uation, the nearest and most convenient way to honour and reputation
would be the sciences; yet scarcely had he tasted their enchantment when
his soul became inflamed with an ardent passion after truth. Every one
who is acquainted with these sirens, and has heard their deceitful song,
must know that, provided he does not make a mere trade of them, he must
infallibly miss his aim, from the necessity of assuaging the burning
thirst with which they inspire him. Faustus, after he had for a long
time groped about in the labyrinth, found that his earnings were doubt;
displeasure at the short-sightedness of man; and discontent and murmuring
against the Being who had formed him. He might still have been
comparatively happy had he had only these feelings to combat: but when
the perusal of the sages and the poets awakened a thousand new wants in
his soul, and his now winged and artificial imagination conjured up
before his eyes the many intoxicating enjoyments which gold and
reputation could only procure him, his blood ran like fire through his
veins, and all his faculties were soon swallowed up by this sensation.

By the discovery of Printing, Faustus thought he had at length opened the
door to riches, honour, and enjoyment. He exerted himself to the utmost,
in order to bring the art to perfection, and he now laid his discovery
before mankind; but their lukewarmness quickly convinced him that,
although the greatest inventor of his age, he and his family would soon
perish with hunger unless his genius continually displayed itself in some
new forms. Hurled from the pinnacle of hope, oppressed by heavy
debts,--which he had incurred by generosity and extravagant living, and
by his becoming security for false friends,--he now surveyed the world
through a gloomy medium. His domestic ties, when he no longer knew how
to support his family, became an intolerable burden. He began to think
that there was a malign influence in the distribution of men's fortunes:
or how did it happen that the noble and intellectual man was every where
oppressed, neglected, and in misery; whilst the knave and the fool were
rich, prosperous, and honoured in life?

In this melancholy state of mind Faustus wandered from Mayence to
Frankfort, intending to sell one of his printed Latin Bibles to the
magistracy, and then to return and buy with the produce food for his
hungry children. He had been able to accomplish nothing in his native
city, because at tha