Comprehend this profoundly, and
therefore
fully and clear-
ly, thus:--(1.
ly, thus:--(1.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
502
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
but only mere earthly love and desire--and who believe
that, as a child who innocently extends its little hands
towards an offered dainty is a touching and therefore a
pleasing spectacle, so may the grown man, who behaves in
like manner, demand the moral approval of the earnest
censor; and that whatever is capable of affording the
beholder a pleasing aesthetical spectacle is, on that account,
in itself noble and good, these, I say, are lost in the
most singular confusion of ideas.
Thus much had I to say, with reference to Well-Being,
regarding the second standpoint from which the World may
be viewed by man; which, in this respect, is only negative,
--mere Apathy: and I desired to set forth this strictly and
clearly, in order, by means of this Apathy, as the middle
state, to distinguish the Vulgar from the Holy, and to set
up an insurmountable wall of separation between them.
Wherein this Apathy is limited, and how it thereby becomes
an impulse towards the development of a Higher Life in
the Divine Love;--of this we shall speak in our next
lecture.
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? 503
LECTURE VIII.
EXPOSITION OF FORM AS THE UNIVERSAL CONDITION
OF EXISTENCE;--FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE
OF THE EGO;--CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE;--
PASSAGE TO THE HIGHER MORALITY.
The entire purpose and import of these Lectures may be
thus briefly stated:--to give a description of the One, True,
and therefore Blessed Life. Every good description, how-
ever, ought to be genetic, and gradually unfold the matter
described before the eyes of the beholders. The true
Spiritual Life is peculiarly susceptible of such a genetic
description; for it developes itself, as we said before,--
figuratively, as it then seemed, but, as it now appears, with
very literal earnestness,--this Life developes itself gradually,
and step by step, having its several determinate stations.
As these stations of the Spiritual Life, we have recognized
five chief standpoints in man's possible view of the World;
and through these we have ascended throughout the scale of
Life, at first in a mere cold and uninterested survey;--but
in the previous lecture we have, in place of this merely
intellectual view, taken cognizance of its affections, its love,
and its self-enjoyment; and thereby we have, for the first
time, completed the form of Life. This Life, thus defined,
we have followed, in our last lecture, through the conditions
of Nullity, of mere Sensual Enjoyment, and of strict Legality
or harmony with an assumed Law.
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THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
How such a description of the Spiritual Life is now to
ascend to its higher forms, is, for obvious reasons, more
obscure and unintelligible to a majority of a degenerate
age, because it now enters upon regions which are foreign
to such an age,--not known to it, either by its own spiritual
experience, or even by hearsay. Thus it becomes the duty
of those who undertake to speak of such subjects, if they
must resign the hope of being positively understood by all
men, at least to guard carefully against themselves giving
occasion for any misconception; and, if they cannot bring
home the truth to all, yet to take care that no one, through
their fault, is led to receive anything false; and at least so
to equip and prepare those who possess the power of fully
comprehending their instructions, that these shall be able,
each in his own circle, to give an account of the truth, and
to correct the misapprehensions of others. This considera-
tion has determined me to devote a portion of this lecture
to a profound and exhaustive exposition of the matter which,
in our last lecture, we brought to its culminating point, and
have still to treat of in this.
Those among you who are already initiated into specula-
tive science shall, on this occasion, be introduced into the
organic central-point of all speculation, in such a manner
as, to my knowledge, has never and nowhere been attempted
before. The others, who either are unable, or do not desire,
to philosophize with us, may at least avail themselves of the
opportunity thus presented to them of personally listening
to a strictly philosophical demonstration, in order to acquire
a general conception of the matter, and to be convinced that,
when rightly treated, it is by no means so strange and arti-
ficial a thing as is commonly supposed, but proceeds in a
quite simple and natural manner, and requires in the stu-
dent nothing more than the power of sustained attention.
Nevertheless it will be necessary that even they who belong
to this latter class should apprehend what is now to be said,
historically at least, because before the conclusion of the
lecture we shall come to something which all will wish to
understand, but which can not be understood unless the
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? LECTURE VIII.
505
first part has been at least historically apprehended, and as-
sumed as a possible hypothesis.
We have seen and understood:-- that Being (Seyn) is--
absolutely;--that it has never arisen nor become, nor has
anything in it ever arisen or become. But further, this
Being is also outwardly present, ex-'mts,--as may be dis-
covered and perceived, but not genetically understood; and
after it has been thus discovered and perceived as ex-isting
there present, then it may also be understood that this Ex-
istence (Daseyn) has likewise not arisen nor become, but is
founded in the inward necessity of Being (Seyn) itself, and
is, through it, absolutely determined. By means of its thus
ex-isting, and in this Ex-istence, Being now becomes Con-
sciousness; and that a Consciousness separated and broken
up into a manifold variety of Forms:--and this may, in
like manner, be seen and understood as the necessary result
of Ex-istence.
In order that we may not have constantly to repeat the
same series of words, we shall now comprehend under the
term Form, everything that attaches to Being in conse-
quence of Ex-istence;--which word, Form, shall hencefor-
ward signify all that we have already seen to be the neces-
sary result of Ex-istence. (I may here mention, for the
benefit of those who do not enter with us into the strictly
philosophical view of our subject, that this is the case with
all philosophical terminology;--its expressions are only
abbreviations of speech, employed to recall to mind briefly
something which has been previously apprehended in im-
mediate contemplation; and to him who has not been a
partaker in this immediate contemplation, but to him alone,
they are empty, unmeaning, formulas. )
Thus we have these two elements:--Being, as it is essen-
tially and in itself;--and Form, which is assumed by the for-
mer in consequence of its Ex-istence. But how have we
expressed ourselves? What is it that assumes a Form?
Answer:--Being, as it is in itself, without any change
whatever of its inward Essential Nature. But what then is
there in Ex-istence? Answer:--Nothing else than the One,
Tb
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? 506
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Eternal and Unchangeable Being, besides which there can
be nothing. Again:--May this Eternal Being ex-ist other-
wise than in this precise Form? How were that possible,
since this Form is nothing else than Ex-istence itself; and
consequently the assertion, that Being could also ex-ist in
another Form, would be equivalent to saying, that Being
could ex-ist, and yet not ex-ist? Let us call Being A, and
Form,--I mean universal Form, apprehended in its unity,--
B;--then Actual Ex-istence is A x B and B x A,-- or A as
determined by B, and the reverse. Determined, I say,
emphatically, so that your thoughts may now proceed, not
from one of the extremes, but from the central-point; and
you may thus understand, that both these elements have
mutually entered together into Reality, and are reciprocally
interpenetrated by each other, so that in Reality, and
indeed without the annihilation of Reality, they can never
again be separated. This is the point upon which every-
thing depends; this is the organic central-point of all
Speculation; and he who thoroughly penetrates to this, has
reached the ultimate perfection of light.
To make this yet stronger;--God himself, that is, the
Essential Nature of the Absolute, which is separated from
his outward Ex-istence only by means of our limited com-
prehension, cannot throw off this absolute blending of
Essence with Form; for even his Ex-istence, which only to
the first merely phenomenal glance seems contingent and
phenomenal, is yet to true Thought, which is the only de-
cisive criterion, not contingent,--but, since it is and could
not be otherwise, it must be a necessary result of his inward
Essential Nature. By reason therefore of God's Essential
Nature itself, this Essential Nature is inseparably bound up
with Form, and has itself entered into Form; which to
those who are able to comprehend it, thoroughly solves the
highest difficulty of Speculation which has existed from the
beginning of the world down to the present day, and con-
firms our previous commentary on the words of John :--" In
the beginning,--absolutely independent of all possibility of
opposition, of all caprice, of all contingency, and therefore of
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? LECTURE VIII.
507
all Time,--founded on the inward necessity of the Divine
Nature itself,--was Form;--and Form was with God,--con-
tained in, established on, and its very Ex-istence proceed-
ing from, the inward determinate character of the Divine
Nature;--and Form was itself God; God manifested him-
self in it even as he is in himself. "
For example:--One portion of Form was the infinite-
ly progressive and continuous manifestation and charac-
terization of Being; which in itself eternally remains the
same, -- A. I ask you, that you may hereby test your
knowledge of the subject:--In this Infinite Manifestation
and characterization, what is the real and active principle
that is manifested and characterized? Is it Form? This, in
itself, is nothing. No: it is the Absolute Reality = A, that
manifests itself as it essentially is;--manifests itself, I say,
according to the laws which govern an Infinity. Nothing
does not manifest itself;--but the Essential Divine Nature
manifests itself.
Out of this Infinity, take, wherever you will, the substance
of any one particular moment. This substance, let it be
understood, is wholly determined; it is that which it is, and
nothing else. I ask :--Wherefore is it that which it is, and
by what has it been thus determined? You can give no an-
swer but this :--By two factors;--in the first place, because
the Absolute, in. its Essential Nature, is as it is; and, in the
second place, because this same Absolute flows forth in an
Infinite Manifestation. After deducting that element of
the substance of the moment which proceeds from the
Essential Nature of the Absolute, what remains in this
moment--i. e. that in it which is purely and simply Mani-
festation--is that which especially belongs to this moment
out of the infinite multiplicity of Form.
We have said that this infinite divisibility is the one por-
tion of Form; and we made use of this portion as an exam-
ple, in order thereby to make our fundamental principle
more distinct. For our present purpose, however, we require
the second portion of Form, to which we must also apply
the fundamental principle we have laid down, and which is
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? 508
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
now, we hope, understood;--to which end I must again lay
claim to your attention.
This second portion of Form is a division into five col-
lateral--but as dominant points reciprocally exclusive--
standpoints in the view of Reality. Collateral, but as domi-
nant points reciprocally exclusive:--it is of importance
that this should here be borne in mind. We have already
proved this above; and indeed it is immediately evident
at the first glance. Once more then:--What is it that
is divided in this new division? Obviously, the Absolute,
as it is in itself;--the same Absolute which, in the same
unity and completeness of Form, divides itself likewise
to Infinity. Of this there can be no donbt . But, how
are these points presented to us:--are they presented as
actual, like the entire Infinity that flows through Time?
No, for they reciprocally exclude each other, as dominant,
in one and the same moment of Time; and hence, in rela-
tion to the fulfilment of all moments of Time by any one of
them, they are all assumed as equally possible; and Being
appears, in relation to each of them individually, not as ne-
cessarily to be so understood, nor as actually so understood,
but only as possibly to be so understood. Specially:--Does
then the One Being, which is indeed irrevocably broken up
in an Infinite Time, itself assume this first mode, or this
second mode, and so on? Certainly not:--this Being is,
in and through itself, perfectly undetermined, and wholly
indifferent with regard to these modes of its acceptation.
In this relation, Reality proceeds only the length of Possi-
bility, not further. It thus assumes, by means of its Ex-ist ence, the existence of a Freedom and Independence in the
mode of its acceptation, or in the way in which it is reflect-
ed, wholly independent of itself in its inward Essential
Nature. And now to express the same thing more strictly:
--The Absolute Being, in this its Ex-istence, regards itself
as this Absolute Freedom and Independence in the mode of
its own acceptation, and as this Independence of its own
inward Being;--it does not create a Freedom external to
itself, but it is itself, in this portion of Form, its own Free-
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? LECTURE VIII.
509
dom external to itself;--and in this respect, the self in its
Ex-istence is separated from the self in its Being, and is
projected, as it were, out of itself, in order to return again
to itself as a living Ex-istence. Now the universal form of
Reflexion is Ego;--hence we have here a free and indepen-
dent Ego;--or, what is the same thing, an Ego, and that
which alone is an Ego, a free and independent Ego, belongs
to Absolute Form = B, and is the peculiar organic central-
point of the Absolute Form of Absolute Being;--since even
that division into an Infinite Manifold which we placed by
the side of this second portion of Form, is, according to our
own deduction, founded upon the independence of the Form
of Reflexion; and, according to the above remarks, is insep-
arable from the inward necessity of the Divine Nature, so
that it cannot be cast off even by God himself.
It is convenient, in passing, to note the following princi-
ples :--(1. ) Freedom does certainly and truly exist, and is
itself the very root of Ex-istence: but yet it is not imme-
diately real, for in it Reality proceeds only the length of Pos-
sibility. The paradox apparently contained in this latter
principle will be solved of itself as we proceed in our
inquiry. (2. ) Freedom, in Time, and as an independent,
self-determining fulfilment of Time, exists only in relation
to the five standpoints of Spiritual Life which we have set
forth, and only in so far as it arises out of these:--and it
does not exist beyond that five-fold division,--for beyond
that there is nothing but the inwardly determined Absolute
Being, in the likewise unchangeably determined Form of
Infinity, and Time immediately filled by Reality itself;--
nor does it exist on this side of that division, and thus place
the Ego in one of these points,--for, on the other hand, on
this side there is nothing but strict necessity, and sequence
from principle.
This in passing, on account of its importance in another
connexion, and also because it does not seem to be very well
understood. Not however in passing, but as belonging
essentially to our present subject, we add the following, to
which I must anew demand your attention:--(1. ) Since
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? 510
Tfl"E DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Independence and Freedom of the Ego belongs to
Being itself, and all conscious Being has its Affection
(Affekt), there must necessarily exist, in so far as there is an
immediate Consciousness of personal, individual, Freedom,
an Affection for such Independence, the Love of it, and
consequent Faith in it. In so far as there is such an im-
mediate Consciousness of personal, individual, Freedom, I
say: for (2. )--and this is the chief object of our whole
inquiry, and the true end of all that has gone before,--and
therefore I beg of you to note it well,--this Freedom and
Independence is nothing more than the mere possibility of
the Standpoint of Life; this possibility, however, is limited
to the five modes already pointed out, and hence, if any one
has completed the comprehension of Life according to this
scheme, he has at the same time completed the round of
possibility and elevated it into reality; he has exhausted
his estate of Freedom,--there is, in the root of his Ex-ist-
ence no more Freedom remaining; but with the Being of
Freedom there also necessarily disappears the Affection, the
Love, and the Faith in this Freedom,--doubtless to give
place to a far holier Love, and a far more bliss-giving Faith.
So long as the Ego has yet to labour, by its own original self-
activity, in moulding itself to the perfect Form of Reality,
there indeed remains in it the impulse towards such self-
activity, the unsatisfied impulse, as a salutary impelling
spur,--and the intimate self-consciousness of a Freedom,
which, in this position of the matter, is absolutely true and
without delusion;--but when this self-discipline has been
completed, then that consciousness, which would now cer-
tainly become deceptive, disappears; and henceforward
Reality flows forth before it in the sole remaining and inde-
structible Form of Infinity.
Thus,--and I now announce this result as what may be
understood by all, and not by the speculative portion of my
audience only,--thus the presence of an Affection, a Love,
and a Faith in personal, individual, Freedom on the one
hand, and the absence of such Affection on the other, are the
fundamental points of two entirely opposite modes of view-
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? LECTURE VIII.
511
ing and enjoying the World, into which I shall now com-
bine more strictly our previous five-fold division.
In the first place, with regard to the condition of the Pre-
sence of the Affection for personal, individual, Freedom:--
this again has two different forms,--(you will observe that
this is a subordinate division in the first section of the prin-
cipal division)--the first and lower of which I thus explain
to you. The Ego, as the subject of this Freedom, is, as you
know, Reflexion. This, as you also know, in its first func-
tion, forms, determines, and characterizes the World. With-
in these forms, and in the exercise of this formative func-
tion, the particular Ego here described by us is a proper and
independent Being; and this, its determinate Being, it on
that very account embraces with Love; and thus acquires
an impulse towards, and a need of, this determinate Being.
Again:--What kind of Being is this ? --Being in a deter-
minate Form of its Life. Whence the need of this Form?
From its self-love in this standpoint of its Freedom. If the
need were satisfied, what would be the result? Enjoyment.
Whence would this Enjoyment arise? From a certain
modification of its Life by means of the World which it has
itself formed,--that is, of the objective, divided, and mani-
fold World. Herein lies the foundation of the sensual desire
of man, and this is the true creator of the World of Sense.
Thus there arises the desire and need of a certain and de-
terminate Form of our Life--this is the important point,
the characteristic feature, to which I entreat your attention:
--the impulse towards Happiness in determinate, and by
means of determinate, objects. That the objective deter-
mination of this impulse towards Happiness is not without
foundation, but rests upon the Reality still remaining in
this Form of Independence, is understood:--as also this,
that since, in this Form of the progressive development of
the World, there is an uninterrupted course of change, the
Ego itself likewise unceasingly becomes changed; and, on
that account, that also in which it is compelled to place its
Happiness gradually changes; and in the course of this
change the first objects of desire are set aside, and others
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? 512
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
take their place. From this absolute uncertainty respecting
the particular object in which the source of Happiness is to
be found, we arrive, at last, at a conception, in this respect
completely empty and indefinite,--which yet retains this
fundamental characteristic, that Happiness does not arise
from any determinate object:--the conception of a Life in
which all our wants, whatever they may be, are to be satis-
fied upon the spot, an absence of all grief, all weariness, and
all toil,--the Islands of the Blessed and the Elysian Fields
of the Greeks, the Abraham's bosom of the Jews, the Heaven
of the Christians of the present day. At this stage the Free-
dom aud Independence are material. --The second mode of
the Presence of the Affection for personal, individual, Free-
dom and Independence is that in which the feeling and love
of this Freedom is only general, and therefore bare, empty,
and formal, without any definite object being thereby either
proposed or striven after. This gives the standpoint of Le-
gality described at the end of the last lecture, and which
we also called that of Stoicism. Here man regards himself
as free, for he assumes that he has the power to refuse
obedience to the Law; he consequently separates himself
from, and places himself, as a self-existent power, in opposi-
tion to the Law, or to whatever may appear to him as Law.
He cannot otherwise comprehend and regard himself than
as one who has it in his power to refuse obedience to the
Law, I said. Nevertheless, according to his necessary view
of things, he must obey the Law and not follow his own in-
clination; he therefore completely loses all title to Happi-
ness, and, if his avowed opinion be actually living within
him, he loses also the need of Happiness, and of a God who
is the author and giver of Happiness. But through this
first supposition of his ability to refuse obedience, there
arises to him, for the first time, a Law;--for his Freedom,
bereft of inclination, is now empty and without aim. He
must once more control it;--and constraint upon Freedom,
or Law, is one and the same thing. Hence it is only
through that Faith in Freedom, which still remains after he
has given up all desire, that he makes a Law possible for
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? LECTURE VIII.
513
himself, and gives to his view of true Reality the form of a
Law.
Comprehend this profoundly, and therefore fully and clear-
ly, thus:--(1. ) The Divine Nature does not enter, whole
and undivided, into these reciprocally exclusive points
of Freedom, but it enters them partially only:--beyond
these points, however, it reveals itself, unconcealed by any
veil whatever (every such veil having its foundation only in
these points), such as it is in itself,--in an infinitely pro-
gressive development and Manifestation--in this Form of
eternal, progressive Life which is inseparable from its pure,
internal Life. This eternal forth-flowing of the Divine Life
is the true, innermost and deepest root of Ex-istence,--the
absolutely indissoluble union of Essence with Form which
we have referred to above. This Being of Ex-istence, like
all other Being, obviously carries with it the Affection of
itself; it is the abiding, eternal, and unchangeable Will of
the Absolute Reality thus continuously to develope itself,
as it necessarily must develope itself. (2. ) So long as any
Ego whatever occupies any one of the points of Freedom,
he has still a personal, individual Being, which is a partial
and imperfect Ex-istence of the Divine Ex-istence, and
hence properly a negation of Being; and such an Ego has
also an affection for this Being, and a fixed and unchange-
able will to maintain this his Ex-istence. His actual will,
ever present with him, is hence by no means identical with
the abiding Affection and Will of the perfect Divine Ex-
istence. (3. ) Should an Ego, occupying this standpoint, be
nevertheless capable of willing in conformity with that
Eternal Will, yet could this never come to pass by means of
his mere present will, but this Ego must first make the
Eternal Will his own by means of a third intervening vol-
ition, usually called a determination of the Will. Exactly in
this case stands the votary of Law; and he becomes so just
because he stands in this case. Since he professes,--and
this is the peculiar root of his whole mode of thought, and
that whereby we must comprehend him,--since he professes
that he is also able to refuse obedience,--which (since we
ub
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? 514
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
have nothing to do here with mere physical power, the de-
pendence of which upon will we must assume), is obviously
equivalent to saying that he also has it in his power to will
such disobedience,--to which assertion, as the immediate
expression of his self-consciousness, we must doubtless accord
faith,--this profession is equivalent to saying that it is not
his predominant and ever-present will to obey;--for who can
act contrary to his own will, and who can think in opposi-
tion to his own ever-present and continually active will?
Not that he is disinclined to obedience;--for then another,
and indeed sensuous desire would necessarily bear sway in
him, which is contrary to the supposition, since he would
then not be even a moral being, but would require to be
maintained in order and discipline by means of outward
compulsion;--but only that he is not positively inclined to
it, and occupies a position of mere indifference. In conse-
quence of this indifference of his own actually present will,
does that other Will become to him a foreign behest, which
he at first regards as a Law to his own naturally inactive
will; and to the fulfilment of which he must first produce
in himself the will that is naturally awanting, by means of
a positive determination. And thus, the indifference to-
wards the Eternal Will, which still remains after actual
renunciation of the Sensuous Will, is the source of a Cate-
gorical Imperative within us; as the faith which we still
retain in our own, at least formal, Independence, is the
source of that indifference.
Just as this faith disappears by means of the highest
crowning act of Freedom, does the previously existing Ego
likewise disappear in the pure Divine Ex-istence; and we
can no longer say, strictly speaking, that the Affection, the
Love, and the Will of this Divine Ex-istence is ours, since
there are no longer two Ex-istences and two Wills; but
/ now one Ex-istence, and one and the same Will, is all in all.
So long as man cherishes the desire of being himself some-
's,/ 'thing, God comes not to him, for no man can become God.
But so soon as he renounces himself sincerely, wholly, and
, radically, then God alone remains, and is all in alL Man
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? LECTURE VIII.
515
can create no God for himself; but he can renounce himself
as the true negation,--and then he is wholly absorbed in
God.
This self-renunciation is the entrance into the Higher
Life which is wholly opposed to the lower life,--the latter
taking its distinctive character from the existence of a self;
and it is, according to our former mode of computation, the
attainment of the Third standpoint in the view of the
World;--that of the pure and Higher Morality.
The peculiar and essential nature of this Morality, and of
the Blessedness which dwells in the central-point of this
world, we shall describe in our next lecture. At present we
shall only point out the relation of this standpoint to the
lower and sensual world. I hope that I have already laid
my foundation so deep, that I shall not fail of success in my
subsidiary purpose of taking away all possible subterfuge or
evasion from the common practice of confounding together
Blessedness and Happiness. This mode of thought, which,
when it is superseded by a more earnest sentiment, would
much rather not have said what it is yet continually saying,
loves much a charitable twilight, and a certain indefinite-
ness of conception; and it is therefore the more desirable to
drag it forth into clear light, and to separate ourselves from
it with the strictest precision. Its supporters would indeed
willingly accommodate the matter,--we know it well,--they
do not wish to cast aside the spirit altogether,--we are not
so unjust as to accuse them of that,--but neither will they
give up aught of the flesh. We however neither will nor
can accommodate the matter; for these two things are
utterly irreconcileable, and he who would possess the one
must renounce the other.
The view of self, as a person existing for its own sake
and in a World of Sense, does indeed still remain for him
who has attained the third standpoint; for this is a neces-
sary and inevitable part of Form; but the Love and
Affection for it are here no longer felt. What is now to
him this person, and all sensuous activity? Obviously, only
means for the purpose of doing that which he himself
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THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
wishes and loves above all else,--namely, the Will of God
manifesting itself in him;--just as this personality is to the
Stoic only the means of obeying the Law: and both are
herein alike, and of equal value in our estimation. To the
sensuous man, on the contrary, his personal sensual Existence is his ultimate and especial object, and everything else
which he does or believes beyond it, is to him but the
means for the fulfilment of its purposes.
It is wholly impossible, and an absolute contradiction,
that any one should love in two different directions, or hold
two opposite purposes. The Love of God, which we have
described, entirely extirpates personal Self-love. For onlj
by the renunciation of the latter do we attain the former.
Again, where personal Self-love is, there the Love of God is
not; for the latter suffers no other Love beside it.
This, as we have formerly observed, is the fundamental
character of sensuous Self-love,--that it requires a Life
fashioned in a particular way, and seeks its Happiness in
some particular object; while, on the contrary, the Love of
God regards every form of Life, and all objects, but as
means; and knows that everything which is given is the
proper and necessary means; and therefore never desires
any object determined in this or that particular way, but
accepts all as they present themselves.
What then would the sensuous man who requires an
objective enjoyment do, were he indeed a man, and consist-
ent? I should think that, relying upon himself, he would
exert all his strength to gather around him the objects of
his enjoyment; enjoy what he had, and do without that
which was beyond his reach. But what happens to him, if
he be also a superstitious child 1 He says to himself that the
objects of his enjoyment are in the gift of a God who will
indeed grant them to him, but who for this service demands
something from him in exchange;--he alleges that there has
been a covenant made with him on the subject;--he ex-
hibits a collection of writings as the voucher of this pre-
tended covenant.
When he fully enters into this conception, how is it then
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? LECTURE VIII.
517
with him? Enjoyment still remains his especial object, and
his duty to his imagined God only the means for the at-
tainment of this object. This must be confessed,--there is
no escaping it. It will not do to say, as is frequently said:
--" I desire that the Will of God be done for its own sake;
--I wish Happiness--only by the way. " Setting aside for
a moment thy "by the way," thou yet admittest that thou
wishest Happiness because it is Happiness; and because
thou believest that, having it, it will be well with thee; and
because thou wouldst willingly have it well with thee. But
then thou certainly dost not desire that the Will of God be
done for its own sake alone; for then thou couldst not desire
Happiness, since the first desire supersedes and destroys
the second; and it is absolutely impossible that that which
is destroyed can exist beside, and be associated with, its de-
stroyer. Dost thou also wish, as thou sayest, that the Will
of God be done ? --then thou canst wish this only because
thou believest that thou canst not otherwise obtain that
which thou especially desirest,--namely Happiness;--and
because this wish is imposed upon thee by the desire by
which thou art more especially animated;--thou wishest
therefore the Will of God only "by the way," and because
thou art constrained to do so; but from the bottom of thy
heart, and with thy own good will, thou wishest only for
Happiness.
It is nothing to the purpose that this Happiness is re-
moved far from immediate sight, and even placed in another
world beyond the grave, where it is thought that it may be
possible to confound the two ideas with less trouble. What-
ever you may say with regard to this your Heaven,--or
rather whatever you may not say, in order that your true
meaning may not come to light,--yet the single circum-
stance that you make it dependent upon Time, and place it
in another world, proves already incontrovertibly that it is
a Heaven of sensuous enjoyment . Here Heaven is not, you
say;--but yonder it shall be. I pray you,--What then is
that which can be different yonder from what it is here?
Obviously, only the objective constitution of the world, as
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? 518
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
the environment of our existence. It must therefore, ac-
cording to your opinion, be the objective constitution of the
present world which makes it unfit for a Heaven, and the
objective constitution of the future world which makes it fit
for that purpose;--and thus you cannot any longer conceal
that your Blessedness depends upon outward cire\imstances
and therefore is a sensuous enjoyment. Did you seek your
Blessedness there where alone it is to be found, solely in God
and in the truth of his Manifestation, but by no means in
the mere casual Form in which he is manifested,--then
would you not need to refer yourselves to another Life, for
God is even now to-day, as he shall be in all Eternity. I
assure you,--and remember my words when it shall come
to pass,--just as, in the second Life to which you shall then
have attained, you will again make your Happiness depen-
dent on outward circumstances, you shall fare just as ill
there as you do here; and you will then console yourselves
with a third Life, and in the third with a fourth, and so on
for ever;--for God neither can nor will confer Blessedness
by means of outward circumstances, since he desires, on the
contrary, to give us Himself, independent of all of Form.
In a word:--this mode of thought, thrown into the form
of a prayer, would thus express itself:--" Lord! let but my
will be done, and that throughout an Eternity which on
that account shall be blessed; and in return thou shalt
have Thy Will in this short and wearisome present Time. "
--And this is manifest immorality, senseless superstition, ir-
religion, and actual blasphemy of the holy and bliss-giving
Will of God.
On the contrary, the expression of the constant mind of
the truly Moral and Religious Man is this prayer:--" Lord!
let but Thy Will be done, then is mine also done; for I
have no other will than this,--that Thy Will be done. "
This Divine Will is necessarily done now and for ever;--in
the first place, in the Inward Life of this man thus devoted
to it,--of which in our next lecture;--and then--what im-
mediately belongs to our present subject--in everything
that meets him in his Outward Life. All these events are
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? LECTURE VIII.
519
nothing else than the necessary and unalterable Outward
Manifestation of the Divine Work fulfilling itself in him 5
and he cannot wish that anything in these events should be
otherwise than what it is, without wishing that the Inward
Life, which can only thus manifest itself, should be other-
wise,--and without thereby separating his will from the
Will of God, and setting it in opposition thereto. He can-
not any longer reserve to himself a choice in these things,
for he must accept everything just as it happens; for every-
thing that comes to pass is the Will of God with him, and
therefore the best that can possibly come to pass. * To
those who love God, all things must work together for good,
absolutely and immediately.
To those also, in whom the Will of God is not inwardly
accomplished, -- because there is indeed no Inward Life
in them, but who are altogether mere outward things,--to them also the Will of God is done outwardly, as alone it
can reach them;--appearing at first sight ungracious and
chastening, but in reality in the highest degree merciful and
loving;--while with them it grows worse and worse, and
they weary themselves out, and even render themselves
despicable and ridiculous, in the vain chase after a good
which ever floats before their vision and ever eludes their
grasp,--until they are thereby at last driven to seek for
Happiness there where alone it is to be found. To those
who do not love God, all things must work together imme-
diately for pain and torment, until, by means of this tor-
ment, they are at last led to Salvation.
* For an account of a remarkable incident connected with this passage,
sec " Memoir" p. 128.
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? 520
LECTURE IX.
EXPOSITION OF THE HIGHER MORALITY--PASSAGE
TO THE STANDPOINT OF TRUE RELIGION--
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MORAL-
RELIGIOUS WILL.
The following were the results of our last lecture, and indi-
cate the point at which we now stand:--So long as man
still desires to be something on his own account,the True
Being and Life cannot develope itself within him, and hence
he likewise remains inaccessible to Blessedness; for all per-
sonal, individual Being is but Non-Being, and limitation of
the True Being; and, on that very account, is either obvious
Unblessedness,--as in the case of the first standpoint, that of
mere Sensuousness, which looks to outward objects only for
its enjoyment, whilst no outward object can possibly satis-
fy man;--or else, if not actual Unblessedness, yet just as little
Blessedness, but only mere Apathy, passive indifference, and
absolute incapacity for all enjoyment of Life,--as in the
case of the second standpoint, that of mere formal Legality.
On the contrary, as soon as man, by an act of the Highest
Freedom, surrenders and lays aside his personal, individual
Freedom and Independence, he becomes a partaker of the
Only True Being, the Divine, and of all the Blessedness
that is contained therein. We showed, in the first place,--
in order to separate ourselves distinctly from the opposite
sensuous mode of thought, and to lay this aside once and for
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? THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
521
ever,--how such an one, who has attained the True Life,
looks upon the outward and sensuous Life; and we found
that he regards his whole personal Ex-istence, and all out-
ward occurrences that affect it, but as means for the fulfil-
ment of the Divine Work in him; and indeed all of them
as they occur as necessarily the best and most legitimate
means; and hence he desires to possess no voice or choice
whatever with regard to the objective disposition of these
occurrences, but accepts them all as they present them-
selves. On the other hand, we reserved for our present
lecture, the description of the inward and peculiar Life of
such a man :--which description we now begin.
I have already shown, on a former occasion, that the
Third standpoint of the Spiritual Life,--which undoubtedly
is that at which we have now arrived, that, namely, of the
Higher Morality,--is distinguished from the second, that
of mere formal Legality, by the creation of a wholly new
and truly Super-sensual World, and by the development of
this world within the world of sense as its sphere; while,
on the contrary, the Law of Stoicism is only the Law of an
order in the world of sense. It is this assertion that I have,
in the next place, to establish on a deeper foundation, and
thus more clearly explain and more strictly define it.
On this standpoint, the whole sensible world, the existence
of which is assumed only because of our love and affection for
a determinate Ex-istence in outward objects, becomes only a
means; but unquestionably not a means for nothing,--upon
which supposition it would not be a means, since besides
itself there would then be nothing, and it would con-
sequently remain for ever an end, as the sole and absolute
Ex-istence,--but it becomes undoubtedly a means for an
Actual, True, and Real Being. What is this Being? We
know it from what has been said above. It is the inward
Essential Being of God himself, as it is absolutely, in itself
and through itself, immediately, purely, and without inter-
vening medium, without being modified, veiled, or obscured
by any Form contained in the personality of the Ego, and
which is, on that account, obstructive and limiting;--but
Xb
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? 522
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
broken only by the indestructible Form of Infinity. Since
this Being is determined only, on the one hand, by the Es-
sential Divine Nature which is founded absolutely on itself
alone, and, on the other, by the Form of Infinity, which, in
Actual Ex-istence, can never be dissolved or brought to a
conclusion,--as we have very distinctly set forth in our last
lecture,--it is clear that we cannot by any means compre-
hend mediately, through any other conception, and thus a
priori, how this Being will disclose itself; but that it can
only be immediately perceived and experienced, and only ap-
prehended in the act of its living forth-flowing from Being
into Ex-istence; so that the specific knowledge of this
new and Super-sensual World cannot be communicated, by
means of description and characterization, to those who do
not themselves live therein. He who is inspired of God re-
veals to us how it is;--and it is as he reveals it, just for
this reason--because He so reveals it; but without such in-
ward revelation no man can speak of it.
In general, however, and by means of an outward and
merely negative mark, this Divine World may be charac-
terized; and that in the following way :--All Being carries
with it the Love and Affection of itself, and so also the im-
mediate Divine Being which is manifested in the Form of
Infinity. Now this Being is, such as it is, not through any-
thing else, or for the sake of anything else, but through it-
self, and for its own sake alone; and when it appears and is
beloved, then it must necessarily be beloved and enjoyed
through itself alone, purely and solely on its own account;
--but by no means on account of something else, and thus
only as a means for this other thing, which would then be-
come the ultimate end of its being. And thus we have
found the desiderated outward criterion of the Divine World,
whereby it is completely separated from the World of Sense.
Whatever is a source of enjoyment in itself, and indeed of
the highest degree of enjoyment, infinitely transcending all
other degrees, is a Manifestation of the immediate and es-
sential Divine Nature in Reality. We may even describe
it as the most perfect phenomenon of each particular mo-
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? LECTUHE IX.
523
ment, and under the given conditions of Time;--provided we
do not understand thereby such a perfection as is given by
means of a mere logical conception, which contains nothing
more than the order and completeness of the Manifold,--but,
on the contrary, a perfection given through an immediate
affection towards a determinate Being.
Thus much as to the possible characterization of the New
World created by the Higher Morality within the World of
Sense. Should you desire of me yet greater clearness on
this point, you will doubtless not expect that I should at-
tempt a clearer characterization, for I think that in this
way nothing can be added to what we have already said,--
but you will require from me examples. Willingly indeed
shall I satisfy this desire, finding myself in these regions so
concealed from the vulgar eye; reminding you, nevertheless,
that I can here adduce only individual examples, which
cannot of themselves exhaust that which can be exhaust-
ed only in characterization, and which we have already so
exhausted;--examples which themselves can only be fully
comprehended by means of such characterization.
I say:--The inward and absolute Nature of God mani-
fests itself in Beauty; it manifests itself in the perfect
Dominion of Man over Nature; it manifests itself in the
perfect State and Polity of Nations; it manifests itself
in Science;--in short, it manifests itself in those conceptions
which, in the strict and peculiar sense, I term Ideas, and to
which I have directed attention in many ways, both in the
lectures which I delivered here last winter,* and in others
which have some time ago appeared in print, f In order
to explain my fundamental conception by means of the low-
est form of the Idea, concerning which we may venture to
hope that we shall be able at once to attain the requisite
clearness--namely Beauty:--There is much talk of the
splendours of the surrounding world, of the beauties of na-
ture, &c. ; as if,--were it intended that we should accept
*" Characteristics of the Present Age. "
t" On the Nature of the Scholar and its Manifestations. "
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? 524
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
these words in their literal acceptation,--as if Beauty
could ever appertain to the Earthly and Perishable, or could
be transferred to these. But the source of Beauty is in God
alone, and it reveals itself only in the minds of those who
are inspired by Him. Imagine, for example, a Holy Virgin,
who, being ascended into Heaven, encircled by the heavenly
hosts who fall down before her presence in rapt contempla-
tion, surrounded by all the splendours of a Heaven of which
she herself is the highest ornament and glory, can yet alone
of those present see nothing of all that takes place around
her, being wholly overwhelmed and lost in this one feeling:
--" Behold the handmaiden of the Lord: be it unto me ac-
cording to his will;"--clothe this feeling, thus surrounded,
in a human body, and then unquestionably you have Beauty
in a determinate Form. Now what is it that makes this
Form beautiful? Is it the separate parts and members of
which it is composed? Is it not much rather the single
feeling which speaks in all these members? The Form is
superadded, only because in it, and by means of it, the
Thought becomes visible; and it is transferred by means of
lines and colours to the canvass, because thus only can it be
communicated to others. Perhaps this Thought might also
have been expressed in hard and senseless stone, or in any
other material. Would then the stone thereby become
beautiful? The stone ever remains stone, and is wholly
unsusceptible of such a predicate; but the soul of the Artist
was beautiful when he conceived his work, and the soul of
every intelligent beholder in whom the conception is repeat-
ed will likewise become beautiful;--the stone ever remains
only that which fixes the limits of the outward perception
during this inward spiritual development.
This ideal Being and the creative Affection of it, as a
mere natural phenomenon, manifests itself generally as
Genius--for Art, for Government, for Science, &c. It is
understood, of course, and to every one who has any experi-
ence whatever in matters of this kind it is by means of this
very experience sufficiently known, that--since the natural
affection for such creations of Genius is the very foundation
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THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
but only mere earthly love and desire--and who believe
that, as a child who innocently extends its little hands
towards an offered dainty is a touching and therefore a
pleasing spectacle, so may the grown man, who behaves in
like manner, demand the moral approval of the earnest
censor; and that whatever is capable of affording the
beholder a pleasing aesthetical spectacle is, on that account,
in itself noble and good, these, I say, are lost in the
most singular confusion of ideas.
Thus much had I to say, with reference to Well-Being,
regarding the second standpoint from which the World may
be viewed by man; which, in this respect, is only negative,
--mere Apathy: and I desired to set forth this strictly and
clearly, in order, by means of this Apathy, as the middle
state, to distinguish the Vulgar from the Holy, and to set
up an insurmountable wall of separation between them.
Wherein this Apathy is limited, and how it thereby becomes
an impulse towards the development of a Higher Life in
the Divine Love;--of this we shall speak in our next
lecture.
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? 503
LECTURE VIII.
EXPOSITION OF FORM AS THE UNIVERSAL CONDITION
OF EXISTENCE;--FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE
OF THE EGO;--CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE;--
PASSAGE TO THE HIGHER MORALITY.
The entire purpose and import of these Lectures may be
thus briefly stated:--to give a description of the One, True,
and therefore Blessed Life. Every good description, how-
ever, ought to be genetic, and gradually unfold the matter
described before the eyes of the beholders. The true
Spiritual Life is peculiarly susceptible of such a genetic
description; for it developes itself, as we said before,--
figuratively, as it then seemed, but, as it now appears, with
very literal earnestness,--this Life developes itself gradually,
and step by step, having its several determinate stations.
As these stations of the Spiritual Life, we have recognized
five chief standpoints in man's possible view of the World;
and through these we have ascended throughout the scale of
Life, at first in a mere cold and uninterested survey;--but
in the previous lecture we have, in place of this merely
intellectual view, taken cognizance of its affections, its love,
and its self-enjoyment; and thereby we have, for the first
time, completed the form of Life. This Life, thus defined,
we have followed, in our last lecture, through the conditions
of Nullity, of mere Sensual Enjoyment, and of strict Legality
or harmony with an assumed Law.
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? 504
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
How such a description of the Spiritual Life is now to
ascend to its higher forms, is, for obvious reasons, more
obscure and unintelligible to a majority of a degenerate
age, because it now enters upon regions which are foreign
to such an age,--not known to it, either by its own spiritual
experience, or even by hearsay. Thus it becomes the duty
of those who undertake to speak of such subjects, if they
must resign the hope of being positively understood by all
men, at least to guard carefully against themselves giving
occasion for any misconception; and, if they cannot bring
home the truth to all, yet to take care that no one, through
their fault, is led to receive anything false; and at least so
to equip and prepare those who possess the power of fully
comprehending their instructions, that these shall be able,
each in his own circle, to give an account of the truth, and
to correct the misapprehensions of others. This considera-
tion has determined me to devote a portion of this lecture
to a profound and exhaustive exposition of the matter which,
in our last lecture, we brought to its culminating point, and
have still to treat of in this.
Those among you who are already initiated into specula-
tive science shall, on this occasion, be introduced into the
organic central-point of all speculation, in such a manner
as, to my knowledge, has never and nowhere been attempted
before. The others, who either are unable, or do not desire,
to philosophize with us, may at least avail themselves of the
opportunity thus presented to them of personally listening
to a strictly philosophical demonstration, in order to acquire
a general conception of the matter, and to be convinced that,
when rightly treated, it is by no means so strange and arti-
ficial a thing as is commonly supposed, but proceeds in a
quite simple and natural manner, and requires in the stu-
dent nothing more than the power of sustained attention.
Nevertheless it will be necessary that even they who belong
to this latter class should apprehend what is now to be said,
historically at least, because before the conclusion of the
lecture we shall come to something which all will wish to
understand, but which can not be understood unless the
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? LECTURE VIII.
505
first part has been at least historically apprehended, and as-
sumed as a possible hypothesis.
We have seen and understood:-- that Being (Seyn) is--
absolutely;--that it has never arisen nor become, nor has
anything in it ever arisen or become. But further, this
Being is also outwardly present, ex-'mts,--as may be dis-
covered and perceived, but not genetically understood; and
after it has been thus discovered and perceived as ex-isting
there present, then it may also be understood that this Ex-
istence (Daseyn) has likewise not arisen nor become, but is
founded in the inward necessity of Being (Seyn) itself, and
is, through it, absolutely determined. By means of its thus
ex-isting, and in this Ex-istence, Being now becomes Con-
sciousness; and that a Consciousness separated and broken
up into a manifold variety of Forms:--and this may, in
like manner, be seen and understood as the necessary result
of Ex-istence.
In order that we may not have constantly to repeat the
same series of words, we shall now comprehend under the
term Form, everything that attaches to Being in conse-
quence of Ex-istence;--which word, Form, shall hencefor-
ward signify all that we have already seen to be the neces-
sary result of Ex-istence. (I may here mention, for the
benefit of those who do not enter with us into the strictly
philosophical view of our subject, that this is the case with
all philosophical terminology;--its expressions are only
abbreviations of speech, employed to recall to mind briefly
something which has been previously apprehended in im-
mediate contemplation; and to him who has not been a
partaker in this immediate contemplation, but to him alone,
they are empty, unmeaning, formulas. )
Thus we have these two elements:--Being, as it is essen-
tially and in itself;--and Form, which is assumed by the for-
mer in consequence of its Ex-istence. But how have we
expressed ourselves? What is it that assumes a Form?
Answer:--Being, as it is in itself, without any change
whatever of its inward Essential Nature. But what then is
there in Ex-istence? Answer:--Nothing else than the One,
Tb
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? 506
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Eternal and Unchangeable Being, besides which there can
be nothing. Again:--May this Eternal Being ex-ist other-
wise than in this precise Form? How were that possible,
since this Form is nothing else than Ex-istence itself; and
consequently the assertion, that Being could also ex-ist in
another Form, would be equivalent to saying, that Being
could ex-ist, and yet not ex-ist? Let us call Being A, and
Form,--I mean universal Form, apprehended in its unity,--
B;--then Actual Ex-istence is A x B and B x A,-- or A as
determined by B, and the reverse. Determined, I say,
emphatically, so that your thoughts may now proceed, not
from one of the extremes, but from the central-point; and
you may thus understand, that both these elements have
mutually entered together into Reality, and are reciprocally
interpenetrated by each other, so that in Reality, and
indeed without the annihilation of Reality, they can never
again be separated. This is the point upon which every-
thing depends; this is the organic central-point of all
Speculation; and he who thoroughly penetrates to this, has
reached the ultimate perfection of light.
To make this yet stronger;--God himself, that is, the
Essential Nature of the Absolute, which is separated from
his outward Ex-istence only by means of our limited com-
prehension, cannot throw off this absolute blending of
Essence with Form; for even his Ex-istence, which only to
the first merely phenomenal glance seems contingent and
phenomenal, is yet to true Thought, which is the only de-
cisive criterion, not contingent,--but, since it is and could
not be otherwise, it must be a necessary result of his inward
Essential Nature. By reason therefore of God's Essential
Nature itself, this Essential Nature is inseparably bound up
with Form, and has itself entered into Form; which to
those who are able to comprehend it, thoroughly solves the
highest difficulty of Speculation which has existed from the
beginning of the world down to the present day, and con-
firms our previous commentary on the words of John :--" In
the beginning,--absolutely independent of all possibility of
opposition, of all caprice, of all contingency, and therefore of
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? LECTURE VIII.
507
all Time,--founded on the inward necessity of the Divine
Nature itself,--was Form;--and Form was with God,--con-
tained in, established on, and its very Ex-istence proceed-
ing from, the inward determinate character of the Divine
Nature;--and Form was itself God; God manifested him-
self in it even as he is in himself. "
For example:--One portion of Form was the infinite-
ly progressive and continuous manifestation and charac-
terization of Being; which in itself eternally remains the
same, -- A. I ask you, that you may hereby test your
knowledge of the subject:--In this Infinite Manifestation
and characterization, what is the real and active principle
that is manifested and characterized? Is it Form? This, in
itself, is nothing. No: it is the Absolute Reality = A, that
manifests itself as it essentially is;--manifests itself, I say,
according to the laws which govern an Infinity. Nothing
does not manifest itself;--but the Essential Divine Nature
manifests itself.
Out of this Infinity, take, wherever you will, the substance
of any one particular moment. This substance, let it be
understood, is wholly determined; it is that which it is, and
nothing else. I ask :--Wherefore is it that which it is, and
by what has it been thus determined? You can give no an-
swer but this :--By two factors;--in the first place, because
the Absolute, in. its Essential Nature, is as it is; and, in the
second place, because this same Absolute flows forth in an
Infinite Manifestation. After deducting that element of
the substance of the moment which proceeds from the
Essential Nature of the Absolute, what remains in this
moment--i. e. that in it which is purely and simply Mani-
festation--is that which especially belongs to this moment
out of the infinite multiplicity of Form.
We have said that this infinite divisibility is the one por-
tion of Form; and we made use of this portion as an exam-
ple, in order thereby to make our fundamental principle
more distinct. For our present purpose, however, we require
the second portion of Form, to which we must also apply
the fundamental principle we have laid down, and which is
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? 508
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
now, we hope, understood;--to which end I must again lay
claim to your attention.
This second portion of Form is a division into five col-
lateral--but as dominant points reciprocally exclusive--
standpoints in the view of Reality. Collateral, but as domi-
nant points reciprocally exclusive:--it is of importance
that this should here be borne in mind. We have already
proved this above; and indeed it is immediately evident
at the first glance. Once more then:--What is it that
is divided in this new division? Obviously, the Absolute,
as it is in itself;--the same Absolute which, in the same
unity and completeness of Form, divides itself likewise
to Infinity. Of this there can be no donbt . But, how
are these points presented to us:--are they presented as
actual, like the entire Infinity that flows through Time?
No, for they reciprocally exclude each other, as dominant,
in one and the same moment of Time; and hence, in rela-
tion to the fulfilment of all moments of Time by any one of
them, they are all assumed as equally possible; and Being
appears, in relation to each of them individually, not as ne-
cessarily to be so understood, nor as actually so understood,
but only as possibly to be so understood. Specially:--Does
then the One Being, which is indeed irrevocably broken up
in an Infinite Time, itself assume this first mode, or this
second mode, and so on? Certainly not:--this Being is,
in and through itself, perfectly undetermined, and wholly
indifferent with regard to these modes of its acceptation.
In this relation, Reality proceeds only the length of Possi-
bility, not further. It thus assumes, by means of its Ex-ist ence, the existence of a Freedom and Independence in the
mode of its acceptation, or in the way in which it is reflect-
ed, wholly independent of itself in its inward Essential
Nature. And now to express the same thing more strictly:
--The Absolute Being, in this its Ex-istence, regards itself
as this Absolute Freedom and Independence in the mode of
its own acceptation, and as this Independence of its own
inward Being;--it does not create a Freedom external to
itself, but it is itself, in this portion of Form, its own Free-
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? LECTURE VIII.
509
dom external to itself;--and in this respect, the self in its
Ex-istence is separated from the self in its Being, and is
projected, as it were, out of itself, in order to return again
to itself as a living Ex-istence. Now the universal form of
Reflexion is Ego;--hence we have here a free and indepen-
dent Ego;--or, what is the same thing, an Ego, and that
which alone is an Ego, a free and independent Ego, belongs
to Absolute Form = B, and is the peculiar organic central-
point of the Absolute Form of Absolute Being;--since even
that division into an Infinite Manifold which we placed by
the side of this second portion of Form, is, according to our
own deduction, founded upon the independence of the Form
of Reflexion; and, according to the above remarks, is insep-
arable from the inward necessity of the Divine Nature, so
that it cannot be cast off even by God himself.
It is convenient, in passing, to note the following princi-
ples :--(1. ) Freedom does certainly and truly exist, and is
itself the very root of Ex-istence: but yet it is not imme-
diately real, for in it Reality proceeds only the length of Pos-
sibility. The paradox apparently contained in this latter
principle will be solved of itself as we proceed in our
inquiry. (2. ) Freedom, in Time, and as an independent,
self-determining fulfilment of Time, exists only in relation
to the five standpoints of Spiritual Life which we have set
forth, and only in so far as it arises out of these:--and it
does not exist beyond that five-fold division,--for beyond
that there is nothing but the inwardly determined Absolute
Being, in the likewise unchangeably determined Form of
Infinity, and Time immediately filled by Reality itself;--
nor does it exist on this side of that division, and thus place
the Ego in one of these points,--for, on the other hand, on
this side there is nothing but strict necessity, and sequence
from principle.
This in passing, on account of its importance in another
connexion, and also because it does not seem to be very well
understood. Not however in passing, but as belonging
essentially to our present subject, we add the following, to
which I must anew demand your attention:--(1. ) Since
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? 510
Tfl"E DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
this Independence and Freedom of the Ego belongs to
Being itself, and all conscious Being has its Affection
(Affekt), there must necessarily exist, in so far as there is an
immediate Consciousness of personal, individual, Freedom,
an Affection for such Independence, the Love of it, and
consequent Faith in it. In so far as there is such an im-
mediate Consciousness of personal, individual, Freedom, I
say: for (2. )--and this is the chief object of our whole
inquiry, and the true end of all that has gone before,--and
therefore I beg of you to note it well,--this Freedom and
Independence is nothing more than the mere possibility of
the Standpoint of Life; this possibility, however, is limited
to the five modes already pointed out, and hence, if any one
has completed the comprehension of Life according to this
scheme, he has at the same time completed the round of
possibility and elevated it into reality; he has exhausted
his estate of Freedom,--there is, in the root of his Ex-ist-
ence no more Freedom remaining; but with the Being of
Freedom there also necessarily disappears the Affection, the
Love, and the Faith in this Freedom,--doubtless to give
place to a far holier Love, and a far more bliss-giving Faith.
So long as the Ego has yet to labour, by its own original self-
activity, in moulding itself to the perfect Form of Reality,
there indeed remains in it the impulse towards such self-
activity, the unsatisfied impulse, as a salutary impelling
spur,--and the intimate self-consciousness of a Freedom,
which, in this position of the matter, is absolutely true and
without delusion;--but when this self-discipline has been
completed, then that consciousness, which would now cer-
tainly become deceptive, disappears; and henceforward
Reality flows forth before it in the sole remaining and inde-
structible Form of Infinity.
Thus,--and I now announce this result as what may be
understood by all, and not by the speculative portion of my
audience only,--thus the presence of an Affection, a Love,
and a Faith in personal, individual, Freedom on the one
hand, and the absence of such Affection on the other, are the
fundamental points of two entirely opposite modes of view-
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? LECTURE VIII.
511
ing and enjoying the World, into which I shall now com-
bine more strictly our previous five-fold division.
In the first place, with regard to the condition of the Pre-
sence of the Affection for personal, individual, Freedom:--
this again has two different forms,--(you will observe that
this is a subordinate division in the first section of the prin-
cipal division)--the first and lower of which I thus explain
to you. The Ego, as the subject of this Freedom, is, as you
know, Reflexion. This, as you also know, in its first func-
tion, forms, determines, and characterizes the World. With-
in these forms, and in the exercise of this formative func-
tion, the particular Ego here described by us is a proper and
independent Being; and this, its determinate Being, it on
that very account embraces with Love; and thus acquires
an impulse towards, and a need of, this determinate Being.
Again:--What kind of Being is this ? --Being in a deter-
minate Form of its Life. Whence the need of this Form?
From its self-love in this standpoint of its Freedom. If the
need were satisfied, what would be the result? Enjoyment.
Whence would this Enjoyment arise? From a certain
modification of its Life by means of the World which it has
itself formed,--that is, of the objective, divided, and mani-
fold World. Herein lies the foundation of the sensual desire
of man, and this is the true creator of the World of Sense.
Thus there arises the desire and need of a certain and de-
terminate Form of our Life--this is the important point,
the characteristic feature, to which I entreat your attention:
--the impulse towards Happiness in determinate, and by
means of determinate, objects. That the objective deter-
mination of this impulse towards Happiness is not without
foundation, but rests upon the Reality still remaining in
this Form of Independence, is understood:--as also this,
that since, in this Form of the progressive development of
the World, there is an uninterrupted course of change, the
Ego itself likewise unceasingly becomes changed; and, on
that account, that also in which it is compelled to place its
Happiness gradually changes; and in the course of this
change the first objects of desire are set aside, and others
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? 512
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
take their place. From this absolute uncertainty respecting
the particular object in which the source of Happiness is to
be found, we arrive, at last, at a conception, in this respect
completely empty and indefinite,--which yet retains this
fundamental characteristic, that Happiness does not arise
from any determinate object:--the conception of a Life in
which all our wants, whatever they may be, are to be satis-
fied upon the spot, an absence of all grief, all weariness, and
all toil,--the Islands of the Blessed and the Elysian Fields
of the Greeks, the Abraham's bosom of the Jews, the Heaven
of the Christians of the present day. At this stage the Free-
dom aud Independence are material. --The second mode of
the Presence of the Affection for personal, individual, Free-
dom and Independence is that in which the feeling and love
of this Freedom is only general, and therefore bare, empty,
and formal, without any definite object being thereby either
proposed or striven after. This gives the standpoint of Le-
gality described at the end of the last lecture, and which
we also called that of Stoicism. Here man regards himself
as free, for he assumes that he has the power to refuse
obedience to the Law; he consequently separates himself
from, and places himself, as a self-existent power, in opposi-
tion to the Law, or to whatever may appear to him as Law.
He cannot otherwise comprehend and regard himself than
as one who has it in his power to refuse obedience to the
Law, I said. Nevertheless, according to his necessary view
of things, he must obey the Law and not follow his own in-
clination; he therefore completely loses all title to Happi-
ness, and, if his avowed opinion be actually living within
him, he loses also the need of Happiness, and of a God who
is the author and giver of Happiness. But through this
first supposition of his ability to refuse obedience, there
arises to him, for the first time, a Law;--for his Freedom,
bereft of inclination, is now empty and without aim. He
must once more control it;--and constraint upon Freedom,
or Law, is one and the same thing. Hence it is only
through that Faith in Freedom, which still remains after he
has given up all desire, that he makes a Law possible for
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? LECTURE VIII.
513
himself, and gives to his view of true Reality the form of a
Law.
Comprehend this profoundly, and therefore fully and clear-
ly, thus:--(1. ) The Divine Nature does not enter, whole
and undivided, into these reciprocally exclusive points
of Freedom, but it enters them partially only:--beyond
these points, however, it reveals itself, unconcealed by any
veil whatever (every such veil having its foundation only in
these points), such as it is in itself,--in an infinitely pro-
gressive development and Manifestation--in this Form of
eternal, progressive Life which is inseparable from its pure,
internal Life. This eternal forth-flowing of the Divine Life
is the true, innermost and deepest root of Ex-istence,--the
absolutely indissoluble union of Essence with Form which
we have referred to above. This Being of Ex-istence, like
all other Being, obviously carries with it the Affection of
itself; it is the abiding, eternal, and unchangeable Will of
the Absolute Reality thus continuously to develope itself,
as it necessarily must develope itself. (2. ) So long as any
Ego whatever occupies any one of the points of Freedom,
he has still a personal, individual Being, which is a partial
and imperfect Ex-istence of the Divine Ex-istence, and
hence properly a negation of Being; and such an Ego has
also an affection for this Being, and a fixed and unchange-
able will to maintain this his Ex-istence. His actual will,
ever present with him, is hence by no means identical with
the abiding Affection and Will of the perfect Divine Ex-
istence. (3. ) Should an Ego, occupying this standpoint, be
nevertheless capable of willing in conformity with that
Eternal Will, yet could this never come to pass by means of
his mere present will, but this Ego must first make the
Eternal Will his own by means of a third intervening vol-
ition, usually called a determination of the Will. Exactly in
this case stands the votary of Law; and he becomes so just
because he stands in this case. Since he professes,--and
this is the peculiar root of his whole mode of thought, and
that whereby we must comprehend him,--since he professes
that he is also able to refuse obedience,--which (since we
ub
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? 514
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
have nothing to do here with mere physical power, the de-
pendence of which upon will we must assume), is obviously
equivalent to saying that he also has it in his power to will
such disobedience,--to which assertion, as the immediate
expression of his self-consciousness, we must doubtless accord
faith,--this profession is equivalent to saying that it is not
his predominant and ever-present will to obey;--for who can
act contrary to his own will, and who can think in opposi-
tion to his own ever-present and continually active will?
Not that he is disinclined to obedience;--for then another,
and indeed sensuous desire would necessarily bear sway in
him, which is contrary to the supposition, since he would
then not be even a moral being, but would require to be
maintained in order and discipline by means of outward
compulsion;--but only that he is not positively inclined to
it, and occupies a position of mere indifference. In conse-
quence of this indifference of his own actually present will,
does that other Will become to him a foreign behest, which
he at first regards as a Law to his own naturally inactive
will; and to the fulfilment of which he must first produce
in himself the will that is naturally awanting, by means of
a positive determination. And thus, the indifference to-
wards the Eternal Will, which still remains after actual
renunciation of the Sensuous Will, is the source of a Cate-
gorical Imperative within us; as the faith which we still
retain in our own, at least formal, Independence, is the
source of that indifference.
Just as this faith disappears by means of the highest
crowning act of Freedom, does the previously existing Ego
likewise disappear in the pure Divine Ex-istence; and we
can no longer say, strictly speaking, that the Affection, the
Love, and the Will of this Divine Ex-istence is ours, since
there are no longer two Ex-istences and two Wills; but
/ now one Ex-istence, and one and the same Will, is all in all.
So long as man cherishes the desire of being himself some-
's,/ 'thing, God comes not to him, for no man can become God.
But so soon as he renounces himself sincerely, wholly, and
, radically, then God alone remains, and is all in alL Man
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? LECTURE VIII.
515
can create no God for himself; but he can renounce himself
as the true negation,--and then he is wholly absorbed in
God.
This self-renunciation is the entrance into the Higher
Life which is wholly opposed to the lower life,--the latter
taking its distinctive character from the existence of a self;
and it is, according to our former mode of computation, the
attainment of the Third standpoint in the view of the
World;--that of the pure and Higher Morality.
The peculiar and essential nature of this Morality, and of
the Blessedness which dwells in the central-point of this
world, we shall describe in our next lecture. At present we
shall only point out the relation of this standpoint to the
lower and sensual world. I hope that I have already laid
my foundation so deep, that I shall not fail of success in my
subsidiary purpose of taking away all possible subterfuge or
evasion from the common practice of confounding together
Blessedness and Happiness. This mode of thought, which,
when it is superseded by a more earnest sentiment, would
much rather not have said what it is yet continually saying,
loves much a charitable twilight, and a certain indefinite-
ness of conception; and it is therefore the more desirable to
drag it forth into clear light, and to separate ourselves from
it with the strictest precision. Its supporters would indeed
willingly accommodate the matter,--we know it well,--they
do not wish to cast aside the spirit altogether,--we are not
so unjust as to accuse them of that,--but neither will they
give up aught of the flesh. We however neither will nor
can accommodate the matter; for these two things are
utterly irreconcileable, and he who would possess the one
must renounce the other.
The view of self, as a person existing for its own sake
and in a World of Sense, does indeed still remain for him
who has attained the third standpoint; for this is a neces-
sary and inevitable part of Form; but the Love and
Affection for it are here no longer felt. What is now to
him this person, and all sensuous activity? Obviously, only
means for the purpose of doing that which he himself
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? 516
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
wishes and loves above all else,--namely, the Will of God
manifesting itself in him;--just as this personality is to the
Stoic only the means of obeying the Law: and both are
herein alike, and of equal value in our estimation. To the
sensuous man, on the contrary, his personal sensual Existence is his ultimate and especial object, and everything else
which he does or believes beyond it, is to him but the
means for the fulfilment of its purposes.
It is wholly impossible, and an absolute contradiction,
that any one should love in two different directions, or hold
two opposite purposes. The Love of God, which we have
described, entirely extirpates personal Self-love. For onlj
by the renunciation of the latter do we attain the former.
Again, where personal Self-love is, there the Love of God is
not; for the latter suffers no other Love beside it.
This, as we have formerly observed, is the fundamental
character of sensuous Self-love,--that it requires a Life
fashioned in a particular way, and seeks its Happiness in
some particular object; while, on the contrary, the Love of
God regards every form of Life, and all objects, but as
means; and knows that everything which is given is the
proper and necessary means; and therefore never desires
any object determined in this or that particular way, but
accepts all as they present themselves.
What then would the sensuous man who requires an
objective enjoyment do, were he indeed a man, and consist-
ent? I should think that, relying upon himself, he would
exert all his strength to gather around him the objects of
his enjoyment; enjoy what he had, and do without that
which was beyond his reach. But what happens to him, if
he be also a superstitious child 1 He says to himself that the
objects of his enjoyment are in the gift of a God who will
indeed grant them to him, but who for this service demands
something from him in exchange;--he alleges that there has
been a covenant made with him on the subject;--he ex-
hibits a collection of writings as the voucher of this pre-
tended covenant.
When he fully enters into this conception, how is it then
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? LECTURE VIII.
517
with him? Enjoyment still remains his especial object, and
his duty to his imagined God only the means for the at-
tainment of this object. This must be confessed,--there is
no escaping it. It will not do to say, as is frequently said:
--" I desire that the Will of God be done for its own sake;
--I wish Happiness--only by the way. " Setting aside for
a moment thy "by the way," thou yet admittest that thou
wishest Happiness because it is Happiness; and because
thou believest that, having it, it will be well with thee; and
because thou wouldst willingly have it well with thee. But
then thou certainly dost not desire that the Will of God be
done for its own sake alone; for then thou couldst not desire
Happiness, since the first desire supersedes and destroys
the second; and it is absolutely impossible that that which
is destroyed can exist beside, and be associated with, its de-
stroyer. Dost thou also wish, as thou sayest, that the Will
of God be done ? --then thou canst wish this only because
thou believest that thou canst not otherwise obtain that
which thou especially desirest,--namely Happiness;--and
because this wish is imposed upon thee by the desire by
which thou art more especially animated;--thou wishest
therefore the Will of God only "by the way," and because
thou art constrained to do so; but from the bottom of thy
heart, and with thy own good will, thou wishest only for
Happiness.
It is nothing to the purpose that this Happiness is re-
moved far from immediate sight, and even placed in another
world beyond the grave, where it is thought that it may be
possible to confound the two ideas with less trouble. What-
ever you may say with regard to this your Heaven,--or
rather whatever you may not say, in order that your true
meaning may not come to light,--yet the single circum-
stance that you make it dependent upon Time, and place it
in another world, proves already incontrovertibly that it is
a Heaven of sensuous enjoyment . Here Heaven is not, you
say;--but yonder it shall be. I pray you,--What then is
that which can be different yonder from what it is here?
Obviously, only the objective constitution of the world, as
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? 518
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
the environment of our existence. It must therefore, ac-
cording to your opinion, be the objective constitution of the
present world which makes it unfit for a Heaven, and the
objective constitution of the future world which makes it fit
for that purpose;--and thus you cannot any longer conceal
that your Blessedness depends upon outward cire\imstances
and therefore is a sensuous enjoyment. Did you seek your
Blessedness there where alone it is to be found, solely in God
and in the truth of his Manifestation, but by no means in
the mere casual Form in which he is manifested,--then
would you not need to refer yourselves to another Life, for
God is even now to-day, as he shall be in all Eternity. I
assure you,--and remember my words when it shall come
to pass,--just as, in the second Life to which you shall then
have attained, you will again make your Happiness depen-
dent on outward circumstances, you shall fare just as ill
there as you do here; and you will then console yourselves
with a third Life, and in the third with a fourth, and so on
for ever;--for God neither can nor will confer Blessedness
by means of outward circumstances, since he desires, on the
contrary, to give us Himself, independent of all of Form.
In a word:--this mode of thought, thrown into the form
of a prayer, would thus express itself:--" Lord! let but my
will be done, and that throughout an Eternity which on
that account shall be blessed; and in return thou shalt
have Thy Will in this short and wearisome present Time. "
--And this is manifest immorality, senseless superstition, ir-
religion, and actual blasphemy of the holy and bliss-giving
Will of God.
On the contrary, the expression of the constant mind of
the truly Moral and Religious Man is this prayer:--" Lord!
let but Thy Will be done, then is mine also done; for I
have no other will than this,--that Thy Will be done. "
This Divine Will is necessarily done now and for ever;--in
the first place, in the Inward Life of this man thus devoted
to it,--of which in our next lecture;--and then--what im-
mediately belongs to our present subject--in everything
that meets him in his Outward Life. All these events are
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? LECTURE VIII.
519
nothing else than the necessary and unalterable Outward
Manifestation of the Divine Work fulfilling itself in him 5
and he cannot wish that anything in these events should be
otherwise than what it is, without wishing that the Inward
Life, which can only thus manifest itself, should be other-
wise,--and without thereby separating his will from the
Will of God, and setting it in opposition thereto. He can-
not any longer reserve to himself a choice in these things,
for he must accept everything just as it happens; for every-
thing that comes to pass is the Will of God with him, and
therefore the best that can possibly come to pass. * To
those who love God, all things must work together for good,
absolutely and immediately.
To those also, in whom the Will of God is not inwardly
accomplished, -- because there is indeed no Inward Life
in them, but who are altogether mere outward things,--to them also the Will of God is done outwardly, as alone it
can reach them;--appearing at first sight ungracious and
chastening, but in reality in the highest degree merciful and
loving;--while with them it grows worse and worse, and
they weary themselves out, and even render themselves
despicable and ridiculous, in the vain chase after a good
which ever floats before their vision and ever eludes their
grasp,--until they are thereby at last driven to seek for
Happiness there where alone it is to be found. To those
who do not love God, all things must work together imme-
diately for pain and torment, until, by means of this tor-
ment, they are at last led to Salvation.
* For an account of a remarkable incident connected with this passage,
sec " Memoir" p. 128.
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? 520
LECTURE IX.
EXPOSITION OF THE HIGHER MORALITY--PASSAGE
TO THE STANDPOINT OF TRUE RELIGION--
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MORAL-
RELIGIOUS WILL.
The following were the results of our last lecture, and indi-
cate the point at which we now stand:--So long as man
still desires to be something on his own account,the True
Being and Life cannot develope itself within him, and hence
he likewise remains inaccessible to Blessedness; for all per-
sonal, individual Being is but Non-Being, and limitation of
the True Being; and, on that very account, is either obvious
Unblessedness,--as in the case of the first standpoint, that of
mere Sensuousness, which looks to outward objects only for
its enjoyment, whilst no outward object can possibly satis-
fy man;--or else, if not actual Unblessedness, yet just as little
Blessedness, but only mere Apathy, passive indifference, and
absolute incapacity for all enjoyment of Life,--as in the
case of the second standpoint, that of mere formal Legality.
On the contrary, as soon as man, by an act of the Highest
Freedom, surrenders and lays aside his personal, individual
Freedom and Independence, he becomes a partaker of the
Only True Being, the Divine, and of all the Blessedness
that is contained therein. We showed, in the first place,--
in order to separate ourselves distinctly from the opposite
sensuous mode of thought, and to lay this aside once and for
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? THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
521
ever,--how such an one, who has attained the True Life,
looks upon the outward and sensuous Life; and we found
that he regards his whole personal Ex-istence, and all out-
ward occurrences that affect it, but as means for the fulfil-
ment of the Divine Work in him; and indeed all of them
as they occur as necessarily the best and most legitimate
means; and hence he desires to possess no voice or choice
whatever with regard to the objective disposition of these
occurrences, but accepts them all as they present them-
selves. On the other hand, we reserved for our present
lecture, the description of the inward and peculiar Life of
such a man :--which description we now begin.
I have already shown, on a former occasion, that the
Third standpoint of the Spiritual Life,--which undoubtedly
is that at which we have now arrived, that, namely, of the
Higher Morality,--is distinguished from the second, that
of mere formal Legality, by the creation of a wholly new
and truly Super-sensual World, and by the development of
this world within the world of sense as its sphere; while,
on the contrary, the Law of Stoicism is only the Law of an
order in the world of sense. It is this assertion that I have,
in the next place, to establish on a deeper foundation, and
thus more clearly explain and more strictly define it.
On this standpoint, the whole sensible world, the existence
of which is assumed only because of our love and affection for
a determinate Ex-istence in outward objects, becomes only a
means; but unquestionably not a means for nothing,--upon
which supposition it would not be a means, since besides
itself there would then be nothing, and it would con-
sequently remain for ever an end, as the sole and absolute
Ex-istence,--but it becomes undoubtedly a means for an
Actual, True, and Real Being. What is this Being? We
know it from what has been said above. It is the inward
Essential Being of God himself, as it is absolutely, in itself
and through itself, immediately, purely, and without inter-
vening medium, without being modified, veiled, or obscured
by any Form contained in the personality of the Ego, and
which is, on that account, obstructive and limiting;--but
Xb
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? 522
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
broken only by the indestructible Form of Infinity. Since
this Being is determined only, on the one hand, by the Es-
sential Divine Nature which is founded absolutely on itself
alone, and, on the other, by the Form of Infinity, which, in
Actual Ex-istence, can never be dissolved or brought to a
conclusion,--as we have very distinctly set forth in our last
lecture,--it is clear that we cannot by any means compre-
hend mediately, through any other conception, and thus a
priori, how this Being will disclose itself; but that it can
only be immediately perceived and experienced, and only ap-
prehended in the act of its living forth-flowing from Being
into Ex-istence; so that the specific knowledge of this
new and Super-sensual World cannot be communicated, by
means of description and characterization, to those who do
not themselves live therein. He who is inspired of God re-
veals to us how it is;--and it is as he reveals it, just for
this reason--because He so reveals it; but without such in-
ward revelation no man can speak of it.
In general, however, and by means of an outward and
merely negative mark, this Divine World may be charac-
terized; and that in the following way :--All Being carries
with it the Love and Affection of itself, and so also the im-
mediate Divine Being which is manifested in the Form of
Infinity. Now this Being is, such as it is, not through any-
thing else, or for the sake of anything else, but through it-
self, and for its own sake alone; and when it appears and is
beloved, then it must necessarily be beloved and enjoyed
through itself alone, purely and solely on its own account;
--but by no means on account of something else, and thus
only as a means for this other thing, which would then be-
come the ultimate end of its being. And thus we have
found the desiderated outward criterion of the Divine World,
whereby it is completely separated from the World of Sense.
Whatever is a source of enjoyment in itself, and indeed of
the highest degree of enjoyment, infinitely transcending all
other degrees, is a Manifestation of the immediate and es-
sential Divine Nature in Reality. We may even describe
it as the most perfect phenomenon of each particular mo-
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? LECTUHE IX.
523
ment, and under the given conditions of Time;--provided we
do not understand thereby such a perfection as is given by
means of a mere logical conception, which contains nothing
more than the order and completeness of the Manifold,--but,
on the contrary, a perfection given through an immediate
affection towards a determinate Being.
Thus much as to the possible characterization of the New
World created by the Higher Morality within the World of
Sense. Should you desire of me yet greater clearness on
this point, you will doubtless not expect that I should at-
tempt a clearer characterization, for I think that in this
way nothing can be added to what we have already said,--
but you will require from me examples. Willingly indeed
shall I satisfy this desire, finding myself in these regions so
concealed from the vulgar eye; reminding you, nevertheless,
that I can here adduce only individual examples, which
cannot of themselves exhaust that which can be exhaust-
ed only in characterization, and which we have already so
exhausted;--examples which themselves can only be fully
comprehended by means of such characterization.
I say:--The inward and absolute Nature of God mani-
fests itself in Beauty; it manifests itself in the perfect
Dominion of Man over Nature; it manifests itself in the
perfect State and Polity of Nations; it manifests itself
in Science;--in short, it manifests itself in those conceptions
which, in the strict and peculiar sense, I term Ideas, and to
which I have directed attention in many ways, both in the
lectures which I delivered here last winter,* and in others
which have some time ago appeared in print, f In order
to explain my fundamental conception by means of the low-
est form of the Idea, concerning which we may venture to
hope that we shall be able at once to attain the requisite
clearness--namely Beauty:--There is much talk of the
splendours of the surrounding world, of the beauties of na-
ture, &c. ; as if,--were it intended that we should accept
*" Characteristics of the Present Age. "
t" On the Nature of the Scholar and its Manifestations. "
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? 524
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
these words in their literal acceptation,--as if Beauty
could ever appertain to the Earthly and Perishable, or could
be transferred to these. But the source of Beauty is in God
alone, and it reveals itself only in the minds of those who
are inspired by Him. Imagine, for example, a Holy Virgin,
who, being ascended into Heaven, encircled by the heavenly
hosts who fall down before her presence in rapt contempla-
tion, surrounded by all the splendours of a Heaven of which
she herself is the highest ornament and glory, can yet alone
of those present see nothing of all that takes place around
her, being wholly overwhelmed and lost in this one feeling:
--" Behold the handmaiden of the Lord: be it unto me ac-
cording to his will;"--clothe this feeling, thus surrounded,
in a human body, and then unquestionably you have Beauty
in a determinate Form. Now what is it that makes this
Form beautiful? Is it the separate parts and members of
which it is composed? Is it not much rather the single
feeling which speaks in all these members? The Form is
superadded, only because in it, and by means of it, the
Thought becomes visible; and it is transferred by means of
lines and colours to the canvass, because thus only can it be
communicated to others. Perhaps this Thought might also
have been expressed in hard and senseless stone, or in any
other material. Would then the stone thereby become
beautiful? The stone ever remains stone, and is wholly
unsusceptible of such a predicate; but the soul of the Artist
was beautiful when he conceived his work, and the soul of
every intelligent beholder in whom the conception is repeat-
ed will likewise become beautiful;--the stone ever remains
only that which fixes the limits of the outward perception
during this inward spiritual development.
This ideal Being and the creative Affection of it, as a
mere natural phenomenon, manifests itself generally as
Genius--for Art, for Government, for Science, &c. It is
understood, of course, and to every one who has any experi-
ence whatever in matters of this kind it is by means of this
very experience sufficiently known, that--since the natural
affection for such creations of Genius is the very foundation
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