Among the many inventions which German ingenuity and science have
devised for the effective conduct of this war, and for the elevation
of Germany to supremacy in the world, the most repellent in general
estimation has been the use of fire; but this commends itself with
peculiar zest to Mephistopheles, who here sits on a chair beside the
telephone and calls up the Prussian Palace at Potsdam. He cannot
restrain his admiration and delight at this new invention. It is
entirely to his heart. He sits with one leg rested on the knee of
the other; and you will notice that the foot of this leg, with its
carefully careless drawing, suggests a cloven hoof, while the scanty
hair, by its arrangement, gives the effect of a pair of horns: even in
this figure, an ornament of high-class society, there linger the signs
of the half-bestial figure of Satan. The face is wholly the countenance
of the devil, conceived as the man of society, who has moved amid the
luxury of the most fashionable circles, where his wit and cynicism have
made him popular.
All his surroundings are suited to his character. The chair on which he
sits has goat’s feet, and its back is the bearded head of a goat. The
very telephone has something about it subtly suggestive of the devil. A
gorgeously attired flunkey who stands behind the chair does not attempt
to conceal his delight at the joke; for he is not the conventional
English serving man, who betrays no appreciation of what is said by his
master. He is in perfect sympathy with the devil, for he is himself
a devil. The nature of the devil is expressed more completely in the
footman than in the master. His legs are the legs of a goat, and his
feet are its cloven hoofs; and, whereas on the master’s head the idea
of horns is suggested only by the arrangement of the hair, horns openly
protrude from the bald skull of the serving-man. There is no veneer of
fashion and intellect and wit here: the hateful animalism of the face
is in keeping with the animal limbs.
From these surroundings comes the message to Potsdam. The Prussian
monarchs have always been given to the outward forms of religion in
their messages. For every success which they have announced to their
people they have professed their appreciation of the good conduct of
that German God whom alone they recognise. But Mephistopheles has been
struck with one omission in the series of messages from the Kaiser
at the front announcing the stages of his success. There has been no
expression of thanks to the “dear old God” for the application of fire
as an agent of victory, and he calls up his friend at Potsdam to twit
him with the omission.