Neither let us ask whether the aesthetic and intel-
lectual culture of the ancient world, concentrated on a few
points, may not have excelled in degree that of modern
times!
lectual culture of the ancient world, concentrated on a few
points, may not have excelled in degree that of modern
times!
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
Conscience enters the
field in order that it may at once sanctify and restrain this
natural impulse. "Thou shalt maintain, exercise, and
strengthen thyself and thy physical powers, for they have
been taken account of in the plans of reason. But thou canst
maintain them only by legitimate use, conformable to their
nature. There are also, besides thee, many other beings like
thyself, whose powers have been counted upon like thine
own, and can be maintained only in the same way as thine
own. Concede to them the same privilege that has been
allowed to thee. Respect what belongs to them as their
possession;--use what belongs to thee legitimately as thine
own. " Thus ought I to act,--according to this course of ac-
tion must I think. I am compelled to regard these things
as standing under their own natural laws, independent of,
though perceivable by, me; and therefore to ascribe to them
an independent existence. I am compelled to believe in
such laws; the task of investigating them is set before me,
and that empty speculation vanishes like a mist when the
genial sun appears. In short, there is for me absolutely no such thing as an
existence which has no relation to myself, and which I con-
template merely for the sake of contemplating it;--what-
ever has an existence for me, has it only through its relation
to my own being. But there is, in the highest sense, only
\ one- relation to me possible, all others' are buj^yjwro^mate
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? BOOK XII. FAITH.
325
forms of this:--my vocation rppral q/>>fiYjf. yr. Mv world is
the object and sphere of my duties, and absolutelyjiothing^
more; there is no other world for me, and no other qualities
of my world than what are implied in this;--my whole
united capacity, all finite capacity, is insufficient to compre-
hend any other. Whatever possesses an existence for me,
can bring its existence and reality into contact with me
only through this relation, and only through this relation
do I comprehend it:--for any other existence than this I
have no organ whatever.
To the question, whether, in deed and in fact, such a
world exists as that which I represent to myself, I can give
no answer more fundamental, more raised above all doubt,
than this:--I have, most certainly and truly, these deter-
minate duties, which announce themselves to me as duties
towards certain objects, to be fulfilled by means of certain
materials;--duties which I cannot otherwise conceive of, and
cannot otherwise fulfil, than within such a world as I re-
present to myself. Even to one who had never meditated
on his own moral vocation, if there could be such a one, or
who, if he had given it some general consideration, had, at
least, never entertained the slightest purpose of fulfilling it
at any time within an indefinite futurity,--even for him, his
sensuous world, and his belief in its reality, arises in no
other manner than from his ideas of a moral world. If he
do not apprehend it by the thought of his duties, he cer-
tainly does so by the demand for his rights. What he per-
haps never requires of himself, he does certainly exact from
others in their conduct towards him,--that they should
treat him with propriety, consideration, and respect, not as
an irrational thing, but as a free and independent being;--
and thus, by supposing in them an ability to comply with
his own demands, he is compelled also to regard them as
themselves considerate, free, and independent of the domi-
nion of mere natural power. Even should he never propose
to himself any other purpose in his use and enjoyment of
surrounding objects but simply that of enjoying them, he
at least demands this enjoyment as a right, in the posses-
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? 326
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
sion of which he claims to be left undisturbed by others; and
thus he apprehends even the irrational world of sense by
means of a moral idea. These claims of respect for his ra-
tionality, independence, and preservation, no one can resign
who possesses a conscious existence; and with these claims,
at least, there is united in his soul, earnestness, renuncia-
tion of doubt, and faith in a reality, even if they be not as-
sociated with the recognition of a moral law within him.
Take the man who denies his own moral vocation, and thy
existence, and the existence of a material world, except as a
mere futile effort in which speculation tries her strength,--
approach him practically, apply his own principles to life,
and act as if either he had no existence at all, or were
merely a portion of rude matter,--he will soon lay aside his
scornful indifference, and indignantly complain of thee;
earnestly call thy attention to thy conduct towards him;
maintain that thou oughtst not and darest not so to act;
and thus prove to thee, by deeds, that thou art assuredly
capable of acting upon him; that he is, and that thou art,--
that there is a medium by which thou canst influence him,
and that thou, at least, hast duties to perform towards him. Thus, it is not the operation of supposed external objects,
which indeed exist for us, and we for them, only in so far as
we already know of them; and just as little an empty vision
evoked by our own imagination and thought, the products
of which must, like itself, be mere empty pictures;--it is not
these, but the necessary faith in our own freedom and power,
in our own real activity, and in the definite laws of human ac-
tion, which lies at the root of all our consciousness of a re-
ality external to ourselves;--a consciousness which is itself
but faith, since it is founded on another faith, of which how-
ever it is a necessary consequence. We are compelled to be-
lieve that we act, and that we ought to act in a certain man-
ner; we are compelled to assume a certain sphere for this
action; this sphere is the real, actually present world, such
as we find it;--and on the other hand, the world is abso-
lutely nothing more than, and cannot, in any way, extend
itself beyond, this sphere. From this necessity ofaction
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
327
proceeds the consciousness of the actual world; and not the
reverse way, from the consciousnesss of the actual world the
necessity of action:--this, not that, is the first; the former
is derived from the latter. We do not act because we know,
but we know because we are called upon toact:--the prac-
tical reason is the root of all reason. The laws of action for
rational beings are immediately certain; their world is cer-
tain only through that previous certainty. We cannot deny
these laws without plunging the world, and ourselves with
it, into absolute annihilation;--we raise ourselves from this
abyss, and maintain ourselves above it, solely by our moral
activity.
II.
There is something which I am called upon to do, simply
in order that it may be done; something to avoid doing,
solely that it may be left undone. But can I act without
having an end in view beyond the action itself, without di-
recting my intention towards something which can become
possible by means of my action, and only by means of it?
CanI will, without having something which I will? No:--
this would be contradictory to the very nature of my mind.
To every action there is united in my thought, immediately
and by the laws of thought] itself, a condition of things
placed in futurity, to which my action is related as the effi-
cient cause to the effect produced. But this purpose or end
of my action must not be proposed to me for its own sake,
--perhaps through some necessity of Nature,--and then my
course of action determined according to this end; I must
not have an end assigned to me, and then inquire how I
must act in order to attain this end; my action must not be
dependent on the end; but I must act in a certain manner,
simply because I ought so to act;--this is the first point.
That a result will follow from this course of action, is pro-
claimed by the voice within me. This result necessarily be-
comes an end to me, since I am bound to perform the action
which brings it, and it alone, to pass. I will that something
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? 328
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
shall come to pass, because I must act so that it may come
to pass;--just as I do not hunger because food is before me
but a thing becomes food for me because I hunger, so I do
not act as I do because a certain end is to be attained, but
the end becomes an end to me because I am bound to act in
the manner by which it may be attained. I have not first in
view the point towards which I am to draw my line, and
then, by its position, determine the direction of my line and
the angle it shall make; but I draw my line absolutely in a
right angle, and thereby thepoints are determined through
which my line must pass. The end does not determine the
commandment; but, on the contrary, the immediate purport
of the commandment determines the end.
I say, it is the law which commands me to act that of it-
self assigns an end to my action; the same inward power
that compels me to think that I ought to act thus, compels
me also to believe that from my action some result will
arise; it opens to my spiritual vision a prospect into another
world,--which is really a world, a state, namely, and not an
action,--but another and better world than that which is pre-
sent to the physical eye; it constrains me to aspire after this
better world, to embrace it with every power, to long for its
realization, to live only in it, and in it alone find satisfaction.
The law itself is my guarantee for the certain attainment of
this end. The same resolution by which I devote my whole
thought and life to the fulfilment of this law, and determine
to see nothing beyond it, brings with it the indestructible
conviction that the promise it implies is likewise true and
certain, and renders it impossible for me even to conceive
the possibility of the opposite. As I live in obedience to it,
so do I live also in the contemplation of its end,--in that
better world which it promises to me.
Even in the mere consideration of the world as it is, apart
from this law, there arises within me the wish, the desire,--
no, not the mere desire, but the absolute demand for a bet-
ter world. I cast a glance on the present relations of men
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
329
towards each other and towards Nature; on the feebleness
of their powers, the strength of their desires and passions.
A voice within me proclaims with irresistible conviction--
"It is impossible that it can remain thus; it must become
different and better. "
I cannot think of the present state of humanity as that in
which it is destined to remain; I am absolutely unable to
conceive of this as its complete and final vocation. Then,
indeed, were all a dream and a delusion; and it would not
be worth the trouble to have lived, and played out this
ever-repeated game, which tends to nothing and signifies
nothing. Only in so far as I can regard this state as the
means towards a better, as the transition point to a higher
and more perfect state, has it any value in my eyes;--not
for its own sake, but for the sake of that better world for
which it prepares the way, can I support it, esteem it, and
joyfully perform my part in it. My mind can accept no
place in the present, nor rest in it even for a moment; my
whole being flows onward, incessantly and irresistibly, to-
wards that future and better state of things.
Shall I eat and drink only that I may hunger and thirst
and eat and drink again, till the grave which is open be-
neath my feet shall swallow me up and I myself become the
food of worms 1 Shall I beget beings like myself, that they
too may eat and drink and die, and leave behind them be-
ings like themselves to do the same that I have done? To
what purpose this ever-revolving circle, this ceaseless and
unvarying round, in which all things appear only to pass
away, and pass away only that they may re-appear as they
were before;--this monster continually devouring itself that
it may again bring itself forth, and bringing itself forth only
that it may again devour itself?
This can never be the vocation of my being, and of all
being. There must be something which is because it has
come into existence; and endures, and cannot come anew,
having once become such as it is. And this abiding exis-
tence must be produced amid the vicissitudes of the transi-
ua
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? 330
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
tory and perishable, maintain itself there, and be borne on-
wards, pure and inviolate, upon the waves of time. Our race still laboriously extorts the means of its sub-
sistence and preservation from an opposing Nature. The
larger portion of mankind is still condemned through life to
severe toil, in order to supply nourishment for itself and for
the smaller portion which thinks for it;--immortal spirits
are compelled to fix their whole thoughts and endeavours
on the earth that brings forth their food. It still frequently
happens that, when the labourer has finished his toil and
has promised himself in return a lasting endurance both for
himself and for his work, a hostile element will destroy in a
moment that which it has cost him years of patient indus-
try and deliberation to accomplish, and the assiduous and
careful man is undeservedly made the prey of hunger and
misery;--often do floods, storms, volcanoes, desolate whole
countries, and works which bear the impress of a rational
soul are mingled with their authors in the wild chaos of
death and destruction. Disease sweeps into an untimely
grave men in the pride of their strength, and children whose
existence has as yet borne no fruit; pestilence stalks through
blooming lands, leaves the few who escape its ravages like
lonely orphans bereaved of the accustomed support of their
fellows, and does all that it can do to give back to the
desert regions which the labour of man has won from
thence as a possession to himself. Thus it is now, but thus
'it cannot remain for ever. No work that bears the stamp
of Reason, and has been undertaken to extend her power,
j can ever be wholly lost in the onward progress of the ages.
| The sacrifices which the irregular violence of Nature extorts
from Reason, must at least exhaust, disarm, and appease
that violence. The same power which has burst out into
lawless fury, cannot again commit like excesses; it cannot
be destined to renew its strength; through its own outhreak
its energies must henceforth and for ever be exhausted. All
those outbreaks of unregulated power before which human
strength vanishes into nothing, those desolating hurricanes,
those earthquakes, those volcanoes, can be nothing else than
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? BOOK HI. FAITH.
831
the last struggles of the rude mass against the law of regular, progressive, living, and systematic activity to which it is compelled to submit in opposition to its own undirected
impulses;--nothing but the last shivering strokes by which
the perfect formation of our globe has yet to be accom-
plished. That resistance must gradually become weaker
and at length be exhausted, since, in the regulated progress
of things, there can be nothing to renew its strength; that
formation must at length be achieved, and our destined
dwelling-place be made complete. Nature must gradually
be resolved into a condition in which her regular action may
be calculated and safely relied upon, and her power bear a
fixed and definite relation to that which is destined to
govern it,--that of man. In so far as this relation already
exists, and the cultivation of Nature has attained a firm
footing, the works of man, by their mere existence, and by
an influence altogether beyond the original intent of their
authors, shall again react upon Nature, and become to her
a new vivifying principle. Cultivation shall quicken and
ameliorate the sluggish and baleful atmosphere of primeval
forests, deserts, and marshes; more regular and varied cul-
tivation shall diffuse throughout the air new impulses to life
and fertility; and the sun shall pour his most animating
rays into an atmosphere breathed by healthful, industrious,
and civilized nations. Science, first called into existence by
the pressure of necessity, shall afterwards calmly and care-
fully investigate the unchangeable laws of Nature, review
its powers at large, and learn to calculate their possible
manifestations; and while closely following the footsteps of
Nature in the living and actual world, form for itself in
thought a new ideal one. Every discovery which Reason
has extorted from Nature shall be maintained throughout
the ages, and become the ground of new knowledge, for the
common possession of our race. Thus shall Nature ever
become more and more intelligible and transparent even
in her most secret depths; human power, enlightened and
armed by human invention, shall rule over her without diffi-
culty, and the conquest, once made, shall be peacefully main-
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? 332
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
tained. This dominion of man over Nature shall gradually
be extended, until, at length, no farther expenditure of me-
chanical labour shall be necessary than what the human
body requires for its development, cultivation, and health;
and this labour shall cease to be a burden;--for a reasonable
being is not destined to be a bearer of burdens.
But it is not Nature, it is Freedom itself, by which the
greatest and most terrible disorders incident to our race are
produced; man is the cruelest enemy of man. Lawless
hordes of savages still wander over vast wildernesses;--they
meet, and the victor devours his foe at the triumphal feast:
--or where culture has at length united these wild hordes
under some social bond, they attack each other, as nations,
with the power which law and [union have given them.
Defying toil and privation, their armies traverse peaceful
plains and forests;--they meet each other, and the sight of
their brethren is the signal for slaughter. Equipt with the
mightiest inventions of the human intellect, hostile fleets
plough their way through the ocean; through storm and tem-
pest man rushes to meet his fellow men upon the lonely
inhospitable sea;--they meet, and defy the fury of the ele-
ments that they may destroy each other with their own
hands. Even in the interior of states, where men seem to
be united in equality under the law, it is still for^the most
part only force and fraud which rule under that venerable
name; and here the warfare is so much the more shameful
that it is not openly declared to be_gat, and the party at-
tacked is even deprived oTTne privilege of defending him-
self against unjust oppression. Combinations of the few re-
joice aloud in the ignorance, the folly, the vice, and the
misery in which the greater number of their fellow-men are
sunk, avowedly seek to retain them in this state of degra-
dation, and even to plunge them deeper in it in order to
perpetuate their slavery;--nay, would destroy any one who
should venture to enlighten or improve them. No attempt
at amelioration can anywhere be made without rousing up
from slumber a host of selfish interests to war against it,
and uniting even the most varied and opposite in a com-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
333
mon hostility. The good cause is ever the weaker, for it is
simple, and can be loved only for itself; the bad attracts
each individual by the promise which is most seductive to
him; and its adherents, always at war among themselves, so
soon as the good makes its appearance, conclude a truce
that they may unite the whole powers of their wickedness
against it. Scarcely, indeed, is such an opposition needed, for
even the good themselves are but too often divided by mis-
understanding, error, distrust, and secret self-love, and that
so much the more violently, the more earnestly each strives
to propagate that which he recognises as best; and thus
internal discord dissipates a power, which, even when unit-
ed, could scarcely hold the balance with evil. One blames
the other for rushing onwards with stormy impetuosity to
his object, without waiting until the good result shall have
been prepared; whilst he in turn is blamed that, through
hesitation and cowardice, he accomplishes nothing, but al-
lows all things to remain as they are, contrary to his better
conviction, because for him the hour of action never arrives:--
and only the Omniscient can determine whether either of
the parties in the dispute is in the right. Every one regards
the undertaking, the necessity of which is most apparent to
him, and in the prosecution of which he has acquired the
greatest skill, as most important and needful,--as the point
from which all improvement must proceed; he requires all
good men to unite their efforts with his, and to subject
themselves to him for the accomplishment of his particular
purpose, holding it to be treason to the good cause if they
hold back;--while they on the other hand make the same
demands upon him, and accuse him of similar treason for a
similar refusal. Thus do all good intentions among men
appear to be lost in vain disputations, which leave behind
them no trace of their existence; while in the meantime the
world goes on as well, or as ill, as it can without human
effort, by the blind mechanism of Nature,--and so will go on
for ever.
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? 33-t
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
And so go on for ever ? --No;--not so, unless the whole
existence of humanity is to be an idle game, without signifi-
cance and without end. It cannot be intended that those
savage tribes should always remain savage: no race can be
born with all the capacities of perfect humanity, and yet
be destined never to develop these capacities, never to be-
come more than that which a sagacious animal by its own
proper nature might become. Those savages must be des-
tined to be the progenitors of more powerful, cultivated, and
virtuous generations;--otherwise it is impossible to conceive
of a purpose in their existence, or even of the possibility of
their existence in a world ordered and arranged by reason.
Savage races may become civilized, for this has already-t>c-
curred ;--the most cultivated nations of modern times are
the descendants of savages. Whether civilization is a direct
and natural development of human society, or is invariably
brought about through instruction and example from with-
out, and the primary source of all human culture must be
sought in a super-human guidance,--by the same way in
which nations which once were savage have emerged into
civilization, will those who are yet uncivilized gradually
attain it. They must, no doubt, at first pass through the
same dangers and corruptions of a merely sensual civiliza-
tion, by which the civilized nations are still oppressed, but
they will thereby be brought into union with the great
whole of humanity and be made capable of taking part in
its further progress.
It is the vocation of our race to unite itself into one single
body, all the parts of which shall beJLb'orcWhiv known to
each other, and all possessed of similar culture. Nature, and
even the passions and vices of men, have from the beginning
tended towards this end; a great part of the way towards it
is already passed, and we may surely calculate that this end,
which is the condition of all farther social progress, will in
time be attained. Let us not ask of history if man, on the
whole, have yet become purely moral! To a more extended,
comprehensive, energetic freedom he has certainly attained;
but hitherto it has been an almost necessary result of his
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
335
position, that this freedom has been applied chiefly to evil
purposes.
Neither let us ask whether the aesthetic and intel-
lectual culture of the ancient world, concentrated on a few
points, may not have excelled in degree that of modern
times! It might happen that we should receive a humilia-
ting answer, and that in this respect the human race has
not advanced, but rather seemed to retrograde, in its riper
years. But let us ask of history at what period the exist-
ing culture has been most widely diffused, and distributed
among the greatest number of individuals; and we shall
doubtless find that from the beginning of history down to
our own day, the few light-points of civilization have spread
themselves abroad from their centre, that one individual af-
ter another, and one nation after another, has been em-
braced within their circle, and that this wider outspread of
culture is proceeding under our own eyes, ind this is the
first point to be attained in the endless path on which hu-
manity must advance. Until this shall have been attained,
until the existing culture of every age shall have been dif-
fused over the whole inhabited globe, and our race become
capable of the most unlimited inter-communication with it-
self, one nation or one continent must pause on the great
common path of progress, and wait for the advance of the
others; and each must bring as an offering to the universal
commonwealth, for the sake of which alone it exists, its ages
of apparent immobility or retrogression. When that first
point shall have been attained, when every useful discovery
made at one end of the earth shall be at once made known
and communicated to all the rest, then, without farther in-
terruption, without halt or regress, with united strength and
equal step, humanity shall move onward to a higher culture,
of which we can at present form no conception.
Within those singular associations, thrown together by
unreasoning accident, which we call States,--after they have
subsisted for a time in peace, when the resistence excited by
yet new oppression has been lulled to sleep, and the fermen-
tation of contending forces appeased,--abuse, by its con-
tinuance, and by general sufferance, assumes a sort of estab-
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? 330
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
lished form; and the ruling classes, in the uncontested en-
joyment of their extorted privileges, have nothing more to
do but to extend them further, and to give to this extension
also the same established form. Urged by their insatiable
desires, they will continue from generation to generation
their efforts to acquire wider and yet wider privileges, and
never say ? It is enough! " until at last oppression shall
reach its limit, and become wholly insupportable, and des-
pair give back to the oppressed that power which their cou-
rage, extinguished by centuries of tyranny, could not procure
for them. They will then no longer endure any among
them who cannot be satisfied to be on an equality with
others, and so to remain. In order to protect themselves
against internal violence or new oppression, all will take on
themselves the same obligations. Their deliberations, in
which every man shall decide, whatever he decides, for him-
self, and not for one subject to him whose sufferings will ne-
ver affect him, and in whose fate he takes no concern;--
deliberations, according to which no one can hope that it
shall be he who is to practise a permitted injustice, but
every one must fear that he may have to suffer it;--delibera-
tions that alone deserve the name of legislation, which is
something wholly different from the ordinances of combined
lords to the countless herds of their slaves;--these delibera-
tions will necessarily be guided by justice, and will lay the
foundation of a true State, in which each individual, from a
regard for his own security, will be irresistibly compelled
to respect the security of every other without exception;
since, under the supposed legislation, every injury which he
should attempt to do to another, would not fall upon its ob-
ject, but would infallibly recoil upon himself.
By the establishment of this only true State, this firm
foundation of internal peace, the possibility of foreign war,
at least with other true States, is cut off. Even for its own
advantage, even to prevent the thought of injustice, plunder,
and violence entering the minds of its own citizens, and to
leave them no possibility of gain, except by means of in-
dustry and diligence within their legitimate sphere of ac-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
337
tivity, every true state must forbid as strictly, prevent as
carefully, compensate as exactly, or punish as severely, any
injury to the citizen of a neighbouring state, as to one of its
own. This law concerning the security of neighbours is ne-
cessarily a law in every state that is not a robber-state; and
by its operation the possibility of any just complaint of one
state against another, and consequently every case of self-
defence among nations, is entirely prevented. There are no necessary, permanent, and immediate relations of states, as such, with each other, which should be productive of
strife; there are, properly speaking, only relations of the individual citizens of one state to the individual citizens of another; a state can be injured only in the person of one of
its citizens; but such injury will be immediately compen-
sated, and the aggrieved state satisfied. Between such
states as these, there is no rank which can be insulted, no ambition which can be offended. No officer of one state is authorised to intermeddle in the internal affairs of another, nor is-there any temptation for him to do so, since he could
not derive the slightest personal advantage from any such influence. That a whole nation should determine, for the
sake of plunder, to make war on a neighbouring country, is
impossible; for in a state where all are equal, the plunder
could not become the booty of a few, but must be equally
divided amongst all, and the share of no one individual could
ever recompense him for the trouble of the war. Only
where the advantage falls to the few oppressors, and the in-
jury, the toil, the expense, to the countless herd of slaves, is
a war of spoliation possible and conceivable. Not from states like themselves could such states as these entertain
any fear of war; only from savages, or barbarians whose
lack of skill to enrich themselves by industry impels them
to plunder; or from enslaved nations, driven by their mas-
ters to a war from which they themselves will reap no ad-
vantage. In the former case, each individual civilized state
must already be the stronger through the arts of civiliza-
tion; against the latter danger, the common advantage of all
demands that they should strengthen themselves by union.
xa
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? 338
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
No free state can reasonably suffer in its vicinity associa-
tions governed by rulers whose interests would be promoted
by the subjugation of adjacent nations, and whose very ex-
istence is therefore a constant source of danger to their
neighbours; a regard for their own security compels all free
states to transform all around them into free states like
themselves; and thus, for the sake of their own welfare, to
extend the empire of culture over barbarism, of freedom
over slavery. Soon will the nations, civilized or enfranchis-
ed by them, find themselves placed in the same relation to-
wards others still enthralled by barbarism or slavery, in
which the earlier free nations previously stood towards
them, and be compelled to do the same things for these
which were previously done for themselves; and thus, of ne-
cessity, by reason of the existence of some few really free
states, will the empire of civilization, freedom, and with it
universal peace, gradually embrace the whole world.
I Thus, from the establishment of a just internal organiza-
tion, and of peace between individuals, there will necessarily
result integrity in the external relations of nations towards
\each other, and universal peace among them. But the
establishment of this just internal organization, and the
emancipation of the first nation that shall be truly free,
arises as a necessary consequence from the ever-growing op-
pression exercised by the ruling classes towards their sub-
jects, which gradually becomes insupportable,--a progress
which may be safely left to the passions and the blindness
of those classes, even although warned of the result.
In these only true states all temptation to evil, nay, even
the possibility of a man resolving upon a bad action with
any reasonable hope of benefit to himself, will be entirely
taken away; and the strongest possible motives will be of-
fered to every man to make virtue the sole object of his
will.
There is no man who loves evil because it is evil; it is
only the advantages and enjoyments expected from it, and
which, in the present condition of humanity, do actually,
in most cases, result from it, that are loved. So long as
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
33<)
this condition shall continue, so long as a premium shall
be set upon vice, a fundamental improvement of mankind,
as a whole, can scarcely be hoped for. But in a civil so-
ciety constituted as it ought to be, as reason requires it to
be, as the thinker may easily describe it to himself although
he may nowhere find it actually existing at the present day,
and as it must necessarily exist in the first nation that shall
really acquire true freedom,--in such a state of society, evil
will present no advantages, but rather the most certain dis-
advantages, and self-love itself will restrain the excess of
self-love when it would run out into injustice. By the un-
erring administration of such a state, every fraud or op-
pression practised upon others, all self-aggrandizement at
their expense, will be rendered not merely vain, and all
labour so applied fruitless, but such attempts would even re-
coil upon their author, and assuredly bring home to himself
the evil which he would cause to others. In his own land,
--out of his own land,--throughout the whole world, he
could find no one whom he might injure and yet go un-
punished. But it is not to be expected, even of a bad man,
that he would determine upon evil merely for the sake of
such a resolution, although he had no power to carry it into
effect, and nothing could arise from it but infamy to him-
self. The use of liberty for evil purposes is thus destroyed;
man must resolve either to renounce his freedom altogether,
and patiently to become a mere passive wheel in the great
machine of the universe, or else to employ it for good. In
soil thus prepared, good will easily prosper. When men
shall no longer be divided by selfish purposes, nor their
powers exhausted in struggles with each other, nothing will
remain for them but to direct their united strength against
the one common enemy which still remains unsubdued,--
resisting, uncultivated nature. No longer estranged from
each other by private ends, they will necessarily combine
for this common object; and thus there arises a body, every-
where animated by the same spirit and the same love.
Every misfortune to the individual, since it can no longer
be a gain to any other individual, is a misfortune to the
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? 340
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
whole, and to each individual member of the whole; and is
felt with the same pain, and remedied with the same ac-
tivity, by every member;--every step in advance made by
one man is a step in advance made by the whole race
.
Here, where the petty, narrow self of mere individual per-
sonality is merged in the more comprehensive unity of the
social constitution, each man truly loves every other as him-
self,--as a member of this greater self which now claims all
his love, and of which he himself is no more than a member,
capable of participating only in a common gain or in a com-
mon loss. The strife of evil against good is here abolished,
for here no evil can intrude. The strife of the good among
themselves for the sake of good, disappears, now that they
find it easy to love good for its own sake alone and not
because they are its authors; now that it has become of
all-importance to them that the truth should really be dis-
covered, that the useful action should be done,--but not at
all by whom this may be accomplished. Here each indi-
vidual is at all times ready to join his strength to that of
others, to make it subordinate to that of others; and who-
ever, according to the judgment of all, is most capable of ac-
complishing the greatest amount of good, will be supported
by all, and his success rejoiced in by all with an equal joy.
This is the purpose of our earthly life, which reason sets before us, and for the infallible attainment of which she is
our pledge and security. This is not an object given to us
only that we may strive after it for the mere purpose of ex-
ercising our powers on something great, the real existence of
which we may perhaps be compelled to abandon to doubt;--
itshall, it must be realized; there must be a time in which
it shall be accomplished, as surely as there is a sensible
world and a race of reasonable beings existent in time with
respect to which nothing earnest and rational is conceivable
besides this purpose, and whose existence becomes intelli-
gible only through this purpose. Unless all human life be
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
341
metamorphosed into a mere theatrical display for the grati-
fication of some malignant spirit, who has implanted in poor
humanity this inextinguishable longing for the imperishable
only to amuse himself with its ceaseless pursuit of that
which it can never overtake,--its ever-repeated efforts,
Ixion-like, to embrace that which still eludes its grasp,--its
restless hurrying onward in an ever-recurring circle,--only
to mock its earnest aspirations with an empty, insipid farce;
--unless the wise man, seeing through this mockery, and
feeling an irrepressible disgust at continuing to play his
part in it, is to cast life indignantly from him and make the
moment of his awakening to reason also that of his physical
death;--unless these things are so, this purpose most as-
suredly must be attained. --Yes 1 it is attainable in life, and
through life, for Reason commands me to live:--it is attain-
able, for I am.
III.
But when this end shall have been attained, and human-
ity shall at length stand at this point, what is there then to
do? Upon earth there is no higher state than this;--the
generation which has once reached it, can do no more than
abide there, steadfastly maintain its position, die, and leave
behind it descendants who shall do the like, and who will
again leave behind them descendants to follow in their foot-
steps. Humanity would thus stand still upon her path; and
therefore her earthly end cannot be her highest end. This
earthly end is conceivable, attainable, and finite. Even al-
though we consider all preceding generations as means for
the production of the last complete one, we do not thereby
escape the question of earnest reason,--to what end then is
this last one? Since a Human Race has appeared upon earth,
its existence there must certainly be in accordance with, and
not contrary to, reason; and it must attain all the develop-
ment which it is possible for it to attain on earth. But why
should such a race have an existence at all,--why may it not
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? 342
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
as well have remained in the womb of chaos? Reason is not
for the sake of existence, but existence for the sake of reason.
An existence which does not of itself satisfy reason and solve
all her questions, cannot by possibility be the true being. And, then, are those actions which are commanded by the
voice of conscience,--by that voice whose dictates I never
dare to criticise, but must always obey in silence,--are those
actions, in reality, always the means, and the only means,
for the attainment of the earthly purpose of humanity?
That I cannot do otherwise than refer them to this purpose,
and dare not have any other object in view to be attained
by means of them, is incontestible. But then are these, my
intentions, always fulfilled ? --is it enough that we will what
is good, in order that it may happen? Alas! many virtuous
intentions are entirely lost for this world, and others appear
even to hinder the purpose which they were designed to
promote. On the other hand, the most despicable passions
of men, their vices and their crimes, often forward, more
certainly, the good cause than the endeavours of the vir-
tuous man, who will never do evil that good may come! It
seems that the Highest Good of the world pursues its course
of increase and prosperity quite independently of all human
virtues or vices, according to its own laws, through an in-
1visible and unknown Power,--just as the heavenly bodies
run their appointed course, independently of all human
effort; and that this Power carries forward, in its own great
plan, all human intentions, good and bad, and, with over-
ruling wisdom, employs for its own purpose that which was
undertaken for other ends.
Thus, even if the attainment of this earthly end could be
the purpose of our existence, and every doubt which reason
could start with regard to it were silenced, yet would this
end not be ours, but the end of that unknown power. We
do not know, even for a moment, what is conducive to this
end; and nothing is left to us but to give by our actions
some materia], no matter what, for this power to work upon,
and to leave to it the task of elaborating this material to its
own purposes. It would, in that case, be our highest wisdom
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
343
not to trouble ourselves about matters that do not concern
us; to live according to our own fancy or inclinations, and
quietly leave the consequences to that unknown power.
The moral law within us would be void and superfluous, and
absolutely unfitted to a being destined to nothing higher
than this. In order to be at one with ourselves, we should
have to refuse obedience to that law, and to suppress it as
a perverse and foolish fanaticism.
No I--I will not refuse obedience to the law of duty;--as
surely as I live and am, I will obey, absolutely because it
commands. This resolution shall be first and highest in my
mind; that by which everything else is determined, but
which is itself determined by nothing else;--this shall be the innermost principle of my spiritual life. s
But, as a reasonable being, before whom a purpose must
be set solely by its own will and determination, it is impos-
sible for me to act without a motive and without an end.
If this obedience is to be recognised by me as a reasonable
service,--if the voice which demands this obedience be
really that of the creative reason within me, and not a mere
fanciful enthusiasm, invented by my own imagination, or
communicated to me somehow from without,--this obedience
must have some consequences, must serve some end. It is
evident that it does not serve the purpose of the world of
sense;--there must, therefore, be a super-sensensual world,
whose purposes it does promote.
The mist of delusion clears away from before my sight!
I receive a new organ, and a new world opens before me. It
is disclosed to me only by the law of reason, and answers
only to that law in my spirit. I apprehend this world,--
limited as I am by my sensuous view, I must thus name the
unnameable--I apprehend this world merely in and through
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? 344
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
the end which is promised to my obedience;--it is in reality
nothing else than this necessary end itself which reason an-
nexes to the law of duty.
Setting aside everything else, how could I suppose that
this law had reference to the world of sense, or that the
whole end and object of the obedience which it demands is
to be found within that world, since that which alone is of
importance in this obedience serves no purpose whatever in
that world, can never become a cause in it, and can never
produce results. In the world of sense, which proceeds on a
chain of material causes and effects, and in which whatever
happens depends merely on that which preceded it, it is
never of any moment how, and with what motives and inten-
tentions, an action is performed, but only what the action is.
Had it been the whole purpose of our existence to pro-
duce an earthly condition of our race, there would have been
required only an unerring mechanism by which our out-
ward actions might have been determined,--we would not
have needed to be move than wheels well fitted to the great
machine. Freedom would have been, not merely vain, but
even obstructive; a virtuous will wholly superfluous. The
world would, in that case, be most unskilfully directed, and
attain the purposes of its existence by wasteful extrava-
gance and circuitous byeways. Hadst thou, mighty World-
Spirit! withheld from us this freedom, which thou art now
constrained to adapt to thy plans with labour and contri-
vance; hadst thou rather at once compelled us to act in the
way in which thy plans required that we should act, thou
wouldst have attained thy purposes by a much shorter way,
as the humblest of the dwellers in these thy worlds can tell
thee. But I am free; and therefore such a chain of causes
and effects, in which freedom is absolutely superfluous and
and without aim, cannot exhaust my whole nature. I must
be free; for it is not the mere mechanical act, but the free
determination of free will, for the sake of duty and for the
ends of duty only,--thus speaks the voice of conscience
within us,--this alone it is which constitutes our true
worth. The bond with which this law of duty binds me is
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? BOOK III. PAITH.
345
a bond for living spirits only; it disdains to rule over a
dead mechanism, and addresses its decrees only to the living
and the free. It requires of me this obedience;--this obe-
dience therefore cannot be nugatory or superfluous. V
And now the Eternal World rises before me more bright-
ly, and the fundamental law of its order stands clearly and
distinctly apparent to my mental vision. In this world,
will alone, as it lies concealed from mortal eye in the secret
obscurities of the soul, is the first link in a chain of conse-
quences that stretches through the whole invisible realms of
spirit; as, in the physical world, action--a certain movement
of matter--is the first link in a material chain that runs
through the whole system of nature. The will is the effi-
cient, living principle of the world of reason, as motion is
the efficient, living principle of the world of sense. I stand
in the centre of two entirely opposite worlds:--a visible
world, in which action is the only moving power; and an
invisible and absolutely incomprehensible world, in which
will is the ruling principle. I am one of the primitive forces
of both these worlds. My will embraces both. This will is,
in itself, a constituent element of the super-sensual world;
for as I move it by my successive resolutions, I move and
change something in that world, and my activity thus ex-
tends itself throughout the whole, and gives birth to new
and ever-enduring results which henceforward possess a
real existence and need not again to be produced. This
will may break forth in a material act,--and this act belongs
to the world of sense and does there that which pertains to
a material act to do.
It is not necessary that I should first be severed from the
terrestrial world before I can obtain admission into the ce-
lestial one;--I am and live in it even now, far more truly
than in the terrestrial; even now it is my only sure founda-
tion, and the eternal life on the possession of which I have
already entered is the only ground why I should still pro-
long this earthly one. That which we call heaven does not
Ya
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-27 00:11 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/wu. 89090378035 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
?
field in order that it may at once sanctify and restrain this
natural impulse. "Thou shalt maintain, exercise, and
strengthen thyself and thy physical powers, for they have
been taken account of in the plans of reason. But thou canst
maintain them only by legitimate use, conformable to their
nature. There are also, besides thee, many other beings like
thyself, whose powers have been counted upon like thine
own, and can be maintained only in the same way as thine
own. Concede to them the same privilege that has been
allowed to thee. Respect what belongs to them as their
possession;--use what belongs to thee legitimately as thine
own. " Thus ought I to act,--according to this course of ac-
tion must I think. I am compelled to regard these things
as standing under their own natural laws, independent of,
though perceivable by, me; and therefore to ascribe to them
an independent existence. I am compelled to believe in
such laws; the task of investigating them is set before me,
and that empty speculation vanishes like a mist when the
genial sun appears. In short, there is for me absolutely no such thing as an
existence which has no relation to myself, and which I con-
template merely for the sake of contemplating it;--what-
ever has an existence for me, has it only through its relation
to my own being. But there is, in the highest sense, only
\ one- relation to me possible, all others' are buj^yjwro^mate
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? BOOK XII. FAITH.
325
forms of this:--my vocation rppral q/>>fiYjf. yr. Mv world is
the object and sphere of my duties, and absolutelyjiothing^
more; there is no other world for me, and no other qualities
of my world than what are implied in this;--my whole
united capacity, all finite capacity, is insufficient to compre-
hend any other. Whatever possesses an existence for me,
can bring its existence and reality into contact with me
only through this relation, and only through this relation
do I comprehend it:--for any other existence than this I
have no organ whatever.
To the question, whether, in deed and in fact, such a
world exists as that which I represent to myself, I can give
no answer more fundamental, more raised above all doubt,
than this:--I have, most certainly and truly, these deter-
minate duties, which announce themselves to me as duties
towards certain objects, to be fulfilled by means of certain
materials;--duties which I cannot otherwise conceive of, and
cannot otherwise fulfil, than within such a world as I re-
present to myself. Even to one who had never meditated
on his own moral vocation, if there could be such a one, or
who, if he had given it some general consideration, had, at
least, never entertained the slightest purpose of fulfilling it
at any time within an indefinite futurity,--even for him, his
sensuous world, and his belief in its reality, arises in no
other manner than from his ideas of a moral world. If he
do not apprehend it by the thought of his duties, he cer-
tainly does so by the demand for his rights. What he per-
haps never requires of himself, he does certainly exact from
others in their conduct towards him,--that they should
treat him with propriety, consideration, and respect, not as
an irrational thing, but as a free and independent being;--
and thus, by supposing in them an ability to comply with
his own demands, he is compelled also to regard them as
themselves considerate, free, and independent of the domi-
nion of mere natural power. Even should he never propose
to himself any other purpose in his use and enjoyment of
surrounding objects but simply that of enjoying them, he
at least demands this enjoyment as a right, in the posses-
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? 326
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
sion of which he claims to be left undisturbed by others; and
thus he apprehends even the irrational world of sense by
means of a moral idea. These claims of respect for his ra-
tionality, independence, and preservation, no one can resign
who possesses a conscious existence; and with these claims,
at least, there is united in his soul, earnestness, renuncia-
tion of doubt, and faith in a reality, even if they be not as-
sociated with the recognition of a moral law within him.
Take the man who denies his own moral vocation, and thy
existence, and the existence of a material world, except as a
mere futile effort in which speculation tries her strength,--
approach him practically, apply his own principles to life,
and act as if either he had no existence at all, or were
merely a portion of rude matter,--he will soon lay aside his
scornful indifference, and indignantly complain of thee;
earnestly call thy attention to thy conduct towards him;
maintain that thou oughtst not and darest not so to act;
and thus prove to thee, by deeds, that thou art assuredly
capable of acting upon him; that he is, and that thou art,--
that there is a medium by which thou canst influence him,
and that thou, at least, hast duties to perform towards him. Thus, it is not the operation of supposed external objects,
which indeed exist for us, and we for them, only in so far as
we already know of them; and just as little an empty vision
evoked by our own imagination and thought, the products
of which must, like itself, be mere empty pictures;--it is not
these, but the necessary faith in our own freedom and power,
in our own real activity, and in the definite laws of human ac-
tion, which lies at the root of all our consciousness of a re-
ality external to ourselves;--a consciousness which is itself
but faith, since it is founded on another faith, of which how-
ever it is a necessary consequence. We are compelled to be-
lieve that we act, and that we ought to act in a certain man-
ner; we are compelled to assume a certain sphere for this
action; this sphere is the real, actually present world, such
as we find it;--and on the other hand, the world is abso-
lutely nothing more than, and cannot, in any way, extend
itself beyond, this sphere. From this necessity ofaction
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
327
proceeds the consciousness of the actual world; and not the
reverse way, from the consciousnesss of the actual world the
necessity of action:--this, not that, is the first; the former
is derived from the latter. We do not act because we know,
but we know because we are called upon toact:--the prac-
tical reason is the root of all reason. The laws of action for
rational beings are immediately certain; their world is cer-
tain only through that previous certainty. We cannot deny
these laws without plunging the world, and ourselves with
it, into absolute annihilation;--we raise ourselves from this
abyss, and maintain ourselves above it, solely by our moral
activity.
II.
There is something which I am called upon to do, simply
in order that it may be done; something to avoid doing,
solely that it may be left undone. But can I act without
having an end in view beyond the action itself, without di-
recting my intention towards something which can become
possible by means of my action, and only by means of it?
CanI will, without having something which I will? No:--
this would be contradictory to the very nature of my mind.
To every action there is united in my thought, immediately
and by the laws of thought] itself, a condition of things
placed in futurity, to which my action is related as the effi-
cient cause to the effect produced. But this purpose or end
of my action must not be proposed to me for its own sake,
--perhaps through some necessity of Nature,--and then my
course of action determined according to this end; I must
not have an end assigned to me, and then inquire how I
must act in order to attain this end; my action must not be
dependent on the end; but I must act in a certain manner,
simply because I ought so to act;--this is the first point.
That a result will follow from this course of action, is pro-
claimed by the voice within me. This result necessarily be-
comes an end to me, since I am bound to perform the action
which brings it, and it alone, to pass. I will that something
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? 328
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
shall come to pass, because I must act so that it may come
to pass;--just as I do not hunger because food is before me
but a thing becomes food for me because I hunger, so I do
not act as I do because a certain end is to be attained, but
the end becomes an end to me because I am bound to act in
the manner by which it may be attained. I have not first in
view the point towards which I am to draw my line, and
then, by its position, determine the direction of my line and
the angle it shall make; but I draw my line absolutely in a
right angle, and thereby thepoints are determined through
which my line must pass. The end does not determine the
commandment; but, on the contrary, the immediate purport
of the commandment determines the end.
I say, it is the law which commands me to act that of it-
self assigns an end to my action; the same inward power
that compels me to think that I ought to act thus, compels
me also to believe that from my action some result will
arise; it opens to my spiritual vision a prospect into another
world,--which is really a world, a state, namely, and not an
action,--but another and better world than that which is pre-
sent to the physical eye; it constrains me to aspire after this
better world, to embrace it with every power, to long for its
realization, to live only in it, and in it alone find satisfaction.
The law itself is my guarantee for the certain attainment of
this end. The same resolution by which I devote my whole
thought and life to the fulfilment of this law, and determine
to see nothing beyond it, brings with it the indestructible
conviction that the promise it implies is likewise true and
certain, and renders it impossible for me even to conceive
the possibility of the opposite. As I live in obedience to it,
so do I live also in the contemplation of its end,--in that
better world which it promises to me.
Even in the mere consideration of the world as it is, apart
from this law, there arises within me the wish, the desire,--
no, not the mere desire, but the absolute demand for a bet-
ter world. I cast a glance on the present relations of men
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
329
towards each other and towards Nature; on the feebleness
of their powers, the strength of their desires and passions.
A voice within me proclaims with irresistible conviction--
"It is impossible that it can remain thus; it must become
different and better. "
I cannot think of the present state of humanity as that in
which it is destined to remain; I am absolutely unable to
conceive of this as its complete and final vocation. Then,
indeed, were all a dream and a delusion; and it would not
be worth the trouble to have lived, and played out this
ever-repeated game, which tends to nothing and signifies
nothing. Only in so far as I can regard this state as the
means towards a better, as the transition point to a higher
and more perfect state, has it any value in my eyes;--not
for its own sake, but for the sake of that better world for
which it prepares the way, can I support it, esteem it, and
joyfully perform my part in it. My mind can accept no
place in the present, nor rest in it even for a moment; my
whole being flows onward, incessantly and irresistibly, to-
wards that future and better state of things.
Shall I eat and drink only that I may hunger and thirst
and eat and drink again, till the grave which is open be-
neath my feet shall swallow me up and I myself become the
food of worms 1 Shall I beget beings like myself, that they
too may eat and drink and die, and leave behind them be-
ings like themselves to do the same that I have done? To
what purpose this ever-revolving circle, this ceaseless and
unvarying round, in which all things appear only to pass
away, and pass away only that they may re-appear as they
were before;--this monster continually devouring itself that
it may again bring itself forth, and bringing itself forth only
that it may again devour itself?
This can never be the vocation of my being, and of all
being. There must be something which is because it has
come into existence; and endures, and cannot come anew,
having once become such as it is. And this abiding exis-
tence must be produced amid the vicissitudes of the transi-
ua
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? 330
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
tory and perishable, maintain itself there, and be borne on-
wards, pure and inviolate, upon the waves of time. Our race still laboriously extorts the means of its sub-
sistence and preservation from an opposing Nature. The
larger portion of mankind is still condemned through life to
severe toil, in order to supply nourishment for itself and for
the smaller portion which thinks for it;--immortal spirits
are compelled to fix their whole thoughts and endeavours
on the earth that brings forth their food. It still frequently
happens that, when the labourer has finished his toil and
has promised himself in return a lasting endurance both for
himself and for his work, a hostile element will destroy in a
moment that which it has cost him years of patient indus-
try and deliberation to accomplish, and the assiduous and
careful man is undeservedly made the prey of hunger and
misery;--often do floods, storms, volcanoes, desolate whole
countries, and works which bear the impress of a rational
soul are mingled with their authors in the wild chaos of
death and destruction. Disease sweeps into an untimely
grave men in the pride of their strength, and children whose
existence has as yet borne no fruit; pestilence stalks through
blooming lands, leaves the few who escape its ravages like
lonely orphans bereaved of the accustomed support of their
fellows, and does all that it can do to give back to the
desert regions which the labour of man has won from
thence as a possession to himself. Thus it is now, but thus
'it cannot remain for ever. No work that bears the stamp
of Reason, and has been undertaken to extend her power,
j can ever be wholly lost in the onward progress of the ages.
| The sacrifices which the irregular violence of Nature extorts
from Reason, must at least exhaust, disarm, and appease
that violence. The same power which has burst out into
lawless fury, cannot again commit like excesses; it cannot
be destined to renew its strength; through its own outhreak
its energies must henceforth and for ever be exhausted. All
those outbreaks of unregulated power before which human
strength vanishes into nothing, those desolating hurricanes,
those earthquakes, those volcanoes, can be nothing else than
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? BOOK HI. FAITH.
831
the last struggles of the rude mass against the law of regular, progressive, living, and systematic activity to which it is compelled to submit in opposition to its own undirected
impulses;--nothing but the last shivering strokes by which
the perfect formation of our globe has yet to be accom-
plished. That resistance must gradually become weaker
and at length be exhausted, since, in the regulated progress
of things, there can be nothing to renew its strength; that
formation must at length be achieved, and our destined
dwelling-place be made complete. Nature must gradually
be resolved into a condition in which her regular action may
be calculated and safely relied upon, and her power bear a
fixed and definite relation to that which is destined to
govern it,--that of man. In so far as this relation already
exists, and the cultivation of Nature has attained a firm
footing, the works of man, by their mere existence, and by
an influence altogether beyond the original intent of their
authors, shall again react upon Nature, and become to her
a new vivifying principle. Cultivation shall quicken and
ameliorate the sluggish and baleful atmosphere of primeval
forests, deserts, and marshes; more regular and varied cul-
tivation shall diffuse throughout the air new impulses to life
and fertility; and the sun shall pour his most animating
rays into an atmosphere breathed by healthful, industrious,
and civilized nations. Science, first called into existence by
the pressure of necessity, shall afterwards calmly and care-
fully investigate the unchangeable laws of Nature, review
its powers at large, and learn to calculate their possible
manifestations; and while closely following the footsteps of
Nature in the living and actual world, form for itself in
thought a new ideal one. Every discovery which Reason
has extorted from Nature shall be maintained throughout
the ages, and become the ground of new knowledge, for the
common possession of our race. Thus shall Nature ever
become more and more intelligible and transparent even
in her most secret depths; human power, enlightened and
armed by human invention, shall rule over her without diffi-
culty, and the conquest, once made, shall be peacefully main-
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? 332
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
tained. This dominion of man over Nature shall gradually
be extended, until, at length, no farther expenditure of me-
chanical labour shall be necessary than what the human
body requires for its development, cultivation, and health;
and this labour shall cease to be a burden;--for a reasonable
being is not destined to be a bearer of burdens.
But it is not Nature, it is Freedom itself, by which the
greatest and most terrible disorders incident to our race are
produced; man is the cruelest enemy of man. Lawless
hordes of savages still wander over vast wildernesses;--they
meet, and the victor devours his foe at the triumphal feast:
--or where culture has at length united these wild hordes
under some social bond, they attack each other, as nations,
with the power which law and [union have given them.
Defying toil and privation, their armies traverse peaceful
plains and forests;--they meet each other, and the sight of
their brethren is the signal for slaughter. Equipt with the
mightiest inventions of the human intellect, hostile fleets
plough their way through the ocean; through storm and tem-
pest man rushes to meet his fellow men upon the lonely
inhospitable sea;--they meet, and defy the fury of the ele-
ments that they may destroy each other with their own
hands. Even in the interior of states, where men seem to
be united in equality under the law, it is still for^the most
part only force and fraud which rule under that venerable
name; and here the warfare is so much the more shameful
that it is not openly declared to be_gat, and the party at-
tacked is even deprived oTTne privilege of defending him-
self against unjust oppression. Combinations of the few re-
joice aloud in the ignorance, the folly, the vice, and the
misery in which the greater number of their fellow-men are
sunk, avowedly seek to retain them in this state of degra-
dation, and even to plunge them deeper in it in order to
perpetuate their slavery;--nay, would destroy any one who
should venture to enlighten or improve them. No attempt
at amelioration can anywhere be made without rousing up
from slumber a host of selfish interests to war against it,
and uniting even the most varied and opposite in a com-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
333
mon hostility. The good cause is ever the weaker, for it is
simple, and can be loved only for itself; the bad attracts
each individual by the promise which is most seductive to
him; and its adherents, always at war among themselves, so
soon as the good makes its appearance, conclude a truce
that they may unite the whole powers of their wickedness
against it. Scarcely, indeed, is such an opposition needed, for
even the good themselves are but too often divided by mis-
understanding, error, distrust, and secret self-love, and that
so much the more violently, the more earnestly each strives
to propagate that which he recognises as best; and thus
internal discord dissipates a power, which, even when unit-
ed, could scarcely hold the balance with evil. One blames
the other for rushing onwards with stormy impetuosity to
his object, without waiting until the good result shall have
been prepared; whilst he in turn is blamed that, through
hesitation and cowardice, he accomplishes nothing, but al-
lows all things to remain as they are, contrary to his better
conviction, because for him the hour of action never arrives:--
and only the Omniscient can determine whether either of
the parties in the dispute is in the right. Every one regards
the undertaking, the necessity of which is most apparent to
him, and in the prosecution of which he has acquired the
greatest skill, as most important and needful,--as the point
from which all improvement must proceed; he requires all
good men to unite their efforts with his, and to subject
themselves to him for the accomplishment of his particular
purpose, holding it to be treason to the good cause if they
hold back;--while they on the other hand make the same
demands upon him, and accuse him of similar treason for a
similar refusal. Thus do all good intentions among men
appear to be lost in vain disputations, which leave behind
them no trace of their existence; while in the meantime the
world goes on as well, or as ill, as it can without human
effort, by the blind mechanism of Nature,--and so will go on
for ever.
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? 33-t
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
And so go on for ever ? --No;--not so, unless the whole
existence of humanity is to be an idle game, without signifi-
cance and without end. It cannot be intended that those
savage tribes should always remain savage: no race can be
born with all the capacities of perfect humanity, and yet
be destined never to develop these capacities, never to be-
come more than that which a sagacious animal by its own
proper nature might become. Those savages must be des-
tined to be the progenitors of more powerful, cultivated, and
virtuous generations;--otherwise it is impossible to conceive
of a purpose in their existence, or even of the possibility of
their existence in a world ordered and arranged by reason.
Savage races may become civilized, for this has already-t>c-
curred ;--the most cultivated nations of modern times are
the descendants of savages. Whether civilization is a direct
and natural development of human society, or is invariably
brought about through instruction and example from with-
out, and the primary source of all human culture must be
sought in a super-human guidance,--by the same way in
which nations which once were savage have emerged into
civilization, will those who are yet uncivilized gradually
attain it. They must, no doubt, at first pass through the
same dangers and corruptions of a merely sensual civiliza-
tion, by which the civilized nations are still oppressed, but
they will thereby be brought into union with the great
whole of humanity and be made capable of taking part in
its further progress.
It is the vocation of our race to unite itself into one single
body, all the parts of which shall beJLb'orcWhiv known to
each other, and all possessed of similar culture. Nature, and
even the passions and vices of men, have from the beginning
tended towards this end; a great part of the way towards it
is already passed, and we may surely calculate that this end,
which is the condition of all farther social progress, will in
time be attained. Let us not ask of history if man, on the
whole, have yet become purely moral! To a more extended,
comprehensive, energetic freedom he has certainly attained;
but hitherto it has been an almost necessary result of his
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
335
position, that this freedom has been applied chiefly to evil
purposes.
Neither let us ask whether the aesthetic and intel-
lectual culture of the ancient world, concentrated on a few
points, may not have excelled in degree that of modern
times! It might happen that we should receive a humilia-
ting answer, and that in this respect the human race has
not advanced, but rather seemed to retrograde, in its riper
years. But let us ask of history at what period the exist-
ing culture has been most widely diffused, and distributed
among the greatest number of individuals; and we shall
doubtless find that from the beginning of history down to
our own day, the few light-points of civilization have spread
themselves abroad from their centre, that one individual af-
ter another, and one nation after another, has been em-
braced within their circle, and that this wider outspread of
culture is proceeding under our own eyes, ind this is the
first point to be attained in the endless path on which hu-
manity must advance. Until this shall have been attained,
until the existing culture of every age shall have been dif-
fused over the whole inhabited globe, and our race become
capable of the most unlimited inter-communication with it-
self, one nation or one continent must pause on the great
common path of progress, and wait for the advance of the
others; and each must bring as an offering to the universal
commonwealth, for the sake of which alone it exists, its ages
of apparent immobility or retrogression. When that first
point shall have been attained, when every useful discovery
made at one end of the earth shall be at once made known
and communicated to all the rest, then, without farther in-
terruption, without halt or regress, with united strength and
equal step, humanity shall move onward to a higher culture,
of which we can at present form no conception.
Within those singular associations, thrown together by
unreasoning accident, which we call States,--after they have
subsisted for a time in peace, when the resistence excited by
yet new oppression has been lulled to sleep, and the fermen-
tation of contending forces appeased,--abuse, by its con-
tinuance, and by general sufferance, assumes a sort of estab-
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? 330
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
lished form; and the ruling classes, in the uncontested en-
joyment of their extorted privileges, have nothing more to
do but to extend them further, and to give to this extension
also the same established form. Urged by their insatiable
desires, they will continue from generation to generation
their efforts to acquire wider and yet wider privileges, and
never say ? It is enough! " until at last oppression shall
reach its limit, and become wholly insupportable, and des-
pair give back to the oppressed that power which their cou-
rage, extinguished by centuries of tyranny, could not procure
for them. They will then no longer endure any among
them who cannot be satisfied to be on an equality with
others, and so to remain. In order to protect themselves
against internal violence or new oppression, all will take on
themselves the same obligations. Their deliberations, in
which every man shall decide, whatever he decides, for him-
self, and not for one subject to him whose sufferings will ne-
ver affect him, and in whose fate he takes no concern;--
deliberations, according to which no one can hope that it
shall be he who is to practise a permitted injustice, but
every one must fear that he may have to suffer it;--delibera-
tions that alone deserve the name of legislation, which is
something wholly different from the ordinances of combined
lords to the countless herds of their slaves;--these delibera-
tions will necessarily be guided by justice, and will lay the
foundation of a true State, in which each individual, from a
regard for his own security, will be irresistibly compelled
to respect the security of every other without exception;
since, under the supposed legislation, every injury which he
should attempt to do to another, would not fall upon its ob-
ject, but would infallibly recoil upon himself.
By the establishment of this only true State, this firm
foundation of internal peace, the possibility of foreign war,
at least with other true States, is cut off. Even for its own
advantage, even to prevent the thought of injustice, plunder,
and violence entering the minds of its own citizens, and to
leave them no possibility of gain, except by means of in-
dustry and diligence within their legitimate sphere of ac-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
337
tivity, every true state must forbid as strictly, prevent as
carefully, compensate as exactly, or punish as severely, any
injury to the citizen of a neighbouring state, as to one of its
own. This law concerning the security of neighbours is ne-
cessarily a law in every state that is not a robber-state; and
by its operation the possibility of any just complaint of one
state against another, and consequently every case of self-
defence among nations, is entirely prevented. There are no necessary, permanent, and immediate relations of states, as such, with each other, which should be productive of
strife; there are, properly speaking, only relations of the individual citizens of one state to the individual citizens of another; a state can be injured only in the person of one of
its citizens; but such injury will be immediately compen-
sated, and the aggrieved state satisfied. Between such
states as these, there is no rank which can be insulted, no ambition which can be offended. No officer of one state is authorised to intermeddle in the internal affairs of another, nor is-there any temptation for him to do so, since he could
not derive the slightest personal advantage from any such influence. That a whole nation should determine, for the
sake of plunder, to make war on a neighbouring country, is
impossible; for in a state where all are equal, the plunder
could not become the booty of a few, but must be equally
divided amongst all, and the share of no one individual could
ever recompense him for the trouble of the war. Only
where the advantage falls to the few oppressors, and the in-
jury, the toil, the expense, to the countless herd of slaves, is
a war of spoliation possible and conceivable. Not from states like themselves could such states as these entertain
any fear of war; only from savages, or barbarians whose
lack of skill to enrich themselves by industry impels them
to plunder; or from enslaved nations, driven by their mas-
ters to a war from which they themselves will reap no ad-
vantage. In the former case, each individual civilized state
must already be the stronger through the arts of civiliza-
tion; against the latter danger, the common advantage of all
demands that they should strengthen themselves by union.
xa
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? 338
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
No free state can reasonably suffer in its vicinity associa-
tions governed by rulers whose interests would be promoted
by the subjugation of adjacent nations, and whose very ex-
istence is therefore a constant source of danger to their
neighbours; a regard for their own security compels all free
states to transform all around them into free states like
themselves; and thus, for the sake of their own welfare, to
extend the empire of culture over barbarism, of freedom
over slavery. Soon will the nations, civilized or enfranchis-
ed by them, find themselves placed in the same relation to-
wards others still enthralled by barbarism or slavery, in
which the earlier free nations previously stood towards
them, and be compelled to do the same things for these
which were previously done for themselves; and thus, of ne-
cessity, by reason of the existence of some few really free
states, will the empire of civilization, freedom, and with it
universal peace, gradually embrace the whole world.
I Thus, from the establishment of a just internal organiza-
tion, and of peace between individuals, there will necessarily
result integrity in the external relations of nations towards
\each other, and universal peace among them. But the
establishment of this just internal organization, and the
emancipation of the first nation that shall be truly free,
arises as a necessary consequence from the ever-growing op-
pression exercised by the ruling classes towards their sub-
jects, which gradually becomes insupportable,--a progress
which may be safely left to the passions and the blindness
of those classes, even although warned of the result.
In these only true states all temptation to evil, nay, even
the possibility of a man resolving upon a bad action with
any reasonable hope of benefit to himself, will be entirely
taken away; and the strongest possible motives will be of-
fered to every man to make virtue the sole object of his
will.
There is no man who loves evil because it is evil; it is
only the advantages and enjoyments expected from it, and
which, in the present condition of humanity, do actually,
in most cases, result from it, that are loved. So long as
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
33<)
this condition shall continue, so long as a premium shall
be set upon vice, a fundamental improvement of mankind,
as a whole, can scarcely be hoped for. But in a civil so-
ciety constituted as it ought to be, as reason requires it to
be, as the thinker may easily describe it to himself although
he may nowhere find it actually existing at the present day,
and as it must necessarily exist in the first nation that shall
really acquire true freedom,--in such a state of society, evil
will present no advantages, but rather the most certain dis-
advantages, and self-love itself will restrain the excess of
self-love when it would run out into injustice. By the un-
erring administration of such a state, every fraud or op-
pression practised upon others, all self-aggrandizement at
their expense, will be rendered not merely vain, and all
labour so applied fruitless, but such attempts would even re-
coil upon their author, and assuredly bring home to himself
the evil which he would cause to others. In his own land,
--out of his own land,--throughout the whole world, he
could find no one whom he might injure and yet go un-
punished. But it is not to be expected, even of a bad man,
that he would determine upon evil merely for the sake of
such a resolution, although he had no power to carry it into
effect, and nothing could arise from it but infamy to him-
self. The use of liberty for evil purposes is thus destroyed;
man must resolve either to renounce his freedom altogether,
and patiently to become a mere passive wheel in the great
machine of the universe, or else to employ it for good. In
soil thus prepared, good will easily prosper. When men
shall no longer be divided by selfish purposes, nor their
powers exhausted in struggles with each other, nothing will
remain for them but to direct their united strength against
the one common enemy which still remains unsubdued,--
resisting, uncultivated nature. No longer estranged from
each other by private ends, they will necessarily combine
for this common object; and thus there arises a body, every-
where animated by the same spirit and the same love.
Every misfortune to the individual, since it can no longer
be a gain to any other individual, is a misfortune to the
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? 340
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
whole, and to each individual member of the whole; and is
felt with the same pain, and remedied with the same ac-
tivity, by every member;--every step in advance made by
one man is a step in advance made by the whole race
.
Here, where the petty, narrow self of mere individual per-
sonality is merged in the more comprehensive unity of the
social constitution, each man truly loves every other as him-
self,--as a member of this greater self which now claims all
his love, and of which he himself is no more than a member,
capable of participating only in a common gain or in a com-
mon loss. The strife of evil against good is here abolished,
for here no evil can intrude. The strife of the good among
themselves for the sake of good, disappears, now that they
find it easy to love good for its own sake alone and not
because they are its authors; now that it has become of
all-importance to them that the truth should really be dis-
covered, that the useful action should be done,--but not at
all by whom this may be accomplished. Here each indi-
vidual is at all times ready to join his strength to that of
others, to make it subordinate to that of others; and who-
ever, according to the judgment of all, is most capable of ac-
complishing the greatest amount of good, will be supported
by all, and his success rejoiced in by all with an equal joy.
This is the purpose of our earthly life, which reason sets before us, and for the infallible attainment of which she is
our pledge and security. This is not an object given to us
only that we may strive after it for the mere purpose of ex-
ercising our powers on something great, the real existence of
which we may perhaps be compelled to abandon to doubt;--
itshall, it must be realized; there must be a time in which
it shall be accomplished, as surely as there is a sensible
world and a race of reasonable beings existent in time with
respect to which nothing earnest and rational is conceivable
besides this purpose, and whose existence becomes intelli-
gible only through this purpose. Unless all human life be
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
341
metamorphosed into a mere theatrical display for the grati-
fication of some malignant spirit, who has implanted in poor
humanity this inextinguishable longing for the imperishable
only to amuse himself with its ceaseless pursuit of that
which it can never overtake,--its ever-repeated efforts,
Ixion-like, to embrace that which still eludes its grasp,--its
restless hurrying onward in an ever-recurring circle,--only
to mock its earnest aspirations with an empty, insipid farce;
--unless the wise man, seeing through this mockery, and
feeling an irrepressible disgust at continuing to play his
part in it, is to cast life indignantly from him and make the
moment of his awakening to reason also that of his physical
death;--unless these things are so, this purpose most as-
suredly must be attained. --Yes 1 it is attainable in life, and
through life, for Reason commands me to live:--it is attain-
able, for I am.
III.
But when this end shall have been attained, and human-
ity shall at length stand at this point, what is there then to
do? Upon earth there is no higher state than this;--the
generation which has once reached it, can do no more than
abide there, steadfastly maintain its position, die, and leave
behind it descendants who shall do the like, and who will
again leave behind them descendants to follow in their foot-
steps. Humanity would thus stand still upon her path; and
therefore her earthly end cannot be her highest end. This
earthly end is conceivable, attainable, and finite. Even al-
though we consider all preceding generations as means for
the production of the last complete one, we do not thereby
escape the question of earnest reason,--to what end then is
this last one? Since a Human Race has appeared upon earth,
its existence there must certainly be in accordance with, and
not contrary to, reason; and it must attain all the develop-
ment which it is possible for it to attain on earth. But why
should such a race have an existence at all,--why may it not
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? 342
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
as well have remained in the womb of chaos? Reason is not
for the sake of existence, but existence for the sake of reason.
An existence which does not of itself satisfy reason and solve
all her questions, cannot by possibility be the true being. And, then, are those actions which are commanded by the
voice of conscience,--by that voice whose dictates I never
dare to criticise, but must always obey in silence,--are those
actions, in reality, always the means, and the only means,
for the attainment of the earthly purpose of humanity?
That I cannot do otherwise than refer them to this purpose,
and dare not have any other object in view to be attained
by means of them, is incontestible. But then are these, my
intentions, always fulfilled ? --is it enough that we will what
is good, in order that it may happen? Alas! many virtuous
intentions are entirely lost for this world, and others appear
even to hinder the purpose which they were designed to
promote. On the other hand, the most despicable passions
of men, their vices and their crimes, often forward, more
certainly, the good cause than the endeavours of the vir-
tuous man, who will never do evil that good may come! It
seems that the Highest Good of the world pursues its course
of increase and prosperity quite independently of all human
virtues or vices, according to its own laws, through an in-
1visible and unknown Power,--just as the heavenly bodies
run their appointed course, independently of all human
effort; and that this Power carries forward, in its own great
plan, all human intentions, good and bad, and, with over-
ruling wisdom, employs for its own purpose that which was
undertaken for other ends.
Thus, even if the attainment of this earthly end could be
the purpose of our existence, and every doubt which reason
could start with regard to it were silenced, yet would this
end not be ours, but the end of that unknown power. We
do not know, even for a moment, what is conducive to this
end; and nothing is left to us but to give by our actions
some materia], no matter what, for this power to work upon,
and to leave to it the task of elaborating this material to its
own purposes. It would, in that case, be our highest wisdom
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
343
not to trouble ourselves about matters that do not concern
us; to live according to our own fancy or inclinations, and
quietly leave the consequences to that unknown power.
The moral law within us would be void and superfluous, and
absolutely unfitted to a being destined to nothing higher
than this. In order to be at one with ourselves, we should
have to refuse obedience to that law, and to suppress it as
a perverse and foolish fanaticism.
No I--I will not refuse obedience to the law of duty;--as
surely as I live and am, I will obey, absolutely because it
commands. This resolution shall be first and highest in my
mind; that by which everything else is determined, but
which is itself determined by nothing else;--this shall be the innermost principle of my spiritual life. s
But, as a reasonable being, before whom a purpose must
be set solely by its own will and determination, it is impos-
sible for me to act without a motive and without an end.
If this obedience is to be recognised by me as a reasonable
service,--if the voice which demands this obedience be
really that of the creative reason within me, and not a mere
fanciful enthusiasm, invented by my own imagination, or
communicated to me somehow from without,--this obedience
must have some consequences, must serve some end. It is
evident that it does not serve the purpose of the world of
sense;--there must, therefore, be a super-sensensual world,
whose purposes it does promote.
The mist of delusion clears away from before my sight!
I receive a new organ, and a new world opens before me. It
is disclosed to me only by the law of reason, and answers
only to that law in my spirit. I apprehend this world,--
limited as I am by my sensuous view, I must thus name the
unnameable--I apprehend this world merely in and through
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? 344
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
the end which is promised to my obedience;--it is in reality
nothing else than this necessary end itself which reason an-
nexes to the law of duty.
Setting aside everything else, how could I suppose that
this law had reference to the world of sense, or that the
whole end and object of the obedience which it demands is
to be found within that world, since that which alone is of
importance in this obedience serves no purpose whatever in
that world, can never become a cause in it, and can never
produce results. In the world of sense, which proceeds on a
chain of material causes and effects, and in which whatever
happens depends merely on that which preceded it, it is
never of any moment how, and with what motives and inten-
tentions, an action is performed, but only what the action is.
Had it been the whole purpose of our existence to pro-
duce an earthly condition of our race, there would have been
required only an unerring mechanism by which our out-
ward actions might have been determined,--we would not
have needed to be move than wheels well fitted to the great
machine. Freedom would have been, not merely vain, but
even obstructive; a virtuous will wholly superfluous. The
world would, in that case, be most unskilfully directed, and
attain the purposes of its existence by wasteful extrava-
gance and circuitous byeways. Hadst thou, mighty World-
Spirit! withheld from us this freedom, which thou art now
constrained to adapt to thy plans with labour and contri-
vance; hadst thou rather at once compelled us to act in the
way in which thy plans required that we should act, thou
wouldst have attained thy purposes by a much shorter way,
as the humblest of the dwellers in these thy worlds can tell
thee. But I am free; and therefore such a chain of causes
and effects, in which freedom is absolutely superfluous and
and without aim, cannot exhaust my whole nature. I must
be free; for it is not the mere mechanical act, but the free
determination of free will, for the sake of duty and for the
ends of duty only,--thus speaks the voice of conscience
within us,--this alone it is which constitutes our true
worth. The bond with which this law of duty binds me is
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? BOOK III. PAITH.
345
a bond for living spirits only; it disdains to rule over a
dead mechanism, and addresses its decrees only to the living
and the free. It requires of me this obedience;--this obe-
dience therefore cannot be nugatory or superfluous. V
And now the Eternal World rises before me more bright-
ly, and the fundamental law of its order stands clearly and
distinctly apparent to my mental vision. In this world,
will alone, as it lies concealed from mortal eye in the secret
obscurities of the soul, is the first link in a chain of conse-
quences that stretches through the whole invisible realms of
spirit; as, in the physical world, action--a certain movement
of matter--is the first link in a material chain that runs
through the whole system of nature. The will is the effi-
cient, living principle of the world of reason, as motion is
the efficient, living principle of the world of sense. I stand
in the centre of two entirely opposite worlds:--a visible
world, in which action is the only moving power; and an
invisible and absolutely incomprehensible world, in which
will is the ruling principle. I am one of the primitive forces
of both these worlds. My will embraces both. This will is,
in itself, a constituent element of the super-sensual world;
for as I move it by my successive resolutions, I move and
change something in that world, and my activity thus ex-
tends itself throughout the whole, and gives birth to new
and ever-enduring results which henceforward possess a
real existence and need not again to be produced. This
will may break forth in a material act,--and this act belongs
to the world of sense and does there that which pertains to
a material act to do.
It is not necessary that I should first be severed from the
terrestrial world before I can obtain admission into the ce-
lestial one;--I am and live in it even now, far more truly
than in the terrestrial; even now it is my only sure founda-
tion, and the eternal life on the possession of which I have
already entered is the only ground why I should still pro-
long this earthly one. That which we call heaven does not
Ya
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