Goethe's Faust / translated into English verse by Sir George Lefevre.

  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Goethe's Faust / translated into English verse by Sir George Lefevre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    32/222 (page 20)
    Wagner. If one in chambers wastes his days, Scarce thro’ a glass on holidays, Far off the distant world can spy, Dare he persuasion’s power try? Faust. If it spring not from the soul’s source, ’Tis vain to hunt for it elsewhere; It must burst forth with primeval force, Winning the hearts of all who hear. Sit glue together, cook your broth From fragments off another’s plate, Or puff your paltry blazes forth From out the ashes of your grate; Children and apes will wond’ring stand, If you such approbation seek; But heart will ne’er with heart expand. Unless the heart itself doth speak. Wagner. But in effect the speaker seeks success,— I feel its force, and my own littleness. Faust. Try what an honest man may gain,— Be not a shallow-sounding fool; Reason and sense their cause maintain, With little help of rhetoric’s rule. And if you wish to speak your mind, Are you embarass’d words to find ? Your declamation’s of such dazzling kind, Swelling mere human trifles to a breeze,