Mephistopheles. But, as I said, you must choose a profession. Student. With Law, I must confess, I never was much smitten. Mephistopheles. I should be loath to force your inclination, Myself have some small skill in legislation; For human laws and rights from sire to son, Like an hereditary ill, flow on; From generation dragged to generation, And creeping slow from place to place. Reason is changed to nonsense, good to evil, Art thou a grandson, woe betide thy case! Of Law they prate, most falsely clept the Civil, But for that right, which from our birth we carry, 'Tis not a word found in their Dictionary. Student. Your words have much increased my detestation. O happy he, to whom such guide points out the way! And now, I almost feel an inclination To give Theology the sway. Mephistopheles. I have no wish to lead you astray. As to this science, 'tis so hard to eschew The false way, and to hit upon the true, And so much hidden poison lurks within, That's scarce distinguished from the medicine. Methinks that here 'twere safest done That you should listen but to one, And _jurare in verba magistri_ Is the best maxim to assist thee. Upon the whole, I counsel thee To stick to words as much as may be, For such will still the surest way be Into the temple of certainty. Student. Yet in a word some sense must surely lurk. Mephistopheles. Yes, but one must not go too curiously to work; For, just when our ideas fail us, A well-coined word may best avail us. Words are best weapons in disputing, In system-building and uprooting, To words most men will swear, though mean they ne'er so little, From words one cannot filch a single tittle. Student. Pardon me, if I trespass on your time, Though to make wisdom speak seems scarce a crime; On medicine, too, I am concerned To hear some pregnant word from one so learned. Three years, God knows, is a short time, And we have far to go, and high to climb; A wise man's fingers pointing to the goal Will save full many a groan to many a laboring soul.