It is not their part to bring forward the theo-
retical proof from human reason, or to regulate the mode in
which this proof shall be adduced by the second class of
Scholars; but the practical proof, in their own lives, and
that in the highest degree, devolves peculiarly upon them.
retical proof from human reason, or to regulate the mode in
which this proof shall be adduced by the second class of
Scholars; but the practical proof, in their own lives, and
that in the highest degree, devolves peculiarly upon them.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
handle.
net/2027/wu.
89090378035 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
201
Learned Culture to train subalterns, and no one should study
with a view to the office of a subaltern; for then it may
happen that he shall not attain even to that rank. Only be-
cause it was certain that a majority of Students would fall
short of their proposed destination, have subordinate occu-
pations been set apart for them. The subaltern receives the
direction of his activity from a foreign intellect; he must
exercise judgment in the choice of his means, but in respect
of the end only the most punctual obedience. The acknow-
ledged sacredness of the peculiar vocation of the Scholar
restrains every honest 'Educated Man' who is not conscious
of the possession of the Idea, from undertaking it, and con-
strains him to content himself with a subordinate office:--
this and nothing more have we to say of him, for his busi-
ness is no true Scholar-employment. We leave him to the
sure guidance of that general Integrity and faithfulness to
Duty which already during his studies have become the
innermost principle of his life.
Such an one, by renunciation of the peculiar calling of the
Scholar, shows that he looks upon it as sacred; he also, who
with honesty and a good conscience accepts this calling in
any of its forms, shows by his actions and by his whole life
that he looks upon it as sacred. How this recognition of
the Holy specially manifests itself in each particular depart-
ment of the Scholar's vocation, as these have now been set
forth,--of this we shall speak in succession in the subse-
quent lectures. To-day we shall confine ourselves to show-
ing how it manifests and reveals itself in general--i. e. to
that form of its manifestation which is common to all the
departments of the Scholar's vocation.
The true-minded Scholar will not admit of any life and
activity within him except the immediate life and activity
of the Divine Idea. This unchangeable principle pervades
and determines all his inward thoughts;--it also pervades
and determines all his outward actions. With respect to
the first,--as he suffers no emotion within him that is not
the direct emotion and life of the Divine Idea which has
taken possession of him, so is his whole life accompanied
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? 202 THE NATURE OP THE SCHOLAR.
by the indestructible consciousness that it is at one with
the Divine Life,--that in him and by him God's work shall
be achieved and His Will accomplished; he therefore re-
poses on that Will with unspeakable love, and with the
immovable conviction that it is right and good. Thus does
his thought become holy, enlightened, and religious; bless-
edness arises within him,--and in it, changeless joy, peace,
and power,--as these may in like manner be acquired and
enjoyed by the unlearned, and even the lowliest among
men, through true devotion to God and honest performance
of duty viewed as the" Will of God. Hence these are no ex-
clusive property of the Scholar, but are noticed here only
with the view that he too may become a partaker in this
religious aspect of life, and become so by the way which we
have pointed out.
This principle pervades the conduct of the True Scholar.
He has no other purpose in action but to express his Idea,
and embody the truth which he recognises in word or work.
No personal regard, either for himself or others, can impel
him to do that which is not demanded by this purpose,--no
such regard can cause him to neglect anything which is re-
quired by this purpose. His person, and all personality in
the world, have long since vanished from before him, and
entirely disappeared in his effort after the realization of the
Idea. The Idea alone impels him; where it does not move
him, he rests and remains inactive. He does nothing with
precipitation, hurried forward by disquietude and restless-
ness; these may well be symptoms of unfolding power, but
they are never to be found in conjunction with true, deve-
loped, mature and manly strength. Until the Idea stands
before him clear and breathing, finished and perfect even to
word or deed, nothing moves him to action; the Idea rules
him entirely, governs all his powers, and exhausts all his
life and effort. To its manifestation he devotes his whole
personal being without reserve or intermission, for he looks
upon his life as only the instrument of the Idea.
Would that I could make myself intelligible to you,--
would that I could persuade you,--touching this one point
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR
203
which we now approach on every side! --Whatever man
may do, so long as he does it from himself as a finite being,
by himself, and through his own counsel,--it is vain, and
will sink to nothing. Only when a foreign power takes
possession of him, and urges him forward, and lives within
him in room of his own energy, does true and real existence
first take up its abode in his life. This foreign power is
ever the power of God. To look up to it for counsel,--
implicitly to follow its guidance,--is the only true wisdom in
every employment of human life, and therefore most of all
in the highest occupation of which man can partake,--the
vocation of the True Scholar.
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? 204
LECTURE VIII.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
-
He in whom Learned Culture has actually accomplished its
end,--the attainment and possession of the Idea,--shows, by
the manner in which he regards and practises the calling of
the Scholar, that his vocation is to him, before all other
things, honourable and holy. The Idea, in its relation to
the progressive improvement of the world, may be expressed
--either, first, in actual life and conduct; or, secondly, in
ideas only. It is expressed in the first mode by those who,
as the highest free leaders of men, originally guide and
order their affairs:--their relations with each other, or the
legal condition,-and their relation to passive nature, or the
dominion of reason over the irrational world;--who pos-
sess the right and calling, either by themselves or in con-
cert with others, to think, judge, and resolve independently
concerning the actual arrangement of these relations. We
have to speak to-day of the worthy conception and practice
of this vocation. As we have already taken precautions
against misunderstanding by a strict definition of our mean-
ing, we shall, for brevity's sake, term those who practise this
calling-- Rulers.
The business of the Ruler has been described in our early
lectures,--and so definitely, that no further analysis is ne-
cessary for our present purpose. We have only to show
what capacities and talents must be possessed by the true
Ruler,--by what estimate of his calling, and what mode of
practising it, he proves that he looks upon it as sacred.
He who undertakes to guide his Age and order its consti-
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? THE XATUBK OF THE SCHOLAK.
205
tution, must be exalted above it,--must not merely possess
an historical knowledge of it, but must thoroughly under-
stand and comprehend it. The Ruler possesses, in the first
place, a living and comprehensive Idea of that relation of
human life which he undertakes to superintend;--he knows
what is its essential nature, meaning, and purpose. Further,
he perfectly understands the changing and adventitious
forms which it may assume in reality without prejudice to
its essential nature. He knows the particular form which it
has assumed at the present time, and through what new
forms it must be led nearer and nearer to its unattainable
Ideal. No part of its present form is, in his view, necessary
and unchangeable, but is only an incidental point in a pro-
gression by which it is constantly rising towards higher per-
fection. He knows the Whole of which that form is a part,
and of which every improvement of it must still remain a
part; and he never loses sight of this Whole in contemplat-
ing the improvement of individual parts. This knowledge
gives to his inventive faculty the means of accomplishing
the improvements he may devise; the same knowledge se-
cures him from the mistake of disorganizing the Whole by
supposed improvements of individual parts. His eye always
combines the part with the Whole, and the idea of the lat-
ter with its actual manifestation in reality.
He who can not look upon human affairs with this un-
fettered vision is never a Ruler, whatever station he may
occupy,--nor can he ever become one. Even his mode of
thought, his faith in the unchangeableness of the present,
places him in a state of subordination, makes him an in-
strument of him who created that arrangement of things in
the permanence of which he believes. This frequently
happens; and thus all times have not actual Rulers. Great
spirits of the fore-world often rule over succeeding Ages
long after their death, by means of men who in themselves
are nothing, but are only continuations and prolongations of
other lives. Very often too this is no misfortune; but those
who desire to penetrate human life with deeper insight
ought to know that these are not true Rulers, and that
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? 206
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
under them the Age does not move forward, but rests,--
perhaps to gain strength for new creations.
The Ruler, I said, thoroughly comprehends that rela-
tion of human life which he undertakes to superintend; he
knows the essential character and idea of all its component
parts, and he looks upon it as the absolute will of God with
man. It is not to him a means to the attainment of any
/ 1end whatever, nor in particular to the production of human
happiness; but he looks upon it as in itself an end,--as the
absolute mode, order, and form in which the human race
should live.
Thus, in the first place, is his occupation ennobled and
dignified in proportion to the nobility of his mode of
thought. To direct his whole thoughts and efforts,--to
devote his whole life to the accomplishment of such a
purpose as this:--that mortal men may fall out as little as
possible with each other in the short span of time during
which they have to live together, that they may have some-
what to eat and drink, and wherewithal to clothe them-
selves, until they make way for another generation, which
again shall eat, and drink, and clothe itself,--this business
would appear to a noble mind a vocation most unworthy of
its nature. The Ruler, after our idea of him, is secure
against this view of his calling. Through the idea of
human life by which he is animated, the Race among
whom he practises his vocation is likewise ennobled. He
who has constantly to keep in view the infirmities and
weaknesses of men, who has to watch their daily course,
and who has frequent opportunities of observing their
general meanness and corruption, and who sees nothing
more than these, cannot be much disposed to honour or to
love them; and indeed those powerful spirits who have
filled the most prominent places among men, but have not
been penetrated by true religious feeling, have at no time
been known to bestow much honour or respect upon their
Race. The Ruler, after our idea of him, in his estimate of
mankind looks beyond that which they are in the actual
world, to that which they are in the Divine Idea--to that
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? OP THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
207
which therefore they may be, ought to be, and one day
assuredly will be; and he is thus filled with reverence for a Race called to so high a destiny. Love is not required of
him; nay, if you think deeper of it, it is even a kind of
arrogance for a Ruler to presume to love the whole Human
Race, or even his own nation,--to assure it of his love, and,
as it were, make it dependent on his kindness. A Ruler
such as we have described is free from such presumption:
his reverence for humanity, as the image and protected
child of God, does more than overpower it.
He looks upon his vocation as the Divine Will with
regard to the Human Race; he looks upon its practice as
the Divine Will with regard to himself--the present indi-
vidual; he recognises in himself one of the first and imme-
diate servants of God,--one of the material organs through
which God enters into communion with reality. Not that
this thought excites him to vain self-exaltation;--he who
is penetrated by the Idea has in it lost his personality, and
he has no longer remaining any feeling of self, except that
of employing his personal existence truly and conscienti-
ously in his high vocation. He knows that it is not of
himself that he has this intuition of the Idea and the power
which accompanies it, but that he has received them; he
knows that he can add nothing to what has been given him
except its honest and conscientious use; he knows that the
humblest of men can do this in the same degree as he him-
self can do it, and that the latter has the same value in the
sight of God which he himself should have in the same sta-
tion. All outward rank and elevation above other men
which have been given not to his person but to his dignity,
and which are but conditions of the possession of this dig-
nity,--these will not dazzle him who seeks to deserve high-
er and more substantial distinctions. In a word:--he looks
upon his calling, not as a friendly service which he renders
to the world, but as his absolute personal duty and obliga-
tion, by the performance of which alone he obtains, main-
tains, and repays his personal existence, and without which
he would pass away into nothing.
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? 208
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
This view of his calling as the Divine Will in him, sup-
ports and justifies him before himself in an important diffi-
culty, which must very often occur to him who conscien-
tiously follows this vocation, and makes his step firm, deter-
mined, and unwavering. In no circumstances indeed should
the individual, considered strictly as an individual, be sacri-
ficed to the Whole; however unimportant the individual,
however great the Whole and the interest of the Whole
which is at stake. But the parts of the Whole must often
be placed in peril on account of the Whole;--peril by which,
and not by the Ruler, its victims are selected from among
individual men. How could a Ruler who recognises no
other destiny for the Human Race but happiness here be-
low, and looks upon himself only as the kind guardian of
that happiness,--how could he answer before his conscience
for the danger and possible sacrifice of any individual vic-
tim, since that individual must have had as good a claim to
happiness as any other? How could such a Ruler, for ex-
ample, answer before his conscience for determining upon a
just war,--a war undertaken for the support of the national
independence threatened either immediately or prospective-
ly ? --for the victims who should fall in such a war, and for
the manifold evils thereby inflicted on humanity? The
Ruler who sees a Divine Purpose in his vocation stands firm
and immovable before all these doubts, overtaken by no un-
manly weakness. Is the war just ? --then it is Will of God
that there should be war; and it is God's will with him that
he resolve upon it . Whatever may fall a sacrifice to it, it is
still the Divine Will that chooses the sacrifice. God has the
most perfect right over all human life and human hapiness,
for both have proceeded from him and both return to him;
and in his creation nothing can be lost. --So also in the
business of legislation. There must be a general law, and
this law must be administered absolutely without exception.
The universality of the law cannot be given up for the sake
of one individual who thinks his case so peculiar that he is
aggrieved by the strict enforcement of the law, even al-
though his allegation may have some truth in it. Let him
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
20! )
bring the small injustice which is done to himself as an of-
fering to the general support of justice among men.
The Divine Idea, ruling in the Ruler, and through him
moulding the condition of his age and nation, now becomes
his sole and peculiar Life ;--which indeed is the case with
the Idea under any form in which it may enter the soul of
man;--he cannot have, nor permit, nor endure, any Life
within him except this Life. He comprehends this Life
with clear consciousness as the immediate life and energy
of God within him, as the fulfilment of the Divine Will in
and by his person. It is unnecessary to repeat the proofs
which we have already adduced in general, that through
this consciousness his thought is sanctified, transfigured,
and bathed in the Divinity. Every man needs Religion,
--every man may acquire it,--and with it every man
may obtain Blessedness;--most of all, as we have seen
above, does the Ruler need it. Unless he clothe his
calling in the light of Religion, he can never pursue it with
a good conscience. Without this, nothing remains for him
but either thoughtlessness and a mere mechanical fulfilment
of his vocation, without giving account to himself of its rea-
sonableness or justice; or if not thoughtlessness,--then
want of principle, obduracy, insensibility, hatred and con-
tempt of the Human Race.
The Idea, thus moulded on the Divine Life, lives in his
life instead of his own personality. It alone moves him,--
nothing else in its room. His personality has long since dis-
appeared in the Idea,--how then can any motive now arise
from it 1 He lives in honour, transfused in God to work His
Eternal Will,--how then can fame, the judgment of mortal
and perishable men, have any significance for him 1 Devoted
to the Idea with his whole being,--how can he ever seek to
pamper or to spare himself? His person,--all personality,
--has disappeared in the Divine Idea of universal order.
That order is his ever-present thought; only through it does
he conceive of individual men: hence neither friend nor foe,
neither favourite nor adversary, finds a plaoe before him;
Ea
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? 210
THK NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
but all alike, and be himself with them, are lost for ever
in the thought of the independence and equality of alL
The Idea alone moves him,--and where it does not move
him, there he has no life, but remains quiescent and inactive.
He will never rouse himself to energy and labour merely
that something may come to pass, or that he may gain a re-
putation for activity; for his desire is not merely that some-
thing may come to pass, but that the will of the Idea may
be accomplished. Until it speaks, he too is silent;--he has
no voice but for it . He does not respect old things because
they are old;--but as little does he desire novelty for its own
sake. He looks for what is better and more perfect than the
present; until this rises before him clearly and distinctly,--
so long as change would lead only to difference, not im-
provement,--he remains inactive, and concedes to the old
the privilege it derives from ancient possession.
In this way does the Idea possess and pervade him with-
out intermission or reserve, and there remains nothing
either of his person or his life that does not burn a perpe-
tual offering before its altar. And thus is he the most di-
rect manifestation of God in the world.
That there is a God, is made evident by a very little
serious reflection upon the outward world. We must end
at last by resting all existence which demands an extrinsic
foundation, upon a Being the fountain of whose life is with-
iu Himself; by allying the fugitive phenomena which colour
the stream of time with ever-changing hues to an eter-
nal and unchanging essence. But in the life of Divine Men
the Godhead is manifest in the flesh, reveals itself to im-
mediate vision, and is perceptible even to outward sense.
In their life the unchangeableness of God manifests itself in
the firmness and intrepidity of human will which no power
can force from its destined path. In it the essential light
of the Divinity manifests itself in human comprehension of
all finite things in the One which endures for ever. In it
the energy of God reveals itself, not in directly surrounding
the Human Race with happiness--which is not its object--
but in ordering, elevating, and ennobling it . A Godlike
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
211
life is the most decisive proof which man can give of the
being of a God.
It is the business of all mankind to see that the convic-
tion of the Divine Existence, without which the very essence
of their own being passes away into nothing, shall never
perish and disappear from among them;--above all, it is
the business of the Rulers as the highest disposers of hu-
man affairs.
It is not their part to bring forward the theo-
retical proof from human reason, or to regulate the mode in
which this proof shall be adduced by the second class of
Scholars; but the practical proof, in their own lives, and
that in the highest degree, devolves peculiarly upon them.
If firm and intrepid will,--if clear and all-comprehending
vision,--if a spirit of order and nobility speak to us in their
conduct, then in their works do we see God face to face, and
need no other proof:--God is, we will say,--for they are,
and He in them.
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? 212
LECTURE IX.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
Besides those possessors of the Idea, whose business it is,
by guiding and ordering the affairs of men, to introduce the
Idea immediately into life, there is yet another class--those,
namely, who are peculiarly and by preeminence called Scho-
lars, who manifest the Idea directly in spiritual conceptions,
and whose calling it is to maintain among men the convic-
tion that there is, in truth, a Divine Idea accessible to hu-
man thought, to raise this Idea unceasingly to greater clear-
ness and precision, and thus to transmit it from generation
to generation fresh and radiant in ever-renewed youth.
This latter Vocation again divides itself into two very
different callings, according to the primary object contem-
plated by them, and the mode of its attainment. Either
the minds of men are to be trained and cultivated to a
capacity for receiving the Idea; or the Idea itself is to be
produced in a definite form for those who are already pre-
pared for its reception. The first calling has particular men
for its primary and immediate objects;--in it the only use
which is made of the Idea is as a means of training and cul-
tivating these men so that they may become capable of
comprehending the Idea by their own independent effort.
It follows that, in this calling, regard must be had solely to
the men who are to be cultivated, the degree of their culti-
vation, and their capacity of being cultivated; and that an
influence is valuable here only in so far as it may be ef-
ficiently applied to those individuals upon whom it is di-
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? THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
213
recteA The second has for its object the Idea itself, and the
fashioning of the Idea into distinct conceptions, and has no
reference whatever to any subjective disposition or capacity
of men; its business is prosecuted with no view to any but
those who are capable of comprehending the Idea in the
form thus given to it; the work itself settles and deter-
mines who shall receive it, and it is only addressed to those
who can comprehend it. The first object will be best and
most fitly attained by the verbal discourses of the Teacher;
the second by literary writings.
Both these callings belong to the vocation of the Scho-
lar in its proper and highest sense, and not to the subordi-
nate Scholar-occupations, which devolve upon a man only
because he has not attained the proper end of his studies.
He who prosecutes his studies conscientiously, and so ac-
quires a conviction of the importance of the vocation of the
Scholar, but yet does not feel within himself a clear con-
sciousness of the capacity to fulfil it, shows that he recog-
nises its sacred character by not undertaking it;--he who
does undertake it, manifests the same conviction by exercis-
ing it worthily. In the next lecture we shall speak of the
true Author; to-day we shall discourse of the upright
Teacher of future Scholars.
The Teachers and Educators of those who devote them-
selves to the occupation of the Scholar may be divided into
two classes:--they are Teachers either in the lower Schools
of learning, or in the higher or Universities. Not without
deliberation do I class the Teachers in the lower Schools
among true and not subaltern Scholars, and therefore de-
mand of them that they attain possession of the Idea, and
be penetrated by it,--if not with perfect light, yet with liv-
ing warmth. He who is destined to study will, even while
a boy, surround himself invisibly with the Idea and with its
sanctity, and bathe his whole being in its influence. No-
thing from which any ideal result may one day unfold it-
self will be pursued by him as a piece of vulgar handicraft,
or used as a means to the attainment of a partial object.
Happily the objects which are peculiar to these Schools are
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? 214
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
of such a nature as to elevate him who pursues them tho-
roughly and conscientiously, and through him those who
are committed to his care, above vulgar modes of thought;
--did but the outward circumstances of the Teacher answer
to his dignity, and his independence and station in society
correspond with his most honourable calling. The objects of
school-instruction, I said. In a fundamental study of Lan-
guage, pursued, as it must be, amid old modes of speech, far
removed from our habits of thought, a deeper insight into
ideas is gained; and from the works of the Ancients, by
means of which this study is pursued, an excellent and en-
nobling spirit speaks to the youthful mind. For this reason,
the Teacher in these lower Schools should be a partaker of
the Idea, because it is his task imperceptibly to familiarize
the youth with the high and noble before he is able to dis-
tinguish these from the vulgar,--to accustom him to these,
and to estrange him from the low and ignoble. Thus
guarded in his early years, and thus prepared for higher
progress, the youth enters the University. Here, for the
first time, can he be clearly taught, and led to comprehend
and acknowledge--that which I have endeavoured to utter
to you in these lectures,--that our whole race has its only
true existence in the Divine Thought,--that its only worth
consists in its harmony with this Divine Thought,--and that
the class of Scholars has therein an existence only to the
end that they may comprehend this Divine Thought and im-
print it on the world. At the University the Student first
receives a clear idea of the nature and dignity of that voca-
tion to which his life has been devoted beforehand. He
must obtain that clear idea here :--the Teacher in the lower
Schools may look forward to another education for his pu-
pils, and he counts upon that; but the Academic Teacher
has no higher instruction to calculate upon, except that
which the Progressive Scholar may bestow upon himself,--
to the capacity for which, however, the Teacher must train
him so that he may have it in his power to become his own
instructor;--once released from the lecture-room he is com-
mitted to himself and to the world. Herein, therefore, lies
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
215
the characteristic difference between the lower and the
higher Schools,--that at the lower School the youth has
only a presentiment of his vocation, while at the University
he clearly comprehends and recognises it;--and from this
distinction the specific duties of the Teacher in the respec-
tive institutions may easily be deduced.
The Academic Teacher, of whom chiefly we have to speak,
ought to train the Student who has already been made ac-
quainted with the nature and dignity of his calling, to the
capacity of receiving the Idea, and the power of developing
it from his own consciousness, and giving it a form peculiar
to himself:--he should do all this if he can. But in every
case, and unconditionally, he must fill the Student with res-
pect and veneration for the proper calling of the Scholar.
The first object of all study,--to lay hold of the Idea from a
new and peculiar point of view, is by no means to be given
up either by the Student himself, or by the Teacher on his
behalf; but it is nevertheless possible that it may not be
attained, and both must reconcile themselves beforehand to
this possibility. Should this first object of study remain
unaccomplished, the Student may still become a useful,
worthy, and upright man. But the second object of study,
--that he acquire a reverence for the Idea during his efforts
to attain it,--that on account of this reverence he forbear
from undertaking anything for which he does not know
himself to be qualified,--that he consecrate himself to the
service of the Idea, at least by permanently cherishing this
reverence for what is unattainable by him, and contributing
to the extent of his ability to maintain such a reverence
among men;--this object is never to be relinquished; for
were it not attained, then, through the very fact of his hav-
ing studied, would his dignity as a man be lost, and he
would sink the deeper in consequence of the height to
which he ought to have risen. The attainment by the Stu-
dent of the first object of study is, to the Academic Teacher,
a conditional duty,--conditioned by the possibility of its ful-
filment. The attainment of the second he must ever look
upon and acknowledge as his unconditional duty, which he
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? 21G
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
must never deliberately relinquish. It may indeed happen
that he cannot accomplish even this, but he must never
admit a doubt of its ultimate attainment.
What, then, can the Academic Teacher do for the attain-
ment of this second object? I answer, he can do nothing
for it exclusively; he can do nothing else than that which
he must do for the first and higher object by itself. In pur-
suing and attaining the second, he is advancing to the at-
tainment of the first. Would he inculcate upon his pupils
reverence for Knowledge ? --they will not believe him if he
do not himself exhibit in his whole life the deep reverence
which he recommends to them. Would he thoroughly im-
press them with this reverence ? --let him teach it, not in
words only, but in deeds; let him be himself the living ex-
ample, the abiding illustration, of the principles which he
desires them to accept as the guides of their life. He has
described to them the Nature of the Scholar's vocation as a
manifestation of the Divine Idea,--he has told them that
this Idea entirely pervades the True Scholar, and establishes
its peculiar life, in place of his own, within him ;--perhaps
he has even told them by what precise way he himself, for
his part, has to fulfil the purposes of Knowledge, and in
what his peculiar calling, as an Academic Teacher, consists.
Let him show himself before them in his proper and essen-
tial character,--as devoted to his vocation,--as a perpetual
offering before its altar,--and they will learn to comprehend
that Knowledge is a sacred thing.
The duties of the Academic Teacher are not indeed
changed by this aspect of his vocation; for, as we have said,
he can do nothing for the attainment of the latter object
but what he must have done for the former and higher, by
itself;--but his own view of his calling becomes thereby
more confirmed and immovable. Although it should not
immediately become visible and evident to him that he has
attained his peculiar object,--of leading those who are en-
trusted to his care from mere passive dependence to spon-
taneous activity, from the dead letter to the living spirit;--
yet will he not suppose that he has laboured in vain. To
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER . 217
Academic Study must succeed that peculiar and essential
study to which the first is but a preparative. He can never
know that he has not roused a powerful determination to
this study,--that he has not thrown into the soul some
sparks which, though now unapparent, will blaze forth at the
proper time. Even in the worst possible event,--that he
has not accomplished even so much as this,--his activity
has still another object; and if he has done something for it,
his labour has not been utterly lost. If he has, at least, up-
held, and in some breasts quickened or renewed, the faith
that there is something worthy of the reverence of men; that
by industry and faithfulness men may elevate themselves to
the contemplation of this object of reverence, and in this
contemplation become strong and blessed; if some have only
had their occupation made holier in their eyes, so that they
may approach it with somewhat less levity than before; if
he can venture to hope that some have left his hall, if not
precisely with more light, yet with more modesty than they
entered it;--then he has not laboured wholly in vain.
We said, that the Academic Teacher becomes an example
of reverence for Knowledge, by showing himself to be
thoroughly and entirely penetrated by and devoted to his
calling,--an instrument consecrated to its service.
What does this calling demand? Is the Academic
Teacher to prepare men for the reception of the Idea? --then
he must himself know the Idea, have attained it, and be
possessed by it; otherwise how could he recognise in others
the capacity for receiving that to which he himself is a
stranger? He must first have cultivated this capacity in
himself, and have a distinct and clear consciousness of pos-
sessing it; for it can be recognised only by him who truly
and immediately possesses it, and the art of acquiring it can
be understood only by him who has personally acquired it.
He can cultivate this capacity in men only by means of the
Idea itself, by presenting it to them, and accustoming them
to it, in all its varied forms and applications. The nature of
the Idea is peculiar to itself, and differs wholly from all that
is merely mechanical in knowledge;--only by its reception
Fa
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? 218
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
can man cultivate the power of receiving it. By the me-
chanical communication of knowledge man may become
versed in such mechanism, but can never be raised to the
Idea. It is an obligation from which the Academic Teacher
cannot be released, that he shall have comprehended the
Idea with perfect clearness as Idea; that, in the Idea, he
shall have also comprehended the particular branch of
Knowledge which he cultivates, and through the Idea have
understood the true nature, meaning, and purpose of this
branch of Knowledge;--and even his particular science is on
no account to be taught merely for its own sake, but be-
cause it is a form or aspect of the one Idea; and in order
that this form may be tested by the Student, and he be
tested by it. If, at the conclusion of his university training
it were found that even then the Student could not be made
to comprehend the true nature of study, then study would
altogether disappear from the world ;--there would be study
no longer, but the number of handicrafts would be in-
creased. He who is not conscious of a living and clear com-
prehension of the Idea, and is at the same time an upright
and honourable man, will forbear to assume the vocation of
the Academic Teacher. He will thus show his respect for
that vocation the nature of which he must have learned in
the course of his studies.
The vocation of the Academic Teacher requires him to
communicate the Idea,--not as the Author does, abstractly,
and in the one perfect conception under which it presents
itself to his own mind,--but he must mould, express, and
clothe it in an infinite variety of forms, so that he may bring
it home, under some one or other of those adventitious ves-
tures, to those by whose present state of culture he must be
guided in the exercise of his calling. He must thus possess
the Idea, not as a mere abstraction, but in great vitality,
power, and flexibility. Above all, he must possess that
which we have already described as the creative or artist-
talent of the Scholar; namely, a perfect readiness and capa-
city to recognise, under any circumstances, the first germ of
the Idea as it begins to unfold itself;--in each individual
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
219
case to discover the most suitable means of aiding it to the
attainment of perfect life, and in all cases to associate it
with a kindred form. The Author may possess only one
form for his Idea,--if that form be perfect, he has fulfilled
his duty;--the Academic Teacher must possess an infinite
multiplicity of forms,--it is not his business to discover the
most perfect form, but to find that which is most suitable to
particular circumstances. A good Academic Teacher must
be capable of being also an excellent Author if he choose;
but it does not follow that, on the other hand, a good
Author should also be a good Academic Teacher. Yet this
skill and versatility exist in different degrees, and he is not
to be entirely excluded from the Academic calling who does
not possess them in the highest degree.
From this skill which is required of the Academic
Teacher in the embodiment of the Idea, there arises another
demand upon him,--this, namely, that his mode of commu-
nication shall be always new, and bear upon it the mark of
fresh and present life. Only living and present thought can
enter other minds and quicken other thought: a dead, worn-
out form, let it have been ever so living at a former time,
must be called back to life by the power of others as well as
its own;--the Author has a right to require this from his
readers, but the Academic Teacher, who in this matter is
not an Author, has no right to demand it.
The upright and conscientious man, as surely as he ac-
cepts this calling, and so long as he continues to practise it,
gives himself up entirely to its fulfilment; willing, thinking,
desiring nothing else than to be that which, according to
his own conviction, he ought to be; and thus he shows
openly his reverence for Knowledge.
For Knowledge, I say, as such, and because it is Know-
ledge,--for Knowledge in the abstract,--as the Divine Idea
one and homogeneous through all the different forms and
modes in which it is revealed. It is quite possible that a
Scholar who has devoted his life to a particular department
of knowledge may entertain a prepossession in favour of
that department and be apt to esteem it above all others,--
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? 220 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
either because he has accustomed himself to it, or because
he thinks that his more distinguished calling may reflect
some of its lustre upon himself. Whatever ability such an
one may bring to the cultivation of his own department, he
will never present to the unprejudiced spectator the picture
of one who reveres Knowledge for its own sake, and will
never persuade the acute observer that he does so, whilst
he shows less respect for other departments of knowledge
which are as essential as his own. It will only thereby be-
come evident that he has never conceived of Knowledge as
one perfect whole,--that he does not think of his own de-
partment as a portion of this whole,--hence that he does not
love his own department as Knowledge, but only as a handi-
craft; which love for a handicraft may indeed be praise-
worthy enough elsewhere, but in the domain of Knowledge
excludes him entirely from any right to the name of a Scho-
lar. He who, although labouring in a limited province, has
become a partaker of Knowledge as a whole, and accepts his
own calling as but a part thereof, may perhaps have little
even historical acquaintance with other provinces, but he
has a general conception of the nature of all others, and will
constantly exhibit an equal reverence for all.
Let this love of his vocation and of Knowledge be the
sole guide of his life, visible to all men;--let him be moved
by nothing else; regarding no personal interest either of
himself or of others. Here as elsewhere, I shall say nothing
of the common and vulgar desires which may not enter the
circle of him who has approached and handled the sacred
things of Knowledge. I shall not suppose it possible, for
instance, that a Priest of Knowledge, who seeks to conse-
crate other Priests to her service, should refrain from saying
to them something which they do not hear willingly, in
order that they may continue to hear him willingly. Yet I
may perhaps be permitted to mention one error not quite
so ignoble and vulgar, and to hold up its opposite to your
view. In every word uttered by the Academic Teacher in
the exercise of his calling, let it be Knowledge that speaks,
--let it be his longings to extend her dominions,--let it be
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
221
his deep love for his hearers, not as his hearers, but as the
future ministers of Knowledge:--Knowledge, and these liv-
ing desires to extend her dominion, let these speak, not the
Teacher. An effort to speak for the mere sake of speaking,
--to speak finely for the sake of fine speaking, and that
others may know of it,--the disease of word-making,--
sounding words, in which nevertheless no idea is audible,--
is consistent with no man's dignity, and least of all with
that of the Academic Teacher, who represents the dignity of
Knowledge to future generations.
Let him resign himself entirely to this love of his voca-
tion and of Knowledge. The peculiar nature of his occupa-
tion consists in this,--that Knowledge, and especially that
side of Knowledge from which he conceives of the whole,
shall continually burst forth from him in new and fairer
forms. Let this fresh spiritual youth never grow old within
him; let no form become fixed and rigid; let each sunrise
bring him new love for his vocation, new joy in its exercise,
and wider views of its significance. The Divine Idea is
fixed and determined in his mind,--all its individual parts
are likewise determined. The particular form of its expres-
sion for a particular Age may also be determined; but the
living movement of its communication is infinite as the
growth of the Human Race. Let no one continue in this
calling in whom the mode of this communication, although
it may have been the most perfect of his Age, begins to grow
old and formal,--none in whom the fountain of youth does
not still flow on with unimpaired vigour. Let him faithfully
trust himself to its current so long as it will bear him for-
ward: when it leaves him, then let him be content to retire
from this ever-shifting scene of onward being;--let him
separate the dead from the living.
It was a necessary part of the plan which I marked out
to you, to treat of the dignity of the Academic Teacher. I
hope that in doing so I have exhibited the same strictness
with which I have spoken of the other subjects which have
fallen under our notice,--without allowing myself to be se-
duced into any lenity towards it by the consideration that I
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? 222
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
myself practise the calling of which I have spoken, and that
I have practised it even in speaking of it. Whence I have
derived this firmness,--on what feeling it rests,--you may
inquire at another time; it is sufficient for you now to un-
derstand clearly, that Truth, in every possible application
of it, still remains true.
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? 228
LECTURE X.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS AUTHOR.
To complete our survey of the vocation of the Scholar, we
have to-day only to consider that department of it which
belongs to the Author.
I have hitherto contented myself with clearly setting
forth the True Idea of the special subjects of our inquiry,
without turning aside to cast a single glance at the actual
state of things in the present age. It is almost impossible
to proceed in this way with the subject which I am to dis-
cuss to-day. The Idea of the Author is almost unknown in
our age, and something most unworthy usurps its name.
? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
201
Learned Culture to train subalterns, and no one should study
with a view to the office of a subaltern; for then it may
happen that he shall not attain even to that rank. Only be-
cause it was certain that a majority of Students would fall
short of their proposed destination, have subordinate occu-
pations been set apart for them. The subaltern receives the
direction of his activity from a foreign intellect; he must
exercise judgment in the choice of his means, but in respect
of the end only the most punctual obedience. The acknow-
ledged sacredness of the peculiar vocation of the Scholar
restrains every honest 'Educated Man' who is not conscious
of the possession of the Idea, from undertaking it, and con-
strains him to content himself with a subordinate office:--
this and nothing more have we to say of him, for his busi-
ness is no true Scholar-employment. We leave him to the
sure guidance of that general Integrity and faithfulness to
Duty which already during his studies have become the
innermost principle of his life.
Such an one, by renunciation of the peculiar calling of the
Scholar, shows that he looks upon it as sacred; he also, who
with honesty and a good conscience accepts this calling in
any of its forms, shows by his actions and by his whole life
that he looks upon it as sacred. How this recognition of
the Holy specially manifests itself in each particular depart-
ment of the Scholar's vocation, as these have now been set
forth,--of this we shall speak in succession in the subse-
quent lectures. To-day we shall confine ourselves to show-
ing how it manifests and reveals itself in general--i. e. to
that form of its manifestation which is common to all the
departments of the Scholar's vocation.
The true-minded Scholar will not admit of any life and
activity within him except the immediate life and activity
of the Divine Idea. This unchangeable principle pervades
and determines all his inward thoughts;--it also pervades
and determines all his outward actions. With respect to
the first,--as he suffers no emotion within him that is not
the direct emotion and life of the Divine Idea which has
taken possession of him, so is his whole life accompanied
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? 202 THE NATURE OP THE SCHOLAR.
by the indestructible consciousness that it is at one with
the Divine Life,--that in him and by him God's work shall
be achieved and His Will accomplished; he therefore re-
poses on that Will with unspeakable love, and with the
immovable conviction that it is right and good. Thus does
his thought become holy, enlightened, and religious; bless-
edness arises within him,--and in it, changeless joy, peace,
and power,--as these may in like manner be acquired and
enjoyed by the unlearned, and even the lowliest among
men, through true devotion to God and honest performance
of duty viewed as the" Will of God. Hence these are no ex-
clusive property of the Scholar, but are noticed here only
with the view that he too may become a partaker in this
religious aspect of life, and become so by the way which we
have pointed out.
This principle pervades the conduct of the True Scholar.
He has no other purpose in action but to express his Idea,
and embody the truth which he recognises in word or work.
No personal regard, either for himself or others, can impel
him to do that which is not demanded by this purpose,--no
such regard can cause him to neglect anything which is re-
quired by this purpose. His person, and all personality in
the world, have long since vanished from before him, and
entirely disappeared in his effort after the realization of the
Idea. The Idea alone impels him; where it does not move
him, he rests and remains inactive. He does nothing with
precipitation, hurried forward by disquietude and restless-
ness; these may well be symptoms of unfolding power, but
they are never to be found in conjunction with true, deve-
loped, mature and manly strength. Until the Idea stands
before him clear and breathing, finished and perfect even to
word or deed, nothing moves him to action; the Idea rules
him entirely, governs all his powers, and exhausts all his
life and effort. To its manifestation he devotes his whole
personal being without reserve or intermission, for he looks
upon his life as only the instrument of the Idea.
Would that I could make myself intelligible to you,--
would that I could persuade you,--touching this one point
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR
203
which we now approach on every side! --Whatever man
may do, so long as he does it from himself as a finite being,
by himself, and through his own counsel,--it is vain, and
will sink to nothing. Only when a foreign power takes
possession of him, and urges him forward, and lives within
him in room of his own energy, does true and real existence
first take up its abode in his life. This foreign power is
ever the power of God. To look up to it for counsel,--
implicitly to follow its guidance,--is the only true wisdom in
every employment of human life, and therefore most of all
in the highest occupation of which man can partake,--the
vocation of the True Scholar.
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? 204
LECTURE VIII.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
-
He in whom Learned Culture has actually accomplished its
end,--the attainment and possession of the Idea,--shows, by
the manner in which he regards and practises the calling of
the Scholar, that his vocation is to him, before all other
things, honourable and holy. The Idea, in its relation to
the progressive improvement of the world, may be expressed
--either, first, in actual life and conduct; or, secondly, in
ideas only. It is expressed in the first mode by those who,
as the highest free leaders of men, originally guide and
order their affairs:--their relations with each other, or the
legal condition,-and their relation to passive nature, or the
dominion of reason over the irrational world;--who pos-
sess the right and calling, either by themselves or in con-
cert with others, to think, judge, and resolve independently
concerning the actual arrangement of these relations. We
have to speak to-day of the worthy conception and practice
of this vocation. As we have already taken precautions
against misunderstanding by a strict definition of our mean-
ing, we shall, for brevity's sake, term those who practise this
calling-- Rulers.
The business of the Ruler has been described in our early
lectures,--and so definitely, that no further analysis is ne-
cessary for our present purpose. We have only to show
what capacities and talents must be possessed by the true
Ruler,--by what estimate of his calling, and what mode of
practising it, he proves that he looks upon it as sacred.
He who undertakes to guide his Age and order its consti-
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? THE XATUBK OF THE SCHOLAK.
205
tution, must be exalted above it,--must not merely possess
an historical knowledge of it, but must thoroughly under-
stand and comprehend it. The Ruler possesses, in the first
place, a living and comprehensive Idea of that relation of
human life which he undertakes to superintend;--he knows
what is its essential nature, meaning, and purpose. Further,
he perfectly understands the changing and adventitious
forms which it may assume in reality without prejudice to
its essential nature. He knows the particular form which it
has assumed at the present time, and through what new
forms it must be led nearer and nearer to its unattainable
Ideal. No part of its present form is, in his view, necessary
and unchangeable, but is only an incidental point in a pro-
gression by which it is constantly rising towards higher per-
fection. He knows the Whole of which that form is a part,
and of which every improvement of it must still remain a
part; and he never loses sight of this Whole in contemplat-
ing the improvement of individual parts. This knowledge
gives to his inventive faculty the means of accomplishing
the improvements he may devise; the same knowledge se-
cures him from the mistake of disorganizing the Whole by
supposed improvements of individual parts. His eye always
combines the part with the Whole, and the idea of the lat-
ter with its actual manifestation in reality.
He who can not look upon human affairs with this un-
fettered vision is never a Ruler, whatever station he may
occupy,--nor can he ever become one. Even his mode of
thought, his faith in the unchangeableness of the present,
places him in a state of subordination, makes him an in-
strument of him who created that arrangement of things in
the permanence of which he believes. This frequently
happens; and thus all times have not actual Rulers. Great
spirits of the fore-world often rule over succeeding Ages
long after their death, by means of men who in themselves
are nothing, but are only continuations and prolongations of
other lives. Very often too this is no misfortune; but those
who desire to penetrate human life with deeper insight
ought to know that these are not true Rulers, and that
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? 206
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
under them the Age does not move forward, but rests,--
perhaps to gain strength for new creations.
The Ruler, I said, thoroughly comprehends that rela-
tion of human life which he undertakes to superintend; he
knows the essential character and idea of all its component
parts, and he looks upon it as the absolute will of God with
man. It is not to him a means to the attainment of any
/ 1end whatever, nor in particular to the production of human
happiness; but he looks upon it as in itself an end,--as the
absolute mode, order, and form in which the human race
should live.
Thus, in the first place, is his occupation ennobled and
dignified in proportion to the nobility of his mode of
thought. To direct his whole thoughts and efforts,--to
devote his whole life to the accomplishment of such a
purpose as this:--that mortal men may fall out as little as
possible with each other in the short span of time during
which they have to live together, that they may have some-
what to eat and drink, and wherewithal to clothe them-
selves, until they make way for another generation, which
again shall eat, and drink, and clothe itself,--this business
would appear to a noble mind a vocation most unworthy of
its nature. The Ruler, after our idea of him, is secure
against this view of his calling. Through the idea of
human life by which he is animated, the Race among
whom he practises his vocation is likewise ennobled. He
who has constantly to keep in view the infirmities and
weaknesses of men, who has to watch their daily course,
and who has frequent opportunities of observing their
general meanness and corruption, and who sees nothing
more than these, cannot be much disposed to honour or to
love them; and indeed those powerful spirits who have
filled the most prominent places among men, but have not
been penetrated by true religious feeling, have at no time
been known to bestow much honour or respect upon their
Race. The Ruler, after our idea of him, in his estimate of
mankind looks beyond that which they are in the actual
world, to that which they are in the Divine Idea--to that
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? OP THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
207
which therefore they may be, ought to be, and one day
assuredly will be; and he is thus filled with reverence for a Race called to so high a destiny. Love is not required of
him; nay, if you think deeper of it, it is even a kind of
arrogance for a Ruler to presume to love the whole Human
Race, or even his own nation,--to assure it of his love, and,
as it were, make it dependent on his kindness. A Ruler
such as we have described is free from such presumption:
his reverence for humanity, as the image and protected
child of God, does more than overpower it.
He looks upon his vocation as the Divine Will with
regard to the Human Race; he looks upon its practice as
the Divine Will with regard to himself--the present indi-
vidual; he recognises in himself one of the first and imme-
diate servants of God,--one of the material organs through
which God enters into communion with reality. Not that
this thought excites him to vain self-exaltation;--he who
is penetrated by the Idea has in it lost his personality, and
he has no longer remaining any feeling of self, except that
of employing his personal existence truly and conscienti-
ously in his high vocation. He knows that it is not of
himself that he has this intuition of the Idea and the power
which accompanies it, but that he has received them; he
knows that he can add nothing to what has been given him
except its honest and conscientious use; he knows that the
humblest of men can do this in the same degree as he him-
self can do it, and that the latter has the same value in the
sight of God which he himself should have in the same sta-
tion. All outward rank and elevation above other men
which have been given not to his person but to his dignity,
and which are but conditions of the possession of this dig-
nity,--these will not dazzle him who seeks to deserve high-
er and more substantial distinctions. In a word:--he looks
upon his calling, not as a friendly service which he renders
to the world, but as his absolute personal duty and obliga-
tion, by the performance of which alone he obtains, main-
tains, and repays his personal existence, and without which
he would pass away into nothing.
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? 208
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
This view of his calling as the Divine Will in him, sup-
ports and justifies him before himself in an important diffi-
culty, which must very often occur to him who conscien-
tiously follows this vocation, and makes his step firm, deter-
mined, and unwavering. In no circumstances indeed should
the individual, considered strictly as an individual, be sacri-
ficed to the Whole; however unimportant the individual,
however great the Whole and the interest of the Whole
which is at stake. But the parts of the Whole must often
be placed in peril on account of the Whole;--peril by which,
and not by the Ruler, its victims are selected from among
individual men. How could a Ruler who recognises no
other destiny for the Human Race but happiness here be-
low, and looks upon himself only as the kind guardian of
that happiness,--how could he answer before his conscience
for the danger and possible sacrifice of any individual vic-
tim, since that individual must have had as good a claim to
happiness as any other? How could such a Ruler, for ex-
ample, answer before his conscience for determining upon a
just war,--a war undertaken for the support of the national
independence threatened either immediately or prospective-
ly ? --for the victims who should fall in such a war, and for
the manifold evils thereby inflicted on humanity? The
Ruler who sees a Divine Purpose in his vocation stands firm
and immovable before all these doubts, overtaken by no un-
manly weakness. Is the war just ? --then it is Will of God
that there should be war; and it is God's will with him that
he resolve upon it . Whatever may fall a sacrifice to it, it is
still the Divine Will that chooses the sacrifice. God has the
most perfect right over all human life and human hapiness,
for both have proceeded from him and both return to him;
and in his creation nothing can be lost. --So also in the
business of legislation. There must be a general law, and
this law must be administered absolutely without exception.
The universality of the law cannot be given up for the sake
of one individual who thinks his case so peculiar that he is
aggrieved by the strict enforcement of the law, even al-
though his allegation may have some truth in it. Let him
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
20! )
bring the small injustice which is done to himself as an of-
fering to the general support of justice among men.
The Divine Idea, ruling in the Ruler, and through him
moulding the condition of his age and nation, now becomes
his sole and peculiar Life ;--which indeed is the case with
the Idea under any form in which it may enter the soul of
man;--he cannot have, nor permit, nor endure, any Life
within him except this Life. He comprehends this Life
with clear consciousness as the immediate life and energy
of God within him, as the fulfilment of the Divine Will in
and by his person. It is unnecessary to repeat the proofs
which we have already adduced in general, that through
this consciousness his thought is sanctified, transfigured,
and bathed in the Divinity. Every man needs Religion,
--every man may acquire it,--and with it every man
may obtain Blessedness;--most of all, as we have seen
above, does the Ruler need it. Unless he clothe his
calling in the light of Religion, he can never pursue it with
a good conscience. Without this, nothing remains for him
but either thoughtlessness and a mere mechanical fulfilment
of his vocation, without giving account to himself of its rea-
sonableness or justice; or if not thoughtlessness,--then
want of principle, obduracy, insensibility, hatred and con-
tempt of the Human Race.
The Idea, thus moulded on the Divine Life, lives in his
life instead of his own personality. It alone moves him,--
nothing else in its room. His personality has long since dis-
appeared in the Idea,--how then can any motive now arise
from it 1 He lives in honour, transfused in God to work His
Eternal Will,--how then can fame, the judgment of mortal
and perishable men, have any significance for him 1 Devoted
to the Idea with his whole being,--how can he ever seek to
pamper or to spare himself? His person,--all personality,
--has disappeared in the Divine Idea of universal order.
That order is his ever-present thought; only through it does
he conceive of individual men: hence neither friend nor foe,
neither favourite nor adversary, finds a plaoe before him;
Ea
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? 210
THK NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
but all alike, and be himself with them, are lost for ever
in the thought of the independence and equality of alL
The Idea alone moves him,--and where it does not move
him, there he has no life, but remains quiescent and inactive.
He will never rouse himself to energy and labour merely
that something may come to pass, or that he may gain a re-
putation for activity; for his desire is not merely that some-
thing may come to pass, but that the will of the Idea may
be accomplished. Until it speaks, he too is silent;--he has
no voice but for it . He does not respect old things because
they are old;--but as little does he desire novelty for its own
sake. He looks for what is better and more perfect than the
present; until this rises before him clearly and distinctly,--
so long as change would lead only to difference, not im-
provement,--he remains inactive, and concedes to the old
the privilege it derives from ancient possession.
In this way does the Idea possess and pervade him with-
out intermission or reserve, and there remains nothing
either of his person or his life that does not burn a perpe-
tual offering before its altar. And thus is he the most di-
rect manifestation of God in the world.
That there is a God, is made evident by a very little
serious reflection upon the outward world. We must end
at last by resting all existence which demands an extrinsic
foundation, upon a Being the fountain of whose life is with-
iu Himself; by allying the fugitive phenomena which colour
the stream of time with ever-changing hues to an eter-
nal and unchanging essence. But in the life of Divine Men
the Godhead is manifest in the flesh, reveals itself to im-
mediate vision, and is perceptible even to outward sense.
In their life the unchangeableness of God manifests itself in
the firmness and intrepidity of human will which no power
can force from its destined path. In it the essential light
of the Divinity manifests itself in human comprehension of
all finite things in the One which endures for ever. In it
the energy of God reveals itself, not in directly surrounding
the Human Race with happiness--which is not its object--
but in ordering, elevating, and ennobling it . A Godlike
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS RULER.
211
life is the most decisive proof which man can give of the
being of a God.
It is the business of all mankind to see that the convic-
tion of the Divine Existence, without which the very essence
of their own being passes away into nothing, shall never
perish and disappear from among them;--above all, it is
the business of the Rulers as the highest disposers of hu-
man affairs.
It is not their part to bring forward the theo-
retical proof from human reason, or to regulate the mode in
which this proof shall be adduced by the second class of
Scholars; but the practical proof, in their own lives, and
that in the highest degree, devolves peculiarly upon them.
If firm and intrepid will,--if clear and all-comprehending
vision,--if a spirit of order and nobility speak to us in their
conduct, then in their works do we see God face to face, and
need no other proof:--God is, we will say,--for they are,
and He in them.
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? 212
LECTURE IX.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
Besides those possessors of the Idea, whose business it is,
by guiding and ordering the affairs of men, to introduce the
Idea immediately into life, there is yet another class--those,
namely, who are peculiarly and by preeminence called Scho-
lars, who manifest the Idea directly in spiritual conceptions,
and whose calling it is to maintain among men the convic-
tion that there is, in truth, a Divine Idea accessible to hu-
man thought, to raise this Idea unceasingly to greater clear-
ness and precision, and thus to transmit it from generation
to generation fresh and radiant in ever-renewed youth.
This latter Vocation again divides itself into two very
different callings, according to the primary object contem-
plated by them, and the mode of its attainment. Either
the minds of men are to be trained and cultivated to a
capacity for receiving the Idea; or the Idea itself is to be
produced in a definite form for those who are already pre-
pared for its reception. The first calling has particular men
for its primary and immediate objects;--in it the only use
which is made of the Idea is as a means of training and cul-
tivating these men so that they may become capable of
comprehending the Idea by their own independent effort.
It follows that, in this calling, regard must be had solely to
the men who are to be cultivated, the degree of their culti-
vation, and their capacity of being cultivated; and that an
influence is valuable here only in so far as it may be ef-
ficiently applied to those individuals upon whom it is di-
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? THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
213
recteA The second has for its object the Idea itself, and the
fashioning of the Idea into distinct conceptions, and has no
reference whatever to any subjective disposition or capacity
of men; its business is prosecuted with no view to any but
those who are capable of comprehending the Idea in the
form thus given to it; the work itself settles and deter-
mines who shall receive it, and it is only addressed to those
who can comprehend it. The first object will be best and
most fitly attained by the verbal discourses of the Teacher;
the second by literary writings.
Both these callings belong to the vocation of the Scho-
lar in its proper and highest sense, and not to the subordi-
nate Scholar-occupations, which devolve upon a man only
because he has not attained the proper end of his studies.
He who prosecutes his studies conscientiously, and so ac-
quires a conviction of the importance of the vocation of the
Scholar, but yet does not feel within himself a clear con-
sciousness of the capacity to fulfil it, shows that he recog-
nises its sacred character by not undertaking it;--he who
does undertake it, manifests the same conviction by exercis-
ing it worthily. In the next lecture we shall speak of the
true Author; to-day we shall discourse of the upright
Teacher of future Scholars.
The Teachers and Educators of those who devote them-
selves to the occupation of the Scholar may be divided into
two classes:--they are Teachers either in the lower Schools
of learning, or in the higher or Universities. Not without
deliberation do I class the Teachers in the lower Schools
among true and not subaltern Scholars, and therefore de-
mand of them that they attain possession of the Idea, and
be penetrated by it,--if not with perfect light, yet with liv-
ing warmth. He who is destined to study will, even while
a boy, surround himself invisibly with the Idea and with its
sanctity, and bathe his whole being in its influence. No-
thing from which any ideal result may one day unfold it-
self will be pursued by him as a piece of vulgar handicraft,
or used as a means to the attainment of a partial object.
Happily the objects which are peculiar to these Schools are
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? 214
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
of such a nature as to elevate him who pursues them tho-
roughly and conscientiously, and through him those who
are committed to his care, above vulgar modes of thought;
--did but the outward circumstances of the Teacher answer
to his dignity, and his independence and station in society
correspond with his most honourable calling. The objects of
school-instruction, I said. In a fundamental study of Lan-
guage, pursued, as it must be, amid old modes of speech, far
removed from our habits of thought, a deeper insight into
ideas is gained; and from the works of the Ancients, by
means of which this study is pursued, an excellent and en-
nobling spirit speaks to the youthful mind. For this reason,
the Teacher in these lower Schools should be a partaker of
the Idea, because it is his task imperceptibly to familiarize
the youth with the high and noble before he is able to dis-
tinguish these from the vulgar,--to accustom him to these,
and to estrange him from the low and ignoble. Thus
guarded in his early years, and thus prepared for higher
progress, the youth enters the University. Here, for the
first time, can he be clearly taught, and led to comprehend
and acknowledge--that which I have endeavoured to utter
to you in these lectures,--that our whole race has its only
true existence in the Divine Thought,--that its only worth
consists in its harmony with this Divine Thought,--and that
the class of Scholars has therein an existence only to the
end that they may comprehend this Divine Thought and im-
print it on the world. At the University the Student first
receives a clear idea of the nature and dignity of that voca-
tion to which his life has been devoted beforehand. He
must obtain that clear idea here :--the Teacher in the lower
Schools may look forward to another education for his pu-
pils, and he counts upon that; but the Academic Teacher
has no higher instruction to calculate upon, except that
which the Progressive Scholar may bestow upon himself,--
to the capacity for which, however, the Teacher must train
him so that he may have it in his power to become his own
instructor;--once released from the lecture-room he is com-
mitted to himself and to the world. Herein, therefore, lies
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
215
the characteristic difference between the lower and the
higher Schools,--that at the lower School the youth has
only a presentiment of his vocation, while at the University
he clearly comprehends and recognises it;--and from this
distinction the specific duties of the Teacher in the respec-
tive institutions may easily be deduced.
The Academic Teacher, of whom chiefly we have to speak,
ought to train the Student who has already been made ac-
quainted with the nature and dignity of his calling, to the
capacity of receiving the Idea, and the power of developing
it from his own consciousness, and giving it a form peculiar
to himself:--he should do all this if he can. But in every
case, and unconditionally, he must fill the Student with res-
pect and veneration for the proper calling of the Scholar.
The first object of all study,--to lay hold of the Idea from a
new and peculiar point of view, is by no means to be given
up either by the Student himself, or by the Teacher on his
behalf; but it is nevertheless possible that it may not be
attained, and both must reconcile themselves beforehand to
this possibility. Should this first object of study remain
unaccomplished, the Student may still become a useful,
worthy, and upright man. But the second object of study,
--that he acquire a reverence for the Idea during his efforts
to attain it,--that on account of this reverence he forbear
from undertaking anything for which he does not know
himself to be qualified,--that he consecrate himself to the
service of the Idea, at least by permanently cherishing this
reverence for what is unattainable by him, and contributing
to the extent of his ability to maintain such a reverence
among men;--this object is never to be relinquished; for
were it not attained, then, through the very fact of his hav-
ing studied, would his dignity as a man be lost, and he
would sink the deeper in consequence of the height to
which he ought to have risen. The attainment by the Stu-
dent of the first object of study is, to the Academic Teacher,
a conditional duty,--conditioned by the possibility of its ful-
filment. The attainment of the second he must ever look
upon and acknowledge as his unconditional duty, which he
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? 21G
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
must never deliberately relinquish. It may indeed happen
that he cannot accomplish even this, but he must never
admit a doubt of its ultimate attainment.
What, then, can the Academic Teacher do for the attain-
ment of this second object? I answer, he can do nothing
for it exclusively; he can do nothing else than that which
he must do for the first and higher object by itself. In pur-
suing and attaining the second, he is advancing to the at-
tainment of the first. Would he inculcate upon his pupils
reverence for Knowledge ? --they will not believe him if he
do not himself exhibit in his whole life the deep reverence
which he recommends to them. Would he thoroughly im-
press them with this reverence ? --let him teach it, not in
words only, but in deeds; let him be himself the living ex-
ample, the abiding illustration, of the principles which he
desires them to accept as the guides of their life. He has
described to them the Nature of the Scholar's vocation as a
manifestation of the Divine Idea,--he has told them that
this Idea entirely pervades the True Scholar, and establishes
its peculiar life, in place of his own, within him ;--perhaps
he has even told them by what precise way he himself, for
his part, has to fulfil the purposes of Knowledge, and in
what his peculiar calling, as an Academic Teacher, consists.
Let him show himself before them in his proper and essen-
tial character,--as devoted to his vocation,--as a perpetual
offering before its altar,--and they will learn to comprehend
that Knowledge is a sacred thing.
The duties of the Academic Teacher are not indeed
changed by this aspect of his vocation; for, as we have said,
he can do nothing for the attainment of the latter object
but what he must have done for the former and higher, by
itself;--but his own view of his calling becomes thereby
more confirmed and immovable. Although it should not
immediately become visible and evident to him that he has
attained his peculiar object,--of leading those who are en-
trusted to his care from mere passive dependence to spon-
taneous activity, from the dead letter to the living spirit;--
yet will he not suppose that he has laboured in vain. To
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER . 217
Academic Study must succeed that peculiar and essential
study to which the first is but a preparative. He can never
know that he has not roused a powerful determination to
this study,--that he has not thrown into the soul some
sparks which, though now unapparent, will blaze forth at the
proper time. Even in the worst possible event,--that he
has not accomplished even so much as this,--his activity
has still another object; and if he has done something for it,
his labour has not been utterly lost. If he has, at least, up-
held, and in some breasts quickened or renewed, the faith
that there is something worthy of the reverence of men; that
by industry and faithfulness men may elevate themselves to
the contemplation of this object of reverence, and in this
contemplation become strong and blessed; if some have only
had their occupation made holier in their eyes, so that they
may approach it with somewhat less levity than before; if
he can venture to hope that some have left his hall, if not
precisely with more light, yet with more modesty than they
entered it;--then he has not laboured wholly in vain.
We said, that the Academic Teacher becomes an example
of reverence for Knowledge, by showing himself to be
thoroughly and entirely penetrated by and devoted to his
calling,--an instrument consecrated to its service.
What does this calling demand? Is the Academic
Teacher to prepare men for the reception of the Idea? --then
he must himself know the Idea, have attained it, and be
possessed by it; otherwise how could he recognise in others
the capacity for receiving that to which he himself is a
stranger? He must first have cultivated this capacity in
himself, and have a distinct and clear consciousness of pos-
sessing it; for it can be recognised only by him who truly
and immediately possesses it, and the art of acquiring it can
be understood only by him who has personally acquired it.
He can cultivate this capacity in men only by means of the
Idea itself, by presenting it to them, and accustoming them
to it, in all its varied forms and applications. The nature of
the Idea is peculiar to itself, and differs wholly from all that
is merely mechanical in knowledge;--only by its reception
Fa
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? 218
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
can man cultivate the power of receiving it. By the me-
chanical communication of knowledge man may become
versed in such mechanism, but can never be raised to the
Idea. It is an obligation from which the Academic Teacher
cannot be released, that he shall have comprehended the
Idea with perfect clearness as Idea; that, in the Idea, he
shall have also comprehended the particular branch of
Knowledge which he cultivates, and through the Idea have
understood the true nature, meaning, and purpose of this
branch of Knowledge;--and even his particular science is on
no account to be taught merely for its own sake, but be-
cause it is a form or aspect of the one Idea; and in order
that this form may be tested by the Student, and he be
tested by it. If, at the conclusion of his university training
it were found that even then the Student could not be made
to comprehend the true nature of study, then study would
altogether disappear from the world ;--there would be study
no longer, but the number of handicrafts would be in-
creased. He who is not conscious of a living and clear com-
prehension of the Idea, and is at the same time an upright
and honourable man, will forbear to assume the vocation of
the Academic Teacher. He will thus show his respect for
that vocation the nature of which he must have learned in
the course of his studies.
The vocation of the Academic Teacher requires him to
communicate the Idea,--not as the Author does, abstractly,
and in the one perfect conception under which it presents
itself to his own mind,--but he must mould, express, and
clothe it in an infinite variety of forms, so that he may bring
it home, under some one or other of those adventitious ves-
tures, to those by whose present state of culture he must be
guided in the exercise of his calling. He must thus possess
the Idea, not as a mere abstraction, but in great vitality,
power, and flexibility. Above all, he must possess that
which we have already described as the creative or artist-
talent of the Scholar; namely, a perfect readiness and capa-
city to recognise, under any circumstances, the first germ of
the Idea as it begins to unfold itself;--in each individual
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
219
case to discover the most suitable means of aiding it to the
attainment of perfect life, and in all cases to associate it
with a kindred form. The Author may possess only one
form for his Idea,--if that form be perfect, he has fulfilled
his duty;--the Academic Teacher must possess an infinite
multiplicity of forms,--it is not his business to discover the
most perfect form, but to find that which is most suitable to
particular circumstances. A good Academic Teacher must
be capable of being also an excellent Author if he choose;
but it does not follow that, on the other hand, a good
Author should also be a good Academic Teacher. Yet this
skill and versatility exist in different degrees, and he is not
to be entirely excluded from the Academic calling who does
not possess them in the highest degree.
From this skill which is required of the Academic
Teacher in the embodiment of the Idea, there arises another
demand upon him,--this, namely, that his mode of commu-
nication shall be always new, and bear upon it the mark of
fresh and present life. Only living and present thought can
enter other minds and quicken other thought: a dead, worn-
out form, let it have been ever so living at a former time,
must be called back to life by the power of others as well as
its own;--the Author has a right to require this from his
readers, but the Academic Teacher, who in this matter is
not an Author, has no right to demand it.
The upright and conscientious man, as surely as he ac-
cepts this calling, and so long as he continues to practise it,
gives himself up entirely to its fulfilment; willing, thinking,
desiring nothing else than to be that which, according to
his own conviction, he ought to be; and thus he shows
openly his reverence for Knowledge.
For Knowledge, I say, as such, and because it is Know-
ledge,--for Knowledge in the abstract,--as the Divine Idea
one and homogeneous through all the different forms and
modes in which it is revealed. It is quite possible that a
Scholar who has devoted his life to a particular department
of knowledge may entertain a prepossession in favour of
that department and be apt to esteem it above all others,--
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? 220 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
either because he has accustomed himself to it, or because
he thinks that his more distinguished calling may reflect
some of its lustre upon himself. Whatever ability such an
one may bring to the cultivation of his own department, he
will never present to the unprejudiced spectator the picture
of one who reveres Knowledge for its own sake, and will
never persuade the acute observer that he does so, whilst
he shows less respect for other departments of knowledge
which are as essential as his own. It will only thereby be-
come evident that he has never conceived of Knowledge as
one perfect whole,--that he does not think of his own de-
partment as a portion of this whole,--hence that he does not
love his own department as Knowledge, but only as a handi-
craft; which love for a handicraft may indeed be praise-
worthy enough elsewhere, but in the domain of Knowledge
excludes him entirely from any right to the name of a Scho-
lar. He who, although labouring in a limited province, has
become a partaker of Knowledge as a whole, and accepts his
own calling as but a part thereof, may perhaps have little
even historical acquaintance with other provinces, but he
has a general conception of the nature of all others, and will
constantly exhibit an equal reverence for all.
Let this love of his vocation and of Knowledge be the
sole guide of his life, visible to all men;--let him be moved
by nothing else; regarding no personal interest either of
himself or of others. Here as elsewhere, I shall say nothing
of the common and vulgar desires which may not enter the
circle of him who has approached and handled the sacred
things of Knowledge. I shall not suppose it possible, for
instance, that a Priest of Knowledge, who seeks to conse-
crate other Priests to her service, should refrain from saying
to them something which they do not hear willingly, in
order that they may continue to hear him willingly. Yet I
may perhaps be permitted to mention one error not quite
so ignoble and vulgar, and to hold up its opposite to your
view. In every word uttered by the Academic Teacher in
the exercise of his calling, let it be Knowledge that speaks,
--let it be his longings to extend her dominions,--let it be
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? OF THE SCHOLAR AS TEACHER.
221
his deep love for his hearers, not as his hearers, but as the
future ministers of Knowledge:--Knowledge, and these liv-
ing desires to extend her dominion, let these speak, not the
Teacher. An effort to speak for the mere sake of speaking,
--to speak finely for the sake of fine speaking, and that
others may know of it,--the disease of word-making,--
sounding words, in which nevertheless no idea is audible,--
is consistent with no man's dignity, and least of all with
that of the Academic Teacher, who represents the dignity of
Knowledge to future generations.
Let him resign himself entirely to this love of his voca-
tion and of Knowledge. The peculiar nature of his occupa-
tion consists in this,--that Knowledge, and especially that
side of Knowledge from which he conceives of the whole,
shall continually burst forth from him in new and fairer
forms. Let this fresh spiritual youth never grow old within
him; let no form become fixed and rigid; let each sunrise
bring him new love for his vocation, new joy in its exercise,
and wider views of its significance. The Divine Idea is
fixed and determined in his mind,--all its individual parts
are likewise determined. The particular form of its expres-
sion for a particular Age may also be determined; but the
living movement of its communication is infinite as the
growth of the Human Race. Let no one continue in this
calling in whom the mode of this communication, although
it may have been the most perfect of his Age, begins to grow
old and formal,--none in whom the fountain of youth does
not still flow on with unimpaired vigour. Let him faithfully
trust himself to its current so long as it will bear him for-
ward: when it leaves him, then let him be content to retire
from this ever-shifting scene of onward being;--let him
separate the dead from the living.
It was a necessary part of the plan which I marked out
to you, to treat of the dignity of the Academic Teacher. I
hope that in doing so I have exhibited the same strictness
with which I have spoken of the other subjects which have
fallen under our notice,--without allowing myself to be se-
duced into any lenity towards it by the consideration that I
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? 222
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
myself practise the calling of which I have spoken, and that
I have practised it even in speaking of it. Whence I have
derived this firmness,--on what feeling it rests,--you may
inquire at another time; it is sufficient for you now to un-
derstand clearly, that Truth, in every possible application
of it, still remains true.
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? 228
LECTURE X.
OF THE SCHOLAR AS AUTHOR.
To complete our survey of the vocation of the Scholar, we
have to-day only to consider that department of it which
belongs to the Author.
I have hitherto contented myself with clearly setting
forth the True Idea of the special subjects of our inquiry,
without turning aside to cast a single glance at the actual
state of things in the present age. It is almost impossible
to proceed in this way with the subject which I am to dis-
cuss to-day. The Idea of the Author is almost unknown in
our age, and something most unworthy usurps its name.
