_Passage in the First Part of Faust_ (Vol. vii., p. 501.).--MR. W. FRASER
will find good illustrations of the question he has raised in his second
suggestion for the elucidation of this passage in _The Abbot_, chap. 15.
_ad fin._ and _note_.
A few weeks after giving this reference, in answer to a question by EMDEE
(see "N. & Q.," Vol. i., p. 262.; Vol. ii., p. 47.), I sent in English, for
I am not a German scholar, as an additional reply to EMDEE, the very same
passage that MR. FRASER has just forwarded, but it was not inserted,
probably because its fitness as an illustration was not very evident.
My intention in sending that second reply was to show that, as in
_Christabel_ and _The Abbot_, the voluntary and _sustained_ effort required
to introduce the evil spirit was of a physical, so in _Faust_ it was of a
mental character; and I confess that I am much pleased now to find my
opinion supported by the accidental testimony of another correspondent.
It must, however, be allowed that the peculiar wording of the passage under
consideration may make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate
_earnest_ from the _magical_ form in which Faust's command to enter his
room is given. Goethe's intention, probably, was to combine and illustrate
both.
As proofs of the belief in the influence of the number _three_ in
incantation, I may refer to Virg. _Ecl._ viii. 73--78.; to a passage in
Apuleius, which describes the resuscitation of a corpse by Zachlas, the
Egyptian sorcerer;
"Propheta, sic propitiatus, herbulam quampiam ter ob os corporis, et
aliam pectori ejus imponit."--Apul. _Metamorph._, lib. ii. sect. 39.
(Regent's Classics);
and to the rhyming spell that raised the White Lady of Avenel at the Corrie
nan Shian. (See _The Monastery_, chaps. xi. and xvii.)