11. The Saints and Knights are they.
The satire in this passage—of which the Chancellor himself is quite unconscious—needs no explanation Nature and Mind, in all ages, are the bugbears of privileged classes, and the speaker, here, is the representative of both the Saints (the priesthood) and the Knights.
In the Paralipomena there is a fragment of a scene which must have been intended as a substitute for the present. It is sketched in prose:—
BISHOP.
They are pagan views; I have found similar ones in Marcus Aurelius. They are the pagan virtues.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And that means—splendid vices. It is just, for that reason, that the prisoners should one and all be burned.
EMPEROR.
I find it hard: what say you, Bishop?
BISHOP.
Without evading the sentence of our all-wise Church, I am inclined to believe that, at once—
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Pardon! Pagan virtues? I would fain have had them punished; but if it may not be otherwise, we will pardon them.—For the present thou art absolved, and again in thy right.
12. The spheres of Hour and House are in his ken.
The astrologers divided the celestial hemisphere into twelve parts, which were called Houses. In casting a horoscope, it was necessary to have, first, the hour of birth and the latitude and longitude of the birthplace. The location of the sun, moon, planets, and the signs of the zodiac in the different houses, was then ascertained. As each house represented a special human interest or passion, and each planet a special controlling force, the various combinations which thus arose furnished the material out of which the horoscope was constructed.
