"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.
