the scene in
Auerbach's cellar in Goethe's poem)--cuts off people's heads and sends
them to the barber to be shaved, and then replaces them (a most useful
invention)--makes flowers appear in vases (like modern spiritualists or
Indian jugglers)--and lets flowers and grapes flourish in his garden at
Christmas-time. His most important feat is summoning up (as he does in
Goethe's poem) the shade of Helen of Troy. You will wish for a
description of Helen--at least of her dress. She appeared in a splendid
robe of black-purple ... her hair, of a glorious golden hue, hung down
to her knees--she had coal-black eyes, a lovely face, and a round head,
her lips red as cherries, with a little mouth and a neck like a white
swan, cheeks red as a rosebud, and a tall straight figure.

A fit of remorse now seizes our magician. He is visited by a pious old
man who nearly persuades him to repent and break his bond with the
devil. But Mephisto is too cunning for him, and induces him to sign a
new compact with his blood, promising to procure him Helen. For (as is
also the case in Goethe's poem) Faust himself has fallen violently in
love with the phantom that he had raised. By the help of Mephistopheles
Helen herself--or one of her 'doubles' which play a part in Greek
mythology--is summoned up, and lives with Faust as his wife. (At his
death she, and their son, Justus Faust, disappear.)

In the last year he is overwhelmed with terrible despair, which is
deepened by the mockeries of the demon. On the last evening he invites
his friends to supper at the village Rimlich, near Wittenberg. After the
supper, he addresses his companions in a speech of intense and pathetic
remorse, praying that God will save his soul though his body is forfeit
to the devil. He tells them that at the stroke of twelve the demon will
come to fetch him. He begs them to go quietly to bed, and not to be
alarmed if they hear a great uproar. At midnight a mighty wind sweeps
over the house, and a terrible hissing is heard as of innumerable
serpents. Faust's cries for help gradually die away. They rush into the
supper room and find him torn to pieces--eyes, brains, and teeth
scattered in all directions. 'After this,' says our chronicler, 'it was
so uncanny in the house that no man dared live in it. Doctor Faust also
appeared in person to his Famulus (assistant) Wagner by night, and
related to him many still more weird and mysterious things.... And thus
endeth the whole and tr