Then take my word for it!
FAUST
I am not sure; the lamentable fact
To me seems otherwise. For I believe
That this vile age of commerce and corruption
Which you describe in very eloquent terms,
Is still, upon the whole, the best that yet
Has graced our earth. I think not more than you
Am I in love with it; but, looking back,
I fail to see a better, though I peer
Into remote arboreal history.
OLDHAM
When I was six, my teachers taught me that.
Why, one would think that you had never heard
Of Greece or Italy!
FAUST
And what were they?
Your Renaissance, despite its few bright gleams,
Lies like a swamp of darkness, soaked in blood
And agony: such tortures as we scarce
Dream of to-day writhe through it; and the stench
Of slaughtered cities and corrupted thrones—
Yes, even the Papal throne—draw me not back
With longing toward it. Rich that time might be
If one were Michael Angelo; but how
If one were peasant, or meek householder,
When the Free Captains ravaged to and fro,
And peoples were the merest pawns of kings
Enslaved by mistresses? The more I look,
The more evaporates that golden haze
Which cloaks the past; the more I doubt if men
Had ever in their breasts more lofty souls
Than those we know. And I am glad to be
A citizen of this material age.
OLDHAM
Congratulations!—tempered with surprise
At finding you, beneath your lion's skin,
So sweet an optimist—whose faith can find
All's for the best; and the best, this great year
Nineteen Thirteen.
FAUST