Part 4 (1/2)

Faustus and Leviathan, in the mean time, pa.s.sed over the city-walls; and when they were in the open field, the Devil despatched an attendant spirit to the hotel, in order to pay the reckoning, and to fetch away Faustus's baggage. Then turning to the young German, he asked him if he were contented with this first feat.

_Faustus_. Hem! if the Devil wants praise, I am content to give it him.

But I should never have imagined that yon pompous scoundrel would have sold his wife for ambition's sake.

_Devil_. Let us proceed a little further, my Faustus, and I will soon convince thee that Ambition is the G.o.dhead which ye all wors.h.i.+p; although you disguise it under all kind of glittering forms, in order to conceal its nakedness. Till now you have studied man merely in books and philosophical treatises; or, in other words, you have been thras.h.i.+ng empty straw. But the film will soon fall from your eyes. We will shortly quit this dirty country of yours, where priestcraft, pedantry, and oppression reign unmolested and undisturbed. I will usher you upon a stage where the pa.s.sions have a freer scope, and where great energies are employed to great ends.

_Faustus_. But I will force thee to believe in the moral worth of man before we quit my native land. Not far from hence lives a prince, whom all Germany praises as a paragon of every virtue. Let us seek him, and put him to the test.

_Devil_. Agreed; such a man would please me for his rarity.

The spirit now returned with the baggage, and was sent forward to Mayence to bespeak a lodging in an hotel. Faustus, for secret reasons which the Devil guessed, proposed spending the night with a hermit who dwelt in the hill of Homburg, and who was renowned through the whole neighbourhood for his piety. They reached the hermitage about midnight, and knocked at the door. The solitary opened it; and Faustus, who had dressed himself in the richest clothes which the Devil had provided for him, begged pardon for disturbing the repose of the holy man, and said that the night had surprised him and his companion while hunting, and had separated them from their attendants, and that they should be obliged by his giving them house-room for a few hours. The hermit looked on the ground, and replied, with a deep sigh:

”He who lives for heaven seldom abandons himself to dangerous repose.

You have not disturbed me; and, if you wish to stay here till sunrise, you must take things as you find them. Bread and water, with straw to lie on, is all I can afford you.”

_Faustus_. Brother hermit, we have brought all that the stomach requires along with us. We will only trouble you for a draught of water.

(_The hermit took his pitcher and went to a fountain_.)

_Faustus_. Peace dwells in his heart as well as on his brow, and I may think myself happy that he is not acquainted with that which binds me to thee. Faith and hope serve him instead of those things which I have d.a.m.ned myself for; at least it seems so.

_Devil_. And only seems. What if I were to prove that your heart is pure as gold in comparison with his?

_Faustus_. Devil!

_Devil_. Faustus, thou wert poor, ill-treated, and despised; thou didst see thyself in the dust; but, like an energetic being, thou hast sprung out of contempt at thy own risk. Thou wert incapable of gratifying thy l.u.s.ts by the murder of thy fellow-creatures, as this saint would if I led him into temptation.

_Faustus_. I see all thy infernal craftiness. If I were to command thee to put him to a fair trial, thou wouldst confuse the senses of the just man, so that he would commit acts which his heart abhorred.

_Devil_. Ridiculous! Why, then, do ye boast of your free-will, and thereby ascribe your deeds to your own hearts? But ye are all saints while there is nothing to tempt ye. No, Faustus; I will remain neuter, and merely offer delights to his senses; for the Devil has no need to creep into ye when you are already disposed for wickedness.

_Faustus_. And if things do not turn out as you a.s.sert, think not that your a.s.surance shall remain unpunished.

_Devil_. Thou mayst then torment me a whole day by preaching of the virtues of men. Let us see whether this will allure him.

A table, provided with dainty meats and delicious wines, now appeared in the middle of the hermitage. The solitary entered, and silently placed the pitcher before Faustus, and then retired into a corner, without heeding the luxurious banquet.

_Faustus_. Now, brother hermit, since the things are on the table, fall to without waiting to be asked twice. You may eat of our fare without the least injury to your reputation. I see your mouth begins to water.

Come, a gla.s.s to the honour of your patron saint. What is his name?

_Hermit_. St. George.

_Faustus_. Here's his health.

_Devil_. Ho, ho, brother hermit! the renowned St. George of Cappadocia was a fellow after my own heart; and if you take him for a model, you cannot go wrong. I am perfectly well acquainted with his history, and will relate it in a few words for your instruction. He was the son of wretchedly poor people, and was born in a miserable hut in Cilicia. As he grew up, he early perceived his own talents, and, by force of flattery, servility, and corruption, found his way into the houses of the great and opulent, who at length, out of grat.i.tude for his services, procured him a commission in the army of the Greek emperor. But when there he pilfered and plundered to so enormous an extent, that he was soon obliged to fly, to avoid being hanged. Thereupon he joined himself to the sect of the Arians, and, by his quick parts, soon learnt to gabble the unintelligible jargon of theology and metaphysics. About this time the Arian emperor, Constantine, kicked from the episcopal chair at Alexandria the good and most Catholic Athanasius; and your redoubtable Cappadocian was, by an Arian synod, appointed to the vacant see. George was now completely in his element: he puffed, strutted, and filled his paunch. But when he, by his injustice and cruelty, had driven his subjects to the verge of madness, they put him to death, and carried his body in triumph through the streets of Alexandria. Thus did he become a martyr, and consequently a saint.

_Hermit_. There is not a word of this in the legend.

_Devil_. I believe ye, brother; and, for the sake of truth, the Devil only ought to have written it.