Sink your vain pride of spirit--kneel to Him--
Beseech His mercy ere it is too late!

FAUST

I am no melancholy death-bed scene
To claim your tears, dear Brander. Doubtless days
Of infinite scope lie yet before me, since
No oracle has foretold that I shall die.
But if I die, then go I singing down,
Not praying or repentant, to my grave.
I would smite again the altar! I would smite
The hearts bowed before it; all the world
And the Beyond-world would I rend, having seen
Serpents in their secret places.

BRANDER

Has no breath
Of heavenly love touched this corrosive core
Of hell-fire in you?

FAUST

There is none whose power
Is half so mighty.

BRANDER

Through last night's long hours,
Poor Midge, alone and comfortless, wept out
Her heart, believing all that you had said.
And when I spoke to her, she cried: "Go, go!
I am lost where none can help me; all my dreams
Shudder and perish, even as he has perished;
Yet they shall live again--but he will die!" ...
Thus darkness falls from you upon men's hearts.
I know not if God's deep forgiving love
To such as you is granted....

FAUST

Midge could tell
A truer tale. Her eyes were full of light
And wonder as she heard me.

BRANDER

And she now
Weeps comfortless!

FAUST

And shall I then regret?
Is her soul yours, that you appraise and know?
Life stirs in her: and like the agonies
Of all life's birth, it shakes her: yet one day
She shall rise strong, sister to mighty winds,
A new and holy wonder in her eyes.
Tell her from me that I have not forgotten
My promise in the church that I would come.
But if I come not, let her come to me!--
Let her come with me on my luminous road.

BRANDER

Pity her, and the hosts that with her stand
Shelterless from the blasts of your wild hate.

FAUST

Who loves must hate, who hates must burn with love....
I hate the world; but like the breath of life,
Sustaining me even yet a little while,
Is my surpassing love for its great hopes.
Aye, in the hour when I knew myself alone,
My hate cried: Smite!--because of thy great love
For one irradiant form that is to be.
Now is my hate a lamp of tenderness--
Now I destroy because I love beyond--
I build, I triumph with bright domes that rise
In laughing loveliness into the morning!

BRANDER

I love you and I pity