Readers, critics and commentators have found Faust inexhaustible in its new and illuminating riches. For a century and a quarter it has held its place among the world's treasures. The variety and beauty of its plan and the depth of its implications give it the immortality for which its central character bargained with his soul. Faust remains the personification of humanity, tempted and tormented, groping toward the light. Of the fifty translations of the masterpiece, Bayard Taylor's, in the original metres, most completely retains Goethe's intention and spirit.