He took the suffering human race,
He read each wound and weakness clear;
And struck his finger on the place,
And said, "Thou ailest here, and here!"
Matthew Arnold.
Faust
O MASTER of the highest type of mind,
True king and umpire in a worldly sense,
In thee, great Goethe, all there is we find
Of man,—past, future, and the present tense.
Behind our Shakespeare in the gift of speech;
Outstripped by Dante in the power of song;
While he who first did the heroic teach,
For all of thee, his challenge may prolong.
But Man, for good or ill, his scope and goal,
Thou first of all to deepest thoughts gave birth;
Thy head stands highest in the realm of soul,
No feet more firm than thine upon the earth.
To write the Faust an age was used 'tis said;
Who, in less time, will say it can be read?