In the following verse Eugene Lee-Hamilton shows the result of losing
faith in the good:
There is a tale of Faustus--that one day,
Lucretia, the Venetian, then his love,
Had, while he slept, the rashness to remove
His magic ring, when fair as god he lay;
And that a sudden horrible decay
O’erspread his face; a hundred wrinkles wove
Their network on his cheek; while she above
His slumber crouched, and watched him shrivel away.
There is upon Life’s hand a magic ring--
The ring of Faith-in-Good, Life’s gold of gold;
Remove it not, lest all Life’s charm take wing;
Remove it not, lest straightway you behold
Life’s cheek fall in, and every earthly thing
Grow all at once unutterably old.
(1266)