Goethe is said to have drawn this description partly from Paracelsus, and partly from Welling’s _Opus Mago Cabbalisticum_. The “Lion red” is cinnabar, called a “wooer daring” on account of its action in rushing to an intimate union with other bodies. “The Lily” is a preparation of antimony, which bore the name of Lilium Paracelsi. Red, moreover, is the masculine, and white the feminine colour. The retort containing these substances was first placed in a “tepid bath” and gradually heated, then “tormented by flame unsparing,” the two were driven from one “bridal chamber” to another, that is, their wedded fumes were forced by the heat into an alembic. If then the “Young Queen,” the sublimated compound, appeared with a brilliant colour in the alembic the proper result was obtained and this signified the true medicine. In scene iii. Mephistopheles says:— “My steps by one slight obstacle controlled,— The wizard’s foot, that on your threshold is”. The wizard’s foot or pentagram, was supposed to possess an especial potency against evil spirits, and was often chalked on the door-steps to protect the household from their influence. It consisted of a five-rayed star, thus:— [Illustration] The belief in its efficacy doubtless sprang from the circumstance that it resolves itself into three triangles, and thus a triple symbol of the Trinity. Paracelsus ascribes a similar, though a lesser degree of virtue to the hexagram. Another peculiarity of the pentagram is, that it may be drawn complete from one point, without lifting the pen, and therefore belongs to those _involuntary_ hieroglyphics which we sometimes make in moments of abstraction. In scene xiii. where Margaret plucks a star-flower, and pulls off the leaves one after the other, murmuring— “He loves me—loves me not” we have an illustration of a favourite mode of amorous divination by means of flowers still practised by country maidens. The custom is of great antiquity and is mentioned by Theocritus. The single daisy is a favourite flower for the purpose. The following allusion to the red mouse refers to an ancient superstition concerning one of the many forms of diabolical possession. The “evil one” was supposed to enter the body in the form of a red mouse. “MEPHISTOPHELES. Wherefore forsakest thou the lovely maiden, That in the dance so sweetly sang? “FAUST. Ah! in the midst of it there sprang A red mouse from her mouth—sufficient reason.” In the second part of the work we are introduced to an astrologer who, prompted by Mephistopheles, delivers himself as follows:—