Thou nam’st thyself a part, yet standest wholly here.
Mephistopheles.
I speak to thee the truth exact,
The plain, unvarnished, naked fact,
Though man, that microcosm of folly deems
Himself the compact whole he seems.
Part of the part I am that erst was all,
Part of the darkness, from whose primal pall
Was born the light, the proud rebellious Light,
Which now disputeth with its mother Night,
Her rank and room i’ the world by ancient right.
Yet vainly; though it strain and struggle much,
’Tis bound to body with the closer clutch;
From body it streams, on body paints a hue,
And body bends it from its course direct;
Thus in due season I expect,
When bodies perish, Light will perish too.
Faust.
Hold! now I know thy worthy duties all!
Unable to annihilate wholesale,
Thy mischief now thou workest by retail.
Mephistopheles.
And even thus, my progress is but small.
This something, the big lumpish world, which stands
Opposed to nothing, still ties my hands,
And spite of all the ground that I seem winning,
Remains as firm as in the beginning;
With storms and tempests, earthquakes and burnings,
Earth still enjoys its evenings and mornings,
And the accursèd fry of brute and human clay,
On them my noblest skill seems worse than thrown away.
How many thousands have I not buried!
Yet still a new fresh blood is hurried
Through fresh young veins, that I must sheer despair.
The earth, the water, and the air,
The moist, the dry, the hot, the cold,
A thousand germs of life unfold;
And had I not of flame made reservation,
I had no portion left in the creation.
Faust.
And thus thou seekest to oppose
The genial power, from which all life and motion flows,
Against Existence’ universal chain,
Clenching thy icy devil’s fist in vain!
Try some more profitable feats,
Strange son of Chaos, full of cross conceits.
Mephistopheles.
The hint is good, and on occasion,
May well deserve consideration;
Meanwhile, with your good leave, I would withdraw.
