the elemental or original material of all that is corporeal ; and also the Doric Mothers in Grecian Mythology, the nurses of Zeus. The Tripod brings to his mind the mercury, sulphur, and sal of the alchemists, and the tripod of the Delphic Priestess. The Key is to him a symbol of Speculation, and of Natural Philosophy. The odd dialect of Paracelsus seems certainly to have supplied part of the language: Dieses mysterium magnum ist eine Mutter gewesen aller Elemente und in gleichen auch eine Grossmutter aller Sterne, Bäume, und Creaturen des Fleisches. Denn wie von Mütter Kinder geboren werden, so aus dem magno mysterio geboren sind alle Geschöpfe.'

To say the truth, I am weary of these interpretations, which require a more skilful interpreter than I am; for while I think I see the thought, it is often one that refuses to clothe itself with English words. However, I must add one more to these oracular expositions. Heinrich Krüger says of the Mothers, the conception is a metaphysical and logical one: to understand it we must go to the depths of metaphysic-must go back to the commencement of the process of dialectic thought. The Mothers are dialectic beings: the thought of the 'elements' in a cosmological sense is dialectic; the existence of the world is a development is a metamorphose-is the dialectic of the natural. The Key is Hegel's Speculative Method, 'In thy nothing I hope to find all.' In the Hegelian Logic we commence with the reines Seyn,' i.e. with Nichts.' The Lebensbilder' round the head of the Mothers are Abbilder' of the concrete world, are 'Gattensbegriffe' universals from which

singulars are shaped.

The humbler interpretation which refers all this strange language to the necessity which compels a dramatist who would produce an exhibition of Paris and Helena to study Greek antiquities, has found favour with many, who shrink from these metaphysical rambles.

Page 87.

The Mothers.

They are the Mothers.

This episode of the Mothers is not found in the old legend of Faustus, unless Faustus's being in the legend taken to the regions of the other world, and shown such parts of it as Mephistopheles was most at home in, may be supposed to have suggested this expedition.

Page 88.

Was I not doubly contradicted then?

Ich habe mich durchaus überzeugt, dass Liebste, und die sind unsere Überzeugungen, muss jeder im tiefsten Ernst bei sich bewahren. Jeder weiss nur für sich was er weiss, und das muss er geheim halten; wie er es ausspricht sogleich ist der Widerspruch rege, und wie er sich in Streit einlässt, kommt er in sich selbst aus dem Gleichgewicht, und sein Bestes wird wo nicht vernichtet, doch gestört.'-Wanderjahre, Book II. chap. xiii.

Page 89.

Here take this key.

Proclus (on the Cratylus of Plato) informs us that initiators into the Mysteries, in order that Sensibles might sympathise with the gods, employed a shuttle as a signature of separating, a cup of vivific, a sceptre of ruling, and a key of guardian power.-TAYLOR: Hymns of Orpheus, p. 52.

In describing a picture of Titian's at St. Peter's, Goethe mentions an old man standing near a book; the key in his hand suggests his familiar acquaintance with its contents.'Autobiograhpy &c., vol. ii. Morrison's Translation.

Page 92.

The first to venture on such bold design.

Hartung says that Steffens's account of Spinosa reminds him of the passage in 'Faust' :- Spinosa war entschlossen, Alles hinter sich zu lassen, was ihn an das sinnliche Leben fesselte, um im sicheren, unwandelbaren Centrum des Daseins Ruhe, Frieden, und Freiheit zu finden: und dieser kühne Entschluss war ihm nicht ein Schulthema, sondern eine innere Aufgabe des Lebens selber, nicht bloss eine Lehre, sondern ein Kampf des Lebens, eine reinigende Gesinnung, ja in seinem Sinne, inmitten der strengsten Form, ein fortdauernder Reinigungsprocess. . . . Ich fand, wie er, die Schattenbilder der Erscheinung verscheuchend, nur in der durchsichtigen Klarheit der Einheit Gottes sicheres Erkennen und zugleich Ruhe des Daseins zu finden strebte.'-Hartung quotes a passage, in which Steffens speaks of his own studies in language yet more like that of the passage in Faust.'-Hartung's Faust.

He quotes Steffens's Was ich erlebte,' Band ii. p. 282.

Page 96.

It came from one of the old wizard pyres.

This is a mischievous suggestion. The lady who consults him, and receives from him the cinder, is herself guilty of witchcraft in the very act.

Page 98.

Begin the drama!

'tis the sire's command.

A cloud hides the stage. Nothing at first is seen but the astrologer, who describes the successive changes of the cloud, formed from the vapours of the tripod, before the spirits appear. The whole temple is filled with music as the spirits advance. In the old Greek mysteries, music welcomed

the initiate.

The ladies admire Paris, but show some jealousy of each other. The ritters can allow him but little beauty. When Helen appears, she is the subject of severe comment from the ladies. The criticism is familiar, as she has all the faults found with the Venus de Medicis. The head is too small; the foot is clumsy. To the Weimar public, or rather to the privileged persons of the Weimar court circle, there was an element of interest which we cannot feel: the six or seven ladies and gentlemen who take part in the Riemer. dialogue represented well-known persons..

Page 99.

By magic raised a temple heré behold.

I transcribe Mr. Birch's note on this passage, as it may interest some readers, without, however, intending thereby to express any opinion on its correctness.

Mr. Birch translates the closing line of this speech-

Since only two that godhead temple bore.'

Atlas is represented in statuary as bearing, in conformity with mythology, the celestial sphere. His two legs are, therefore, the columns alluded to.'

Page 103.

What fragrance mixes with the incense-wreaths.

Les Stoïciens voyaient dans Cérès le souffle de la terre, dans Proserpine le souffle des fruits.'-Gigniaut's Creuzer, t. iii. p. 640.

Page 110.

What dost know, Faustus! Faustus, &c.

Was thust du, Fauste! Fauste! Mit Gewalt

Fasst er sie an, &c.

[Damonia.] 'non vi adducuntur sed sponte veniunt; nec

locus aliquis passionibus aut in sacerdote aut in Deo invocato." -Jamblichus, iii. 18.

Aye, now he has it, aye, &c.

'I feel myself surrounded, nay, besieged by all the spirits I ever conjured up.'—Characteristics of Goethe, ii. 311.

Page 112.

SECOND ACT: Chorus of Insects.

It is well known that Mrs. Garrick was most devotedly attached to her "dear Davy," as she called him. When the great tragedian died, his wife would not allow a single article to be removed from its place; and as soon as the coffin was borne from the house, the room in which he died was locked up, and for thirty years no one was permitted to enter it. At the end of that time, Mrs. More informed me, she happened to be visiting her old friend Mrs. Garrick, whom she described as a little bowed-down old woman, who went about leaning on a long gold-headed cane, dressed in deep widow's mourning, and always talking of her "dear Davy." Some circumstances occurred which rendered it necessary that she should quit her residence, and Mrs. More was present with her when the longclosed room was opened. She said that when the door was thrown back on its hinges and the window-shutters unbarred, the room was actually darkened by millions of moths, which arose from the mouldered bed and the hangings of the room; every square inch of the bed-furniture was eaten through and through, and, on the air being admitted, dropped to pieces. The solid articles of furniture alone remained uninjured; but the mouldy smell of everything around was so unendurable that the place had to be fumigated before it was habitable, even for a short time.'-Pen and Ink Sketches of Poets, Preachers, and Politicians. London: Bogue, 1864.