Faust monologue — Mr. Faust

I have beheld the toil and pain of life, Its emptiness and defeat; I have beheld Hearts, weary with recurrence of the days That held no sweetness, turn in trust to where In high aerial spaces far from earth God in his heaven to all the weary ones Offers a refuge. And in such a mood Was I, too, led toward heaven by one whom now I know my foe--Satan. Toward God I turned, Seeking in Him fulfilment of all hopes That earth had thwarted. Then, in the hour of prayer And revelation, from my deepest breast Flashed lightnings. And I saw the Lord of Hosts High on a mountain, inaccessible To yearning men, who, mastered by a dream, Turn skyward from our dark and struggling earth. I saw the crafty Satan urging on The heavenward-yearning myriads, while the world Lay like a stagnant quagmire, to his sway Wholly abandoned, and man's mortal house Burned in fierce conflagration of corruption. And lo! the lightnings from my heart smote forth Across the heavens; and God dissolved like cloud, And through the cloud peered Satan's sinister face.