No More Learning

consent, to influence their powers and relations. They do
what they do on their own responsibility: with this I
neither can nor dare intermeddle, and the Eternal Will will
dispose all for the best . It concerns me more to respect
their freedom, than to hinder or prevent what to me seems
evil in its use.
In this point of view I become a new creature, and my
whole relations to the existing world are changed. The ties
by which my mind was formerly united to this world, and by
whose secret guidance I followed all its movements, are for
ever sundered, and I stand free, calm and immovable, a
universe to myself. No longer through my affections, but
by my eye alone, do I apprehend outward objects and am
connected with them; and this eye itself is purified by free-
dom, and looks through error and deformity to the True
and Beautiful, as upon the unruffled surface of water shapes
are more purely mirrored in a milder light.
My mind is for ever closed against embarrassment and
perplexity, against uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety;--my
heart, against grief, repentance, and desire. There is but
one thing that I may know,--namely, what I ought to do;
and this I always know infallibly. Concerning all else I
know nothing, and know that I know nothing. I firmly
root myself in this my ignorance, and refrain from harassing
myself with conjectures concerning that of which I know
nothing. No occurrence in this world can affect me either
with joy or sorrow; calm and unmoved I look down upon
all things, for I know that I cannot explain a single event,
nor comprehend its connexion with that which alone con-
cerns me. All that happens belongs to the plan of the
Eternal World, and is good in its place: thus much I know;
--what in this plan is pure gain, what is only a means for
the removal of some existing evil, what therefore ought to
afford me more or less satisfaction, I know not. In His
world all things prosper;--this satisfies me, and in this belief
I stand fast as a rock:--but what in His world is merely
the germ, what the blossom, and what the fruit itself, I
know not.
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
373
The only matter in which I can be concerned is the pro-
gress of reason and morality in the world of reasonable be-
ings; and this only for its own sake,--for the sake of this
progress. Whether I or some one else be the instrument of
this progress, whether it be my deed or that of another
which prospers or is prevented, is of no importance to me. I regard myself merely as one of the instruments for carry-
ing out the purpose of reason; I respect, love, or feel an
interest in myself only as such an instrument, and desire the
successful issue of my deed only in so far as it promotes this
purpose. In like manner, I regard all the events of this world
only with reference to this one purpose; whether they pro-
ceed from me or from others, whether they relate directly to
me or to others. My breast is steeled against annoyance on
account of personal offences and vexations, or exultation in
personal merit; for my whole personality has disappeared
in the contemplation of the purpose of my being.
Should it ever seem to me as if truth had been put to
silence, and virtue expelled from the world; as if folly and
vice had now summoned all their powers, and even assumed
the place of reason and true wisdom;--should it happen,
that just when all good men looked with hope for the re-
generation of the human race, everything should become
even worse than it had been before;--should the work, well
and happily begun, on which the eyes of all true-minded
men were fixed with joyous expectation, suddenly and un-
expectedly be changed into the vilest forms of evil,--these
things will not disturb me; and as little will I be persuaded
to indulge in idleness, neglect, or false security, on account
of an apparent rapid growth of enlightenment, a seeming
diffusion of freedom and independence, an increase of more
gentle manners, peacefulness, docility, and general modera-
tion among men, as if now everything were attained. Thus
it appears to me; or rather it is so, for it is actually so to
me; and I know in both cases, as indeed I know in all pos-
sible cases, what I have next to do. As to everything else,
I rest in the most perfect tranquillity, for I know nothing
whatever about any other thing. Those, to me, so sorrowful
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? 374
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
events may, in the'plan of the Eternal One, be the direct
means for the attainment of a good result;--that strife of
evil against good"may he their last decisive struggle, and it
may be permitted to the former to assemble all its powers
for this encounter only to lose them, and thereby to exhibit
itself in all its impotence. These, to me, joyful appearances
may rest on very uncertain foundations;--what I had taken
for enlightenment may perhaps be but hollow superficiality,
and aversion to all true ideas; what I had taken for inde-
pendence but unbridled passion; what I had taken for
gentleness and moderation but weakness and indolence. I
do not indeed know this, but it might be so; and then I
should have as little cause to mourn over the one as to re-
joice over the other. But I do know, that I live in a world
which belongs to the Supreme Wisdom and Goodness, who
thoroughly comprehends its plan, and will infallibly accom-
plish it; and in this conviction I rest, and am blessed. That there are free beings, destined to reason andmora-
lity, who strive against reason, and call forth all their
powers to the support of folly and vice;--just as little will
this disturb me, and stir up within me indignation and
wrath. The perversity which would . hate what is good
because it is good, and promote evil merely from a love of
evil as such,--this perversity which alone could excite my
just anger, I ascribe to no one who bears the form of man,
for I know that it does not lie in human nature. I know
that for all who act thus, there is really, in so far as they act
thus, neither good nor evil, but only an agreeable or dis-
agreeable feeling; that they do not stand under their own
dominion, but under the power of Nature; and that it is
not themselves, but this nature in them, which seeks the
former and flies from the latter with all its strength, with-
out regard to whether it be otherwise good or evil. I know
that being, once for all, what they are, they cannot act in
any respect otherwise than as they do act, and I am very far
from getting angry with necessity, or indulging in wrath
against blind and unconscious Nature. Herein truly lies
their guilt and unworthiness, that they are what they are;
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
375
and that, in place of being free and independent, they have
resigned themselves to the current of mere natural impulse.
It is this alone which could excite my indignation; but
here I should fall into absolute absurdity. I cannot call
them to account for their want of freedom, without first at-
tributing to them the power of making themselves free. I
wish to be angry with them, and find no object for my
wrath. What they actually are, does not deserve my anger;
what might deserve it, they are not, and they would not
deserve it, if they were. My displeasure would strike an im-
palpable nonentity. I must indeed always treat them, and
address them, as if they were what I well know they are
not; I must always suppose in them that whereby alone I
can approach them and communicate with them. Duty com-
mands me to act towards them according to a conception of
them the opposite of that which I arrive at by contemplat-
ing them. And thus it may certainly happen that I turn
towards them with a noble indignation, as if they were free,
in order to arouse within them a similar indignation against
themselves,--an indignation which in my own heart I can-
not reasonably entertain. It is only the practical man of
society within me whose anger is excited by folly and vice;
not the contemplative man who reposes undisturbed in the
calm serenity of his own spirit.
Should I be visited by corporeal suffering, pain, or disease,
I cannot avoid feeling them, for they are accidents of my
nature; and as long as I remain here below, I am a part of
Nature. But they shall not grieve me. They can only
touch the nature with which, in a wonderful manner, I am
united,--not myself, the being exalted above all Nature.
The sure end of all pain, and of all sensibility to pain, is
death; and of all things which the mere natural man is
wont to regard as evils, this is to me the least. I shall not
die to myself, but only to others; to those who remain be-
hind, from whose fellowship I am torn:--for myself the hour
of Death is the hour of Birth to a new, more excellent life.
Now that my heart is closed against all desire for earthly things, now that I have no longer any sense for the transi-
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? 37G
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
/ tory and perishable, the universe appears before my eyes
clothed in a more glorious form. The dead heavy mass,
which only filled up space, has vanished; and in its place
there flows onward, with the rushing music of mighty
waves, an eternal stream of life and power and action, which
issues from the original Source of all life--from Thy Life, O
Infinite One! for all life is Thy Life, and only the religious
eye penetrates to the realm of True Beauty.
/ I am related to Thee, and what I behold around me is
related to me; all is life and blessedness, and regards me
I with bright spirit-eyes, and speaks with spirit-voices to my
heart. In all the forms that surround me, I behold the re-
Iflection of my own being, broken up into countless diversi-
Ified shapes, as the morning sun, broken in a thousand dew-
drops, sparkles towards itself.
Thy Life, as alone the finite mind can conceive it, is self-
forming, self-manifesting Will:--this Life, clothed to the eye
of the mortal with manifold sensuous forms, flows forth
through me, and throughout the immeasurable universe of
Nature. Here it streams as self-creating and self-forming
matter through my veins and muscles, and pours its abun-
dance into the tree, the flower, the grass. Creative life
flows forth in one continuous stream, drop on drop, through
all forms and into all places where my eye can follow it;
and reveals itself to me, in a different shape in each various
corner of the universe, as the same power by which in secret
darkness my own frame was formed. There, in free play, it
leaps and dances as spontaneous motion in the animal, and
manifests itself in each new form as a new, peculiar, self-
subsisting world:--the same power which, invisibly to me,
moves and animates my own frame. Everything that lives
and moves follows this universal impulse, this one principle
of all motion, which, from one end of the universe to the
other, guides the harmonious movement;--in the animal
without freedom; in me, from whom in the visible world the
motion proceeds although it has not its source in me, with
freedom.
But pure and holy, and as near to Thine own nature as
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
377
aught can be to mortal eye, does this Thy Life flow forth
as the bond which unites spirit with spirit, as the breath
and atmosphere of a rational world, unimaginable and in-
comprehensible, and yet there, clearly visible to the spiritual
eye. Borne onward in this stream of light, thought floats
from soul to soul, without pause or variation, and returns
purer and brighter from each kindred mind. Through this mysterious union does each individual perceive, understand, and love himself only in another; every soul developes itself only by means of other souls, and there are no longer in-
dividual men, but only one humanity; no individual thought
or love or hate, but only thought, love, and hate, in and
through each other. Through this wondrous influence the
affinity of spirits in the invisible world permeates even
their physical nature;--manifests itself in two sexes, which,
even if that spiritual bond could be torn asunder, would,
simply as creatures of nature, be compelled to love each other;--flows forth in the tenderness of parents and children,
brothers and sisters, as if the souls were of one blood like
the bodies, and their minds were branches and blossoms of
the same stem;--and from these, embraces, in narrower or
wider circles, the whole sentient world. Even at the root of
their hate, there lies a secret thirst after love; and no en-
mity springs up but from friendship denied.
Through that which to others seems a mere dead mass, my eye beholds this eternal life and movement in every
vein of sensible and spiritual Nature, and sees this life ris-
ing in ever-increasing growth, and ever purifying itself to a
more spiritual expression. The universe is to me no longer
that ever-recurring circle, that eternally-repeated play, that
monster swallowing itself up, only to bring itself forth again
as it was before;--it has become transfigured before me, and
now bears the one stamp of spiritual life--a constant pro-
gress towards higher perfection in a line that runs out into
the Infinite.
The sun rises and sets, the stars sink and reappear,
the spheres hold their circle-dance;--but they never re-
turn again as they disappeared, and even in the bright
cb
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? 378
thk vocation of man.
fountain of life itself there is life and progress. Every hour
which they lead on, every morning and every evening, sinks
with new increase upon the world; new life and new love
descend from the spheres like dew-drops from the clouds,
and encircle nature as the cool night the earth.
All Death in Nature is Birth, and in Death itself appears
visibly the exaltation of Life. There is no destructive prin-
ciple in Nature, for Nature throughout is pure, unclouded Life; it is not Death which kills, but the more living Life,
which, concealed behind the former, bursts forth into new
development. Death and Birth are but the struggle of Life
with itself to assume a more glorious and congenial form.
And my death,--how can it be aught else, since I am not a
mere show and semblance of life, but bear within me the
one original, true, and essential Life? It is impossible to
conceive that Nature should annihilate a life which does not
proceed from her;--the Nature which exists for me, and
lyiot I for her.
Yet even my natural life, even this mere outward mani-
festation to mortal sight of the inward invisible Life, she
cannot destroy without destroying herself;--she who only
exists for me, and on account of me, and exists not if I am
not. Even because she destroys me must she animate
me anew; it is only my Higher Life, unfolding itself in her,
before which my present life can disappear; and what mor-
tals call Death is the visible appearance of this second Life.
Did no reasonable being who had once beheld the light of
this world die, there would be no ground to look with faith
for a new heavens and a new earth; the only possible pur-
pose of Nature, to manifest and maintain Reason, would be
fulfilled here below, and her circle would be completed.
But the very act by which she consigns a free and indepen-
dent being to death, is her own solemn entrance, intelligible
to all Reason, into a region beyond this act itself, and be-
yond the whole sphere of existence which is thereby closed.
Death is the ladder by which my spiritual vision rises to a
'new Life and a new Nature.
Every one of my fellow-creatures who leaves this earthly
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? BOOK III. FAITH. 37! '
brotherhood, and whom my spirit cannot regard as anni-
hilated because he is my brother, draws my thoughts af-
ter him beyond the grave ;--he is still, and to him belongs
a place. While we mourn for him here below, as in the
dim realms of unconsciousness there might be mourning
when a man bursts from them into the light of this world's
sun,--above there is rejoicing that a man is born into that
world, as we citizens of the earth receive with joy those who
are born unto us. When I shall one day follow, it will be
but joy for me; sorrow shall remain behind in the sphere
I shall have left.
The world on which but now I gazed with wonder passes
away from before me and sinks from my sight. With all the fulness of life, order, and increase which I beheld in it,
it i- yd hut the curtain by which a world infinitely more
perfect is concealed from me, and the germ from which that
other shall develope itself. My looks behind this ,
vi'jl, and cherishes and animates this germ. It sees nothing definite, but, it. expects more than it can conceive here
below, more than it will ever be able to conceive in all
. umu,. .
Thus do I live, thus am I, and thus am I unchangeable,
firm, and completed for all Eternity;--for this is no exist-
ence assumed from without,--it is my own, true, essential
Life and Being.
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? THE WAY
TOWi RDS
THE BLESSED LIFE;
OB,
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
LECTURES
DELIVERED AT BERLIN.
1806.
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? 383
CONTENTS.
Lecture I.
Life is Love; and hence Life and Blessedness are in themselves one and
the same. Distinction of the True Life from mere Apparent Life. Life
and Being are also one and the same. The True Being is for ever at
one with itself and unchangeable; the Apparent, on the contrary, is
changeable and transitory. The True Life loves this One Being, or
God; the Apparent loves the Transitory, or the World. This Apparent
Life itself exists, and is maintained in Existence, only by aspiration to-
wards the Eternal; this aspiration can never be satisfied in the mere
Apparent Life, and hence this Life is Unblessed; the Love of the True
Life, on the contrary, is continually satisfied, and hence this Life is
Blessed. The element of the True Life is Thought.
Lecture II.
The present subject is at bottom Metaphysic, and more especially Onto-
logy; and this is to be here set forth in a popular way. Refutation
of the objections of the impossibility and unadvisableness of such an
exposition,--by the necessity there is for attempting it,--by investigation
of the peculiar nature of the popular discourse in opposition to the scien-
tific,--and by the practical proof that since the introduction of Chris-
tianity this undertaking has at all times been actually accomplished.
Great hindrances which exist in our own day to the communication of
such Knowledge,--partly because its strictly determinate form is opposed
both to the propensity towards arbitrary opinion and to the mere want of
opinion which calls itself scepticism;--partly because its substance seems
strange and monstrously paradoxical;--and finally, because unprejudiced
persons are led astray by the objections urged by perverse fanaticism.
Genetic exposition of this species of fanaticism. The accusation of Mysti-cism which may be expected from these fanatics against our doctrine
noticed. The true object of this and similar accusations.
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? 384
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Lecture III.
Solution of the problem how--since Life must be an organic whole--a part
of this necessary Life may yet be wanting in Actual Life, as is the case,
according to what we have held above, in the Apparent Life,--by the
remark that the Spiritual Life developcs itself in Reality only gradually
and, as it were, by stages; illustrated by the striking example that the
great masses of mankind refer the thought of outward objects to sensible
perception of such objects, and know no better than that all our Know-
ledge is founded on experience. What, in opposition to this thought of
outward objects, which after all is not founded on perception, is true
and proper Thought; and how this is distinguished in its Form from mere
Opinion, with which, in reference to its sphere of activity, it coincides.
Actual realization of this Thought in the highest elements of Knowledge,
from which we have these results:--Being, in itself, (Seyn) neither has
arisen, nor has anything in it arisen, but it is absolutely One and Simple
in its Essence; from it we have to distinguish its Ex-istence (Daseyn)
which is necessarily Consciousness of Being;--which Consciousness, being
also necessarily Self-consciousness, cannot, either in its essence or in the
special determinations of its actual existence, be genetically deduced
from Being (Seyn) itself; although it may be understood generally that
this its actual determinate Ex-istence is essentially one with the essen-
tial Nature of Being.
Lecture IV.
Exposition of what is essential to the Blessed Life, and what is only condi-
tionally necessary. The answer to the question :--" How, since Being
{Seyn) ex-ists as it is in itself, namely as One, yet in this its Ex istence
(Daseyn,) or Consciousness, Multiplicity may nevertheless find place! "
--only conditionally necessary. Answer to the question. The "a->>,"
or characterization by means of opposition, which arises from the dis-
tinction that takes place in Ex-istence, is an absolute opposition and
the principle of all other division. This "as," or act of characterization,
presupposes an abiding Being that is characterized, whereby that which
in itself is the inward Divine Life is changed into a determinate World.
This World is characterized^ formed by means of this "as,"--Reflexion
--which is absolutely free and independent,--without any end or limit
to the process. t'v*''
Lecture V.
Principle of a new division in Knowledge, not proceeding immediately on
the Object, but only on the Reflexion of the Object, and hence giving
only different views of the One abiding World; which latter division
is nevertheless intimately connected with the first, and interpenetrated
by it. This division, and hence the diverse views of the World which
result from it, are five-fold. The first and lowest, being that of the
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? CONTENTS.
385
prevalent Philosophy, in which reality is attributed to the World of
Sense, or Nature. The second, in which reality is placed in a Law of
Order in the Existing World addressed to Freedom;--the stand-point
of Objective Legality, or of the Categorical Imperative. The third,
which places reality in a new Creative Law addressed to Freedom, pro-
ducing a New World within the Existing World;--the stand-point of the
Higher Morality. The fourth, which places reality in God alone and in
his Existence;--the stand-point of Religion. The fifth, which clearly dis-
cerns the Manifold in its outgoings from the One Reality;--the stand-
point of Science. The True Religious Life, however, is not possible as a
mere view, but exists only in union with an Actual Divine Life, and
without this union the mere view is empty Fanaticism.
Lecture VI.
Proof of our previous assertion, that this Doctrine is likewise the Doctrine
of pure Christianity, as contained in the writings of the Apostle John.
Reasons why we especially appeal to this Evangelist. Our hermeneuti-
cal principle. In John we have to distinguish that which is true, ab-
solutely and in itself, from that which is true only from his temporary
point of view. The first is contained in the Introduction to his Gospel,
up to verse 5. Estimate of this Introduction, not as the unauthoritative
opinion of the Evangelist, but as the immediate doctrine of Jesus. Ex-
position of it. The view that possesses a mere temporary validity is the,
not metaphysical but merely historical, proposition that the Divine Ex-
istence, in its original purity and without any individual limitation,
has manifested itself in Jesus of Nazareth. Explanation of the difference
of these two views, and of their union, likewise and expressly according
to the Christian Doctrine. Estimate of this historical dogma. Compre-
hension of the substance of the whole Gospel from this point of view,
in an answer to the questions:--What does Jesus teach respecting him-
self and his relation to God? --and what respecting his followers and
their relation to him.
Appendix to Lecture VI.
Farther explanation of the distinction drawn in the preceding lecture be-
tween the Historical and Metaphysical, in relation to the fundamental
dogma of Christianity.
Lecture VII.
More thorough delineation of the mere Apparent Life from its fundamental
principle. A complete exposition of all the possible modes of man's
Enjoyment of himself and of the World is requisite for the demonstra-
tion of the Blessedness of the Religious Life. Of these there are five,--
the five modes of viewing the World, already enumerated, being also so
many modes of its Enjoyment;--of which, in consequence of the exclu-
Db
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? 38G
THE DOCTKINE OF RELIGION.
siou of the Scientific stand point, four only come under consideration
here. Enjoyment in any form, as the satisfaction of Love, is founded on
Love;--Love, however, is the Affection of Being. Sensual Enjoyment,
and the Affections which are produced by means of fancy, in the first
stand-point. The Affection of Reality in the second stand-point,--
viz. Law, is a commandment, from which proceeds a judgment, in it-
self disinterested, but which, being associated with the interest of man
in his own personality, is changed into the mere negation of Self-con-
tempt. This mode of thought destroys all Love in man, but even on
that account it exalts him above all want. Stoicism, as mere Apathy,
in relation to Happiness and Blessedness.
Lecture VIII.
More profound exposition of our Doctrine of Being. Everything that arises
from mere Ex-istence, as such, comprehended under the name of Form.
In Reality, Being is absolutely inseparable from Form, and the Exis-
tence of the latter is itself founded in the inward necessity of the Divine
Nature. Application of this principle to the first portion of Form,--
Infinity. Application of it to the second portion of Form,--the five-fold
division previously set forth. This gives a free and independent Ego
as the organic central-point of all Form. Exposition of the nature of
Freedom. Affection of the Ejjo,for its personal independence, which
necessarily disappears as soon as the individual stand-points of mere
possible Freedom are destroyed by perfect Freedom;--and thus again
the presence or absence of this Love of Self gives us two completely op-
posite modes of viewing and enjoying the World. From the former arises,
in the first place, the impulse towards Sensual Enjoyment, as the Love of
a Self, determined in a particular way by means of outward objects; and,
in the second place, the stand-point of Legality, the Love of mere
formal Freedom after the renunciation of the Love of objective self-deter-
mination. Characterization of the Love from which a Categorical Im-
perative arises. Through the annihilation of that Love of Self the Will
of the Ego is brought into harmony with the Will of God; and there
arises therefrom, in the "first place, the stand-point, previously de-
scribed as the third, of the Higher Morality. Relation of this mode of
thought to outward circumstances, particularly in contrast with the
superstition of sensual desire.
Lecture IX.
The New World which the Higher Morality creates within the World of
Sense is the immediate Life of God himself in Time;--it can only be
felt in immediate consciousness, and can only be characterized in general
by the distinctive mark that each of its Forms is a source of pleasure
solely on its own account, and not as a means towards any other end.
Illustrations by the examples of Beauty, of Science, &c, and by the pheno-
mena presented by a natural Genius for these. This Life nevertheless
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? CONTENTS. , 387
strives after an outward result; and so long as the desire for this result
is still mixed up with the joy arising from the deed itself, even the
Higher Morality is not exempt from the possibility of pain. Separation
of these by the stand-point of Religion. Foundation of Individuality.
Each Individual has his own special portion in the Divine Life. The
first fundamental Law of Morality and of the Blessed Life:--that each
should devote himself wholly to this portion. General external charac-
terization of the Moral-Religious Will, in so far as this comes forth from
its inward Life into outward Manifestation.
Lecture X.
Comprehensive view of the whole subject from its deepest stand-point. Being, which is projected forth from itself in the form of the indepen-
dent Ego as the necessary Form of Reflexion, is, beyond all Reflexion,
united with Form by Love alone. This Love is the creator of the
abstract conception of God;--is the source of all certainty;--is that
which, in Life, embraces the Absolute, immediately and without modifi-
cation, by means of Conception ;--is that by which Reflexion, which in
its Form contains only the possibility of Infinity, is extended into an
Actual Infinity;--finally, is the source of Science. In living and actual
Reflexion this Love manifests itself immediately in the phenomena of
Moral Action. Characterization of the Philanthropy of the Moral-Reli-
gious Man. Delineation of his Blessedness.
Lecture XI.
General application of the subject. Hindrances to a thorough communica-
tion between the speaker and hearer:--the want of thorough openness of
mind ;--so-called Scepticism ;--the surrounding influences of the Age.
Deeper characterization of these influences by the principle of the
mutual acceptation of all men as miserable sinners (Modern Humanity. )
How the good and upright man may rise superior to these influences,
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? 38! )
LECTURE I.
THE TRUE LIFE AND THE APPARENT LIFE.
The Lectures which I now commence have been announced
under the title of "The Way towards the Blessed Life. "
Following the common and customary view, which no one
can rectify unless he first accommodate himself to it, I could
not avoid thus expressing myself; although, according to
the true view of the matter, the expression "Blessed Life"
has in it something superfluous. To wit:--Life is necessari-
ly blessed, for it is Blessedness; the thought of an wwblessed
life, on the other hand, carries with it a contradiction.
Death alone is unblessed. Thus, had I expressed myself
with strict precision, I should have named my proposed lec-
tures "The Way towards Life, or the Doctrine of Life "--or,
viewing the idea on the other side, "The Way towards
Blessedness, or the Doctrine of Blessedness. " That, never-
theless, not nearly all that seems to live is blessed, arises
from this--that what is unblessed does not really and truly
live, but, for the most part, is sunk in Death and Nothing-
ness.
Life is itself Blessedness, I said. It cannot be otherwise;
for Life is Love, and whole form and power of Life consist
in Love and spring from Love. In this I have given utter-
ance to one of the most profound axioms of knowledge;
which nevertheless, in my opinion, may at once be made
clear and evident to every one, by means of really earnest
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? 390
THE DOCTIUNE OF ItELIOION.
and sustained attention. Love divides that which in itself
is dead, as it were into a two-fold being, holding it up
before its own contemplation;--creating thereby an Ego
or Self, which beholds and is cognizant of itself; and in this
personality lies the root of all Life. Love again reunites
and intimately binds together this divided personality,
which, without Love, would regard itself coldly and without
interest. This latter unity, with a duality which is not
thereby destroyed but eternally remains subsistent, is Life
itself; as every one who strictly considers these ideas and
combines them together must at once distinctly perceive.
Further, Love is satisfaction with itself, joy in itself, enjoy-
ment of itself,--and therefore Blessedness; and thus it is
clear that Life, Love, and Blessedness, are absolutely one and
the same.
I said further, that not everything which seems to be
living does really and truly live. It follows that, in my
opinion, Life may be regarded from a double point of view,
and shall be so regarded by me;--that is, partly as regards
Truth, and partly as regards Appearance. Now it is clear,
before all things, that this latter merely Apparent Life could
never even have become apparent, but must have remained
wholly and entirely non-existent, had it not been, in some
way or other, supported and maintained by the True Life--
and, since nothing has a real existence but Life, had not the
True Life, in some way or other, entered into the Apparent
Life and been commingled with it. There can be no real
Death, and no real Unblessedness; for, were we to admit
this, we should thereby attribute to them an existence,
while it is only the True Being and Life that can have exis-
tence. Hence, all incomplete existence is but an admix-
ture of the dead with the living. In what way this ad-
mixture generally takes place, and what, even in the lowest
grades of life, is the indestructible representative of the
True Life, we shall betimes declare. It is further to be remarked, that Love is at all times the seat and central-
point even of this merely Apparent Life. Understand me
thus:--the Apparent can shape itself into manifold, infinitely
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? LECTURE I.
391
varied forms; as we shall soon perceive more clearly. These
various forms of the Apparent Life, have all a common life,
if we use the language of Appearance; or, they all appear
to have a common life, if we use the language of Truth.
But if again the question should arise:--By what is this
common life distinguished in its various forms; and what is
it that gives to each individual the peculiar character of his
particular life ? --I answer:--It is the love of this particular
and individual life. Show me what thou truly lovest, what
thou seekest and strivest for with thy whole heart when
thou wouldst attain to true enjoyment of thyself,--and thou
hast thereby shown me thy Life. What thou lovest, in that thou livest. This very Love is thy Life,--the root, the seat,
the central-point of thy being. All other emotions within
thee have life only in so far as they tend towards this one
central point. That to many men it may be no easy matter
to answer such a question, since they do not even know
what they love, proves only that they do not in reality love
anything; and, just on that account, do not live because
they do not love.
So much, in general, as to the identity of Life, Love, and
Blessedness. Now for the strict discrimination of the True
Life from the mere Apparent Life.
Being,--I say again,--Being and Life are, once more,
one and the same. Life alone can possess independent ex-
istence, of itself and through itself; and, on the other hand,
Life, so surely as it is Life, bears with it such an existence.
It is usual for men to conceive of Absolute Being as some-
thing fixed, rigid and dead; philosophers themselves, almost
without exception, have so conceived of it, even while they
declared it to be Absolute. This arises only from the thinker
himself bringing to the contemplation of Being, not a living,
but a mere dead conception. Not in Being, as it is in and
for itself, is there Death; but only in the deadly gaze of the
dead beholder. That in this error is to be found the origi-
nal source of all other errors, and that through it the world
of truth and the whole spiritual universe is for ever closed
to man, we have proved in another place,--at least to those
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? 392
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.