The longing for the beauty of this world led him anew to ruin, into doubt and pain, even to Marguerite's tragic death. His mistake was that he followed after both worlds with no check to the driving force of his libido, like a man of violent passion. Faust portrays once more the folk-psychologic conflict of the beginning of the Christian era, but what is noteworthy, in a reversed order.
Against what fearful powers of seduction Christ had to defend himself by means of his hope of the absolute world beyond, may be seen in the example of Alypius in Augustine. If any of us had been living in that period of antiquity, he would have seen clearly that that culture must inevitably collapse because humanity revolted against it. It is well known that even before the spread of Christianity a remarkable expectation of redemption had taken possession of mankind. The following eclogue of Virgil might well be a result of this mood:
- ↑ "The last age of Cumean prophecy has come already!
Over again the great series of the ages commences:
Now too returns the Virgin, return the Saturnian kingdoms;
Now at length a new progeny is sent down from high Heaven.
Only, chaste Lucina, to the boy at his birth be propitious,
In whose time first the age of iron shall discontinue,
And in the whole world a golden age arise: now rules thy Apollo.
Under thy guidance, if any traces of our guilt continue,
Rendered harmless, they shall set the earth free from fear forever,
He shall partake of the life of the gods, and he shall see
Heroes mingled with gods, and he too shall be seen by them.
And he shall rule a peaceful world with his father's virtues."
