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    Lessing's Faust

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    Epimetheus in the Cave
    The first spirit relates how it guided a cloud carrying destruction to a poor virtuous man's hut, destroying all he possessed. The second spirit tells how it created a storm that drowned traders who were usurers and defrauders. The third spirit corrupted the purity of a sleeping girl's mind by stealing her first kiss. The fourth spirit conceived of corrupting a pious youth devoted to wisdom, but found no weakness to exploit. Satan declares corrupting the youth's desire for knowledge will be enough for his perdition. An angel's voice then declares they shall not prevail over Faust.

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    Lessing's Faust

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    Epimetheus in the Cave
    61 views5 pages
    The first spirit relates how it guided a cloud carrying destruction to a poor virtuous man's hut, destroying all he possessed. The second spirit tells how it created a storm that drowned traders who were usurers and defrauders. The third spirit corrupted the purity of a sleeping girl's mind by stealing her first kiss. The fourth spirit conceived of corrupting a pious youth devoted to wisdom, but found no weakness to exploit. Satan declares corrupting the youth's desire for knowledge will be enough for his perdition. An angel's voice then declares they shall not prevail over Faust.

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    Lessing's Faust

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    The first spirit relates how it guided a cloud carrying destruction to a poor virtuous man's hut, destroying all he possessed. The second spirit tells how it created a storm that drowned traders who were usurers and defrauders. The third spirit corrupted the purity of a sleeping girl's mind by stealing her first kiss. The fourth spirit conceived of corrupting a pious youth devoted to wisdom, but found no weakness to exploit. Satan declares corrupting the youth's desire for knowledge will be enough for his perdition. An angel's voice then declares they shall not prevail over Faust.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    61 views5 pages

    Lessing's Faust

    Uploaded by

    Epimetheus in the Cave
    The first spirit relates how it guided a cloud carrying destruction to a poor virtuous man's hut, destroying all he possessed. The second spirit tells how it created a storm that drowned traders who were usurers and defrauders. The third spirit corrupted the purity of a sleeping girl's mind by stealing her first kiss. The fourth spirit conceived of corrupting a pious youth devoted to wisdom, but found no weakness to exploit. Satan declares corrupting the youth's desire for knowledge will be enough for his perdition. An angel's voice then declares they shall not prevail over Faust.

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    LE SSING’S FAUST.

    sATAN (to a swan).


    SPEAK thou the first. Relate what thou hast per
    formed.
    FxRsT sriRrr.
    Satan ! I saw a cloud in the heavens; it carried de

    struction in its womb. I swooped upon it; hid myself


    in its deepest darkness,. and guided its course; and
    stayed it over the hut of a poor and virtuous man, who
    was sinking into his first slumber in the arms of his
    wife. Here I rent the cloud, and shook out‘its fire in

    flakes upon the hut, and all that the wretches possessed
    was its prey. Satan, this was all I could. For himself;
    270 LESSING’S FAUST.

    his weeping children, his wife, these the angel of the


    Lord bore out of the flame; and, as I saw him, I fled.
    sATAN.
    Coward and fool! and thou sayest it was the but of
    a poor, of a virtuous man?
    SPIRIT.
    Even so, Satan. Now is he naked, and bare, and
    lost.
    SATAN.
    For us: yes, that is he, and for ever! Take from
    the rich his treasure, that he may despair; shake it out
    on the hearth of the poor, that it may lead his heart
    astray: thus we win a double prize ! To make poorer
    him who is already poor binds him still faster.to his
    God. Speak, thou second spirit! tell me a better tale.
    SECOND SPIRIT.
    Satan, I can! I went over the sea, and I sought me
    out a storm with which I might destroy; and I found one.
    --As I swept right on to the shore, I looked down and
    saw a fleet, and there were traders on board, usurers
    LESSING‘S FAUST. 271

    and defrauders. ‘Their yells and curses reached my


    car: down I plunged with my whirlwind into the abyss,
    and up again I shot on the foam towards Heaven.

    sATAN.
    And drownedst them?
    SECOND sPiRiT.
    So that none escaped. Their souls are now thine!
    sATAN. ‘
    Traitor! they were so before. Had they lived, they
    would have inflicted heavier curses and destruction on
    the earth; would have robbed, and murdered, and vio

    lated on other coasts; would have transported, from

    clime to clime, new temptations to sin. And all this is


    now lost. Oh! you should be sent back to hell! You
    do but disturb my government.—Speak, thou, the
    third. Hast thou to do with storms and whirlwinds?

    The third Spirit narrates, that he has snatched from the lips
    of a sleeping girl the first kiss that had ever been printed
    on them, and thrown the first shade of pollution over the
    purity of her mind.
    272 LESSING’S FAUST.

    SATAN (replies).
    ’Tis well; there is forethought and speculation in thy
    deed. Poor spirits! who breathe corruption on material
    substance: this one does better, he corrupts the soul.
    Say on, thou fourth! what hast thou performed?
    FOURTH sPIiuT. I

    Satan, nothing! But I have conceived a conception


    which, could it be realised in deed, would‘cause all

    other deeds to shrink in comparison.


    SATAN.
    What is it?
    FOURTH SPIRIT.
    To rob the Deity of his favourite: a thoughtful,
    solitary youth, totally given up to the search after wis
    dom; breathing and feeling alone for this; renouncing
    every passion but this one for wisdom; dangerous to
    you and to all of us, should he once become a teacher
    of the people—to gain him from‘Heaven, Satan—
    sATAN.
    Excellent! admirable! and your plan?
    LESSING’S FAUST. 273

    FOURTH sPIRIT.
    See, I gnash my teeth! I have no plan! I have
    slunk about his soul on every side; but I found no single
    weakness on which to fix my hold.
    sATAN.
    Fool! has he not desire of knowledge?
    FOURTH srrRlT.
    More than any mortal beside.
    sATAN.
    Then leave him to me; that is enough for his per
    dition.
    With these words Satan concludes the scene; but, as the in
    fernal ministers depart, the voice of the Angel of Prescience,
    der ursehung, is heard from above—

    Ye shall not prevail!


    Faust himself is thrown, by angelic agency, into a deep slum
    ber, and a phantom is put in his place, on which the devil
    exercises his ingenuity in vain. Faust sees, in a dream,
    the progress of these temptations, and wakes more con
    firmed in virtue than ever. ‘

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