“JOB” AND FAUST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 September 1924, Page 6

“JOB” AND FAUST.

IHE TWO DRAMAS CONTRASTED.

Tlie Drama and the Life have at \vrLf P roblec U and perhaps A i\iote the late Dr. lairbaim) we shall oetter understand the problem: when :' e i ee }°\ v , tll , e . jr IBaina on the one iiand and the Life on the other presents it. For “Job” has this preeminence; it is not simply the solitary .-Dra-mq. m possession of the Hebrew jcople, but of the entire Semitic race. Dui- literature is rich in tragedies. They aave but this one; and, having it, have aioie than our all. There is no more characteristic drama-of modern life than if ? ne is there suggested, and Hnch the -greatest, most potent mind of this century imitated and attempted ie produce. “Faust” is as characteristic ot our nineteenth century and of its poet as Job was characteristic of the ancient Hebrew world. “Faust” has liis Satan, his Mephistopheles, his temptation, his question, and his fall • •but just compare the two, that von may see the difference of proportion between the old mind and the new • the inspired and the poetic spirit. ’ Faust” has his problem, his greed of knowledge, his sense of .the emptiness of the knowledge lie was greedv for, and did in a measure ga-inf The passion to know drove him on. What he knew made him greedier; the less satisfied. The tempter that ooones to him knows not the harmony of heaven; loves to mock it-; knows not the beauty of the earth; loves to mar it'. He plays upon the man that seeks knowledge through the lower hart of his nature; corrupts' the intellect by the lowest of the senses. And, as he corrupts the man and weans him from the high pursuit of truth, from, the love of knowledge to the lust of flesh, he does it at the expense of chastity, of beauty, untouched by the ruin he makes, glorying in the waste he creates. But in Job, in this older drama, though there be a Satan, he is a Satan that- moves, as it were, on another plane; lie does not corrupt the man through lust —h© threatens the man through disaster, misfortune, suffering. It is not the greed of knowedge that does not satisfy; it is the T'.d God alone that can please, that /ils tne soul of the patriarch. Tlie 'au D larger, the space is more spa•iou.s, the spirit is deeper. If there is Satan, he almost is a rival to God. be God who is there is one who- can conquer ovou Satan by simple discovery of truth, while' the man issues from bis trial a larger, ennobled man, benefiting the life he leads by the ideal Tiat he gave to it.