Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/284

 278 Goebel eternal abysses, to which access is denied him, he turns his gaze, glad to hide himself in the veil of childlike illusion. What has caused Faust's resigned attitude is, in the last analysis, the change in Goethe's opinion concerning the sig- nificance of illusion, the Schein, in which truth, as far as it is accessible to mortal eyes, is encompassed. To express this thought he frequently uses the symbol of the "veil," as in the poem "Zueignung" where the Muse of Poetry consecrates the singer as the divine messenger of truth by presenting him with this emblem: Aus Morgenduft gewebt und Sonnenklarheit. Der Dichtung Schleier aus der Hand der Wahrheit. And again in the distichs addressed to Herder's wife: Jugendlich kommt sie vom Himmel, tritt vor den Priester und Weisen, Unbekleidet die Gottin, still blickt sein Auge zur Erde, Dann ergreift er das Rauchfass und hiillt demiitig verehrend Sie in durchsichtigen Schleier, dass wir sie au dulden ertragen. In a later poem entitled "Regen und Regenbogen" he uses the symbol of the rainbow, the many-hued garment of Iris in whose resplendence of colors he recognizes God and his Law. To the philis tine charge of being no thing but " bunter Trug und leerer Schein" Iris retorts: Doch bin ich hier ins All gestellt Als Zeugnis einer bessern Welt, Fiir Augen die vom Erdenlauf Getrost sich wenden zum Himmel auf Und in der Diinste triibem Neta Erkennen Gott und sein Gesetz. It is not merely accidental, therefore, that at the culmina- tion of his soul-stirring experience the " veil " and the " rainbow " should arise before Faust's mind as images of the deeper insight and of the true life that have just dawned upon him. Hence the wonderful lines in praise of the rainbow, the emblem of human endeavor as well as of the manifestation of the eternal light in the reflected glory of its display of colors: Allein wie herrlich diesem Sturm entspriessend, Wolbt sich des bunten Bogens Wechseldauer, Bald rein gezeichnet, bald in Luft zerfliessend,