This is a very powerful, beautiful and profound work that has a lot of wisdom for anyone willing to read it - especially mages. Goethe wrote from both his insight as a dramatist and playwrite and his experience as an esotericist. His work presents a very different picture of Faust than Marlowe's - it may have even been written as a rebuttal to the idea presented in Marlowe's play that all magic is devilry and Faust got his just deserts. Goethe presents Faust as a good man with pure intentions buckling under the stress of the human condition who becomes the subject of a Job-type trial, with God having full faith in him yet submitting him to the temptations and deceptions of the demon Mephistopheles to prove Faust and the principles he stands for. Simple verses from this work provide so much wisdom and food for thought and meditation. I am reading Stuart Atkin's translations and the language is elegant yet simple. This is a very approachable play and I highly recommend it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/00000042.gif)