Faust vs. The Academe

Old Peasant: Dear Doctor it is good of you

That you don't spurn us on this day

But find into this swarming throng,

Though a great scholar, still your way. (981-984)

Wagner: One soon grows sick of forest, field, and brook,

And I shall never envy birds their wings.

Far greater are the joys the spirit brings –

From page to page, from book to book. (1102-1105)

With Wagner we see another character in the vein of Pride and Prejudice's Mary: A Great Books major, if you will. However, Goethe seems to put more emphasis on the insufficiency of books to satisy. Faust has read the great books, and understood the great subjects, yet he longs for the light of the moon, and still goes amongst the villagers. Wagner is seen as pretentious and ignorant. The lesson to be learned is simple, but it is still difficult to implement in our own lives. It seemed to be a similar struggle of Descartes: having read all the texts that are supposed to answer the questions of live, and still being unsatisfied. So my question is: Goethe is lampooning the academe, and much of the scholarly world in general. In writing the character of Wagner, is Goethe mocking us?