Life in itself is One; it remains
unchangeably
the same; and, since it is the perfect fulfilment of the Love of Life
that dwells in it, it is perfect Blessedness.
that dwells in it, it is perfect Blessedness.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
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net/2027/wu.
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? 524
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
these words in their literal acceptation,--as if Beauty
could ever appertain to the Earthly and Perishable, or could
be transferred to these. But the source of Beauty is in God
alone, and it reveals itself only in the minds of those who
are inspired by Him. Imagine, for example, a Holy Virgin,
who, being ascended into Heaven, encircled by the heavenly
hosts who fall down before her presence in rapt contempla-
tion, surrounded by all the splendours of a Heaven of which
she herself is the highest ornament and glory, can yet alone
of those present see nothing of all that takes place around
her, being wholly overwhelmed and lost in this one feeling:
--" Behold the handmaiden of the Lord: be it unto me ac-
cording to his will;"--clothe this feeling, thus surrounded,
in a human body, and then unquestionably you have Beauty
in a determinate Form. Now what is it that makes this
Form beautiful? Is it the separate parts and members of
which it is composed? Is it not much rather the single
feeling which speaks in all these members? The Form is
superadded, only because in it, and by means of it, the
Thought becomes visible; and it is transferred by means of
lines and colours to the canvass, because thus only can it be
communicated to others. Perhaps this Thought might also
have been expressed in hard and senseless stone, or in any
other material. Would then the stone thereby become
beautiful? The stone ever remains stone, and is wholly
unsusceptible of such a predicate; but the soul of the Artist
was beautiful when he conceived his work, and the soul of
every intelligent beholder in whom the conception is repeat-
ed will likewise become beautiful;--the stone ever remains
only that which fixes the limits of the outward perception
during this inward spiritual development.
This ideal Being and the creative Affection of it, as a
mere natural phenomenon, manifests itself generally as
Genius--for Art, for Government, for Science, &c. It is
understood, of course, and to every one who has any experi-
ence whatever in matters of this kind it is by means of this
very experience sufficiently known, that--since the natural
affection for such creations of Genius is the very foundation
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? LECTURE IX.
525
of the Life of Genius in which all its other life is swallowed
up,--I say, it is understood that true Genius does not require
to stimulate and urge itself on to industry in its Art or in
its Science by any Categorical Imperative, but that all its
powers, of their own accord, direct themselves towards this
its all-engrossing object;--further, that, so surely as any one
possesses True Genius, his work always prospers well, and
the products of his labour are always pleasing to him, and
thus he is ever surrounded, inwardly and outwardly, by the
Beautiful and Agreeable;--that, finally, he does not em-
ploy this Activity for the attainment of any object what-
ever beyond itself, nor will accept aught in exchange for it;
but, on the contrary, no earthly consideration would induce
him to leave undone what he alone may do, or to do it other-
wise than as seems right and pleasing to himself;--that
he consequently finds his true and satisfying Enjoyment
of Life only in such work, purely and solely as work, and for
the work's sake; and whatever of the external world he may
accept besides does not of itself engross his thoughts, but
he accepts it only in order that, renewed and strengthened
by it, he may return to his own true element. And thus
mere natural Genius soars far above both the low desires of
the Sensualist and the callous indifferentism of the Stoic,
and carries its possessor through an uninterrupted succes-
sion of blissful momenta, for which he needs nothing beyond
himself, and which, without painful effort or labour on his
part, arise spontaneously within his Life. The Enjoyment
of a single hour, passed happily in the pursuit of Art or of
Science, far outweighs a whole lifetime of Sensuous Enjoy-
ment y and before the picture of this Blessedness, the mere
Sensuous Man, could it but be brought home to him, would
sink in envy and dismay.
In the illustration we have thus adduced, we have as-
sumed a natural Genius as the peculiar source and root of
the Spiritual Enjoyment of Life, as well as of the scorn of
mere Sensuous Enjoyment; and I have desired, by means of
this single example of the Higher Morality and its Blessed-
ness, to lead you to a more universal conception of it. But
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? 52G
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Genius,--notwithstanding that its object is in itself
truly super-sensual, and the pure expression of the God-
head, as we showed in particular by the example of the
Beautiful,--does yet desire, and must desire, that its Spi-
ritual Object should receive a certain form and clothing in
the World of Sense; and thus Genius does also desire, in a
certain sense, such a determinate Form of its World and its
environment, as in our previous lecture we unconditionally
censured and condemned in the case of Sensuousness;--and
if the self-enjoyment of Genius were dependent on the ac-
cidental realization or non-realization of this outward re-
sult as the aim of its efforts, then would the peace and
tranquillity of Genius itself be at an end; and the Higher
Morality would be exposed to all the miseries of the lower
Sensuousness. But, so far as Genius is concerned, so surely
as it is Genius, it will assuredly succeed in the expression
and representation of its Idea in the appropriate medium,
and its desired Form and environment can therefore never
be awanting; while nevertheless it is the Activity with
which it produces this Form which is the true seat of its
immediate enjoyment, to which the Form itself only contri-
butes indirectly because in it only does the Activity become
appareut;--from which it is obvious that True Genius never
lingers long over anything it has already attained, nor dwells
in voluptuous enjoyment of it, and of itself in it, but pro-
ceeds onward without delay to new developments. In gene-
ral, however, apart from particular Genius, and with refer-
ence to all possible Life in which the Divine Being mani-
fests itself purely, I lay down the following principle:--So
long as joy in the deed is mixed up with desires regarding
the outward product of the deed, even the possessor of the
Higher Morality is not yet perfect in purity and clearness;
and thus, in the Divine Economy, the outward failure of his
deed is the means of forcing him in upon himself, and of
raising him to the yet higher standpoint of True Religion,
--that is, to the comprehension of what it really is that
he loves and strives after. Understand this as a whole, and
in its connexion, thus :--
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? LECTURE IX. 527
f
(I. ) The Free Ego, deduced and described with sufficient
distinctness in our previous lecture, and which, as Reflexion,
ever remains one and the same, does yet, as Object--that is,
as the reflecting substance that exists only in Appearance--
become divided, at the first glance into an infinity, but also,
for a reason that lies too deep to be treated of in these lec-
tures, into a progressive system of Individual Personalities.
(This separation is a portion of that division of the objective
world into the Form of Infinity which we have already suf-
ficiently described upon several occasions; and thus belongs
to the absolutely fundamental Form of Ex-istence, which
cannot be cast off even by the Godhead itself:--As Being
originally separated itself in this division, so it remains se-
parated in all Eternity; and hence no Individual given in
this division--that is, no Individual who has come into Ac-
tual Ex-istence,--can ever perish; this is to be noticed only
in passing, and in opposition to those among our contem-
poraries, who by means of a half-philosophy and whole-be-
wilderment esteem themselves in the highest degree en-
lightened when they deny the continued Ex-istence in
higher spheres of the Individuals actually existing here. )
In them,--these Individual Personalities thus arising from
the fundamental Form of Ex-istence,--the entire Divine Be-
ing is separated into an infinite progressive development in
Time, and is, as it were, divided among them, according to
the Absolute Law of such a division which is founded in the
Essential Divine Nature itself; whilst, further, every one of
these Individuals, as a section of the One Ego determined
by its own essential Form, necessarily bears this latter
Form in its entirety,--that is, as we said in our last lecture,
it is free and independent in relation to the five standpoints.
Each Individual has therefore in his own free choice, which
cannot be taken away from him even by the Divinity him-
self, the possibility of viewing and of enjoying from any
of these five standpoints that portion in the Absolute Be-
ing which belongs to him as an Actual Individual . Thus
has each Individual, in the first place, his determinate por-
tion in the Sensuous Life, and in its Love; which Life will
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? 528
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
appear to him as the ultimate and absolute end and purpose
of his Being, so long as this freedom, which is discovered
only by its actual use, is wholly engrossed therein. But if
he should rise, perhaps through the sphere of Legality, to
that of the Higher Morality, then will that Sensuous Life
become to him but a means; and his portion in the High-
er, Super-sensual, and immediately Divine Life, will re-
veal itself to his Love. Every one without exception neces-
sarily receives, by his mere entrance into Actual Existence, his portion in this Super-sensual Being; for otherwise,
he would be no result of that division of the Absolute
Being, according to its own Essential Law, without which
there is no Actual Ex-istence, and he would not other-
wise even have become actual; but to every one without
exception this Super-sensual Being may nevertheless re-
main concealed, should he be unable to renounce his Sen-
suous Being and its objective independence. Every one
without exception, I say, receives that portion in the Super-
sensual Being which is exclusively his own, and which be-
longs in the same manner to no other Individual whatever
but himself; which portion now develops itself in him in
all Eternity,--manifesting itself as a continuous course of
action,--in such a form as it can absolutely assume in no
other Individual;--and this, in short, may be called the in-
dividual character of his Higher Vocation. Not that the
Essential Divine Nature is divided in itself;--in all men,
without exception, the one and unchangeable Divine Na-
ture, as it is in itself, is assumed;--and if they can but at-
tain True Freedom, may also appear in actual manifestation;
--but this Nature manifests itself in each Individual in a
different Form, peculiar to himself. Let Being, as we have
already supposed, be -- A, and Form = B; then A, which
has absolutely entered into B, divides itself by this very
act of entrance, not according to its Essential Nature but
according to its Absolute Form in Reflexion, into (b + b
b . . . . ) = a System of Individuals: and each individual
b contains in itself--(1. ) the whole and indivisible A, (2. )
the whole and indivisible B, (3. ) its own particular b;--and
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? LECTURE IX.
52. 9
the same with all the other results of A throughout (b -f - b
+ *. . . . )
(2. ) No one can discover, by means of mere thought alone,
this his peculiar portion in the Super-sensual Being; nor
can he deduce it by way of inference from any other truth;
nor can he be made acquainted with it through any other
individual, since this portion cannot be known to any other
individual;--but he can attain a knowledge of it only by
immediate personal consciousness; and his Being must ne-
cessarily and spontaneously assume this Form so soon as he
has surrendered and wholly annihilated all personal will and
personal purposes within him. Hence it is clear, in the
first place, that with respect to this, which only each man
can clearly comprehend for himself in his own immediate
consciousness, it is impossible to speak in general terms,
and that I must here necessarily stop short. And what
end, indeed, could here be served by speech, even were
speech possible? He to whom his especial Higher Vocation
has revealed itself knows it as it is revealed to him; and
he may conclude by analogy how it is with others to whom
their Higher Vocation has also become clear and intelligible.
But as for him to whom it has not revealed itself, to him
no information on this subject can be communicated;--it
serves no purpose to speak of colours to the blind.
Has this peculiar Vocation revealed itself to him ? --then
does it penetrate him with unspeakable Love, and with the
purest Enjoyment;--penetrates him wholly, and takes pos-
session of all his Life. And thus it is the very first act of
the Higher Morality, which must infallibly ensue so soon as
the mere personal will has been resigned, that man becomes
wholly penetrated with his own especial Vocation, and de-
sires to be nothing whatever but that which he, and only
he, can be; which he, and only he, in virtue of his Higher
Nature, that is, of the Divine Nature in him, ought to be;
--in short, that he desires nothing whatever but that which,
at bottom, he actually wills. How could such a man ever
do anything with unwillingness, since he never does any-
thing else but that in which he has the highest delight?
Yb
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? 530 THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
What I said above of natural Genius, is even still more
applicable to the Virtue which is born of perfect Freedom;
for this Virtue is the highest expression of Genius; it is
the immediate power of Genius,--i. e. that Form which the
Essential Divine Nature has assumed in our Individuality.
On the contrary, the desire and effort to be something else
than that to which we are called, however great and noble
that other thing may seem, is the highest Immorality; and
all the constraints that man imposes upon himself for that
purpose, and all the unhappiness that he consequently suf-
fers, are themselves rebellions against the Divine Rule, and
resistances of our will to the Divine. What is it then that
has thus set up within us a purpose not imposed upon us
by our Higher Nature, but personal will, personal choice,
personal self-complacent wisdom ? --and thus we are very
far indeed from the renunciation of our own personal, in-
dividual will. This effort is necessarily the source of the
greatest unhappiness. In this position we must constant-
ly enforce, constrain, urge, and deny ourselves; for we can
never do that willingly which, at bottom, we cannot will;
and we can never attain a successful issue, for we cannot
accomplish that which our Nature itself forbids. This is
the affectation of outward sanctity against which we are
warned by Christianity. It may remove mountains, and
even give its body to be burned, and yet that will profit it
nothing if such be not the dictate of true Love,--that is, if
it be not its own peculiar Spiritual Being that necessarily
brings with it its own Affection. Will to be--we mean in
supersensual things, for in mere sense there is no Blessed-
ness--will to be what thou oughtst to be, what thou canst be,
and what therefore thou wilt be:--this is the fundamental
Law, as well of the Higher Morality as of the Blessed Life.
(3. ) This Higher Vocation of Man, which, as we said,
penetrates him with complete and undivided Love, exhibits
itself indeed, in the first place, in his own conduct; but in
the second place, and by means of that conduct, it likewise
manifests itself in a determinate result in the World of
Sense. So long as man does not yet know the true root
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? LECTURE IX.
531
and essential central-point of his Ex-istence, the two ele-
ments we have named,--his own Inward Being and its Out-
ward Result,--remain undistinguished. Something proves
unsuccessful with him; and the outward result at which he
aims does not ensue,--which indeed is not his fault, for he
wills only that which he can, but that of outward circum-
stances which are not susceptible of his influence,--and
then his Love, which has still a mixed object, is dissatisfied
with this failure, and thereby his Blessedness is disturbed
and destroyed. This forces him more deeply in upon him-
self, in order that he may make it perfectly clear to himself
what it really is that he strives after; and what, on the
contrary, it is that in deed and truth he does not strive
after, but which is indifferent to him. In this self-exami-
nation he will discover what we have plainly enunciated
above, although he may not express it in the same words,
--namely that/It is the development of the Divine Being
and Life in him, this particular Individual, which he
strives after especially and in the first place;--and hereby
his whole Being and Love will become perfectly clear to
him, and he will be raised from the Third standpoint of the
Higher Morality, in which we have hitherto retained him,
to the Fourth--that of Religion. This Divine Life now
continually developes itself within him, without hindrance
or obstruction, as it can and must develope itself only in
him and his individuality;--this alone it is that he properly
wills ;--his will is therefore always accomplished;--and it is
absolutely impossible that anything contrary to it should
ever come to pass. This his proper Inward Life does in-
deed still desire constantly to flow forth in surrounding cir-
cumstances and to fashion these after itself, and only in
this effort after outward expression does it show itself to be
true Inward Life, and not mere dead devotion. But the
result of this effort after outward expression does not de-
pend on his own isolated Individual Life alone, but upon
the general Freedom of other Individuals besides himself:
this Freedom God himself cannot wish to destroy, therefore
neither can the man who is devoted to God, and who has
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? 532
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
attained a clear knowledge of God,--neither can he wish
that it should be destroyed. While, therefore, he certainly
desires this outward result, and labours unceasingly and
with all his power to effect it,--because he cannot abstain
from doing so, and because this is his own proper Inward
Life,--he yet does not will it absolutely and unconditional-
ly; and it therefore would not, even for a single moment,
disturb his Peace and Blessedness should it nevertheless re-
main unaccomplished,--his Love and his Blessedness return
into his own proper Life, where they always, and without ex-
ception, find their true satisfaction. Thus much in general. For the rest, the matters now touched upon demand a
further exposition, which we reserve for our next lecture
in order that we may here reach a result which will spread
a general light over the whole;--namely,
(4. ) Everything which this Moral-Religious Man wills
and incessantly urges forward, has, in and for itself, no value
whatever to him;--as indeed it has none in itself, and is
not in itself the most perfect, but only that which is most
perfect in this moment of Time, to be superseded in a
Future Time by something still more perfect;--but it has
value for him only because it is the immediate Manifesta-
tion of God,--the Form which God assumes in him, this de-
finite Individual. Now God also dwells originally, likewise
in a peculiar Form, in all other surrounding Individuals,
notwithstanding that he remains concealed from most of
them in consequence of their personal, individual Will, and
their want of the highest Freedom, and thus is not actual-
ly manifested either in themselves, or in their conduct to-
wards others. In this position the Moral-Religious Man--
although with reference to himself he has entered upon his
portion of True Being--is, with reference to other Indivi-
duals, separated and cut off from the constituent parts of
Being which are related to him; and there abides in him a
sorrowful striving and longing to unite and associate him-
self with these kindred elements:? not indeed that this
longing disturbs his Blessedness, for this is the permanent lot
of his Finite Being, and a part of his allegiance to God, to em-
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? LECTURE IX.
533
brace which with Love is itself a portion of his Blessedness.
For what then would this concealed Inward Being, were
it manifested in the conduct of other individuals,--for what
would it possess a value in the estimation of our supposed
Religious Man? Obviously not for itself,--since even his
own nature has no value whatever to him in itself,--but
because it is the Manifestation of God in these Individuals.
Further, for what will he desire that this Manifestation
should possess a value in the estimation of these Indivi-
duals themselves? Obviously only that it may be recog-
nized by them as the Manifestation of God in themselves.
Finally, for what will he desire that his own conduct and
effort should possess a value in the estimation of these
Individuals? Obviously only that they may recognize in it
the Manifestation of God in him.
And thus we have now a general outward characteriza-
tion of the Moral-Religious Will, in so far as it comes forth
from the Inward Life, which ever remains hidden in itself,
into Outward Manifestation. In the first place, the object
of this Will is ever only the Spiritual World of reason-
able beings; for the World of Sense has long ago with him
been reduced to a mere sphere of spiritual activity. In this
Spiritual World, his positive Will is this--that in the con-
duct of each Individual there may be manifested purely
that Form which the Essential Divine Nature has assumed
in him this particular Individual;--that, on the other hand,
each Individual may recognize God, as he is outwardly ma-
nifested to him in the conduct of all other men;--that all
others may, in like manner recognize God as he is out-
wardly manifested to them in the conduct of this particular
Individual;--and that thus God alone may ever be manifest-
ed in all Outward Appearance;--that He alone may live and
rule, and nothing besides Him;--and that, everywhere and
at all times, He alone may be present to the eye of mortals.
Thus, as it is expressed by Christianity in the form of a
prayer:--" Thy kingdom come :--even that condition of the
world in which Thou alone art, and livest, and rulest, so
that--Thy Will may be done on earth,--in the Actual, by
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? 534
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
means of that Freedom which Thou Thyself wilt not take
away,--as it ever is done, and indeed never can be other-
wise done, in Heaven,--in the Idea, in the world as it is in
itself, and without relation to Freedom. "
For example :--Yonder they complain that misery is so
abundant in the world, and go about with a zeal, praise-
worthy in itself, to make it somewhat less. Alas! the mi-
sery that lies most open to view is not the true misery;--
since things are as they are, misery is the best of all that is
in the world; and since the world does not improve not-
withstanding all this misery, one might almost believe that
there is not yet enough of misery in it:--that the image of
God, Humanity, should be sullied, degraded, and trodden in
the dust,--this is the true misery in the world, which fills
the Religious Man with holy indignation. Perchance thou
dost alleviate the sorrows of humanity, so far as thy hand
can reach, by the sacrifice of thine own dearest enjoyments.
But this may happen only on account of Nature having
given thee a system of nerves so sensitive, and so harmoni-
ously attuned with the rest of humanity, that every sorrow
which thou beholdest repeats itself more keenly in thine
own organization;--and then it is to this delicate organiza-
tion that our thanks are due;--in the Spiritual World thy
deed passes unnoticed. Hadst thou done the like deed
in holy indignation that the Son of Eternity, in whom also
there dwells something god-like, should be tormented by
such trifles as these, and should be left there so forsaken by
his fellows;--with the desire that he might have at least
one glad hour in which he might raise his eyes joyfully and
thankfully to Heaven;--with the purpose that in thy hand
he might see the saving hand of God, and might know of a
surety that the arm of God is not yet shortened, but that He
has yet everywhere instruments and servants to do His will,
and that thus Faith and Hope and Love might arise in his
soul;--if thus what thou desiredst to help had been his In-
ward Nature, and not his Outward, which is ever without
true value;--then had thy deed been the outward expres-
sion of a Moral-Religious Spirit.
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? 535
LECTURE X.
SURVEY OF THE WHOLE SUBJECT FROM THE STAND-
POINT OF TRUE RELIGION;--DELINEATION
OF THE BLESSED LIFE.
Now that it is our purpose to bring these lectures to a close,
let us once more combine into one view the doctrine which
we have built up before you.
Life in itself is One; it remains unchangeably the same; and, since it is the perfect fulfilment of the Love of Life
that dwells in it, it is perfect Blessedness. This True Life
exists, at bottom, wherever any form or degree of Life is to
be found; but it may be concealed by an admixture of the
elements of Death and Nothingness; and then, by means of
pain and torment and mortification of this imperfect Life, it
forces itself onward towards its development. We have
followed, with our own eyes, this development of the True
Life out of the imperfect Apparent Life by which it may at
first be concealed;--to-day it is our purpose to accompany
this Life into the central-point of its dominion and to invest
it with all its glory. In our last lecture we characterized
the highest Form of Actual Life--that is--since Reality
consists wholly in a Form of Reflexion, whilst the absolutely
indestructible Form of Reflexion is Infinity--that Life which
flows forth in an Infinite Time, and employs the personal
Ex-istence of Man as its instrument, and hence manifests
itself as Action--we have, I say, characterized this Life by
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? 53G
TIIK DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
the name of the Higher Morality. We were constrained
to admit that, on account of the separation of the one Essen-
tial Divine Nature into many Individuals--a separation un-
alterably imposed by the law of Reflexion--the activity of
each particular Individual cannot avoid striving after an
outward result, not wholly dependent on the Individual
himself, in the surrounding world of Freedom;--that never-
theless the Blessedness of such an Individual will not be
disturbed by the failure of this result, provided only that he
raise himself to a true comprehension of that which he
strives after unconditionally, as distinguished from that
which he only seeks conditionally;--which comprehension
we termed the standpoint of True Religion. With
respect to this latter point especially, I referred you to our
present lecture, in which I promised a more thorough ex-
position of this subject.
I shall prepare the way for this exposition by a survey of
our whole subject from its profoundest standpoint.
Being ex-ists; and the Ex-istence of Being is necessarily
Consciousness, or Reflexion according to fixed laws, which
are contained in, and are to be developed from, Reflexion
itself:--this is the fundamental principle, now sufficiently
explained on all sides, of our whole doctrine. It is Being
alone that ex-ists,--that "is," in Ex-istence, and by whose
being in it alone Ex-istence is ;--that eternally abides in it
as it is in itself, and without whose indwelling within it Ex-
istence would vanish into Nothingness:--no one doubts this,
and no one who understands it can doubt it . But in Ex-ist-
ence, as Ex-istence,--i e. in Reflexion, Being immediately
changes its absolutely incomprehensible Form, which can
only be described as pure Life and Activity, into an Essence
or Nature--a specific and definite mode of Being; so that
we have never spoken of Being, and no one can ever speak
of Being, otherwise than by speaking of its Essence or
Nature. Although, therefore, our Being is ever in itself the
Being of Being; and thus remains, and can never become
other than this; yet that which we ourselves, and for our-
selves, are, have, and possess,--i. e. in the Form of ourselves,
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? J. KCTUttE X.
537
of the Ego, of Reflexion in Consciousness,--this is never
Being in itself, but only Being in our Form, as Essence or
Nature. How then is this Being, which certainly does
not enter into Form in all its native purity,--how is it yet
connected with Form ? --does it not thereby irrevocably
project forth from itself, and set up beside itself, a second,
wholly new Being,--which new and second Being is al-
together impossible? Answer:--Ask not for the "How;"
--be satisfied with the fact. They are connected; there is
such a bond, which,--higher than all Reflexion, proceeding
from no Reflexion, and not recognizing the jurisdiction of
Reflexion,--yet appears beside, and indissolubly associated
with, Reflexion. In this companionship with Reflexion, this
bond is Feeling;--and, since it is a bond, it is Love;--and,
since it is the bond that unites Pure Being and Reflexion,
it is the Love of God. In this Love, Being and Ex-istence,
God and Man, are One; wholly transfused and lost in each
other;--it is the point of intersection of the A and B we
have spoken of above ;--the act of Being, in supporting and
maintaining itself in Ex-istence, is its Love for itself, which
we do not conceive of as Feeling only because we do not
conceive of it at all. The Manifestation of this act of
Being, in supporting and maintaining itself in Ex-istence,
in companionship with Reflexion,--that is, the Feeling of
this act of Self-existence,--is our Love towards it; or, in
strict truth, its own Love towards itself in the Form of
Feeling; since we have no power to love it, but only itself
has power to love itself in us.
This--not its, nor ours--but this reciprocal Love, which
first separates us into two, and then binds us together into
one, is the original creator of our oft-mentioned abstract con- yception of a Pure Being, or a God. What is it which thus
carries us beyond all determinate and comprehensible Ex-ist- /ence, and beyond the whole world of absolute Reflexion? It
is our Love which no Ex-istence can satisfy. Conception does
here that only which it alone can do;--it defines and fashions
this Love, by abstracting from its object, which only by its
means becomes an object, everything that does not satisfy
zb
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? 538
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Love; leaving in it nothing but the pure negation of all
Conceivability associated with infinite and eternal Loveable-
ness. What then is it that assures us of God but pure,self-
sufficing Love, which is superior to all the doubt that is born
of Reflexion and is only possible therein ? --and what makes
this Love thus self-sufficient, but that it is the immediate self-
supporting and self-maintaining Life of the Absolute itself?
Not Reflexion, which by virtue of its very nature divides it-
self into parts, and thus is ever at variance with itself;--no,
Love is the source of all Certainty, all Truth, all Reality.
The conception of God, which has thus become a purely
abstract conception, gives shape and definition to this Love,
we said. In its own immediate Life, on the contrary--and I
entreat you to note this well--this Love is not thus defined
and fashioned; but it is, and it has and holds its object, not
by any means in conception, which never overtakes it, but
immediately in Love; and that indeed as it is in itself, be-
cause it is in truth nothing else than the self-supporting Life
of Absolute Being. Now it is this substance and material of
Love, which, in the first place, makes the Reflexion of Life
assume the form of a permanent objective Essence or Na-
ture; and then again divides, even to Infinity, the Nature
which has thus arisen, clothing it with new and ever-varied
Forms;--and thus creates its World. I ask :--What is it
then that gives a true and proper fundamental Substance
to this World, the Nature and Form of which are evident-
ly products of Reflexion? It is obviously the Absolute
Love;--the Absolute, I say,--or, as we may now express it,
--the Love of God towards his Ex-istence, or, the Love of
that Ex-istence towards the Living God. And what re-
mains for Reflexion? To give an objective standing to this
Substance, and to fashion it into an infinite succession of
objective Forms. But even with reference to this last
point,--What is it then that prevents Reflexion from ever
pausing in this work, and impels it incessantly forward from
each Form towards another, and from this again to another,
in endless succession? It is the inextinguishable Love for
that which necessarily escapes Reflexion, which lies con-
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? LECTUHE X.
539
cealed behind all Reflexion, and is therefore necessarily to
be sought for behind all Reflexion, and under all its infi-
nitely varied Forms,--the pure and real Absolute;--this it
is which impels Reflexion onward through Eternity, and
stretches it out into a living Eternity. Love is therefore
higher than all Reason; it is itself the fountain of Reason
and the root of Reality; the sole creator of Life and Time;
--and thus I have finally declared to you the highest, real
point of view of a Doctrine of Being, Life, and Blessedness,
--that is, of True Speculation, towards which we have
hitherto been gradually advancing.
(Finally, Love, as it is the source of all Truth and cer-
tainty generally, so is it the source of completed Truth in
the actual man and his life. Completed Truth is Science;
and the element of Science is Reflexion. Just as Science
becomes clear to itself as the Love of the Absolute, and
comprehends this Absolute, as it necessarily must, as lying
wholly beyond all Reflexion, and inaccessible to it in any
possible Form,--does it attain to pure objective Truth; and
so does it even thereby become capable of apprehending
and distinguishing Reflexion, which formerly it had always
confounded with Reality; of completely recognising and
comprehending all the products of Reflexion in Reality;--
and, thus, of laying the foundation of a Doctrine of Know-
ledge. In short, the Reflexion which has become Divine
Love, and is therefore wholly absorbed in God himself,--
is the standpoint of Science:--this I desired to avail myself
of a fitting opportunity to mention in passing. )
And now to present this to you in a form which may
be easily retained, and also to connect it with a previous
illustration:--We have already twice translated the words
of John--"In the beginning was the Word, &c. "--into the
language of our immediate theme:--in the first instance,
thus:--" In the beginning, and absolutely associated with
Being, was Ex-istence;" and then, in the second instance,
after we had more distinctly recognised the manifold in-
ward modifications of Ex-istence, and had combined these
together under the name Form, thus :--" In the beginning,
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? 540
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
anil absolutely associated with God, or Being, was Form. "
Now, however, since we have seen that Consciousness with
all its manifold Forms, which before we had held to be
the True Ex-istence, is but Ex-istence at second hand, and
indeed the mere Appearance or Manifestation of Ex-istence,
and have recognised the True and Absolute Ex-istence, in
its own proper Form, as Love;--now, we render these same
words, thus:-- " In the beginning, before all Time, and
the absolute Creator of all Time, is Love; and Love is in
God, for it is his own act whereby he maintains himself
in Ex-istence; and Love is itself God,--God is in it, and
for ever abides in it, as he is in himself. By it and from
it, as the fundamental Substance of all Ex-istence, are, by
means of living Reflexion, all things made, and without it
is not anything made that is made; and it for ever be-
comes flesh, in us and around us, and dwells among us;
and, if we will, we may behold for ever before our eyes,
its glory, as the glory of the Eternal and necessary Efflu-
ence of the Godhead. "
True Life is Love; and, as Love, holds and possesses with-
in itself its own object--the object of this Love--bound up,
interpenetrated, transfused, and wholly absorbed in it:--
eternally One and the same Love. It is not Love that sets
up this object before it in outward representation, and se-
parates it into parts ;--it is Reflexion that does this. Thus,
in so far as man is Love,--and this he is always in the root
of his Life, and can be nothing but this, although it may
be that he is but the Love of himself,--but especially in
so far as he is the Love of God, he remains eternally and
for ever One, True, and Unchangeable as God himself, and
is indeed in reality God himself; and it is not merely a
bold metaphor, but a literal truth, that John utters when
he says:--" He who dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and
God in him. " It is only his Reflexion which first estranges
him from this which is his own, proper Being, and not any
foreign Being;--and which strives, throughout a whole ma-
nifold Infinity, to lay hold of that which he himself is
and remains, now, everywhere, and for ever. Hence it is
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? LECTURE X.
541
not his Inward Essential Nature,--that which is his own,
which belongs to himself and to no other,--that is subject
to continual change, but it is only the Appearance or Ma-
nifestation of this Nature, which in itself is withdrawn from
outward Appearance, that suffers this continual change.
Formerly we said:--The eye of man conceals God from
him, and separates the pure light into coloured rays. Now
we say:--The eye of man conceals God from him, only
because he himself is concealed by it, and because his
vision never reaches his own True Being. What he sees
is ever himself, as we also said formerly ;--but he does not
see himself as he truly is;--his Being is one, but his vision
is infinite.
Love necessarily enters into Reflexion, and manifests it-
self there immediately as a Life which employs as its in-
strument a personal, sensuous Ex-istence,--and thus as In-
dividual Action;--and that indeed in a sphere peculiar to
itself and lying beyond all Sensuousness--in a wholly New
World. Wherever the Divine Love is, there is necessarily
this Manifestation; for thus only docs this Love reveal it-
self, and that without any new intervening principle; and,
on the contrary, where this Manifestation is not, there also
the Divine Love is not. It is altogether in vain to say to
him who does not dwell in Love--" Act morally,"--for only
in Love is the Moral World revealed, and without Love
there is no such world; and just as superfluous is it to say
this to him who does dwell in Love,--for his Love lives al-
ready in itself, and his activity, his moral Action, is merely
the silent Manifestation of this his Life. The Action is
nothing in and for itself, and it has no independent prin-
ciple in itself; but it flows forth, calmly and silently, from
Love, as light seems to flow forth from the sun, and as the
World does actually flow forth from the inward Love of God
to himself. If any man does not act, neither does he love;
and he who supposes that he loves, and yet does not act, in
him imagination alone is excited by some picture of Love
conveyed to him from without, to which picture there is
within him no corresponding, inward, self-supporting reality.
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? 542 THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION".
"He who says, I love God,"--thus speaks the same John,
after representing brotherly love, in a certain very just sense,
as in itself the Higher Morality--" he who says, I love God,
and hateth his brother, is a liar;"--or, as we would say, in
language more suitable to our age, although not a whit more
tenderly,--he is a sham, and has not the Love of God abid-
ing in him ;--abiding, I say, really indwelling within him,--
it is not the root of his True Life, but he can at most only
picture it in imagination.
Love is eternally complete, and contained within itself;
and, as Love, it has ever within itself complete Reality; it
is Reflexion alone that separates and divides into parts.
Hence,--and thus we return to the point which we reached
in our previous lecture,--hence the division of the One Di-
vine Life into different Individuals does not by any means
take place in Love but solely in Reflexion. The Individual,
who is revealed to himself only in Action, and all other In-
dividuals who appear around him, are but the Manifestation
of this One Love, not by any means the thing itself. In his
own Action, Love must be manifest, for otherwise it would
not exist; but the moral Action of others is not to him the
immediately apparent Manifestation of Love; the absence
of this does not immediately prove the absence of Love;--
therefore, as we said already in our previous lecture, he does
not desire the Morality and Religion of others uncondition-
ally, but only under the condition of their Freedom; and
the absence of this universal Morality does not disturb the
peace of Love, which is wholly independent of everything
beyond itself.
The Morality and Religion of the whole Spiritual World
are closely connected with the Action of each particular In-
dividual, as effect with cause. The Moral-Religious Man
desires to spread Morality and Religion universally. The
distinction between his Religion and the Religion of others
is but a distinction in Reflexion. The affection produced in
him by success or failure must therefore take place accord-
ing to the Law of Reflexion. But, as we have already seen
on another occasion, the peculiar affection of Reflexion is
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? LECTURE X.
543
approbation or disapprobation; not cold and indifferent, but
the more passionate the more loving the nature of the man.
Reflexion always bears with it an affection towards the
Morality of others; and this Reflexion is highest of all in
the Religious Man;--it is the true root of the World around
him, which he embraces with affection, and which is, to him,
purely and solely a Spiritual World.
From what we have now said, we obtain the principles by
which we may characterize more profoundly than we could
do in our former lecture, the disposition of the Religious
Man towards others;--or what would be commonly called
his Philanthropy.
In the first place, there is nothing further removed from
this Religious Philanthropy than a certain tender-hearted
catholicity of sentiment which we hear much bepraised now-
a-days. This mode of thought, far from being the Love of
God, is much rather that absolute shallowness and inward
vagrancy of a mind that is capable neither of Love nor of
Hate, which we have sufficiently described in one of our
earlier lectures. The Religious man does not concern him-
self about the physical happiness of the Human Race,--it
may be his especial calling to care for the higher wants of
men;--he desires no happiness for them save in the ways of
the Divine Order. He cannot desire to make them happy
by means of outward circumstances, as little as God can de-
sire this; for the Will and Counsel of God, even with regard
to his fellow-men, are always his. As it is the Will of God
that no one shall find peace and repose but in Him, and
that all men shall be continually driven onward by means of
sorrows and vexations to renounce themselves and to seek a
refuge in God;--so is this also the will and wish of the man
who is devoted to God. When they have again found their
Being in God, he will love this Being; their Being out of
God he hates with a perfect hatred, and his very love to-
wards their True Being consists in hate towards their im-
perfect Being. "Ye think that I am come to bring peace
on earth," says Jesus,--peace, that is, this same catholic
tender-hearted acceptance of things as they are;--"no, since
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? 544
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
yc are such as ye are, I come not to bring peace but a
sword. " The Religious Man is likewise far removed from
the well-known and much-commended effort of this same
superficiality to put such a construction upon surrounding
events as may enable it to maintain itself in this comfort-
able frame of mind :--to explain them away, and to inter-
pret them into the Good and the Beautiful. He wishes to
see them as they are in truth; and he does so see them, for
Love sharpens his sight; he judges strictly but justly, and
penetrates even to the very root of every prevalent mode
of thought.
Having in his view what men might be, his ruling affec-
tion is a holy indignation at their actual existence, so un-
worthy and void of honour. Seeing that in the profoundest
depths of their nature they still bear within them the Di-
vine, although it does not find its way to outward Mani-
festation ;--considering that what they are accused of by
others is the source of the greatest wretchedness to them-
selves, and that what men call their wickedness is but the
outbreak of their own deeper misery;--reflecting that they
need but to stretch forth their hand to the Good that con-
stantly surrounds them in order to become at once worthy
and blessed;--seeing all this, he is filled with the deepest
melancholy,--the most heart-felt sorrow. His hate is ex-
cited only by the fanaticism of perversity, which is not
satisfied with being worthless in its own person, but, so far
as its influence extends, endeavours to make all others as
unworthy as itself, and which is profoundly irritated and
moved to hatred at the sight of anything better than itself.
For while the former is but the wretched work of Sin, the
latter is the work of the Devil;--for the Devil also hates
Goodness, not simply because it is good, which would be
wholly unintelligible, but from envy, and because he him-
self cannot attain to it. Just as, according to our recent
description, the man inspired of God desires that God alone,
as He is in Himself, should be revealed in His glory, at
all times, on all sides, and in all events, to him and to all
his brethren;--so, on the contrary, he who is inspired of
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? LECTURE X.
545
himself desires, that, to him and to his fellow-men, there
should be revealed at all times, on all sides, and in all
events, only the image of his own worthlessness. By thus
transcending his own Individuality, he passes the human
and natural boundaries of Egoism, and makes himself the
universal Ideal and God ;--all which the Devil also does in
like manner.
Finally, the Love of his fellow-men reveals itself in the
Religious Man, unalterably determined and for ever remain-
ing the same, in this :--that he never, under any condition,
ceases to labour for their ennoblement, and consequently
never, under any condition, gives up his Hope in them.
His Action is indeed the necessary Manifestation of his
Love; but, on the other hand, this Action necessarily pro-
ceeds towards an outward world, presupposes an outward
world as its sphere, aud assumes that he entertains the
Thought of something actually existing in this outward
world. Without the extinction of this Love in him, neither
his Action, nor this Thought necessarily assumed in his Ac-
tion, can ever cease. As often as it fails of the anticipated
result, so often is he forced back upon himself to create,
from the fountain of Love that eternally flows within him,
a new impulse, and new means of accomplishing his pur-
pose; and is thereby impelled to a fresh effort, and should
even this fail, again to another;--at each renewed attempt,
assuming that what has not hitherto been successful, may
yet be accomplished this time, or the next time, or at some
future time ;--or, even if it should not be accomplished by
him individually, yet that, through his aid, and by means of
his previous labours, it may be accomplished by some one
following in his steps. Thus does Love become to him an
ever-flowing fountain of Faith and Hope :--not in God, for
God is ever-present, living within him, and therefore he has
no need of Faith to enable him to see God; and God ever
gives Himself to him whole and perfect as He is in Himself,
and therefore there is no room for Hope:--but Faith in
Man, and Hope in Man. It is this firm and immovable
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? 54<;
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Faith, this untiring Hope, through which he can raise him-
self, whenever he will, far above all the indignation or the
sorrow with which he may be filled by the contemplation of
present Reality, and can invite into his heart the surest
peace, the most indestructible repose. Let him look beyond
the Present to the Future ! --in that glance he has a whole
Eternity before him, and may, without cost to himself add
to the vista cycle upon cycle as far as thought can reach.
At last--and where then is the End ? --at last all must
arrive at the sure haven of Eternal Peace and Blessedness;
--at last the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God
must surely come!
And thus have we gathered into one point the essential
elements of a picture of the Blessed Life, in so far as such
a picture is possible. Blessedness itself consists in Love,
and in the eternal satisfaction of Love;--it is inaccessible
to Reflexion; it can only be negatively expressed by the
understanding, and hence by our description, which is the
language of the understanding. We can only show that the
Blessed are free from pain, trouble, and privation;--where-
in their Blessedness positively consists, cannot be described,
but must be immediately felt.
Unblessedness comes of Doubt which continually drags us
to and fro, and of Uncertainty which spreads around us an
impenetrable night in which our feet can find no sure path.
The Religious Man is for ever secured from the possibility
of Doubt and Uncertainty.
? 524
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
these words in their literal acceptation,--as if Beauty
could ever appertain to the Earthly and Perishable, or could
be transferred to these. But the source of Beauty is in God
alone, and it reveals itself only in the minds of those who
are inspired by Him. Imagine, for example, a Holy Virgin,
who, being ascended into Heaven, encircled by the heavenly
hosts who fall down before her presence in rapt contempla-
tion, surrounded by all the splendours of a Heaven of which
she herself is the highest ornament and glory, can yet alone
of those present see nothing of all that takes place around
her, being wholly overwhelmed and lost in this one feeling:
--" Behold the handmaiden of the Lord: be it unto me ac-
cording to his will;"--clothe this feeling, thus surrounded,
in a human body, and then unquestionably you have Beauty
in a determinate Form. Now what is it that makes this
Form beautiful? Is it the separate parts and members of
which it is composed? Is it not much rather the single
feeling which speaks in all these members? The Form is
superadded, only because in it, and by means of it, the
Thought becomes visible; and it is transferred by means of
lines and colours to the canvass, because thus only can it be
communicated to others. Perhaps this Thought might also
have been expressed in hard and senseless stone, or in any
other material. Would then the stone thereby become
beautiful? The stone ever remains stone, and is wholly
unsusceptible of such a predicate; but the soul of the Artist
was beautiful when he conceived his work, and the soul of
every intelligent beholder in whom the conception is repeat-
ed will likewise become beautiful;--the stone ever remains
only that which fixes the limits of the outward perception
during this inward spiritual development.
This ideal Being and the creative Affection of it, as a
mere natural phenomenon, manifests itself generally as
Genius--for Art, for Government, for Science, &c. It is
understood, of course, and to every one who has any experi-
ence whatever in matters of this kind it is by means of this
very experience sufficiently known, that--since the natural
affection for such creations of Genius is the very foundation
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? LECTURE IX.
525
of the Life of Genius in which all its other life is swallowed
up,--I say, it is understood that true Genius does not require
to stimulate and urge itself on to industry in its Art or in
its Science by any Categorical Imperative, but that all its
powers, of their own accord, direct themselves towards this
its all-engrossing object;--further, that, so surely as any one
possesses True Genius, his work always prospers well, and
the products of his labour are always pleasing to him, and
thus he is ever surrounded, inwardly and outwardly, by the
Beautiful and Agreeable;--that, finally, he does not em-
ploy this Activity for the attainment of any object what-
ever beyond itself, nor will accept aught in exchange for it;
but, on the contrary, no earthly consideration would induce
him to leave undone what he alone may do, or to do it other-
wise than as seems right and pleasing to himself;--that
he consequently finds his true and satisfying Enjoyment
of Life only in such work, purely and solely as work, and for
the work's sake; and whatever of the external world he may
accept besides does not of itself engross his thoughts, but
he accepts it only in order that, renewed and strengthened
by it, he may return to his own true element. And thus
mere natural Genius soars far above both the low desires of
the Sensualist and the callous indifferentism of the Stoic,
and carries its possessor through an uninterrupted succes-
sion of blissful momenta, for which he needs nothing beyond
himself, and which, without painful effort or labour on his
part, arise spontaneously within his Life. The Enjoyment
of a single hour, passed happily in the pursuit of Art or of
Science, far outweighs a whole lifetime of Sensuous Enjoy-
ment y and before the picture of this Blessedness, the mere
Sensuous Man, could it but be brought home to him, would
sink in envy and dismay.
In the illustration we have thus adduced, we have as-
sumed a natural Genius as the peculiar source and root of
the Spiritual Enjoyment of Life, as well as of the scorn of
mere Sensuous Enjoyment; and I have desired, by means of
this single example of the Higher Morality and its Blessed-
ness, to lead you to a more universal conception of it. But
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? 52G
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Genius,--notwithstanding that its object is in itself
truly super-sensual, and the pure expression of the God-
head, as we showed in particular by the example of the
Beautiful,--does yet desire, and must desire, that its Spi-
ritual Object should receive a certain form and clothing in
the World of Sense; and thus Genius does also desire, in a
certain sense, such a determinate Form of its World and its
environment, as in our previous lecture we unconditionally
censured and condemned in the case of Sensuousness;--and
if the self-enjoyment of Genius were dependent on the ac-
cidental realization or non-realization of this outward re-
sult as the aim of its efforts, then would the peace and
tranquillity of Genius itself be at an end; and the Higher
Morality would be exposed to all the miseries of the lower
Sensuousness. But, so far as Genius is concerned, so surely
as it is Genius, it will assuredly succeed in the expression
and representation of its Idea in the appropriate medium,
and its desired Form and environment can therefore never
be awanting; while nevertheless it is the Activity with
which it produces this Form which is the true seat of its
immediate enjoyment, to which the Form itself only contri-
butes indirectly because in it only does the Activity become
appareut;--from which it is obvious that True Genius never
lingers long over anything it has already attained, nor dwells
in voluptuous enjoyment of it, and of itself in it, but pro-
ceeds onward without delay to new developments. In gene-
ral, however, apart from particular Genius, and with refer-
ence to all possible Life in which the Divine Being mani-
fests itself purely, I lay down the following principle:--So
long as joy in the deed is mixed up with desires regarding
the outward product of the deed, even the possessor of the
Higher Morality is not yet perfect in purity and clearness;
and thus, in the Divine Economy, the outward failure of his
deed is the means of forcing him in upon himself, and of
raising him to the yet higher standpoint of True Religion,
--that is, to the comprehension of what it really is that
he loves and strives after. Understand this as a whole, and
in its connexion, thus :--
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? LECTURE IX. 527
f
(I. ) The Free Ego, deduced and described with sufficient
distinctness in our previous lecture, and which, as Reflexion,
ever remains one and the same, does yet, as Object--that is,
as the reflecting substance that exists only in Appearance--
become divided, at the first glance into an infinity, but also,
for a reason that lies too deep to be treated of in these lec-
tures, into a progressive system of Individual Personalities.
(This separation is a portion of that division of the objective
world into the Form of Infinity which we have already suf-
ficiently described upon several occasions; and thus belongs
to the absolutely fundamental Form of Ex-istence, which
cannot be cast off even by the Godhead itself:--As Being
originally separated itself in this division, so it remains se-
parated in all Eternity; and hence no Individual given in
this division--that is, no Individual who has come into Ac-
tual Ex-istence,--can ever perish; this is to be noticed only
in passing, and in opposition to those among our contem-
poraries, who by means of a half-philosophy and whole-be-
wilderment esteem themselves in the highest degree en-
lightened when they deny the continued Ex-istence in
higher spheres of the Individuals actually existing here. )
In them,--these Individual Personalities thus arising from
the fundamental Form of Ex-istence,--the entire Divine Be-
ing is separated into an infinite progressive development in
Time, and is, as it were, divided among them, according to
the Absolute Law of such a division which is founded in the
Essential Divine Nature itself; whilst, further, every one of
these Individuals, as a section of the One Ego determined
by its own essential Form, necessarily bears this latter
Form in its entirety,--that is, as we said in our last lecture,
it is free and independent in relation to the five standpoints.
Each Individual has therefore in his own free choice, which
cannot be taken away from him even by the Divinity him-
self, the possibility of viewing and of enjoying from any
of these five standpoints that portion in the Absolute Be-
ing which belongs to him as an Actual Individual . Thus
has each Individual, in the first place, his determinate por-
tion in the Sensuous Life, and in its Love; which Life will
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? 528
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
appear to him as the ultimate and absolute end and purpose
of his Being, so long as this freedom, which is discovered
only by its actual use, is wholly engrossed therein. But if
he should rise, perhaps through the sphere of Legality, to
that of the Higher Morality, then will that Sensuous Life
become to him but a means; and his portion in the High-
er, Super-sensual, and immediately Divine Life, will re-
veal itself to his Love. Every one without exception neces-
sarily receives, by his mere entrance into Actual Existence, his portion in this Super-sensual Being; for otherwise,
he would be no result of that division of the Absolute
Being, according to its own Essential Law, without which
there is no Actual Ex-istence, and he would not other-
wise even have become actual; but to every one without
exception this Super-sensual Being may nevertheless re-
main concealed, should he be unable to renounce his Sen-
suous Being and its objective independence. Every one
without exception, I say, receives that portion in the Super-
sensual Being which is exclusively his own, and which be-
longs in the same manner to no other Individual whatever
but himself; which portion now develops itself in him in
all Eternity,--manifesting itself as a continuous course of
action,--in such a form as it can absolutely assume in no
other Individual;--and this, in short, may be called the in-
dividual character of his Higher Vocation. Not that the
Essential Divine Nature is divided in itself;--in all men,
without exception, the one and unchangeable Divine Na-
ture, as it is in itself, is assumed;--and if they can but at-
tain True Freedom, may also appear in actual manifestation;
--but this Nature manifests itself in each Individual in a
different Form, peculiar to himself. Let Being, as we have
already supposed, be -- A, and Form = B; then A, which
has absolutely entered into B, divides itself by this very
act of entrance, not according to its Essential Nature but
according to its Absolute Form in Reflexion, into (b + b
b . . . . ) = a System of Individuals: and each individual
b contains in itself--(1. ) the whole and indivisible A, (2. )
the whole and indivisible B, (3. ) its own particular b;--and
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? LECTURE IX.
52. 9
the same with all the other results of A throughout (b -f - b
+ *. . . . )
(2. ) No one can discover, by means of mere thought alone,
this his peculiar portion in the Super-sensual Being; nor
can he deduce it by way of inference from any other truth;
nor can he be made acquainted with it through any other
individual, since this portion cannot be known to any other
individual;--but he can attain a knowledge of it only by
immediate personal consciousness; and his Being must ne-
cessarily and spontaneously assume this Form so soon as he
has surrendered and wholly annihilated all personal will and
personal purposes within him. Hence it is clear, in the
first place, that with respect to this, which only each man
can clearly comprehend for himself in his own immediate
consciousness, it is impossible to speak in general terms,
and that I must here necessarily stop short. And what
end, indeed, could here be served by speech, even were
speech possible? He to whom his especial Higher Vocation
has revealed itself knows it as it is revealed to him; and
he may conclude by analogy how it is with others to whom
their Higher Vocation has also become clear and intelligible.
But as for him to whom it has not revealed itself, to him
no information on this subject can be communicated;--it
serves no purpose to speak of colours to the blind.
Has this peculiar Vocation revealed itself to him ? --then
does it penetrate him with unspeakable Love, and with the
purest Enjoyment;--penetrates him wholly, and takes pos-
session of all his Life. And thus it is the very first act of
the Higher Morality, which must infallibly ensue so soon as
the mere personal will has been resigned, that man becomes
wholly penetrated with his own especial Vocation, and de-
sires to be nothing whatever but that which he, and only
he, can be; which he, and only he, in virtue of his Higher
Nature, that is, of the Divine Nature in him, ought to be;
--in short, that he desires nothing whatever but that which,
at bottom, he actually wills. How could such a man ever
do anything with unwillingness, since he never does any-
thing else but that in which he has the highest delight?
Yb
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? 530 THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
What I said above of natural Genius, is even still more
applicable to the Virtue which is born of perfect Freedom;
for this Virtue is the highest expression of Genius; it is
the immediate power of Genius,--i. e. that Form which the
Essential Divine Nature has assumed in our Individuality.
On the contrary, the desire and effort to be something else
than that to which we are called, however great and noble
that other thing may seem, is the highest Immorality; and
all the constraints that man imposes upon himself for that
purpose, and all the unhappiness that he consequently suf-
fers, are themselves rebellions against the Divine Rule, and
resistances of our will to the Divine. What is it then that
has thus set up within us a purpose not imposed upon us
by our Higher Nature, but personal will, personal choice,
personal self-complacent wisdom ? --and thus we are very
far indeed from the renunciation of our own personal, in-
dividual will. This effort is necessarily the source of the
greatest unhappiness. In this position we must constant-
ly enforce, constrain, urge, and deny ourselves; for we can
never do that willingly which, at bottom, we cannot will;
and we can never attain a successful issue, for we cannot
accomplish that which our Nature itself forbids. This is
the affectation of outward sanctity against which we are
warned by Christianity. It may remove mountains, and
even give its body to be burned, and yet that will profit it
nothing if such be not the dictate of true Love,--that is, if
it be not its own peculiar Spiritual Being that necessarily
brings with it its own Affection. Will to be--we mean in
supersensual things, for in mere sense there is no Blessed-
ness--will to be what thou oughtst to be, what thou canst be,
and what therefore thou wilt be:--this is the fundamental
Law, as well of the Higher Morality as of the Blessed Life.
(3. ) This Higher Vocation of Man, which, as we said,
penetrates him with complete and undivided Love, exhibits
itself indeed, in the first place, in his own conduct; but in
the second place, and by means of that conduct, it likewise
manifests itself in a determinate result in the World of
Sense. So long as man does not yet know the true root
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? LECTURE IX.
531
and essential central-point of his Ex-istence, the two ele-
ments we have named,--his own Inward Being and its Out-
ward Result,--remain undistinguished. Something proves
unsuccessful with him; and the outward result at which he
aims does not ensue,--which indeed is not his fault, for he
wills only that which he can, but that of outward circum-
stances which are not susceptible of his influence,--and
then his Love, which has still a mixed object, is dissatisfied
with this failure, and thereby his Blessedness is disturbed
and destroyed. This forces him more deeply in upon him-
self, in order that he may make it perfectly clear to himself
what it really is that he strives after; and what, on the
contrary, it is that in deed and truth he does not strive
after, but which is indifferent to him. In this self-exami-
nation he will discover what we have plainly enunciated
above, although he may not express it in the same words,
--namely that/It is the development of the Divine Being
and Life in him, this particular Individual, which he
strives after especially and in the first place;--and hereby
his whole Being and Love will become perfectly clear to
him, and he will be raised from the Third standpoint of the
Higher Morality, in which we have hitherto retained him,
to the Fourth--that of Religion. This Divine Life now
continually developes itself within him, without hindrance
or obstruction, as it can and must develope itself only in
him and his individuality;--this alone it is that he properly
wills ;--his will is therefore always accomplished;--and it is
absolutely impossible that anything contrary to it should
ever come to pass. This his proper Inward Life does in-
deed still desire constantly to flow forth in surrounding cir-
cumstances and to fashion these after itself, and only in
this effort after outward expression does it show itself to be
true Inward Life, and not mere dead devotion. But the
result of this effort after outward expression does not de-
pend on his own isolated Individual Life alone, but upon
the general Freedom of other Individuals besides himself:
this Freedom God himself cannot wish to destroy, therefore
neither can the man who is devoted to God, and who has
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? 532
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
attained a clear knowledge of God,--neither can he wish
that it should be destroyed. While, therefore, he certainly
desires this outward result, and labours unceasingly and
with all his power to effect it,--because he cannot abstain
from doing so, and because this is his own proper Inward
Life,--he yet does not will it absolutely and unconditional-
ly; and it therefore would not, even for a single moment,
disturb his Peace and Blessedness should it nevertheless re-
main unaccomplished,--his Love and his Blessedness return
into his own proper Life, where they always, and without ex-
ception, find their true satisfaction. Thus much in general. For the rest, the matters now touched upon demand a
further exposition, which we reserve for our next lecture
in order that we may here reach a result which will spread
a general light over the whole;--namely,
(4. ) Everything which this Moral-Religious Man wills
and incessantly urges forward, has, in and for itself, no value
whatever to him;--as indeed it has none in itself, and is
not in itself the most perfect, but only that which is most
perfect in this moment of Time, to be superseded in a
Future Time by something still more perfect;--but it has
value for him only because it is the immediate Manifesta-
tion of God,--the Form which God assumes in him, this de-
finite Individual. Now God also dwells originally, likewise
in a peculiar Form, in all other surrounding Individuals,
notwithstanding that he remains concealed from most of
them in consequence of their personal, individual Will, and
their want of the highest Freedom, and thus is not actual-
ly manifested either in themselves, or in their conduct to-
wards others. In this position the Moral-Religious Man--
although with reference to himself he has entered upon his
portion of True Being--is, with reference to other Indivi-
duals, separated and cut off from the constituent parts of
Being which are related to him; and there abides in him a
sorrowful striving and longing to unite and associate him-
self with these kindred elements:? not indeed that this
longing disturbs his Blessedness, for this is the permanent lot
of his Finite Being, and a part of his allegiance to God, to em-
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? LECTURE IX.
533
brace which with Love is itself a portion of his Blessedness.
For what then would this concealed Inward Being, were
it manifested in the conduct of other individuals,--for what
would it possess a value in the estimation of our supposed
Religious Man? Obviously not for itself,--since even his
own nature has no value whatever to him in itself,--but
because it is the Manifestation of God in these Individuals.
Further, for what will he desire that this Manifestation
should possess a value in the estimation of these Indivi-
duals themselves? Obviously only that it may be recog-
nized by them as the Manifestation of God in themselves.
Finally, for what will he desire that his own conduct and
effort should possess a value in the estimation of these
Individuals? Obviously only that they may recognize in it
the Manifestation of God in him.
And thus we have now a general outward characteriza-
tion of the Moral-Religious Will, in so far as it comes forth
from the Inward Life, which ever remains hidden in itself,
into Outward Manifestation. In the first place, the object
of this Will is ever only the Spiritual World of reason-
able beings; for the World of Sense has long ago with him
been reduced to a mere sphere of spiritual activity. In this
Spiritual World, his positive Will is this--that in the con-
duct of each Individual there may be manifested purely
that Form which the Essential Divine Nature has assumed
in him this particular Individual;--that, on the other hand,
each Individual may recognize God, as he is outwardly ma-
nifested to him in the conduct of all other men;--that all
others may, in like manner recognize God as he is out-
wardly manifested to them in the conduct of this particular
Individual;--and that thus God alone may ever be manifest-
ed in all Outward Appearance;--that He alone may live and
rule, and nothing besides Him;--and that, everywhere and
at all times, He alone may be present to the eye of mortals.
Thus, as it is expressed by Christianity in the form of a
prayer:--" Thy kingdom come :--even that condition of the
world in which Thou alone art, and livest, and rulest, so
that--Thy Will may be done on earth,--in the Actual, by
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? 534
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
means of that Freedom which Thou Thyself wilt not take
away,--as it ever is done, and indeed never can be other-
wise done, in Heaven,--in the Idea, in the world as it is in
itself, and without relation to Freedom. "
For example :--Yonder they complain that misery is so
abundant in the world, and go about with a zeal, praise-
worthy in itself, to make it somewhat less. Alas! the mi-
sery that lies most open to view is not the true misery;--
since things are as they are, misery is the best of all that is
in the world; and since the world does not improve not-
withstanding all this misery, one might almost believe that
there is not yet enough of misery in it:--that the image of
God, Humanity, should be sullied, degraded, and trodden in
the dust,--this is the true misery in the world, which fills
the Religious Man with holy indignation. Perchance thou
dost alleviate the sorrows of humanity, so far as thy hand
can reach, by the sacrifice of thine own dearest enjoyments.
But this may happen only on account of Nature having
given thee a system of nerves so sensitive, and so harmoni-
ously attuned with the rest of humanity, that every sorrow
which thou beholdest repeats itself more keenly in thine
own organization;--and then it is to this delicate organiza-
tion that our thanks are due;--in the Spiritual World thy
deed passes unnoticed. Hadst thou done the like deed
in holy indignation that the Son of Eternity, in whom also
there dwells something god-like, should be tormented by
such trifles as these, and should be left there so forsaken by
his fellows;--with the desire that he might have at least
one glad hour in which he might raise his eyes joyfully and
thankfully to Heaven;--with the purpose that in thy hand
he might see the saving hand of God, and might know of a
surety that the arm of God is not yet shortened, but that He
has yet everywhere instruments and servants to do His will,
and that thus Faith and Hope and Love might arise in his
soul;--if thus what thou desiredst to help had been his In-
ward Nature, and not his Outward, which is ever without
true value;--then had thy deed been the outward expres-
sion of a Moral-Religious Spirit.
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? 535
LECTURE X.
SURVEY OF THE WHOLE SUBJECT FROM THE STAND-
POINT OF TRUE RELIGION;--DELINEATION
OF THE BLESSED LIFE.
Now that it is our purpose to bring these lectures to a close,
let us once more combine into one view the doctrine which
we have built up before you.
Life in itself is One; it remains unchangeably the same; and, since it is the perfect fulfilment of the Love of Life
that dwells in it, it is perfect Blessedness. This True Life
exists, at bottom, wherever any form or degree of Life is to
be found; but it may be concealed by an admixture of the
elements of Death and Nothingness; and then, by means of
pain and torment and mortification of this imperfect Life, it
forces itself onward towards its development. We have
followed, with our own eyes, this development of the True
Life out of the imperfect Apparent Life by which it may at
first be concealed;--to-day it is our purpose to accompany
this Life into the central-point of its dominion and to invest
it with all its glory. In our last lecture we characterized
the highest Form of Actual Life--that is--since Reality
consists wholly in a Form of Reflexion, whilst the absolutely
indestructible Form of Reflexion is Infinity--that Life which
flows forth in an Infinite Time, and employs the personal
Ex-istence of Man as its instrument, and hence manifests
itself as Action--we have, I say, characterized this Life by
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? 53G
TIIK DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
the name of the Higher Morality. We were constrained
to admit that, on account of the separation of the one Essen-
tial Divine Nature into many Individuals--a separation un-
alterably imposed by the law of Reflexion--the activity of
each particular Individual cannot avoid striving after an
outward result, not wholly dependent on the Individual
himself, in the surrounding world of Freedom;--that never-
theless the Blessedness of such an Individual will not be
disturbed by the failure of this result, provided only that he
raise himself to a true comprehension of that which he
strives after unconditionally, as distinguished from that
which he only seeks conditionally;--which comprehension
we termed the standpoint of True Religion. With
respect to this latter point especially, I referred you to our
present lecture, in which I promised a more thorough ex-
position of this subject.
I shall prepare the way for this exposition by a survey of
our whole subject from its profoundest standpoint.
Being ex-ists; and the Ex-istence of Being is necessarily
Consciousness, or Reflexion according to fixed laws, which
are contained in, and are to be developed from, Reflexion
itself:--this is the fundamental principle, now sufficiently
explained on all sides, of our whole doctrine. It is Being
alone that ex-ists,--that "is," in Ex-istence, and by whose
being in it alone Ex-istence is ;--that eternally abides in it
as it is in itself, and without whose indwelling within it Ex-
istence would vanish into Nothingness:--no one doubts this,
and no one who understands it can doubt it . But in Ex-ist-
ence, as Ex-istence,--i e. in Reflexion, Being immediately
changes its absolutely incomprehensible Form, which can
only be described as pure Life and Activity, into an Essence
or Nature--a specific and definite mode of Being; so that
we have never spoken of Being, and no one can ever speak
of Being, otherwise than by speaking of its Essence or
Nature. Although, therefore, our Being is ever in itself the
Being of Being; and thus remains, and can never become
other than this; yet that which we ourselves, and for our-
selves, are, have, and possess,--i. e. in the Form of ourselves,
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? J. KCTUttE X.
537
of the Ego, of Reflexion in Consciousness,--this is never
Being in itself, but only Being in our Form, as Essence or
Nature. How then is this Being, which certainly does
not enter into Form in all its native purity,--how is it yet
connected with Form ? --does it not thereby irrevocably
project forth from itself, and set up beside itself, a second,
wholly new Being,--which new and second Being is al-
together impossible? Answer:--Ask not for the "How;"
--be satisfied with the fact. They are connected; there is
such a bond, which,--higher than all Reflexion, proceeding
from no Reflexion, and not recognizing the jurisdiction of
Reflexion,--yet appears beside, and indissolubly associated
with, Reflexion. In this companionship with Reflexion, this
bond is Feeling;--and, since it is a bond, it is Love;--and,
since it is the bond that unites Pure Being and Reflexion,
it is the Love of God. In this Love, Being and Ex-istence,
God and Man, are One; wholly transfused and lost in each
other;--it is the point of intersection of the A and B we
have spoken of above ;--the act of Being, in supporting and
maintaining itself in Ex-istence, is its Love for itself, which
we do not conceive of as Feeling only because we do not
conceive of it at all. The Manifestation of this act of
Being, in supporting and maintaining itself in Ex-istence,
in companionship with Reflexion,--that is, the Feeling of
this act of Self-existence,--is our Love towards it; or, in
strict truth, its own Love towards itself in the Form of
Feeling; since we have no power to love it, but only itself
has power to love itself in us.
This--not its, nor ours--but this reciprocal Love, which
first separates us into two, and then binds us together into
one, is the original creator of our oft-mentioned abstract con- yception of a Pure Being, or a God. What is it which thus
carries us beyond all determinate and comprehensible Ex-ist- /ence, and beyond the whole world of absolute Reflexion? It
is our Love which no Ex-istence can satisfy. Conception does
here that only which it alone can do;--it defines and fashions
this Love, by abstracting from its object, which only by its
means becomes an object, everything that does not satisfy
zb
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? 538
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Love; leaving in it nothing but the pure negation of all
Conceivability associated with infinite and eternal Loveable-
ness. What then is it that assures us of God but pure,self-
sufficing Love, which is superior to all the doubt that is born
of Reflexion and is only possible therein ? --and what makes
this Love thus self-sufficient, but that it is the immediate self-
supporting and self-maintaining Life of the Absolute itself?
Not Reflexion, which by virtue of its very nature divides it-
self into parts, and thus is ever at variance with itself;--no,
Love is the source of all Certainty, all Truth, all Reality.
The conception of God, which has thus become a purely
abstract conception, gives shape and definition to this Love,
we said. In its own immediate Life, on the contrary--and I
entreat you to note this well--this Love is not thus defined
and fashioned; but it is, and it has and holds its object, not
by any means in conception, which never overtakes it, but
immediately in Love; and that indeed as it is in itself, be-
cause it is in truth nothing else than the self-supporting Life
of Absolute Being. Now it is this substance and material of
Love, which, in the first place, makes the Reflexion of Life
assume the form of a permanent objective Essence or Na-
ture; and then again divides, even to Infinity, the Nature
which has thus arisen, clothing it with new and ever-varied
Forms;--and thus creates its World. I ask :--What is it
then that gives a true and proper fundamental Substance
to this World, the Nature and Form of which are evident-
ly products of Reflexion? It is obviously the Absolute
Love;--the Absolute, I say,--or, as we may now express it,
--the Love of God towards his Ex-istence, or, the Love of
that Ex-istence towards the Living God. And what re-
mains for Reflexion? To give an objective standing to this
Substance, and to fashion it into an infinite succession of
objective Forms. But even with reference to this last
point,--What is it then that prevents Reflexion from ever
pausing in this work, and impels it incessantly forward from
each Form towards another, and from this again to another,
in endless succession? It is the inextinguishable Love for
that which necessarily escapes Reflexion, which lies con-
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? LECTUHE X.
539
cealed behind all Reflexion, and is therefore necessarily to
be sought for behind all Reflexion, and under all its infi-
nitely varied Forms,--the pure and real Absolute;--this it
is which impels Reflexion onward through Eternity, and
stretches it out into a living Eternity. Love is therefore
higher than all Reason; it is itself the fountain of Reason
and the root of Reality; the sole creator of Life and Time;
--and thus I have finally declared to you the highest, real
point of view of a Doctrine of Being, Life, and Blessedness,
--that is, of True Speculation, towards which we have
hitherto been gradually advancing.
(Finally, Love, as it is the source of all Truth and cer-
tainty generally, so is it the source of completed Truth in
the actual man and his life. Completed Truth is Science;
and the element of Science is Reflexion. Just as Science
becomes clear to itself as the Love of the Absolute, and
comprehends this Absolute, as it necessarily must, as lying
wholly beyond all Reflexion, and inaccessible to it in any
possible Form,--does it attain to pure objective Truth; and
so does it even thereby become capable of apprehending
and distinguishing Reflexion, which formerly it had always
confounded with Reality; of completely recognising and
comprehending all the products of Reflexion in Reality;--
and, thus, of laying the foundation of a Doctrine of Know-
ledge. In short, the Reflexion which has become Divine
Love, and is therefore wholly absorbed in God himself,--
is the standpoint of Science:--this I desired to avail myself
of a fitting opportunity to mention in passing. )
And now to present this to you in a form which may
be easily retained, and also to connect it with a previous
illustration:--We have already twice translated the words
of John--"In the beginning was the Word, &c. "--into the
language of our immediate theme:--in the first instance,
thus:--" In the beginning, and absolutely associated with
Being, was Ex-istence;" and then, in the second instance,
after we had more distinctly recognised the manifold in-
ward modifications of Ex-istence, and had combined these
together under the name Form, thus :--" In the beginning,
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? 540
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
anil absolutely associated with God, or Being, was Form. "
Now, however, since we have seen that Consciousness with
all its manifold Forms, which before we had held to be
the True Ex-istence, is but Ex-istence at second hand, and
indeed the mere Appearance or Manifestation of Ex-istence,
and have recognised the True and Absolute Ex-istence, in
its own proper Form, as Love;--now, we render these same
words, thus:-- " In the beginning, before all Time, and
the absolute Creator of all Time, is Love; and Love is in
God, for it is his own act whereby he maintains himself
in Ex-istence; and Love is itself God,--God is in it, and
for ever abides in it, as he is in himself. By it and from
it, as the fundamental Substance of all Ex-istence, are, by
means of living Reflexion, all things made, and without it
is not anything made that is made; and it for ever be-
comes flesh, in us and around us, and dwells among us;
and, if we will, we may behold for ever before our eyes,
its glory, as the glory of the Eternal and necessary Efflu-
ence of the Godhead. "
True Life is Love; and, as Love, holds and possesses with-
in itself its own object--the object of this Love--bound up,
interpenetrated, transfused, and wholly absorbed in it:--
eternally One and the same Love. It is not Love that sets
up this object before it in outward representation, and se-
parates it into parts ;--it is Reflexion that does this. Thus,
in so far as man is Love,--and this he is always in the root
of his Life, and can be nothing but this, although it may
be that he is but the Love of himself,--but especially in
so far as he is the Love of God, he remains eternally and
for ever One, True, and Unchangeable as God himself, and
is indeed in reality God himself; and it is not merely a
bold metaphor, but a literal truth, that John utters when
he says:--" He who dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and
God in him. " It is only his Reflexion which first estranges
him from this which is his own, proper Being, and not any
foreign Being;--and which strives, throughout a whole ma-
nifold Infinity, to lay hold of that which he himself is
and remains, now, everywhere, and for ever. Hence it is
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? LECTURE X.
541
not his Inward Essential Nature,--that which is his own,
which belongs to himself and to no other,--that is subject
to continual change, but it is only the Appearance or Ma-
nifestation of this Nature, which in itself is withdrawn from
outward Appearance, that suffers this continual change.
Formerly we said:--The eye of man conceals God from
him, and separates the pure light into coloured rays. Now
we say:--The eye of man conceals God from him, only
because he himself is concealed by it, and because his
vision never reaches his own True Being. What he sees
is ever himself, as we also said formerly ;--but he does not
see himself as he truly is;--his Being is one, but his vision
is infinite.
Love necessarily enters into Reflexion, and manifests it-
self there immediately as a Life which employs as its in-
strument a personal, sensuous Ex-istence,--and thus as In-
dividual Action;--and that indeed in a sphere peculiar to
itself and lying beyond all Sensuousness--in a wholly New
World. Wherever the Divine Love is, there is necessarily
this Manifestation; for thus only docs this Love reveal it-
self, and that without any new intervening principle; and,
on the contrary, where this Manifestation is not, there also
the Divine Love is not. It is altogether in vain to say to
him who does not dwell in Love--" Act morally,"--for only
in Love is the Moral World revealed, and without Love
there is no such world; and just as superfluous is it to say
this to him who does dwell in Love,--for his Love lives al-
ready in itself, and his activity, his moral Action, is merely
the silent Manifestation of this his Life. The Action is
nothing in and for itself, and it has no independent prin-
ciple in itself; but it flows forth, calmly and silently, from
Love, as light seems to flow forth from the sun, and as the
World does actually flow forth from the inward Love of God
to himself. If any man does not act, neither does he love;
and he who supposes that he loves, and yet does not act, in
him imagination alone is excited by some picture of Love
conveyed to him from without, to which picture there is
within him no corresponding, inward, self-supporting reality.
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? 542 THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION".
"He who says, I love God,"--thus speaks the same John,
after representing brotherly love, in a certain very just sense,
as in itself the Higher Morality--" he who says, I love God,
and hateth his brother, is a liar;"--or, as we would say, in
language more suitable to our age, although not a whit more
tenderly,--he is a sham, and has not the Love of God abid-
ing in him ;--abiding, I say, really indwelling within him,--
it is not the root of his True Life, but he can at most only
picture it in imagination.
Love is eternally complete, and contained within itself;
and, as Love, it has ever within itself complete Reality; it
is Reflexion alone that separates and divides into parts.
Hence,--and thus we return to the point which we reached
in our previous lecture,--hence the division of the One Di-
vine Life into different Individuals does not by any means
take place in Love but solely in Reflexion. The Individual,
who is revealed to himself only in Action, and all other In-
dividuals who appear around him, are but the Manifestation
of this One Love, not by any means the thing itself. In his
own Action, Love must be manifest, for otherwise it would
not exist; but the moral Action of others is not to him the
immediately apparent Manifestation of Love; the absence
of this does not immediately prove the absence of Love;--
therefore, as we said already in our previous lecture, he does
not desire the Morality and Religion of others uncondition-
ally, but only under the condition of their Freedom; and
the absence of this universal Morality does not disturb the
peace of Love, which is wholly independent of everything
beyond itself.
The Morality and Religion of the whole Spiritual World
are closely connected with the Action of each particular In-
dividual, as effect with cause. The Moral-Religious Man
desires to spread Morality and Religion universally. The
distinction between his Religion and the Religion of others
is but a distinction in Reflexion. The affection produced in
him by success or failure must therefore take place accord-
ing to the Law of Reflexion. But, as we have already seen
on another occasion, the peculiar affection of Reflexion is
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? LECTURE X.
543
approbation or disapprobation; not cold and indifferent, but
the more passionate the more loving the nature of the man.
Reflexion always bears with it an affection towards the
Morality of others; and this Reflexion is highest of all in
the Religious Man;--it is the true root of the World around
him, which he embraces with affection, and which is, to him,
purely and solely a Spiritual World.
From what we have now said, we obtain the principles by
which we may characterize more profoundly than we could
do in our former lecture, the disposition of the Religious
Man towards others;--or what would be commonly called
his Philanthropy.
In the first place, there is nothing further removed from
this Religious Philanthropy than a certain tender-hearted
catholicity of sentiment which we hear much bepraised now-
a-days. This mode of thought, far from being the Love of
God, is much rather that absolute shallowness and inward
vagrancy of a mind that is capable neither of Love nor of
Hate, which we have sufficiently described in one of our
earlier lectures. The Religious man does not concern him-
self about the physical happiness of the Human Race,--it
may be his especial calling to care for the higher wants of
men;--he desires no happiness for them save in the ways of
the Divine Order. He cannot desire to make them happy
by means of outward circumstances, as little as God can de-
sire this; for the Will and Counsel of God, even with regard
to his fellow-men, are always his. As it is the Will of God
that no one shall find peace and repose but in Him, and
that all men shall be continually driven onward by means of
sorrows and vexations to renounce themselves and to seek a
refuge in God;--so is this also the will and wish of the man
who is devoted to God. When they have again found their
Being in God, he will love this Being; their Being out of
God he hates with a perfect hatred, and his very love to-
wards their True Being consists in hate towards their im-
perfect Being. "Ye think that I am come to bring peace
on earth," says Jesus,--peace, that is, this same catholic
tender-hearted acceptance of things as they are;--"no, since
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? 544
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
yc are such as ye are, I come not to bring peace but a
sword. " The Religious Man is likewise far removed from
the well-known and much-commended effort of this same
superficiality to put such a construction upon surrounding
events as may enable it to maintain itself in this comfort-
able frame of mind :--to explain them away, and to inter-
pret them into the Good and the Beautiful. He wishes to
see them as they are in truth; and he does so see them, for
Love sharpens his sight; he judges strictly but justly, and
penetrates even to the very root of every prevalent mode
of thought.
Having in his view what men might be, his ruling affec-
tion is a holy indignation at their actual existence, so un-
worthy and void of honour. Seeing that in the profoundest
depths of their nature they still bear within them the Di-
vine, although it does not find its way to outward Mani-
festation ;--considering that what they are accused of by
others is the source of the greatest wretchedness to them-
selves, and that what men call their wickedness is but the
outbreak of their own deeper misery;--reflecting that they
need but to stretch forth their hand to the Good that con-
stantly surrounds them in order to become at once worthy
and blessed;--seeing all this, he is filled with the deepest
melancholy,--the most heart-felt sorrow. His hate is ex-
cited only by the fanaticism of perversity, which is not
satisfied with being worthless in its own person, but, so far
as its influence extends, endeavours to make all others as
unworthy as itself, and which is profoundly irritated and
moved to hatred at the sight of anything better than itself.
For while the former is but the wretched work of Sin, the
latter is the work of the Devil;--for the Devil also hates
Goodness, not simply because it is good, which would be
wholly unintelligible, but from envy, and because he him-
self cannot attain to it. Just as, according to our recent
description, the man inspired of God desires that God alone,
as He is in Himself, should be revealed in His glory, at
all times, on all sides, and in all events, to him and to all
his brethren;--so, on the contrary, he who is inspired of
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? LECTURE X.
545
himself desires, that, to him and to his fellow-men, there
should be revealed at all times, on all sides, and in all
events, only the image of his own worthlessness. By thus
transcending his own Individuality, he passes the human
and natural boundaries of Egoism, and makes himself the
universal Ideal and God ;--all which the Devil also does in
like manner.
Finally, the Love of his fellow-men reveals itself in the
Religious Man, unalterably determined and for ever remain-
ing the same, in this :--that he never, under any condition,
ceases to labour for their ennoblement, and consequently
never, under any condition, gives up his Hope in them.
His Action is indeed the necessary Manifestation of his
Love; but, on the other hand, this Action necessarily pro-
ceeds towards an outward world, presupposes an outward
world as its sphere, aud assumes that he entertains the
Thought of something actually existing in this outward
world. Without the extinction of this Love in him, neither
his Action, nor this Thought necessarily assumed in his Ac-
tion, can ever cease. As often as it fails of the anticipated
result, so often is he forced back upon himself to create,
from the fountain of Love that eternally flows within him,
a new impulse, and new means of accomplishing his pur-
pose; and is thereby impelled to a fresh effort, and should
even this fail, again to another;--at each renewed attempt,
assuming that what has not hitherto been successful, may
yet be accomplished this time, or the next time, or at some
future time ;--or, even if it should not be accomplished by
him individually, yet that, through his aid, and by means of
his previous labours, it may be accomplished by some one
following in his steps. Thus does Love become to him an
ever-flowing fountain of Faith and Hope :--not in God, for
God is ever-present, living within him, and therefore he has
no need of Faith to enable him to see God; and God ever
gives Himself to him whole and perfect as He is in Himself,
and therefore there is no room for Hope:--but Faith in
Man, and Hope in Man. It is this firm and immovable
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? 54<;
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Faith, this untiring Hope, through which he can raise him-
self, whenever he will, far above all the indignation or the
sorrow with which he may be filled by the contemplation of
present Reality, and can invite into his heart the surest
peace, the most indestructible repose. Let him look beyond
the Present to the Future ! --in that glance he has a whole
Eternity before him, and may, without cost to himself add
to the vista cycle upon cycle as far as thought can reach.
At last--and where then is the End ? --at last all must
arrive at the sure haven of Eternal Peace and Blessedness;
--at last the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God
must surely come!
And thus have we gathered into one point the essential
elements of a picture of the Blessed Life, in so far as such
a picture is possible. Blessedness itself consists in Love,
and in the eternal satisfaction of Love;--it is inaccessible
to Reflexion; it can only be negatively expressed by the
understanding, and hence by our description, which is the
language of the understanding. We can only show that the
Blessed are free from pain, trouble, and privation;--where-
in their Blessedness positively consists, cannot be described,
but must be immediately felt.
Unblessedness comes of Doubt which continually drags us
to and fro, and of Uncertainty which spreads around us an
impenetrable night in which our feet can find no sure path.
The Religious Man is for ever secured from the possibility
of Doubt and Uncertainty.
