Nearly a quarter of a century passed before this extraordinary poem was followed by its second part. It is not difficult to trace in this continuation, published only after the death of the aged poet, the few scenes which may have been composed contemporarily with or soon after the first part; but that the whole is conceived and executed in a totally different spirit not even the most unconditional admirers of Goethe's genius will deny. There is no doubt that he regarded his "Faust" only as a beginning, and always contemplated a continuation. The _rôle_ of Dr. Faustus, the popular magician, was only half-played. Its most brilliant part, his intercourse with the great of the earth and the heroes of the past, had not yet commenced. But as, in the course of advancing life, the poet's views and ideas changed, the mirror of his soul reflected an altered world to him; and as the second part of "Faust" is hardly less an image of himself than the first, it is not unnatural that it is as different from the latter as the Goethe the septuagenarian was from Goethe the youth. Meanwhile the _literati_ of Germany became exceedingly impatient for the promised second part; and when the master lingered, and did not himself come forth with the solution of the mystery, the disciples attempted to supply him as well as they could. C.C.L. Schoene and J.D. Hoffmann had both the requisite courage for such an undertaking; and the first even sent his production, with perfect _naïveté_, to the great master, as the second part of his own work. C. Rosenkranz and Gustav Pfitzer--two very honorable names--also wrote after-plays. We must confess that we have never felt any desire to see "Faust" continued. It ought to have remained a fragment. Its last scene, perhaps, surpasses, in sublimity and heart-rending power, anything ever written. No light of this world can ever entirely clear up the sacred mystery of the Beyond, but that scene gives us a surety for the salvation of Margaret, and _hope_ for Faust, to every one who has not forgotten the words of the Lord in the second Prologue:-- "Draw down this spirit from its source, And, _canst thou catch him_, to perdition Carry him with thee in thy course; But stand abashed, if thou must needs confess That a good man, though passion blur his vision, Has of the right way still a consciousness."[7]