p to the ceiling--down!
Lay thyself at the feet of thy master!
Thou seest, there's reason to dread my ire.
I'll scorch thee with the holy fire!
Wait not for the sight
Of the thrice-glowing light!
Wait not to feel the might
Of the potentest spell in all my treasure!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
[_As the mist sinks, steps forth from behind the stove,
dressed as a travelling scholasticus_.]
Why all this noise? What is your worship's pleasure?

_Faust_. This was the poodle's essence then!
A travelling clark? Ha! ha! The casus is too funny.

_Mephistopheles_. I bow to the most learned among men!
'Faith you did sweat me without ceremony.

_Faust_. What is thy name?

_Mephistopheles_. The question seems too small
For one who holds the _word_ so very cheaply,
Who, far removed from shadows all,
For substances alone seeks deeply.

_Faust_. With gentlemen like him in my presence,
The name is apt to express the essence,
Especially if, when you inquire,
You find it God of flies,[14] Destroyer, Slanderer, Liar.
Well now, who art thou then?

_Mephistopheles_. A portion of that power,
Which wills the bad and works the good at every hour.

_Faust_. Beneath thy riddle-word what meaning lies?

_Mephistopheles_. I am the spirit that denies!
And justly so; for all that time creates,
He does well who annihilates!
Better, it ne'er had had beginning;
And so, then, all that you call sinning,
Destruction,--all you pronounce ill-meant,--
Is my original element.

_Faust_. Thou call'st thyself a part, yet lookst complete to me.

_Mephistopheles_. I speak the modest truth to thee.
A world of folly in one little soul,
_Man_ loves to think himself a whole;
Part of the part am I, which once was all, the Gloom
That brought forth Light itself from out her mighty womb,
The upstart proud, that now with mother Night
Disputes her ancient rank and space and right,
Yet never shall prevail, since, do whate'er he will,
He cleaves, a slave, to bodies still;
From bodies flows, makes bodies fair to sight;
A body in his course can check him,
His doom, I therefore hope, will soon o'ertake him,
With bodies merged in nothingness and night.

_Faust_. Ah, now I see thy high vocation!
In gross thou canst not harm creation,
And so in small hast now begun.

_Mephistopheles_. And, truth to tell, e'en here, not much have done.
That which at nothing the gauntlet has hurled,
This, what's its name? this clumsy world,
So far as I have underta