with evident anxiety mid-air on
pendent platforms representing clouds. Altogether this stage-heaven is a
very uncomfortable and depressing kind of place.

But when read in Goethe's poem and regarded as an allegorical vision the
scene has a certain impressive grandeur, and some of the hymns of
adoration and triumph are of exceeding beauty.

This Scene in Heaven opens with the songs of the three great Fathers,
the Pater Ecstaticus, Pater Profundus, and Pater Seraphicus, symbolizing
the three stages of human aspiration, namely ecstasy, contemplation and
seraphic love. The Seraphic Father is of course St. Francis of Assisi.
In heaven, as he did on earth, he sings of the revelation of Eternal
Love.

Angels are now seen ascending and bearing Faust's immortal part, and as
they rise they sing:

The noble spirit now is free
And saved from evil scheming.
Whoe'er aspires unweariedly
Is not beyond redeeming,
And if he feels the grace of Love
That from on high is given
The blessed hosts that wait above
Shall welcome him to heaven.

His yet unawakened soul is greeted by the heavenly choirs and by the
three penitents, the Magdalene, the woman of Samaria and St. Mary of
Egypt.

Then appears 'timidly stealing forth' the glorified form of her who on
earth was called Gretchen. In words that remind one of her former prayer
of remorse and despair in the Cathedral she offers her petition to the
Virgin:

O Mary, hear me!
From realms supernal
Of light eternal
Incline thy countenance upon my bliss!
My loved, my lover,
His trials over
In yonder world, returns to me in this.

The Virgin in her glory appears. She addresses Gretchen:

Come, raise thyself to higher spheres!
For he will follow when he feels thee near.

Gretchen soars up to the higher heaven, and the soul of Faust, now
awakening to consciousness, rises also heavenward following her, while
the chorus of angels sings, in words the beauty and power of which I
dare not mar by translation, telling how all things earthly are but a
vision, and how in heaven the imperfect is made perfect and the
inconceivable wins attainment, and how that which leads us upward and
heavenward is immortal love.

Alles Vergaengliche
Ist nur ein Gleichnis;
Das Unzulaengliche,
Hier wird's Ereignis;
Das Unbeschreibliche,
Hier ist's getan;
Das Ewig-weibliche
Zieht