Faustian Echoes

 [Faust:] "So, still I seek the force, the reason governing life's flow, and not just its external show."

[Mephistopheles:] "The governing force? The reason? Some things cannot be known; they are beyond your reach even when shown."
[Faust:] "Why should that be so?"
[Mephistopheles:] "They lie outside the boundaries that words can address; and man can only grasp those thoughts which language can express."
[Faust:] "What? Do you mean that words are greater yet than man?"
[Mephistopheles:] "Indeed they are."
[Faust:] "Then what of longing? Affection, pain or grief? I can't describe these, yet I know they are in my breast. What are they?""
[Mephistopheles:] "Without substance, as mist is."
[Faust:] "In that case man is only air as well!"

Excerped from "Faustian Echoes" by Agalloch