And clinging lust the world in its embraces;
The other strongly sweeps, this dust above,
Into the high ancestral spaces.[203]
On this passage has been built up a whole theory of “double natures” with which has been incorporated the dualism of Manicheism, the two natures of Christ and what not besides.[204]
There exists in literature no better expression of human disharmony than this monologue “of the two souls.” It portrays the unbalanced condition so frequent in youth and is a valuable indication of the real youth of Faust.
On his return to his study, Faust again revealed his pessimism.
But ah! I feel, though will thereto be stronger,
Contentment flows from out my breast no longer.
Why must the stream so soon run dry and fail us,