Whence, then, our feelings, our
sensible
intuitions, our dis-
cursive laws of thought, on all which is founded the exter-
nal world which we behold, in which we believe that we ex-
ert an influence on each other?
cursive laws of thought, on all which is founded the exter-
nal world which we behold, in which we believe that we ex-
ert an influence on each other?
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
352
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
It is my will alone which is this source of true life, and
i if eternity;--only by recognising this will as the peculiar
seat of moral goodness, and by actually raising it thereto,
do I obtain the assurance and the possession of that super-
sensual world.
Without regard to any conceivable or visible object, with-
out inquiry as to whether my will may be followed by any
result other than the mere volition,--I must will in accor-
dance with the ,m/>ro]JaWr My will stands alone, apart
from all that is not itself, and is its own world merely by it-
self and for itself; not only as being itself an absolutely
first, primary and original power, before which there is no
preceding influence by which it may be governed, but also
as being followed by no conceivable or comprehensible second
step in the series, coming after it, by which its activity may
be brought under the dominion of a foreign law. Did there
proceed from it any second, and from this again a third re-
sult, and so forth, in any conceivable sensuous world oppos-
ed to the spiritual world, then would its strength be broken
by the resistance it would encounter from the independent
elements of such a world which it would set in motion; the
mode of its activity would no longer exactly correspond to
the purpose expressed in the volition; and the will would
no longer remain free, but be partly limited by the peculiar
laws of its heterogeneous sphere of action. And thus must
I actually regard the will in the present sensous world, the
only one known to me. I am indeed compelled to believe,
and consequently to act as if I thought, that by my mere
volition, my tongue, my hand, or my foot, might be set in
motion; but how a mere aspiration, an impress of intelli-
gence upon itself, such as will is, can be the principle of
motion to a heavy material mass,--this I not only find it
impossible to conceive, but the mere assertion is, before the
tribunal of the understanding, a palpable absurdity;--here
the movement of matter even in myself can be explained
only by the internal forces of matter itself.
Such a view of my will as I have taken, can, however, be
attained only through an intimate conviction that it is not
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
353
merely the highest active principle for this world,--which it
certainly might be, without having freedom in itself, by the
mere influence of the system of the universe, perchance, as
we must conceive of a formative power in Nature,--but
that it absolutely disregards all earthly objects, and generally
all objects lying out of itself, and recognises itself, for its
own sake, as its own ultimate end. But by such a view of
my will I am at once directed to a super-sensual order of
things, in which the will, by itself alone and without any
instrument lying out of itself, becomes an efficient cause
in a sphere which, like itself, is purely spiritual, and is
thoroughly accessible to it. That moral volition is demand-
ed of us absolutely for its own sake alone,--a truth which
I discover only as a fact in my inward consciousness, and to
the knowledge of which I cannot attain in any other way:
--this was the first step of my thought. That this demand
is reasonable, and the source and standard of all else that is
reasonable; that it is not modelled upon any other thing
whatever, but that all other things must, on the contrary,
model themselves upon it, and be dependent upon it,--a con-
viction which also I cannot arrive at from without, but can
attain only by inward experience, by means of the unhesitat-
ing and immovable assent which I freely accord to this de-
mand:--this was the second step of my thought . And from
these two terms I have attained to faith in a super-sensual
Eternal World. If I abandon the former, the latter falls to
the ground. If it were true,--as many say it is, assuming it
without farther proof as self-evident and extolling it as the
highest summit of human wisdom,--that all human virtue
must have before it a certain definite external object, and
that it must first be assured of the possibility of attaining
this object, before it can act and before it can become vir-
tue; that, consequently, reason by no means contains within
itself the principle and the standard of its own activity, but
must receive this standard from without, through contem-
plation of an external world;--if this were true, then might
the ultimate end of our existence be accomplished here
below; human nature might be completely developed and
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? 354
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
exhausted by our earthly vocation, and we should have no
rational ground for raising our thoughts above the present
life.
But every thinker who has anywhere acquired those first
principles even historically, moved perhaps by a mere love
of the new and unusual, and who is able to prosecute a
correct course of reasoning from them, might speak and
teach as I have now spoken to myself. He would then
present us with the thoughts of some other being, not with
his own; everything would float before him empty and
without significance, because he would be without the sense
whereby he might apprehend its reality. He is a blind
man, who, upon certain true principles concerning colours
which he has learned historically, has built a perfectly cor-
rect theory of colour, notwithstanding that there is in reality
no colour existing for him;--he can tell how, under certain
conditions, it must be; but to him it is not so, because he
does not stand under these conditions. The faculty by
which we lay hold on Eternal Life is to be attained only by
^actually renouncing the sensuous and its objects, and sacri-
ficing them to that law which takes cognizance of our will
only and not of our actions;--renouncing them with the
firmest conviction that it is reasonable for us to do so,--nay,
that it is the only thing reasonable for us, By this renun-
ciation of the Earthly, does faith in the Eternal first arise
in our soul, and is there enshrined apart, as the only sup-
port to which we can cling after we have given up all else,
--as the only animating principle that can elevate our
minds and inspire our lives. We must indeed, according to
the figure of a sacred doctrine, first "die unto the world and
be born again, before we can enter the kingdom of God. "
I see--Oh I now see clearly before me the cause of
my former indifference and blindness concerning spiritual
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
355
things! Absorbed by mere earthly objects, lost in them
with all our thoughts and efforts, moved and urged onward
only by the notion of a result lying beyond ourselves,--by
the desire of such a result and of our enjoyment therein,--
insensible and dead to the pure impulse of reason, which
gives a law to itself, and offers to our aspirations a purely
spiritual end,--the immortal Psyche remains, with fettered
pinions, fastened to the earth. Our philosophy becomes
the history of our own heart and life; and according to
what we ourselves are, do we conceive of man and his voca-
tion. Never impelled by any other motive than the desire
after what can be actually realized in this world, there is for
us no true freedom,--no freedom which holds the ground of
its determination absolutely and entirely within itself. Our
freedom is, at best, that of the self-forming plant; not es-
sentially higher in its nature, but only more artistical in its
results; not producing a mere material form with roots,
leaves, and blossoms, but a mind with impulses, thoughts,
and actions. We cannot have the slightest conception of
true freedom, because we do not ourselves possess it; when
it is spoken of, we either bring down what is said to the
level of our own notions, or at once declare all such talk to
be nonsense. Without the idea of freedom, we are likewise
without the faculty for another world. Everything of this
kind floats past before us like words that are not addressed
to us; like a pale shadow, without colour or meaning, which
we know not how to lay hold of or retain. We leave it as
we find it, without the least participation or sympathy. Or
should we ever be urged by a more active zeal to consider
it seriously, we then convince ourselves to our own satisfac-
tion that all such ideas are untenable and worthless re-
veries, which the man of sound understanding unhesitating-
ly rejects; and according to the premises from which we
proceed, made up as they are of our inward experiences, we
are perfectly in the right, and secure from either refutation
or conversion so long as we remain what we are. The ex-
cellent doctrines which are taught amongst us with a special
authority, concerning freedom, duty, and everlasting life,
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? 35G
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
become to us romantic fables, like those of Tartarus and the
Elysian fields; although we do not publish to the world
this our secret opinion, because we find it expedient, by
means of these figures, to maintain an outward decorum
among the populace; or, should we be less reflective, and
ourselves bound in the chains of authority, then we sink to
the level of the common mind, and believing what, thus
understood, would be mere foolish fables, we find in those
pure spiritual symbols only the promise of continuing
throughout eternity the same miserable existence which we
possess here below.
In one word :--only by the fundamental improvement of
my will does a new light arise within me concerning my
existence and vocation; without this, however much I may
speculate, and with what rare intellectual gifts soever I may
be endowed, darkness remains within me and around me.
The improvement of the heart alone leads to true wisdom.
Let then my whole life be unceasingly devoted to this one purpose.
IV.
My Moral Will, merely as such, in and through itself, shall
certainly and invariably produce consequences; every deter-
mination of my will in accordance with duty, although no
action should follow it, shall operate in another, to me in-
comprehensible, world, in which nothing but this moral
determination of the will shall possess efficient activity.
What is it that is assumed in this conception?
Obviously a Law; a rule absolutely without exception,
according to which a will determined by duty must have
consequences; just as in the material world which sur-
rounds me I assume a law according to which this ball,
when thrown by my hand with this particular force, in this
particular direction, necessarily moves in such a direction
with a certain degree of velocity,--perhaps strikes another
ball with a certain amount of force, which in its turn moves
on with a certain velocity,--and so on. As here, in the
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
357
mere direction and motion of my hand, I already perceive
and apprehend all the consequent directions and move-
ments, with the same certainty as if they were already
present before me; even so do I embrace by means of my vir-
tuous will a series of necessary and inevitable consequences
in the spiritual world, as if they were already present be-
fore me; only that I cannot define them as I do those in
the material world,--that is, I only know that they must be,
but not how they shall be;--and even in doing this, I con-
ceive of a Law of the spiritual world, in which my pure will
is one of the moving forces, as my hand is one of the moving
forces of the material world. My own firm confidence in
these results, and the conceptions of this Law of the spiri-
tual world, are one and the same;--they are not two
thoughts, one of which arises by means of the other, but
they are entirely the same thought; just as the confidence
with which I calculate on a certain motion in a material
body, and the conception of a mechanical law of nature on
which that motion depends, are one and the same. The
conception of a Law expresses nothing more than the firm,
immovable confidence of reason in a principle, and the ab-
solute impossibility of admitting its opposite.
I assume such a law of a spiritual world,--not given by
my will nor by the will of any finite being, nor by the will
of all finite beings taken together, but to which my will, and
the will of all finite beings, is subject. Neither I, nor any fi-
nite and therefore sensuous being, can conceive how a mere
will can have consequences, nor what may be the true nature
of those consequences; for herein consists the essential cha-
racter of our finite nature,--that we are unable to conceive
this,--that having indeed our will, as such, wholly within
our power, we are yet compelled by our sensuous nature to
regard the consequences of that will as sensuous states:--
how then can I, or any other finite being whatever, propose
to ourselves as objects, and thereby give reality to, that
which we can neither imagine nor conceive? I cannot say
that, in the material world, my hand, or any other body
which belongs to that world and is subject to the universal
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? 358
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
law of gravity, brings this law into operation;--these bodies
themselves stand under this law, and are able to set another
body in motion only in accordance with this law, and only
in so far as that body, by virtue of this law, partakes of the
universal moving power of Nature. Just as little can a
finite will give a law to the super-sensual world, which no
finite spirit can embrace; but all finite wills stand under
the law of that world, and can produce results therein only
inasmuch as that law already exists, and inasmuch as they
themselves, in accordance with the form of that law which
is applicable to finite wills, bring themselves under its con-
ditions, and within the sphere of its activity, by moral obe-
dience;--by moral obedience, I say, the only tie which unites
them to that higher world, the only nerve that descends from
it to them, and the only organ through which they can re-act
upon it. As the universal power of attraction embraces all
bodies, and holds them together in themselves and with each
other, and the movement of each separate body is possible
only on the supposition of this power, so does that super-sen-
sual law unite, hold together, and embrace all finite reason-
able beings. My will, and the will of all finite beings, may
be regarded from a double point of view :--partly as a mere
volition, an internal act directed upon itself alone, and, in so
far, the will is complete in itself, concluded in this act of vo-
lition ;--partly as something beyond this, a fact. It assumes
the latter form to me, as soon as I regard it as completed;
but it must also become so beyond me:--in the world of
sense, as the moving principle, for instance, of my hand, from
the movement of which, again, other movements follow;--in
the super-sensual world, as the principle of a series of spiri-
tual consequences of which I have no conception. In the
former point of view, as a mere act of volition, it stands wholly
within my own power; its assumption of the latter charac-
ter, that of an active first principle, depends not upon me,
but on a law to which I myself am subject;--on the law of
nature in the world of sense, on a super-sensual law in the world of pure thought.
What, then, is this law of the spiritual world which I con-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
359
ceive? This idea now stands before me, in fixed and per-
fect shape; I cannot, and dare not add anything whatever
to it; I have only to express and interpret it distinctly. It
is obviously not such as I may suppose the principle of my
own, or any other possible sensuous world, to be,--a fixed,
inert existence, from which, by the encounter of a will, some
internal power may be evolved,--something altogether dif-
ferent from a mere will. For,--and this is the substance of
my belief,--my will, absolutely by itself, and without the
intervention of any instrument that might weaken its ex-
pression, shall act in a perfectly congenial sphere,--reason
upon reason, spirit upon spirit;--in a sphere to which
nevertheless it does not give the law of life, activity, and
progress, but which has that law in itself;--therefore, upon
self-active reason. But self-active reason is will. The law
of the super-sensual world must, therefore, be a Will:--A
Will which operates purely as will; by itself, and absolutely
without any instrument or sensible material of its activity;
which is, at the same time, both act and product; with
whom to will is to do, to command is to execute; in which
therefore the instinctive demand of reason for absolute free-
dom and independence is realized:--A Will, which in itself
is law; determined by no fancy or caprice, through no pre-
vious reflection, hesitation or doubt:--but eternal, un-
changeable, on which we may securely and infallibly rely, as
the physical man relies with certainty on the laws of his
world:--A Will in which the moral will of finite beings, and
this alone, has sure and unfailing results; since for it all
else is unavailing, all else is as if it were not.
That sublime Will thus pursues no solitary path with-
drawn from the other parts of the world of reason. There
is a spiritual bond between Him and all finite rational be-
ings; and He himself is this spiritual bond of the rational
universe. Let me will, purely and decidedly, my duty; and
He wills that, in the spiritual world at least, my will shall
prosper. Every moral resolution of a finite being goes up
before Him, and--to speak after the manner of mortals--
moves and determines Him, not in consequence of a mo-
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? 360
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
mentary satisfaction, but in accordance with the eternal law
of His being. With surprising clearness does this thought,
which hitherto was surrounded with darkness, now reveal
itself to my soul; the thought that my will, merely as such,
and through itself, shall have results. It has results, because
it is immediately and infallibly perceived by another Will
to which it is related, which is its own accomplishment and
the only living principle of the spiritual world; in Him it
has its first results, and through Him it acquires an in-
fluence on the whole spiritual world, which throughout is
but a product of that Infinite Will. Thus do I approach--the mortal must speak in his own
language--thus do I approach that Infinite Will; and the
voice of conscience in my soul, which teaches me in every
situation of life what I have there to do, is the channel
through which again His influence descends upon me. That
voice, sensualized by my environment, and translated into
my language, is the oracle of the Eternal World which an-
nounces to me how I am to perform my part in the order of
the spiritual universe, or in the Infinite Will who is Him-
self that order. I cannot, indeed, survey or comprehend
that spiritual order, and I need not to do so;--I am but a
link in its chain, and can no more judge of the whole, than
a single tone of music can judge of the entire harmony of
which it forms a part. But what I myself ought to be in
this harmony of spirits I must know, for it is only I myself
who can make me so,--and this is immediately revealed to
me by a voice whose tones descend upon me from that other
world. Thus do I stand connected with the One who alone
has existence, and thus do I participate in His being.
There is nothing real, lasting, imperishable me, but these
two elements:--the voice of conscience,_ajnd,jnjr_ft^e_Qbe-dience. Byjthe first, thespiritual world bows down to me,
and embraces me as one of its members; by the_secondJL
raise myself into this world, ,ipprphf-nd it,, and rt>>->y. t, ypon
it. That Infinite Will is the mediator between Jit _and-
'me; for He himself is the original source both of it and me. This is the one True and Imperishable for which my
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
3G1
Will yogrr<? oYftn frnrv its inmost depths; all else is meie.
appep^anofj wuuahiag, and ovor i"of"''n'r'^ in_a_new_
semblance. _
This Will unites me with himself; He also unites me
with all finite beings like myself, and is the common media-
tor between us all. This is the great mystery of the in-
visible world, and its fundamental law, in so far as it is a
world or system of many individual wills:--the union, and
direct reciprocal action, of many separate and independent
wills; a mystery which already lies clearly before every eye
in the present life, without attracting the notice of any one,
or being regarded as in any way wonderful. The voice of
conscience, which imposes on each his particular duty, is the
light-beam on which we come forth from the bosom of the
Infinite, and assume our place as particular individual be-
ings; it fixes the limits of our personality; it is thus the
true original element of our nature, the foundation and ma-
terial of all our life. The absolute freedom 'of tlm wjjlj.
whinh wp bring rlnwn with_ us. from the Infinite into the
wnrlfl nf Tirr)^, is the principle of this our life. I act:--and,
the sensible intuition through which alone I become a per-
sonal intelligence being supposed, it is easy to conceive how
I must necessarily know of this my action,--I know it, be-
cause it is I myself who act;--it is easy to conceive how, by
means of this sensible intuition, my spiritual act appears to
me as a fact in a world of sense; and how, on the other
hand, by the same sensualization, the law of duty which, in
itself, is a purely spiritual law, should appear to me as the
command to such an action ;--it is easy to conceive, how an
actually present world should appear to me as the condition
of this action, and, in part, as the consequence and product
of it. Thus far I remain within myself and upon my own
territory; everything here, which has an existence for me,
unfolds itself purely and solely from myself; I see every-
where only myself, and no true existence out of myself. But
in this my world I admit, also, the operations of other be-
ings, separate and independent of me, as much as I of them.
Ab
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? 362
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
How these beings can themselves know of the influences
which proceed from them, may easily be conceived; they
know of them in the same way in which I know of my own.
But how / can know of them is absolutely inconceivable;
just as it is inconceivable how they can possess that know-
ledge of my existence, and its manifestations, which never-
theless I ascribe to them. How do they come within my
world, or I within theirs,--since the principle by which the
consciousness of ourselves, of our operations, and of their
sensuous conditions, is deduced from ourselves,--i. e. that
each individual must undoubtedly know what he himself
does,--is here wholly inapplicable? How have free spirits
knowledge of free spirits, since we know that free spirits are
the only reality, and that an independent world of sense,
through which they might act on each other, is no longer to
be taken into account. Or shall it be said,--I perceive reason-
able beings like myself by the changes which they produce
in the world of sense? Then I ask again,--How dost thou
perceive these changes? I comprehend very well how thou
canst perceive changes which are brought about by the
mere mechanism of nature; for the law of this mechanism
is no other than the law of thy own thought, according to
which, this world being once assumed, it is carried out into
farther developments. But the changes of which we now
speak are not brought about by the 'mere mechanism of na-
ture, but by a free will elevated above all nature; and only
in so far as thou canst regard them in this character, canst
thou infer from them the existence of free beings like thy-
self. Where then is the law within thyself, according to
which thou canst realize the determinations of other wills
absolutely independent of thee? In short, this mutual
recognition and reciprocal action of free beings in this
world, is perfectly inexplicable by the laws of nature or of
thought, and can be explained only through the One in whom
they are united, although to each other they are separate;
through the Infinite Will who sustains and embraces them
all in His own sphere. Not immediately from thee to me,
nor from me to thee, flows forth the knowledge which we
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
363
have of each other;--we are separated by an insurmount-
able barrier. Only through the common fountain of our
spiritual being do we know of each other; only in Him do
we recognise each other, and influence each other. "Here
reverence the image of freedom upon the earth;--here, a
work which bears its impress :"--thus is it proclaimed with-
in me by the voice of that Will, which speaks to me only in
so far as it imposes duties upon me;--and the only prin-
ciple through which I recognise thee and thy work, is the
command of conscience to respect them.
Whence, then, our feelings, our sensible intuitions, our dis-
cursive laws of thought, on all which is founded the exter-
nal world which we behold, in which we believe that we ex-
ert an influence on each other? With respect to the two
last--our sensible intuitions and our laws of thought--to
say, these are laws of reason in itself, is only to give no sa-
tisfactory answer at all. For us, indeed, who are excluded
from the pure domain of reason in itself, it may be impos-
sible to think otherwise, or to conceive of reason under any
other law. But the true law of reason in itself is the practical law, the law of the super-sensual world, or of that sub-1lime WilL And, leaving this for a moment undecided, whence
comes our universal agreement as to feelings, which, never-
theless, are something positive, immediate, inexplicable 1
On this agreement in feeling, perception, and in the laws of
thought, however, it depends that we all behold the same
external world.
"It is a harmonious, although inconceivable, limitation of
the finite rational beings who compose our race; and only
by means of such a harmonious limitation do they become a
race:"--thus answers the philosophy of mere knowledge,
and here it must rest as its highest point. But what can
set a limit to reason but reason itself 1--what can limit all
finite reason but the Infinite Reason? This universal agree-
ment concerning a sensible world,--assumed and accepted
by us as the foundation of all our other life, and as the
sphere of our duty--which, strictly considered, is just as in-
comprehensible as our unanimity concerning the products of
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? 3G4
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
our reciprocal freedom,--this agreement is the result of the
One Eternal Infinite WilL Our faith, of which we have
spoken as faith in duty, is only faith in Him, in His reason,
in His truth. What, then, is the peculiar and essential
truth which we accept in the world of sense, and in which
we believe? Nothing less than that from our free and faith-
ful performance of our duty in this world, there will arise to
us throughout eternity a life in which our freedom and mo-
rality may still continue their development. If this be true,
then indeed is there truth in our world, and the only truth
possible for finite beings; and it must be true, for this world
is the result of the Eternal Will in us,--and that Will, by
the law of His own being, can have no other purpose with
respect to finite beings, than that which we have set forth.
That Eternal Will is thus assuredly the Creator of the
World, in the only way in which He can be so, and in the
only way in which it needs creation:--in the finite reason.
Those who regard Him as building up a world from an
everlasting inert matter, which must still remain inert and
lifeless,--like a vessel made by human hands, not an eternal
procession of His self-development,--or who ascribe to Him
the production of a material universe out of nothing, know
neither the world nor Him. If matter only can be reality,
then were the world indeed nothing, and throughout all eter-
nity would remain nothing. Reason alone exists:--the In-
finite in Himself,--the finite in Him and through Him.
Only in our minds has He created a world; at least that
from which we unfold it, and that by which we unfold it;--
the voice of duty, and harmonious feelings, intuitions, and
laws of thought. It is His light through which we behold
the light, and all that it reveals to us. In our minds He
still creates this world, and acts upon it by acting upon our
minds through the call of duty, as soon as another free be-
ing changes aught therein. In our minds He upholds this
world, and thereby the finite existence of which alone we
are capable, by continually evolving from each state of our
existence other states in succession. When He shall have
sufficiently proved us according to His supreme designs, for
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
365
our next succeeding vocation, and we shall have sufficiently cultivated ourselves for entering upon it, then, by that I
which we call death, will He annihilate for us this life, and introduce us to a new life, the product of our virtuous ac-1tions. All our life is His life. We are in His hand, and abide therein, and no one can pluck us out of His hand. We are eternal, because He is eternal. ^
Sublime and Living Will! named by no name, compassed
by no thought! I may well raise my soul to Thee, for Thou and I are not divided. Thy voice sounds within me, mine
resounds in Thee; and all my thoughts, if they be but good
and true, live in Thee also. In Thee, the Incomprehensible,
I myself, and the world in which I live, become clearly com-
prehensible to me; all the secrets of my existence are laid
open, and perfect harmony arises in my soul.
Thou art best known to the child-like, devoted, simple
mind. . To it Thou art the searcher of hearts, who seest its
inmost depths; the ever-present true witness of its thoughts,
who knowest its truth, who knowest it though all the world
know it not. Thou art the Father who ever desirest its
good, who rulest all things for the best. To Thy will it un-
hesitatingly resigns itself: "Do with me," it says, "what
thou wilt; I know that it is good, for it is Thou who doest
it. " The inquisitive understanding, which has heard of
Thee, but seen Thee not, would teach us thy nature; and,
as Thy image, shows us a monstrous and incongruous
shape, which the sagacious laugh at, and the wise and good
abhor.
I hide my face before Thee, and lay my hand upon my
mouth. How Thou art, and seemest to Thine own being, I
can never know, any more than I can assume Thy nature.
After thousands upon thousands of spirit-lives, I shall com-
prehend Thee as little as I do now in this earthly house.
That which I conceive, becomes finite through my very con-
ception of it; and this can never, even by endless exalta-
tion, rise into the Infinite. Thou differest from men, not in
degree but in nature. In every stage of their advancement
they think of Thee as a greater man, and still a greater;
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? 3GG
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
but never as God--the Infinite,--whom no measure can
mete. I have only this discursive, progressive thought, and
I can conceive of no other:--how can I venture to ascribe
it to Thee? In the Idea of person there are imperfections,
limitations:--how can I clothe Thee with it without these?
I will not attempt that which the imperfection of my
finite nature forbids, and which would be useless to me:--
How Thou art, I may not know. But, let me be what I
ought to be, and Thy relations to me--the mortal--and to
all mortals, lie open before my eyes, and surround me more
clearly than the consciousness of my own existence. Thou
workest in me the knowledge of my duty, of my voca-
tion in the world of reasonable beings;--how, I know
not, nor need I to know. Thou knowest what I think and
what I will:--how Thou canst know, through what act
thou bringest about that consciousness, I cannot understand,
--nay, I know that the idea of an act, of a particular act of
consciousness, belongs to me alone, and not to Thee,--the
Infinite One. Thou wiliest that my free obedience shall
bring with it eternal consequences:--the act of Thy will I
cannot comprehend, I only know that it is not like mine.
Thou doest, and Thy will itself is the deed; but the way of
Thy working is not as my ways,--I cannot trace it. Thou
livest and art, for Thou knowest and wiliest and workest,
omnipresent to finite Reason; but Thou art not as / now
and always must conceive of being.
In the contemplation of these Thy relations to me, the
finite being, will I rest in calm blessedness. I know im-
mediately only what I ought to do. This will I do, freely,
joyfully, and without cavilling or sophistry, for it is Thy
voice which commands me to do it; it is the part assigned
to me in the spiritual World-plan; and the power with
which I shall perform it is Thy power. Whatever may be
commanded by that voice, whatever executed by that power,
is, in that plan, assuredly and truly good. I remain tran-
quil amid all the events of this world, for they are in Thy
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
367
world. Nothing can perplex or surprise or dishearten me,
as surely as Thou livest, and I can look upon Thy life. For
in Thee, and through Thee, O Infinite One! do I behold
even my present world in another light. Nature, and na-
tural consequences, in the destinies and conduct of free be-
ings, as opposed to Thee, become empty, unmeaning words.
Nature is no longer; Thou, only Thou, art. It no longer
appears to me to be the end and purpose of the present
world to produce that state of universal peace among men,
and of unlimited dominion over the mechanism of nature,
for its own sake alone,--but that this should be produced
by man himself,--and, since it is expected from all, that it
should be produced by all, as one great, free, moral, commu-
nity. Nothing new and better for an individual shall be
attainable, except through his own virtuous will; nothing
new and better for a community, except through the com-
mon will being in accordance with duty:--this is a funda-
mental law of the great moral empire, of which the present
life is a part. The good will of the individual is thus often
lost to this world, because it is but the will of the individu-
al, and the will of the majority is not in harmony with his,
--and then its results are to be found solely in a future
world; while even the passions and vices of men cooperate
in the attainment of good,--not in and for themselves, for
in this sense good can never come out of evil,--but by hold-
ing the balance against the opposite vices, and, at last, by
their excess, annihilating these antagonists, and themselves
with them. Oppression could never have gained the upper
hand in human affairs, unless the cowardice, baseness, and
mutual mistrust of men had smoothed the way to it. It will
continue to increase, until it extirpate cowardice and slav-
ishness; and despair itself at last reawaken courage. Then
shall the two opposite vices have annihilated each other,
and the noblest of all human relations, lasting freedom,
come forth from their antagonism.
The actions of free beings, strictly considered, have results
only in other free beings; for in them, and for them
alone, there is a world; and that in which they all agree, is
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? 368 THE VOCATION OF MAN.
I
itself the world. But they have these results only through
the Infinite Will,-- the meduim through which all indi-
vidual beings influence each other. But the announcement,
the publication of this Will to us, is always a call to a par-
ticular duty. Thus even what we call evil in the world, the
consequence of the abuse of freedom, exists only through
Him; and it exists for those who experience it only in so
far as, through it, duties are laid upon them. Were it not
in the eternal plan of our moral cuture, and the culture of
our whole race, that precisely these duties should be laid
upon us, they would not be so laid upon us; and that
through which they are laid upon us--i. e. what we call evil
--would not have been produced. In so far, everything
that is, is good, and absolutely legitimate. There is but
one world possible,--a thoroughly good world. All that
happens in this world is subservient to the improvment and
culture of man, and, by means of this, to the promotion of
the purpose of his earthly existence. It is this higher
World-plan which we call Nature, when we say,--Nature
leads men through want to industry; through the evils of
general disorder to a just constitution; through the miseries
of continual wars to endless peace on earth. Thy will, O Infinite One! thy Providence alone, is this higher Nature.
This, too, is best understood by artless simplicity, when it
regards this life as a place of trial and culture, as a school
for eternity; when, in all the events of life, the most trivial
as well as the most important, it beholds thy guiding Provi-
dence disposing all for the best; when it firmly believes
that all things must work together for the good of those
who love their duty, and who know Thee.
Oh! I have, indeed, dwelt in darkness during the past
days of my life! I have indeed heaped error upon error, and
imagined myself wise! Now, for the first time, do I wholly
understand the doctrine which from thy lips, 0 Wonderful
Spirit! seemed so strange to me, although my understand-
ing had nothing to oppose to it; for now, for the first time,
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
3GU
do I comprehend it in its whole compass, in its deepest
foundations, and through all its consequences.
Man is not a product of the world of sense, and the end
of his existence cannot be attained in it. His vocation transcends Time andJSpace, and everything that pertains t,n,
sensp What he is, and to what he is to train himself, that
he must know;--as his vocation is a lofty one, he must be
able to raise his thoughts above all the limitations of sense.
He must accomplish it:--where his being finds its home,
there his thoughts too seek their dwelling-place; and the
truly human mode of thought, that which alone is worthy
of him, that in which his whole spiritual strength is mani-
fested, is that whereby he raises himself above those limi-
tations, whereby all that pertains to sense vanishes into
nothing,--into a mere reflection, in mortal eyes, of the One,
Self-existent Infinite. ,
Many have raised themselves to this mode of thought,
without scientific inquiry, merely by their nobleness of heart
and their pure moral instinct, because their life has been
preeminently one of feeling and sentiment. They have de-
nied, by their conduct, the efficiency and reality of the
world of sense, and made it of no account in regulating their
resolutions and their actions;--whereby they have not in-
deed made it clear, by reasoning, that this world has no
existence for the intellect. Those who could dare to say,
"Our citizenship is in heaven; we have here no continuing
city, but we seek one to come;"--those whose chief prin-
ciple it was "to die to the world, to be born again, and
already here below to enter upon a new life,"--certainly
set no value whatever on the things of sense, and were, to
use the language of the schools, practical Transcendental
Idealists.
Others, who, besides possessing the natural proneness to
mere sensuous activity which is common to us all, have also
added to its power by the adoption of similar habits of
thought, until they have got wholly entangled in it, and it
has grown with their growth, and strengthened with their
strength, can raise themselves above it, permanently and
lib
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? 370
THE VOCATION OF MAX.
completely, only by persistent and conclusive thought;
otherwise, with the purest moral intentions, they would be
continually drawn down again by their understanding, and
their whole being would remain a prolonged and insoluble
contradiction. For these, the philosophy which I now, for the first time, thoroughly understand, will t,h<^first. p>>wpr
that shall set free the imprisoned Psyche. japd unfold hex.
>yingSLSO,thatJ hovering for a mminpnt. alxvyp W fnrmpr splf she may cast a glance on her abandoned slough, and then
soar upwards thenceforward to live and. riPV^g hiffopr
Spheres. .
Blessed be the hour in which I first resolved to inquire
into myself and my vocation! All my doubts are solved; I
know what I can know, and have no apprehensions regard-
ing that which I cannot know. I am satisfied; perfect har-
mony and clearness reign in my soul, and a new and more
glorious spiritual existence begins for me.
My entire complete vocation I cannot comprehend; what
I shall be hereafter transcends all my thoughts. A part of
that vocation is concealed from me; it is visible only to One,
to the Father of Spirits, to whose care it is committed. I
know only that it is sure, and that it is eternal and glorious
like Himself. But that part of it which is confided to my-
self, I know, and know it thoroughly, for it is the root of all
my other knowledge. I know assuredly, in every moment
of my life, what I ought to do; and this is my whole voca-
tion in so far as it depends on me. From this point, since
my knowledge does not reach beyond it, I shall not depart;
I shall not desire to know aught beyond this; I shall take
my stand upon this central point, and firmly root myself
here. To this shall all my thoughts and endeavours, my
whole powers, be directed; my whole existence shall be
interwoven with it.
I ought, as far as in me lies, to cultivate my understand-
ing and to acquire knowledge;--but only with the purpose
of preparing thereby within me a larger field and wider
sphere of duty. I ought to desire to have much;--in order
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
371
that much may be required of me. I ought to exercise my
powers and capacities in every possible way;--but only in
order to render myself a more serviceable and fitting instru-
ment of duty, for until the commandment shall have been
realized in the outward world, by means of my whole per-
sonality, I am answerable for it to my conscience. I ought
to exhibit in myself, as far as I am able, humanity in all its
completeness;--not "for the mere sake of humanity, which
in itself has not the slightest worth, but in order that vir-
tue, which alone has worth in itself, may be exhibited in its
highest perfection in human nature. I ought to regard my-
self, body and soul, with all that is in me or that belongs to
me, only as a means of duty; and only be solicitous to fulfil
that, and to make myself able to fulfil it, as far as in me
lies. But when the commandment,--provided only that it
shall have been in truth the commandment which I have
obeyed, and I have been really conscious only of the pure,
single intention of obeying it,--when the commandment
shall have passed beyond my personal being to its realiza-
tion in the outward world, then I have no more anxiety
about it, for thenceforward it is committed into the hands of
the Eternal WilL Farther care or anxiety would be but
idle self-torment; would be unbelief and distrust of that
Infinite Will. I shall never dream of governing the world
in His stead; of listening to the voice of my own imperfect
wisdom instead of to His voice in my conscience; or of sub-
stituting the partial views of a short-sighted creature for
His vast plan which embraces the universe. I know that
thereby I should lose my own place in His order, and in the
order of all spiritual being.
As with calmness and devotion I reverence this higher
Providence, so in my actions ought I to reverence the free-
dom of other beings around me. The question for me is
not what they, according to my conceptions, ought to do,
but what I may venture to do in order to induce them to do
it. I can only desire to act on their conviction and their
will as far as the order of society and their own consent
will permit; but by no means, without their conviction and
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?
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
It is my will alone which is this source of true life, and
i if eternity;--only by recognising this will as the peculiar
seat of moral goodness, and by actually raising it thereto,
do I obtain the assurance and the possession of that super-
sensual world.
Without regard to any conceivable or visible object, with-
out inquiry as to whether my will may be followed by any
result other than the mere volition,--I must will in accor-
dance with the ,m/>ro]JaWr My will stands alone, apart
from all that is not itself, and is its own world merely by it-
self and for itself; not only as being itself an absolutely
first, primary and original power, before which there is no
preceding influence by which it may be governed, but also
as being followed by no conceivable or comprehensible second
step in the series, coming after it, by which its activity may
be brought under the dominion of a foreign law. Did there
proceed from it any second, and from this again a third re-
sult, and so forth, in any conceivable sensuous world oppos-
ed to the spiritual world, then would its strength be broken
by the resistance it would encounter from the independent
elements of such a world which it would set in motion; the
mode of its activity would no longer exactly correspond to
the purpose expressed in the volition; and the will would
no longer remain free, but be partly limited by the peculiar
laws of its heterogeneous sphere of action. And thus must
I actually regard the will in the present sensous world, the
only one known to me. I am indeed compelled to believe,
and consequently to act as if I thought, that by my mere
volition, my tongue, my hand, or my foot, might be set in
motion; but how a mere aspiration, an impress of intelli-
gence upon itself, such as will is, can be the principle of
motion to a heavy material mass,--this I not only find it
impossible to conceive, but the mere assertion is, before the
tribunal of the understanding, a palpable absurdity;--here
the movement of matter even in myself can be explained
only by the internal forces of matter itself.
Such a view of my will as I have taken, can, however, be
attained only through an intimate conviction that it is not
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
353
merely the highest active principle for this world,--which it
certainly might be, without having freedom in itself, by the
mere influence of the system of the universe, perchance, as
we must conceive of a formative power in Nature,--but
that it absolutely disregards all earthly objects, and generally
all objects lying out of itself, and recognises itself, for its
own sake, as its own ultimate end. But by such a view of
my will I am at once directed to a super-sensual order of
things, in which the will, by itself alone and without any
instrument lying out of itself, becomes an efficient cause
in a sphere which, like itself, is purely spiritual, and is
thoroughly accessible to it. That moral volition is demand-
ed of us absolutely for its own sake alone,--a truth which
I discover only as a fact in my inward consciousness, and to
the knowledge of which I cannot attain in any other way:
--this was the first step of my thought. That this demand
is reasonable, and the source and standard of all else that is
reasonable; that it is not modelled upon any other thing
whatever, but that all other things must, on the contrary,
model themselves upon it, and be dependent upon it,--a con-
viction which also I cannot arrive at from without, but can
attain only by inward experience, by means of the unhesitat-
ing and immovable assent which I freely accord to this de-
mand:--this was the second step of my thought . And from
these two terms I have attained to faith in a super-sensual
Eternal World. If I abandon the former, the latter falls to
the ground. If it were true,--as many say it is, assuming it
without farther proof as self-evident and extolling it as the
highest summit of human wisdom,--that all human virtue
must have before it a certain definite external object, and
that it must first be assured of the possibility of attaining
this object, before it can act and before it can become vir-
tue; that, consequently, reason by no means contains within
itself the principle and the standard of its own activity, but
must receive this standard from without, through contem-
plation of an external world;--if this were true, then might
the ultimate end of our existence be accomplished here
below; human nature might be completely developed and
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? 354
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
exhausted by our earthly vocation, and we should have no
rational ground for raising our thoughts above the present
life.
But every thinker who has anywhere acquired those first
principles even historically, moved perhaps by a mere love
of the new and unusual, and who is able to prosecute a
correct course of reasoning from them, might speak and
teach as I have now spoken to myself. He would then
present us with the thoughts of some other being, not with
his own; everything would float before him empty and
without significance, because he would be without the sense
whereby he might apprehend its reality. He is a blind
man, who, upon certain true principles concerning colours
which he has learned historically, has built a perfectly cor-
rect theory of colour, notwithstanding that there is in reality
no colour existing for him;--he can tell how, under certain
conditions, it must be; but to him it is not so, because he
does not stand under these conditions. The faculty by
which we lay hold on Eternal Life is to be attained only by
^actually renouncing the sensuous and its objects, and sacri-
ficing them to that law which takes cognizance of our will
only and not of our actions;--renouncing them with the
firmest conviction that it is reasonable for us to do so,--nay,
that it is the only thing reasonable for us, By this renun-
ciation of the Earthly, does faith in the Eternal first arise
in our soul, and is there enshrined apart, as the only sup-
port to which we can cling after we have given up all else,
--as the only animating principle that can elevate our
minds and inspire our lives. We must indeed, according to
the figure of a sacred doctrine, first "die unto the world and
be born again, before we can enter the kingdom of God. "
I see--Oh I now see clearly before me the cause of
my former indifference and blindness concerning spiritual
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
355
things! Absorbed by mere earthly objects, lost in them
with all our thoughts and efforts, moved and urged onward
only by the notion of a result lying beyond ourselves,--by
the desire of such a result and of our enjoyment therein,--
insensible and dead to the pure impulse of reason, which
gives a law to itself, and offers to our aspirations a purely
spiritual end,--the immortal Psyche remains, with fettered
pinions, fastened to the earth. Our philosophy becomes
the history of our own heart and life; and according to
what we ourselves are, do we conceive of man and his voca-
tion. Never impelled by any other motive than the desire
after what can be actually realized in this world, there is for
us no true freedom,--no freedom which holds the ground of
its determination absolutely and entirely within itself. Our
freedom is, at best, that of the self-forming plant; not es-
sentially higher in its nature, but only more artistical in its
results; not producing a mere material form with roots,
leaves, and blossoms, but a mind with impulses, thoughts,
and actions. We cannot have the slightest conception of
true freedom, because we do not ourselves possess it; when
it is spoken of, we either bring down what is said to the
level of our own notions, or at once declare all such talk to
be nonsense. Without the idea of freedom, we are likewise
without the faculty for another world. Everything of this
kind floats past before us like words that are not addressed
to us; like a pale shadow, without colour or meaning, which
we know not how to lay hold of or retain. We leave it as
we find it, without the least participation or sympathy. Or
should we ever be urged by a more active zeal to consider
it seriously, we then convince ourselves to our own satisfac-
tion that all such ideas are untenable and worthless re-
veries, which the man of sound understanding unhesitating-
ly rejects; and according to the premises from which we
proceed, made up as they are of our inward experiences, we
are perfectly in the right, and secure from either refutation
or conversion so long as we remain what we are. The ex-
cellent doctrines which are taught amongst us with a special
authority, concerning freedom, duty, and everlasting life,
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? 35G
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
become to us romantic fables, like those of Tartarus and the
Elysian fields; although we do not publish to the world
this our secret opinion, because we find it expedient, by
means of these figures, to maintain an outward decorum
among the populace; or, should we be less reflective, and
ourselves bound in the chains of authority, then we sink to
the level of the common mind, and believing what, thus
understood, would be mere foolish fables, we find in those
pure spiritual symbols only the promise of continuing
throughout eternity the same miserable existence which we
possess here below.
In one word :--only by the fundamental improvement of
my will does a new light arise within me concerning my
existence and vocation; without this, however much I may
speculate, and with what rare intellectual gifts soever I may
be endowed, darkness remains within me and around me.
The improvement of the heart alone leads to true wisdom.
Let then my whole life be unceasingly devoted to this one purpose.
IV.
My Moral Will, merely as such, in and through itself, shall
certainly and invariably produce consequences; every deter-
mination of my will in accordance with duty, although no
action should follow it, shall operate in another, to me in-
comprehensible, world, in which nothing but this moral
determination of the will shall possess efficient activity.
What is it that is assumed in this conception?
Obviously a Law; a rule absolutely without exception,
according to which a will determined by duty must have
consequences; just as in the material world which sur-
rounds me I assume a law according to which this ball,
when thrown by my hand with this particular force, in this
particular direction, necessarily moves in such a direction
with a certain degree of velocity,--perhaps strikes another
ball with a certain amount of force, which in its turn moves
on with a certain velocity,--and so on. As here, in the
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
357
mere direction and motion of my hand, I already perceive
and apprehend all the consequent directions and move-
ments, with the same certainty as if they were already
present before me; even so do I embrace by means of my vir-
tuous will a series of necessary and inevitable consequences
in the spiritual world, as if they were already present be-
fore me; only that I cannot define them as I do those in
the material world,--that is, I only know that they must be,
but not how they shall be;--and even in doing this, I con-
ceive of a Law of the spiritual world, in which my pure will
is one of the moving forces, as my hand is one of the moving
forces of the material world. My own firm confidence in
these results, and the conceptions of this Law of the spiri-
tual world, are one and the same;--they are not two
thoughts, one of which arises by means of the other, but
they are entirely the same thought; just as the confidence
with which I calculate on a certain motion in a material
body, and the conception of a mechanical law of nature on
which that motion depends, are one and the same. The
conception of a Law expresses nothing more than the firm,
immovable confidence of reason in a principle, and the ab-
solute impossibility of admitting its opposite.
I assume such a law of a spiritual world,--not given by
my will nor by the will of any finite being, nor by the will
of all finite beings taken together, but to which my will, and
the will of all finite beings, is subject. Neither I, nor any fi-
nite and therefore sensuous being, can conceive how a mere
will can have consequences, nor what may be the true nature
of those consequences; for herein consists the essential cha-
racter of our finite nature,--that we are unable to conceive
this,--that having indeed our will, as such, wholly within
our power, we are yet compelled by our sensuous nature to
regard the consequences of that will as sensuous states:--
how then can I, or any other finite being whatever, propose
to ourselves as objects, and thereby give reality to, that
which we can neither imagine nor conceive? I cannot say
that, in the material world, my hand, or any other body
which belongs to that world and is subject to the universal
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? 358
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
law of gravity, brings this law into operation;--these bodies
themselves stand under this law, and are able to set another
body in motion only in accordance with this law, and only
in so far as that body, by virtue of this law, partakes of the
universal moving power of Nature. Just as little can a
finite will give a law to the super-sensual world, which no
finite spirit can embrace; but all finite wills stand under
the law of that world, and can produce results therein only
inasmuch as that law already exists, and inasmuch as they
themselves, in accordance with the form of that law which
is applicable to finite wills, bring themselves under its con-
ditions, and within the sphere of its activity, by moral obe-
dience;--by moral obedience, I say, the only tie which unites
them to that higher world, the only nerve that descends from
it to them, and the only organ through which they can re-act
upon it. As the universal power of attraction embraces all
bodies, and holds them together in themselves and with each
other, and the movement of each separate body is possible
only on the supposition of this power, so does that super-sen-
sual law unite, hold together, and embrace all finite reason-
able beings. My will, and the will of all finite beings, may
be regarded from a double point of view :--partly as a mere
volition, an internal act directed upon itself alone, and, in so
far, the will is complete in itself, concluded in this act of vo-
lition ;--partly as something beyond this, a fact. It assumes
the latter form to me, as soon as I regard it as completed;
but it must also become so beyond me:--in the world of
sense, as the moving principle, for instance, of my hand, from
the movement of which, again, other movements follow;--in
the super-sensual world, as the principle of a series of spiri-
tual consequences of which I have no conception. In the
former point of view, as a mere act of volition, it stands wholly
within my own power; its assumption of the latter charac-
ter, that of an active first principle, depends not upon me,
but on a law to which I myself am subject;--on the law of
nature in the world of sense, on a super-sensual law in the world of pure thought.
What, then, is this law of the spiritual world which I con-
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
359
ceive? This idea now stands before me, in fixed and per-
fect shape; I cannot, and dare not add anything whatever
to it; I have only to express and interpret it distinctly. It
is obviously not such as I may suppose the principle of my
own, or any other possible sensuous world, to be,--a fixed,
inert existence, from which, by the encounter of a will, some
internal power may be evolved,--something altogether dif-
ferent from a mere will. For,--and this is the substance of
my belief,--my will, absolutely by itself, and without the
intervention of any instrument that might weaken its ex-
pression, shall act in a perfectly congenial sphere,--reason
upon reason, spirit upon spirit;--in a sphere to which
nevertheless it does not give the law of life, activity, and
progress, but which has that law in itself;--therefore, upon
self-active reason. But self-active reason is will. The law
of the super-sensual world must, therefore, be a Will:--A
Will which operates purely as will; by itself, and absolutely
without any instrument or sensible material of its activity;
which is, at the same time, both act and product; with
whom to will is to do, to command is to execute; in which
therefore the instinctive demand of reason for absolute free-
dom and independence is realized:--A Will, which in itself
is law; determined by no fancy or caprice, through no pre-
vious reflection, hesitation or doubt:--but eternal, un-
changeable, on which we may securely and infallibly rely, as
the physical man relies with certainty on the laws of his
world:--A Will in which the moral will of finite beings, and
this alone, has sure and unfailing results; since for it all
else is unavailing, all else is as if it were not.
That sublime Will thus pursues no solitary path with-
drawn from the other parts of the world of reason. There
is a spiritual bond between Him and all finite rational be-
ings; and He himself is this spiritual bond of the rational
universe. Let me will, purely and decidedly, my duty; and
He wills that, in the spiritual world at least, my will shall
prosper. Every moral resolution of a finite being goes up
before Him, and--to speak after the manner of mortals--
moves and determines Him, not in consequence of a mo-
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? 360
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
mentary satisfaction, but in accordance with the eternal law
of His being. With surprising clearness does this thought,
which hitherto was surrounded with darkness, now reveal
itself to my soul; the thought that my will, merely as such,
and through itself, shall have results. It has results, because
it is immediately and infallibly perceived by another Will
to which it is related, which is its own accomplishment and
the only living principle of the spiritual world; in Him it
has its first results, and through Him it acquires an in-
fluence on the whole spiritual world, which throughout is
but a product of that Infinite Will. Thus do I approach--the mortal must speak in his own
language--thus do I approach that Infinite Will; and the
voice of conscience in my soul, which teaches me in every
situation of life what I have there to do, is the channel
through which again His influence descends upon me. That
voice, sensualized by my environment, and translated into
my language, is the oracle of the Eternal World which an-
nounces to me how I am to perform my part in the order of
the spiritual universe, or in the Infinite Will who is Him-
self that order. I cannot, indeed, survey or comprehend
that spiritual order, and I need not to do so;--I am but a
link in its chain, and can no more judge of the whole, than
a single tone of music can judge of the entire harmony of
which it forms a part. But what I myself ought to be in
this harmony of spirits I must know, for it is only I myself
who can make me so,--and this is immediately revealed to
me by a voice whose tones descend upon me from that other
world. Thus do I stand connected with the One who alone
has existence, and thus do I participate in His being.
There is nothing real, lasting, imperishable me, but these
two elements:--the voice of conscience,_ajnd,jnjr_ft^e_Qbe-dience. Byjthe first, thespiritual world bows down to me,
and embraces me as one of its members; by the_secondJL
raise myself into this world, ,ipprphf-nd it,, and rt>>->y. t, ypon
it. That Infinite Will is the mediator between Jit _and-
'me; for He himself is the original source both of it and me. This is the one True and Imperishable for which my
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
3G1
Will yogrr<? oYftn frnrv its inmost depths; all else is meie.
appep^anofj wuuahiag, and ovor i"of"''n'r'^ in_a_new_
semblance. _
This Will unites me with himself; He also unites me
with all finite beings like myself, and is the common media-
tor between us all. This is the great mystery of the in-
visible world, and its fundamental law, in so far as it is a
world or system of many individual wills:--the union, and
direct reciprocal action, of many separate and independent
wills; a mystery which already lies clearly before every eye
in the present life, without attracting the notice of any one,
or being regarded as in any way wonderful. The voice of
conscience, which imposes on each his particular duty, is the
light-beam on which we come forth from the bosom of the
Infinite, and assume our place as particular individual be-
ings; it fixes the limits of our personality; it is thus the
true original element of our nature, the foundation and ma-
terial of all our life. The absolute freedom 'of tlm wjjlj.
whinh wp bring rlnwn with_ us. from the Infinite into the
wnrlfl nf Tirr)^, is the principle of this our life. I act:--and,
the sensible intuition through which alone I become a per-
sonal intelligence being supposed, it is easy to conceive how
I must necessarily know of this my action,--I know it, be-
cause it is I myself who act;--it is easy to conceive how, by
means of this sensible intuition, my spiritual act appears to
me as a fact in a world of sense; and how, on the other
hand, by the same sensualization, the law of duty which, in
itself, is a purely spiritual law, should appear to me as the
command to such an action ;--it is easy to conceive, how an
actually present world should appear to me as the condition
of this action, and, in part, as the consequence and product
of it. Thus far I remain within myself and upon my own
territory; everything here, which has an existence for me,
unfolds itself purely and solely from myself; I see every-
where only myself, and no true existence out of myself. But
in this my world I admit, also, the operations of other be-
ings, separate and independent of me, as much as I of them.
Ab
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? 362
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
How these beings can themselves know of the influences
which proceed from them, may easily be conceived; they
know of them in the same way in which I know of my own.
But how / can know of them is absolutely inconceivable;
just as it is inconceivable how they can possess that know-
ledge of my existence, and its manifestations, which never-
theless I ascribe to them. How do they come within my
world, or I within theirs,--since the principle by which the
consciousness of ourselves, of our operations, and of their
sensuous conditions, is deduced from ourselves,--i. e. that
each individual must undoubtedly know what he himself
does,--is here wholly inapplicable? How have free spirits
knowledge of free spirits, since we know that free spirits are
the only reality, and that an independent world of sense,
through which they might act on each other, is no longer to
be taken into account. Or shall it be said,--I perceive reason-
able beings like myself by the changes which they produce
in the world of sense? Then I ask again,--How dost thou
perceive these changes? I comprehend very well how thou
canst perceive changes which are brought about by the
mere mechanism of nature; for the law of this mechanism
is no other than the law of thy own thought, according to
which, this world being once assumed, it is carried out into
farther developments. But the changes of which we now
speak are not brought about by the 'mere mechanism of na-
ture, but by a free will elevated above all nature; and only
in so far as thou canst regard them in this character, canst
thou infer from them the existence of free beings like thy-
self. Where then is the law within thyself, according to
which thou canst realize the determinations of other wills
absolutely independent of thee? In short, this mutual
recognition and reciprocal action of free beings in this
world, is perfectly inexplicable by the laws of nature or of
thought, and can be explained only through the One in whom
they are united, although to each other they are separate;
through the Infinite Will who sustains and embraces them
all in His own sphere. Not immediately from thee to me,
nor from me to thee, flows forth the knowledge which we
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
363
have of each other;--we are separated by an insurmount-
able barrier. Only through the common fountain of our
spiritual being do we know of each other; only in Him do
we recognise each other, and influence each other. "Here
reverence the image of freedom upon the earth;--here, a
work which bears its impress :"--thus is it proclaimed with-
in me by the voice of that Will, which speaks to me only in
so far as it imposes duties upon me;--and the only prin-
ciple through which I recognise thee and thy work, is the
command of conscience to respect them.
Whence, then, our feelings, our sensible intuitions, our dis-
cursive laws of thought, on all which is founded the exter-
nal world which we behold, in which we believe that we ex-
ert an influence on each other? With respect to the two
last--our sensible intuitions and our laws of thought--to
say, these are laws of reason in itself, is only to give no sa-
tisfactory answer at all. For us, indeed, who are excluded
from the pure domain of reason in itself, it may be impos-
sible to think otherwise, or to conceive of reason under any
other law. But the true law of reason in itself is the practical law, the law of the super-sensual world, or of that sub-1lime WilL And, leaving this for a moment undecided, whence
comes our universal agreement as to feelings, which, never-
theless, are something positive, immediate, inexplicable 1
On this agreement in feeling, perception, and in the laws of
thought, however, it depends that we all behold the same
external world.
"It is a harmonious, although inconceivable, limitation of
the finite rational beings who compose our race; and only
by means of such a harmonious limitation do they become a
race:"--thus answers the philosophy of mere knowledge,
and here it must rest as its highest point. But what can
set a limit to reason but reason itself 1--what can limit all
finite reason but the Infinite Reason? This universal agree-
ment concerning a sensible world,--assumed and accepted
by us as the foundation of all our other life, and as the
sphere of our duty--which, strictly considered, is just as in-
comprehensible as our unanimity concerning the products of
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? 3G4
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
our reciprocal freedom,--this agreement is the result of the
One Eternal Infinite WilL Our faith, of which we have
spoken as faith in duty, is only faith in Him, in His reason,
in His truth. What, then, is the peculiar and essential
truth which we accept in the world of sense, and in which
we believe? Nothing less than that from our free and faith-
ful performance of our duty in this world, there will arise to
us throughout eternity a life in which our freedom and mo-
rality may still continue their development. If this be true,
then indeed is there truth in our world, and the only truth
possible for finite beings; and it must be true, for this world
is the result of the Eternal Will in us,--and that Will, by
the law of His own being, can have no other purpose with
respect to finite beings, than that which we have set forth.
That Eternal Will is thus assuredly the Creator of the
World, in the only way in which He can be so, and in the
only way in which it needs creation:--in the finite reason.
Those who regard Him as building up a world from an
everlasting inert matter, which must still remain inert and
lifeless,--like a vessel made by human hands, not an eternal
procession of His self-development,--or who ascribe to Him
the production of a material universe out of nothing, know
neither the world nor Him. If matter only can be reality,
then were the world indeed nothing, and throughout all eter-
nity would remain nothing. Reason alone exists:--the In-
finite in Himself,--the finite in Him and through Him.
Only in our minds has He created a world; at least that
from which we unfold it, and that by which we unfold it;--
the voice of duty, and harmonious feelings, intuitions, and
laws of thought. It is His light through which we behold
the light, and all that it reveals to us. In our minds He
still creates this world, and acts upon it by acting upon our
minds through the call of duty, as soon as another free be-
ing changes aught therein. In our minds He upholds this
world, and thereby the finite existence of which alone we
are capable, by continually evolving from each state of our
existence other states in succession. When He shall have
sufficiently proved us according to His supreme designs, for
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
365
our next succeeding vocation, and we shall have sufficiently cultivated ourselves for entering upon it, then, by that I
which we call death, will He annihilate for us this life, and introduce us to a new life, the product of our virtuous ac-1tions. All our life is His life. We are in His hand, and abide therein, and no one can pluck us out of His hand. We are eternal, because He is eternal. ^
Sublime and Living Will! named by no name, compassed
by no thought! I may well raise my soul to Thee, for Thou and I are not divided. Thy voice sounds within me, mine
resounds in Thee; and all my thoughts, if they be but good
and true, live in Thee also. In Thee, the Incomprehensible,
I myself, and the world in which I live, become clearly com-
prehensible to me; all the secrets of my existence are laid
open, and perfect harmony arises in my soul.
Thou art best known to the child-like, devoted, simple
mind. . To it Thou art the searcher of hearts, who seest its
inmost depths; the ever-present true witness of its thoughts,
who knowest its truth, who knowest it though all the world
know it not. Thou art the Father who ever desirest its
good, who rulest all things for the best. To Thy will it un-
hesitatingly resigns itself: "Do with me," it says, "what
thou wilt; I know that it is good, for it is Thou who doest
it. " The inquisitive understanding, which has heard of
Thee, but seen Thee not, would teach us thy nature; and,
as Thy image, shows us a monstrous and incongruous
shape, which the sagacious laugh at, and the wise and good
abhor.
I hide my face before Thee, and lay my hand upon my
mouth. How Thou art, and seemest to Thine own being, I
can never know, any more than I can assume Thy nature.
After thousands upon thousands of spirit-lives, I shall com-
prehend Thee as little as I do now in this earthly house.
That which I conceive, becomes finite through my very con-
ception of it; and this can never, even by endless exalta-
tion, rise into the Infinite. Thou differest from men, not in
degree but in nature. In every stage of their advancement
they think of Thee as a greater man, and still a greater;
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? 3GG
THE VOCATION OF MAN.
but never as God--the Infinite,--whom no measure can
mete. I have only this discursive, progressive thought, and
I can conceive of no other:--how can I venture to ascribe
it to Thee? In the Idea of person there are imperfections,
limitations:--how can I clothe Thee with it without these?
I will not attempt that which the imperfection of my
finite nature forbids, and which would be useless to me:--
How Thou art, I may not know. But, let me be what I
ought to be, and Thy relations to me--the mortal--and to
all mortals, lie open before my eyes, and surround me more
clearly than the consciousness of my own existence. Thou
workest in me the knowledge of my duty, of my voca-
tion in the world of reasonable beings;--how, I know
not, nor need I to know. Thou knowest what I think and
what I will:--how Thou canst know, through what act
thou bringest about that consciousness, I cannot understand,
--nay, I know that the idea of an act, of a particular act of
consciousness, belongs to me alone, and not to Thee,--the
Infinite One. Thou wiliest that my free obedience shall
bring with it eternal consequences:--the act of Thy will I
cannot comprehend, I only know that it is not like mine.
Thou doest, and Thy will itself is the deed; but the way of
Thy working is not as my ways,--I cannot trace it. Thou
livest and art, for Thou knowest and wiliest and workest,
omnipresent to finite Reason; but Thou art not as / now
and always must conceive of being.
In the contemplation of these Thy relations to me, the
finite being, will I rest in calm blessedness. I know im-
mediately only what I ought to do. This will I do, freely,
joyfully, and without cavilling or sophistry, for it is Thy
voice which commands me to do it; it is the part assigned
to me in the spiritual World-plan; and the power with
which I shall perform it is Thy power. Whatever may be
commanded by that voice, whatever executed by that power,
is, in that plan, assuredly and truly good. I remain tran-
quil amid all the events of this world, for they are in Thy
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
367
world. Nothing can perplex or surprise or dishearten me,
as surely as Thou livest, and I can look upon Thy life. For
in Thee, and through Thee, O Infinite One! do I behold
even my present world in another light. Nature, and na-
tural consequences, in the destinies and conduct of free be-
ings, as opposed to Thee, become empty, unmeaning words.
Nature is no longer; Thou, only Thou, art. It no longer
appears to me to be the end and purpose of the present
world to produce that state of universal peace among men,
and of unlimited dominion over the mechanism of nature,
for its own sake alone,--but that this should be produced
by man himself,--and, since it is expected from all, that it
should be produced by all, as one great, free, moral, commu-
nity. Nothing new and better for an individual shall be
attainable, except through his own virtuous will; nothing
new and better for a community, except through the com-
mon will being in accordance with duty:--this is a funda-
mental law of the great moral empire, of which the present
life is a part. The good will of the individual is thus often
lost to this world, because it is but the will of the individu-
al, and the will of the majority is not in harmony with his,
--and then its results are to be found solely in a future
world; while even the passions and vices of men cooperate
in the attainment of good,--not in and for themselves, for
in this sense good can never come out of evil,--but by hold-
ing the balance against the opposite vices, and, at last, by
their excess, annihilating these antagonists, and themselves
with them. Oppression could never have gained the upper
hand in human affairs, unless the cowardice, baseness, and
mutual mistrust of men had smoothed the way to it. It will
continue to increase, until it extirpate cowardice and slav-
ishness; and despair itself at last reawaken courage. Then
shall the two opposite vices have annihilated each other,
and the noblest of all human relations, lasting freedom,
come forth from their antagonism.
The actions of free beings, strictly considered, have results
only in other free beings; for in them, and for them
alone, there is a world; and that in which they all agree, is
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? 368 THE VOCATION OF MAN.
I
itself the world. But they have these results only through
the Infinite Will,-- the meduim through which all indi-
vidual beings influence each other. But the announcement,
the publication of this Will to us, is always a call to a par-
ticular duty. Thus even what we call evil in the world, the
consequence of the abuse of freedom, exists only through
Him; and it exists for those who experience it only in so
far as, through it, duties are laid upon them. Were it not
in the eternal plan of our moral cuture, and the culture of
our whole race, that precisely these duties should be laid
upon us, they would not be so laid upon us; and that
through which they are laid upon us--i. e. what we call evil
--would not have been produced. In so far, everything
that is, is good, and absolutely legitimate. There is but
one world possible,--a thoroughly good world. All that
happens in this world is subservient to the improvment and
culture of man, and, by means of this, to the promotion of
the purpose of his earthly existence. It is this higher
World-plan which we call Nature, when we say,--Nature
leads men through want to industry; through the evils of
general disorder to a just constitution; through the miseries
of continual wars to endless peace on earth. Thy will, O Infinite One! thy Providence alone, is this higher Nature.
This, too, is best understood by artless simplicity, when it
regards this life as a place of trial and culture, as a school
for eternity; when, in all the events of life, the most trivial
as well as the most important, it beholds thy guiding Provi-
dence disposing all for the best; when it firmly believes
that all things must work together for the good of those
who love their duty, and who know Thee.
Oh! I have, indeed, dwelt in darkness during the past
days of my life! I have indeed heaped error upon error, and
imagined myself wise! Now, for the first time, do I wholly
understand the doctrine which from thy lips, 0 Wonderful
Spirit! seemed so strange to me, although my understand-
ing had nothing to oppose to it; for now, for the first time,
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
3GU
do I comprehend it in its whole compass, in its deepest
foundations, and through all its consequences.
Man is not a product of the world of sense, and the end
of his existence cannot be attained in it. His vocation transcends Time andJSpace, and everything that pertains t,n,
sensp What he is, and to what he is to train himself, that
he must know;--as his vocation is a lofty one, he must be
able to raise his thoughts above all the limitations of sense.
He must accomplish it:--where his being finds its home,
there his thoughts too seek their dwelling-place; and the
truly human mode of thought, that which alone is worthy
of him, that in which his whole spiritual strength is mani-
fested, is that whereby he raises himself above those limi-
tations, whereby all that pertains to sense vanishes into
nothing,--into a mere reflection, in mortal eyes, of the One,
Self-existent Infinite. ,
Many have raised themselves to this mode of thought,
without scientific inquiry, merely by their nobleness of heart
and their pure moral instinct, because their life has been
preeminently one of feeling and sentiment. They have de-
nied, by their conduct, the efficiency and reality of the
world of sense, and made it of no account in regulating their
resolutions and their actions;--whereby they have not in-
deed made it clear, by reasoning, that this world has no
existence for the intellect. Those who could dare to say,
"Our citizenship is in heaven; we have here no continuing
city, but we seek one to come;"--those whose chief prin-
ciple it was "to die to the world, to be born again, and
already here below to enter upon a new life,"--certainly
set no value whatever on the things of sense, and were, to
use the language of the schools, practical Transcendental
Idealists.
Others, who, besides possessing the natural proneness to
mere sensuous activity which is common to us all, have also
added to its power by the adoption of similar habits of
thought, until they have got wholly entangled in it, and it
has grown with their growth, and strengthened with their
strength, can raise themselves above it, permanently and
lib
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? 370
THE VOCATION OF MAX.
completely, only by persistent and conclusive thought;
otherwise, with the purest moral intentions, they would be
continually drawn down again by their understanding, and
their whole being would remain a prolonged and insoluble
contradiction. For these, the philosophy which I now, for the first time, thoroughly understand, will t,h<^first. p>>wpr
that shall set free the imprisoned Psyche. japd unfold hex.
>yingSLSO,thatJ hovering for a mminpnt. alxvyp W fnrmpr splf she may cast a glance on her abandoned slough, and then
soar upwards thenceforward to live and. riPV^g hiffopr
Spheres. .
Blessed be the hour in which I first resolved to inquire
into myself and my vocation! All my doubts are solved; I
know what I can know, and have no apprehensions regard-
ing that which I cannot know. I am satisfied; perfect har-
mony and clearness reign in my soul, and a new and more
glorious spiritual existence begins for me.
My entire complete vocation I cannot comprehend; what
I shall be hereafter transcends all my thoughts. A part of
that vocation is concealed from me; it is visible only to One,
to the Father of Spirits, to whose care it is committed. I
know only that it is sure, and that it is eternal and glorious
like Himself. But that part of it which is confided to my-
self, I know, and know it thoroughly, for it is the root of all
my other knowledge. I know assuredly, in every moment
of my life, what I ought to do; and this is my whole voca-
tion in so far as it depends on me. From this point, since
my knowledge does not reach beyond it, I shall not depart;
I shall not desire to know aught beyond this; I shall take
my stand upon this central point, and firmly root myself
here. To this shall all my thoughts and endeavours, my
whole powers, be directed; my whole existence shall be
interwoven with it.
I ought, as far as in me lies, to cultivate my understand-
ing and to acquire knowledge;--but only with the purpose
of preparing thereby within me a larger field and wider
sphere of duty. I ought to desire to have much;--in order
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? BOOK III. FAITH.
371
that much may be required of me. I ought to exercise my
powers and capacities in every possible way;--but only in
order to render myself a more serviceable and fitting instru-
ment of duty, for until the commandment shall have been
realized in the outward world, by means of my whole per-
sonality, I am answerable for it to my conscience. I ought
to exhibit in myself, as far as I am able, humanity in all its
completeness;--not "for the mere sake of humanity, which
in itself has not the slightest worth, but in order that vir-
tue, which alone has worth in itself, may be exhibited in its
highest perfection in human nature. I ought to regard my-
self, body and soul, with all that is in me or that belongs to
me, only as a means of duty; and only be solicitous to fulfil
that, and to make myself able to fulfil it, as far as in me
lies. But when the commandment,--provided only that it
shall have been in truth the commandment which I have
obeyed, and I have been really conscious only of the pure,
single intention of obeying it,--when the commandment
shall have passed beyond my personal being to its realiza-
tion in the outward world, then I have no more anxiety
about it, for thenceforward it is committed into the hands of
the Eternal WilL Farther care or anxiety would be but
idle self-torment; would be unbelief and distrust of that
Infinite Will. I shall never dream of governing the world
in His stead; of listening to the voice of my own imperfect
wisdom instead of to His voice in my conscience; or of sub-
stituting the partial views of a short-sighted creature for
His vast plan which embraces the universe. I know that
thereby I should lose my own place in His order, and in the
order of all spiritual being.
As with calmness and devotion I reverence this higher
Providence, so in my actions ought I to reverence the free-
dom of other beings around me. The question for me is
not what they, according to my conceptions, ought to do,
but what I may venture to do in order to induce them to do
it. I can only desire to act on their conviction and their
will as far as the order of society and their own consent
will permit; but by no means, without their conviction and
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