Concerning the Stars
XIX
A prominent scholar in Halberstadt, Doctor N. V. W., invited Doctor Faustus to his table. Before supper was ready, Faustus stood for a while gazing out the window at the Heavens, it being Harvest time and the sky filled with stars. Now his host, being also a Doctor of Physic and a good astrologus, had brought Doctor Faustus here for the purpose of learning from him divers transformations in the planets and stars. Therefore he now leaned upon the window beside Doctor Faustus and looked also upon the brilliance of the Heavens, the multitude of stars, some of which were shooting through the sky and falling to the earth. In all humility he made request that Doctor Faustus might tell him the condition and quality of this thing.
Doctor Faustus began on this wise: My most dear Lord and Brother, this condition doth presuppose certain other matters which ye must understand first. The smallest star in Heaven, although when beheld from below it seems to our thinking scarcely so big as our large wax candles, is really larger than a principality. Oh yes, this is certain. I have seen that the length and breadth of the Heavens is many times greater than the surface of the earth. From Heaven, ye cannot even see earth. Many a star is broader than this land, and most are at least as large as this city. -See, over there is one fully as large as the dominion of the Roman Empire. This one right up here is as large as Turkey. And up higher there, where the planets are, ye may find one as big as the world.
A Question on This Topic
XX
I know that to be true, saith this doctor. But my Lord Faustus, how is it with the spirits who vex men and thwart their works (as some people say) by day and by night as well?
Doctor Faustus answered: We ought not to begin with this topic, but with the ordinances and creation of God, it being in accordance with these that the sun doth at break of day turn again toward the world with his radiance (it being also nearer in summer than in winter), and that the spirits then move beneath the cloud sphere where God hath committed them that they may discover all his portents. As the day progresses, they rise upward beneath the cloud sphere, for they are granted no affinity with the sun: the brighter it shines, the higher they do seek to dwell. In this context we might speak of forbidden days, for God hath not granted them light nor allowed them such a property.
But by night, when it is pitch dark, then they are among us, for the brightness of the sun--even though it is not shining here--is in the first Heaven so intense that it is as daylight there (this being why in the blackness of night, even when no stars shine, men still perceive Heaven) .It followeth therefore that the spirits, not being able to endure or to suffer the aspect of the sun, which hath now ascended upwards, must come near unto us on earth and dwell with men, frightening them with nightmares, howling and spooks. Now what will ye wager and bet: when ye go abroad in the dark without a light--if ye dare do such a thing--a great fear will seize you. Furthermore, if ye are alone by night ye are possessed by strange phantasies, although the day bringeth no such things. At night some will start up in their sleep, another thinks there be a spirit near him, or that one be groping out for him, or that another will walk round in the house, or in his sleep, etc. There are many such trials, all because the spirits are at that hour near to vex and plague men with multitudinous delusions.