Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/283

 Reminiscences of Plato in Goethe's "Faust" 277 Erscheinungen wenden, wo das in seiner Einfalt Unbegreifliche sich in tausend mannichfaltigen Erscheinungen bei aller Ver- anderlichkeit unveranderlich offenbart. 16 Not only does Faust, overcome by the sight of the eternal light, turn to the world of phenomena back of him, he stands aghast (betroffen) as the sea of fire with joy and pain envelops him, thus reminding us of the description which Goethe in the Spruche in Prosa gives of the effect of the primal phenomenon: 17 "Das unmittelbare Gewahrwerden der Urphaenomene versetzt uns in eine Art von Angst, wir fuhlen unsere Unzulanglichkeit; nur durch das ewige Spiel der Empiric belebt, erfreuen sie uns. " It is, however, not in these concomitant effects of the primal phenomenon of eternal light but in the fact that to Faust's mind it symbolizes absolute truth where lies the deepest sig- nificance of our scene. Faust's ultimate purpose of gazing into the original fountain of light is revealed in the line: Des Lebens Fackel wollten wir entziinden. To understand the meaning of these words a passage in Goethe' poem "Ilmenau" in which the poet, like Faust, compares his own highest efforts to the supreme feat of Prometheus : Ich brachte reines Feuer vom Altar, Was ich entzundet, ist nicht reine Flamme. With the same Promethean spirit with which Faust, the truthseeker, once challenged the Earthspirit amidst flashing flames, he now dares to penetrate into the very source of light, there to come face to face with the bare, absolute truth, in the sight of which he hopes to find the consummation of life. Uncompromising in his quest, like the philosopher in Schiller's profound verses "Die Poesie des Lebens," who exclaims "ent- blb'sst muss ich die Wahrheit sehen," Faust meets with essen- tially the same result as the abstract thinker. While the latter, having divested life of its veil of rosecolored illusion (Schein), discovers that the world is nothing but a huge grave and is seized by inner petrification, Faust is blinded by the rays of the sun and with aching eyes turns away from the sea of flame. Not, however, in utter despair as after the rebuff of the Earth- spirit, but in the spirit of resignation: from the portals of the 18 Werke XXXIII, 378 (H). 17 No. 789 (H).