far more defiant and fearless, conquers. "I am more malignant
than thou art," is a terrible utterance; so is the tone of affected pity
for the baffled tormentor, in which we detect a shade of sarcasm based on
overwhelming triumph. This feeling, be it observed, progresses,
_crescendo forte_, gradually and very artistically, from the first verse
to the last. Intialo has threatened to make the victim a sorry cur who
comes at a call; the sorcerer replies that he will make "a swine's snout"
of Intialo. Finally, he dares the fiend to meet him at midnight at the
great Witches' Sabbat, at the dread walnut-tree of Benevento. Here the
threats reach an ingenious and terrible climax, though the form in which
they are expressed is only quite clear to the initiated. The sorcerer
says, "When thou thinkest that thou see'st my shadow thou wilt behold
thine own," or in other words, "You who have sought to torment me by a
_shadow_ shall yourself be mocked by finding that you are only mine."
This climax of daring the fiend to meet him at Benevento, at the
tremendous and terrible rendezvous of all the devils, witches, and
sorcerers, and then and there trying conclusions with him in delusion and
magic, or a strife of shadows, while leaning against the awful tree
itself, which is the central point of the Italian Domdaniel, is
magnificently imagined.

In Goethe's "Faust," as in Byron's "Manfred," the hero is a magician, but
he is not in either true to the name or character. The great _magus_ of
early ages, even like the black Voodoo of America, had it clearly before
him all the time that his mission or business, above all things, was to
develop an indomitable _will_ superior to that of men or spirits. Every
point is gained by _force_, or by will and penance. In real sorcery
there is no such thing as a pact with a devil, and becoming his slave
after a time. This is a purely later-Roman invention, a result of the
adoption of the mixture of Jewish monotheism and Persian dualism, which
formed the Catholic Church. In Goethe's "Faust" we have the greatest
weakness, and an extreme confusion of character. The conclusion of the
tale is contradictory or absurd, and the difficulty is solved with the
aid of a _Deus ex machina_. The hero is a sorcerer, and _there is not a
trace of true sorcery or magianism or tremendous will and work in the
whole drama_. Beautiful things are said and done, but, take it for all
in all, it is a grand promenade