Life alone can possess
independent
ex-
istence, of itself and through itself; and, on the other hand,
Life, so surely as it is Life, bears with it such an existence.
istence, of itself and through itself; and, on the other hand,
Life, so surely as it is Life, bears with it such an existence.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
383
CONTENTS.
Lecture I.
Life is Love; and hence Life and Blessedness are in themselves one and
the same. Distinction of the True Life from mere Apparent Life. Life
and Being are also one and the same. The True Being is for ever at
one with itself and unchangeable; the Apparent, on the contrary, is
changeable and transitory. The True Life loves this One Being, or
God; the Apparent loves the Transitory, or the World. This Apparent
Life itself exists, and is maintained in Existence, only by aspiration to-
wards the Eternal; this aspiration can never be satisfied in the mere
Apparent Life, and hence this Life is Unblessed; the Love of the True
Life, on the contrary, is continually satisfied, and hence this Life is
Blessed. The element of the True Life is Thought.
Lecture II.
The present subject is at bottom Metaphysic, and more especially Onto-
logy; and this is to be here set forth in a popular way. Refutation
of the objections of the impossibility and unadvisableness of such an
exposition,--by the necessity there is for attempting it,--by investigation
of the peculiar nature of the popular discourse in opposition to the scien-
tific,--and by the practical proof that since the introduction of Chris-
tianity this undertaking has at all times been actually accomplished.
Great hindrances which exist in our own day to the communication of
such Knowledge,--partly because its strictly determinate form is opposed
both to the propensity towards arbitrary opinion and to the mere want of
opinion which calls itself scepticism;--partly because its substance seems
strange and monstrously paradoxical;--and finally, because unprejudiced
persons are led astray by the objections urged by perverse fanaticism.
Genetic exposition of this species of fanaticism. The accusation of Mysti-cism which may be expected from these fanatics against our doctrine
noticed. The true object of this and similar accusations.
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? 384
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Lecture III.
Solution of the problem how--since Life must be an organic whole--a part
of this necessary Life may yet be wanting in Actual Life, as is the case,
according to what we have held above, in the Apparent Life,--by the
remark that the Spiritual Life developcs itself in Reality only gradually
and, as it were, by stages; illustrated by the striking example that the
great masses of mankind refer the thought of outward objects to sensible
perception of such objects, and know no better than that all our Know-
ledge is founded on experience. What, in opposition to this thought of
outward objects, which after all is not founded on perception, is true
and proper Thought; and how this is distinguished in its Form from mere
Opinion, with which, in reference to its sphere of activity, it coincides.
Actual realization of this Thought in the highest elements of Knowledge,
from which we have these results:--Being, in itself, (Seyn) neither has
arisen, nor has anything in it arisen, but it is absolutely One and Simple
in its Essence; from it we have to distinguish its Ex-istence (Daseyn)
which is necessarily Consciousness of Being;--which Consciousness, being
also necessarily Self-consciousness, cannot, either in its essence or in the
special determinations of its actual existence, be genetically deduced
from Being (Seyn) itself; although it may be understood generally that
this its actual determinate Ex-istence is essentially one with the essen-
tial Nature of Being.
Lecture IV.
Exposition of what is essential to the Blessed Life, and what is only condi-
tionally necessary. The answer to the question :--" How, since Being
{Seyn) ex-ists as it is in itself, namely as One, yet in this its Ex istence
(Daseyn,) or Consciousness, Multiplicity may nevertheless find place! "
--only conditionally necessary. Answer to the question. The "a->>,"
or characterization by means of opposition, which arises from the dis-
tinction that takes place in Ex-istence, is an absolute opposition and
the principle of all other division. This "as," or act of characterization,
presupposes an abiding Being that is characterized, whereby that which
in itself is the inward Divine Life is changed into a determinate World.
This World is characterized^ formed by means of this "as,"--Reflexion
--which is absolutely free and independent,--without any end or limit
to the process. t'v*''
Lecture V.
Principle of a new division in Knowledge, not proceeding immediately on
the Object, but only on the Reflexion of the Object, and hence giving
only different views of the One abiding World; which latter division
is nevertheless intimately connected with the first, and interpenetrated
by it. This division, and hence the diverse views of the World which
result from it, are five-fold. The first and lowest, being that of the
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? CONTENTS.
385
prevalent Philosophy, in which reality is attributed to the World of
Sense, or Nature. The second, in which reality is placed in a Law of
Order in the Existing World addressed to Freedom;--the stand-point
of Objective Legality, or of the Categorical Imperative. The third,
which places reality in a new Creative Law addressed to Freedom, pro-
ducing a New World within the Existing World;--the stand-point of the
Higher Morality. The fourth, which places reality in God alone and in
his Existence;--the stand-point of Religion. The fifth, which clearly dis-
cerns the Manifold in its outgoings from the One Reality;--the stand-
point of Science. The True Religious Life, however, is not possible as a
mere view, but exists only in union with an Actual Divine Life, and
without this union the mere view is empty Fanaticism.
Lecture VI.
Proof of our previous assertion, that this Doctrine is likewise the Doctrine
of pure Christianity, as contained in the writings of the Apostle John.
Reasons why we especially appeal to this Evangelist. Our hermeneuti-
cal principle. In John we have to distinguish that which is true, ab-
solutely and in itself, from that which is true only from his temporary
point of view. The first is contained in the Introduction to his Gospel,
up to verse 5. Estimate of this Introduction, not as the unauthoritative
opinion of the Evangelist, but as the immediate doctrine of Jesus. Ex-
position of it. The view that possesses a mere temporary validity is the,
not metaphysical but merely historical, proposition that the Divine Ex-
istence, in its original purity and without any individual limitation,
has manifested itself in Jesus of Nazareth. Explanation of the difference
of these two views, and of their union, likewise and expressly according
to the Christian Doctrine. Estimate of this historical dogma. Compre-
hension of the substance of the whole Gospel from this point of view,
in an answer to the questions:--What does Jesus teach respecting him-
self and his relation to God? --and what respecting his followers and
their relation to him.
Appendix to Lecture VI.
Farther explanation of the distinction drawn in the preceding lecture be-
tween the Historical and Metaphysical, in relation to the fundamental
dogma of Christianity.
Lecture VII.
More thorough delineation of the mere Apparent Life from its fundamental
principle. A complete exposition of all the possible modes of man's
Enjoyment of himself and of the World is requisite for the demonstra-
tion of the Blessedness of the Religious Life. Of these there are five,--
the five modes of viewing the World, already enumerated, being also so
many modes of its Enjoyment;--of which, in consequence of the exclu-
Db
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? 38G
THE DOCTKINE OF RELIGION.
siou of the Scientific stand point, four only come under consideration
here. Enjoyment in any form, as the satisfaction of Love, is founded on
Love;--Love, however, is the Affection of Being. Sensual Enjoyment,
and the Affections which are produced by means of fancy, in the first
stand-point. The Affection of Reality in the second stand-point,--
viz. Law, is a commandment, from which proceeds a judgment, in it-
self disinterested, but which, being associated with the interest of man
in his own personality, is changed into the mere negation of Self-con-
tempt. This mode of thought destroys all Love in man, but even on
that account it exalts him above all want. Stoicism, as mere Apathy,
in relation to Happiness and Blessedness.
Lecture VIII.
More profound exposition of our Doctrine of Being. Everything that arises
from mere Ex-istence, as such, comprehended under the name of Form.
In Reality, Being is absolutely inseparable from Form, and the Exis-
tence of the latter is itself founded in the inward necessity of the Divine
Nature. Application of this principle to the first portion of Form,--
Infinity. Application of it to the second portion of Form,--the five-fold
division previously set forth. This gives a free and independent Ego
as the organic central-point of all Form. Exposition of the nature of
Freedom. Affection of the Ejjo,for its personal independence, which
necessarily disappears as soon as the individual stand-points of mere
possible Freedom are destroyed by perfect Freedom;--and thus again
the presence or absence of this Love of Self gives us two completely op-
posite modes of viewing and enjoying the World. From the former arises,
in the first place, the impulse towards Sensual Enjoyment, as the Love of
a Self, determined in a particular way by means of outward objects; and,
in the second place, the stand-point of Legality, the Love of mere
formal Freedom after the renunciation of the Love of objective self-deter-
mination. Characterization of the Love from which a Categorical Im-
perative arises. Through the annihilation of that Love of Self the Will
of the Ego is brought into harmony with the Will of God; and there
arises therefrom, in the "first place, the stand-point, previously de-
scribed as the third, of the Higher Morality. Relation of this mode of
thought to outward circumstances, particularly in contrast with the
superstition of sensual desire.
Lecture IX.
The New World which the Higher Morality creates within the World of
Sense is the immediate Life of God himself in Time;--it can only be
felt in immediate consciousness, and can only be characterized in general
by the distinctive mark that each of its Forms is a source of pleasure
solely on its own account, and not as a means towards any other end.
Illustrations by the examples of Beauty, of Science, &c, and by the pheno-
mena presented by a natural Genius for these. This Life nevertheless
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? CONTENTS. , 387
strives after an outward result; and so long as the desire for this result
is still mixed up with the joy arising from the deed itself, even the
Higher Morality is not exempt from the possibility of pain. Separation
of these by the stand-point of Religion. Foundation of Individuality.
Each Individual has his own special portion in the Divine Life. The
first fundamental Law of Morality and of the Blessed Life:--that each
should devote himself wholly to this portion. General external charac-
terization of the Moral-Religious Will, in so far as this comes forth from
its inward Life into outward Manifestation.
Lecture X.
Comprehensive view of the whole subject from its deepest stand-point. Being, which is projected forth from itself in the form of the indepen-
dent Ego as the necessary Form of Reflexion, is, beyond all Reflexion,
united with Form by Love alone. This Love is the creator of the
abstract conception of God;--is the source of all certainty;--is that
which, in Life, embraces the Absolute, immediately and without modifi-
cation, by means of Conception ;--is that by which Reflexion, which in
its Form contains only the possibility of Infinity, is extended into an
Actual Infinity;--finally, is the source of Science. In living and actual
Reflexion this Love manifests itself immediately in the phenomena of
Moral Action. Characterization of the Philanthropy of the Moral-Reli-
gious Man. Delineation of his Blessedness.
Lecture XI.
General application of the subject. Hindrances to a thorough communica-
tion between the speaker and hearer:--the want of thorough openness of
mind ;--so-called Scepticism ;--the surrounding influences of the Age.
Deeper characterization of these influences by the principle of the
mutual acceptation of all men as miserable sinners (Modern Humanity. )
How the good and upright man may rise superior to these influences,
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? 38! )
LECTURE I.
THE TRUE LIFE AND THE APPARENT LIFE.
The Lectures which I now commence have been announced
under the title of "The Way towards the Blessed Life. "
Following the common and customary view, which no one
can rectify unless he first accommodate himself to it, I could
not avoid thus expressing myself; although, according to
the true view of the matter, the expression "Blessed Life"
has in it something superfluous. To wit:--Life is necessari-
ly blessed, for it is Blessedness; the thought of an wwblessed
life, on the other hand, carries with it a contradiction.
Death alone is unblessed. Thus, had I expressed myself
with strict precision, I should have named my proposed lec-
tures "The Way towards Life, or the Doctrine of Life "--or,
viewing the idea on the other side, "The Way towards
Blessedness, or the Doctrine of Blessedness. " That, never-
theless, not nearly all that seems to live is blessed, arises
from this--that what is unblessed does not really and truly
live, but, for the most part, is sunk in Death and Nothing-
ness.
Life is itself Blessedness, I said. It cannot be otherwise;
for Life is Love, and whole form and power of Life consist
in Love and spring from Love. In this I have given utter-
ance to one of the most profound axioms of knowledge;
which nevertheless, in my opinion, may at once be made
clear and evident to every one, by means of really earnest
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? 390
THE DOCTIUNE OF ItELIOION.
and sustained attention. Love divides that which in itself
is dead, as it were into a two-fold being, holding it up
before its own contemplation;--creating thereby an Ego
or Self, which beholds and is cognizant of itself; and in this
personality lies the root of all Life. Love again reunites
and intimately binds together this divided personality,
which, without Love, would regard itself coldly and without
interest. This latter unity, with a duality which is not
thereby destroyed but eternally remains subsistent, is Life
itself; as every one who strictly considers these ideas and
combines them together must at once distinctly perceive.
Further, Love is satisfaction with itself, joy in itself, enjoy-
ment of itself,--and therefore Blessedness; and thus it is
clear that Life, Love, and Blessedness, are absolutely one and
the same.
I said further, that not everything which seems to be
living does really and truly live. It follows that, in my
opinion, Life may be regarded from a double point of view,
and shall be so regarded by me;--that is, partly as regards
Truth, and partly as regards Appearance. Now it is clear,
before all things, that this latter merely Apparent Life could
never even have become apparent, but must have remained
wholly and entirely non-existent, had it not been, in some
way or other, supported and maintained by the True Life--
and, since nothing has a real existence but Life, had not the
True Life, in some way or other, entered into the Apparent
Life and been commingled with it. There can be no real
Death, and no real Unblessedness; for, were we to admit
this, we should thereby attribute to them an existence,
while it is only the True Being and Life that can have exis-
tence. Hence, all incomplete existence is but an admix-
ture of the dead with the living. In what way this ad-
mixture generally takes place, and what, even in the lowest
grades of life, is the indestructible representative of the
True Life, we shall betimes declare. It is further to be remarked, that Love is at all times the seat and central-
point even of this merely Apparent Life. Understand me
thus:--the Apparent can shape itself into manifold, infinitely
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? LECTURE I.
391
varied forms; as we shall soon perceive more clearly. These
various forms of the Apparent Life, have all a common life,
if we use the language of Appearance; or, they all appear
to have a common life, if we use the language of Truth.
But if again the question should arise:--By what is this
common life distinguished in its various forms; and what is
it that gives to each individual the peculiar character of his
particular life ? --I answer:--It is the love of this particular
and individual life. Show me what thou truly lovest, what
thou seekest and strivest for with thy whole heart when
thou wouldst attain to true enjoyment of thyself,--and thou
hast thereby shown me thy Life. What thou lovest, in that thou livest. This very Love is thy Life,--the root, the seat,
the central-point of thy being. All other emotions within
thee have life only in so far as they tend towards this one
central point. That to many men it may be no easy matter
to answer such a question, since they do not even know
what they love, proves only that they do not in reality love
anything; and, just on that account, do not live because
they do not love.
So much, in general, as to the identity of Life, Love, and
Blessedness. Now for the strict discrimination of the True
Life from the mere Apparent Life.
Being,--I say again,--Being and Life are, once more,
one and the same.
Life alone can possess independent ex-
istence, of itself and through itself; and, on the other hand,
Life, so surely as it is Life, bears with it such an existence.
It is usual for men to conceive of Absolute Being as some-
thing fixed, rigid and dead; philosophers themselves, almost
without exception, have so conceived of it, even while they
declared it to be Absolute. This arises only from the thinker
himself bringing to the contemplation of Being, not a living,
but a mere dead conception. Not in Being, as it is in and
for itself, is there Death; but only in the deadly gaze of the
dead beholder. That in this error is to be found the origi-
nal source of all other errors, and that through it the world
of truth and the whole spiritual universe is for ever closed
to man, we have proved in another place,--at least to those
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? 392
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
who were capable of accepting the proof; here, the mere
historical statement of the principle must be sufficient.
On the other hand, as Being and Life are one and the
same, so are Death and Nothingness one and the same. But
there is no real Death and no real Nothingness, as we have
already said. There is, however, an Apparent Life, and
this is the mixture of life and death, of being and nothing-
ness. Hence it follows, that the Apparent, so far as regards
that in it which makes it mere Appearance and which is
opposed to the True Being and Life, is mere Death and
Nothingness.
Further:--Being is throughout simple, not manifold;
there are not many beings, but only One Being. This prin-
ciple, like the former, contains an idea which is generally
misunderstood, or even wholly unknown, but of the evident
truth of which any one may convince himself, if he will
only give his earnest attention to the subject for a single
moment. We have here neither time nor intention to un-
dertake, with our present audience, those preparatory and
initiative steps which the mass of men require in order to
render them capable of such earnest reflection.
We shall here bring forward and employ only the results
of those premises; and these results will recommend them-
selves to your natural sense of truth without need of argu-
ment. With regard to the profounder premises, we must
content ourselves with stating them clearly and distinctly,
and so securing them against all misconception. Thus, with
reference to the principle we have last adduced, our mean-
ing is the following;--Being alone is; nothing else is; not,
in particular, a something which is not Being, but which lies
outside of all Being;--an assumption, this latter, which, to
every one who understands our words, must appear a mani-
fest absurdity, but which, nevertheless, lies, dim and unre-
cognised, at the bottom of the common notion of Being.
According to this common notion, something which in and
through itself neither is nor can be, receives from without
a superadded existence,--which thus is an existence of no-
thing;--and from the union of these two absurdities, all
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? LECTURE I.
393
truth and reality arise. This common notion is contradicted
by the principle we have laid down: Being alone is,--t. e.
that only which is by and through itself--is. We say fur-
ther: This Being is simple, homogeneous, and immutable;
there is in it neither beginning nor ending, no variation or
change of form, but it is always and for ever the same, unal-
terable, and continuing Being.
The truth of this prosposition may be briefly shown thus:
--Whatever is, in and through itself, that indeed is, and is
perfect:--once for all existing, without interruption, and
without the possibility of addition.
And thus we have opened the way towards an insight in-
to the characteristic distinction between the True Life,
which is one with Being, and the mere Apparent Life,
which, in so far as it is mere appearance, is one with No-
thingness. Being is simple, unchangeable, ever the same;
therefore is also the True Life simple, unchangeable, ever the
same. Appearance is a ceaseless change, a continual float-
ing between birth and decay; therefore is also the mere
Apparent Life a ceaseless change, ever floating between
birth and decay, hurried along through never-ending alter-
nations. The central-point of all Life is Love. The True
Life loves the One, Unchangeable, and Eternal; the mere
Apparent Life attempts to love the Transitory and Perish-
able,--were that capable of being loved, or could such love
uphold itself in being.
That object of the Love of the True Life is what we mean
by the name God, or at least ought to mean by that name;
the object of the Love of the mere Apparent Life--the tran-
sitory and perishable--is that which we recognise as the
World, and which we so name. The True Life thus lives in
God, and loves God; the mere Apparent Life lives in the
World, and attempts to love the World. It matters not on
what particular side it approaches the world and compre-
hends it;--that which the common view terms moral de-
pravity, sin, crime, and the like, may indeed be more hurt-
ful and destructive to human society than many other things
which this common view permits or even considers to be
Eb
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? 394
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
praiseworthy;--but, before the eye of Truth, all Life which
fixes its love on the Temporary and Accidental, and seeks
its enjoyment in any object other than the Eternal and Un-
changeable, for that very reason, and merely on account of
thus seeking its enjoyment in something else, is in like
manner vain, miserable, and unblessed.
The True Life lives in the Unchangeable; it is thus cap-
able neither of abatement nor of increase, just as little as
the Unchangeable itself, in which it lives, is capable of such
abatement or increase. In each moment of Time it is per-
fect,--the highest possible Life; and throughout Eternity
it necessarily remains what it is in each moment of Time.
The Apparent Life lives only in the Transitory and Perish-
able, and therefore never remains the same in any two suc-
cessive moments; each succeeding moment consumes and
obliterates the preceding; and thus the Apparent Life
becomes a continuous Death, and lives only in dying and in
Death.
We have said that the True Life is in itself blessed, the
Apparent Life necessarily miserable and unblessed. The
possibility of all pleasure, joy, blessedness, or by whatever
word we may express the general consciousness of Wel
being, is founded upon love, effort, impulse. To be united
with the beloved object, and molten into its very essence, is
Blessedness; to be divided from it, cast out from it, while
yet we cannot cease to turn towards it with longing aspiration, is Unblessedness.
The following is the relation of the Apparent, or of the
Actual and Finite, to the Absolute Being, or to the Infinite
and Eternal. That which we have already indicated as the
element which must support and maintain the Apparent,
and without which it could not attain even the semblance
of Existence, and which we promised soon to characterize
more distinctly, is the aspiration towards the Eternal. This
impulse to be united with the Imperishable and transfused
therein, is the primitive root of all Finite Existence; and in
no branch of this existence can that impulse be wholly de-
stroyed, unless that branch were to sink into utter nothing-
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? LECTURE I.
395
ness. Beyond this aspiration upon which all Finite Exis-
tence rests, and by means of it, this existence either at-
tains the True Life, or does not attain it. Where it does
attain it, this secret aspiration becomes distinct and intel-
ligible as Love of the Eternal:--we learn what it is that
we desire, love, and need. This want may be satisfied con-
stantly and under every condition:--the Eternal surrounds
us at all times, offers itself incessantly to our regards; we
have nothing more to do than to lay hold of it. But, once
attained, it can never again be lost. He who lives the True
. Liife has attained it, and now possesses it evermore, whole,
undivided, in all its fullness, in every moment of his exis-
tence; and is therefore blessed in this union with the object
of his Love, penetrated with a firm, immovable conviction
that he shall thus enjoy it throughout Eternity, and thereby
secured against all doubt, anxiety, or fear. Where the True
Life is not attained, that aspiration is not felt the less, but
it is not understood. Happy, contented, satisfied with their
condition, all men would willingly be; but wherein they
shall find this happiness they know not; what it is that
they specially love and strive after, they do not understand.
In that which comes into immediate contact with their
senses, and offers itself to their enjoyment,--in the World,
they think it must be found; because to that spiritual con-
dition in which they now find themselves there is really
nothing else existing for them--but the World. Ardently
they betake themselves to this chase after happiness, devot-
ing themselves, with their whole powers and affections, to
the first best object that pleases them and promises to
satisfy their desires. But as soon as such an one returns
into himself, and asks, "Am I now happy? " he is loudly
answered from the depths of his own soul, "0 no, thou art
as empty and needful as before. " They now imagine that
they have been mistaken in their choice of an object, and
throw themselves eagerly into another. This satisfies them
as little as the first:--there is no object under the sun or
moon that will satisfy them. Would we that any such ob-
ject should satisfy them? By no means :--that nothing
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? S96
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
finite and perishable can satisfy them,--this is precisely the
one tie that still connects them with the Eternal and pre-
serves them in existence:--did they find any one earthly
object that should fill them with perfect satisfaction, then
were they thereby irretrievably thrust forth from the God-
head, and cast out into the eternal death of Nothingness.
And thus do they fret and vex away their life;--in every
condition thinking that if it were but otherwise with them
it would be better with them, and then, when it has become
otherwise, discovering that it is not better;--in every position
believing that if they could but attain yonder height which
they descry above them, they would be freed from their an-
guish, but finding nevertheless, even on the desired height,
their ancient sorrow. In riper years, perchance, when the
fresh enthusiasm and glad hopefulness of youth have van-
ished, they take counsel with themselves, review their whole
previous life, and attempt to draw therefrom some conclu-
sive doctrine;--attempt, it may be, to convince themselves
that no earthly good whatever can give them satisfaction:
--And what do they now? They determine perhaps to re-
nounce all faith in happiness and peace; blunting or dead-
ening, as far as possible, their still inextinguishable aspira-
tions; and then they call this insensibility the only true
wisdom, this despair of all salvation the only true salvation,
and their pretended knowledge that man is not destined to
happiness, but only to this vain striving with nothing and
for nothing, the true understanding. Perchance they re-
nounce only their hope of satisfaction in this earthly life;
but please themselves with a certain promise, handed down
to them by tradition, of a Blessedness beyond the grave.
Into what a mournful delusion do they now fall! Full
surely, indeed, there lies a Blessedness beyond the grave for
those who have already entered upon it here, and in no
other form or way than that by which they can already
enter upon it here, in this present moment; but by mere
burial man cannot arrive at Blessedness,--and in the future
life, and throughout the whole infinite range of all future
life, they would seek for happiness as vainly as they have
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? I. KOTUKE I.
397
already sought it here, if they were to seek it in aught else
than in that which already surrounds them so closely here
below that throughout Eternity it can never be brought
nearer to them,--in the Infinite. And thus does the poor child of Eternity, cast forth from his native home, and sur-
rounded on all sides by his heavenly inheritance which yet
his trembling hand fears to grasp, wander, with fugitive and
uncertain step throughout the waste, everywhere labouring
to establish for himself a dwelling-place, but happily ever
reminded, by the speedy downfall of each of his successive
habitations, that he can find peace nowhere but in his Father's house.
Thus, my hearers, is the True Life necessarily Blessedness
itself; and the Apparent Life necessarily Unblessedness.
And now consider with me the following:--I say, the
element, the atmosphere, the substantial form--if this latter
expression may be better understood--the element, the
atmosphere, the substantial form of the True Life, is
Thought.
In the first place, no one surely will be disposed, seriously,
and in the proper meaning of the words, to ascribe Life and
Blessedness to anything which is not conscious of itself. All
Life thus presupposes self-consciousness, and it is self-con-
sciousness alone which is able to lay hold of Life and make
it an object of enjoyment.
Thus then :--The True Life and its Blessedness consists
in a union with the Unchangeable and Eternal: but the
Eternal can be apprehended only by Thought, and is in no
other way approachable by us. The One and Unchangeable
is apprehended as the foundation of ourselves and of the
world, and this in a double respect:--partly as the cause
whereby all things have come into existence, and have not
remained in mere nothingness; partly that in Him, and in
His essential nature--which in this way only is conceivable
to us, but in all other ways, remains wholly inconceivable--
is contained the cause why all things exist as they are, and
in no other way. And thus the True Life and its Blessed-
ness consists in Thought; that is, in a certain definite view
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? 398
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
of ourselves and the world as proceeding from the essential,
self-contained Divine Nature :--and therefore a Doctrine of
Blessedness can be nothing else than a Doctrine of Know-
ledge, since there is absolutely no other doctrine but a Doc-
trine of Knowledge. In the mind,--in the self-supporting
life of Thought,--Life itself subsists, for beyond the mind
there is no true Existence. To live truly, means to think
truly, and to discern the truth.
Thus it is:--let no one be deceived by the invectives
which, in these later godless and soulless times, are poured
forth on what is termed speculation. It is a striking charac-
teristic of these invectives that they proceed from those
only who know nothing of speculation;--no one who does
know it has inveighed against it. It is only to the highest
flight of thought that the Godhead is revealed, and it is to
be apprehended by no other sense whatever;--to seek to
make men suspicious of this mental effort, is to wish to cut
them off for ever from God and from the enjoyment of
Blessedness.
Wherein should Life and the Blessedness of Life have
their element if they had it not in Thought? Perhaps in
certain sensations and feelings, with reference to which it
matters not to us whether they minister to the grossest sen-
sual enjoyments or the most refined spiritual raptures 1
How could a mere feeling, which by its very nature is de-
pendent on circumstance, secure for itself an eternal and
unchangeable duration ? --and how could we, amid the ob-
scurity which, for the same reason, necessarily accompanies
mere feeling, inwardly perceive and enjoy such an un-
changeable continuance? No: it is only the light of pure
Knowledge, thoroughly transparent to itself, and in free pos-
session of all that it contains, which, by means of this clear-
ness, can guarantee its unalterable endurance.
Or, shall the Blessed Life consist in virtuous action and
behaviour? What the profane call virtue,--i. e. that a man
pursue his calling or occupation in a legitimate way, give
other men their due, and perhaps bestow something on the
poor :--this virtue will, hereafter as hitherto, be exacted by
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? LECTURE I.
399
law, and prompted by natural sympathy. But no one can
rise to True Virtue, to god-like action, creating the True and
the Good in this world, who does not lovingly embrace the
Godhead in clear comprehension; while he who does so
embrace it will thus act without either formal intention or
positive reward, and cannot act otherwise.
We do not here, by any means, promulgate a new doctrine
regarding the spiritual world, but this is the old doctrine
which has been taught in all ages. Thus, for example,
Christianity makes Faith,thc one indispensable condition of
True Life and Blessedness, and rejects, as worthless and
dead, everything without exception that does not spring
from this Faith. But this Faith is the same thing which
we have here named Thought:--the only true view of our-
selves and of the world in the One Unchangeable Divine
Being. It is only after this Faith,--i. e. this clear and living
vision,--has disappeared from the world that men have
placed the conditions of the Blessed Life in what is called
virtue, and thus sought a noble fruit on a wild and unculti-
vated stem.
To this Life, the general characteristics of which have
been set forth in this preliminary sketch, I have here pro-
mised to point you the way;--I have pledged myself to show
you the means by which this Blessed Life may be attained
and enjoyed. This instruction may be comprised in a single
remark, this namely:--It is not required of man that he
should create the Eternal, which he could never do;--the
Eternal is in him, and surrounds him at all times;--he has
but to forsake the Transitory and Perishable with which the
True Life can never unite, and thereupon the Eternal, with
all its Blessedness, will forthwith descend and dwell with
him. We cannot win Blessedness, but we may cast away
our wretchedness; and thereupon Blessedness will forthwith
of itself supply the vacant place. Blessedness, as we have
seen, is unwavering repose in the One Eternal; wretched-
ness is vagrancy amid the Manifold and Transitory; and
therefore the condition of becoming blessed is the return of
our love from the Many to the One.
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? 400
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
That which is vagrant amid the Manifold and Transitory
is dissolved, poured forth, and spread abroad like water;
notwithstanding its desire to love this and that and many
things besides, it really loves nothing; and just because it
would be everywhere at home, it is nowhere at home. This
vagrancy is our peculiar nature, and in it we are born. For
this reason the return of the mind to the One Eternal,
which is never produced by the common view of things but
must be brought about by our own effort, appears as concen-
tration of the mind, and its indwelling in itself;--as earnest-
ness, in opposition to the merry game we play amid the
manifold diversities of life;--and as profound thoughtfulness,
in opposition to the light-hearted thoughtlessness which,
while it has much to comprehend, yet comprehends nothing
thoroughly. This profound and thoughtful earnestness, this
strict concentration of the mlnd^and'itsTndwelling in itself,
is the one condition under which the Blessed Life can ap-
proach us; but under this condition it approaches and
dwells with us surely and infallibly.
It is certainly true, that, by this withdrawal of our mind
from the Visible, the objects of our former love fade from
our view, and gradually disappear, until we regain them
clothed with fresh beauty in the aether of the new world
which rises before us; and that our whole previous life
perishes, until we regain it as a slight adjunct to the new
life which begins within us. But this is the destiny in-
separable from all Finite Existence; only through death
does it enter into life. Whatever is mortal must die, no-
thing can deliver it from the power of its own nature; in
the Apparent Life it dies continually; where the True Life
begins, in that one death it dies for ever, and for all the un-
known series of future deaths which, in its Apparent Life,
may yet lie before it.
I have promised to show you the way towards the Blessed
Life! But with what applications, and under what images,
forms, and conceptions, shall such instruction be addressed
to this age, in these circumstances? The images and forms
of the established religion, which say the same things which
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? LECTURE I.
401
alone we can here say, and which say them besides in the
same way in which alone we can here say them, because it
is the most fitting way,-- these images and forms have been
first of all emptied of their significance, then openly derid-
ed, and lastly given over to silent and polite contempt. The
propositions and syllogisms of the philosophers are accused
of being pernicious to the country and the nation, and sub-
versive of sound sense, and that before a tribunal where
neither accuser nor judge appears;--and this might be en-
dured :--but what is worse, every one who desires to believe
in these propositions and syllogisms is told beforehand that
he can never understand them;--for this purpose, that he
may not accept the words in their natural sense, and as they
stand, but seek behind them for some peculiar and hidden
meaning;--and in this way misconception and confusion
are sure to arise.
Or, even were it possible to discover forms and applica-
tions by means of which we might communicate such in-
struction, how should we awaken a desire to receive it,--
here, where it is universally taught, and now with greater
applause than ever, that despair of all salvation is the only
possible salvation;--that the faith that mankind are but
the sport of an arbitrary and capricious God is the only true
wisdom;--and where he who still believes in God and Truth,
and in Life and Blessedness therein, is laughed at as an in-
experienced boy who knows nothing of the world?
Be this as it may, we have yet courage in store; and to
have striven for a praiseworthy end, even if it be in vain, is
yet worth our labour. I see before me now, and I hope
still to see here, persons who have partaken in the best cul-
ture which our age affords. First of all, women, to whom,
by the social arrangements of mankind, has been assigned
the task of caring for the minor external wants, and also for
the decorations of human life,--an employment which, more
than any other, distracts the mind and draws it away from
clear and earnest reflection,--while, by way of compensation,
nature has implanted in them warmer aspirations towards
the Eternal, and a more refined perception of it. Then I
Fb
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CONTENTS.
Lecture I.
Life is Love; and hence Life and Blessedness are in themselves one and
the same. Distinction of the True Life from mere Apparent Life. Life
and Being are also one and the same. The True Being is for ever at
one with itself and unchangeable; the Apparent, on the contrary, is
changeable and transitory. The True Life loves this One Being, or
God; the Apparent loves the Transitory, or the World. This Apparent
Life itself exists, and is maintained in Existence, only by aspiration to-
wards the Eternal; this aspiration can never be satisfied in the mere
Apparent Life, and hence this Life is Unblessed; the Love of the True
Life, on the contrary, is continually satisfied, and hence this Life is
Blessed. The element of the True Life is Thought.
Lecture II.
The present subject is at bottom Metaphysic, and more especially Onto-
logy; and this is to be here set forth in a popular way. Refutation
of the objections of the impossibility and unadvisableness of such an
exposition,--by the necessity there is for attempting it,--by investigation
of the peculiar nature of the popular discourse in opposition to the scien-
tific,--and by the practical proof that since the introduction of Chris-
tianity this undertaking has at all times been actually accomplished.
Great hindrances which exist in our own day to the communication of
such Knowledge,--partly because its strictly determinate form is opposed
both to the propensity towards arbitrary opinion and to the mere want of
opinion which calls itself scepticism;--partly because its substance seems
strange and monstrously paradoxical;--and finally, because unprejudiced
persons are led astray by the objections urged by perverse fanaticism.
Genetic exposition of this species of fanaticism. The accusation of Mysti-cism which may be expected from these fanatics against our doctrine
noticed. The true object of this and similar accusations.
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? 384
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
Lecture III.
Solution of the problem how--since Life must be an organic whole--a part
of this necessary Life may yet be wanting in Actual Life, as is the case,
according to what we have held above, in the Apparent Life,--by the
remark that the Spiritual Life developcs itself in Reality only gradually
and, as it were, by stages; illustrated by the striking example that the
great masses of mankind refer the thought of outward objects to sensible
perception of such objects, and know no better than that all our Know-
ledge is founded on experience. What, in opposition to this thought of
outward objects, which after all is not founded on perception, is true
and proper Thought; and how this is distinguished in its Form from mere
Opinion, with which, in reference to its sphere of activity, it coincides.
Actual realization of this Thought in the highest elements of Knowledge,
from which we have these results:--Being, in itself, (Seyn) neither has
arisen, nor has anything in it arisen, but it is absolutely One and Simple
in its Essence; from it we have to distinguish its Ex-istence (Daseyn)
which is necessarily Consciousness of Being;--which Consciousness, being
also necessarily Self-consciousness, cannot, either in its essence or in the
special determinations of its actual existence, be genetically deduced
from Being (Seyn) itself; although it may be understood generally that
this its actual determinate Ex-istence is essentially one with the essen-
tial Nature of Being.
Lecture IV.
Exposition of what is essential to the Blessed Life, and what is only condi-
tionally necessary. The answer to the question :--" How, since Being
{Seyn) ex-ists as it is in itself, namely as One, yet in this its Ex istence
(Daseyn,) or Consciousness, Multiplicity may nevertheless find place! "
--only conditionally necessary. Answer to the question. The "a->>,"
or characterization by means of opposition, which arises from the dis-
tinction that takes place in Ex-istence, is an absolute opposition and
the principle of all other division. This "as," or act of characterization,
presupposes an abiding Being that is characterized, whereby that which
in itself is the inward Divine Life is changed into a determinate World.
This World is characterized^ formed by means of this "as,"--Reflexion
--which is absolutely free and independent,--without any end or limit
to the process. t'v*''
Lecture V.
Principle of a new division in Knowledge, not proceeding immediately on
the Object, but only on the Reflexion of the Object, and hence giving
only different views of the One abiding World; which latter division
is nevertheless intimately connected with the first, and interpenetrated
by it. This division, and hence the diverse views of the World which
result from it, are five-fold. The first and lowest, being that of the
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? CONTENTS.
385
prevalent Philosophy, in which reality is attributed to the World of
Sense, or Nature. The second, in which reality is placed in a Law of
Order in the Existing World addressed to Freedom;--the stand-point
of Objective Legality, or of the Categorical Imperative. The third,
which places reality in a new Creative Law addressed to Freedom, pro-
ducing a New World within the Existing World;--the stand-point of the
Higher Morality. The fourth, which places reality in God alone and in
his Existence;--the stand-point of Religion. The fifth, which clearly dis-
cerns the Manifold in its outgoings from the One Reality;--the stand-
point of Science. The True Religious Life, however, is not possible as a
mere view, but exists only in union with an Actual Divine Life, and
without this union the mere view is empty Fanaticism.
Lecture VI.
Proof of our previous assertion, that this Doctrine is likewise the Doctrine
of pure Christianity, as contained in the writings of the Apostle John.
Reasons why we especially appeal to this Evangelist. Our hermeneuti-
cal principle. In John we have to distinguish that which is true, ab-
solutely and in itself, from that which is true only from his temporary
point of view. The first is contained in the Introduction to his Gospel,
up to verse 5. Estimate of this Introduction, not as the unauthoritative
opinion of the Evangelist, but as the immediate doctrine of Jesus. Ex-
position of it. The view that possesses a mere temporary validity is the,
not metaphysical but merely historical, proposition that the Divine Ex-
istence, in its original purity and without any individual limitation,
has manifested itself in Jesus of Nazareth. Explanation of the difference
of these two views, and of their union, likewise and expressly according
to the Christian Doctrine. Estimate of this historical dogma. Compre-
hension of the substance of the whole Gospel from this point of view,
in an answer to the questions:--What does Jesus teach respecting him-
self and his relation to God? --and what respecting his followers and
their relation to him.
Appendix to Lecture VI.
Farther explanation of the distinction drawn in the preceding lecture be-
tween the Historical and Metaphysical, in relation to the fundamental
dogma of Christianity.
Lecture VII.
More thorough delineation of the mere Apparent Life from its fundamental
principle. A complete exposition of all the possible modes of man's
Enjoyment of himself and of the World is requisite for the demonstra-
tion of the Blessedness of the Religious Life. Of these there are five,--
the five modes of viewing the World, already enumerated, being also so
many modes of its Enjoyment;--of which, in consequence of the exclu-
Db
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? 38G
THE DOCTKINE OF RELIGION.
siou of the Scientific stand point, four only come under consideration
here. Enjoyment in any form, as the satisfaction of Love, is founded on
Love;--Love, however, is the Affection of Being. Sensual Enjoyment,
and the Affections which are produced by means of fancy, in the first
stand-point. The Affection of Reality in the second stand-point,--
viz. Law, is a commandment, from which proceeds a judgment, in it-
self disinterested, but which, being associated with the interest of man
in his own personality, is changed into the mere negation of Self-con-
tempt. This mode of thought destroys all Love in man, but even on
that account it exalts him above all want. Stoicism, as mere Apathy,
in relation to Happiness and Blessedness.
Lecture VIII.
More profound exposition of our Doctrine of Being. Everything that arises
from mere Ex-istence, as such, comprehended under the name of Form.
In Reality, Being is absolutely inseparable from Form, and the Exis-
tence of the latter is itself founded in the inward necessity of the Divine
Nature. Application of this principle to the first portion of Form,--
Infinity. Application of it to the second portion of Form,--the five-fold
division previously set forth. This gives a free and independent Ego
as the organic central-point of all Form. Exposition of the nature of
Freedom. Affection of the Ejjo,for its personal independence, which
necessarily disappears as soon as the individual stand-points of mere
possible Freedom are destroyed by perfect Freedom;--and thus again
the presence or absence of this Love of Self gives us two completely op-
posite modes of viewing and enjoying the World. From the former arises,
in the first place, the impulse towards Sensual Enjoyment, as the Love of
a Self, determined in a particular way by means of outward objects; and,
in the second place, the stand-point of Legality, the Love of mere
formal Freedom after the renunciation of the Love of objective self-deter-
mination. Characterization of the Love from which a Categorical Im-
perative arises. Through the annihilation of that Love of Self the Will
of the Ego is brought into harmony with the Will of God; and there
arises therefrom, in the "first place, the stand-point, previously de-
scribed as the third, of the Higher Morality. Relation of this mode of
thought to outward circumstances, particularly in contrast with the
superstition of sensual desire.
Lecture IX.
The New World which the Higher Morality creates within the World of
Sense is the immediate Life of God himself in Time;--it can only be
felt in immediate consciousness, and can only be characterized in general
by the distinctive mark that each of its Forms is a source of pleasure
solely on its own account, and not as a means towards any other end.
Illustrations by the examples of Beauty, of Science, &c, and by the pheno-
mena presented by a natural Genius for these. This Life nevertheless
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? CONTENTS. , 387
strives after an outward result; and so long as the desire for this result
is still mixed up with the joy arising from the deed itself, even the
Higher Morality is not exempt from the possibility of pain. Separation
of these by the stand-point of Religion. Foundation of Individuality.
Each Individual has his own special portion in the Divine Life. The
first fundamental Law of Morality and of the Blessed Life:--that each
should devote himself wholly to this portion. General external charac-
terization of the Moral-Religious Will, in so far as this comes forth from
its inward Life into outward Manifestation.
Lecture X.
Comprehensive view of the whole subject from its deepest stand-point. Being, which is projected forth from itself in the form of the indepen-
dent Ego as the necessary Form of Reflexion, is, beyond all Reflexion,
united with Form by Love alone. This Love is the creator of the
abstract conception of God;--is the source of all certainty;--is that
which, in Life, embraces the Absolute, immediately and without modifi-
cation, by means of Conception ;--is that by which Reflexion, which in
its Form contains only the possibility of Infinity, is extended into an
Actual Infinity;--finally, is the source of Science. In living and actual
Reflexion this Love manifests itself immediately in the phenomena of
Moral Action. Characterization of the Philanthropy of the Moral-Reli-
gious Man. Delineation of his Blessedness.
Lecture XI.
General application of the subject. Hindrances to a thorough communica-
tion between the speaker and hearer:--the want of thorough openness of
mind ;--so-called Scepticism ;--the surrounding influences of the Age.
Deeper characterization of these influences by the principle of the
mutual acceptation of all men as miserable sinners (Modern Humanity. )
How the good and upright man may rise superior to these influences,
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? 38! )
LECTURE I.
THE TRUE LIFE AND THE APPARENT LIFE.
The Lectures which I now commence have been announced
under the title of "The Way towards the Blessed Life. "
Following the common and customary view, which no one
can rectify unless he first accommodate himself to it, I could
not avoid thus expressing myself; although, according to
the true view of the matter, the expression "Blessed Life"
has in it something superfluous. To wit:--Life is necessari-
ly blessed, for it is Blessedness; the thought of an wwblessed
life, on the other hand, carries with it a contradiction.
Death alone is unblessed. Thus, had I expressed myself
with strict precision, I should have named my proposed lec-
tures "The Way towards Life, or the Doctrine of Life "--or,
viewing the idea on the other side, "The Way towards
Blessedness, or the Doctrine of Blessedness. " That, never-
theless, not nearly all that seems to live is blessed, arises
from this--that what is unblessed does not really and truly
live, but, for the most part, is sunk in Death and Nothing-
ness.
Life is itself Blessedness, I said. It cannot be otherwise;
for Life is Love, and whole form and power of Life consist
in Love and spring from Love. In this I have given utter-
ance to one of the most profound axioms of knowledge;
which nevertheless, in my opinion, may at once be made
clear and evident to every one, by means of really earnest
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? 390
THE DOCTIUNE OF ItELIOION.
and sustained attention. Love divides that which in itself
is dead, as it were into a two-fold being, holding it up
before its own contemplation;--creating thereby an Ego
or Self, which beholds and is cognizant of itself; and in this
personality lies the root of all Life. Love again reunites
and intimately binds together this divided personality,
which, without Love, would regard itself coldly and without
interest. This latter unity, with a duality which is not
thereby destroyed but eternally remains subsistent, is Life
itself; as every one who strictly considers these ideas and
combines them together must at once distinctly perceive.
Further, Love is satisfaction with itself, joy in itself, enjoy-
ment of itself,--and therefore Blessedness; and thus it is
clear that Life, Love, and Blessedness, are absolutely one and
the same.
I said further, that not everything which seems to be
living does really and truly live. It follows that, in my
opinion, Life may be regarded from a double point of view,
and shall be so regarded by me;--that is, partly as regards
Truth, and partly as regards Appearance. Now it is clear,
before all things, that this latter merely Apparent Life could
never even have become apparent, but must have remained
wholly and entirely non-existent, had it not been, in some
way or other, supported and maintained by the True Life--
and, since nothing has a real existence but Life, had not the
True Life, in some way or other, entered into the Apparent
Life and been commingled with it. There can be no real
Death, and no real Unblessedness; for, were we to admit
this, we should thereby attribute to them an existence,
while it is only the True Being and Life that can have exis-
tence. Hence, all incomplete existence is but an admix-
ture of the dead with the living. In what way this ad-
mixture generally takes place, and what, even in the lowest
grades of life, is the indestructible representative of the
True Life, we shall betimes declare. It is further to be remarked, that Love is at all times the seat and central-
point even of this merely Apparent Life. Understand me
thus:--the Apparent can shape itself into manifold, infinitely
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? LECTURE I.
391
varied forms; as we shall soon perceive more clearly. These
various forms of the Apparent Life, have all a common life,
if we use the language of Appearance; or, they all appear
to have a common life, if we use the language of Truth.
But if again the question should arise:--By what is this
common life distinguished in its various forms; and what is
it that gives to each individual the peculiar character of his
particular life ? --I answer:--It is the love of this particular
and individual life. Show me what thou truly lovest, what
thou seekest and strivest for with thy whole heart when
thou wouldst attain to true enjoyment of thyself,--and thou
hast thereby shown me thy Life. What thou lovest, in that thou livest. This very Love is thy Life,--the root, the seat,
the central-point of thy being. All other emotions within
thee have life only in so far as they tend towards this one
central point. That to many men it may be no easy matter
to answer such a question, since they do not even know
what they love, proves only that they do not in reality love
anything; and, just on that account, do not live because
they do not love.
So much, in general, as to the identity of Life, Love, and
Blessedness. Now for the strict discrimination of the True
Life from the mere Apparent Life.
Being,--I say again,--Being and Life are, once more,
one and the same.
Life alone can possess independent ex-
istence, of itself and through itself; and, on the other hand,
Life, so surely as it is Life, bears with it such an existence.
It is usual for men to conceive of Absolute Being as some-
thing fixed, rigid and dead; philosophers themselves, almost
without exception, have so conceived of it, even while they
declared it to be Absolute. This arises only from the thinker
himself bringing to the contemplation of Being, not a living,
but a mere dead conception. Not in Being, as it is in and
for itself, is there Death; but only in the deadly gaze of the
dead beholder. That in this error is to be found the origi-
nal source of all other errors, and that through it the world
of truth and the whole spiritual universe is for ever closed
to man, we have proved in another place,--at least to those
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? 392
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
who were capable of accepting the proof; here, the mere
historical statement of the principle must be sufficient.
On the other hand, as Being and Life are one and the
same, so are Death and Nothingness one and the same. But
there is no real Death and no real Nothingness, as we have
already said. There is, however, an Apparent Life, and
this is the mixture of life and death, of being and nothing-
ness. Hence it follows, that the Apparent, so far as regards
that in it which makes it mere Appearance and which is
opposed to the True Being and Life, is mere Death and
Nothingness.
Further:--Being is throughout simple, not manifold;
there are not many beings, but only One Being. This prin-
ciple, like the former, contains an idea which is generally
misunderstood, or even wholly unknown, but of the evident
truth of which any one may convince himself, if he will
only give his earnest attention to the subject for a single
moment. We have here neither time nor intention to un-
dertake, with our present audience, those preparatory and
initiative steps which the mass of men require in order to
render them capable of such earnest reflection.
We shall here bring forward and employ only the results
of those premises; and these results will recommend them-
selves to your natural sense of truth without need of argu-
ment. With regard to the profounder premises, we must
content ourselves with stating them clearly and distinctly,
and so securing them against all misconception. Thus, with
reference to the principle we have last adduced, our mean-
ing is the following;--Being alone is; nothing else is; not,
in particular, a something which is not Being, but which lies
outside of all Being;--an assumption, this latter, which, to
every one who understands our words, must appear a mani-
fest absurdity, but which, nevertheless, lies, dim and unre-
cognised, at the bottom of the common notion of Being.
According to this common notion, something which in and
through itself neither is nor can be, receives from without
a superadded existence,--which thus is an existence of no-
thing;--and from the union of these two absurdities, all
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? LECTURE I.
393
truth and reality arise. This common notion is contradicted
by the principle we have laid down: Being alone is,--t. e.
that only which is by and through itself--is. We say fur-
ther: This Being is simple, homogeneous, and immutable;
there is in it neither beginning nor ending, no variation or
change of form, but it is always and for ever the same, unal-
terable, and continuing Being.
The truth of this prosposition may be briefly shown thus:
--Whatever is, in and through itself, that indeed is, and is
perfect:--once for all existing, without interruption, and
without the possibility of addition.
And thus we have opened the way towards an insight in-
to the characteristic distinction between the True Life,
which is one with Being, and the mere Apparent Life,
which, in so far as it is mere appearance, is one with No-
thingness. Being is simple, unchangeable, ever the same;
therefore is also the True Life simple, unchangeable, ever the
same. Appearance is a ceaseless change, a continual float-
ing between birth and decay; therefore is also the mere
Apparent Life a ceaseless change, ever floating between
birth and decay, hurried along through never-ending alter-
nations. The central-point of all Life is Love. The True
Life loves the One, Unchangeable, and Eternal; the mere
Apparent Life attempts to love the Transitory and Perish-
able,--were that capable of being loved, or could such love
uphold itself in being.
That object of the Love of the True Life is what we mean
by the name God, or at least ought to mean by that name;
the object of the Love of the mere Apparent Life--the tran-
sitory and perishable--is that which we recognise as the
World, and which we so name. The True Life thus lives in
God, and loves God; the mere Apparent Life lives in the
World, and attempts to love the World. It matters not on
what particular side it approaches the world and compre-
hends it;--that which the common view terms moral de-
pravity, sin, crime, and the like, may indeed be more hurt-
ful and destructive to human society than many other things
which this common view permits or even considers to be
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? 394
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
praiseworthy;--but, before the eye of Truth, all Life which
fixes its love on the Temporary and Accidental, and seeks
its enjoyment in any object other than the Eternal and Un-
changeable, for that very reason, and merely on account of
thus seeking its enjoyment in something else, is in like
manner vain, miserable, and unblessed.
The True Life lives in the Unchangeable; it is thus cap-
able neither of abatement nor of increase, just as little as
the Unchangeable itself, in which it lives, is capable of such
abatement or increase. In each moment of Time it is per-
fect,--the highest possible Life; and throughout Eternity
it necessarily remains what it is in each moment of Time.
The Apparent Life lives only in the Transitory and Perish-
able, and therefore never remains the same in any two suc-
cessive moments; each succeeding moment consumes and
obliterates the preceding; and thus the Apparent Life
becomes a continuous Death, and lives only in dying and in
Death.
We have said that the True Life is in itself blessed, the
Apparent Life necessarily miserable and unblessed. The
possibility of all pleasure, joy, blessedness, or by whatever
word we may express the general consciousness of Wel
being, is founded upon love, effort, impulse. To be united
with the beloved object, and molten into its very essence, is
Blessedness; to be divided from it, cast out from it, while
yet we cannot cease to turn towards it with longing aspiration, is Unblessedness.
The following is the relation of the Apparent, or of the
Actual and Finite, to the Absolute Being, or to the Infinite
and Eternal. That which we have already indicated as the
element which must support and maintain the Apparent,
and without which it could not attain even the semblance
of Existence, and which we promised soon to characterize
more distinctly, is the aspiration towards the Eternal. This
impulse to be united with the Imperishable and transfused
therein, is the primitive root of all Finite Existence; and in
no branch of this existence can that impulse be wholly de-
stroyed, unless that branch were to sink into utter nothing-
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? LECTURE I.
395
ness. Beyond this aspiration upon which all Finite Exis-
tence rests, and by means of it, this existence either at-
tains the True Life, or does not attain it. Where it does
attain it, this secret aspiration becomes distinct and intel-
ligible as Love of the Eternal:--we learn what it is that
we desire, love, and need. This want may be satisfied con-
stantly and under every condition:--the Eternal surrounds
us at all times, offers itself incessantly to our regards; we
have nothing more to do than to lay hold of it. But, once
attained, it can never again be lost. He who lives the True
. Liife has attained it, and now possesses it evermore, whole,
undivided, in all its fullness, in every moment of his exis-
tence; and is therefore blessed in this union with the object
of his Love, penetrated with a firm, immovable conviction
that he shall thus enjoy it throughout Eternity, and thereby
secured against all doubt, anxiety, or fear. Where the True
Life is not attained, that aspiration is not felt the less, but
it is not understood. Happy, contented, satisfied with their
condition, all men would willingly be; but wherein they
shall find this happiness they know not; what it is that
they specially love and strive after, they do not understand.
In that which comes into immediate contact with their
senses, and offers itself to their enjoyment,--in the World,
they think it must be found; because to that spiritual con-
dition in which they now find themselves there is really
nothing else existing for them--but the World. Ardently
they betake themselves to this chase after happiness, devot-
ing themselves, with their whole powers and affections, to
the first best object that pleases them and promises to
satisfy their desires. But as soon as such an one returns
into himself, and asks, "Am I now happy? " he is loudly
answered from the depths of his own soul, "0 no, thou art
as empty and needful as before. " They now imagine that
they have been mistaken in their choice of an object, and
throw themselves eagerly into another. This satisfies them
as little as the first:--there is no object under the sun or
moon that will satisfy them. Would we that any such ob-
ject should satisfy them? By no means :--that nothing
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? S96
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
finite and perishable can satisfy them,--this is precisely the
one tie that still connects them with the Eternal and pre-
serves them in existence:--did they find any one earthly
object that should fill them with perfect satisfaction, then
were they thereby irretrievably thrust forth from the God-
head, and cast out into the eternal death of Nothingness.
And thus do they fret and vex away their life;--in every
condition thinking that if it were but otherwise with them
it would be better with them, and then, when it has become
otherwise, discovering that it is not better;--in every position
believing that if they could but attain yonder height which
they descry above them, they would be freed from their an-
guish, but finding nevertheless, even on the desired height,
their ancient sorrow. In riper years, perchance, when the
fresh enthusiasm and glad hopefulness of youth have van-
ished, they take counsel with themselves, review their whole
previous life, and attempt to draw therefrom some conclu-
sive doctrine;--attempt, it may be, to convince themselves
that no earthly good whatever can give them satisfaction:
--And what do they now? They determine perhaps to re-
nounce all faith in happiness and peace; blunting or dead-
ening, as far as possible, their still inextinguishable aspira-
tions; and then they call this insensibility the only true
wisdom, this despair of all salvation the only true salvation,
and their pretended knowledge that man is not destined to
happiness, but only to this vain striving with nothing and
for nothing, the true understanding. Perchance they re-
nounce only their hope of satisfaction in this earthly life;
but please themselves with a certain promise, handed down
to them by tradition, of a Blessedness beyond the grave.
Into what a mournful delusion do they now fall! Full
surely, indeed, there lies a Blessedness beyond the grave for
those who have already entered upon it here, and in no
other form or way than that by which they can already
enter upon it here, in this present moment; but by mere
burial man cannot arrive at Blessedness,--and in the future
life, and throughout the whole infinite range of all future
life, they would seek for happiness as vainly as they have
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? I. KOTUKE I.
397
already sought it here, if they were to seek it in aught else
than in that which already surrounds them so closely here
below that throughout Eternity it can never be brought
nearer to them,--in the Infinite. And thus does the poor child of Eternity, cast forth from his native home, and sur-
rounded on all sides by his heavenly inheritance which yet
his trembling hand fears to grasp, wander, with fugitive and
uncertain step throughout the waste, everywhere labouring
to establish for himself a dwelling-place, but happily ever
reminded, by the speedy downfall of each of his successive
habitations, that he can find peace nowhere but in his Father's house.
Thus, my hearers, is the True Life necessarily Blessedness
itself; and the Apparent Life necessarily Unblessedness.
And now consider with me the following:--I say, the
element, the atmosphere, the substantial form--if this latter
expression may be better understood--the element, the
atmosphere, the substantial form of the True Life, is
Thought.
In the first place, no one surely will be disposed, seriously,
and in the proper meaning of the words, to ascribe Life and
Blessedness to anything which is not conscious of itself. All
Life thus presupposes self-consciousness, and it is self-con-
sciousness alone which is able to lay hold of Life and make
it an object of enjoyment.
Thus then :--The True Life and its Blessedness consists
in a union with the Unchangeable and Eternal: but the
Eternal can be apprehended only by Thought, and is in no
other way approachable by us. The One and Unchangeable
is apprehended as the foundation of ourselves and of the
world, and this in a double respect:--partly as the cause
whereby all things have come into existence, and have not
remained in mere nothingness; partly that in Him, and in
His essential nature--which in this way only is conceivable
to us, but in all other ways, remains wholly inconceivable--
is contained the cause why all things exist as they are, and
in no other way. And thus the True Life and its Blessed-
ness consists in Thought; that is, in a certain definite view
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? 398
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
of ourselves and the world as proceeding from the essential,
self-contained Divine Nature :--and therefore a Doctrine of
Blessedness can be nothing else than a Doctrine of Know-
ledge, since there is absolutely no other doctrine but a Doc-
trine of Knowledge. In the mind,--in the self-supporting
life of Thought,--Life itself subsists, for beyond the mind
there is no true Existence. To live truly, means to think
truly, and to discern the truth.
Thus it is:--let no one be deceived by the invectives
which, in these later godless and soulless times, are poured
forth on what is termed speculation. It is a striking charac-
teristic of these invectives that they proceed from those
only who know nothing of speculation;--no one who does
know it has inveighed against it. It is only to the highest
flight of thought that the Godhead is revealed, and it is to
be apprehended by no other sense whatever;--to seek to
make men suspicious of this mental effort, is to wish to cut
them off for ever from God and from the enjoyment of
Blessedness.
Wherein should Life and the Blessedness of Life have
their element if they had it not in Thought? Perhaps in
certain sensations and feelings, with reference to which it
matters not to us whether they minister to the grossest sen-
sual enjoyments or the most refined spiritual raptures 1
How could a mere feeling, which by its very nature is de-
pendent on circumstance, secure for itself an eternal and
unchangeable duration ? --and how could we, amid the ob-
scurity which, for the same reason, necessarily accompanies
mere feeling, inwardly perceive and enjoy such an un-
changeable continuance? No: it is only the light of pure
Knowledge, thoroughly transparent to itself, and in free pos-
session of all that it contains, which, by means of this clear-
ness, can guarantee its unalterable endurance.
Or, shall the Blessed Life consist in virtuous action and
behaviour? What the profane call virtue,--i. e. that a man
pursue his calling or occupation in a legitimate way, give
other men their due, and perhaps bestow something on the
poor :--this virtue will, hereafter as hitherto, be exacted by
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? LECTURE I.
399
law, and prompted by natural sympathy. But no one can
rise to True Virtue, to god-like action, creating the True and
the Good in this world, who does not lovingly embrace the
Godhead in clear comprehension; while he who does so
embrace it will thus act without either formal intention or
positive reward, and cannot act otherwise.
We do not here, by any means, promulgate a new doctrine
regarding the spiritual world, but this is the old doctrine
which has been taught in all ages. Thus, for example,
Christianity makes Faith,thc one indispensable condition of
True Life and Blessedness, and rejects, as worthless and
dead, everything without exception that does not spring
from this Faith. But this Faith is the same thing which
we have here named Thought:--the only true view of our-
selves and of the world in the One Unchangeable Divine
Being. It is only after this Faith,--i. e. this clear and living
vision,--has disappeared from the world that men have
placed the conditions of the Blessed Life in what is called
virtue, and thus sought a noble fruit on a wild and unculti-
vated stem.
To this Life, the general characteristics of which have
been set forth in this preliminary sketch, I have here pro-
mised to point you the way;--I have pledged myself to show
you the means by which this Blessed Life may be attained
and enjoyed. This instruction may be comprised in a single
remark, this namely:--It is not required of man that he
should create the Eternal, which he could never do;--the
Eternal is in him, and surrounds him at all times;--he has
but to forsake the Transitory and Perishable with which the
True Life can never unite, and thereupon the Eternal, with
all its Blessedness, will forthwith descend and dwell with
him. We cannot win Blessedness, but we may cast away
our wretchedness; and thereupon Blessedness will forthwith
of itself supply the vacant place. Blessedness, as we have
seen, is unwavering repose in the One Eternal; wretched-
ness is vagrancy amid the Manifold and Transitory; and
therefore the condition of becoming blessed is the return of
our love from the Many to the One.
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? 400
THE DOCTRINE OF RELIGION.
That which is vagrant amid the Manifold and Transitory
is dissolved, poured forth, and spread abroad like water;
notwithstanding its desire to love this and that and many
things besides, it really loves nothing; and just because it
would be everywhere at home, it is nowhere at home. This
vagrancy is our peculiar nature, and in it we are born. For
this reason the return of the mind to the One Eternal,
which is never produced by the common view of things but
must be brought about by our own effort, appears as concen-
tration of the mind, and its indwelling in itself;--as earnest-
ness, in opposition to the merry game we play amid the
manifold diversities of life;--and as profound thoughtfulness,
in opposition to the light-hearted thoughtlessness which,
while it has much to comprehend, yet comprehends nothing
thoroughly. This profound and thoughtful earnestness, this
strict concentration of the mlnd^and'itsTndwelling in itself,
is the one condition under which the Blessed Life can ap-
proach us; but under this condition it approaches and
dwells with us surely and infallibly.
It is certainly true, that, by this withdrawal of our mind
from the Visible, the objects of our former love fade from
our view, and gradually disappear, until we regain them
clothed with fresh beauty in the aether of the new world
which rises before us; and that our whole previous life
perishes, until we regain it as a slight adjunct to the new
life which begins within us. But this is the destiny in-
separable from all Finite Existence; only through death
does it enter into life. Whatever is mortal must die, no-
thing can deliver it from the power of its own nature; in
the Apparent Life it dies continually; where the True Life
begins, in that one death it dies for ever, and for all the un-
known series of future deaths which, in its Apparent Life,
may yet lie before it.
I have promised to show you the way towards the Blessed
Life! But with what applications, and under what images,
forms, and conceptions, shall such instruction be addressed
to this age, in these circumstances? The images and forms
of the established religion, which say the same things which
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? LECTURE I.
401
alone we can here say, and which say them besides in the
same way in which alone we can here say them, because it
is the most fitting way,-- these images and forms have been
first of all emptied of their significance, then openly derid-
ed, and lastly given over to silent and polite contempt. The
propositions and syllogisms of the philosophers are accused
of being pernicious to the country and the nation, and sub-
versive of sound sense, and that before a tribunal where
neither accuser nor judge appears;--and this might be en-
dured :--but what is worse, every one who desires to believe
in these propositions and syllogisms is told beforehand that
he can never understand them;--for this purpose, that he
may not accept the words in their natural sense, and as they
stand, but seek behind them for some peculiar and hidden
meaning;--and in this way misconception and confusion
are sure to arise.
Or, even were it possible to discover forms and applica-
tions by means of which we might communicate such in-
struction, how should we awaken a desire to receive it,--
here, where it is universally taught, and now with greater
applause than ever, that despair of all salvation is the only
possible salvation;--that the faith that mankind are but
the sport of an arbitrary and capricious God is the only true
wisdom;--and where he who still believes in God and Truth,
and in Life and Blessedness therein, is laughed at as an in-
experienced boy who knows nothing of the world?
Be this as it may, we have yet courage in store; and to
have striven for a praiseworthy end, even if it be in vain, is
yet worth our labour. I see before me now, and I hope
still to see here, persons who have partaken in the best cul-
ture which our age affords. First of all, women, to whom,
by the social arrangements of mankind, has been assigned
the task of caring for the minor external wants, and also for
the decorations of human life,--an employment which, more
than any other, distracts the mind and draws it away from
clear and earnest reflection,--while, by way of compensation,
nature has implanted in them warmer aspirations towards
the Eternal, and a more refined perception of it. Then I
Fb
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