Strange to say he has for this
very reason frequently been scoffed at by those who call themselves
admirers of Goethe. Dante-Goethe's great problem of salvation is
represented in _Tannhaeuser_ with the utmost lucidity. The essence of it
is that love can positively intervene in the life of a man whose soul is
turned towards it, but who is confused and beset by temptations. His
vacillating heart feels the love which is brooding over him and
ultimately abandons itself to it, to be saved by its unswerving loyalty.
Maybe this is as much a miracle as "grace," but it is also a psychical
fact, because the love which yearns for the sinner awakens and increases
not only his faith in its power to help, but also in his own strength;
darkness and evil dismay him and he turns towards the light. In
_Tannhaeuser_ this spiritual condition, which is of such primary
importance in the last scene of _Faust_, is clearly expressed; his love
for Elizabeth has been strong enough to kill desire kindled in his heart
again and again by Venus; yet again he is on the point of succumbing to
his senses.
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