Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/281

 Reminiscences of Plato in Goethe's " Faust " 275 "Die Symbolik verwandelt die Erscheinung in Idee, die Idee in ein Bild und so, dass die Idee im Bild immer unendlich wirksam und unerreichbar bleibt und, selbst in alien Sprachen ausgesprochen, doch unaussprechlich bliebe. " It is in the light of the preceding discussion that the inter- preter must approach the symbolism of Faust's soliloquy in the opening scene of the Second Part, a symbolism less sublime and dramatic perhaps than that of the Prologue in Heaven, but of equally great significance for the development of the hero in the second half of the play. Taken in its outward literal meaning the soliloquy presents a description of a magnificent alpine scene in the early dawn of a summer morning and of the subsequent sunrise during which Faust, blinded by the light breaking forth from the recesses of the sky, turns aside to rest his eyes on the color spectacle of a rainbow, caused by the mist of a nearby waterfall. Faust's words, however, are more than mere description. What constitutes their symbolism is revealed in his apostrophe to the rising sun which, at this moment of supreme ecstasy, becomes to him a symbol of the deity, the source of absolute truth which he desires to behold face to face. To comprehend the full significance of Faust's wish we should remember how Goethe, who speaks here through Faust, always venerated and almost deified and worshipped the sun, his "Godess" (Faust I, 1. 1084). " Fragt man mich, " he said to Eckermann a few days before his death, "ob es in meiner Natur sei die Sonne zu verehren, so sage ich: durchaus. Denn sie ist (wie Christus) eine Offenbarung des Hochsten, und zwar die machtigste, die uns Erdenkindern wahrzunehmen vergonnt ist. Ich anbete in Ihr das Licht und die zeugende Kraft Gottes, wodurch allein wir leben, weben und sind. " 12 Another passage in which light is 12 The idea that in the sunlight we have a manifestation of the deity we meet as early as the 13th century, as also in Luther. See Das Passional, Eine Legendensammlung des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (ed. F. K. Kopke) : die gotheit, der sunnenschin, and Luther 5, 417 (Jena 1557): Darumb gibt allein die Sonn den nute (des die Welt voll ist, und nicht bezalen kan) das alle Thier und Mensch sein Nahrung suchen kan, und dazu hitze und werme, das es lebendig bleibt, wechset, zunimpt und nicht vergehet. Summa: Es ist nicht auszuzelen, was Gott alle stund und augenblick durch die Sonn fUr woltat gibt.