Verachte nur Vernunft und Wissenschaft,
des Menschen allerhöchste
Kraft,
laß nur in Blend- und Zauberwerken
dich von dem Lügengeist
bestärken,
so hab' ich dich schon unbedingt.
This famous passage from Faust, Part 1, lines 1851-1855, expresses Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's view of human reason and science, and the consequence of their abandonment by proponents of superstition. The excerpt has been translated in a variety of ways. Walter Kaufmann (1961, p. 195) gives it in a rhyming translation as follows:
Have but contempt for reason and for science,
Man's noblest force spurn
with defiance,
Subscribe to magic and illusion,
The Lord of Lies aids your
confusion,
And, pact or no, I hold you tight.
Carlyle F. MacIntyre also prefers a rhyming translation:
Scoff at all knowledge and despise
reason and science, those flowers of
mankind,
Let the father of all lies
with dazzling necromancy make you
blind,
then I'll have you unconditionally.
Stuart Atkins (1994, p.47), in a literal and non-rhyming translation, has it as follows:
Scorn learning, if you must, and reason,
the highest faculty mankind
possesses,
let your fondness for self-deception
involve you deeper still
in magic and illusion,
and its dead certain you'll be mine!
My own translation is completely naturalistic. Goethe, a Spinozan pantheist but no supernaturalist (e.g., see his Prometheus), used the word geist in Faust in a variety of ways, referring not just to spirit or transcendent being, but also to human psyche or psychological condition (i.e., "spirit" in a purely materialist sense). Self-deception is therefore an excellent translation of Lügengeist--"lying spirit"--literally meaning Mephistopheles himself, but figuratively much more. Mephisto is the supreme geist of the drama; he is both the personification and abetter of that "lying spirit" within humans, the "spirit" of self-deception, which is our uncomprehended and unacknowledged ignorance and misunderstanding--the bane of human happiness, self-actualization, and civilization. Faust, for example, depsite his wisdom and learning, is a victim of his own self-deception; this is one of the major themes of the story. Goethe's point, of course, is that in spite of humanity's wisdom and learning (Faust symbolically represents humanity just as Mephisto is a symbol for self-deception), we are and always will be victims of self-deception, especially if we despise or ignore reason and science. It is our nature to deceive ourselves: this must surely be one of the great lessons of science, literature, and history!
I translate the lines as follows:
Despise reason and science,
humankind's greatest powers,
indulge in
illusions and magical practices
that reinforce your self-deception,
and
you will be unconditionally lost.