What to do with the upward desire?

"This is the highest wisdom that I own,

The best that mankind ever knew:

Freedom and life are earned by those alone

Who conquer them each day anew.

...

Then, to the moment I might say:

Abide, you are so fair!

The traces of my earthly day

No aeons can impair.

As I presage a happiness so high,

I now enjoy the highest moment" (Faust's last words, 11573-86).

"The final, wretched, empty moment,

The poor man wishes to hold fast" (Mephisto, 11589-90).

"Who ever strives with all his power,

We are allowed to save" (Angels, 11936-7).

Whereas I think I agreed Brennan's earlier position that Faust directs his upward desire into the world, to attempt to experience everything, something different happens with Faust's last speech (and few preceeding pages). I read these pages to develop a Bacon-esque notion of domination of nature, together with a romantic increase of the will and mind. Faust's last effort is some sort of massive plan masterminded by himself (11504), and his last words seem to give up on the upward desire. He wants to settle with some sort of glorified freedom of will and earthly projects (11580; 11507) by creating something he can call his own (11241), fighting his way to "freedom" (11403). Mephisto, however, mocks his plan: "You cannot do what you desire" (11548). Mephisto also mocks Faust's final giving up, perhaps because it involves embracing a dream of something he couldn't pull off, or perhaps because Mephisto thinks that Faust's last words mask despair. Is Goethe suggesting that the best way to deal with the upward desire is to forget about it? It seems contrary to the rest of the text, but this reduction or annihilation of desire seems to be what Faust is doing when he tells "care" that "I shall refuse to recognize" you (11495).

And yet, Faust might not succeed in ridding himself of the upward desire. The "highest moment" that he professes to be content in the world, he is "presag[ing] a happiness so high" (11585-6). Does Faust value heaven or earth more highly? His last two lines seem flexible; they could go either way. Perhaps this moment is the best not because he is content on earth but because he shrewdly knows that when he says "I'm content!" he can die and be taken to the real happy place. But he has no right to think this, according to his pact with the Devil.

Finally, the angels suggest that striving is best, i.e. living the upward desire in all its intensity. I suppose this is Goethe's opinion. Even when the striving gets one into trouble, it seems to be a pardonable offense. What becomes of the horizontal desire that was present in Faust? Do these ever get balanced? Is Goethe's teaching possibly this: that you use your freedom and willpower on Earth to dominate nature and make manipulative plans, and reduce your "striving" (upward desire) to the brief places where it is in one's "power," looking forward to death and the only real fulfillment of desire?

Or is it perhaps offer a more positive option, a hint of there being "God's presence" (11920, 11901), perhaps even on Earth that might offer some satisfaction to man? True, this Presence is listed in the section in heaven, not on earth; and the watchman who "built fast to gaze into the infinite" (11343-4) observes a great absence (11336-7). But the beginning part includes references to Easter and the prologue of John, both of which offer some solution to the problem of the conflicting desires ("for you he [Christ] is here" (807)). But on the other hand, this might just be a rhetorical device used to point out a great absence, and indeed somewhat ironic (see 2072). Mystic experience is also portrayed rather negatively, as Mephisto is often making fun of Faust for it. So what's left? Surely more than "Eternal Emptiness" (11603)?