Transcribed from the 1864 W. Kent and Co. edition by DavidPrice,

FAUSTUS:
his
LIFE, DEATH, AND DOOM.

A ROMANCE IN PROSE.

Translated from the German.

      “Speedthee, speed thee,
      Liberty lead thee,
Many this night shall hearken and heed thee.
      Far abroad,
      Demi-god,
Who shall appal thee!
Javal, or devil, or what else we call thee.”

london:
W. KENT AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1864.

p. iilondon:
robson and levey, printers, great newstreet,
fetter lane.

p. iiiTHE TRANSLATOR TO THE PUBLIC.

The publication of the present volume may at first sightappear to require some brief explanation from the Translator,inasmuch as the character of the incidents may justify such anexpectation on the part of the reader.  It is thereforenecessary to state, that although strange scenes of vice andcrime are here exhibited, it is in the hope that they may serveas beacons, to guide the ignorant and unwary from the shoals onwhich they might otherwise be wrecked.

The work, when considered as a whole, is strictly moral. The Catholic priest is not praised for burning hisfellow-creature at an auto-da-fé, and for wallowingin licentiousness; nor is the Calvinist commended for hisunrelenting malignity to all those whose tenets are differentfrom his own, and for crying down the most innocent pleasures andrelaxations which a bountiful and just God has been pleased toplace within the reach of his earthly children.

The tyrant and the oppressor of mankind will here find himselfdepicted in his proper colours.

Neither will the champions of freedom pass the fieryordeal with feet unseared; since a glorious p. ivspecimen ofwhat they all are will be found among the following pages. Ye who with ever-open mouths are constantly clamouring atwhatever is established, whether it be beneficial to the humanrace or injurious, will here find the motives for your conductpointed out and held up to contempt and execration.

But, above all, this work contains the following highly usefuladvice:

Let every one bear his lot with patience, and not seek, at theexpense of his repose, to penetrate into those secrets which thespirit of man, while dressed in the garb of mortality, cannot andmust not unveil.  Let every one bridle those emotions whichthe strange and frequently revolting phenomena of the moral worldmay cause to arise in his bosom, and beware of deciding uponthem; for He alone who has power to check or permit them, canknow how and why they happen, whither they tend, and what will betheir ultimate consequence.  To the mind of man all is dark;he is an enigma to himself: let him live, therefore, in the hopeof once seeing clearly; and happy indeed is he who in this mannerpasses his days.

The present translation, it should be added, has been executedwith as much fidelity to the original as the difference of thetwo languages, and other considerations, would allow.

p.vCONTENTS.