and gently stirring bushes; they rush not, they scarcely ripple; a hundred springs unite from all sides in the pure clear space, sloping gently into a bath. The limbs of beautiful, youthful women, doubled by the moist mirror, are again brought to the delighted eye! Now bathing sociably and joyously, now boldly swimming, or timidly wading; and at last a shrieking and a water battle. I might content myself with these; my eye might here be delighted; yet my sense strives ever farther. My glance presses keenly to that covering; the rich foliage of the verdant fulness conceals the lofty queen. Wonderful! Swans also coming, swimming out of the bays, moving purely and majestically. Calmly floating, tenderly sociable; but how proud and self-complacently head and beak move.... But one before the rest, bold, with expanded breast, appears to be delighted, sailing swiftly forward through them all; his plumage swells forth, waves themselves, billowing upon waves; he presses to the holy spot....the others swim to and fro with calmly shining plumage; soon also they lure away the shy maidens in active magnificent strife, so that they think no more of their service, but of their own safety. Nymphs. Sisters! sisters, lay your ears Sounds of horses' hoofs approach us. Message swift is bringing us. Faust. It seems to me as it were the earth was ringing echoing under a hurrying horse. Lo, there my glance! Shall already a favourable lot reach me? O wonder without par! A rider gallops forward; he seems endowed with strength and spirit; upon a blindingly white horse is he borne....I err not; already I know him-the famous son of Philyra! Halt, Chiron, halt! I have to speak with thee. Chiron. What will you? Faust. Curb thy pace. Chiron. I rest not. What is it? Faust. Then, I pray thee, take me with thee. Chiron. Mount then. Then can I at pleasure ask whither you are bound? Thou standest here on the shore, I am prepared to bear thee through the stream. Faust (mounting). Where'er thou wilt. For ever shall I thank thee. .... The great man, the noble tutor, who, to his own fame, educated a people of heroes, the beauteous circle of the noble Argonauts, and all who built up the poet's world. Chiron. Pass over that. Pallas herself is not honoured as Mentor; in the end, people go on in their own way, as though they had never been taught. Faust. I here embrace in strength of mind and body the physician who names every plant, who knows roots even into the deepest, who procures healing for the sick, alleviation for wounds! Chiron. When a hero was hurt near me, I could give help and counsel; yet at last I left my art to root-women and priests. Faust. Thou art the truly great man who cannot hear the word of praise. He seeks modestly to turn away, and does as if there existed others like him. Chiron. Thou appearest to me clever in hypocrisy, in flattering the prince as well as the people. Faust. Thou wilt then confess to me: thou hast seen the greatest of thy time, hast striven after the noblest in actions, earnestly like a demigod hast lived through thy days. Yet among the heroic forms, which hast thou considered the best? Chiron. In the exalted circle of the Argonauts, every one was brave in his own way, and according to the power which inspired him, he could suffice for that in which others failed. The Dioscuri have every where conquered where fulness of youth and beauty held sway. Resolution and prompt deeds for other's weal was the most beautiful inheritance of the Boreades. Agreeable to ladies, thoughtful, powerful, prudent, ready in council, so ruled Jason. Then Orpheus, tender, and ever silently contemplative, powerful over all when he struck the lyre. The keen-sighted Lynceus, who by night and day guided the holy ship through rocks and shoals. In company only can danger be tried, while one acts all the others praise. Faust. Wilt thou say nothing of Hercules? Chiron. Alas! Awake not my longing.... I had never seen Phoebus, nor Mars, nor Hermes, as they are called. Then saw I stand before my eyes what all men praise as divine. Thus was he a born king, as a youth most noble to behold; subject to his elder brother, and also to the most beautiful women. Earth will not nourish a second, nor Hebe lead a second into heaven; in vain do songs labour, in vain do men torture the marble. Faust. However much sculptors boast of him, he never appeared so noble. Thou hast spoken of the most beautiful man, now speak of the most beautiful woman. Chiron. What! Woman's beauty means nothing, it is far too often a stiff image; only such a being can I praise that streams joyfully and life-enjoying. Beauty remains to itself ever happy, grace makes irresistible, like Helen, when I bore her. Faust. Thou bor'st her? Chiron. Yea! On this back. Faust. Am not I already confused enough, and must such a seat bless me. Chiron. She grasped my hair as thou now dost. Faust. O, I shall lose myself entirely! Relate how! She is my only desire! Whither and whence didst thou bear her? Chiron. The question may easily be answered. The Dioscuri had at that time freed their little sister from the hands of robbers. Yet they, not wont to be vanquished, took courage, and rushed after them. Then the brothers and sister hastened swiftly to the marshes near Eleusis; the brothers waded, I scrambled, swam across; then she jumped off and stroked my wet mane, flattered and thanked with lovely sense and self possession. How charming was she! Young, and the pleasure of the old. Chiron. I see the philologists have deceived thee and themselves. It is quite peculiar with the mythologic lady; the poet makes her appear as he wants her; she never becomes of age, grows never old, is always of a desirable form, is ravished when young, and still courted in age: enough, no time binds the poet. Faust. So let her also be bound by no time! Achilles himself found her at Pheræ out of all time. What strange happiness love gained against fate! And can I not, by the most longing force draw the most unique form into life? The eternal being equal born with the gods, as great as tender, as majestic as amiable. Thou saw'st her once; to-day have I seen her, as beautiful, as enchanting, as desired as fair. Now is my sense, my being powerfully ensnared. I cannot live if I cannot obtain her. Chiron. Stranger, as man art thou enraptured: yet amongst spirits thou appearest rather mad. It turns out now luckily for thee; for every year, only for a few moments, I am accustomed to call upon Manto, the daughter of Esculapius. She prays in silence to her father, that, to his own honour, he would at last enlighten the mind of the physicians, and turn them from their bold slaughtering. She is the dearest to me of the sibyl company; not madly raving, but beneficently mild; she may, perhaps, after a little delay, be able entirely to cure thee by the powers of simples. Faust. I will not be cured. My mind is strong: then should I be contemptible, like others. Chiron. Spurn not the healing of the noble spring! Descend quickly; we are at the place. Faust. Tell me, where hast thou, in the dread night, brought me through the pebbly waters to land. Chiron. Here Greece and Rome spurned, in strife, the greatest kingdom that loses itself in the sand, Peneus upon the right, Olympus on the left. The king flies, the citizens triumph. Look up! here stands, significantly near in the moonlight, the eternal temple. Manto (dreaming within). With the hoofs of horses Demigods are coming in. Chiron. Right! right! Only open thine eyes! Manto (awaking). Welcome! I see thou stayest not away. Chiron. Does thy temple still stand? Manto. Dost thou still roam unwearied? Chiron. Thou still dwellest quietly enclosed, whilst it delights me to range. Manto. I await! time encircles me! And this one? Chiron. This ill-reputed night has brought him hither in its whirlpool. He wisheth, with mad mind, to gain Helen, and knows not how or where to begin; Esculapian cure is above others worthy. Manto. I love him who desires impossibilities. (Chiron is already far away.) Manto. Enter ! Thou bold one, thou shalt rejoice! This dark way leads to Proserpine. In the hollow base of Olympus, she listens in secret for forbidden greeting. Here I once smuggled in Orpheus; do thou use it better. Courage! On! (They descend.) The upper Peneus, as before. Sirens. Dash into Peneus' stream! EARTHQUAKE. Sirens. Foaming back, return the billows, Come, ye joyful guests and noble, Horror sways the scene around. Seismos (knocking and grumbling in the depth). One more push with strength, one more good lift with the shoulders! then shall we arrive above, where all must yield to us. Sphinxes. What unpleasant tremblance; what a hateful awful tempest; what a waving; what a shaking; what a swinging to and fro, striving; what an unendurable vexation! Yet would we not change our place, if all hell were to break loose. Now uplifts itself a wonderful vault. It is that same long hoary old one, who built the island Delos, who, for the love of a childing one, drove it up out of the wave. He, with striving, squeezing, pressing, with arms extended, and with back bent, like an Atlas, in gesture, raises ground, grass, earth, pebbles, and gravel, and sand, and loam, the silent bed of our shore. Thus tears he a place across the quiet covering of the valley. With the greatest exertion, never tired, a colossal caryatid, he bears a fearful scaffolding of rock, still in the ground up to the waist: but no, it shall proceed no farther, the sphinxes have taken their ground. Seismos. I have accomplished this all alone; people will at last acknowledge it, and if I had not shaken and rolled, how would this world be so beautiful? How would your mountains be standing above in the beautifully pure ethereal blue, had I not pushed them forth for a picturesque delightful appearance? When, in the sight of my highest ancestors, Night and Chaos, I bore myself strongly; and, in the company of the Titans, threw Pelion and Ŏssa like balls. We raged on in youthful heat, until tired, we at last wickedly placed them both like a double cap upon Parnassus, where now a joyful tarrying keeps Apollo with the happy choir of the muses. I even raised high up the throne for Jupiter and his thunderbolts. Thus now, with enormous striving, I pressed up out of the abyss, and loudly eall up new inhabitants to me for new life. Sphinxes. We should have been obliged to confess that that which has been raised up was of great antiquity, had not we ourselves seen it squeeze itself out of the ground. Bushy forests spread upward; rock presses forward upon rock. A sphinx will not care for it; we will not let ourselves be disturbed in our holy seat. Griffins. I see gold in leaves, gold in flitters, trembling through the clefts. Let not any one steal such a treasure from you; up, ye ants, to gather it ! Chorus of Ants. As the gigantic ones Griffins. In with it! Have pushed it forward, Nimbly come in and out! In with it ! Gather the gold in heaps! We will lay our claws on it; they are bolts of the best sort; the greatest treasure is well preserved. Pigmies. We have indeed taken our place, but know not how it has been done. Ask not whence we come, for we are once for all here. Each land is fit for a pleasant seat of life. If a rocky cleft shows itself, the dwarf is at once at hand. Dwarf and dwarfess, quick in industry, each pair exemplary. We know not if it was so in Paradise. Yet here we find it the best, and gratefully thank our stars; for mother earth willingly produces in the east and in the west. Dactyli. If in one night she hath Brought forth the small ones, |