d would have been
his most precious possession.'

A seven-league boot now passes by--followed in hot haste by another. Out
of the boots steps forth Mephistopheles. He asks contemptuously if Faust
has had enough of heroines and all such ideal folly. He cannot
understand why Faust is still dissatisfied with life. Surely he has seen
enough of its pleasures. He advises him, if he is weary of court life,
to build himself a Sultan's palace and harem and live in retirement--as
Tiberius did on the island of Capri. 'Not so,' answers Faust. 'This
world of earthly soil Still gives me room for greater action. I feel new
strength for nobler toil--Toil that at length shall bring me
satisfaction.'

He has determined to devote the rest of his life to humanity, to the
good of the human race. It is a project with which Mephistopheles
naturally has little sympathy. But he is forced to acquiesce, and, being
bound to serve Faust even in this, he suggests a plan. The young Kaiser
is at present in great difficulties. He is hard pressed by a rival
Emperor--a pretender to the Imperial crown. Mephisto will by his magic
arts secure the Kaiser the victory over this pretender, and then Faust
will claim as recompense a tract of country bordering on the ocean. Here
by means of canals and dykes, dug and built by demonic powers, Faust is
to reclaim from the sea a large region of fertile country and to found a
kind of model republic, where peace and prosperity and every social and
political blessing shall find a home. The plan is carried out. At the
summons of Mephistopheles appear three gigantic warriors by whose help
the battle is won, and Faust gains his reward--the stretch of land on
the shore of the ocean. And he is not the only gainer. The Archbishop
takes the opportunity of extracting far more valuable concessions of
land from the young Kaiser as penance for his having associated himself
with powers of darkness. The prelate even extracts the promise of tithes
and dues from all the land still unclaimed by Faust. As Mephistopheles
aptly remarks, the Church seems to have a good digestion.

Many years are now supposed to elapse. Faust has nearly completed his
task of expelling the sea and founding his ideal state. What had been a
watery waste is now like the garden of Eden in its luxuriant fertility.
Thousands of industrious happy mortals have found in this new country a
refuge and a home. Ships, laden with costly wares, throng the ports. On
an em