THE DISCOVERY OF A WIZARD.
One evening, towards the close of the last century, a traveller alighted at a little inn in the town of Würzburg, Germany. He was tall, dark, and rather sombre-looking. His strange ways soon aroused the curiosity of the towns-people to the highest pitch. He would take long rambles, often being absent from early morning till the time of the evening meal. Certain worthies reported having seen him, wrapt in contemplation, walking by the Rhine, occasionally waving his arms, and paying no attention to the passers-by. One person had seen his light burning far into the morning. But the landlady at first said she had no cause for complaint; the stranger was pleased with everything set before him, and seemed to be a perfect gentleman.
One morning one of the maids of the inn told the landlady that, listening at the stranger's key-hole the night before, she had heard him in earnest conversation with some person or thing, and yet no one had been seen to enter the room. The girl was severely reprimanded for her eavesdropping, but nevertheless the landlady took her post at the door the following evening, and had her story to tell. She had fully made up her mind that the stranger was in league with the evil one. She gave the information to the justices of the town, and sundry officers were speedily assembled about the stranger's door. Near at hand, too, was a goodly gathering of the town gossips. The oppressive silence was suddenly broken by the distinct tones of a dialogue going on in the stranger's room. The officers crowded around the door and heard the following conversation:
"Thou misformed offspring of our uncreated power—thou whom I have so long sought—thou shalt escape me no longer. Answer me! Come, my black barbet, change thy costume. How thy black hair rises on end, thy body swells, and thy red eyes sparkle!... If thou indeed hast submitted thyself to me, show thyself, demon, and speak to thy master."
At this moment a distinct smell of burning brimstone caused the stout burghers to draw their noses away from the door and stifle their coughing as best they could.
A sharp shrill voice was now heard to answer,
"Master, what dost thou desire of thy servant?"
The door was broken down, and the stranger dragged before the magistrate, charged with being in league with the devil. The stranger quietly said:
"I had begun a tragedy, but as my friends disturbed me continually at Weimar, where I live, I came to write here. The hero of my tragedy is a man who invokes the devil, and to whom the devil appears. I confess that I have an unfortunate habit of reading aloud what I compose, as fast as I write it. As to my invoking, perhaps personally, the devil, I am too good a Christian to do that, and you, Mr. Burgomaster, too enlightened to believe it."
The wizard was Goethe, and the tragedy, Faust.
Vincent V. M. Beede.
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