esented to Faust as Mephistopheles.

Dr. Faustus and Mephistopheles now began to travel into all lands,
performing wonders to the amazement of all people wherever they
went.

In a wine-cellar at Leipsig, where he and Mephistopheles were
drinking, some gay fellows said,--

"Faust, make grapes grow on a vine on this table."

"Be silent."

There was dead silence.

[Illustration: FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES.]

A vine began to grow from the table, and presently it bore a bunch
of grapes for each of the revellers.

"Take your knives and cut a cluster for each."

There was an explosion. Faust and Mephistopheles were seen flying
out of the window; the _window_ is still shown in Leipsig. The vine
had disappeared, and each of the revellers found himself with his
knife over his nose, about to cut it off, supposing it to be a
cluster of grapes.

The wonders that it is claimed that Dr. Faustus did in the
twenty-four years fill volumes. The Faust marvels have gathered to
themselves the fables of centuries.

The twenty-four years came to an end at last. Faust became gloomy,
and retired to Rimlich, at the inn, among his old friends.

The fatal night came.

"Should you hear noises in my chamber to-night, do not disturb me,"
he said, on parting from his companions to go to his room.

Near midnight a tempest arose,--a wild, strange tempest. The winds
were like demons. It thundered and the air was full of tongues of
lightning.

At midnight there was heard a fearful shriek in Faust's chamber.

The next morning the room was found bespattered with blood, and the
body of Faust was missing. The broken remains of the alchemist were
discovered at last in a back yard on a heap of earth.

This was the village story. It grew as such a dark myth would grow
in the superstitious times in which it started. Goethe created the
character of Marguerite and added it to the fable. The
transformation of Faust from extreme old age to youth was also
added. The opera makers have greatly enlarged even the narrative of
Goethe; in the latest evolution, Mephistopheles is summoned into the
courts of heaven and sent forth to tempt Faust, and Faust is shown
visions of the Greek vale of Tempe and Helen of Troy.

Faust has come to be a synonym of the great problem of Good and
Evil; the contest between virtue and vice, temptation and ruin,
temptation and moral trium