Jam nova progenies cælo demittitur alto.
Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum
Desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,
Casta fave Lucina: tuus jam regnat Apollo.
"Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
Inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
Ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit
Permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis,
The turning to asceticism resulting from the general expansion of Christianity brought about a new misfortune to many: monasticism and the life of the anchorite.6
Faust takes the reverse course; for him the ascetic ideal means death. He struggles for freedom and wins life, at the same time giving himself over to the Evil One; but through this he becomes the bringer of death to her whom he loves most, Marguerite. He tears himself away from pain and sacrifices his life in unceasing useful work, through which he saves many lives.7 His double mission as saviour and destroyer has already been hinted in a preliminary manner:
Wagner:
- With what a feeling, thou great man, must thou
- Receive the people's honest veneration!
Faust:
- Thus we, our hellish boluses compounding,
- Among these vales and hills surrounding,
- Worse than the pestilence, have passed.
- Thousands were done to death from poison of my giving;
- And I must hear, by all the living,
- The shameless murderers praised at last!
