on hell and heaven, and on black art and
astrology. None of us may be in a position to question a demon's
accuracy with regard to how affairs stand in Hades, but Mephisto gives a
very unorthodox account of the creation--or rather he denies that there
was any creation. Matter according to his theory (and it is a theory of
some modern scientists and not only of medieval demons)--matter is
eternal and self-existent--uncreated, or self-created, whatever that may
mean. Incited by these descriptions, and by his 'foolish silly
inquisitive head,' Faust demands that he should pay a visit to both hell
and heaven.

For the journey to Hell the services of Beelzebub have to be
requisitioned. The devilish worm, as the old writer calls Beelzebub,
places Faust in a chair or pannier made of bones, hoists the chair on to
his back and plunges (like Empedocles) into a volcano. Faust is nearly
stifled to death. He sees all kinds of griffins and monsters and great
multitudes of spirits tormented in the flames--among them emperors,
kings and princes. Then in a deep sleep he is brought home and laid on
his bed. 'This Historia and recount of what he saw in hell,' says the
old chronicler, 'hath Doctor Faustus himself written down with his own
hand, and after his death it was found lying in a sealed book.' After
this (about ten years of the twenty-four having already elapsed) he is
taken up to heaven by Mephisto in a chariot drawn by dragons--not of
course to the Empyrean, the abode of God, but up as far as the fixed
stars (the eighth sphere). He finds the sun, which before he had
believed to be only as big as the bottom of a cask, to be far larger
than the earth, and the planets to be as large as the earth, and the
clouds of the upper sky to be as dense and hard as rocks of crystal.
From these regions the earth looks as small as the 'yolk in an egg.' He
sees all the kingdoms of the earth--Europe, Asia, and Africa (not
America, although America was discovered by Columbus in 1492, about the
date of Faust's birth).

In the sixteenth year Faust wishes to pay a visit to the chief cities
and countries of the world. Mephisto changes himself into a horse--'with
wings like a dromedary.' It is, I believe, not generally supposed that a
dromedary has wings; but I suppose the old chronicler must have confused
a camel and an ostrich, thinking of the name which some Greek authors
give to the ostrich, namely _stroutho-camelos_ or 'sparrow-camel.'

On the ba