text:  Dim mystic childish with open mouth and staring eyes the German sees the whole phantasmagoria of the nether world pass before him: keen biting sarcastic--egotistic as a beauty and cold-hearted as Mephistopheles--the Frenchman walks among his figures in a gilded drawing room; probes their spirits breaks their hearts ruins their reputation and seems to have a profound contempt for any reader who is so carried away by his power as to waste a touch of sympathy on the unsubstantial pageants he has clothed for a brief period in flesh and blood