ensue.

Goethe, proceeding on his own track, elevating the human being, in the
most imperfect states of society, by continual efforts at
self-culture, takes as good care of women as of men. His mother, the
bold, gay Frau Aja, with such playful freedom of nature; the wise and
gentle maiden, known in his youth, over whose sickly solitude "the
Holy Ghost brooded as a dove;" his sister, the intellectual woman
_par excellence_; the Duchess Amelia; Lili, who combined the
character of the woman of the world with the lyrical sweetness of the
shepherdess, on whose chaste and noble breast flowers and gems were
equally at home; all these had supplied abundant suggestions to his
mind, as to the wants and the possible excellences of Woman. And from
his poetic soul grew up forms new and more admirable than life has yet
produced, for whom his clear eye marked out paths in the future.

In Faust Margaret represents the redeeming power, which, at present,
upholds Woman, while waiting for a better day. The lovely little girl,
pure in instinct, ignorant in mind, is misled and profaned by man
abusing her confidence.[Footnote: As Faust says, her only fault was a
"kindly delusion,"--"ein guter wahn."] To the Mater _Dolorosa_
she appeals for aid. It is given to the soul, if not against outward
sorrow; and the maiden, enlightened by her sufferings, refusing to
receive temporal salvation by the aid of an evil power, obtains the
eternal in its stead.

In the second part, the intellectual man, after all his manifold
strivings, owes to the interposition of her whom he had betrayed
_his_ salvation. She intercedes, this time, herself a glorified
spirit, with the Mater _Gloriosa_.