It is the business of the Scholar so to interpose in
this strife as to reconcile the activity with the purity of his
Idea, its influence with its dignity.
this strife as to reconcile the activity with the purity of his
Idea, its influence with its dignity.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
We
put the question only that we may describe his higher life
and delight ourselves in contemplating the picture.
Everything is vulgar and ignoble which degrades the
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? HOW INTEGRITY MANIFKSTS ITSELF. 181
fancy and blunts the taste for the Holy. Tell me what
direction thy thoughts take,--not when thou with tightened
hand constrainest them to a purpose,--but when in thy
hours of recreation thou allowest them freely to rove abroad;
tell me what direction they then take, where they naturally
turn as to their most loved home, in what thou thyself in
the innermost depths of thy soul findest thy chief enjoy-
ment ;--and then I will tell thee what are thy tastes. Are
they directed towards the Godlike, and to those things in
nature and art wherein the Godlike most directly reveals itself in imposing majesty ? --then is the Godlike not dreadful
to thee but friendly; thy tastes lead thee to it,--it is thy
most loved enjoyment . Do they, when released from the
constraint with which thou hast directed them towards a
6erious pursuit, eagerly turn to brood over sensual pleasures,
and find relaxation in the pursuit of these? --then hast thou
a vulgar taste, and thou must invite animalism into the in-
nermost recesses of thy soul before it can seem well with
thee there. Not so the noble Student. His thoughts, when
exhausted by exertion and toil, return in moments of relax-
ation to the Holy, the Great, the Sublime,--there to find re-
pose, refreshment, and new energy for yet higher efforts. In
nature as well as in the Arts, in Poetry and in Music, he
seeks for the Sublime, and that in its great and imposing
style. In Poetry for example, and in Oratory, he delights in
the lofty voices of the ancient world; and, among the mo-
derns, in that only which is produced and interpenetrated
by the spirit of the ancients. Amusements in which the
form of art is thrown around unmeaning emptiness, or even
productions which appeal to the senses alone, and strive to
please man by awakening and exciting his animal nature,--
these have no charms for him. It is not necessary for him
to consider beforehand how hurtful they might prove to
him;--they do not please him, and he can acquire no liking
for them.
The man of mature age may indeed turn his thoughts to
such perversions, that he may discover in themselves the
evidence of their perversion, and so laugh at them: he is
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? 182
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
secure from their contagion. Not so the inexperienced
youth; a secret voice calls him back from them altogether.
The man of ripe years, who is no longer occupied in forming
his Ideal, but now seeks to impress it on the actual world,
--he has to deal with perversion, and must pursue it
through all its doublings and turnings, into its most secret
haunts; and he cannot do this without contemplating it.
Our hatred of the vulgar becomes weakened and blunted by
time, by the experience that the foolishness of the world
suffers no abatement, and that almost the only certain ad-
vantage which can be gained from it is a laugh at its ex-
pense. But the youth cannot thus contemplate life,--he
must not thus contemplate it. Every period of life has its
peculiar calling. Good-natured laughter at vulgarity be-
longs to ripened age; the attitude of youth towards it ought
to be that of stern aversion,--and no one will be able in
after years to look on it, and to laugh at it, and yet remain
truly free and pure from its taint, who does not begin in
youth by avoiding and hating it. Jesting is not suited for
youth,--they know little of man who think so; where youth
is wasted in sport, it will never attain to earnestness and
true existence. The portion of youth in life is the Earnest
and the Sublime;--only after such a youth does maturity
attain to the Beautiful, and with it to sportful enjoyment of
the Vulgar.
Further, everything is vulgar and ignoble which weakens
spiritual power. I shall instance idleness;--to mention
drunkenness or sensuality would be below the dignity
of our subject. To live without active occupation, -- to
cast a dull and unmeaning gaze around us, will soon make
our minds dull and unmeaning. This propensity to non-
existence, to spiritual torpor, becomes a habit, a second
nature; it surprises us in our studies or while listening to
our teacher, creates a chasm in what would otherwise be a
strictly connected whole, interposes itself here and there
between ideas which we should have bound together, so
that we cannot comprehend even those which are most easy
and intelligible. How this propensity should seize upon
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? HOW INTEGRITY MANIFESTS ITSELF. 188
youth, may well remain unaccountable even to men of the
deepest penetration and judgment; and in most cases it
would be no delusion to seek its cause in some secret infir-
mity or vice. Youth is the age of newly-developed power;
everywhere there are still impulses and principles destined
to burst forth into new creations;--the peculiar character
of youth is restless and uninterrupted activity; left to itself,
it can never be without occupation. To see it slothful is
the sight of winter in the time of spring, the blight and
withering of a newly-opened flower. Were it naturally pos-
sible that this idleness should attempt to gain dominion
over the true-minded and virtuous Student, he would never
for a moment endure it. In the Eternal Thought of God
his spiritual power has its source; lit is thus his most pre-
cious treasure, and he will not suffer it to fall into impotent
rigidity before it has fulfilled its task. He watches unceas-
ingly over himself, and never allows himself to rest in sloth-
ful inaction. It is only for a short period that this exertion
of the will is needed; afterwards, its result continues of it-
self, for it is happily as easy,--or even more easy because it
is more natural,--for man to accustom himself to industry
than to idleness, and after a time passed in sustained ac-
tivity it even becomes impossible for him to live without
employment.
Lastly, everything is vulgar and ignoble which robs man
of respect for himself, of faith in himself, and of the power
of reckoning with confidence upon himself and his purposes.
Nothing is more destructive of character than for man to
lose all faith in his own resolutions, because he has so often
determined, and again determined, to do that which never-
theless he has never done. Then he feels it necessary to
flee from himself; he can no longer turn inward to his own
thoughts, lest he be covered with shame before them; he
shuns no society so much as his own, and deliberately gives
himself up to dissipation and self-forgetfulness. Not so the
upright Student: he keeps his purpose; and whatever he
has resolved to do, that he does, were it only because he has
resolved to do it. For the same reason,--that he must be
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? 184
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
guided by his own purpose and his own insight,--he will
not become a slave to the opinion of others, or even to the
general opinion. It is doubtless of all things most ignoble,
when man,--out of too great complacency, which at bottom
is cowardice and want of spirit, or out of indolence, which
prevents him from thinking for himself and drawing the
principles of his conduct from his own mind,--gives himself
up to others, and relies upon them rather than upon him-
self. Such an one has indeed no self within him, and be-
lieves in no self within him, but goes as a suppliant to
others, and entreats of them, one after another, to lend him
their personality. How can such an one regard himself as
honourable and holy, when he neither knows nor acknow-
ledges his own being?
I have said that the true-minded Student will not make
himself a slave to common opinion; nevertheless he will
accommodate himself to established customs where these
are in themselves indifferent, simply because he honours
himself. The educated youth grows up amid these cus-
toms; were he to cast them off, he must of necessity deli-
berately resolve to do so, and attract notice and attention to
himself by his singularities and his offences against de-
corum. How should he whose time is occupied with
weightier matters find leisure to ponder such a subject? Is
the matter so important, and is there no other way in which
he can distinguish himself, that he must take refuge in a
petty peculiarity ? " No! " answers the noble-minded Stu-
dent; "I am here to comprehend weightier things than out-
ward manners, and I will not have it appear that I am too
awkward to understand these. I will not by such littleness
cause myself and my class to be despised and hated by the
uncharitable, or good-naturedly laughed at by those of
better disposition; my fellow-citizens of other classes, or of
my own, my teachers, my superiors, shall have it in their
power to honour and respect me as a man, in every relation
of human life. "
And thus in all its relations does the life of the studious
youth, who respects himself, flow on--blameless and lovely.
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? 185
LECTURE VI.
OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
The point which we had attained at the close of last lecture
in our portraiture of the Student to whom his own person
had become holy through the view of his vocation as a
Divine Thought, was the consideration of his outward man-
ners. With this subject is connected an idea, frequently
broached but seldom duly weighed,--the idea of the Aca-
demical Freedom of the Student. Much, indeed, of what
has been said regarding this subject lies below the dignity
of these lectures; and, only in the sequel will we be able to
find a way of elevating it to our own standard . Hence I
not only cheerfully admit that the discussion of this idea,
which I hope to accomplish to-day, is a mere episode in my
general plan; I must even entreat you so to consider it.
But to pass over altogether a subject to which one is led,
almost unconsciously, in a review of the moral behaviour
of the Student, I hold to be all the less legitimate that it is
commonly avoided, and quite properly avoided, since it may
so easily degenerate into polemics or satire, from both of
which we are secured by the tone of these lectures.
What is Academic Freedom? The answer to this question
is our task for to-day. As eveiy object may be looked upon
from a double point of view,--partly historical, partly phi-
losophical,--so may the subject of our present inquiry. Let
us, in the first place survey it from the historical point of
view,--t. e. let us try to discover what they meant by it who
first allowed and introduced Academic Freedom.
Academies have always been considered as higher schools,
Ba
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? 18G
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
in contrast with the lower preparatory schools, or scJwols
properly so called;--hence the student at the academy as
distinguished from the pupil at the school . The freedom of
the former could thus only be understood to be emancipa-
tion from some constraint to which the latter was subject.
The pupil, for example, was compelled to appear at his class
in a particular kind of clothing, which in those days indi-
cated the dignity of the future Scholar; he dared not neglect
his fixed hours of study; and he had many other duties im-
posed upon him, which were then regarded as a sort of
sacred service preparatory to the future spiritual office to
which the Student was usually destined,--as for instance,
choir-singing. In all these respects he was subject to strict
and constant inspection;--the transgressor was often igno-
miniously punished; and indeed the teacher himself was
both overseer and judge. Meanwhile Universities arose;
and the outward, unlearned world would naturally be in-
clined to place them under similar regulations to those
adopted in the only educational institutions with which it
was familiar,--i. e. such as it saw in the schools. But this
did not ensue,--and it was impossible that it should ensue.
The founders of the first Universities were Scholars of dis-
tinguished talent and energy; they had fought their way
through the surrounding darkness of their age to whatever
insight they possessed; they were wholly devoted to their
scientific pursuits, and lived in them alone; they were en-
compassed by a brilliant reputation; in the circles of the
great they were esteemed, honoured, consulted as oracles.
They could never condescend to assume the position of
overseers and pedagogues towards their hearers. Hence it
was, that they held in contempt the teachers of the lower
schools, from whose level they had raised themselves by
their own ability; and for that reason they would neither
practise, nor allow themselves to be distinguished by, those
things which characterized the former. Their call assem-
bled around them hundreds and thousands from all coun-
tries of Europe; the number of their hearers increased both
their importance and their wealth; and it was not to be
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
187
expected that they should expose to annoyance those who
brought such benefits to them. Besides, how was it possible
that young men, with whom they had but a passing ac-
quaintance among hundreds of their fellows,--who in a few
months, a year, or at most a few years, would return to dis-
tant homes,--should interest them closely, or engage their
affections ? --Neither the moral demeanour nor the scientific
progress of their hearers was of any consequence to them;
and in these days a well-known Latin adage which speaks
of "taking gold and sending home," very naturally arose.
Academic Freedom had arisen, as emancipation from the
constraints of school, and from all supervision on the part of
the teacher over the morality, industry, or scientific progress
of the Student, who was to him a hearer and nothing more.
This is one side of the picture. It may easily be ima-
gined, and, where no very high standard of morality existed,
it might very naturally occur, that these founders of the
early universities did so think of this matter, and that a
portion of this mode of thought has come down to us
through past centuries. Let us now look at the other side.
What, then, would be the natural and reasonable effect
of this idea of Academical Freedom on the minds of the
Students? Could they have thought themselves highly
honoured by this indifference on the part of their teacher to
their moral dignity and scientific improvement ? --could
they have demanded this indifference as a sacred right? I
cannot believe it,--for such indifference amounts to disre-
gard and contempt of the Student, and it is surely most of-
fensive to tell him to his face by such conduct--" It is no-
thing to me what becomes of you. "--Or would it have been
natural for them to conclude, from the carelessness of others
about their moral demeanour and regular application to
study, that therefore they themselves were entitled to ne-
glect these things if they chose? --would they have acted
reasonably had they regarded their Academic Freedom as
only a right to be immoral and indolent? I cannot believe it.
Much more reasonable would it have been, had they deter-
mined, because of this want of foreign superintendence, to
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? 188
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
exercise a stricter surveillance over themselves; if out of
this freedom from outward constraint had arisen a clearer
perception of their duty to urge themselves onward so much
the more powerfully, to watch over themselves so much the
more incessantly, and to look upon their Academic Freedom
as liberty to do all that is right and becoming by their own
free determination.
In short, the Academic Freedom of the Student, taken
historically, according to its actual introduction into the
world, exhibits in its origin, in its progress, and in what of it
still exists, an unjust and indecent contempt for the whole
class of Students, as a most insignificant class; and the Stu-
dent who considers himself honoured by this Freedom, and
lays claim to it as a right, has fallen into a most extraordi-
nary delusion ;---he is certainly ill informed, and has never
seriously reflected on the subject. It may indeed become
the well-disposed man of riper years, who is always a lover
of life and youth, to turn aside from the awkwardness, the
rudeness, and the many errors into which unbridled energy
is apt to fall, goodnaturedly to laugh at these, and to think
that wisdom will come with years; but the youth who feels
himself honoured by this judgment, and even demands it as
his due, cannot be supposed to possess a very delicate sense
of honour.
Let us now consider this subject--the Academic Freedom
of the Student--in its philosophical sense; La. as it ought to
be; as, under certain conditions, it may be; and, what fol-
lows from thence, how the actually existing Academic Free-
dom will be accepted by the Student who understands and
honours his vocation. We shall open a way to the attain-
ment of insight into this matter through the following prin-
ciples :--
1. The external freedom of the Citizen is limited, in
every direction and on all possible sides, by Law; and the
more perfect the Law the greater is the limitation,--and so
it ought to be, for this is the proper office of Law. Hence,
there is no sphere remaining in which the inward freedom
and morality of the Citizen can be outwardly exhibited and
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
189
demonstrated,--and there ought to be no such sphere. All
that is to be done is commanded, under penalties; all that
is not to be done is forbidden, likewise under penalties.
Every inward temptation to neglect what is commanded, or
to do what is forbidden, is counterbalanced in the con-
science of the Citizen by the firm conviction, that should he
give way to the temptation, he must in consequence suffer
a certain amount of evil. Let it not be said,--" There is no
existing legislation so all-comprehensive, nor is the sagacity
and vigilance of any tribunal so infallible, that every offence
is sure to meet its punishment. " I know this; but as I said
before, it ought to be thus, and this is what we should regu-
larly and constantly approximate to. Legislation cannot
calculate on the morality of men; for its object--the free-
dom and security of all within their respective spheres--
cannot be left to depend on so uncertain a thing. For the
just man there is indeed no law under any possible legisla-
tion; he will commit no evil even although it were not for-
bidden, and whatsoever is good and right, that he will do
without reference to the command of authority; he is never
tempted to crime, and therefore the idea of its attendant
punishment never enters his mind. He is conscious of his
virtue, and in this consciousness he has his reward within
himself. But externally there is no distinction between him
and the unjust man who is withheld from the commission
of wrong and impelled to the performance of duty only by
the threatenings of the law:--the former cannot do any-
thing more or leave undone anything more than the latter,
but only does or leaves undone the same things from a dif-
ferent motive, which is not outwardly apparent
.
2. Under this legislation, the Scholar and the unlearned
person stand, and ought to stand, on common ground,--as
Citizens. Both can raise themselves above the law in the
same way,--by integrity of purpose;--but this is not cal-
culated upon in either of them, and in neither can this in-
tegrity become apparent in the sphere of external legisla-
tion. And since the Scholar is further a member of a cer-
tain class in the State, and practises in it a certain calling,
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? 190
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
he lies also under the compulsory obligations belonging to
that class and calling;--and here once more it cannot be
apparent whether he fulfils his duties in this sphere from
integrity of purpose or from fear of punishment; nor does
it in any way concern the community by what motive he is
actuated so that his duties are fulfilled. Lastly, in those
regions which have either not yet been reached by an im-
perfect legislation, or which cannot be reached at all by an
external legislation, he is still accompanied by the fear of
disgrace; -- and here again it cannot be seen whether he
does his duty in consequence of this fear or from inward
integrity of purpose.
3. But, besides these, there are yet other relations of the
Scholar, with which external legislation cannot interfere
and in which it cannot watch over the fulfilment of his
duty,--where the Scholar must be a law to himself and
hold himself to its fulfilment. In the Divine Idea he
carries in himself the form of the future Age which one
day must clothe itself with reality; and he must show an
example and lay down a law to coming generations, for
which he will seek in vain either in present or in past
times. In every age that Idea clothes itself in a new form,
and seeks to shape the surrounding world in its image, and
thus do continually arise new relations of the world to the
Idea, and a new mode of opposition of the former to the
latter.
It is the business of the Scholar so to interpose in
this strife as to reconcile the activity with the purity of his
Idea, its influence with its dignity. His Idea must not lie
concealed within him; it must go forth and lay hold upon
the world, and he is urged to this activity by the deepest
impulses of his being. But the world is incapable of receiv-
ing this Idea in its purity; on the contrary, it strives to
drag down the Idea to the level of its own vulgar thought.
Could he forego aught of this purity, his task would be an
easy one; but he is filled with reverence for the Idea, and he
can give up no part of its perfection. Hence he has to set
before him the difficult task of reconciling these purposes.
No law,--but why do I speak oilawsf--no example of the
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
191
fore-world or of his own time can reveal to him the means
of this union,--for so surely as the Idea has assumed a new
form in him has his case never before occurred. Even re-
flection, of itself, cannot give him this point of union; for
although, by reflection, the Idea itself in all its purity is re-
vealed as the first point of the union, yet much more is
needed before the second point--the mental condition of
the surrounding world, and what may safely be expected
from it--can be clearly and fully comprehended in the same
thought . Well may those who have wrought most mightily
upon their age have closed their career with the inward
confession that their reliance on the spirit of their time had
ever proved fallacious, that they never supposed it to be so
perverse and imbecile as it afterwards proved, and that
while they accurately estimated one of its aberrations and
avoided it, another, hitherto unperceived, revealed itself.
To succeed at all at any time, there is needed, in addition
to reflection, a certain tact, which can only be acquired by
early exercise and habit . s
Farther, it is clear that in this matter--in doing every-
thing possible to reconcile the opposition between the in-
ward purity of the Idea and its external activity -- the
Scholar can be guided only by his own determination, can
have no other judge but himself, and no motive external
to himself. In this no stranger can judge him--in this no
stranger can even wholly understand him, nor divine the
deep purpose of his actions. In this region, so far is respect
for the judgment of others from aiding his intention, that
on the contrary he must here cast aside foreign opinion
altogether, and look upon it as if it were not. He must
be guided and upheld by his own purpose alone;--and tru-
ly he needs a mighty and immovable purpose to keep his
ground against the temptations which arise even from his
noblest inclinations. What is more noble than the impulse
to action, to sway the minds of men, and to compel their
thoughts to the Holy and Divine ? --and yet this impulse
may become a temptation to represent the Holy in a com-
mon and familiar garb for the sake of popularity, and so to
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? 192
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
desecrate it. What is more noble than the deepest rever-
ence for the Holy, and disdain and abnegation of every-
thing vulgar and opposed to it ? --and yet this very rever-
ence might tempt some one to reject his age altogether,--
to cast it from him and avoid intercourse with it. A
mighty and good will is needed to resist the first of these
temptations, and the mightiest of all to overcome the
second.
It is evident from these considerations, that, for his pecu-
liar vocation, the Scholar needs shrewd practical wisdom, a
profound morality, strict watchfulness over himself, and a
fine delicacy of feeling. It follows, that at an early age he
ought to be placed in a position where it is possible and
necessary for him to acquire this practical wisdom and deli-
cacy of feeling, and that this cultivation of mind and cha-
racter should be a peculiar element in the education of the
future Scholar. Every Citizen, without exception, may cul-
tivate these qualities, and must have it in his power to do
so; legislation must leave this possibility open to him,--it
is compelled to do so by its very nature. But it does not
concern the legislature or the commonwealth whether the
Citizen does or does not elevate himself to this vocation, be-
cause his calling will still remain within the range of exter-
nal jurisdiction. But as for the Scholar, it is of importance
to the Commonwealth, and to the whole Human Race, that
he should both raise himself to the purest morality and ac-
quire sound practical wisdom, since he is destined one day
to enter a sphere where he absolutely leaves behind him all
external judgment. The legislation for him, therefore,
should not merely allow him the possibility of moral culti-
vation like every other Citizen, but, so far as in it lies, it
should place him under the outward necessity of acquiring
this cultivation.
And how can it do this? Evidently only by leaving him
to his own judgment as to what is becoming, seemly, and
appropriate, and to his own superintendence of himself. Is
he to create for himself an independent sense of what is
proper and becoming? How can he do so if the law accom-
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
193
panies him everywhere, and everywhere declares what he is
to do and what not to do? Let the law prohibit those whom
she can retain under her yoke from indulgence in every-
thing which she wishes them to renounce; but, as for him
who must one day leave her jurisdiction, let her trust him
betimes as a noble and free man. The man of refined
morality does not wait until the law discovers a thing to be
unseemly and directs its prohibition against it,--it would
be ignominy for him to need such direction;--he antici-
pates the decree, and relinquishes that in which the vulgar
around him indulge without scruple, simply because it is
unbecoming his higher nature. Give the Student room to
place himself in this class by his own effort alone. Is he to
unfold in himself a profound and powerful morality, a ten-
der delicacy of sentiment, a deep sense of honour? How can
he do this surrounded by threats of punishment? Let the
law rather speak to him thus:--" So far as I am concerned,
thou mayest leave the path of right and follow after evil;
no other harm shall overtake thee but to be despised and
scorned,--despised even by thyself when thou turnest thine
eye inwards. If thou wilt venture on this peril, venture on
it without fear. " Is the Human Race one day to confide to
him its most important interests, and in his dealings with
those interests is he to have confidence in himself? How
can men trust him when they have never proved him ? --
how can he trust himself when he has never proved his own
strength 1 He who has not yet been faithful in small things
cannot be entrusted with great things; and he who has not
been able to stand a trial before himself cannot without the
basest dishonour accept an important trust. On these
grounds we rest the claims of Academic Freedom,--of an
extensive yet well-considered Academic Freedom.
In a Perfect State, the outward constitution of Universi-
ties would, in my opinion, be the following:--In the first
place, the Students would be separated from other classes of
the community pursuing other vocations, so that these
classes might not, by the possible abuse of Academic Free-
dom, be harassed or injured, tempted to similar irregulari-
Ca
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? 194.
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
ties, or misled into a hatred of the law while living under
its rule by daily contact with a class free from its restraints. The Students at these Universities would enjoy a high
degree of freedom;--instructions on Morality and Duty, and
impressive pictures of a True Life, would indeed be laid be-
fore them; they would be surrounded by good examples,
and their teachers would not only be profound Scholars, but
the Slite of the best men in the nation;--of compulsory laws,
however, there would be very few. Let them freely choose
either good or evil: the time of study is but the time of
trial; the time for the decision of their fate comes after-
wards;--and our arrangement would have this advantage,
that unworthiness, where it existed, would be clearly recog-
Jnised as such and could no longer be concealed.
The present actual constitution of Universities is indeed
by no means of this kind. It is doubtful whether Academic
Freedom was ever looked upon from the point of view from
which we have described it, particularly whether it was ever
so looked upon by those who gave the Universities their cons-
titution. Academic Freedom has actually arisen in the way
described in a former part of this lecture,--i. e. from disre-
spect towards the Student-class: and we may leave it un-
determined by what influence the remnants of this system
are now maintained; for even were it admitted that the same
disrespect for the class, which still exists although in a less
degree, and perhaps want of opportunity to get rid of these
relics of another age, were its only supports, yet this is of no
moment to the true-minded Student, who judges of things
not by their outward form but by their inward spirit.
Whatever others may think of Academic Freedom, he, for
his part, takes it in its true sense:--as a means by which
he may learn to direct himself when outward precept leaves
him,--watch over himself when no one else watches over
him,--urge himself forward where there is no longer any
outward impulse,--and thus train and strengthen himself
for his future high vocation.
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? LECTURE VII.
OP THE FINISHED SCHOLAR IN GENERAL.
The true-minded Scholar looks upon his vocation--to be-
come a partaker of the Divine thought of the universe--as
the purpose of God in him; and therefore both his person
and his calling become to him, before all other things, ho-
nourable and holy; and this holiness shows itself in all his
outward manifestations. Such is the point at which we
have now arrived.
We have hitherto spoken of the Progressive Scholar--the
Student; and we have seen how the sense of the dignity
conferred upon his person by this exalted vocation expresses
itself in his life. How his conviction of the holiness of
Knowledge pervades and influences his studies we have
already noticed in one of the earlier lectures, and it is not
necessary to add anything to what we have said upon this
point. k
And it is the less necessary since this reverence for
Knowledge which is felt by the Student manifests itself
chiefly in the appropriate estimation and consecration of his
person and is therein exhausted; while it is quite otherwise
in the Finished Scholar. In the Progressive Scholar, that
which he strives after--the Idea--has yet to acquire a
form and an independent life:--these it does not yet
possess. As yet the Student does neither immediately
possess, nor is he thoroughly penetrated by, the Idea; he
reverences it only at a distance, and can comprehend it
only by means of his person, as the standard to which
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? 196
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
that person ought to raise itself, the spirit by which it
ought to be swayed. He can as yet do nothing directly
in its service; he can only live for it indirectly, by con-
secrating and devoting his person to its use as its appoint-
ed instrument; preserving himself pure in sense and
spirit because all impurity would mar and disqualify him
for that function; by giving himself up entirely to its in-
fluence and pursuing and executing with unwearied indus-
try everything which may become a means or opportunity
to the Idea of unfolding itself within him. It is other-
wise with the Finished Scholar. As surely as he is such,
the Idea has already commenced its proper and indepen-
dent life within him; his personal life has now actually
passed into the Life of the Idea, and is therein absorbed;--
an absorption of self in the Idea which was only striven
after by the Student. As surely as he is a perfect Scholar,
so surely is there now no longer in him any thought of self,
but his whole thought is henceforth absorbed in the
thought of the Idea. And thus the distinction which we
originally made between the holiness of his person and the
holiness of his vocation now becomes a point of transition
from the contemplation of the Progressive to that of the
Finished Scholar,--the portraiture of whom it is now my
purpose to place beside that of the Progressive Scholar.
Hitherto we have considered the Progressive Scholar
chiefly in the character of a Student at a University; and
these two Ideas have been almost constantly associated to-
gether in our previous lectures. Now, for the first time,
when we have to accompany the Student from the Academy
into Life, we must call to mind that the studies and cha-
racter of the Progressive Scholar are not necessarily com-
pleted with his residence at the University; nay, further on,
we shall even perceive a ground upon which we may say that, properly speaking, his studies have their true begin-
ning only after his academic course has closed. This much,
however, remains true, as the sure result of what has been
already said,--that the youth who during his residence at
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
197
the University is not at least inspired with respect for the
holiness of Knowledge, and does not at least learn to honour
his own person to such an extent as not to render it un-
worthy of his high vocation, will never afterwards attain to
any true sense of the dignity of Knowledge; and whatever
part he may be called to play in life, he will take to it as a
common handicraft and with the sentiment of an hireling
who has no other motive to his labour than the pay he is to
receive for it. To say anything more of such an one lies
beyond the boundaries of our present subject.
But the Student who is penetrated with the conviction
that the essential purpose of his studies will be defeated
unless the Idea acquire an intrinsic form and independent
life within him, and that in the highest perfection,--he will
by no means lay aside his studies and scientific labours
when he leaves the University. Even if he be compelled
by outward necessity to enter upon a secular employment,
he will devote to Knowledge all the time and ability he can
spare from that employment, and will neglect no opportu-
nity which presents itself of attaining a higher culture. The
exercise of his faculties in the pursuit of learning will be
profitable to him even in the transaction of his ordinary
business. And amid the brilliant distinctions of office, and
even in mature age, he will restlessly strive and labour to
master the Idea, never resigning the hope of becoming
greater than he now is, so long as strength permits him to
indulge it. Without this untiring effort, much true Genius
would be wholly lost, for scientific talent usually unfolds it-
self more slowly, the higher and purer its essential nature,
and its clear development waits for mature years and manly
strength.
The Student who is penetrated with deep respect for the
holiness of the Scholar's vocation, will be guided by that
respect in his choice of a civic profession; and, particularly,
in the province of learning, if he do not feel the deepest
conviction of his ability to fulfil its highest duties, he will
choose a subordinate occupation, restrained from assumption
by his reverence for the dignity of Knowledge. But a sub-
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? 198
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
ordinate Scholar-occupation is one in which the ends to be
attained have been prescribed by some other intellect pos-
sessed with a knowledge of the Idea, and in which the capa-
cities which have been acquired through study, pursued for
the attainment of the Idea, are employed only as means to
fulfil those purposes which have thus been prescribed from
without. His person is thus not degraded into a passive
instrument; he is for ever secured against that by the
general view he takes of human life and its significance;--
he serves God alone in spirit and in sense; and, under the
guidance of his superiors, whom he leaves to answer for the
direction which they give to his actions and their results, he
promotes God's purposes with men, which must embrace all
forms of human activity. Thus does he proceed in his
choice of a secular employment as surely as he has been
inspired in his youth with respect for the dignity of the
peculiar vocation of the Scholar. To undertake such an
employment without consciousness of possessing the needful
power and cultivation is to profane it, and manifests a want
both of delicacy and of principle. And it is impossible that
he should fall into error on this point; for if he has passed
through his academic course in a creditable manner, then
he has certainly acquired, in some degree, a perception of
what is worthy, and has obtained a standard by which he
can take his own intellectual dimensions. If a conscientious
course of study at a University secured no other advantage
than that of presenting to youth a picture of the dignified
calling of the Scholar as a model for life, and of repelling
from this sphere those who are not endowed with the requi-
site ability, such a course would, on account of this advan-
tage alone, be of the utmost importance to the Student.
We have thus generally described the nature of a subor-
dinate Scholar-occupation. It does not demand in him who
pursues it, the immediate possession of the Idea, but only
that knowledge which is acquired in striving after such pos-
session. It is to be understood that in this again there are
higher and lower grades, according as the occupation re-
quires a wider or narrower range of knowledge,--and that,
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
199
in this respect too, the conscientious man will not under-
take anything which exceeds his powers. It is unnecessary
to describe these subordinate Scholar-occupations in detail.
The higher and peculiar calling of the Scholar may be de-
scribed so as to exhaust all its particular forms, and it is
then easy to draw this consequence:--" All those pursuits
which are usually followed by educated men, but which do
not find a place in this all-comprehensive delineation of the
higher calling of the Scholar, but are excluded from it, are
subordinate Scholar-occupations. " We have therefore only
now to lay before you this perfect delineation.
In our first lecture we have already definitely character-
ized the life of him in whom Learned Culture has fulfilled
its end:--his life is itself the life of the Divine Idea in the
world, changing and reconstructing it from its very founda-
tion. In the same place we have said that this life may
manifest itself in two forms;--either in actual external Be-
ing and Action, or only in Idea; which two distinct modes of
manifestation together constitute the peculiar vocation of
the Scholar. The first class comprehends all those who, by
their own strength, and according to their own idea, assume
the guidance of human affairs, leading them on to ever-new
perfection in constant harmony with each succeeding age;
who, originally, as the highest free leaders of men, direct
their social relations, and the relation of the whole to pas-
sive nature;--not those only who stand in the higher places
of the earth, as kings, or the immediate councillors of kings,
but all without exception who possess the right and calling,
either by themselves or in concert with others, to think,
judge, and resolve independently concerning the original dis-
posal of these affairs. The second class embraces the Scho-
lars, properly and pre-eminently so called, whose vocation it
is to maintain among men the knowledge of the Divine
Idea, to elevate it unceasingly to greater clearness and pre-
cision, and thus to transmit it from generation to genera-
tion, ever growing brighter in the freshness and glory of re-
newed youth. The first class act directly upon the world,--
they are the immediate point of contact between God and
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? 200
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
reality;--the last are the mediators between the pure spiri-
tuality of thought in the God-head, and the material energy
and influence which that thought acquires through the in-
strumentality of the first class; they are the trainers of the
first class,--the enduring pledge to the human race that the
first class shall never fail from among men. No one can
belong to the first class without having already belonged to
the second,--without always continuing to belong to it
.
The second class of Scholars is again separated into sub-
divisions, according to the manner in which they communi-
cate to others their conceptions of the Idea. Either their
immediate object is, by direct and free personal communica-
tion of their ideal conceptions, to cultivate in future Scho-
lars a capacity for the reception of the Idea, so that they
may afterwards lay hold of it and comprehend it for them-
selves :--and then they are educators of Scholars, Teachers in
the higher or lower schools;--or, they propound their con-
ceptions of the Idea, in a complete and finished form, to
those who have already cultivated the capacity to compre-
hend it. This is at present done by books,--and they are
thus--Authors.
The classes which we have now enumerated, whose seve-
ral occupations are not necessarily portioned out to different
individuals, but may quite readily be united in one and the
the same person, comprise all true and proper Scholars, and
exhaust the whole vocation of those in whom Learned Cul-
ture has fulfilled its end. Every other function, whatever
name it may bear, which the Educated Man* (who may be
distinguished by this title from the True Scholar) is called
upon to fulfil, is a subordinate Scholar-occupation. The
Educated Man continues in it, only because he has not by
his studies been able to attain to the rank of the True
Scholar, but nevertheless finds here a useful purpose to
which those capacities and knowledge which he has ac-
quired may be applied. It is by no means the object of
* Germ. "Studirte," one who has studied,--contrasted with "Studirende," one
who studies. We have no single equivalent for "Studirte" in English. --Tr.
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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.
put the question only that we may describe his higher life
and delight ourselves in contemplating the picture.
Everything is vulgar and ignoble which degrades the
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? HOW INTEGRITY MANIFKSTS ITSELF. 181
fancy and blunts the taste for the Holy. Tell me what
direction thy thoughts take,--not when thou with tightened
hand constrainest them to a purpose,--but when in thy
hours of recreation thou allowest them freely to rove abroad;
tell me what direction they then take, where they naturally
turn as to their most loved home, in what thou thyself in
the innermost depths of thy soul findest thy chief enjoy-
ment ;--and then I will tell thee what are thy tastes. Are
they directed towards the Godlike, and to those things in
nature and art wherein the Godlike most directly reveals itself in imposing majesty ? --then is the Godlike not dreadful
to thee but friendly; thy tastes lead thee to it,--it is thy
most loved enjoyment . Do they, when released from the
constraint with which thou hast directed them towards a
6erious pursuit, eagerly turn to brood over sensual pleasures,
and find relaxation in the pursuit of these? --then hast thou
a vulgar taste, and thou must invite animalism into the in-
nermost recesses of thy soul before it can seem well with
thee there. Not so the noble Student. His thoughts, when
exhausted by exertion and toil, return in moments of relax-
ation to the Holy, the Great, the Sublime,--there to find re-
pose, refreshment, and new energy for yet higher efforts. In
nature as well as in the Arts, in Poetry and in Music, he
seeks for the Sublime, and that in its great and imposing
style. In Poetry for example, and in Oratory, he delights in
the lofty voices of the ancient world; and, among the mo-
derns, in that only which is produced and interpenetrated
by the spirit of the ancients. Amusements in which the
form of art is thrown around unmeaning emptiness, or even
productions which appeal to the senses alone, and strive to
please man by awakening and exciting his animal nature,--
these have no charms for him. It is not necessary for him
to consider beforehand how hurtful they might prove to
him;--they do not please him, and he can acquire no liking
for them.
The man of mature age may indeed turn his thoughts to
such perversions, that he may discover in themselves the
evidence of their perversion, and so laugh at them: he is
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? 182
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
secure from their contagion. Not so the inexperienced
youth; a secret voice calls him back from them altogether.
The man of ripe years, who is no longer occupied in forming
his Ideal, but now seeks to impress it on the actual world,
--he has to deal with perversion, and must pursue it
through all its doublings and turnings, into its most secret
haunts; and he cannot do this without contemplating it.
Our hatred of the vulgar becomes weakened and blunted by
time, by the experience that the foolishness of the world
suffers no abatement, and that almost the only certain ad-
vantage which can be gained from it is a laugh at its ex-
pense. But the youth cannot thus contemplate life,--he
must not thus contemplate it. Every period of life has its
peculiar calling. Good-natured laughter at vulgarity be-
longs to ripened age; the attitude of youth towards it ought
to be that of stern aversion,--and no one will be able in
after years to look on it, and to laugh at it, and yet remain
truly free and pure from its taint, who does not begin in
youth by avoiding and hating it. Jesting is not suited for
youth,--they know little of man who think so; where youth
is wasted in sport, it will never attain to earnestness and
true existence. The portion of youth in life is the Earnest
and the Sublime;--only after such a youth does maturity
attain to the Beautiful, and with it to sportful enjoyment of
the Vulgar.
Further, everything is vulgar and ignoble which weakens
spiritual power. I shall instance idleness;--to mention
drunkenness or sensuality would be below the dignity
of our subject. To live without active occupation, -- to
cast a dull and unmeaning gaze around us, will soon make
our minds dull and unmeaning. This propensity to non-
existence, to spiritual torpor, becomes a habit, a second
nature; it surprises us in our studies or while listening to
our teacher, creates a chasm in what would otherwise be a
strictly connected whole, interposes itself here and there
between ideas which we should have bound together, so
that we cannot comprehend even those which are most easy
and intelligible. How this propensity should seize upon
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? HOW INTEGRITY MANIFESTS ITSELF. 188
youth, may well remain unaccountable even to men of the
deepest penetration and judgment; and in most cases it
would be no delusion to seek its cause in some secret infir-
mity or vice. Youth is the age of newly-developed power;
everywhere there are still impulses and principles destined
to burst forth into new creations;--the peculiar character
of youth is restless and uninterrupted activity; left to itself,
it can never be without occupation. To see it slothful is
the sight of winter in the time of spring, the blight and
withering of a newly-opened flower. Were it naturally pos-
sible that this idleness should attempt to gain dominion
over the true-minded and virtuous Student, he would never
for a moment endure it. In the Eternal Thought of God
his spiritual power has its source; lit is thus his most pre-
cious treasure, and he will not suffer it to fall into impotent
rigidity before it has fulfilled its task. He watches unceas-
ingly over himself, and never allows himself to rest in sloth-
ful inaction. It is only for a short period that this exertion
of the will is needed; afterwards, its result continues of it-
self, for it is happily as easy,--or even more easy because it
is more natural,--for man to accustom himself to industry
than to idleness, and after a time passed in sustained ac-
tivity it even becomes impossible for him to live without
employment.
Lastly, everything is vulgar and ignoble which robs man
of respect for himself, of faith in himself, and of the power
of reckoning with confidence upon himself and his purposes.
Nothing is more destructive of character than for man to
lose all faith in his own resolutions, because he has so often
determined, and again determined, to do that which never-
theless he has never done. Then he feels it necessary to
flee from himself; he can no longer turn inward to his own
thoughts, lest he be covered with shame before them; he
shuns no society so much as his own, and deliberately gives
himself up to dissipation and self-forgetfulness. Not so the
upright Student: he keeps his purpose; and whatever he
has resolved to do, that he does, were it only because he has
resolved to do it. For the same reason,--that he must be
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? 184
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR
guided by his own purpose and his own insight,--he will
not become a slave to the opinion of others, or even to the
general opinion. It is doubtless of all things most ignoble,
when man,--out of too great complacency, which at bottom
is cowardice and want of spirit, or out of indolence, which
prevents him from thinking for himself and drawing the
principles of his conduct from his own mind,--gives himself
up to others, and relies upon them rather than upon him-
self. Such an one has indeed no self within him, and be-
lieves in no self within him, but goes as a suppliant to
others, and entreats of them, one after another, to lend him
their personality. How can such an one regard himself as
honourable and holy, when he neither knows nor acknow-
ledges his own being?
I have said that the true-minded Student will not make
himself a slave to common opinion; nevertheless he will
accommodate himself to established customs where these
are in themselves indifferent, simply because he honours
himself. The educated youth grows up amid these cus-
toms; were he to cast them off, he must of necessity deli-
berately resolve to do so, and attract notice and attention to
himself by his singularities and his offences against de-
corum. How should he whose time is occupied with
weightier matters find leisure to ponder such a subject? Is
the matter so important, and is there no other way in which
he can distinguish himself, that he must take refuge in a
petty peculiarity ? " No! " answers the noble-minded Stu-
dent; "I am here to comprehend weightier things than out-
ward manners, and I will not have it appear that I am too
awkward to understand these. I will not by such littleness
cause myself and my class to be despised and hated by the
uncharitable, or good-naturedly laughed at by those of
better disposition; my fellow-citizens of other classes, or of
my own, my teachers, my superiors, shall have it in their
power to honour and respect me as a man, in every relation
of human life. "
And thus in all its relations does the life of the studious
youth, who respects himself, flow on--blameless and lovely.
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? 185
LECTURE VI.
OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
The point which we had attained at the close of last lecture
in our portraiture of the Student to whom his own person
had become holy through the view of his vocation as a
Divine Thought, was the consideration of his outward man-
ners. With this subject is connected an idea, frequently
broached but seldom duly weighed,--the idea of the Aca-
demical Freedom of the Student. Much, indeed, of what
has been said regarding this subject lies below the dignity
of these lectures; and, only in the sequel will we be able to
find a way of elevating it to our own standard . Hence I
not only cheerfully admit that the discussion of this idea,
which I hope to accomplish to-day, is a mere episode in my
general plan; I must even entreat you so to consider it.
But to pass over altogether a subject to which one is led,
almost unconsciously, in a review of the moral behaviour
of the Student, I hold to be all the less legitimate that it is
commonly avoided, and quite properly avoided, since it may
so easily degenerate into polemics or satire, from both of
which we are secured by the tone of these lectures.
What is Academic Freedom? The answer to this question
is our task for to-day. As eveiy object may be looked upon
from a double point of view,--partly historical, partly phi-
losophical,--so may the subject of our present inquiry. Let
us, in the first place survey it from the historical point of
view,--t. e. let us try to discover what they meant by it who
first allowed and introduced Academic Freedom.
Academies have always been considered as higher schools,
Ba
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? 18G
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
in contrast with the lower preparatory schools, or scJwols
properly so called;--hence the student at the academy as
distinguished from the pupil at the school . The freedom of
the former could thus only be understood to be emancipa-
tion from some constraint to which the latter was subject.
The pupil, for example, was compelled to appear at his class
in a particular kind of clothing, which in those days indi-
cated the dignity of the future Scholar; he dared not neglect
his fixed hours of study; and he had many other duties im-
posed upon him, which were then regarded as a sort of
sacred service preparatory to the future spiritual office to
which the Student was usually destined,--as for instance,
choir-singing. In all these respects he was subject to strict
and constant inspection;--the transgressor was often igno-
miniously punished; and indeed the teacher himself was
both overseer and judge. Meanwhile Universities arose;
and the outward, unlearned world would naturally be in-
clined to place them under similar regulations to those
adopted in the only educational institutions with which it
was familiar,--i. e. such as it saw in the schools. But this
did not ensue,--and it was impossible that it should ensue.
The founders of the first Universities were Scholars of dis-
tinguished talent and energy; they had fought their way
through the surrounding darkness of their age to whatever
insight they possessed; they were wholly devoted to their
scientific pursuits, and lived in them alone; they were en-
compassed by a brilliant reputation; in the circles of the
great they were esteemed, honoured, consulted as oracles.
They could never condescend to assume the position of
overseers and pedagogues towards their hearers. Hence it
was, that they held in contempt the teachers of the lower
schools, from whose level they had raised themselves by
their own ability; and for that reason they would neither
practise, nor allow themselves to be distinguished by, those
things which characterized the former. Their call assem-
bled around them hundreds and thousands from all coun-
tries of Europe; the number of their hearers increased both
their importance and their wealth; and it was not to be
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
187
expected that they should expose to annoyance those who
brought such benefits to them. Besides, how was it possible
that young men, with whom they had but a passing ac-
quaintance among hundreds of their fellows,--who in a few
months, a year, or at most a few years, would return to dis-
tant homes,--should interest them closely, or engage their
affections ? --Neither the moral demeanour nor the scientific
progress of their hearers was of any consequence to them;
and in these days a well-known Latin adage which speaks
of "taking gold and sending home," very naturally arose.
Academic Freedom had arisen, as emancipation from the
constraints of school, and from all supervision on the part of
the teacher over the morality, industry, or scientific progress
of the Student, who was to him a hearer and nothing more.
This is one side of the picture. It may easily be ima-
gined, and, where no very high standard of morality existed,
it might very naturally occur, that these founders of the
early universities did so think of this matter, and that a
portion of this mode of thought has come down to us
through past centuries. Let us now look at the other side.
What, then, would be the natural and reasonable effect
of this idea of Academical Freedom on the minds of the
Students? Could they have thought themselves highly
honoured by this indifference on the part of their teacher to
their moral dignity and scientific improvement ? --could
they have demanded this indifference as a sacred right? I
cannot believe it,--for such indifference amounts to disre-
gard and contempt of the Student, and it is surely most of-
fensive to tell him to his face by such conduct--" It is no-
thing to me what becomes of you. "--Or would it have been
natural for them to conclude, from the carelessness of others
about their moral demeanour and regular application to
study, that therefore they themselves were entitled to ne-
glect these things if they chose? --would they have acted
reasonably had they regarded their Academic Freedom as
only a right to be immoral and indolent? I cannot believe it.
Much more reasonable would it have been, had they deter-
mined, because of this want of foreign superintendence, to
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? 188
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
exercise a stricter surveillance over themselves; if out of
this freedom from outward constraint had arisen a clearer
perception of their duty to urge themselves onward so much
the more powerfully, to watch over themselves so much the
more incessantly, and to look upon their Academic Freedom
as liberty to do all that is right and becoming by their own
free determination.
In short, the Academic Freedom of the Student, taken
historically, according to its actual introduction into the
world, exhibits in its origin, in its progress, and in what of it
still exists, an unjust and indecent contempt for the whole
class of Students, as a most insignificant class; and the Stu-
dent who considers himself honoured by this Freedom, and
lays claim to it as a right, has fallen into a most extraordi-
nary delusion ;---he is certainly ill informed, and has never
seriously reflected on the subject. It may indeed become
the well-disposed man of riper years, who is always a lover
of life and youth, to turn aside from the awkwardness, the
rudeness, and the many errors into which unbridled energy
is apt to fall, goodnaturedly to laugh at these, and to think
that wisdom will come with years; but the youth who feels
himself honoured by this judgment, and even demands it as
his due, cannot be supposed to possess a very delicate sense
of honour.
Let us now consider this subject--the Academic Freedom
of the Student--in its philosophical sense; La. as it ought to
be; as, under certain conditions, it may be; and, what fol-
lows from thence, how the actually existing Academic Free-
dom will be accepted by the Student who understands and
honours his vocation. We shall open a way to the attain-
ment of insight into this matter through the following prin-
ciples :--
1. The external freedom of the Citizen is limited, in
every direction and on all possible sides, by Law; and the
more perfect the Law the greater is the limitation,--and so
it ought to be, for this is the proper office of Law. Hence,
there is no sphere remaining in which the inward freedom
and morality of the Citizen can be outwardly exhibited and
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
189
demonstrated,--and there ought to be no such sphere. All
that is to be done is commanded, under penalties; all that
is not to be done is forbidden, likewise under penalties.
Every inward temptation to neglect what is commanded, or
to do what is forbidden, is counterbalanced in the con-
science of the Citizen by the firm conviction, that should he
give way to the temptation, he must in consequence suffer
a certain amount of evil. Let it not be said,--" There is no
existing legislation so all-comprehensive, nor is the sagacity
and vigilance of any tribunal so infallible, that every offence
is sure to meet its punishment. " I know this; but as I said
before, it ought to be thus, and this is what we should regu-
larly and constantly approximate to. Legislation cannot
calculate on the morality of men; for its object--the free-
dom and security of all within their respective spheres--
cannot be left to depend on so uncertain a thing. For the
just man there is indeed no law under any possible legisla-
tion; he will commit no evil even although it were not for-
bidden, and whatsoever is good and right, that he will do
without reference to the command of authority; he is never
tempted to crime, and therefore the idea of its attendant
punishment never enters his mind. He is conscious of his
virtue, and in this consciousness he has his reward within
himself. But externally there is no distinction between him
and the unjust man who is withheld from the commission
of wrong and impelled to the performance of duty only by
the threatenings of the law:--the former cannot do any-
thing more or leave undone anything more than the latter,
but only does or leaves undone the same things from a dif-
ferent motive, which is not outwardly apparent
.
2. Under this legislation, the Scholar and the unlearned
person stand, and ought to stand, on common ground,--as
Citizens. Both can raise themselves above the law in the
same way,--by integrity of purpose;--but this is not cal-
culated upon in either of them, and in neither can this in-
tegrity become apparent in the sphere of external legisla-
tion. And since the Scholar is further a member of a cer-
tain class in the State, and practises in it a certain calling,
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? 190
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
he lies also under the compulsory obligations belonging to
that class and calling;--and here once more it cannot be
apparent whether he fulfils his duties in this sphere from
integrity of purpose or from fear of punishment; nor does
it in any way concern the community by what motive he is
actuated so that his duties are fulfilled. Lastly, in those
regions which have either not yet been reached by an im-
perfect legislation, or which cannot be reached at all by an
external legislation, he is still accompanied by the fear of
disgrace; -- and here again it cannot be seen whether he
does his duty in consequence of this fear or from inward
integrity of purpose.
3. But, besides these, there are yet other relations of the
Scholar, with which external legislation cannot interfere
and in which it cannot watch over the fulfilment of his
duty,--where the Scholar must be a law to himself and
hold himself to its fulfilment. In the Divine Idea he
carries in himself the form of the future Age which one
day must clothe itself with reality; and he must show an
example and lay down a law to coming generations, for
which he will seek in vain either in present or in past
times. In every age that Idea clothes itself in a new form,
and seeks to shape the surrounding world in its image, and
thus do continually arise new relations of the world to the
Idea, and a new mode of opposition of the former to the
latter.
It is the business of the Scholar so to interpose in
this strife as to reconcile the activity with the purity of his
Idea, its influence with its dignity. His Idea must not lie
concealed within him; it must go forth and lay hold upon
the world, and he is urged to this activity by the deepest
impulses of his being. But the world is incapable of receiv-
ing this Idea in its purity; on the contrary, it strives to
drag down the Idea to the level of its own vulgar thought.
Could he forego aught of this purity, his task would be an
easy one; but he is filled with reverence for the Idea, and he
can give up no part of its perfection. Hence he has to set
before him the difficult task of reconciling these purposes.
No law,--but why do I speak oilawsf--no example of the
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
191
fore-world or of his own time can reveal to him the means
of this union,--for so surely as the Idea has assumed a new
form in him has his case never before occurred. Even re-
flection, of itself, cannot give him this point of union; for
although, by reflection, the Idea itself in all its purity is re-
vealed as the first point of the union, yet much more is
needed before the second point--the mental condition of
the surrounding world, and what may safely be expected
from it--can be clearly and fully comprehended in the same
thought . Well may those who have wrought most mightily
upon their age have closed their career with the inward
confession that their reliance on the spirit of their time had
ever proved fallacious, that they never supposed it to be so
perverse and imbecile as it afterwards proved, and that
while they accurately estimated one of its aberrations and
avoided it, another, hitherto unperceived, revealed itself.
To succeed at all at any time, there is needed, in addition
to reflection, a certain tact, which can only be acquired by
early exercise and habit . s
Farther, it is clear that in this matter--in doing every-
thing possible to reconcile the opposition between the in-
ward purity of the Idea and its external activity -- the
Scholar can be guided only by his own determination, can
have no other judge but himself, and no motive external
to himself. In this no stranger can judge him--in this no
stranger can even wholly understand him, nor divine the
deep purpose of his actions. In this region, so far is respect
for the judgment of others from aiding his intention, that
on the contrary he must here cast aside foreign opinion
altogether, and look upon it as if it were not. He must
be guided and upheld by his own purpose alone;--and tru-
ly he needs a mighty and immovable purpose to keep his
ground against the temptations which arise even from his
noblest inclinations. What is more noble than the impulse
to action, to sway the minds of men, and to compel their
thoughts to the Holy and Divine ? --and yet this impulse
may become a temptation to represent the Holy in a com-
mon and familiar garb for the sake of popularity, and so to
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? 192
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
desecrate it. What is more noble than the deepest rever-
ence for the Holy, and disdain and abnegation of every-
thing vulgar and opposed to it ? --and yet this very rever-
ence might tempt some one to reject his age altogether,--
to cast it from him and avoid intercourse with it. A
mighty and good will is needed to resist the first of these
temptations, and the mightiest of all to overcome the
second.
It is evident from these considerations, that, for his pecu-
liar vocation, the Scholar needs shrewd practical wisdom, a
profound morality, strict watchfulness over himself, and a
fine delicacy of feeling. It follows, that at an early age he
ought to be placed in a position where it is possible and
necessary for him to acquire this practical wisdom and deli-
cacy of feeling, and that this cultivation of mind and cha-
racter should be a peculiar element in the education of the
future Scholar. Every Citizen, without exception, may cul-
tivate these qualities, and must have it in his power to do
so; legislation must leave this possibility open to him,--it
is compelled to do so by its very nature. But it does not
concern the legislature or the commonwealth whether the
Citizen does or does not elevate himself to this vocation, be-
cause his calling will still remain within the range of exter-
nal jurisdiction. But as for the Scholar, it is of importance
to the Commonwealth, and to the whole Human Race, that
he should both raise himself to the purest morality and ac-
quire sound practical wisdom, since he is destined one day
to enter a sphere where he absolutely leaves behind him all
external judgment. The legislation for him, therefore,
should not merely allow him the possibility of moral culti-
vation like every other Citizen, but, so far as in it lies, it
should place him under the outward necessity of acquiring
this cultivation.
And how can it do this? Evidently only by leaving him
to his own judgment as to what is becoming, seemly, and
appropriate, and to his own superintendence of himself. Is
he to create for himself an independent sense of what is
proper and becoming? How can he do so if the law accom-
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? OF ACADEMICAL FREEDOM.
193
panies him everywhere, and everywhere declares what he is
to do and what not to do? Let the law prohibit those whom
she can retain under her yoke from indulgence in every-
thing which she wishes them to renounce; but, as for him
who must one day leave her jurisdiction, let her trust him
betimes as a noble and free man. The man of refined
morality does not wait until the law discovers a thing to be
unseemly and directs its prohibition against it,--it would
be ignominy for him to need such direction;--he antici-
pates the decree, and relinquishes that in which the vulgar
around him indulge without scruple, simply because it is
unbecoming his higher nature. Give the Student room to
place himself in this class by his own effort alone. Is he to
unfold in himself a profound and powerful morality, a ten-
der delicacy of sentiment, a deep sense of honour? How can
he do this surrounded by threats of punishment? Let the
law rather speak to him thus:--" So far as I am concerned,
thou mayest leave the path of right and follow after evil;
no other harm shall overtake thee but to be despised and
scorned,--despised even by thyself when thou turnest thine
eye inwards. If thou wilt venture on this peril, venture on
it without fear. " Is the Human Race one day to confide to
him its most important interests, and in his dealings with
those interests is he to have confidence in himself? How
can men trust him when they have never proved him ? --
how can he trust himself when he has never proved his own
strength 1 He who has not yet been faithful in small things
cannot be entrusted with great things; and he who has not
been able to stand a trial before himself cannot without the
basest dishonour accept an important trust. On these
grounds we rest the claims of Academic Freedom,--of an
extensive yet well-considered Academic Freedom.
In a Perfect State, the outward constitution of Universi-
ties would, in my opinion, be the following:--In the first
place, the Students would be separated from other classes of
the community pursuing other vocations, so that these
classes might not, by the possible abuse of Academic Free-
dom, be harassed or injured, tempted to similar irregulari-
Ca
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? 194.
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
ties, or misled into a hatred of the law while living under
its rule by daily contact with a class free from its restraints. The Students at these Universities would enjoy a high
degree of freedom;--instructions on Morality and Duty, and
impressive pictures of a True Life, would indeed be laid be-
fore them; they would be surrounded by good examples,
and their teachers would not only be profound Scholars, but
the Slite of the best men in the nation;--of compulsory laws,
however, there would be very few. Let them freely choose
either good or evil: the time of study is but the time of
trial; the time for the decision of their fate comes after-
wards;--and our arrangement would have this advantage,
that unworthiness, where it existed, would be clearly recog-
Jnised as such and could no longer be concealed.
The present actual constitution of Universities is indeed
by no means of this kind. It is doubtful whether Academic
Freedom was ever looked upon from the point of view from
which we have described it, particularly whether it was ever
so looked upon by those who gave the Universities their cons-
titution. Academic Freedom has actually arisen in the way
described in a former part of this lecture,--i. e. from disre-
spect towards the Student-class: and we may leave it un-
determined by what influence the remnants of this system
are now maintained; for even were it admitted that the same
disrespect for the class, which still exists although in a less
degree, and perhaps want of opportunity to get rid of these
relics of another age, were its only supports, yet this is of no
moment to the true-minded Student, who judges of things
not by their outward form but by their inward spirit.
Whatever others may think of Academic Freedom, he, for
his part, takes it in its true sense:--as a means by which
he may learn to direct himself when outward precept leaves
him,--watch over himself when no one else watches over
him,--urge himself forward where there is no longer any
outward impulse,--and thus train and strengthen himself
for his future high vocation.
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? LECTURE VII.
OP THE FINISHED SCHOLAR IN GENERAL.
The true-minded Scholar looks upon his vocation--to be-
come a partaker of the Divine thought of the universe--as
the purpose of God in him; and therefore both his person
and his calling become to him, before all other things, ho-
nourable and holy; and this holiness shows itself in all his
outward manifestations. Such is the point at which we
have now arrived.
We have hitherto spoken of the Progressive Scholar--the
Student; and we have seen how the sense of the dignity
conferred upon his person by this exalted vocation expresses
itself in his life. How his conviction of the holiness of
Knowledge pervades and influences his studies we have
already noticed in one of the earlier lectures, and it is not
necessary to add anything to what we have said upon this
point. k
And it is the less necessary since this reverence for
Knowledge which is felt by the Student manifests itself
chiefly in the appropriate estimation and consecration of his
person and is therein exhausted; while it is quite otherwise
in the Finished Scholar. In the Progressive Scholar, that
which he strives after--the Idea--has yet to acquire a
form and an independent life:--these it does not yet
possess. As yet the Student does neither immediately
possess, nor is he thoroughly penetrated by, the Idea; he
reverences it only at a distance, and can comprehend it
only by means of his person, as the standard to which
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? 196
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
that person ought to raise itself, the spirit by which it
ought to be swayed. He can as yet do nothing directly
in its service; he can only live for it indirectly, by con-
secrating and devoting his person to its use as its appoint-
ed instrument; preserving himself pure in sense and
spirit because all impurity would mar and disqualify him
for that function; by giving himself up entirely to its in-
fluence and pursuing and executing with unwearied indus-
try everything which may become a means or opportunity
to the Idea of unfolding itself within him. It is other-
wise with the Finished Scholar. As surely as he is such,
the Idea has already commenced its proper and indepen-
dent life within him; his personal life has now actually
passed into the Life of the Idea, and is therein absorbed;--
an absorption of self in the Idea which was only striven
after by the Student. As surely as he is a perfect Scholar,
so surely is there now no longer in him any thought of self,
but his whole thought is henceforth absorbed in the
thought of the Idea. And thus the distinction which we
originally made between the holiness of his person and the
holiness of his vocation now becomes a point of transition
from the contemplation of the Progressive to that of the
Finished Scholar,--the portraiture of whom it is now my
purpose to place beside that of the Progressive Scholar.
Hitherto we have considered the Progressive Scholar
chiefly in the character of a Student at a University; and
these two Ideas have been almost constantly associated to-
gether in our previous lectures. Now, for the first time,
when we have to accompany the Student from the Academy
into Life, we must call to mind that the studies and cha-
racter of the Progressive Scholar are not necessarily com-
pleted with his residence at the University; nay, further on,
we shall even perceive a ground upon which we may say that, properly speaking, his studies have their true begin-
ning only after his academic course has closed. This much,
however, remains true, as the sure result of what has been
already said,--that the youth who during his residence at
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
197
the University is not at least inspired with respect for the
holiness of Knowledge, and does not at least learn to honour
his own person to such an extent as not to render it un-
worthy of his high vocation, will never afterwards attain to
any true sense of the dignity of Knowledge; and whatever
part he may be called to play in life, he will take to it as a
common handicraft and with the sentiment of an hireling
who has no other motive to his labour than the pay he is to
receive for it. To say anything more of such an one lies
beyond the boundaries of our present subject.
But the Student who is penetrated with the conviction
that the essential purpose of his studies will be defeated
unless the Idea acquire an intrinsic form and independent
life within him, and that in the highest perfection,--he will
by no means lay aside his studies and scientific labours
when he leaves the University. Even if he be compelled
by outward necessity to enter upon a secular employment,
he will devote to Knowledge all the time and ability he can
spare from that employment, and will neglect no opportu-
nity which presents itself of attaining a higher culture. The
exercise of his faculties in the pursuit of learning will be
profitable to him even in the transaction of his ordinary
business. And amid the brilliant distinctions of office, and
even in mature age, he will restlessly strive and labour to
master the Idea, never resigning the hope of becoming
greater than he now is, so long as strength permits him to
indulge it. Without this untiring effort, much true Genius
would be wholly lost, for scientific talent usually unfolds it-
self more slowly, the higher and purer its essential nature,
and its clear development waits for mature years and manly
strength.
The Student who is penetrated with deep respect for the
holiness of the Scholar's vocation, will be guided by that
respect in his choice of a civic profession; and, particularly,
in the province of learning, if he do not feel the deepest
conviction of his ability to fulfil its highest duties, he will
choose a subordinate occupation, restrained from assumption
by his reverence for the dignity of Knowledge. But a sub-
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? 198
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
ordinate Scholar-occupation is one in which the ends to be
attained have been prescribed by some other intellect pos-
sessed with a knowledge of the Idea, and in which the capa-
cities which have been acquired through study, pursued for
the attainment of the Idea, are employed only as means to
fulfil those purposes which have thus been prescribed from
without. His person is thus not degraded into a passive
instrument; he is for ever secured against that by the
general view he takes of human life and its significance;--
he serves God alone in spirit and in sense; and, under the
guidance of his superiors, whom he leaves to answer for the
direction which they give to his actions and their results, he
promotes God's purposes with men, which must embrace all
forms of human activity. Thus does he proceed in his
choice of a secular employment as surely as he has been
inspired in his youth with respect for the dignity of the
peculiar vocation of the Scholar. To undertake such an
employment without consciousness of possessing the needful
power and cultivation is to profane it, and manifests a want
both of delicacy and of principle. And it is impossible that
he should fall into error on this point; for if he has passed
through his academic course in a creditable manner, then
he has certainly acquired, in some degree, a perception of
what is worthy, and has obtained a standard by which he
can take his own intellectual dimensions. If a conscientious
course of study at a University secured no other advantage
than that of presenting to youth a picture of the dignified
calling of the Scholar as a model for life, and of repelling
from this sphere those who are not endowed with the requi-
site ability, such a course would, on account of this advan-
tage alone, be of the utmost importance to the Student.
We have thus generally described the nature of a subor-
dinate Scholar-occupation. It does not demand in him who
pursues it, the immediate possession of the Idea, but only
that knowledge which is acquired in striving after such pos-
session. It is to be understood that in this again there are
higher and lower grades, according as the occupation re-
quires a wider or narrower range of knowledge,--and that,
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? OF THE FINISHED SCHOLAR.
199
in this respect too, the conscientious man will not under-
take anything which exceeds his powers. It is unnecessary
to describe these subordinate Scholar-occupations in detail.
The higher and peculiar calling of the Scholar may be de-
scribed so as to exhaust all its particular forms, and it is
then easy to draw this consequence:--" All those pursuits
which are usually followed by educated men, but which do
not find a place in this all-comprehensive delineation of the
higher calling of the Scholar, but are excluded from it, are
subordinate Scholar-occupations. " We have therefore only
now to lay before you this perfect delineation.
In our first lecture we have already definitely character-
ized the life of him in whom Learned Culture has fulfilled
its end:--his life is itself the life of the Divine Idea in the
world, changing and reconstructing it from its very founda-
tion. In the same place we have said that this life may
manifest itself in two forms;--either in actual external Be-
ing and Action, or only in Idea; which two distinct modes of
manifestation together constitute the peculiar vocation of
the Scholar. The first class comprehends all those who, by
their own strength, and according to their own idea, assume
the guidance of human affairs, leading them on to ever-new
perfection in constant harmony with each succeeding age;
who, originally, as the highest free leaders of men, direct
their social relations, and the relation of the whole to pas-
sive nature;--not those only who stand in the higher places
of the earth, as kings, or the immediate councillors of kings,
but all without exception who possess the right and calling,
either by themselves or in concert with others, to think,
judge, and resolve independently concerning the original dis-
posal of these affairs. The second class embraces the Scho-
lars, properly and pre-eminently so called, whose vocation it
is to maintain among men the knowledge of the Divine
Idea, to elevate it unceasingly to greater clearness and pre-
cision, and thus to transmit it from generation to genera-
tion, ever growing brighter in the freshness and glory of re-
newed youth. The first class act directly upon the world,--
they are the immediate point of contact between God and
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? 200
THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
reality;--the last are the mediators between the pure spiri-
tuality of thought in the God-head, and the material energy
and influence which that thought acquires through the in-
strumentality of the first class; they are the trainers of the
first class,--the enduring pledge to the human race that the
first class shall never fail from among men. No one can
belong to the first class without having already belonged to
the second,--without always continuing to belong to it
.
The second class of Scholars is again separated into sub-
divisions, according to the manner in which they communi-
cate to others their conceptions of the Idea. Either their
immediate object is, by direct and free personal communica-
tion of their ideal conceptions, to cultivate in future Scho-
lars a capacity for the reception of the Idea, so that they
may afterwards lay hold of it and comprehend it for them-
selves :--and then they are educators of Scholars, Teachers in
the higher or lower schools;--or, they propound their con-
ceptions of the Idea, in a complete and finished form, to
those who have already cultivated the capacity to compre-
hend it. This is at present done by books,--and they are
thus--Authors.
The classes which we have now enumerated, whose seve-
ral occupations are not necessarily portioned out to different
individuals, but may quite readily be united in one and the
the same person, comprise all true and proper Scholars, and
exhaust the whole vocation of those in whom Learned Cul-
ture has fulfilled its end. Every other function, whatever
name it may bear, which the Educated Man* (who may be
distinguished by this title from the True Scholar) is called
upon to fulfil, is a subordinate Scholar-occupation. The
Educated Man continues in it, only because he has not by
his studies been able to attain to the rank of the True
Scholar, but nevertheless finds here a useful purpose to
which those capacities and knowledge which he has ac-
quired may be applied. It is by no means the object of
* Germ. "Studirte," one who has studied,--contrasted with "Studirende," one
who studies. We have no single equivalent for "Studirte" in English. --Tr.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-27 00:10 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/wu. 89090378035 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
