleet fast away,
And the field of study wide is.
Ev'n with a single hint to guide us,
'Tis easier far to find our way.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(aside.)
I'm weary of this dry pedantic strain,
'Tis time to play the genuine devil again.
(Aloud.)
The spirit of Medicine 'tis not hard to seize:
The world, both great and small, ye seek to know,
That in the end ye may let all things go
As God shall please.
In vain you range around with scientific eyes,
Each one at length learns only what he can;
But he who knows the passing hour to prize,
That is the proper man.
A goodly shape and mien you vaunt,
And confidence you will not want,
Trust but yourself, and, without more a-do,
All other men will straightway trust you too.
But chiefly be intent to get a hold
O'the women's minds: their endless Oh! and Ah!
So thousandfold,
In all its change, obeys a single law,
And if with half a modest air you come,
You have them all beneath your thumb.
A title first must purchase their reliance,
That you have skill surpassing vulgar science;
Thus have you hold at once of all the seven ends,
Round which another years of labour spends.
Study to press the pulse right tenderly,
And, with a sly and fiery eye,
To hold her freely round the slender waist,
That you may see how tightly she is lac'd.

STUDENT.
This seems to promise better; here we see,
More tangibly at least, the where and how.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Grey, my good friend, is every theory,
But green the golden tree of life doth grow.

STUDENT.
I vow I feel as in a dream, my brain
Contains much more than it can comprehend;
Some other day may I come back again,
To hear your wisdom to the end.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
The little that I have you may command.

STUDENT.
Excuse me, sir; from you I might not sever
Till first my album I deliver;
A learned maxim, written by your hand,
I should esteem a most peculiar favour.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Most willingly.

(He writes, and gives back the book.)
STUDENT.
(reads.)
Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum.

(He closes the book reverently, and takes his leave.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Follow the ancient saw, and my cousin, the famous old Serpent,
Right soon shalt thou have cause, at thy godlike knowledge to tremble!

Enter Faust.
FAUST.
Now, whither bound?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Where'er it pleases you;
The world, both great and small, we view.
O! how it shall delight, entrance you,
The merry race of life to dance through!

FAUST.
My beard, I am afraid, is rather long;
And without easy manners, gentle breeding,
I fear there is small chance of our essay succeeding;
I feel so awkward mid the busy throng,
So powerless and so insignificant,
And what all others have I seem to want.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Be not concern'd, good friend, that comes of course,
Trust but thyself, and straight thou know'st the art to live.

FAUST.
But, first, I see not how we shall contrive
To leave the house, without or chaise or horse.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
We only need your mantle to unfold,
And it shall waft us on the wind.
Who makes with me this journey bold
No bulky bundle busks behind;
A single puff of inflammable air,
And from the ground we nimbly fare.
Lightly we float. I wish the best of cheer
To Doctor Faustus on his new career.