Mr. Faust Part 24

FAUST

Forgive you? Aye, and thank you! Greater things Hung imminent than you dreamed of. For you set Wild lightnings free in me that smote the dark Furled round me; and they grew and flashed and flamed Even as I fell. Aye, Brander, you who strove For my salvation should rejoice at last-- Now, past all doubts and wanderings, I am saved!

BRANDER

Saved! Ah, impossible!

FAUST

Saved! And the light Of glory fills me, though my physical frame Totters on dissolution. I believe!...

The night is over.

BRANDER

Faust! O dearest friend!

My heart refuses now to grasp such joy.

If it were possible! Can, can it be That G.o.d has bent once more, and with cool touch Dispelled the feverous mists? Oh, I could weep With happiness to dream it!

FAUST

Nay, my words Mean more than you interpret. I am saved-- Not as you count salvation. Nay, I come To one last refuge, finding all others vain.

The common joys, the peace of nescience, The trust in some far Will, the hope to flame A beacon in the darkness of men's dreams: Driven forth from these, one citadel still lifts Heaven-fronting: there I stand, delivered, free, Master again--that citadel, my soul.

I have escaped from all the bondages; And now bow down to nothing. Joy or pain, Defeat or conquest, good or evil, now Lure me no more. I will put hope in nothing Save in that whole strange glistening mortal life That past me streams unto an end sublime Whereof you know not. All our ends are folly, And win not what they seek; yet there is joy In seeking; and one end there is that shows A brighter glow. I am the watcher set Upon the heights. In my impa.s.sioned sight All life is holy that strives unto life: Death only is d.a.m.nation. I will be More happy than the happiest man, more strong Than is the strongest! I will climb on the neck Of this great monster, Life, and guide its course-- For I am master--toward that end I see Hidden afar off.

BRANDER

You are sick and spent.

I should not thus--

FAUST

Fear not; I do not wander.

Or can you understand? No, no, you cannot.

And yet some tenderness from days long past Stirs in me with a hope for you once more-- Hear me for one last time.

[_Faust touches a bell. The butler enters._

FAUST

Bring to me, please, That large black-covered ma.n.u.script I wrote Last night until the doctor took it from me.

It is among the papers on my desk.

[_The butler searches, finds the note-book and places it on the table beside Faust. The butler goes out. Faust sits turning over the pages of the ma.n.u.script._

FAUST

Here to posterity I bequeath my soul-- Worthless, perhaps, as heritage, but the all I have to give to them I love so much.

These pages shall cry kinship to the few Who, finding solace nowhere, yet shall find Solace in fierce destruction that a.s.sails The folly and the madness of mankind.

(_He begins to read from the ma.n.u.script_)

Satan recedes; but thou who seemest near-- O unborn man, whose soul is of my soul, Whose glory is of my glory--all my love Floods out like light from the down-going sun Toward thee, the nursling of a lofty line.

Thou art my faith--man the divine to come-- Man whom I loathe for that which he is not-- Man, even now half divine because of all That shall spring from him in the days to be.

Thou, too, shalt fight with Satan, as I fought, Yea, in eternal battles till the end.

Thou shalt go with him past the lure of l.u.s.t, The lure of power, the lure of that great sleep Nirvana; past the yet more luring sleep Where dreams a.s.suage the soul to be a dream.

Thou shalt go with him, yet apart from him And all his works. He has no part in thee.

He is the chaos seething at earth's core-- Remnant of times when out of chaos sprang Life's upward impulse. He is the darkness spread Ere yet was light--the matter ere was form-- The vast inertia that on motion's heels Clings viper-like. Of life and form and growth He is negator; and his ceaseless joy Is to impede and drag to chaos back The shoot that toward the light triumphant springs.

But vain his victories, though he lingers yet With slowly narrowing frontiers. Past his will, Slowly the sons of light transcend, remould Their day and destiny; slowly there is born Order from chaos, flowers from formless mud, Light from the darkness, Faust's from Satan's soul.

With laughing and with wonder and with triumph I take that life and clasp it to my breast-- I, part of all, and all a part of me-- Streaming a river flashing in the sun.

I am drunk with the glory of that which tramps me down And pa.s.ses and transcends me--and is mine!

I, one with thee, O child of Flame, behold Thy harvest--when the pa.s.sion of the years Turns earthward, and in mastered order sets The house that is our dwelling. And therein, In the gold light of summer afternoons, With thee I too, careless and laughing, play Mid dreams and wonders that our will has made-- Bathe in the beauty that our eyes have poured Upon the hills--and drink in thirsty draughts The happiness we have rained upon the earth.

I see, with ultimate unshaken vision!

I see the earthly paradise; I see Men winged with wonder on the future throne Up infinite vistas where life's feet shall climb.

Out of the dust, out of the plant and worm, Out of ourselves about whose feet still clings The reptile-slime of our creation--lo!

Our children's children rise; and all my love Draws toward them and the light upon their brows.

This is my faith; this is my happiness; This is my hope of heaven; this is my G.o.d.

BRANDER

The eternal G.o.d in heaven forgive you this!

FAUST

The Devil I can foil, but not my friends!

Strange allies to his cause! Well, dusk was long My portion; now all gathering storms of hate Are less than naught to me. Six months ago, When here I stood that memorable night, My gloom was starless; now one fiery star Pierces it. And this broken frame of mine Cannot annul that much of victory-- The solace born of pa.s.sion to destroy That shall survive me if indeed I die.

Alone my life was lived; if now I go, It is alone into a quiet grave Above whose mound the fairer future days Shall pa.s.s, and I not know them. Yet my night Takes foregleam from the vision of that dawn And I am solaced. And I leave my solace As heritage to the ever widening few Who after me shall triumph more than I In dawns of flaming.

BRANDER

O my friend, my friend, I would my tongue could cry as my heart cries-- Turn back from darkness before the hour has struck!

Even yet may mercy fold you. G.o.d is great And tender; and perhaps His love may clasp Even your aloofness, if at last your heart Calls in repentance to Him. O Faust, Faust, Sink your vain pride of spirit--kneel to Him-- Beseech His mercy ere it is too late!

FAUST

I am no melancholy death-bed scene To claim your tears, dear Brander. Doubtless days Of infinite scope lie yet before me, since No oracle has foretold that I shall die.

But if I die, then go I singing down, Not praying or repentant, to my grave.

I would smite again the altar! I would smite The hearts bowed before it; all the world And the Beyond-world would I rend, having seen Serpents in their secret places.

BRANDER

Has no breath Of heavenly love touched this corrosive core Of h.e.l.l-fire in you?

FAUST

There is none whose power Is half so mighty.