{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_71785/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_71785","id":"gutenberg_71785","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71785","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Conduct of life","Happiness"],"text":"THE STEPS OF LIFE\n  BY CARL HILTY\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n  THE STEPS OF LIFE\n  _Further_ ESSAYS ON HAPPINESS\n\n  BY\n  CARL HILTY\n  PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW\n  IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERN\n\n  TRANSLATED BY MELVIN BRANDOW\n  MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHER\n  IN LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA\n\n  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY\n  FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY\n  PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.\n  LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1907\n\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.\n\n  Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1907.\n\n  _Norwood Press_\n  _J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co._\n  _Norwood, Mass., U.S.A._\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\n_The welcome offered to the translation of Professor Hilty\u2019s\n\u201cHappiness\u201d amply justifies the translation of a second series of his\nessays. The same notes of tranquil reflection and keen observation,\nwhich have drawn to the earlier volumes many readers both in Europe and\nAmerica, are here struck again. Professor Hilty is not a preacher, and\nhis essays are not sermons. He is a professor of Constitutional Law,\nand the studies of life which these volumes represent are products of\nhis leisure hours, wrought out of his meditation and experience. Sin\nand sorrow, culture and courage, a just judgment of others, a rational\noptimism, and a simple Christian faith--these are the \u201cSteps of Life\u201d\nup which this wise teacher mounts, and which he invites thoughtful\nreaders to climb. Laurence Oliphant is reported to have said that\nwhat England in the nineteenth century most needed was \u201ca spiritually\nminded man of the world\u201d--a man, that is to say, who could live in\nthe world without being subdued to that he worked in, a man who could\nsurvey and judge his world with the sanity and insight of the spiritual\nmind. Professor Hilty in a very exceptional degree meets this test.\nHis vocation is among the institutions of the political world. His\nlast professional treatise dealt with the history of the Referendum\nin medi\u00e6val Switzerland. When in these Essays he approaches the\nproblems of other professions, such as those of theology or Biblical\ncriticism, it is as an amateur, who satisfies himself with conclusions\nwhich must appear to many minds untenable. It is, however, precisely\nthis unprofessional character of his reflections which gives them\ntheir importance. Here is a learned man, whose business is with other\nstudies, and who has known much both of public honor and of private\naffliction, who refreshes and consoles himself with the observation and\ninterpretation of life, and surveys the shifting landscape of human\nexperience from the height of a responsive mind and a chastened will.\nIt is the testimony of a spiritually minded man of the world._\n\n_There are signs enough at the present time that the spirit of the age\nis dominated by the creed of commercialism and materialism; and there\nare writers enough who deplore this movement of events and who prophesy\nsocial disasters; but something good may be believed of a generation\nwhich is so ready to welcome books like Professor Hilty\u2019s. It may be\ntrue, as has been cleverly said, that many people like to read about\nthe \u201cSimple Life\u201d who have not the least idea of practising it; but\nthe inclination to such literature may be more reasonably traced to a\nmore serious cause. It indicates a survival, beneath the boisterous\nprosperity of the time, of the instincts of idealism, which still\ncreate in great numbers of persons a profound dissatisfaction with the\ncommercial tests of happiness and success. Never was a generation less\ncontented than ours with itself,--less satiated or tranquil in spirit.\nIncrease of wealth has brought with it increase of restlessness;\noutward prosperity has induced nervous prostration; expansion of\nopportunity has created expansion of desire. The fundamental problems\nof sin and sorrow have become all the more baffling and mysterious\nas the superficial problems of subsistence and livelihood have been\nsolved. At such a time it is not surprising that thoughtful minds turn\neagerly to any teacher who speaks with confidence of the realities of\nidealism, who faces experience with a serene hope, and who points out\nthe \u201cSteps of Life\u201d which lead toward the things which are unseen and\neternal. To such readers Professor Hilty has already brought courage\nand faith, and they will gladly accept his further guidance._\n\n                                                     FRANCIS G. PEABODY.\n\n  _Harvard University, December, 1906._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                        PAGE\n\n  ESSAY I\n\n    SIN AND SORROW                         1\n\n  ESSAY II\n\n    \u201cCOMFORT YE MY PEOPLE\u201d                35\n\n  ESSAY III\n\n    ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEN               53\n\n  ESSAY IV\n\n    WHAT IS CULTURE?                     109\n\n  ESSAY V\n\n    NOBLE SOULS                          141\n\n  ESSAY VI\n\n    TRANSCENDENTAL HOPE                  165\n\n  ESSAY VII\n\n    THE PROLEGOMENA OF CHRISTIANITY      183\n\n  ESSAY VIII\n\n    THE STEPS OF LIFE                    213\n\n\n\n\nI. SIN AND SORROW\n\n\n\n\nI. SIN AND SORROW\n\n\nAlthough the Way to Happiness is ever plain and open to all, yet not\nall who have seen it succeed in really finding it. Like poor Pliable\nin the \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress,\u201d they turn back when once they have fallen\ninto the Slough of Despond; and it is they, and not those who have\nnever tried it, who give the narrow path to genuine happiness the poor\nrepute it has with so-called realists.\n\nSuch deserters are often highly gifted and, at first, earnest; and they\nare by no means always lacking in the courage needed to seek the truth\nand for its sake to give up the enticing illusions of life. But on the\nvery threshold of that better life which alone brings peace stand two\ndark figures, like the guardians at the mouth of Hell in the \u201cParadise\nLost\u201d; and before them even the stoutest heart trembles, and they let\nno man by who has not first had it out with them.\n\nWhat stands in the way of our happiness is a twofold terrible reality\nknown to every one who has lived beyond the first half-unconscious\nage of childhood--Sin and Sorrow. To be set free from these is the\ntrue motive in all men\u2019s strivings after happiness; no philosophy, no\nreligion, no economics, no politics, that is not essentially directed\nto this end.\n\nOf these two great antagonists, with which every man has to engage in\nhard conflict, the first is Sin. It begins early in life, for the most\npart earlier than sorrow, earlier even than the common expression of\n\u201cthe innocence of childhood\u201d implies. \u201cYe lead us into life amain,\nye let poor man all sinful grow, and then abandon him to pain;\u201d thus\nGoethe accuses the \u201cheavenly powers,\u201d really meaning, however, an\ninexorable fate which, in his view, dominates human existence, and\nagainst which neither Promethean revolt avails nor the attempt (more\ncommon since his day) to deny the existence of sin altogether. In every\nman there lives a relentlessly real feeling that duty and sin do exist,\nand that sin not merely follows transgression, but is lodged within it\nand must pour its consequences with mathematical certainty upon the\nhead of the guilty one, unless averted by some means or other; and that\ncan be by no mere philosophical train of reasoning.\n\nTry (if you would be so bold) by mere negation to declare yourself free\nfrom these realities, rooted like granite in all human existence!\nNotwithstanding your resolution, there is, all the same, in every\naction of yours, yes, in every thought, _a right way_, and if you do\nnot pursue it, then it is a sin. Or rather do not try; it is a reef on\nwhich millions have already gone to pieces, and on which you will go\nto pieces, too. \u201cBeyond all Good and Evil\u201d is a place not to be found\non earth outside the mad-house, where many men, often highly gifted,\nare shut up to-day; not merely by chance, for the human spirit sinks\ninto madness whenever, in all earnestness, it seeks to disregard these\ntruths in its own life.\n\nI am quite well aware that this does not \u201cexplain\u201d the feeling of duty\nand sin; besides, it is a matter of indifference to man\u2019s welfare how\nthis feeling is to be explained, whether as a superstition handed down\nfor many generations, or as a belief wholly in accord with reason. Even\nif it be a superstition, the champion has not yet been found who is\nable to set humanity free from a nightmare which has burdened it from\nthe beginning of time; the isolated, weak attempts to do so have for\nthe most part fallen out very unhappily for those who undertook them. A\nman who, with clear, unclouded brow, openly denies duty and sin, and,\nthough boldly believing he may do anything he pleases, has yet gone\nthrough his whole life glad-heartedly, with the certainty of his inner\nconviction unruffled--such a man we should first like to see, before we\nbelieve in him. And though such a man were to be found, he would stand\nalone and would be incomprehensible to all other men, so differently\nconstituted.\n\nDuty and sin become wholly intelligible only when we recognize a\npersonal, extra-mundane God from whose will this inner law proceeds;\nwhile the so-called \u201cimmanence\u201d of God is but another name for atheism\nor pantheism. To be sure, it would be idle to desire a reasoned\nexplanation of the transcendental God; everything transcendental by\nits very nature escapes our comprehension, and for this reason the\nso-called \u201cproofs\u201d of the existence of God have no power to convince\nthe human understanding. Nor do they seem as yet ever to have convinced\nany one who did not first want to be. In so far, therefore, atheism\nhas a certain right to declare itself not convinced; but it is itself\njust as little in a position to prove that its own system is in any\nway reasonable, or to solve the doubts which that system generates.\nTherefore so long as humanity abides, the matter will perhaps stand\nsimply at this, that one can not prove there is a God, but just as\nlittle, if God indeed exists, can one remove him out of the account of\nhis own life by a mere denial. The decisive question of all questions\nfor every man (but always a question) will be: whether he shall attempt\nsuch a denial and be able to attain the inward peace he expects\ntherefrom, or whether he shall acknowledge as binding the categorical\ndemand of the oldest divine revelation, \u201cI am the Lord thy God, and\nthou shalt have no other gods before me.\u201d\n\nThe willing recognition of this demand (which in its second half\nalready comprehends all morality) by a man who has come to full\ndeliberation over himself and his life-purpose,--this it is that first\nbrings him out of a thoroughly ineffectual revolt against a divine\norder he can not change by his thoughts alone, on into the possibility\nof a harmony with himself and the surrounding world. And besides, the\nwhole history of humanity is nothing else than the gradual unfolding of\nsuch a free will of the nations toward the will of God. Whoever denies\nthis, and lives up to his denial, acts against his own welfare and the\nend for which he was destined, as well as against the good of mankind;\nand this state of war against God and man, as well as against one\u2019s own\nlife, is very likely the cause that calls forth the feeling of sin.\nThere is no other and better explanation for it, in my opinion.\n\nMoreover, what Evil really is and exactly what Christ understood by\nthe prayer for deliverance from it will, as long as we live on earth,\nremain just as obscure to us as what God is. We only know, and from\nexperience alone, that we can yield ourselves into its power, and\nfurther, that it possesses no other power over us than we ourselves\ngrant it. This especially comes to pass through our disobedience to\nwhat is true and through the preponderance of the sensual, animal\nlife over the spiritual. Every more finely organized man feels this\nforthwith through a gradually increasing physical discomfort from\nwhich nothing else than a turn-about shall free him. And likewise, the\nspirit of truth in a man or a book, in a whole household or people, one\nrecognizes as something beneficent, while the spirit of falsehood he\nfeels to be something unhealthy and poisonous, like bad air in a room,\nto which one can, to be sure, accustom oneself, if one desires. A man\ncan, of course, try to dismiss all this matter from his thoughts; he\nhas perfect freedom of will to do so. But whether it will let _him_\nalone is quite another and more important question.\n\nWe neither can nor will, therefore, dispute with those who assert they\nhave never harbored any feeling of sin; we can not look into their\nsouls. We only reply that they would in that case find themselves in an\nextreme minority and really at the stage of evolution of the animals;\nfor these also have no feeling of moral obligation and therefore no\nsin, but everything is permitted them that their natural impulse\ndemands. If, on the other hand, such men possess the feeling of sin\nonly now and then even, still it must be said it is not explicable in\nany other way than from the standpoint of a moral order of the world\nwhich we can not change and contrary to which we may not behave, nor\neven think.\n\nWe turn now to those who acknowledge all this. For them the problem\nis to find a way of release from a burden which is by far the most\nunendurable of all earthly burdens.\n\nThe first thing to say to them is this: Do not let sin get the least\nfoothold in your life; you must and can not do otherwise. For what\nafterward becomes a crushing actuality is at first, for the most part,\nmerely a fleeting thought, an arrow from one knows not whence, shot\ninto the unoccupied soul. And if it lingers there, if it is not at\nonce thrust forth while it is still easy, then there soon arises an\nevil propensity, upon which mostly follows, first the clouding of the\nmoral consciousness, and at last the deed. After the deed comes often\nenough a despair that hopes for no salvation more; or what has happened\nis now for the first time justified before oneself with materialistic\nphilosophy: in either case the death of the true spiritual life.\n\nBut unfortunately this counsel to \u201cresist the beginnings\u201d is only a\nvery theoretical one, and they who have the bold faith of being able\nalways to do this from a voluntary disposition toward the good, and by\ntheir own strength, will, in the course of their own life and in their\nobservation of others, be compelled bit by bit to lessen altogether too\nfar the demands they make of human kind. This is the especial weakness\nof the noble Kantian philosophy. A grievous passage through some Valley\nof Humiliation, or an abatement in the clear vision of his moral\nconsciousness inevitably comes upon the man who, at first, believed\nhe was able, with uplifted head and without any help from without, to\ntread the Path of Virtue without wandering from the way.\n\nTherefore the second counsel is more important for man as he is\nactually constituted: Free thyself at any cost from every sin thou\nbearest, if thou wouldst arrive at happiness. This way passes the\nunerring road; just as, in Purgatory, Dante could enter the portal of\nsalvation only by passing the grave angel guardian sitting upon the\ndiamond threshold with naked sword. There is no other way to set your\nsoul truly free. Goethe, it is true, has tried in the second part of\n\u201cFaust\u201d to discover a kind of natural salvation from sin; and this,\nin fact, has remained the path which many, still to-day, are seeking\nout: namely, the noble enjoyment of nature, which at least now and\nthen can silence the accusing voices within; with art and the charm\nof the beautiful, wherein many perceive at once the consummation and\nthe expiation of material man; or finally, action, a share in the work\nof civilization, which is to uplift the depressed heart and to delude\nitself with the applause of the multitude, at least for the moment.\nBut, alongside all this, nevertheless, sin remains inexorably standing,\na melancholy fact; and even the great poet was unable to set it aside\nin any credible way. A divine love that receives a man to its bosom\neven though he be not repentant, but, on the contrary, persists to the\nlast moment in defiantly living out his life in his own way--a divine\nlove of this sort is a mere picture of the fancy, an arbitrary poetical\ninvention, against which even Goethe\u2019s Promethean soul was obliged, for\nits own honor, to protest with the last breath of the body.\n\nYet even repentance does not alone release from sin, but there must be\na trustful turning of the soul to God, whose mighty arm of mercy (as\nManfred says in Dante\u2019s great poem) receives all that turn to it; and\nit will not be prevented from doing so, even by an authoritative decree\nof a church.\n\nAnd in this regard the greatness of the sin is no matter. What _is_\ngreat and small in human sin anyway, weighed, not according to human\nnotions and the penal law-books, but in the eye of a judge who knows\nall and metes a perfect justice?\n\nWhoever finds within himself the courage to appeal to His mercy has\nalready received it in all essentials, for the disfavor of God\nconsists mainly in the \u201cjudgment of obduracy,\u201d a judgment which lets\nthe offender remain unbroken and defiant until his end, and prevents\nhim from calling upon this mercy.\n\nOur churches, to be sure, have in a measure widely strayed from this\nsimple way of atonement and affirm a very much more positive manner of\nsalvation from sin, either through outward works, or at least through\ndefinite dogmatic conceptions of reconciliation with God.\n\nIn the first case, we hold that all outward works of penitence, as well\nas all \u201cgood works,\u201d are valueless unless they spring spontaneously\nfrom the inner turning to God. Even then they are never meritorious\nalthough helpful and pacifying. The essential thing in \u201crepentance\u201d (a\ngreat matter, whose import, however, we have almost lost) is not the\nsorrow of regret, which rather, often enough, merely \u201cworketh death,\u201d\nbut on the one hand, the complete turning of the will toward a change\nof life, and on the other hand, the conviction that, for this purpose,\nwe stand in need of another power than our own, a power without which\nthe will itself often enough remains only a \u201cgood intention.\u201d\n\nQuite intelligible, therefore, at least for the Christian churches\nand their sincere adherents, is the appeal to the help of Christ as\nthe Saviour sent into the world by God himself, and who for that very\nreason may not be ignored. But the oppressed soul does not, therefore,\nneed an extensive \u201cChristology\u201d; indeed, there is really no Christology\nthat is trustworthy, but God alone knows the nature of this Saviour\nand the mystery of salvation through him. All that men have spoken\nand written about it for two centuries now has been condemned to\nunfruitfulness and has given real comfort to no one, although human\nerror in these matters, if held in good faith, has probably of itself\nnever caused any one to be lost. Only by the practical but unfailing\nroad of experience, then, will you learn that a simple \u201cLord, help me,\u201d\ncoming from the very depths of the heart, shall open a way that, to all\nyour philosophy, to all your submission to church, to all your severest\nworks of penitence, had remained closed as with tenfold iron doors.\nThis barricade is opened for you by the one great, unconditioned word\nof the gospel: \u201cHim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d\n\nWhether you are to confess to men besides, and what reparation you have\nto make to them, is to be determined only after you have experienced\nthis salvation, after you have taken the Hand that lifts you out of the\nunstable floods of uncertainty and anxiety, and sets you upon the firm\nground of faith. Before, it is quite to no purpose; rather, this is\njust the obstacle which keeps far the most men from any confession of\nrepentance--which has perhaps to take place before a third person, on\nwhom one then fears to stand, his life long, in spiritual dependence.\nBut very possibly you will feel yourself called to go to a man for\nconfession; for in addition to its transcendental side Christianity is,\nafter all, a human brotherhood also. And this will be especially the\ncase when pride is in your soul. In that event there enters, perhaps,\nthe psychological necessity of a humbling before men also, not alone\nbefore God; and the actual expression of forgiveness, by a man called\nthereto by God, contains for many men a quieting influence that they\ncan not find in a mere thought-process, real as it may be.\n\nIf, then, you know such a man, if you feel this inner summons, if\nyou can resolve to speak to him with entire sincerity as before God\nhimself, and if you are willing to accept his directions without\nreservations, then simply go quietly to him; in so doing, it is\npossible you are attaining to a greater advance in the inner life,\nand in shorter time than otherwise. But if even a single one of\nthese presuppositions is wanting, then such a confession will profit\nyou nothing at all. And if you should make of it a merely human\ntransaction, out of regard to an existing ecclesiastical form, or in\norder thereby to show honor to another, then you dishonor what is most\nhallowed, and bring upon yourself, and upon him you honor, the greatest\nharm.\n\nAnd make up your mind to escape now, while it is still time and while\nthe summons still comes to you, no matter through whom or in what\nway; whether through a voice within or a voice from without, whether\nby chance or of set purpose, whether through sermon, or book, or\nnewspaper, or any other instrumentality. The Book of Job asserts as\na fact of experience that the summons comes to every one \u201ctwice or\nthrice\u201d:\n\n  \u201c_Lo, all these things doth God work,\n  Twice, yea, thrice with a man,\n  To bring back his soul from the pit,\n  That he may be enlightened with the light of the living._\u201d\n\nBut as a rule the summons has an outward semblance no more striking\nthan that of any other communication. Much more than upon its form and\nmanner it depends upon this: that it touch in the innermost heart of\nman a string still sensitive to this tone, struck from another key than\none\u2019s ordinary life and thought.\n\nAnd so, if the summons shall come to you once more, then arouse\nyourself, but at once, where you are and as you are, in business, on\nthe street, in society, even in the theatre or in any other place;\ndelay for not one minute the resolution to strike every sin out of\nyour life. Then everything will become easier and clearer; that gloomy\nspirit and those false conceptions, which are simply the direct\nconsequence of sin itself, will leave you, and a day will come at last\nwhen you also can say: \u201cNow am I become, in God\u2019s sight, a soul that\nfindeth peace.\u201d\n\n\nII\n\nIf you should ask men which of these two great evils, sin and sorrow,\nthey had rather see banished from their life, the majority, we fear,\nwould choose to see sorrow banished. But wrongly; for not only is sin\nvery often the basal cause of sorrow, but it is also comparatively\neasy to bear heavy sorrow if no feeling of guilt is bound up with it.\nOn the contrary, even in the midst of grief one often feels a closer\nnearness to God that beatifies the human heart in its inmost depths;\none feels, too, the truth of the saying that the spirit of man can be\njoyous even in distress. And so, beyond all doubt, the greatest of\nevils is sin; and in this fact lies, what is very often overlooked, a\ntremendous equalizing force in human conditions, which in this respect\nknow no distinction between rich and poor.\n\nOn the other hand, to be sure, the relation of the two evils to each\nother is, not rarely, an inverted one: the first impulse to sin comes\nsometimes from sorrow, the tormenting anxiety how to get through life,\nthe conviction, in troubled moments almost forcing itself upon us, that\none will not be able to carry through the hard struggle for existence\nif one is too painfully scrupulous, if one may not use a little\ndishonesty, deception, and force, \u201cjust as everybody else does, and\nas seems unfortunately to be inevitable, you know, in human affairs.\u201d\nWithout this conviction many men would be upright who now think they\ncan not be. This is really a superstition which to-day almost seems\nto be more prevalent than ever, and to destroy it should be one of the\nchief concerns of the Christianity of our time. Christianity was also\nmuch concerned therewith in the days of its beginnings, when it gave\nnot merely the counsel but the command, \u201cnot to be anxious,\u201d giving at\nthe same time a very positive direction as to how the command might be\ncarried out: \u201cSeek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all\nthese things shall be added unto you.\u201d\n\nBut this counsel, of course, presupposes trust in God; without this, it\nis of no value. An unconquerable anxiety is, therefore, in most cases\nevidence of a secret atheism. Among the most remarkable of the many\nremarkable things of this life is this: that so many of the very wisest\npeople voluntarily submit to this punishment, their whole life through,\nwhen they could have things so much better. For God is faithful, a\nrock on which one may rely; this is the one thing we most surely know\nof him, the one thing we can most easily ourselves experience. But\nfaithfulness is in its nature reciprocal, and our own faithfulness\nconsists far less in any sort of acts or confessions than in the\nresolute shutting out of all distrust every time it would approach us\nin the manifold difficulties and injustices of this life.\n\nTo be sure, complete confidence in the possibility of a release from\nsorrows through trust in God comes to be a certainty only through\nexperience; but there is, in the Bible and in countless later writings\nand in many human lives, such a mass of assurances and experiences of\ntrustworthy men, and on the other hand, there are, before our eyes, so\nmany obvious examples of the impossibility of any other release from\nsorrow, that we may fittingly ask: Why is there so great an aversion to\nmaking this experience? Why, when men are tormented with sorrow, often\nto the point of despair, why do they not at least make trial of this,\ninstead of seeking death? The reason, perhaps, is mostly this: they do\nnot want to be dependent on God; they had much rather put dependence on\npitiless men. Indeed, the assurances of the Bible may be appropriated\nin their literal, full meaning only by the man who has sought no alien\nhelp beside, nor any human help at all before he has first sought\nGod\u2019s. But how many are there to-day who do that? So long as the sun\nof fortune shines for them, they believe in their \u201clucky star\u201d with\na kind of ludicrous or sacrilegious fatalism, and therewith a secret\nfear often takes them unawares; for \u201chappiness of this kind needs many\nsupports, while the happiness of those at one with the will of God\nhas need of but one.\u201d But when once they have misfortune and no human\naid to ward it off, they go all to pieces and fall into the manifold\n\u201cnervous affections\u201d of our time, into sleeplessness and ceaseless\nunrest, and these bring them to the numberless sanitariums, for the\nmost part vainly; for \u201cthe sorrow of the world worketh death,\u201d and\nagainst that no nerve specialist nor hydropathy avails.\n\nIt is certain that there is a way of release from continuous sorrow; it\nmust be just as certain that single and even frequent sorrows belong to\nthe necessary events of our life. There can be no human life without\nsorrows; but to live with sorrows, yes, with many sorrows, yet free\nfrom sorrow\u2019s burden, that is the art of life toward which we are being\ntrained. It is, therefore, an everyday experience that men who have\ntoo few sorrows buy themselves some; for riches, which in the view of\nmost men are meant to release one from anxiety, are not fitted to do\nthat; they are \u201cdeceitfulness,\u201d as Christ himself calls them, and his\nwarnings against them, which we are wont to take so lightly, are surely\nnot there for merely \u201cdecorative effect.\u201d\n\nWe must have sorrows, and for three substantial reasons: in the first\nplace, in order not to become arrogant and frivolous; sorrows are\nthe weight in the clock, to regulate its proper movement; misfortune\nis really in most cases the only means of salvation for those who\nare not on the right way. In the second place, to enable us to have\nfellow-feeling with others; people who are too well nourished and free\nfrom customary sorrows easily become egotists, who at last not merely\nhave compassion for pale faces no longer, but regard them as a kind\nof offence, a disturbing element in their ease; they may go so far as\nto feel downright hatred for them. And finally, because sorrows alone\neffectively teach us to trust in God and seek his aid; for the granting\nof prayer and the consequent release from sorrow is the only convincing\nproof of God, and likewise the test of the truth of Christianity to\nwhich Christ himself challenges us. Therefore the evil days are good;\nwithout them, most men would never come at all to the soberer thoughts.\n\nFurthermore, the deliverances from sorrow, the triumphal days when a\nman beholds a mountain-load rolled away, belong to undoubtedly the\npurest moments of happiness in life, moments that God must grant to\nhis own, if he is truly merciful to them. Spurgeon, therefore, rightly\nsays, in one of his finest sermons, that if we truly trust God, he is,\nin the beginning, better than our fears, then better than our hopes,\nand finally better than our wishes. For his people, sorrow always lasts\nonly so long as it still has a task to fulfil on their behalf.\n\nIf one wished to put the truth a little paradoxically, then one might,\nwith frank directness, say to many a man who is forever complaining of\nall sorts of little things, to whom much in the world is not right,\nneither weather, nor politics, nor social relations, \u201cYou have too few\ncares; make yourself some, care for others who have too many; then you\nwill no longer have any of that sickly, discontented disposition, or at\nleast will no longer give so much heed to what now makes you unhappy.\u201d\nPeople in particular who have a spiritual calling should never wish\nthemselves freedom from sorrow, for then they can never effectively\nspeak with others who have sorrows; nay, in most cases they can not\nreally understand them.\n\nAnd so we repeat: incessant sorrow there must not be; from such there\nis a way of escape; if you will not use it, then bear your sorrow as\na punishment therefor. But of occasional troubles you must accept a\ngenerous share with good grace and overcome them through the power of\nyour spirit and will.\n\nAnd now we come to the various human remedies for sorrow.\n\nThe best is Patience and Courage. \u201cWhoever,\u201d says Bishop Sailer, \u201cis\nable to submit to God in every hour of darkness will soon see the\nmorning light again arise; for his submission is the cock-crow that\nheralds and greets the coming day.\u201d And indeed it is a fact remarkably\ntrue to experience, how often all difficulty vanishes as soon as\nwe have taken a stand in regard to it, as soon as we have actually\nshouldered it. Our very best possessions we really possess only when we\nwere once in our life compelled to give them up. Besides, it is easy\nto notice, from our own experience, that even our judgment of things\nthat befall us is often wrong at first. Again and again we discover\nthat what was apparently unpropitious and injurious has later revealed\nitself as advantageous, and that, on the other hand, so-called lucky\nevents have turned out to be of uncommonly little use, if not actually\nharmful. And so, one is very sensible if he can suspend his judgment\nin times of anxiety; and still more help can many a time be gained\nfrom the thought that all trouble is always borne merely from moment\nto moment, and that the next moment will bring a change, or at least\nnew strength. Very often trouble lasts, in its full force, no longer\nthan three days; those one may easily undertake to endure. The real\nburden of unhappiness consists in the notion that it is going to last\nan unlimited while; this is merely a delusion of the fancy.\n\nBut there are still some minor remedies besides, or at least\npalliatives, and it is well worth the pains for one to review them\nquietly and get a clear conception of them; for what is said in the\nsecond part of \u201cFaust\u201d is only too true, that if sorrow but breathes\nupon us, she makes us blind.\n\nThe first and most efficacious of these remedies is Work, not merely\nfor its immediate results, but because it busies the mind and keeps\nit from useless brooding over things that perhaps never come at all;\nfor a great part of sorrow consists of unfounded fear. Work gives\ncourage, and it gives momentary forgetfulness in a legitimate way, as\nunwarranted and pernicious \u201cdistractions\u201d and drink do not. It is the\nonly true, permissible, and beneficent Lethe-draught of the modern\nworld.\n\nThe second means, which can, of course, be used only by those to whom\nGod is a living Personality and not merely an idea, is Prayer--indeed,\nto pray to God first of all before one speaks with men. Spurgeon says,\nperhaps truly, that herein lies hidden also the secret of success\nwith men--that is, the art of speaking rightly with men, through whom\nGod then sends help in a practical way. But we do not wish to write a\ntreatise here on prayer. Suffice it to say that, in prayer, faith is\nnecessary on the one hand, and on the other, that the man should turn\nto God with his whole will, with all his spiritual power concentrated\nupon a single point. The result, in any case, is power; and, besides\nthe experience of more frequent aid, there follows the conclusion,\nentirely logical, that if God bestows on man the greatest of life\u2019s\nblessings, he will not refuse him those minor ones also, which serve\nonly for the preservation of life. There would really be no sense in\nbringing a man so far on his way as to begin to lead an upright life,\nand then to let him die of hunger. The expression, so often heard,\nthat there are no longer any miracles in these days, is most certainly\nuntrue. No one can bind a living God to \u201cnatural laws.\u201d\n\nWithout doubt, however, it often happens that one must wait for the\nprayer\u2019s fulfilment, must at times, indeed, stand knocking for a long\nwhile; or the prayer may never be fulfilled at all. But then, in the\nfirst case, perhaps even this waiting is the right answer to the prayer\n(as, to be sure, one mostly discovers only later); and in the other\ncase, you perhaps receive something better than you yourself had chosen.\n\nA third means, chiefly availing in financial anxieties, is Contentment,\npleasure in simple things. From this, the men of our day have wandered\nfar; and, for many, an ever-heightening enjoyment passes for the only\ntrue purpose of life, and a certain measure of luxury is regarded as\na requirement and a symbol of culture. It will be necessary for men\nto return once more to simplicity in their mode of living and to a\nvoluntary renunciation of the philosophy of pleasure, if they are to\nbanish sorrow, and often still worse from their life. Praying for\npleasure nothing avails; it is not for the needs of luxury that God is\nto be had, but for daily bread.\n\nIn close relation to contentment stand two other great remedies against\nsorrow. The first is a wise Frugality. This goes hand in hand, indeed,\nonly with honest acquisition; what is unjustly acquired is seldom\nwisely saved, and, according to a true proverb, rarely descends to the\nthird heir. In such cases, therefore, frugality is of no use. Frugality\ncan also, in other cases, be actually harmful. Excessive calculation,\nand anxiety extending to the smallest minuti\u00e6 of expenditure, leads\nto needless care, and almost as many people come to spiritual ruin\nthrough this as through heedless improvidence. And so, the blessing (or\ncurse) that rests on the actions of men has a manifest relation to the\nobservance of the moral commandments. If it were not so, it would be\ntruly enigmatical how so many thousands of honest men get through life\nwithout property or sure income. They themselves would be least of all\nin a position to explain it.\n\nThere is one more remedy against financial anxiety, and that, strange\nto say, is systematic Giving. This the ancient prophets of Israel\nalready knew; in our day it has lately assumed prominence again,\nespecially through George M\u00fcller and Spurgeon. Whether the amount to be\nlaid aside for this purpose should be the tenth part of one\u2019s income\nwould seem a matter of complete indifference; but a definite part it\nmust be; and it should never be allowed to remain a matter of mere\nintentions, which the natural avarice of men will always find ways of\nevading. In this way a man oftentimes acquires his first inclination\ntoward caring for his poor fellow-men, while otherwise they appear to\nhim only too often as troublesome claimants for something that rightly\nbelongs to himself alone or that he has need of for himself and for\nhis own. But when a man possesses such a fund, no longer belonging to\nhimself, then he looks around more freely to see where he may put the\nmoney to good use; then at times he even anticipates the appeal of the\ntongue when he sees the mute appeal of the eye. This single habit,\nuniversally adopted, would help solve the social question more than all\nthe talking and scribbling with which the world now resounds, for the\nmost part vainly.\n\nA stoical remedy we will finally name, because, when all the others\nhave first been tried, in most cases it is no longer necessary. It\nconsists in picturing to ourselves the worst that could happen. And,\nin fact, this does afford a certain consolation, at least for him who\nis able to make use of it; others, on the contrary, can be led by this\npath, and without any need for it, to despair.\n\nNevertheless, all this does not always bring immediate help. The\nSpirit of Sorrow often falls upon one like an armed man (especially\nin sleepless nights), and leaves him no time for instant resistance.\nIn that case, the first step is to discover the cause. If it is sin,\nit must be at once set right. If there is no definite cause present,\nor if it is of a physical nature, then withstand it by physical\nremedies, such as sleep, fresh air, exercise, or by work; never by mere\n\u201cdistractions,\u201d for afterward the trouble returns with doubled power.\nOften a good quotation will strengthen, such as: \u201cCan a woman forget\nher sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of\nher womb? yea, these may forget; yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I\nhave graven thee upon the palms of my hands.\u201d\n\nIf the cause of sorrow is some trouble actually present, and not one\nfeared in the future, then perhaps the following thought will help: We\nmust bear what God lays upon us; and we must, with all our power of\nwill, hold fast the conviction that nothing can possibly happen without\nhis permission and that all is measured in accord with our strength,\nwhose actual resources we often do not know ourselves. These two\nthoughts, then, are provisionally our support; whoever gives up this\nsupport is like a man who clings to a rope over an abyss and lets go\nthe rope. There is no call to be overstoical; we may give vent to our\nsorrow, only not at all to ourselves and but sparingly to others; and\nwe should then take some action in accordance with our reason, though\nnot in accordance with that alone,--nor always at once, while it is\nstill troubled with excitement. With these presuppositions, one can\nendure much.\n\nIt is quite possible that at times even this does not seem rightly to\navail. In that case, these are the periods of life when the genuine\nsteel of character is to be formed, that otherwise may not be brought\nto pass. Then at least make the attempt simply to hold out for a short\ntime longer,--for a month, a week, three days, or even only for a\nsingle day. Not rarely at the end of such a term you are stronger than\nat its beginning, and frequently experience shows it to be the case\nthat from the very moment one is preparing himself for the apparently\ninevitable, and no longer seeks or expects any human aid, at that very\nmoment relief is already coming. The suffering has then just fulfilled\nits purpose.\n\nIn conclusion, only one thing more: we know very well how people, in\nthe hours of their heaviest struggles with sorrow, can lose faith in\nevery ground of consolation and look upon such grounds as unsatisfying,\nor as the empty talk of people who have themselves suffered nothing\nlike. That may be true, or again it may not. But, in case you think\nit is, nevertheless try to bear, for the glory of God, what you will\nand can no longer endure for your own sake or for the sake of those\nnear to you. \u201cWhen you are driven almost to despair,\u201d says Spurgeon,\n\u201cand are tempted to lay violent hands upon yourself or to do some\nother rash and evil deed, do nothing of the kind, but trust yourself\nto your God; that will bring him more glory than seraphim and cherubim\ncan give. To believe the promise of God, when you are ill, or sad, or\nnear to death--that it is to glorify God.\u201d This \u201cgiving God the glory,\u201d\nor \u201cpraising the Lord,\u201d or \u201challowing his name,\u201d is one of the many\nexpressions of the Bible which have now quite vanished from our real\ncomprehension and have become an empty phrase. To render glory to God\non earth and still to live for him though one would otherwise be glad\nto dispense with life, that is the highest of all life\u2019s resignations;\nand he to whom this duty is finally intrusted is not to make complaint,\nbut to be ashamed if it come to one unwilling to accept it. But if it\nhas come to a man who has something of the heroic in his nature, then\nby its means he will, for the first time, develop the possibilities\nthat lay dormant within him; and the feeling of a larger and surer\nnearness to God will then, in the bitterest hours of his life, so lift\nhim above himself that these very hours will seem to his after-memory\nas the most beautiful--as those, indeed, to which he owes all his real\nhappiness in life.\n\nSin and sorrow cling close together in human life; therefore they are\nalso displayed here before the reader as an associated hindrance on the\nway to happiness.\n\nThe first step, as a rule, must be to banish sin from life; only then\nmay one seriously think of getting rid of sorrow. For the only true\nfreedom from sorrow lies not in a man\u2019s natural disposition, nor is it\nthe product of happy outward surroundings of any sort; true freedom\nfrom sorrow is found in that higher happiness, painfully won, to which\nJob was led, after his earlier happiness, dependent upon fortuitous\nthings, had been done away. To this happiness, henceforth secure, we\nall without exception should attain and can attain, just as soon as we\nhave fought through the gates at which the guardians Sin and Sorrow\nstand.\n\n\n\n\nII. \u201cCOMFORT YE MY PEOPLE\u201d\n\n\n\n\nII. \u201cCOMFORT YE MY PEOPLE\u201d\n\n\nMany who are distressed over the manifold evils of our time (but do not\nthemselves have to suffer any too keenly under them) comfort themselves\nand others in the end with a verse from one of the hymns of Paul\nGerhardt:\n\n  \u201c_The upper hand God holdeth, and maketh all things well._\u201d\n\nI do not know whether the poet put so strong a stress upon the words\n\u201call things\u201d as we are wont to do, but thus much I certainly do know,\nthat Christianity shows scant favor to an optimism of this sort;\nall things will not be well in the end in spite of human folly and\nbaseness; but, until the consummation of all things human, good and\nevil, justice and injustice, will continue to exist side by side as\nJesus, in the parable of the wheat and the tares, has clearly said once\nfor all.\n\nNo, the idealism of Christianity is something quite other than a\nshallow optimism; it is much rather a strong faith that everything\ngenuinely good, however slight compared to the tremendous power and\nmight of the forces arrayed against it, never can be crushed by them,\nbut ever maintains itself victorious against its foes. That is the\ncomfort to be given its followers, a comfort that will take from them\nthe fear of losing poise in the midst of the merciless actualities of\ndaily experience; and that is the real meaning of many a Bible word\ntoo often explained in the sense of striving after earthly power and\nsplendor; and that, too, is the meaning of some of the finest and most\nfamiliar hymns from the fighting days of the Reformation, such as that\nhymn of Luther, \u201cA mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never-failing.\u201d\n\nOn the other hand, the power of what Christianity calls \u201cthe world\u201d\nis very great, and all the elements that make up that power, from the\nlofty pretension of some distinguished atheistic philosophy all the\nway down to the basest instinct of the most brutal selfishness, form\nan extremely close alliance. And the human heart, now overdaring, now\novertimid, is so uncertain that even into the life of those who work\nmost effectively for the good, come hours when they despair, not of\ntheir task only, but even of their whole manner of thinking, a despair\nthat once and again God must dispel with a \u201cBe not afraid, but speak.\u201d\n\nIf we look upon life from God\u2019s standpoint, instead of our own as we\nhad rather do, we see it is not a matter of purely and simply making\nhis people happy. No, first of all they are to be made fearless, for\nall right living is a life of battling, not of unruffled peace; but\nof battling without fear, of warring in a good cause and under sure\nguidance with that heroism which is the highest of all human qualities\nand the best of all earthly joys.\n\nThis is that never-ending conflict between good and evil which every\nsingle human being must fight out in his own life, although the final\nissue is reached only at the end of all things and in a manner to us\nunknown. \u201cOn the advance post of a man\u2019s individual experience the\nquestion is the same as in the great battle of the hosts, namely this:\nwhether a faith that is anchored in God is not the highest of moral\nforces, able to overcome the ever-present power of evil, especially\nthe fundamental sin of self-seeking; for if the victory is gained at\nthe advance post, it may be gained all along the line.\u201d Perhaps this\nis truer than we know, or ever experience on earth. That there is no\nhigher power in the world than comes from association with God, every\nsingle human life must by trial discover. But for that very reason\nsuch association must be sought of one\u2019s own free will, and of one\u2019s\nown free will always cling to; and that makes the problem of life.\n\nIn order to gain, in this warfare, a spirit of joy quite different\nfrom the moroseness and half-despair of many Christians, the means\nclosest at hand is this: to try to battle, not according to our own\nideas, but, as in military service, punctiliously as commanded. Such\nmeans, however, is external; there is an inner basis for the right\nspirit of joy, without which that joy can not be enduring, and that\ninner basis is the abiding of God in the heart. When all opposition\nto God disappears, then appears the real joy of living and the great\nconsolation he gives on earth. This peace with God, which in time\nmay even grow, as it were, into an enduring and genuine friendship,\nthe human soul must experience, else it shall not know what inward\nhappiness is. And outward happiness is only the easy sequence of the\ninward; God gladly does nothing but good to men as soon as he finds it\npossible.\n\nHere, also, lies the real cause of the philosophical atheism that makes\nup the religion of many excellent people, who suppose they can not\nthink otherwise, though they would gladly like to. A man\u2019s simple logic\nwill tell him that it is not consistent to say one believes in God, and\nyet not allow God to dwell in him and rule him absolutely; and it is a\nnoble trait of many doubters that they do not dare to serve God with\nmere phrases, but they see that if once he should be taken up into the\naccount of life, he would be a \u201cconsuming fire\u201d for much that exists in\ntheir lives, for much that they would be obliged to give up, but do not\nwant to give up. Faith is a matter, not of the reason, but of the human\nwill; and the difficulty lies in just this resolution to serve God,\nwith all its consequences--a resolution the man himself must make, for\nno divine mercy can wholly take its place.\n\nThe principal things a man must surrender, if God is to be able to\ndwell in him, are pleasure, riches, glory, and reliance upon men.\nOn the other hand, when this renunciation has once been made, more\nand more there disappear within him, of themselves, fear, anger,\nunrest, and the tormenting feeling of weakness, all of them the sure\ninheritance and distinguishing mark of the godless. This is the road,\nand they who think they can squeeze around this sharp corner with a\nfew philosophical considerations, or with an occasional cry of \u201cLord,\nLord,\u201d will likely be the most deceived at last.\n\nFear is perhaps the most distressing, the most unworthy, yet the most\nunavoidable of all human feelings; for life is a battle, and the fear\nthat naturally arises in the presence of battle no man can banish; he\ncan but subdue it by uplifting his point of view. Whether this can\nbe done through the ancient Stoic or the modern Kantian philosophy,\nwe will leave to one side; I have no intention of making any one\ndissatisfied with these paths. But I do wish to say that there is\na surer and shorter path, requiring less education and strength of\ncharacter, and open, not merely to an aristocracy of philosophical\nculture, but to every one. If this had not been so, if Christianity\nhad not lifted the poor and the humble up out of the dust, a \u201cgentry\nmorality\u201d would long ago have come into exclusive mastery in the world,\nas it was in a fair way of doing at the time Christianity was born.\n\nIn our day there are two common conceptions of Christianity, both\nof them overpassing the mark: one of them makes of it a sentimental\nlamblike bliss that finds its pleasurable sensations solely \u201cin\nChrist\u201d; the other considers it a fearful vale of tears, an unending\nsuccession of trials and sorrows. But Christianity is not so; its path\nis really much easier than any other; for it not only demands, it\nalso creates, brave people--brave people who, free from complaining,\nfree from overmuch seeking of even rightful pleasures, free from any\ncowardly flight from the world, in the very midst of the world hold up\nunshaken the banner of righteousness and never despair of its victory.\n\nThis is the spirit that we most need to-day; and this is the sure mark\nof a genuine Christian. If we will, we can be wholly without fear,\nnot only before the forces of nature, which all stand in God\u2019s higher\npower, but also before the cares of daily life, and before men, who may\ndo nothing hostile without God\u2019s permission. Firmly to trust in God\nin all he does or allows, even if one is ill, or troubled, or almost\nin despair of any good outcome of a matter, that it is to serve God;\nand in comparison with this, all your other church \u201cservices\u201d possess\na distinctly subordinate worth. And so Luther, too, himself endowed\nwith this bravery in high degree, says thus: \u201cThe reason knows no\nmeans of making the heart contented and trustful, in those times of\nneed when all the good things the world can give shall fail. But when\nChrist comes, the outward adversities, indeed, he lets remain, but the\npersonality he strengthens; he makes the weak heart unterrified, and\nthe trembling heart he makes bold; and he turns the restless conscience\ninto one that is peaceful and still. And, therefore, such a man is\ncomforted, courageous, and joyous in those very matters in which all\nthe world else stands terrified; that is, in death, in terror for sin,\nand in all the times of need when the world can no longer help with its\ngood things and its consolations. Then there will be a real and lasting\npeace, ever enduring and invincible so long as the heart shall hold to\nChrist.\u201d\n\nThen add to this that God is faithful and lets no one be tried beyond\nhis strength; yes, even before the greatest of physical and moral\ndangers he often holds his hands over our eyes, so that we see them\nonly when past.\n\nTo be sure, all this is inconceivable to those who have not themselves\nexperienced in evil days that even in misfortune\u2019s blackest hour a\ncalm, bright, yes, even blithe spirit can yet abide deep within the\nheart inclined to God; and men of such experience, therefore, often\nendure incredible things, and then, at the slightest gleam of the\nsun, quickly again lift themselves up anew, bodily and spiritually\nstrengthened from within; while other men are submerged in the waters.\n\nIt can not be denied, however, that we learn a right courage only by\ndegrees and in days of sorrow; and it is generally only through such\ndays that we attain to the right conception of life and grow into a\nlarger mould. So true is this that perhaps no human being of any real\nworth has ever yet gone through life without many sorrows, sorrows\nthat the Scriptures often and quite rightly compare to a refining fire\nthat can be made thoroughly hot only when there is much precious metal\npresent; but then it brings all the gold within a man to light. He who\nis not willing to suffer renounces the greatest gifts of God, and rests\nsatisfied with smaller things, needlessly: for even in the greatest\ntrouble he has no need to fear; so long as he does fear, there is still\nwithin him something wrong that must out.\n\nWith fear, anger also disappears; and anger in most cases is only fear\nin disguise. The angry are not courageous, they are afraid; you may\nnearly always count upon that with entire certainty. For example,\nthe restless zealots and agitators who think their mission is to save\nChristianity from its death-bed through the might of their zeal and\nhate--such \u201cwrathful saints\u201d are but a kindred variety with those\ntimid, sweetish people who are forever accommodating themselves to\nthings, particularly to things that are grand and aristocratic; for the\ndemeanor of both these classes springs from the one same source, their\nfear.\n\nBut what most distresses men, often even those who are well advanced\non the road of the Christian life, is the feeling of a constantly\nrecurring weakness such as we know from the epistles of the bravest of\nall the apostles, and such as each one of us indeed knows from his own\nexperience; with this almost universal singularity, that such spells\nof weakness are often wont to come on when quite unlooked for, and\nsometimes just after the best days of the inner life; and then they can\nbow down the soul to a genuine despair.\n\nAs to this, the first thing to say, for the comfort of those thus bowed\ndown, is that whatever is strong and powerful in the world always bears\nwithin it I know not what of rough and undivine. This we may ourselves\nobserve in the case of men of exuberant force; involuntarily, we never\nhave, concerning them, the feeling that they especially please God.\nChristianity, we may be sure, is in no way planned upon the model of\nsuch giants and demi-gods.\n\nBesides, it is not hard to perceive the educative purpose in this\nfeeling of weakness. Pride and its sister vanity can be torn out, root\nand branch, only after a long-unbroken succession of hard buffetings\nhas issued in a deep and lasting humility. Through this purgatory, from\nend to end, the proud and the vain must pass at some time in their\nlives, if anything is to be made of them. For \u201cthough the Lord be high,\nyet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off;\u201d\nto the proud he assuredly never comes nigh. If, then, this sense of\nweakness is concerned with spiritual growth itself, there is surely no\nreason that we should be disheartened. Rather, it is a consolation,\nin such inner doubts over the weakness of our faith, that when the\nGalatians had slipped back into an unspiritual and petty conception\nof religion, the Apostle Paul could, nevertheless, assure them, \u201cYe\nare all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.\u201d So long as\none\u2019s faith has not entirely ceased, this time of weakness is only a\ntransient phase, and often bears more fruit than more resplendent days\ndo. And finally, the weakness may actually become a source of strength;\nthe feeling of one\u2019s own power, flattering as it may be to one\u2019s\npride, is rather a hindrance than a furtherance in the path of true\ninner progress, and the most courageous men are not they who have the\ngreatest confidence in themselves, but they who have sure recourse to a\npower that far transcends all powers.\n\nWhen once this inward courage finds place in a well-tried man, then an\nunassailable peace and joy, as the Scriptures promise, enter into the\nsoul till now often tossed by the waves of anguish and at times indeed\nentirely bereft of hope. But henceforth it \u201cshall dwell in a peaceable\nhabitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.\u201d\n\nA good life, quite purged of dross, is surely the highest of all things\nattainable; yet, to those who are \u201ccomforted,\u201d it is just this that\nsprings from an existence full, indeed, of ever-changing joys and\nsorrows, but where no joy estranges one from God and no sorrow any\nlonger breeds impatience, for both joy and sorrow are received from\nthe same hand, as are the sunshine and the rain; and thankfully, for\nboth are inseparable elements in life. And their lives henceforth bear\nblessing to others.\n\nBut, as far as compatible with the true well-being of a man guided by\nGod, his outward happiness also is far higher, and stands upon a surer\nbasis than is possible in any other conception of life. Yes, for such a\nman all things again and again work together for good, even when he has\nsuffered seeming failure.\n\nSuch are the asseverations of the Bible; and are we to think that they\nwere meant only for the human beings of an age long vanished? Or may we\nalso apply them to our own use still to-day? Surely we may, if the God\nof that day is still the God of this; and that is but a matter of test.\n\nAnd we may hope it will, more commonly than hitherto, be put to the\ntest again, when all other attempts to regain a calm contentment and\na cheerful, healthy spirit of labor have suffered wreck, and when\na nervous humanity longs for real tranquillity again, and craves\nsome better bulwark against the increasing weariness of existence\nthan a merely materialistic conception of life affords. Then will\nreligion--and without any external compelling Authority, which can\nnever again in any manner be re\u00ebstablished--then will religion regain\nanew its place in the life of the nations; whereas, now, it has often\nbecome nothing but a pleasant play upon the feelings of leisurely or\n(in a worldly sense) happy people, while to such as really need it to\ndeliver them in distress and sorrow, it is, through prejudice, closed.\n\nMany of these latter, however, and perhaps at no very distant day,\nwill come to these old water-springs, now all but choked with rubbish;\nthough such an idea is far enough from their thoughts as yet. But,\nwheresoever they may have tried, nowhere else can they still their\nthirst for a tranquil philosophy of life. For what the old chronicler\nsaid of Israel is true to-day: \u201cThe days will arise when there shall be\nno true God, no law, and no priest to show the way; and in those times\nthere shall be no peace to him that goes out, nor to him that comes\nin; for there will be great vexations upon all the inhabitants of the\nearth; nation will break nation, and city city, and God will vex them\nwith all adversity.\u201d\n\nBut as for you, you who find yourself upon the sure path of salvation\nand peace, \u201cbe comforted, be strong, let not your hands be slack: for\nyour work shall be rewarded.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nIII. ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEN\n\n\n\n\nIII. ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEN\n\n\nPerhaps no one has ever seriously doubted that the ability to know and\nto pass an accurate judgment on men closely concerns our practical\nlife; but whether a knowledge of human nature brings much happiness is\na question on which opinions have always differed. While some declare\nthat we really love men only so long as we do not know them, others\n(like the duke in Goethe\u2019s \u201cTasso\u201d) believe that it is only so long as\nwe do not know men that we stand in fear of them; yet Goethe himself\nseems partly to retreat from this conception in another expression of\nhis, where he says that while nothing is more interesting, indeed, than\nto learn to know men, yet one must take care not to know oneself.\n\nFor our part, we believe at the outset that all knowledge of human\nnature, even one\u2019s own, can be but superficial, and that the real\ndepths of the soul, and especially the limits of its possibilities for\ngood and evil, God alone can fully know. But besides this, strange as\nit may sound at first, the knowledge of men rests upon a basis of\npessimism joined with a considerable degree of love for human kind.\nIf any one looks upon humanity as something great and superior (not\nso much in promise as in actual performance), he will, if he have\nsome measure of wisdom, find himself in the end disillusioned by his\nlife experiences. On the other hand, it is just as much a matter of\nexperience, with those who have known mankind most perfectly, that they\n(Christ himself at the head) have always been friends to humanity; for\nthough they do not look upon man as quite free and nobly born, yet they\nbelieve him destined to freedom and nobility of life. This gives them\ntheir power to love him, in spite of his faults; yes, we may go so far\nas to say, on account of his faults, just for the reason that love, in\nthis world at least, feels within it an impelling necessity to pity, to\nsave, to do good.\n\nTo understand men, therefore, we must first make sure that we love\nthem, and we must be, to a very considerable degree, independent of\nthem so far as our necessities go; for there must be as great an\nabsence of self-interest as possible on our part. Whoever desires to\nget much out of men for his own advantage will always be blinded by\nhis interests, and whoever finds men necessary to himself will always\nfear them. But the man who wishes to do something for them rather than\nreceive something from them, can alone really learn to know what they\nare, and can tolerate that knowledge, even in its worst features,\nwithout hating men; every one else, who is not a weakling, easily\nfalls into such a hatred of human kind. A thorough judge of men,\nwithout love, would in fact be intolerable; the aversion against such\npersons, who assert they are judges of men but who are at the same\ntime haters of men, is a very natural one, for it is based on a law of\nself-defence. And so, you are not to use your knowledge of human nature\nas something on which to construct the edifice of your own happiness;\nbut it is only in order that you may be the better able to further the\nhappiness of others that you are to desire to learn how rightly to\njudge them. If you have any other purpose, you will never come to any\nconsiderable attainments in this art.\n\nThe first step in the knowledge of human nature, so far as it is at all\nattainable, is (quite contrary to Goethe\u2019s view) self-knowledge and\nself-improvement; the second step is the resolve to learn to know men\nfor their sake and not one\u2019s own. But even so, we are not to expect a\nperfect knowledge of so complicated a being as man; he does not even\nsucceed in understanding himself, or at the best gets only a partial\ninsight late in life; and then, too, no one individual is quite like\nanother. Rather, we must content ourselves with a certain number of\nthe results of experience; some of these we will try, later on, to set\nbefore the reader.\n\nThe real secret of knowing human nature lies in possessing a pure heart\ninnocent of self-conceit; such people gradually acquire a keenness\nof vision that pierces all the outer wrappings. The difficulty of\nunderstanding men does not spring from the subtleties of a science of\n\u201cpsychology,\u201d but only from the difficulty of forgetting one\u2019s own\nself. We do not get to know men from whom we have something to hope or\nto fear.\n\nEven the prophetic gift is nothing else than a direct, intense insight\ninto human affairs,--their causes and effects. Such power resides in\nevery man who in large measure has set himself free from himself. But\nself-seeking is like a veil of mist to hinder this power of vision,\nwhich would otherwise be present.\n\nAn intercourse with men that rests upon a correct judgment of them is\ntherefore learned, not so much by frequent association with the men\nthemselves (as many believe), as through fellowship with God. If we\nhave this, then for the first time we begin to look upon men, both\nthe good and the evil, more with the just eyes of God; while, without\ntrust in Him, we must always rely more or less on men and so suffer the\ndisillusionments that will always follow.\n\nIn men, especially of the better sort, there is furthermore a necessity\nthat they shall worship something. Those who are not able to worship\nanything transcendental throw a halo of fancy about certain men, and in\nthis self-deception not only lose all ability really to understand men,\nbut also work harm to those they reverence--if these are yet living and\nare themselves poor judges of men. Wherever belief in God is lacking,\nhero-worship, with all its detriments to the inner and outer freedom of\nhumanity, is unavoidable.\n\nEvery one can test this for himself. Whenever he finds himself fully\nat peace with God, he at once becomes more indifferent toward men in\nthat very particular in which men are ordinarily most valued; for he no\nlonger cares for them for the sake of gaining some advantage. Indeed,\nif the desire of conferring advantage upon them did not remain, he\nfeels that he could easily do without them altogether. For this reason\nall ancient and medi\u00e6val monachism, as well as all modern pessimism,\nare always somewhat suspicious in motive; for back of them lurks, for\nthe most part, either chagrin at not receiving, or disinclination to\ngive. Others, too, feel that this is so and are therefore, on the\nwhole, none too well disposed to men who thus hold aloof.\n\nFor there is nothing that men have a more instinctive discernment and\na greater aversion for than for self-seeking. Even the simplest, even\nlittle children, yes, even animals, quickly find the selfish out, in\nspite of all the pretence with which they surround themselves. Whoever\nwould acquire a strong influence over men must give up thoughts of\nself-advantage. That is the surest way. For this reason children often\nlike grandparents more than parents, because they feel that in their\nlove is less of self; the parents are too much wrapped up in their\nown concerns. Even the worst pessimists seek love, and no egotist is\nearnest at bottom in his praise of egotism. But they despair of men\u2019s\nability to be other than selfish, and they may be taught otherwise\nonly by repeated deeds; the mere phrases of love have long been\nfamiliar to them, and they estimate them at about their correct value.\nIt does no good, therefore, to speak to them much of love; that will\nonly be misunderstood. At the most, speak of friendliness and public\nbenevolence; it seems to be less, yet is really more.\n\nThis spirit, then, is absolutely necessary if you would live in the\nworld without disgust at it; therefore acquire this spirit at any cost.\n\nTo understand the nature of any individual it is important to know\nhis derivation. Women in especial follow, almost without exception,\nthe character of their family, sons as a rule that of the mother or\nthe mother\u2019s father, daughters oftener the paternal side. The proverb\nthat \u201cthe apple falls not far from its stem\u201d indicates, therefore,\na strong presumption. Only, we often do not know the derivation\nsufficiently well, and besides, with God\u2019s mercy, a man can even\nbreak away from a bad ancestry. As a matter of fact, there are no\n\u201chereditary encumbrances\u201d that can not be shaken off by God\u2019s mercy\nand man\u2019s will. The assumption of such an unalterable fate is one of\nthe greatest sacrileges a man can make himself guilty of. On the other\nhand, in the same limited sense, a certain aristocratic tendency is\nwarranted. Noteworthy individual characteristics, such as courage,\nproper self-confidence, a natural fearlessness of men, fineness of\ntaste in all the matters of life, do not develop, as a rule, in the\nfirst generation after breaking the yoke of slavery and oppression;\nfor these are largely transmitted qualities. For this reason the great\npioneers of political and spiritual freedom rarely spring from the\nlowest stratum of the people, but from a middle stratum already trained\nin these things, or even, often enough, from aristocracy itself. It\nis, therefore, a great misfortune, almost a transgression against\none\u2019s posterity, when a highly cultured man marries below his plane of\nculture; for thus he takes a step back again.\n\nIn this connection, there is due to oneself and to others a certain\nright which parents and teachers often forget. No one can easily\nchange his whole natural disposition; one can much more easily bring\nthat disposition to a higher perfection in its own kind. That is to\nsay, the phlegmatic man can attain to the noble calm of wisdom, the\nsanguine man to a self-sacrificing activity for others, the choleric\nman to a strong championship for whatever is great. A false estimate\nof this natural temperament, or attempts to break it, usually lead\nto deplorable half-results, where something complete might have been\nattained.\n\nWe rightly learn to understand people only in their activities, the\nmen at their work, the women in their house affairs; best in their\ndifficulties and sorrows, least in social intercourse, especially at\nhotels and summer resorts. The acquaintances made there often turn out\ndisappointing afterward. It is, generally speaking, an unwholesome\nfeature of human intercourse nowadays. People become acquainted with\none another, and yet not acquainted, when they live and eat together\nday after day. One can not keep aloof altogether without appearing\nsupercilious, and one can not be too intimate without the risk of\nmaking connections that would otherwise have been avoided.\n\nIt is easiest to know people by what they regard as their real aim\nin life; if this aim is power or pleasure, they are not wholly to be\ntrusted.\n\nIn his later years, the outlines of a man\u2019s character ordinarily come\nout much more clearly than in his earlier. Real piety reveals itself in\nthe patient bearing of the manifold burdens of age, fictitious piety\nin impatience and in a religion that becomes more and more formal.\nAvarice, envy, covetousness, anger, the love of honor and praise, and\neven, at times, the desire of secret, sensual pleasure, come with\nelementary, unmistakable force to light as the ruling passions of life;\nand the man pronounces his own judgment in the sight of his fellows.\nRarely does any one, like Augustus, carry a r\u00f4le through to the end,\nand even this great actor was not successful. On the other hand, no one\ncan read Cromwell\u2019s last prayer and think him a hypocrite, unless he is\none himself.\n\nAnd finally, sorrows play their part in revealing human nature. In\nany great sorrow the thoughts of men are disclosed. Envy comes to\nlight to rejoice; generosity, to help; and indifference, to pass by\non the other side. Whoever has had no thorough experience of this in\nperson, does not know men. In the first part of life, when experience\nis still small, the greatest danger in one\u2019s attitude to men is that\nof considering them of too much importance; in the second, that of\nbecoming too indifferent to them.\n\nThere is yet another and quite different source of the knowledge of\nhuman nature, but a source not to be desired for any one not already\nacquainted with it; I mean the power possessed by the nervously\ndisordered. In such cases there is a very clear physical intuition\nas to the kind of nature there is in other people, of whom the one\nmay have as quieting and refreshing an influence upon the sick man as\nclear, cool water, while the other only excites and frets. Such is\nthe knowledge of men the Bible ascribes to those \u201cpossessed of evil\nspirits.\u201d But these are diseased conditions which ought not to be, and\nwhich should not be needlessly meddled with.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nExperience has established some of the following principles in the art\nof reading men:\n\nAs with courtesy, so it is with a man\u2019s probity; if it is genuine,\nit shows itself in his conduct in the small things. Probity in small\nmatters springs from a moral foundation, while probity on the large\nscale is often only habit or prudence and gives no clew as to a man\u2019s\nreal character.\n\nVanity and the lust for honors are always a bad symptom, for both rest\nat bottom upon a self-condemnation which tries to supply the missing\ninner contentment by outward show or the approving judgment of others.\nThoroughgoing pessimists are always vain. By their pessimism they\ngive us to understand more or less clearly that they themselves would\nreally be an exception to this base human rabble if they could count on\nunderstanding their nature.\n\nAn overmodest nature, especially if given to self-irony, is never to be\ntrusted; in most cases a strong dose of vanity and the love of praise\nhides behind. Truly modest men usually speak neither good nor bad of\nthemselves, and do not want people to concern themselves about them.\nVain persons, on the other hand, by the apparently modest method of\nself-depreciation, often seek to draw attention to themselves, or to\ncatch out-and-out compliments.\n\nA kind-hearted readiness to help is the sure sign of a good character,\nwhile cruelty to animals and ridicule of men is a sure sign of a bad\ncharacter.\n\nOne of the best tests of real kind-heartedness is the conduct of men\nin the presence of long-persisting or altogether hopeless misfortune:\nthose who possess but little of that quality grow weary and soon\nabandon the unfortunate one to his fate, perhaps with the fine\nsentiment, \u201cone must leave him alone with his God\u201d; others, who with\na true sympathy persevere, stand the highest test of the unselfish\nlove of humanity. Such are ordinarily simple, poor people, while the\ncultured and the rich far more rarely show themselves equal to the\ntest. This natural nobility of character, the most valuable of all the\nnatural endowments of men, is far more generally found in the lower\nclasses, and the \u201cnoblest of the nations\u201d are to be sought elsewhere\nthan where we are wont, in the usual manner of speaking, to assume them\nto be.\n\nThe basest human characteristic is innate faithlessness. When this is\npresent, all the other so-called good qualities do not countervail;\nthey but make the man the more dangerous, while faithfulness makes\nsome expiation for the worst failings.\n\nA sure mark of an essentially mean man is ingratitude. It sets him\nbelow the nobler animals, all of which are grateful. An especially\nhateful form of ingratitude is that which, in order to escape the\nnecessity of showing gratitude, treats the acceptance of benefits as\na favor shown by the receiver and therefore an honor conferred upon\nthe giver for which he must feel under obligation. Benefits received\ngenerally make only the noble-minded thankful. Others as soon as\npossible seek a pretext to avoid this feeling, to them oppressive. The\npaying back of borrowed money, particularly, is regarded as a merit on\ntheir part for which the creditor owes them lifelong gratitude.\n\nIn the correct estimation of men, the most important consideration\nis the caliber they possess. But caliber can not be given a man even\nby the best of education and the highest of culture. Caliber is a\ngift of nature; a baby cat will never become a lion, similar as they\nmay at first appear to be. The caliber present in a man can be but\nenlarged, not changed, through the great happenings of life, through\nsevere sorrows, or through a very good environment, particularly if\none have faithful and very well-disposed friends, or if one make the\nright marriage. We must, therefore, be careful not to wrong men by\nrating them too high and so requiring too much of them; it is not in\ntheir power to do it, but after their fashion, perhaps, they may be\ngood, faithful men, on whom we may count for something, and who often\naccomplish more than they would if they imagined themselves to be of\nmore consequence than they are.\n\nWe must never seek for an intimate personal knowledge of the people\nto whom we want to surrender ourselves unconditionally, or to whom we\nintend to remain unconditionally hostile; for in both instances we\nshall become easily disconcerted by finding characteristics in them\nwhich will contradict our preconceived opinions. For a like reason, one\nought to learn to know one\u2019s enemies in person, and on the other hand,\nnot to see one\u2019s friends too often.\n\nA man\u2019s reputation is not absolutely determinative in forming an\nestimate of him. Men of note, especially, are often different from what\nwe had fancied them to be. On the whole, however, the public judgment\npassed on a man seldom goes altogether astray and is a very important\nfactor in making up our estimate. In particular, there is no such thing\nas a complete misappreciation of a good man all his life through. The\npublic judgment as to men who are much exposed to such judgment is\ngenerally subject, indeed, to continual fluctuation, like the surface\nof water, but it, nevertheless, has the tendency (not to be deflected)\nof ever returning again to its proper level. In the case of all good\nmen, we can count on their having an aristocratic nature. Democracy is\ncorrect, as a political conviction, but as an ingrained characteristic\nit has no worth.\n\nMen who are fundamentally good we learn best to know in their time of\ntrouble, for then the possibilities that lie within them come more\nclearly to light; but men of mediocre worth we learn best to know in\ntheir time of prosperity and by their manner of enjoying pleasures.\n\nAll who hate men on principle are themselves egotists. On the\nother hand, it is certainly a matter of experience that we do have\ndisillusionments even as to the best men, and as to educated people\neven more than simple folk. As a general thing, one should not put\nabsolute trust in men, and the best and most trustworthy friendships\nare those which have either sprung from a previous enmity, or have been\nonce (but not twice) broken off. For then alone does one see the shadow\nside of his friend, and so can henceforth discount it. On the other\nhand, a frequent vacillation between friendship and hostility is a mark\nof a weak character.\n\nThat we learn to know our real friends only in time of need, and that\nwe should quietly let those go who are then unfaithful, is a truth\nalmost too trifling to be once more expressed.\n\nWhy it is that, when misfortune comes, we suddenly possess friends\nso startlingly few, is to be explained psychologically thus: the\nless generous natures are afraid they will be obliged to give actual\nhelp, while the more generous often think they see the impossibility\nof rendering any help at all and are ashamed, wrongly, to offer only\nsympathy. In many cases even very well-wishing men fall into the\nmistake of Job\u2019s friends and involuntarily assume that every misfortune\nis more or less one\u2019s own fault, so that pity must be tempered by\ncensure and admonitions. Then the more thoughtless ones speak out\ntheir mind, while men of finer feelings rather draw back, so as not to\nbe obliged to do it.\n\nAnd all this is still oftener true in the case of relatives.\n\nTo be envied is a very disagreeable thing to have accompany one through\nlife, and it usually ceases only toward life\u2019s end. But it is, for all\npersons of real consequence, a very necessary protection against too\ngreat a veneration on the part of others. Such veneration would do\nmuch more harm if it were unmixed with envy. And it is generally of\nlittle value. A dram of real friendship is worth much more than a whole\nwagon-load of veneration.\n\nOne great rule for finding out men is this: give yourself out to be\nfrankly just what you are; above all, frankly hate wrong things on\nprinciple, and let no opportunity of showing it pass by. Then men\nwill show their own cards more openly to you. Public personages, in\nparticular, must in their whole life be clear as glass and transparent\nas crystal, so that men may see everything without reserve.\n\nIn general, as to good qualities, men like best to speak of those\nthey do not possess; while, as to evil qualities, the proverb speaks\ntruly: \u201cWith what the heart is full, with that the mouth runs over.\u201d\nPeople who take pleasure in speaking often of impure things and the\ndangers of the world in this regard, although they may do so with\nthe most earnest show of disapprobation, always feel a strong secret\ninclination thereto. Others, whose every third word is \u201cbenevolence\u201d\nand \u201cgood works,\u201d have to struggle with a disposition toward avarice\nor covetousness. The worst are those who are forever talking of\n\u201cuprightness\u201d and \u201cloyalty.\u201d\n\nMost fanatics for some specialty have become such because they knew\nvery well in the beginning that without such a heightening of their\nfeeling they would not persevere in it. In most cases, therefore, they\nare not wholly sincere.\n\nIt is one of the best signs for a man if humble people feel confidence\nand good-will toward him--little children, above all, but also\nsimple-hearted poor folks, and even animals. The man whom children\nand animals can not endure is not to be trusted. Women, too, are good\njudges--that is, if they themselves are good; otherwise they are just\nthe opposite. To be much with unpretending people contributes greatly\nto one\u2019s contentment with life. All great pessimists have despised\nthem, yet have found no satisfaction in the people of more importance\nwhose companionship they have sought.\n\nPessimism and the detestation of one\u2019s fellow-men, when displayed by\nyoung people, point (if they are not merely talking for effect) to\nirregular habits of living. But they who keep their youth clean have a\nsource of unfailing delight in life.\n\nWe are not upright because men praise us; we are upright if we receive\nthe praise of God. Any one who has ever experienced this will also know\nthat, however unreliable and cheap the praise of men may be, it always\nmakes us a little proud and leads us away from the truth, but the\npraise of God never has any such result. Of pious people who are proud\nthe assertion can quite safely be made that God has never praised them;\nthey praise themselves and let others praise them.\n\nPride is always mixed with a portion of stupidity. Vanity makes us\nridiculous to people, but not odious; pride, on the other hand, so\nworks upon others as to call out defiance mingled with contempt. As\nthe proverb says, pride always goes immediately before a fall. When a\nman becomes proud, he has lost his game, and it may be safely counted\non that he is approaching a downfall. As soon as God forsakes us, our\nown heart is lifted up.\n\nOn the other hand, the faults which have become clear to ourselves and\nwhich have bred humility within us are often not so very perceptible to\nothers. They no longer put themselves so noticeably in evidence as do\nthe faults we will not or can not yet see. This is the first striking\nreward of battling against oneself.\n\nEvery one stands in need of straight-forward but kindly criticism. This\nis the reason progress is made by the simple people who, when they\nmake a mistake, are censured and admonished by everybody, without any\nbeating around the bush; while people of higher standing, after their\nschool years are over, seldom have the advantage of being judiciously\ncensured. Even their critics often only wish to show them how important\nand indispensable they are to them, and attack some minor defeat of\nlittle moment one way or the other.\n\nIt is an important thing to acquire the art of speaking of one\u2019s\nown doings in a quiet and matter-of-fact manner, if, indeed, they\nhave to be spoken of at all. It usually happens that some men show\nthemselves too vain of their accomplishments, and thereby arouse\nopen or secret opposition; while others speak of them with a certain\noff-hand disparagement, as much as to say that they have plenty more\nin stock. It is the best way to speak of one\u2019s performances as little\nas possible, and, in any case, never to introduce the subject oneself.\nVanity is always recognized, even by the simplest. The only sure means\nof not passing for a vain man is--not to be vain.\n\nIf a young man is forward or even only very confident, if there is not\na little of shyness about him, he has a defective character and little\nreal merit; or at least he has ripened very early and will develop\nno further. The widespread prepossession that, without plenty of\nassurance, one can not get through the world is incorrect, unless one\nis thinking of momentary success.\n\nA very suspicious, at any rate imprudent, propensity of many people\nis that of being the bearers of bad news. The motives, indeed, may\nbe very different; but in most cases there is mingled with it a kind\nof self-elevation which takes pleasure in seeing others deeply shaken\nand humbled, an ungenerous feeling that often comes very near to being\nmalice. This is instinctively felt on the other side, and something of\nthe unpleasant remembrance is ever afterward associated with the one\nwho caused it.\n\nThose persons are of no worth who have never been broken by a great\nsorrow or by a thorough humiliation of their self-esteem. They retain\nsomething small, or arrogantly self-righteous, or unkind about them\nwhich, in spite of their probity (which they ordinarily think a great\ndeal of), makes them disagreeable to God and man.\n\nOne must always be on one\u2019s guard before people who do not have a\nkindly nature. A natural disposition to maliciousness is very hard to\nbe overcome. It shows itself most easily in a tendency to making sport\nof others.\n\nIt is an uncommonly pleasant thing, on the other hand, to have to\ndo with people who make their fellow-men feel comfortable in their\npresence, who are always even-tempered, always friendly and ready to\nhelp, never nervously unquiet or intrusive, rejoicing in the welfare\nof others, sympathetic and consolatory in trouble. This does not\nnecessitate a clever mind; on the contrary, the very clever people\noften lack just this quality, which, for the first time, would make all\ntheir other qualities really useful and valuable.\n\nAt ordinary times it is very difficult to recognize real bravery. Yet\nthere is one unfailing sign. Brave people never enter a fight with\narrogance and are less afraid after a defeat than after a victory,\nsince every victory works some injustice to the opposing side; while\ncowards show themselves arrogant after every victory. As to this\ncharacteristic, a man best learns to know himself in his dreams. There\nhe sees himself as he is, being beyond the control of a better will\nthat does not depend upon merely physical and mental emotions.\n\nA crafty shrewdness always lowers a man in our regard. We think of the\npossibility of its being used against us. Therefore, as a proverb says,\n\u201call foxes come to be skinned at last.\u201d No one likes them, and in the\nlong run they lose their game.\n\nEvery man should perfect his own national type. When a man no longer\nknows to which nation he belongs, he becomes an unedifying phenomenon.\nTherefore dwellers on the border are often vacillating in their nature,\nand polyglot speech is, as a rule, a mark neither of genius nor of\ncharacter. The most questionable people are those who mingle different\nlanguages in a single sentence and who lack education besides.\n\nNot very much, on the whole, is to be learned from the external\nfeatures of a man; the science of physiognomy is a deceptive one,\ngenerally speaking. Yet a strong development of the lower part\nof the face as contrasted with the upper, an insignificant chin,\nexpressionless eyes, an ever uneasy glance of the eye, and a habit of\nspeaking very loud in the case of women, portend nothing favorable.\nHappily, these latter are never able to imitate the expression of\ninnocence.\n\nThe wide diffusion of photography has been very injurious for the\nknowledge of human nature, since they usually make the photograph\na deceptive portrait, and one who sees it is, therefore, favorably\nprepossessed.\n\nAs to human efficiency, it mostly depends upon a certain confidence a\nman has with his contemporaries. God alone can give this, and, as a\nrule, it appears late, in the case of men of real note. All the stones\nmust first be rejected by the builders before they can become the head\nof the corner. This is the only right course for a man\u2019s life to take,\nand no sort of exertion can supply its place.\n\nWith men of original qualities one usually goes through three stages\nof acquaintanceship. In the first stage, they please one absolutely;\nin the second, they rather repel, on account of the angularities and\nsingularities of all sorts in their nature; in the third, however, the\nwhole man again pleases. But in the case of more ordinary men, one\u2019s\nfirst impression is slight, the second is often better, on account of\nvarious good individual qualities, but the final impression, again,\nis unsatisfying. Take it all in all, one may perhaps say that the\nfirst impression one has of a man, provided one is himself quite\nunprejudiced, is the right one.\n\nHardest of all it is to read human nature from the point of view of\nreligion. It is easiest to do so along the lines of the first epistle\nof John, the first six verses of the fourth chapter, and the first five\nverses of the fifth chapter. But, along with this, we must not exclude\na certain human excellence which rests upon philosophical culture, or\nupon great sagacity and experience of life. All piety must make one\nmore friendly, or it is not genuine.\n\nWho are to be preferred, the nice people who are not religious, or the\nreligious people (and there are really such) who are not (at least not\nalways) nice? I am afraid this is the point where our view does not\nalways coincide with God\u2019s. (Luke v. 32.)\n\nTo do things on generous lines often seems, especially to the man still\nyoung, easier than to do things along the lines of duty. Well, then, do\nso at first. But when you can once do the one, then you must learn to\ndo the other also, else your life remains beautiful--but incomplete.\n\nThe visitation of sins unto the third and fourth generation may be\nregarded from this point of view: that for so long a period God is\nyet laboring with these generations. The worst that can happen to men\nis not this visitation, but that God may leave them henceforth quite\nto their own way and will. For the wicked, visitation is, therefore,\nalways a tender of amnesty, but lasting good fortune means rejection.\n\nA temperament always equable, somewhat cool but not selfish, and\nsympathetic and friendly to every one, is perhaps the happiest if one\nwishes to be generally liked. Such men pass for especially amiable\npeople and are universally esteemed, without their often contributing\nanything important and solid to the advance of the world. There are\nactually people, therefore, who assume this manner from policy. But\nwhether these amiable people have not, after all, buried their talent,\nis another question.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThat intercourse with men which is the art of life is necessarily\nbased, if it is to be brought under rational rules at all, upon\na correct knowledge of men. For whoever voluntarily seeks the\ncompanionship of men whom he knows to be bad or false is, with all his\nknowledge of human nature, a fool and a suicide besides. In this point\nwe have departed widely from the conceptions of our grandfathers; human\nintercourse has to-day become much less sentimental and much more\nserious than a hundred years ago. In this matter the ever-recurring\nquestion whether the men are by nature good or bad is beside the mark.\nAs a matter of fact, men have the disposition to be both, and it is our\nconcern, therefore, as Paul says, not to be overcome of the evil we can\nnot avoid meeting, but to overcome evil with good.\n\nIf one does not always keep this before his eyes as a fundamental rule\nof life, then all intercourse with the bad and weak (which is never to\nbe wholly evaded) will be, for men of the better sort, an evil that may\nlead at last to a contempt for humanity and a desire for isolation, or\nelse to an indifference toward all true principles. Here, also, there\nare a number of maxims taught by experience, whose observation will\nmake one\u2019s intercourse with men at least more easy. They are as follows:\n\nOne gets into the best relations with men, on the whole, if he feels\na simple, natural, sincere friendliness toward every one he meets,\nin much the same manner as unspoiled children do before they have\nexperienced the meanness of men. This manner, after many painful\nexperiences, can be again acquired,--at least at a certain period\nin later life which may then be called, in this good sense, a second\nchildhood. When one has this attitude, it may even happen that he\ntreats evil men as if good, as they could be if they would, and as, in\ntheir better moments, they would really like to be. And the result is\nthat these men forget their evil nature for a time and feel better and\nhappier. That, and not \u201cthe destruction of the wicked,\u201d is a true man\u2019s\ngreatest victory in this world.\n\nAt the same time it must not be forgotten that one should not put\ntoo great stress upon a man\u2019s behavior at the moment; for every one\ncan tell from his own experience how easily our moods alter, and how\nchangeable and uncertain our judgments of others are, so long as the\nheart has not yet become constant in kindness.\n\nAll lasting human relationships rest upon reciprocity. We must never be\nwilling only to receive, nor must we ever be willing only to give; that\nalways ends in dissatisfaction.\n\nThe opportunity of rendering great favors to men is not very frequent.\nOn the other hand, one can quietly do any one some small pleasure,\nthough it be nothing more than a friendly greeting to light up, like\na sunbeam, some lonely and joyless existence. We should not begin a\nday of our life without proposing to ourselves to make use of every\nopportunity in this way. This friendliness is merely a matter of habit\nthat even men essentially kind-hearted now and then do not have, to\ntheir great loss.\n\nQuite ordinary natures, of course, understand only fear, not love. As\nsoon as they no longer fear, they become forward and intractable. For\nthese the proverb holds good: \u201cBe always kind, yet not too kindly; else\nthe wolves will quickly grow bold.\u201d For others, however, the proverb\nis not true. On the other hand, real kindness is the ripest fruit of a\nwell-lived life.\n\nMany men, by doing things in a large style, wish to compel their\nfellow-men to recognize it. But they seldom succeed, since the other\nman marks this purpose; and after all, egotism (though of a somewhat\ndifferent kind than usual) hides behind. They would attain their goal\nfar better if they paid less heed to outward show and did things more\nquietly.\n\nMany people who are really good-hearted at bottom have a way of always\nfinding something to blame or demur to even in matters that fall\nin with their wishes. Thus they bring it about that other persons,\nhearing only their \u201cNo, no,\u201d prefer the company of more easy-going,\nif also more unprincipled, people of the world. Nor should one always\nbe contradicting men, even where they are in the wrong; silence often\naccomplishes more and does not embitter. Now and then their assertions\nare not wholly in earnest, but if they experience opposition, then\nthey become fortified in their notions and say something that they\ncan no longer retract. But if one ought to contradict for the truth\u2019s\nsake, then a single contradiction is enough; when opinions are once\nacknowledged and firmly fixed, continued disputation about them is\nentirely fruitless.\n\n\u201cWhoever wishes to have his opinion find approval should express it\ncoldly and without passion,\u201d says Schopenhauer, if I am not mistaken.\nThe word \u201ccoldly\u201d is somewhat too strong; but to _parler sans accent_,\nthat is, to speak in the positive and not always in the superlative\ndegree, is a good custom.\n\nOf one\u2019s neighbor one should--so St. Maddalena dei Pazzi tells\nus--\u201cspeak as little as possible, for one begins with good things, but\nusually ends up with bad things. Our neighbor is a glass that easily\nbreaks if we take it into our hands too often.\u201d\n\nIt is a great art in human intercourse to be able to show friendly\nopposition on occasion. We should, among other things, give our\nreasons--not merely for convenience simply say No, but try to convince\nthe other with good arguments rather than be dictatorial. All men see,\nin such an appeal to their understanding, a proof of respect which\ngratifies them and often quite reconciles them to the negative outcome.\n\nA suspension of judgment is often very useful. With a \u201cWe will consider\nit,\u201d or \u201cLet us think it over,\u201d good-will is shown for the time being,\nwhile the decision is put off; and with that, often enough, the whole\nmatter is discharged. The other man will in the mean time change his\nmind; or the matter will seem to him of less importance; while, at the\nmoment, his desire was his very kingdom of heaven.\n\nBut all this does not apply in things indubitably wrong. Then we must\nnot give rise to the conception that we might finally be able to come\nto an agreement in the matter or regard it as at least feasible; but on\nthe contrary, we must \u201cresist the beginnings.\u201d\n\nThe most unfortunate method of all is to yield in an unfriendly spirit;\nby so doing we lose the game twice over. But with weak men this is the\nusual course; they wish to hide their weakness by a little blustering\nand scolding.\n\nIn matters of indifference (and they are infinitely many), we must\nalways do the will of others; that makes living easy and brings good\nfriends without any attending difficulties.\n\nWith dependent people it is best to be short, but always friendly and\ngood-mannered, if they themselves know their place; otherwise \u201c_parcere\nsubjectis et debellare superbos_.\u201d\n\nIt is always difficult to know how to conduct oneself rightly toward\nvery wealthy or very distinguished people; for to be with them means\neither a kind of dependent relationship, or a constant watchfulness\nagainst receiving favors that is inconsistent with real friendship.\nReal friendship gladly gives and gladly receives, without keeping any\naccount. Besides, wealth and distinction very often make men insensible\nto life\u2019s true riches, and limit them in their views of men and life.\n\nIt is not pleasant to have to do with people who do not think out their\nown problems, but are always seeking advice and never following it. One\nshould especially avoid lightly advising one to marry or not to marry,\nnor should one ever express his opinion to authors about their yet\nunpublished works. It is very hard, too, to fellowship with those who\nare \u201cpersecuted by fate,\u201d and have no conception of their own failings.\nChrist himself on one occasion curtly dismissed such a man, who wished\nto make him a \u201cjudge and a divider.\u201d\n\nThose who are always reflecting over themselves or others, likewise\nmake companions in whom is no reliance nor peace. They are always vain,\nbesides weak and forever vacillating in their judgment of others, as\nwell as in their estimation of themselves. They love no one, not always\nthemselves even, and are loved by no one. Shun them.\n\nAgainst na\u00efvely shameless people there are three kinds of self-defence:\nroughness, which, however, is somewhat lowering; coldness, which is\nnot human and leaves a reproach on the conscience; and humor. The last\nalone shows true superiority.\n\nSelfish men who have quite lost the sense of shame have a way, when\nthey want something of another man, of insinuating to him that it will\nbe for his own advantage, so that they may be exempt from showing\ngratitude or from resting under any other obligation in return. This\nis something one must not, even tacitly, ignore, but first set the\nmatter quietly upon its proper footing, if he intends to respond to the\nrequest.\n\nShould one always give to those who beg? I believe, generally speaking,\nyes; the commands of Christianity in this regard are too positive; in\nmost cases the question is rather \u201cHow much?\u201d and this depends upon\nthe good-will of the giver. One should at least turn beggars away in\na friendly spirit; a kind word is also a gift and many a time of more\nreal value than a small bit of money. But that is something to be\nlearnt, and is really a very great art.\n\nTo give cheerfully is, on the other hand, partly a habit. Children\nought to be accustomed to it from childhood, instead of being\none-sidedly trained to mere frugality, as more commonly happens. They\nshould be frugal as regards themselves, but not as regards others.\n\nAn outward expedient is to carry no purse; it is easier to thrust the\nhand into the pocket than to open a purse.\n\nVery much that is not the proper thing in human intercourse springs\nfrom simple inertness toward the good, or from a desire for personal\ncomfort.\n\nMany men, whom everybody knows by sight and praises, are quiet and\ntolerably dutiful--egotists,--whose ways one must not follow.\n\nThe really noble men, the aristocracy of the spirit as opposed to this\nmere bourgeoisie, have always, on the other hand, found enemies.\n\nPerhaps the most useful, though by no means the pleasantest,\nintercourse is with our enemies; not only because they are often\nfuture friends, but especially because we receive from them, more than\nfrom any other, a candid disclosure as to our own faults and a strong\nimpulse to amend them; because, too, they possess, on the whole, the\ntruest judgment as to the weak points of a man\u2019s nature. Finally, we\nalso learn, simply by living under their sharp eyes, how to know and\npractise the important virtues of self-control, of a strict love for\nthe right, and of a constant attention to oneself.\n\nThat is, therefore, a foolish expression (which is often used with\nintent to praise) when it is said of a man, perhaps in an obituary\nnotice, that \u201che had no enemies.\u201d A man of the right sort does not go\nthrough life without making enemies; but it is a fine thing, of course,\nif at the end of his life he no longer has any.\n\nBy this I do not mean to imply that this intercourse with enemies is an\neasy matter; on the contrary, it belongs to the most difficult tasks\nof a rightly conducted life. It is particularly hard to endure a long\nseries of injustices which seem to have success on their side. Here\ncomes the need of faith in a just God, who can employ even the wicked\nas his instruments, but can hold them so firmly in hand that they may\ngo no farther than he wills. Otherwise we should not go through these\nthings without harm. Surely no one who has learned to know himself\nwill make the assertion that he is already a past-master in this art.\n\nTrust in God is the first essential; after that, the best means for\nacquiring this art is seriously to resolve that we will, as much as\npossible, avoid useless anger, and take care not to judge our opponents\nunjustly; and in any case never to allow real hatred to settle in the\nsoul. This can easily be done at the very first moment of the affront;\nit is harder later, when hate is once established in the heart. It is\nvery helpful, besides, to fix clearly in mind, from the beginning, that\nwe absolutely must forgive, even to \u201cseventy times seven.\u201d This thought\nmakes it much easier to determine from the outset to keep collected,\nand thus we are better disposed to shut out hatred from the start.\n\nHere are some other helpful considerations:\n\nThe truth is not always victorious on this earth; that is, not the\ntruth as it is embodied in a man, mixed with all his weaknesses and\nerrors; for which very reason it is impossible for it always to\nconquer. But God is victorious, and nothing happens against his will;\nthis alone is the true consolation when enemies assault us.\n\nThe enemies God sends a man he also takes away, as soon as they have\nfulfilled their purpose. \u201cWhen a man\u2019s ways please the Lord, then he\nsets even his enemies at peace with him.\u201d That is a very sure sign that\none stands in God\u2019s grace.\n\nIt is much better to forget the evil one receives than to forgive it.\nIt is easy for a remnant of bitterness to cling about forgiveness, or\na kind of haughtiness, a kind of holding oneself superior to offenders\n\u201cbeneath one\u2019s notice.\u201d\n\nBearing a grudge, feeling resentment, taking things ill is always a\nmark of a rather small nature. Better take revenge; impotent hate is\nquite worthless and injures only yourself, not your adversary.\n\nIn the criticisms made by one\u2019s enemies there is in most cases a grain\nof truth, though put in a light too sharp and one-sided. Therefore it\nis always well to listen to an enemy\u2019s criticisms, but not to rate them\ntoo high nor to feel them too keenly. Above all, one should never let\nthem impose upon him; that is always a mistake.\n\nThat men speak evil of us is hard, but it preserves us, as Thomas \u00e0\nKempis says, \u201cfrom the magic mist of vainglory,\u201d and compels us to\nseek God, who knows our innermost heart, as our witness and judge. Then\nfor the first time he becomes indispensable and fast bound to us.\n\nSuch a passage through ignominy is therefore especially needful for men\nwho afterward are to bear great honors without harm.\n\nOne may accordingly be induced not to hate his enemies, not merely\nthrough motives of religion, but also through motives of prudence;\nfor enemies not only often become friends later, but one is likewise\nindebted to them for very many correct views; on the other hand, those\nwho at first are very amiable often speak a different language later\non. Those who oppose one in important matters are always particularly\neasy to come to terms with; for they are people who have serious\nscruples and are open to reason. The indifferent, who interpose no\nobjections, but also do not listen, are far more dangerous opponents.\n\nThe right programme for one\u2019s demeanor toward enemies is not, generally\nspeaking, that they must be crushed (as would be quite impossible in\nmost cases), but that they are to be reconciled. Whoever keeps this\nconstantly before his eyes will never hate too violently and will\nsuffer much to pass by in silence that discussion would make only worse.\n\nWherever possible, then, we must deal with our enemies in our best and\ncalmest frame of mind; for if we are inwardly ruffled, we are also much\nmore inclined to an unfavorable and unjust judgment of others. Nor\nshould we lower ourselves before them in order to gain their good-will;\nthat seldom succeeds. Many men, many nations in fact, will not at all\ntolerate too much kindness.\n\nThus it is a great point of prudence not to come frequently, and never\nunnecessarily, into the company of those who are radically opposed to\nour conception of life. For we either suffer some loss in character, or\nthere results a widening of the chasm.\n\nBut what, then, is there left for us to hate? or are we to explain\neverything away? I am far from asserting that. There is still enough\nleft in the world worth hating, and with this, war can and must be\nwaged. Above all, there is the spirit of being bad on principle, the\nspirit that purposely contends against the spirit of God, and that\npersecutes the good because it is good and endeavors to overthrow it.\nTo this spirit give your vigorous and outspoken hate, wherever and in\nwhatever form it appears; but in most cases it dies out in the men who\nembody it, in the third or fourth generation at the very latest. Very\noften it changes, in their descendants, to the opposite spirit of good.\n\nTo give help to evil men of this stripe, or to stand \u201cimpartially\u201d\nbetween them and good men, instead of standing by the latter in every\nsuch conflict, is a serious fault that will be avenged on every one who\nis guilty of it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA very difficult chapter to write is that on companionship with women,\nfor they are the instruments of both the best and the worst that can\nbe awakened in a man: on the one hand, unbridled self-gratification\nand alienation from all that is higher and nobler, qualities which\nthey awaken especially in young people and which are the chief\ncause of the downfall of entire nations; on the other hand, a most\nefficacious uplift away from a man\u2019s natural tendencies, to a wholly\ndifferent, freer, and better conception of life. Most critics of women\naccordingly err in speaking of them as of a uniform mass similar in\ncharacter, while, on the contrary, in this part of humanity there\nis a far more marked division into two distinct classes, and a much\nmore constant retention and transmission of good as well as bad\ncharacteristics.\n\nIn a very peculiar passage of the Old Testament the same distinction is\nmade, even in that very early stage of humanity, between the \u201csons of\nGod\u201d and the \u201cdaughters of men,\u201d who are not lacking in outward charm,\nindeed, but through their very charms become a curse.\n\nThis difference in women is still to be found in our day, and so\nthe first counsel is this: Have no unnecessary association with the\n\u201cdaughters of men\u201d and guard against every closer alliance with them,\nno matter what may be sung by the poets, for they themselves are often\nled astray by just this peculiar charm of women.\n\nIn other respects, however, the difference between women and men would\nnot be so great if their education and especially their legal position\nwere more alike, and toward this the politics and pedagogy of to-day\nare striving. Christianity at any rate makes no distinction, and even\nthe Old Testament already knows of women (even married ones) who\nfilled the highest state offices, not of hereditary right as to-day,\nforsooth, but solely by virtue of their own worth, of the spirit which\ndwelt within. The \u201cspirit of God\u201d can surely dwell in every human\nbeing, and this is the thing that decides, and not the structure of the\nbody.\n\nWomen are in general more easy to understand than men. They deceive\nno man for long, in the sense that he really holds the bad in them\nfor good, but only in the sense that he prefers the bad to the good\nbecause of its sensual charm, in the false hope that this charm may be\na lasting and happy one. For women, therefore, there is surely but one\nmeans of lastingly appearing to be something that they desire; and that\nis, to be it. Yet it is harder, though by so much the more meritorious,\nfor them to be spiritual, good, and noble, since, instead of reaping\nrecognition for it, they are often obliged to see exactly the opposite\nqualities valued and sought. A truly noble woman, therefore, stands on\na higher level of moral perfection than the best man.\n\nFurthermore, what is generally true of humanity is especially\napplicable to women, that those who have not experienced trouble, but\nhave only been fed upon the pleasures of life, remain superficial and\nmediocre. With women the latter experience is found in even special\nmeasure, because their whole present training, in the so-called\ncultured circles, tends to give them the impression that a finer\nenjoyment of life is the real aim of their existence.\n\nFrom this conception of life there results a na\u00efve and thoughtless\negotism which conceives the whole world to be only a beautiful meadow,\nwhere the women have all the flowers to gather to adorn themselves with\nand to please themselves with. In this egotism they often far surpass\nmen in selfishness; the more amiable outer side of this na\u00efvet\u00e9 may not\nblind us to this.\n\nThe character of women can very well be judged from their treatment of\nflowers. A girl that on her walk pulls as many flowers as possible for\nherself and has no desire to leave any behind for others has a tendency\nto greediness and pleasure-seeking. A lady who, after looking at a\nbeautiful flower or bouquet for a short time, will permit it to lie and\nwither, instead of putting it in water or of making some poor child\nhappy with it, has no warm heart. But if she pulls flowers quite to\npieces, she will some day no less unconcernedly deal with men who have\nput their trust in her.\n\nIt is naturally still worse with the hearts of those tender creatures\nwho with their fingers crush a harmless gnat sunning itself at the\nwindow, or purposely tread upon a little worm or beetle crawling over\ntheir path. It is well to keep oneself at a good distance from them.\nLikewise from all those who wear conspicuous dresses; the clothing of a\ntrue lady should never attract attention, either by being too striking\nor too plain.\n\nWomen do rightly, on the whole, when they act with warmth and feeling;\nthey are rarely fitted for a merely intellectual companionship, and\nthose who are, are not very lovable, as a rule, and have no inward\npeace. Even a very clever woman brings unqualified happiness only to\na man at least as clever, and she is herself never happy if she has\nthe constant feeling that she far surpasses the man. Ardent feminine\nnatures are a great happiness for him who understands how to enjoy\ntheir companionship without blame; otherwise they are like a fire that\ndiffuses light and warmth indeed, but may consume their own house and\nthe houses of others. Very quiet women, on the other hand, easily grow\nto be somewhat insipid.\n\nWhat women value most in men is power, whose complete absence they\nnever pardon. Therefore adorers like poor Brackenburg, in Goethe\u2019s\n\u201cEgmont,\u201d never get their deserts from them; they actually think more\nof the men who slight them or treat them badly than they do of men who\nare weak.\n\nMost unhappy are the feelings of a noble woman when, through her own\nbad choice, or through the folly of her relations, she has fallen to a\nweakling who seeks compensation for his unmanliness in the outer world\nby a constant and petty mastery in the house. Dante would have had to\ninvent yet another special punishment for these house-tyrants, against\nwhom it is just the best women that are defenceless, and who may be\ngoverned only by a woman of strong egotism.\n\nWith this, we have come to the question of marriage. The best\nrelationship with women not already in the family is marriage, and it\nis one of the chief causes of the deterioration of our age that (and\nin large measure on account of the pleasure-seeking and the false\neducation of the women themselves) marriage is made difficult to a\nlarge proportion of educated men, so that they do not marry at all, or\ndo not marry at the right age. Indeed, among the \u201ccivilized\u201d nations,\nit has actually resulted in the circumstance, unfavorable for the\nposition of women, that they are no longer valued for their own sake,\nbut only for what they \u201cbring along\u201d with them.\n\nWho in fact could wish to torment himself with cares his life long,\njust to support a vain creature fond of dress and pleasure, while he\nmight, with the same means, procure a far pleasanter mode of life? This\nis the word pretty generally current now among the younger lords of\ncreation, who have none too much of the spirit of sacrifice.\n\nIt is often rather doubtful whether marriage always deserves to be\ncalled a \u201cdivine\u201d institution under present-day conditions, when the\nhusband very commonly seeks in this way a betterment of his financial\nsituation, or, if he belongs to the less \u201ccultured\u201d classes, seeks a\nslave to do his work without pay, while the parents of the wife wish\nto secure, in marriage, a life-insurance policy for their daughter,\nhowever wretched a one it may prove to be, and the daughter herself,\nin the momentary triumph of this social promotion, forgets the sad\nensuing loss of her rights. It is one of the saddest yet commonest\ntragedies to see a fine, highly educated girl in the almost unlimited\npower of a mediocre young man, solely because many mothers still regard\nit as a kind of shame to keep their daughters unmarried.\n\nWe can understand why most women are glad to marry, because it is only\nin a good marriage that they have the opportunity of independently\nunfolding all the powers that lie within them. But that the selfish\nones, who know how to put themselves at the right time upon a proper\nfooting of defence, have often a better lot than the good wives, who\nlavish a vast amount of love, fidelity, self-sacrifice, thought,\nand vitality upon a questionable man of whom they have made for\nthemselves an incorrect picture in their fancy--this is one of life\u2019s\nmost melancholy experiences, and one that might most make us doubt\nGod\u2019s justice. A woman, therefore, should never marry entirely below\nher station, never marry a man who is morally not entirely above\nsuspicion, or is pettily egotistic, or is not a man of thoroughly\ngood disposition; nor, as a rule, should she marry out of her country\nand nationality. But for men who are seriously struggling upward, an\nalliance with a high-minded woman from the better ranks of life is the\nmethod best of all suited to get quickly forward.\n\nIt will always be disputed whether it is better, in a good marriage, to\nseek and to find ardent love, or quiet esteem and friendship. I would\ndecide for the latter, as a general rule; but--he who does not know the\nformer knows not what life is.\n\nThe true and unselfish companionship of a man with a worthy woman\nof his home circle--wife, mother, sister, daughter, and not least,\ngrandmother and granddaughter--undoubtedly belongs to the highest, the\ntenderest, the purest joys of this life, and brings out qualities in\nhim that otherwise would always lie fallow. A marriage is not by a long\nway always to be called a stroke of good fortune, but an old bachelor,\ntoo, is never the man that could and should be made of him.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the whole do not seek to know men by relying overmuch on theories.\nThe greater part of that knowledge is attained through one\u2019s own\nexperiences, mostly sad ones. Only, resolve to experience nothing twice\nover. They who do so are the truly wise; not those, if there are any\nsuch, who make no mistakes.\n\nBesides, our knowledge of men must not serve merely to help us separate\nthe goats from the sheep and henceforth concern ourselves only with\nthe latter; but it should serve to keep us from being deceived, and\nto enable us to work for the improvement of ourselves and of all with\nwhom our lot brings us in touch, with a better understanding of their\ncharacter. For when a man once abandons the belief that every single\nhuman soul has an infinite value and that it is worth any trouble taken\nto save it, then he finds himself upon an inclined plane on which he\ngradually slips back again into complete selfishness.\n\nThe final word as to the knowledge of men must be--love to all. Love\nalone enables us to know a man exactly as he is, and yet not to flee\nhim. To know men, without love, has always been a misfortune and the\ncause of the profound melancholy of many wise men in all ages; it has\ndriven them to renounce the society of their fellows, or to take refuge\nin the theory of absolute government. For there are only two ways of\ndealing with men, when one has once learned to know them--through fear,\nor through love. All intermediate methods are delusions.\n\nBut if any one appeals to fear, or if love is to any one only\nlip-service, let him hear Brother Jacopone da Todi: \u201cThat I love my\nneighbor I really know only when, after he has injured me, I love him\nno less than before. For if I then loved him less, I should thereby\nprove that, before, it was not he I loved, but myself.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nIV. WHAT IS CULTURE?\n\n\n\n\nIV. WHAT IS CULTURE?[1]\n\n\nA prophet of Israel of the latter days of the Kings, who himself seems\nto have been, in a way, self-taught, announces to his nation the\noncoming of a new era in about the following words: \u201cBehold, the days\ncome, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a\nfamine of bread, but of the hearing of the truth. In that day shall the\nfair youths and maidens faint, who now are relying upon the god at Dan\nand the way of Beer-sheba. For they shall so fall therewith that they\nshall not be able to rise again.\u201d What Amos meant by the god at Dan and\nthe \u201cway of Beer-sheba\u201d is hardly to be discovered now with exactness,\nand indeed, for our purposes, we may leave it undetermined. Only thus\nmuch is clear from the context, that they were for the time elements\nof culture whose insufficiency should later come to light--as actually\nhappened at the beginning of the Christian era.\n\nWidely recognized phenomena of our own days fittingly remind us again\nof these ancient, half-forgotten words.\n\nOn the other hand, a struggle that may almost be called violent is\npassing through the broad masses of the nations. They are striving to\nwin culture for themselves as quickly as possible, so that they may\nelevate themselves to the power which, in their view, goes hand in hand\nwith this culture, or, as they mostly conceive it, with the acquisition\nof certain kinds of knowledge.\n\nOn the other hand, the upper circles of the classes hitherto known as\ncultured are being gripped with a kind of despair over the already\nattained and still attainable results of this search for knowledge for\nits own sake, as a renowned scientist has already plainly expressed\nwith his well-known saying, \u201cIgnoramus, ignorabimus,\u201d and as is\nbecoming actually manifest in the ever-growing specializing of the\nsciences. For this specializing means, at bottom, nothing less than\nthat there is no universal knowledge any more, still less a universal\nculture which comprehends all that men have achieved and thought; it\nmeans that there are only isolated departments of knowledge, behind\nwhich the abyss of ignorance yawns, for the most learned specialist,\nno less than for the most commonplace layman.\n\nIn the young generation of the civilized nations which is growing up\nunder such auspices, there is prevailing a certain physical and mental\nweariness, which makes one seriously doubt whether the whole of modern\neducation must not be on the wrong track if, instead of producing\nmental and physical power and joy in the lifelong acquisition of new\nand newer knowledge, it only prematurely dulls and destroys all these\ncapacities, and if it is bringing on a too weakly organized and nervous\nrace which would as little prove a match for the onset of some horde\nof healthy barbarians as did, once upon a time, the Roman or Greek\ncosmopolitan culture, outwardly brilliant, but likewise undermined by\njust such over-civilization as ours.\n\nWith this, we have arrived at once at the heart of our question. By\nculture we must understand something greater, something other than\nknowledge, or learnedness in special subjects, if it is at all to be\nsomething beneficial and desirable. Relatively speaking, the most\nstriking result of general culture must be the healthy and vigorous\ndevelopment of every man\u2019s personality into a full and rounded human\nlife, inwardly at peace. Otherwise it will be of no very definite\nvalue, either to himself or to his state.\n\nIf it does not effect this it does not justify the hopes that have, for\nso long a time, been set upon it, and there may stand before us a time\nsuch as humanity has already more than once experienced, when the most\nhighly civilized peoples have been overpowered by barbarians, simply\nby virtue of greater physical strength and greater mental freshness\nand originality, and when too delicately constituted republics have\nnot been in a condition to withstand the momentum of such onslaughts,\ndirected by some single powerful will.\n\nTherefore the question \u201cWhat is Culture?\u201d is a question of the life of\nour whole present race, as well as, in a special degree, of our native\nland and the nature of its government.\n\n\nI\n\nBy this very ambiguous and therefore often misunderstood word \u201cculture\u201d\nwe must understand ourselves to mean _an evolving_ from an originally\nformless, rough condition into a condition in which the development\ninto the best of which the material is capable is completed, or at\nleast is in the process of unfolding without hindrance.\n\nEvery man at the beginning is a rough block that can only be fashioned\ninto a true human form and a true work of art partly by the formative\npower of life itself with its manifold influences, and partly by the\nhand and sagacity of men. And as an unskilful sculptor may so misshape\nand spoil a stone intrusted to him that no real work of art can any\nlonger be made of it, or may carve it so delicately that it loses the\nmassiveness and strength necessary to resist all outer influences,\nso also, in the art of human culture, we often speak from painful\nexperience of a man\u2019s culture as neglected, or distorted, or too\nexcessive and refined.\n\nIn true culture (one that does not injure but benefits men), three\nthings seem to be essential: the conquering of natural sensuality\nand natural selfishness through higher interests, the wholesome and\nsymmetrical training of the physical and mental faculties, and a\ncorrect philosophical and religious conception of life. Where one of\nthese three is lacking, there is a drying up in the man of something\nthat had been capable of a better development.\n\n1. The final goal of all true culture is the liberation of man from the\n\u201csensual gravitation\u201d which every one experiences in himself, and from\nthe selfishness which, though it rests in the final analysis upon man\u2019s\nimpulse to self-preservation, stands nevertheless in opposition to the\npurpose of his life. Essentially as a creature of the senses man begins\nhis course in this world, essentially as a creature of the spirit he\nshould finish it here, and, as we hope, continue it in another world\nunder more favorable conditions. Thus there lies already in his nature\na conflict between that which _is_ and therefore would naturally like\nto persist, and that which is undoubtedly demanded by his deepest and\nbest feelings and which is meant to grow and develop. If he does not\nstay as he is, then the ground seems at times to give way under his\nfeet; but if he does stay as he is, then his better self is always\ngrievously reproving him, and saying that he is not fulfilling his duty\nand is not becoming what he could and should become. This is the battle\nthat every man begins with himself as soon as he comes to consciousness\nabout himself, and in this battle he must at any cost carry off the\nvictory.\n\nAll inward dissatisfaction springs from sensuality or selfishness;\nthese two never fail to show themselves as the primal causes, when the\nmatter is run to the ground. Any genuine happiness is not conceivable\nwhere the spiritual nature has not gained the day over the sensual,\nand where a disposition toward liberality, humanity, and kindliness\nhas not won the victory over a disposition to narrow selfishness--a\nvictory already decided in one\u2019s innermost tendency, and, as a matter\nof practical life, to be daily gained anew.\n\nWhoever has not been able thus to subdue himself will never be a\nmatch for the world around him, which fights him with the same though\nthousand fold greater powers of selfishness. All that is left for him\nis to defend himself in this struggle for existence by continually\ninjuring and destroying others and by uniting himself with others into\ngroups with mutual interests, groups that are likewise of a purely\nselfish nature.\n\nTo try to suppress this struggle for existence which now threatens to\ndestroy all the nobility that is in man and to make us like beasts of\nprey, is the chiefest task of all the truly cultured men of our time.\n\nThey must first show by their own example that this struggle is not\nnecessary, and that there is a way out of the labyrinths of this life\nother than the sad one of who shall be strongest in his selfishness.\nAfter all, the man who proves strongest in this struggle, even in the\nmost favorable case, only makes the existence of many fellow-men the\nheavier, and his own better self, besides, has suffered harm.\n\nThe first step is, that one shall no longer be recognized as a truly\ncultured man who has any trace of such a conception of life. And it\nmust and will come to that, before long, in our civilized states. On\nthe one hand, selfish solicitude for self and as much as possible of\nsensual enjoyment during a short life--on the other, human kindness,\ncare for others, mental advancement, and the development of the nobler\npowers of the soul: these are the two great armies which now stand over\nagainst each other, ready for battle, and in one or the other you will\nbe obliged to take your place.\n\n\n2. The second point is the proper and healthy physical and mental\ndevelopment of all our faculties, in the interest of these higher aims.\nWe are not to live with this better conception of life in cloisters or\nstudies, but as far as possible to bring it into use in our ordinary\nlife and in every calling--but not, of course, in any calling that\nstands in radical opposition to this better conception of life.\n\nHere is the point where oftentimes a somewhat morbid and exaggerated\nphilosophical, religious, or scientific tendency stands likewise\nopposed to true culture. There is no profit in a philosophy that does\nnot hold its own in the full current of life, and there is little help\nin a religion which exists only in the church on Sundays and has no\nvalue in the market or in business. And even knowledge, in itself, has\nno great worth if it does not serve, somehow, to build up a more worthy\nkind of life for oneself or for others.\n\nIn a sickly, overfatigued body, with nerves continually overexcited, no\nquite healthy soul can live and work unimpeded. It is one of the chief\nmistakes in the culture of our day that a kind of misunderstanding\nhas arisen between body and mind, whereby the body is harmed directly\nand, through the body, the mind. Besides, our whole modern education\nis much more directed toward the mechanical acquisition of things to\nbe remembered than to the attainment of real convictions and of true\nknowledge.\n\n\n3. But all these things, the pursuit of ideals, the search for true\nknowledge, and the maintenance of bodily tone, do not yet help a man\ntoward true culture, unless they rest upon the conviction of the\nexistence of a transcendental world whose forces can effectively come\nto his help. His sensual tendency and his natural selfishness are\nfar too strong for him to subdue them wholly by his own expedients\nand without the help of such a Power residing outside himself. And\nthe motives for doing it are too weak. What indeed should impel him\nto fight a hard and at first apparently almost fruitless battle with\nhimself and the surrounding world his life long, if this life is only a\ntransitory animal existence with no further destination?\n\nThe strength of a merely natural nobility, which for a time, perhaps,\nmay lift itself above these things, does not, under all circumstances,\nhold out in the presence of this conception of life, but easily\ndespairs of itself when trials, continuing and great, draw nigh. There\nmust therefore be the introduction into human existence of a power\nwhich is mightier than all a man\u2019s natural forces and which makes it\npossible for him to master himself and no longer to fear all external\nevils, in comparison with the evil of high treason to his better self.\n\nThat there is such a power, which one can not indeed logically prove,\nbut which he can put to the test and himself experience,--this is\nthe mysterious truth of religion; and it would be much less of a\nmystery if all men, if but once in their life, would venture the trial\nwhether there is such a power. To be sure, if any one does not want\nto let quite go of his pleasure-seeking and selfishness, or does not\naltogether yet desire to attain, at any cost, to something better than\nthe ordinary life, then, in spite of his trial, he will not have a\nperfect experience of this power, and in that case the mere outward\nprofession of a religion does not help him much. He remains on the\nwhole as he is, even though he go to church every day.\n\nBut if he has this will, then he receives this power, then he\ninfallibly becomes another man, to such a degree that one may\ntruthfully call it a new birth. Then only will all his natural gifts\nand knowledge become really alive in him and productive for the welfare\nof himself and others.\n\nThe highest step is complete self-renunciation, in which a man is\nonly the receptacle of divine thoughts and impulses; but it is very\ndangerous to work oneself into such a condition by the fantasy, before\nit comes of itself and is really at hand. The main thing in religion\nis not its immediate perfect attainment, but that every one who will\nmay enter on the way and pass from a joyless existence to a gradually\nascending life.\n\nThis is the way to true culture, and every one must try to travel it by\nhimself. It can not be taught; it can only be shown.\n\nThe evidence that one has true culture is, first, a gradually\nincreasing mental health and power, then a certain higher sagacity\nthat comes in, and finally a peculiar, larger caliber of spirit which\none can bring about in no other way, which one can not imitate, and\nwhich really forms the chief element in culture. Yet these thoroughly\ncultured men are, for all that, entirely natural human beings, but free\nfrom all pretence and vanity; free also from all struggling, from all\nseeking for life\u2019s good things, on which human happiness does not have\nto depend, and in whose incessant pursuit men only lose their souls;\nfree from all unhealthy pessimism, or monkish seclusion; free from fear\nor nervousness or impatience; cheerful and quiet in the innermost\ncentre of their being, and continuing in their mental and spiritual\nsoundness up to the highest goal of human life. \u201cAs their days, so is\ntheir strength,\u201d as the Old Testament says with great beauty and truth.\n\nThe highest imaginable degree of this culture is a complete devotion\nto all that is good and great, a devotion that no sort of trouble any\nlonger clouds, or can cloud; it is that condition of the soul, mentally\nconceivable but seemingly rarely attained, in which there is no longer\nany battle with the sensual and the transitory, and the struggle of\nnature against the law of the spirit is completely at end.\n\nThis is that condition of perfection which we ascribe, in its\nconsummate development, to the Divine Being alone, but toward which we\nalso are called to strive; and the gradual winning of all men to this\ngoal is the task in particular of all true education, and looked at in\nthe whole, it is the end to which all history is moving.\n\n\nII\n\nNo false culture nor half-culture is therefore to be compared with this\ntrue culture, which is unmistakable in its effects upon the whole\nnature of men, and upon their manner of intercourse with others. Even\nin the very simple relations of life it will always reveal itself by a\ncertain greatness of spirit it confers, a spirit that distinguishes its\npossessor from the ordinary man in the like ranks of life. And along\nwith this there is a quiet sense of peace with oneself and with others\nsuch as no other philosophy of life can assure, and which, by its\ncontagious serenity, is apparent to every one who has ever been with\nsuch people.\n\nHowever, it is not wholly unnecessary, particularly at the present\ntime, to set down the chief characteristics of a false or insufficient\nculture, characteristics which one meets very often and can not help\nbut notice. They are particularly the following:\n\n\n1. Great extravagance in living. A man of genuine culture will never\nset a _very_ high value either upon his outward personal appearance,\nor upon where he lives, or what he eats and drinks, or the like\nthings: and so he will carefully avoid luxury, as improper for himself\nand unjust toward others. Excessive finery, golden rings on all the\nfingers, watch chains with which one might, if necessary, tie a calf,\nhouses in which one can not move for the furniture, banquets at which\none risks undermining even a robust constitution--these are all quite\nsure signs of a lack of culture and things that one must guard against.\nFor whoever has intelligence sees through all this; it is only the\nfools who are blinded by it. The surest mark of culture in all these\nthings is a certain noble, easy simplicity in one\u2019s whole personal\nappearance and manner of life.\n\nThe love of display and pleasure is always a sign of lacking culture,\nand culture alone can thoroughly guard against it. Even a general\nraising of the standard of life in a country is desirable only in so\nfar as a rough, half-animal, unworthy mode of living is by its means\ndone away with; otherwise a continual increase in men\u2019s needs is a\nmisfortune for any country, and the cultured classes must earnestly\nstrive against it and set a better example. A noble simplicity of\nliving has also the advantage that it can always remain the same under\nany circumstances, while people inclined to luxury usually have two\nmodes of living, one before people, and the other for themselves.\n\n\n2. An external, but also very easily recognizable and characteristic\nmark of culture is the possession or absence of books; especially with\npersons who have the most ample means of procuring them. A fine lady\nwho reads a soiled volume from a lending library you may safely set\ndown as but half-cultured at best, and if she slips an embroidered\ncover over the volume, it does not remedy the matter; it only shows\nthat she is conscious of her fault. An elegant home in which but a\ndozen books stand unread on an ornamental whatnot you may quietly\nregard as uncultured, with all its inmates; especially if, as usual,\nthe books are only novels.\n\nMuch reading still remains, in our day as always, a necessity of\ngeneral culture. Of a thoroughly cultured man one can properly require\nthat in the course of a moderately long life he shall have read all\nof the very best in literature, and shall have gained, besides, a\ntolerably general and correct idea of all the branches of human\nknowledge, so that \u201cnothing of human is to him quite alien.\u201d\n\nBut if you ask how one can get time for this, outside of one\u2019s business\nor occupation, the answer is this: Break away from all unnecessary\nthings, from the hotel, from societies, clubs, and social pleasures,\nfrom the useless reading of a great portion of the newspapers, from the\ntheatre, where you learn little that is worth knowing in these days,\nfrom the too frequent concerts, from skating for whole afternoons, and\nfrom much else besides that every one can easily charge against himself\nas his special manner of squandering time. One can not be very cultured\nand at the same time enjoy all the possible pleasures going.\n\nBut, if necessary, you may even break away somewhat from business. That\npays, and you will soon see what a difference there is, even as regards\nbusiness success, between a cultured merchant and a merely clever\nmanager.\n\n\n3. A further sign of defective culture is a loud, rude nature: talking\nvery loud, in public localities, in cars, in restaurants, etc.;\nacting as if one were the only person there; and conducting oneself\ndiscourteously in places where many men gather. Our age is less\ncultured in this respect than some earlier ones have been.\n\nOn the same footing stands everything that savors of advertising and\nboasting, all showy pretence and braggadocio. A merchant, for example,\nwho greatly exaggerates the importance of his business, or puts very\nboastful advertisements in the papers; or a lady who wears a silk dress\nwithout quite immaculate undergarments--those surely you would not take\nfor people of sufficient culture.\n\n\n4. Work also belongs to culture. It is not only a quite indispensable\nmeans of attaining thereto, but idleness, even if one can \u201cafford\u201d\nit, is always the mark of a disposition with low ideals; and that is\ndirectly opposed to culture. Such a man will seek his pleasure in\nsomething else, something less fine, or will possess a foolish pride\nin not being obliged to work, or finally he is a fellow of coarse\nsensibilities to whom it is a matter of indifference whether others\nperish by his side whom he could have helped by his exertions.\n\nAn idler by profession is therefore surely a man without ideals and\nwithout real culture, however elegant may be the external forms of\nculture he has gathered round him. They are empty forms without real\nsubstance, and every man of better culture is bound not to allow\nhimself to be deceived thereby and not to respect such people.\n\n\n5. But not much less harmful is the inordinate passion for work. When\nit is voluntary, it nearly always springs from ambition or greed, two\nof the worst enemies of true culture; they always show that one sets\nthe highest value upon something else than culture. Or this passion\nfor work is only a bad habit and the imitation of a bad example, or\nfinally it may spring from a want of inner peace and control, which are\nthemselves the fruit of culture.\n\nWhoever works on Sundays just the same as on week-days, when he is not\ncompelled to, you may quietly consider as little cultured as the man\nwho does nothing any day.\n\n\n6. A very necessary element in culture is an absolute trustworthiness\nand an upright conduct in all money-matters. To the cultured man it is\nnot permitted to display prodigality, or an aristocratic contempt for\nmoney; a disposition like that always indicates lack of culture, and is\nunjust toward one\u2019s needy fellow-men, besides being mostly pretence.\nNor is it permitted him, on the other hand, to show undue parsimony,\nnor dishonesty even in the smallest particulars. On this point, the\nScriptures say quite truly: \u201cHe that is faithful in a very little is\nfaithful also in much.\u201d\n\nAn absolutely rightful employment of money, with the strictest honesty,\nwith complete disregard for money as the goal of life, and yet with\na proper valuation of it as the means of attaining higher ends, is\nperhaps the surest of all signs of a man of genuine culture; as the\nchase after gains and the worship of money most surely betrays the\nuncultured man.\n\n\n7. Another sufficient indication of defective culture is arrogance\ntoward inferiors or toward those who are poorer off, and this is\nusually combined with subservience toward superiors and toward the\nwealthy. This is the special characteristic of parvenus who spring\nfrom uncultured surroundings. A man of the best culture will always be\npolite and friendly, but the more so, the more he has to do with those\nwho stand below him, with the dependent or the oppressed; and the less\nso, even to the bare edge of politeness, the more he has to do with\nsome one who makes pretensions, or wants to treat him as an inferior.\nTo show deep respect for the mere wealth of another is, as said before,\nthe most unmistakable mark of a man completely lacking in any culture\nof his own.\n\n\n8. There are still a number of minor signs of lack of culture, which\nmay, however, be in part only bad habits or the result of defective\nbringing up; they do not always point conclusively to a general lack of\nculture. Among these minor signs one may rightly reckon: much talking\nabout oneself; gossip and scandal over the personal affairs of others;\na great tendency to talkativeness on all occasions; a hasty, uncertain,\nviolent temperament; making many excuses for oneself where it is not\nnecessary or has already been done; to accuse or disparage oneself\nin the hope that others will then assert the contrary; a too-zealous\nofficiousness; or a too-effusive politeness.\n\nThe thoroughly fine aristocratic temperament, such as the English\nespecially prefer, demands a very great self-possession and\npreciseness; but this can easily degenerate into indifference and\ncoldness, and is then a fault. Enthusiasm and eagerness for whatever is\ngood a cultured man always possesses; where this is lacking, there is\nalso a lack of true culture, in spite of fine pretences.\n\nBut this is also certain: when the enthusiasm is genuine and is not\nmerely manufactured or the zeal of a beginner in the noble art of life,\nthen it will never be too forward and loud in expressing itself. A\nnoisy virtue is always a little suspicious, or at least is still in its\ninfancy.\n\nCulture, therefore, is essentially the gradual development of inner\npower toward what is right and true, with the purpose of elevating\nand liberating one\u2019s own higher nature from the bonds of the ordinary\nanimal sensuality with which it came into the world, and of training it\nup to a higher level of life in complete soundness of mind and body.\nWherever it does not do this, it is of very subordinate value; and this\nit must always above all things do in the so-called cultured classes,\nfor whom this is a primal duty.\n\nIt noway suffices to be always talking of the \u201celevation of the lower\nclasses,\u201d who are often superior now to the upper in particular\nelements of true culture. The chief need of our present day is much\nrather the vigorous rehabilitation of this upper class, which is deeply\nsunk in pleasure-seeking and the materialistic conception of things,\nand has turned aside from the higher ends of life.\n\n\nIII\n\nNow if you should resolve to try in this manner to attain to true\nculture, you must have great patience with yourself. It is not the\nmatter of a single day or of a single resolution, although a great part\nis played by making, once for all, a firm and binding resolve, to which\none always comes back again as often as one has in some particular\ndeparted from it.\n\nTrue culture, like true virtue in the main, is a matter of growth. By\ndegrees it grows in strength and insight, but can not be suddenly and\nforcibly won by any kind of magic process; one must make some definite\nbeginning and then persevere in it for life. But this is the only true\npurpose of living, never to be laid aside, and the only outcome of life\nwholly to be wished.\n\nA beginning can be made in different ways: in a purely practical way\nby the acquisition of good habits; or philosophically, by meditating\nupon, and coming to know, and discriminating between, the true and the\nuntrue in the conduct of life; or, through religion, at once seeking\nthe infinite and the power that thence springs. The easiest way is\nundoubtedly the last, and to this, even though one takes the other\nways, one is finally led. For the secret of true culture, its beginning\nand its real key, lies in the conquering of selfishness and especially\nof the inordinate desire for pleasure. Thus it comes about that often\na very simple man, who possesses little knowledge and has had little\ncontact with so-called good society, is nevertheless more truly\ncultured than some aristocratic or learned gentleman. He has the real\nessentials of culture before they have, and has taken the easiest way\nto acquire it.\n\nOnly when a man is no longer constantly busied about himself and no\nlonger thinks of himself alone does he receive his freedom of spirit\nand the full use of the forces that lie in his mental and spiritual\npower. The spirit, then for the first, becomes in some sort free from\nan occupation not worthy of itself, and becomes capable of taking up\nand quietly working at things which otherwise had remained forever\nconcealed under personal cares and pleasures.\n\nTo be sure--and this also must be said--these things are hard so long\nas the youthful man is in the full tide of his physical and mental\nunfolding. Such young people as have already attained to these things\nvery early in life usually do not live very long. It appears that man,\nlike the animal, and like the plant before it bears fruit, needs a time\nof self-seeking activity, in order first to obtain a sufficient growth\nand strength as a natural creature. In the case of man, however, there\nsurely and naturally comes a moment when an exclusive or pre\u00ebminent\noccupation about one\u2019s own self becomes unnatural, and in every larger\nnature--and, it may perhaps be said, in every existence at all worthy\nof men--there comes the impulse to free oneself from oneself and to\nlive for an idea.\n\nThis is the most decisive moment of existence. It is, with some men,\ncomparable to a sudden, violent death, and a new birth to another life.\nWith others, it is more like the gradual and quiet sinking of the\nformer things into slumber, and the awakening and slow fashioning of a\nnew nature.\n\nBut if this change has once taken place, in one way or the other, then\nall the real questions of human existence appear in another light,\nclear and solved.\n\nBut if this change does not take place in a man who is not wholly\nanimal in his nature, then there always stays with him a never-quieted\nthirst for such a change; and likewise a feeling of guilt, which\nclearly says to him that he could and should have become something\nbetter, a voice within him he can not drown, however great his seeming\nsuccess.\n\n\nIV\n\nWith this we have also solved the last question you will put: \u201cWhat\nshall we get out of it? What real gain has a man from true culture?\u201d To\nthis is to be answered that every great inward advancement a man makes\nrests first upon a faith. He must forsake something he knows, and seek\nsomething toward which only a presentiment is leading him, something he\ncan not understand yet fully, because the capacity is for the present\nlacking.\n\nBut if he possesses the courage to will it, he attains it; and of those\nwho have attained this goal, not one has yet found the cost too high,\nor the toil too hard.\n\nThe reward of virtue in this world is just this, that virtue _is_,\nand that it can be overcome by no power of the world, but itself is\nthe only real power and force that will completely fill life full and\nsatisfy.\n\nTennyson has expressed this very beautifully in his poem \u201cWages\u201d:\n\n  \u201c_Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song,\n    Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea--\n  Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong--\n    Nay, but she aim\u2019d not at glory, no lover of glory she:\n  Give her the glory of going on, and still to be._\n\n  \u201c_The wages of sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust,\n    Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm and the fly?\n  She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just,\n    To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer sky:\n  Give her the wages of going on, and not to die._\u201d\n\nIt is therefore, in the judgment of the best even of our own day,\nfully worth the trouble to strive for true culture, and all attain who\nreally desire--rich or poor, learned or unlearned. Indeed, what Christ\nfirst said for his own generation is also very appropriate for ours,\nthat simple souls and modest lives stand much more intimately near to\ntrue culture, and on the way to it do not meet so many and so great\nhindrances as do the wise and the prudent, and especially the rich,\nwho must first strip off infinitely many prejudices and attachments to\noutward things, all of which are irreconcilable with true culture.\n\nIt is therefore harder for some and easier for others to attain to\nculture, but for none impossible, save those whose mind is wholly\nbound up with material things, and are satisfied besides with a merely\nexternal culture that is rather form and show than reality, however\nmuch it may claim to be real.\n\nAn ancient Chinese philosopher has already expressed this very well in\nthe following verses, somewhat na\u00efvely translated:\n\n  \u201c_Men who win the highest prize\n  Are quick to learn and quickly wise;\n  Men in the second rank belong\n  Who\u2019re wise, but in the learning long;\n  Those people must be classed as thirds\n  Who stupid stay, and learn--but words._\u201d\n\nIt scarcely lies within the will of every one of us whether his lot\nshall assign him to the first of these classes, and happily it is not\na matter of very much concern. They are the great exceptions, the\nmoral geniuses of humanity. But to the second rank every one of us\nis called, yes, emphatically challenged, when once the way has been\nshown. And the saddest thing that can happen to him in life is, if he\nnevertheless remains among the third sort of men, whose existence, at\nthe end, has had no real worth, either for themselves, or for others.\n\n\u201cHappy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth\nunderstanding; for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise\nof silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.\n\n\u201cWisdom is more precious than rubies: and none of the things thou canst\ndesire are to be compared unto her.\n\n\u201cLength of days is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and\nhonor.\n\n\u201cHer ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nV. NOBLE SOULS\n\n\n\n\nV. NOBLE SOULS\n\n\nKant somewhere suggests that all the natural capacities of a being were\nintended completely to unfold, at some time, along the line of some\ndefinite purpose, but that in man (the only reasonable being on earth)\nthe capacities intended for the use of the reason can be unfolded\ncompletely only in the race, and not in every particular individual.\n\nBut since this does not come about quite of itself, the conclusion\nwould necessarily follow that there must always be separate individuals\nwho are specially called, to bring about for the whole of humanity this\ndevelopment to a higher stage of its existence--with the proviso that\nthey shall also have willed to devote themselves to this purpose and,\nto this end, to set aside all other personal aims. And even the further\nconclusion would seem to be justified that no single human life would\nfully suffice for this, but that rather a certain bequeathal of this\nmission from hand to hand would be possible and fitting.\n\nWith this intent, the Mosaic legislation cherished the magnificent\nplan of lifting a whole tribe out of the ordinary conditions of the\nlife of the nation, and devoting it to this, the noblest of the\nactivities. Very significantly, this tribe was forbidden the possession\nof property; the Lord alone should be their inheritance, and every\npious Israelite was obliged, in the interest of the whole, to help\nsupport them with the tenth part of his income (which, however, he\ncould bestow on any Levite he chose). Whether such an arrangement could\nbe realized in any of our modern states, and whether (and this is the\nimportant point) it could be kept up indefinitely as established,\nmight be very questionable. But the certainty remains that every human\nsociety needs, for its preservation, some such kind of salt, without\nwhich it would the more easily fall into corruption. This salt is--the\n\u201cnoble souls.\u201d\n\nDoubtless Christianity, at the beginning, had the intention of\nrequiring such a temper of soul of every one of its followers. But\nwe have since become much more modest in our demands on Christendom\nin its entirety; we have been driven to say that there exist certain\nhigher claims than the ordinary ones laid on everybody, but that these\nhigher claims shall never require, so long as the world stands, an\nartificial, castelike order of men, but rather men who will accept\nthem in a spirit of perfect freedom and even joy; and all thoughts\nof a specially privileged position resting on these claims, and all\nconsequent feelings of superiority, must be completely shut out.\n\nThus this aristocracy has the advantage over all others in that it is\nimmediately accessible to all and that every one may become the founder\nof an aristocratic family after this sort. Nor will there ever be\nmuch crowding to get into this aristocracy, but nearly every one will\nbe ready to yield this place to the modern Levites, if only they, in\nreturn, will give up the eager competition for other advantages.\n\nNoble souls, therefore, are those who completely renounce the chief\naim of ordinary souls, the personal enjoyment of life, in order that\nthey may devote themselves the more effectively to the elevation of the\nwhole race.\n\nThe ready objection, that both can perhaps be combined, may well\nbe disputed. Unless one purposely closes his eyes, his experience\nwill rather show that this is not the case; and any proof other\nthan experience will convince no one on this point. Nor can we yet\nreally believe in any transformation and elevation of the _whole_\nof Christendom through anything that may happen in the future.\nChristendom, at least at first, can be regenerated only by the\ngradual formation once more of such a band of volunteers within it\nas will earnestly and literally accept the demands of the Christian\nfaith--more earnestly than (in a purely practical sense) is possible\nto the majority of the souls comprising Christendom, or than, at least\nfor the present, can be expected of them. The danger lurking therein,\nthat a new Pharisaism might spring from it, is a real one; but the\ndanger is lessened because this conception of life could remain on\na purely individual basis, without taking any outward or organized\nform. It appears in general to be a characteristic mark of the present\nevolution of Christianity that, apart from all essential improvements\nin its outward form, it is going first to develop again from within\ninto an \u201cinvisible church,\u201d into a kingdom that truly is not of this\nworld. To explain this, however, is not the purpose of this chapter;\nit would rather contradict this chapter\u2019s leading thought, that it\nis first of all a duty for the individual to proceed to his own\ntransformation. The question for us here, therefore, is only this: What\nare the necessary characteristics of a truly noble soul? What are the\nchief obstacles that stand in the way of this extraordinary guidance\nof the spirit? And finally, is it possible in our day, and is it worth\nthe trouble, to strive after this goal? What will they, who do thus,\nreceive?\n\nThe opposite to \u201cnoble\u201d is not \u201cbad\u201d or \u201cvicious\u201d (though these are not\nnoble), but \u201clittle, narrow-hearted, provincial, thinking only of small\naims in life and only of oneself or of one\u2019s immediate surroundings.\u201d A\nbroad vision, a large heart for all, indifference for one\u2019s own self,\ncare for others--all these are noble. Fearlessness is an essential\nelement; also the not allowing oneself to be imposed upon by anything\nin the world, under any circumstances. This latter characteristic the\ngenuine nobility has in common with the false, though in a pleasanter\nform and united with a sincere esteem for what is truly honorable,\nan esteem that the spurious nobility lacks. Another element is a\ncertain finer cleanliness of spirit. No longer to be an animal in\nany direction, no longer in any way to favor the merely physical\nbeing--this is our real calling, which we are to learn here on earth\nthat we may pursue it hereafter. When the soul stands firmly upon this\nlevel (and it seldom reaches it in one generation), what is vulgar\nbecomes, to noble souls, unnatural and therefore physically repugnant;\nwhile, at the lower level of development, it still charms and entices,\nthough it may spiritually be already overcome.\n\nThe following particular qualities, then, are not noble: first, all\nvanity; this is a quite certain mark of a soul still small; therefore,\nsecond, all boasting, all self-praise in general, and all pretensions\nof even (so to speak) the most permissible nature. These last are not\nunmoral, perhaps, but they are at any rate common and small. Then we\nmust add, further, all immoderate pleasure in any kind of enjoyment,\neven when not purely physical; in eating and drinking, in music and\nthe drama, or what not. The noble man must always stand above his\npleasure and never yield himself into its power. Only one step farther\nin the very common though often innocent gratification of pleasure is\nthe finding of delight in luxury; a stain of injustice is already\nassociated with luxury, which infallibly means depriving another man\nof his own, and creates and maintains a dividing-line among men such\nas ought not to exist. A noble simplicity of living which does not\ndegenerate into the cynicism of the Stoic is a certain mark of a soul\nby right of heredity already nobly born; but the love of luxury is the\ncharacteristic trait of the upstart. Luxury, with debts besides and\none\u2019s consequent dependence upon men, is the acme of commonness and\nleads very often on into wrong-doing.\n\nIt is quite the contrary of noble to speak much of oneself, and\nparticularly to boast of one\u2019s deeds or philanthropy--the latter,\nbecause one is scarcely justified in making much of a stir about it;\nfor very few people give away what they themselves can make good\nuse of, but only a part of their superfluity, which, because it is\na superfluity, they do not even quite rightfully own. Those who are\ncharitable in a really large-hearted fashion are, for the most part,\nonly the poor, who regard it as a matter of course that they should\nhelp one another with everything they possess. With them, giving is\nnot associated with glory, nor is receiving associated with shame;\nwhile the higher classes often seek to balance accounts with their\nChristianity on the cheapest terms, by bringing their philanthropy well\nforward into men\u2019s notice.\n\nTo be sure, there is a way of concealing one\u2019s deeds in such a fashion\nthat they are meant to be discovered and thus win double praise. And\nit is not wholly right, and particularly not wholly Christian to free\noneself altogether from personal contact with poverty by means of\ncontributions to benevolent institutions. The Gospel knows nothing of\nsuch societies as yet (perhaps it even excludes them), but simply says,\n\u201cGive to him that asketh thee\u201d; one might at most add, \u201cunless it will\nmanifestly do him harm,\u201d--as really happens in some cases. The anxious\navoidance of any contact with a callous or not quite cleanly hand is\nanything but truly noble.\n\nIt is not noble to feel disdain toward inferiors, toward poor people\nwho are often the truly noble of this world, toward children, toward\nthe oppressed of every sort, and even toward animals. The chase\nespecially, much as it may belong to the pleasures of noble or\nwould-be noble people, can not be regarded as anything truly noble,\nand particularly if it is connected with no danger, but is simply a\npleasure in the killing of defenceless creatures. Frederick the Great\nhas a sharp passage about this in his writings, while the last French\nBourbons were zealous huntsmen.\n\nTo be ever sincerely friendly with servants, never domineering or\ncondescending, never familiar, but always generous and careful, is a\ngreat art which is rarely learned in a single generation, but is always\na sure mark of nobility.\n\nThe moods of a noble soul are not based on pessimistic lines. The\npessimists are those who have somehow fallen short and are incapable of\nstruggling with courage for the highest things of life and of gaining\nthem by the power and endurance necessary. Therefore they give out\nthat they disclaim them, or represent the renunciation of them as the\nhighest attainable goal. When their pessimism is not merely a passing\nphase in development, pessimists are always egotistical men of a narrow\nrange of ideas, to whom one must not pay the honor of admiration.\nThorough faultfinders, constant critics of everything, tormentors of\nwomen, overexacting, capable of falling into painful agitation over a\nmisplaced article or over a train they have missed,--such are the least\nnoble among them.\n\nThe noblest thing of all is the love of one\u2019s enemies. To be kind to\none\u2019s friends, or to be friendly and fair toward everybody, is socially\nexcellent, but a long way still from being noble. But they who take\ninjuries quietly, and can always be just even to enemies, are the\ngenuine aristocrats of the spirit.\n\nThe perfect pattern of nobility is Christ; many of his biographers give\nquite a false impression in depicting him too much from the humble and\noutwardly meek point of view, and thus carry many conceptions of our\nown bit of sky over into the oriental world, with its different ways\nof thought. It is just that unattainably perfect combination of the\ntenderest affection for the little ones, the poor, the oppressed, and\nthe guilty, with that large and calm self-consciousness before all the\nhigh, the rich, and the mighty of that day (which nevertheless is never\ndefiance or pride),--it is just that combination that lends to this\npersonality a stamp it would be hard to declare purely human. To follow\nthis type has since been the task of all who strive after perfection,\nand whoever turns away from it will always run the risk of chasing\nafter a false ideal and not attaining the goal. As one of these false\nideals has himself truly said, \u201cIn the breast of every man two souls\ninhabit: the one, in the strong joy of love, holds to the world with\nclinging organs; the other lifts itself forcefully away from the mist\nto the fields of high surmise.\u201d A force exerted to subdue oneself,\nand a faith in these fields, will always in truth belong to the truly\nnoble; and if the great poet, who never completely subdued the lesser\nof these souls in himself, says, in the second part of his most famous\nwork, \u201cFool, whoever lifts yonder his blinking eyes, and fancies\nhimself above the masses of his equals, let him stand fast and look\nabout him here, for to him that can hear, this world is not mute,\u201d--if\nhe says this, then it is to be answered that to nobility there also\nbelongs something of a foolishness that is yet wiser than all the\nwisdom of men.\n\nThe chief obstacles in the way of genuine nobility are the nobility\nthat is not genuine and the fear of men.\n\nThe presence of some sort of \u201caristocracy\u201d in every human society of\nlong continuance is a proof of the need of something such, and at\nthe same time the chief cause of its decay. One might say, somewhat\nparadoxically, that an aristocracy is at its purest and best where it\nhas no right to exist; and at its worst where it possesses the greatest\n\u201crights.\u201d Those who belong to these higher classes live now, for the\nmost part, in the vain delusion (to which they are systematically\nbrought up, and by which they are debarred from any better conception)\nthat they owe to humanity nothing further than their mere existence,\nor that there is in general no other society for them but the \u201cupper\nten thousand,\u201d as they are called in England. They deem it quite\nsufficient if they in a certain measure stand as representatives of\n\u201cthe beautiful\u201d in the life of humanity, somewhat in the sense of the\ntasteless expression, \u201cThe rose that doth itself adorn, adorneth, too,\nthe garden,\u201d or in accordance with the better expression, not always\nrightly applied, that common natures count for what they do, noble\nnatures for what they are. Taken in the right sense, this last is true;\nfor from nobly living, nobly doing necessarily follows of itself,\nwhile it is but hypocrisy without it. One of the surest marks of men\nwith noble natures is that the unfortunate are dearer to them than the\nfortunate. Where this is not so there is no genuine aristocratic nature\nof God\u2019s grace, but only an ordinary man, however showy his station in\nlife.\n\nA certain haughty inaccessibility is very pleasant to the proud,\nand passes with them for noble. With God, however, this is not the\ncase, and the man to whom he is merciful he transfers to conditions\nof life where that must be given up. For no one has any feeling for\nsuch distant demi-gods who do not share in the common human lot. They\npurchase their \u201cexceptional position\u201d much too dearly, since by it they\nare shut out from knowing what real love is.\n\nThen, too, it is strange that the most useless of these\nbirds-of-paradise of human society (and proud, too, of their\nuselessness) very often deport themselves as zealous followers of\nChristianity, while their whole mode of existence and their whole\nconception of the world stand in contradiction with the most elementary\nChristian principles.\n\nIt will therefore remain on the whole as Cromwell said, \u201cThe cause of\nChrist goes hand in hand with the cause of the people.\u201d The spirit of\nnobility in the ordinary sense goes no further than a curious hearing\nof the gospel, or than the attempt to use the gospel for quite other\nends than it was meant.\n\nStill less noble than this aristocracy of birth (unless it is also\ninwardly noble) are, as a rule, the new arrivals into it from the lower\nclasses, who mostly bring with them their inborn servile nature, or the\narrogant money-aristocrats who have made themselves rich, but to whom\nthe feeling of the rightfulness of their possessions must be wanting.\nOf such a man Demosthenes, in one of his finest speeches, asseverates\nthat he was surely the child of some slave spuriously substituted in\nthe place of the real child, and was not in the least fitted to belong\nin a free state.\n\nAll arrogance (even that over one\u2019s talents or success) is an unfailing\nsign of a small soul. Of pride, however, one can not say quite the\nsame. In Dante\u2019s great poem it is very noteworthy that it is only\ninside the gate of grace that release from pride, that is, humility,\nis imparted to the man who is purifying himself from all his faults;\nbefore, he employs his pride in overcoming other and lower sins that\nconflict yet more with the nobility of the soul.\n\nWe can not, then, change this fact, that every genuine aristocracy\nrests upon the appointment of God, who is the only rightful \u201clord\u201d upon\nearth, beside whom there is no other \u201cright of lordship,\u201d and who\naccepts those as his \u201cvassals of the crown\u201d whom he deems qualified.\nOn the other hand, it is just as undoubted that individualism, the\nright of mastery over one\u2019s own nature and over one\u2019s free will so far\nas it is employed for good ends, is the most inalienable of all human\nrights, and one that no political democracy can or will ever set aside.\nTo lower this individualism to a mere class or mass consciousness and\nto a common average of culture is barbarism; to develop it partially\nand selfishly only for oneself is criminal or insane. Beauty of form\nhas its value and its right in the training of individual men and of\nwhole generations, provided it is developed on the sound basis of the\ngood--as if its blossom. But then it is the most perfect expression of\nmanliness, of virtue in the ancient sense, of that chivalrous spirit of\nthe Middle Ages which to-day is expressed in the word \u201cgentlemanlike,\u201d\nthough this word often stands only for an empty mould without real\ncontents. \u201cGentleness, when it weds to manhood, makes a man.\u201d Otherwise\nnot.\n\n\u201cThe fear of man bringeth a fall,\u201d says the wise Hebrew proverb-writer;\n\u201cbut whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.\u201d That is very\nmuch in accordance with experience. The fear of man leads always into\nby-paths and is ever somewhat petty and ignoble. Yet no one, even the\nhighest and strongest, can forever remain without fear, if he knows no\ninvisible Lord above him on whose protection he may absolutely rely, so\nlong as he acts rightly.\n\nWith the fear of men is allied a crowd of other petty vices which\nall take their origin therefrom. Hate, envy, jealousy, vengeance,\nresentment, readiness to take offence, malice, injustice in the\njudgment of others, all as little noble as possible, are nothing but\nthe consequences of fear. Even covetousness, the restless struggle for\nmoney and property, often springs not so much from a mad propensity to\nscrape everything together for oneself alone, as from the necessity\n(justified if there were no God) of winning and maintaining in the\n\u201cstruggle for existence\u201d a place which never can be sufficiently\nassured against all mischances, and against all the assaults of\na like-minded overwhelming number of enviers and haters of every\nindividual prosperity. Looking at the matter just from the standpoint\nof covetousness alone (which has its own great inconveniences), if\nthis fear were not present, there would very likely be no men wholly\ndispossessed and no social question.\n\nIf one would remedy these conditions, otherwise so hopeless, then some\nmust be freed from the fear of being obliged to spend a short life\nwithout a just share in the happiness earth has to offer, whereby they\nare necessarily driven to half-insane exertions to win it by force;\nand others must be freed from the apprehension lest they shall see all\nbecome poor and wretched on account of a new distribution of property\nequally among all. To desire to mediate between these two opposites by\nmeans of palliatives is the fruitless exertion of the hour. Neither\nattitude of mind, however, has anything noble about it.\n\nA soul that has attained complete nobility, free from fear and resting\nupon a firm ground of faith, is the most beautiful but also the rarest\nthing there is now. Very few will arrive at this goal to-day otherwise\nthan by roundabout paths, be it through great doubts or through great\nsorrows; though to some the way thereto is made easier because of their\nparentage and ancestry, so that they can already begin to strive after\nit with the advantage of a better footing.\n\nYet it remains a sad fact that every child that is born clearly bears\nupon it the stamp of such a destiny, whose attainability is, with most,\nmore and more lost with advancing age, although a heavy curse hangs\nover the head of him who draws away from this destiny a single one of\nthe millions endowed with a nature called to the highest things.\n\nNevertheless, this is actually so, and, as was said at the beginning,\nit is impossible that there should be none but noble souls on earth;\nthat would be at once the \u201cstate of eternal rest.\u201d Such a noble and\n\u201cexclusive\u201d society we picture for the future life, so far as we can\nimagine that life at all. But there must always be at least a number of\npeople who will not bow the knee to the \u201cBaal\u201d of the hour and just as\nlittle desire to live out their lives on a merely natural basis (for\nthis is of the nature of animals); but their only care is, that God may\ncontinually dwell upon the earth.\n\nTo this, all are called, especially those who belong to the fellowship\nof Christianity; and if few are actually \u201cchosen,\u201d yet they form\nan \u00e9lite to which every man has access. This kind of aristocracy\nwill never pass out of existence, and to it undoubtedly belongs the\nimmediate future, the more the democratic reform wins the upper hand\nin the life of the nations. But it will also, wherever it is genuine,\nbe ever confirmed and upheld by God. An aristocracy, on the other hand,\nthat no longer has any basis in its nation, is certainly a false or\ndegenerate aristocracy that rightfully falls into decay.\n\nFor the genuine aristocracy there is another and a sterner privilege\nthan what are commonly considered privileges. Something more is\ndemanded of it than the continuous longing ordinary souls have for\nhappiness and pleasure. And it is not good for it if it is ever quite\nabsolved of the sorrows which alone keep it in this disposition,\nor if it succeeds or is disappointed in something that sprang from\nordinary motives. The belief in the purifying power of sorrow and\ntherefore in its necessity is always the kernel and centre of all true\nethics, whether based upon philosophy or upon religion. The noblest\nof all earthly lots is sorrow cheerfully borne, and the blessing that\nsprings therefrom for many. And herein lies the key to an otherwise\nperplexing riddle; and on this account many men, who will have nothing\nto do with religion, nevertheless stand nearer to it than many who are\nloud in their religious professions. Whoever can accept sorrow with\na good-will and turn it victoriously to the building up of a better\nnature within him, is and will remain a noble man, with a nature\nfundamentally religious, much as his reason may resist any positive\nconfession of religious faith. And in this one point lies the unity,\nwhich, silently surmounting all limitations, binds the nobler men of\nevery faith and confession.\n\nAnd so, a noble soul must be able to endure a considerable amount of\ninjustice as it now exists in the world, apparently never to cease; nor\nwill it find a cause of offence either in its own misfortunes or in\nthose of others; nor must it try too carefully to escape a reputation\nfor being somewhat foolish.\n\nIt is not always the greatest talents that are adapted to the greatest\nthings. It is very significant that Isaiah says, \u201cWho is blind, saith\nthe Lord, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I send?\u201d In\nthe same manner Christ often says that, to be fit for the Kingdom of\nHeaven, one needs a childlike nature which the unwise are closer to\nthan the wise. And the same thing was shown during the Reformation\nin the case of many who were the wisest of their time, but could not\ndecide to surrender a certain \u201ccultured\u201d attitude of open-mindedness\nand impartiality toward questions of which the learned know, of course,\nthat one can, in any event, \u201clook at it from another point of view.\u201d\nThis is yet to-day the narrow defile which very many of the cultured\nshun to whom Christianity would be quite right, if it only fitted in\na little more with the demands of the time, if it only would give up\nsomething of its uncompromising attitude in regard to ethics, and\nsomething of its absolute demand for faith in respect to things that\nare transcendental and not to be proved.\n\nChrist himself would undoubtedly in his day have been able to conceive\nhis calling in another way than he did. The story of the temptation\nwas an event such as, once in his life, has happened to every highly\ngifted man, and for which he could assign place and date. Happy if\nhe then struck the right road and no longer let himself be misled\nbecause the whole world was against him. Again and again it has finally\nbeen obliged to yield, this \u201cwhole world,\u201d before a single soul; and\nwe often experience yet to-day, in the smallest as in the greatest\nquestions, the truth of the bold saying, \u201cWho firmly holds to his mind,\nwill fashion the world to himself.\u201d\n\nThere is therefore always a place and a need in the world for this\nkind of people, and in this fact they find their modest portion. They\nhave their difficulties, to be sure; but to be without them is neither\nnecessary nor good for them.\n\nFinally, that is a very true word a wise man once spoke, though from an\nopposite point of view, \u201cIn the struggle for existence there is always\nroom above.\u201d Only the lower and middle places are overfilled.\n\nTherefore, you who are young or are dissatisfied with your search thus\nfar for happiness, strike at once for the highest goal. In the first\nplace, that is the surest and best way because it is God\u2019s will and\nbecause he expressly calls you to it. In the second place, it is, of\nall goals, the one that most brings peace, while all the others bring\nmany disillusionments and bitternesses in their train. And lastly, it\nis the only one where the race with those contending for the same prize\nof victory is one with friends and helpers, and where you will not be\nreceived at the goal by enviers and secret opponents, but by sincere\nfriends and men of the same high intent--just noble souls, with whom\nalone it is easy and good to live.\n\n\n\n\nVI. TRANSCENDENTAL HOPE\n\n\n\n\nVI. TRANSCENDENTAL HOPE\n\n\nThis earthly life can not be the end of all life; it can not be the\nfinal word concerning our destinies, unless they are, even in the\nmost favorable cases, to close with an enigmatic deficit, and with an\nunexplainable divergence between capacity and accomplishment, between\ntask and performance: this must be evident to every one who carefully\nreflects upon it, to every one who is unwilling to dismiss such\nquestions curtly, unwilling to accept of death as an all-conclusive,\ncomfortless fate.\n\nThe life of every thinking man who does not believe in its continuance\nafter death, ends, therefore, in deep sadness. The decline of all the\npowers, bodily and mental, fills the heart that knows no further hope\nwith dejection, and with a terror, at times, that no circumstances of\nearthly fortune can save him from. Even the consideration that the\nworks of a man survive him, or that \u201cwhen the body shall fall to dust\nthe great name shall still live on,\u201d gives him no adequate comfort for\nthe passing away of life itself. Some then forcibly rouse themselves\nand seek in feverish activity to use up the last moments of vanishing\nexistence in making sure that others will have something to remember\nthem by, or feel a momentary regret over their loss. In other aging\nmen, on the other hand, once more there awakens with almost elementary\nforce the long-slumbering desire for pleasure in every direction,\nseeking again to blow into flame the pitiful spark of the fire of life.\nThe end in both cases, however, is a helpless breaking-down in the\nface of the constantly approaching Unknown, or the banishment of all\nthoughts on the subject as far as possible, or finally, in the bravest\ncases, a stoical surrender to an unavoidable fate--unless there is a\n_hope_ that life will continue beyond. Only where such hope is present\nis Death the friendly-earnest messenger who heralds to the tired\nwanderer the end of his journey and the soon impending prospect, from a\nslowly and toilsomely mounted hilltop, into a broad new world; for all\nothers he is the ugly skeleton as represented in the medi\u00e6val Dance of\nDeath, or at least the inexorable, cruel Reaper of the very beautiful,\nbut very melancholy poem of Clemens Brentano, \u201cThere is a reaper whose\nname is Death.\u201d\n\nNow, for the first, there comes to light the most remarkable of all\nthe differences between men; now, at the end of life, the \u201csimple\nfool\u201d comes to a victorious vindication. For while to all others every\nautumnal falling leaf awakens the feeling of a hopeless passing away,\n_he_ sees, even in the tree stripped bare, the buds already of a new\nand gracious spring, and he hears, in his last days, not only the\nunalterable judgment of death, \u201cDust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt\nreturn,\u201d but at the same time likewise the word of life, \u201cArise, shine,\nfor thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.\u201d\n\n\nII\n\nThe attitude of men toward the question of death, the most important\nof life\u2019s questions, is that which best characterizes each one of\nthem, and if one always knew their thoughts about it, one would be\nable to draw therefrom the most definite conclusions as to their whole\nconception of life.\n\nThe fear of death is also the best test-stone for every philosophy. A\nphilosophy that does not overcome this fear, or at best leads to sad\nreflections upon the transitoriness of life, is in the first place\nof not very much practical value, and in any case does not completely\nfulfil its purpose. Nor is it even quite consonant with reason; for how\ncould we picture a reasonable condition of man and society, if there\nwere no death? For when the lives of prominent persons have been too\nprolonged, it has been a manifest misfortune to their fellow-men. Far\nfrom being an evil that makes a shrill discord in the universe, death\nis rather an advantage, the only conceivably possible arrangement under\nwhich a world such as ours, in which the good must contend with the\nevil, can exist.\n\nThis at least is certain, that even upon those whose \u201cheart is\nfortified\u201d against any event, the incompleteness and trouble of life\noften lies heavily, and that to them this earthly existence seems\nmerely a transitory state from which there must some day be release.\nEven the happiest life knows such moods, and though one might be\nentirely satisfied with his own lot, he could not possibly be so for\nhis nation and for the millions of men whose life seems only one long\nchain of deprivations and blunders that mock at all attempts to help.\nAn old German poet, Heinrich von Laufenburg (1445), already gives\nexpression to this mood in the following verses:\n\n  \u201c_I would I were at home on high,\n  And all my worldly toil laid by;\n  At home above is life deathless,\n  And all is joy without distress;\n  A thousand year make there one day,\n  And pain and strife are gone for aye.\n  Then up! my heart and hardihood,\n  Seek ye the good above all good;\n  Ye may not stay for long below,\n  To-day, to-morrow, ye must go.\n  Farewell, O world! may God thee bless;\n  I fare to Heaven\u2019s happiness._\u201d\n\nBut neither is this yet the right conception of death. One can also die\n\u201cfull of days,\u201d and age is not necessarily a tedious, ever-increasing,\nhopelessly incurable disease, but it can also be a continuous\nadvancing, an evolving of oneself toward a nobler and a purer life than\nis possible on this earth. Death is then but the wholly natural and\nby no means violent and illogical transition into an analogous kind\nof existence that only needs to be continued; the fruit is ripe, and\nfalls, not to be destroyed, but for a useful harvest.\n\nMoreover, if there is no awakening after death, then those who believe\nin an awakening will suffer naught from such a delusion, but, without\never being conscious of it, will share the common human fate of\nextinction; while, if there is an awakening after death, such an\nawakening can not be a pleasant thing for those who did not believe\nin it. This, indeed, is where faith has the advantage, to speak quite\npractically; for if it should be mistaken, it will fare no worse, in\nthis life or later, than the opposite view; but if it shall find itself\non the right path, it will fare better.\n\n\nIII\n\nStill, our hope in a further life is only a hope and not a demonstrable\ncertainty. Yet perhaps it is a well-grounded assurance, resting first\nof all on the fact that capacities and powers are placed in men for\nwhose complete development human life is too short, and which would\ntherefore be pointless if they did not attain to a further evolution.\nThis is particularly manifest in the case of all men who die young.\n\nAgain, we have the very definite testimony of Christ, whose whole\nconception of life would otherwise rest upon a huge error. The\nresurrection of the personality is one of the most indubitable and the\nmost definite promises of Christianity, and without it Christianity\nwould have a very dubious amount of truth and a very doubtful value\nfor life; no \u201cresurrection of the body,\u201d of course, in the literal\nsense of the Christian confession of faith, as many conceive it, but\nin the sense in which Christ, and Paul too on occasion, announced it\nand in which alone it can satisfy us also. For though we do not wish\nto lose our individuality, nor rise again, as Job rightly says, as \u201ca\nstranger to ourselves\u201d (in which case there is no continuation of _our_\nlife and the whole question no longer has any meaning), yet we shall\nsurely not desire to live on with all \u201cthe weaknesses of the flesh\u201d;\nand under any circumstances there is need of a thorough transformation,\nlaying deep hold upon the whole nature of man, a transformation for\nwhich the Catholic church, indeed, assumes a special preparatory stage.\n\nThe details of this transformed continued life we do not know at all;\nnor do we know, in particular, how far those who are in that life have\nany consciousness of their former condition (as, indeed, logically\nbelongs to a continued life, else it is none), nor how far they are in\na position to maintain a connection with their kinsmen here. Moreover,\nwe could not apprehend it with our present organs of perception,\neven if it were to be disclosed to us. Likewise all descriptions\nof \u201ceternal glory\u201d (with which the fantasy of men has taken so much\npleasure in busying itself), as well as the notion of an \u201ceverlasting\nrest\u201d (which, with our present ideas of rest, we could not endure),\nare nothing further than fantasy, expressed in impossible, or at\nany rate in quite imperfect pictures. It is surely possible, we may\nhope, for the nature of the life to come to be, far beyond all human\nunderstanding, greater than all these pictures represent; but it will\nquite surely be intelligible only for those whose spiritual nature is\nsuited for it and sufficiently purified from everything that tends to\ndecay. That is, in other words, if there is a continued life for all,\nand if they who have lived for nullities and have not developed their\ncapabilities toward the attainment of things eternal, do not sink into\nnothingness, then every one surely continues to live in the element to\nwhich he truly belongs.\n\nWhether there is then an endless duration of this new state under all\ncircumstances, or whether there are still many separate steps of life,\nas in our life, and a final purification for all men (the so-called\n\u201crestoration of all things\u201d)--these are questions that no one will\never be able to answer satisfactorily. Whether there is an eternal\npunishment of the wicked does not seem to be so very important--less\nimportant, at least, than the unending advance of the good; and whether\nthe wicked believe this, or do not believe, it has no very real\ninfluence upon their conduct. The punishment of the resolutely wicked\n(which many do not see brought about, and so become easily dubious of\nthe existence of divine justice in the world) is particularly this,\nthat they are unable to become better even if in their better moments\nthey wish to do so. They are obliged to remain slaves to their lower\nnature, and to lose their life without any results worth while and\nwithout the hope of an immortality which they could only fear. If that\nstill seems to you to be no satisfactory compensation for the sorrows\nand deprivations of the good upon earth, then add this fact to the\naccount, that evil men do not experience the love and fidelity of men,\nthe best of all outward things the world has to offer, and without\nwhich all their other possessions might well appear worthless, even\nto him who has them in the greatest fulness. He who loves no one,\nand whom no one loves, is a poor, lonely man, though he may, in the\ncommon belief, be sitting in the lap of fortune. And things are so\narranged that these unhappy men can not understand or value the love\nwhich perhaps is still tendered them, but must infallibly lose it\nagain through their own folly. To the things of highest value in human\nexistence, the nearness of God, an inward trust in the good ending of\na brave life, and that love and fidelity which can not exist without\nreciprocal esteem,--to these the evil man never attains. The other\nthings let him enjoy in uneasiness and in the continual fear of the\nenvy and hate of thousands (if that can be called \u201cenjoyment\u201d), and do\nnot begrudge him a happiness that, for much the greater part, exists\nonly in the mistaken idea that others have of it. \u201c_Non ragionam di\nlor, ma guarda e passa_,\u201d--speak not of them, but look, and pass them\nby.\n\nAs far as concerns our present life and nature, what is necessary (and\ntherefore conceivable) as a reason for our faith, is only this: that\nwithout faith (that is, a trust in the transcendental, in what we can\nnot grasp with the senses), we can not carry out the purpose of life\nin its entirety, nor can we lift ourselves to that plane which, _with_\nthis faith, lies in our power of attainment and therefore becomes our\ntask; that, further, for the attainment of this plane we need a power\nof love which is stronger than that which rests on human affections,\nand which is also very likely the element that creates life and\nsustains it and that possesses the power to overcome death; and that\nfinally neither this faith nor this love would endure in the face of\nthe enormous obstacles which oppose them on every hand in our earthly\nexistence, if it were not for the glad hope that \u201cthere remaineth a\nrest to the people of God.\u201d\n\n\nIV\n\nThe most positive fact we really know as to an existence after death\nis the resurrection of Christ. This is evidence not only historically\nvouched for (better, indeed, than most so-called \u201chistorical facts\u201d of\nequal antiquity), but also a necessary postulate from a philosophical\nand ethical point of view, unless the whole history of the world for\ntwo thousand years past is to rest upon a delusion, or even, one may\nsay, upon an intentional falsehood. The resurrection is, and will\nremain, therefore, the foundation both of all true Christianity and of\nall transcendental hope.\n\nJudging by this resurrection of Jesus, the future life would seem to be\nsomewhat similar to our present existence, and death accordingly an\nevent of much less importance and, one might properly say, much more a\nmatter of indifference than we usually assume it to be. At any rate,\nthe future life will be an evolution; neither an everlasting rest in\nthe literal sense, nor everlasting enjoyment. The latter would not be\nnoble enough, and the former appears to us as beautiful only in moments\nof weariness and not when we are endued with new vigor.\n\nOn the contrary, indestructible power of work and joy in work, joined\nwith true depth and clearness of vision as to the ends of life one\nshould pursue, enter, in the case of all divinely guided men, only\ntoward the end of their life, when all seeking for pleasure has ceased;\nand this is a very safe indication, both as to the continuation of life\nitself (that it can not suddenly cease at this stage of development),\nand as to the nature of that continuation (that it can only be a\nheightening of the best of our present activities). This is often so\nclear to the reason that the assumption of a sudden extinction of this\nactivity, just when it has become full of vitality, seems thoroughly\nunmeaning, and unworthy of the order of the universe unless it rests\nupon mere chance; and a cosmical order resting upon chance alone, yet\nexisting for thousands of years, would be a simple impossibility.\n\nBanish from your life, therefore, the melancholy fancy of a helpless\nsinking beneath the waters, for that is foolishness; but banish\nlikewise too great a contempt of life. Life is no mere vale of sorrow\nthat must be escaped from as soon as possible, but an important,\nperhaps the most important, part of our whole existence, in which\nwe make our decision for advancing life, or for a gradual and real\ndeath. Even the many weak-hearted men of our day who only want to\ndie quickly and \u201cgo to heaven\u201d without a struggle, may well find\nthemselves deceived, and that the struggle will yet meet them, but\nunder less favorable conditions. Nor are we to envy the \u201cinnocent\u201d\nchildren and young people who, in the view of the Greeks, have died\nearly by a special favor of the gods; for they must none the less\nbegin from the beginning. It is through conflict and many troubles of\nevery sort that we must attain to the perfection which is our present\ntask. This perfecting process alone opens the hard and unreceptive\nheart sufficiently to receive the noble seed of a higher conception\nof life, a seed that must be sown in the heart, and first spring up,\nthen grow, then blossom, and at last bear fruit. This life-process may\nneither be hastened nor avoided, but it must be gone through. It is\ntherefore reasonable that we should not be eager for death, even if\nwe do not fear it, but we may justly rejoice only over what we have\nalready happily gone through and now, for all eternity, no longer need\nto experience and endure.\n\nWhen one once believes firmly in a continuation of existence that\nalone supplies our present life with an intelligible solution of all\nits questions and riddles, then a bit more or less enjoyment or pain\nduring this short span of imperfect existence becomes more a matter\nof indifference, and much that was important before falls away from\nus as a form without meaning; while, if these thoughts are untrue,\nand if this is the only world, full as it is of injustices, sorrows,\nand passions, it is a simple impossibility to believe in a just and\nalmighty God. Upon this single point, therefore, hangs our entire\nphilosophy of life.\n\nTo me, the continuation of existence is a certainty, but its form\ninconceivable; only it will be similar to our present life in its\npurest moments, and will surely be no sudden leap into a quite\ndifferent spiritual condition, but a continuation, in which each man\ncan receive only that for which he has become ripe here. The difference\nwill therefore, perhaps, be smaller than is commonly thought.\n\nBut the scientists are quite right in denying immortality to a soul\nthat is simply a function of physical organs. Whatever in our nature\ncan be comprehended by the methods of natural science can not possibly\nbe immortal, but passes into annihilation, or rather into dissolution\nand change, just as surely as any other object in the physical world.\nBut there is apparently something else in man besides bones, muscles,\nsinews, veins, and nerves, and this something else can be embodied\nagain in some other form. And this seems to me relatively more\nconceivable than a sudden and complete annihilation of the spiritual\nlife.\n\nDeath, in itself, is therefore nothing terrible, nor even something\nundesirable, and whoever still fears it is certainly not yet upon the\nright path of life. The only fearful thing is the backward glance,\nwhen one is old, upon a life quite perverted and useless, or upon a\ngreat accumulation of guilt unforgiven.\n\nNot we shall pass away, but the present world shall pass away: this\nis the one great thought which must lift us above all the terrors\nof uncertainty. The other bright point in this darkness which the\nunderstanding alone can not illumine, is the thought that the Lord of\nall existence, whom we have already learned to know here as a sure\nfriend, must be quite the same for us there also as he was here, only\nstill nearer joined to us and still clearer known.\n\nHis voice--and this all know who have once stood near the dark\nexit-gate of this life--his voice we shall be able to hear at last,\nwhen all else has already sunk away behind us. Then, only one step\nfurther, and\n\n  \u201c_I hope to see my pilot face to face,\n  When I have crossed the bar._\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVII. THE PROLEGOMENA OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n\n\n\nVII. THE PROLEGOMENA OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n\nThe cardinal fault of Christianity, which has persisted from generation\nto generation for centuries, is perhaps this: that Christianity has\nfor long been no genuine, vigorous conviction of all those who bear\nits name, but only a general notion of somewhat the same meaning as\n\u201chumanity\u201d or \u201ccivilization.\u201d Thus year after year many thousands\nare received into its formal constituency without ever in their\nlives receiving a correct idea of its demands, or a firm trust in\nits promises, or, least of all, any definite resolution and will to\nhold themselves in duty bound by these demands and promises. The\n\u201cChristian\u201d nations distinguish themselves from the non-Christian in\nmuch the same way as the ancient \u201cGreeks\u201d distinguished themselves from\nthe \u201cBarbarians\u201d; and the Christian faith has grown to be a special\nconfession _within_ the borders of Christendom; while quite other\nconvictions, never shared by Christ and his first confessors, and\nconceptions of the world which claim an equal right in a \u201cChristian\u201d\nstate, venture to stand opposed to Christianity.\n\nWe may leave it undecided whether this is a fate that overtakes every\nreligion which ripens into a \u201cworld-religion,\u201d but may nevertheless\ndoubt whether the formation of such a world-religion by means of a\ngreat attenuation of all religious demands ever lay in the original\nmeaning and task of Christianity; even if one may grant that, even in\nthis form it has been a magnificent tool of civilization and, in fact,\nis still such.\n\nYet it is certain that this course of evolution was dimly felt, even by\nthe first generation of Christians, as an unavoidable though deplorable\nfate, and that the formal victory of the Christian religion over the\nheathen cults in the Roman Empire, and the consequent transformation\ninto a Roman state religion, brought into it an element that Christ\nhimself, before Pilate, the Roman governor of Jud\u00e6a, had disavowed in\nthe most distinct manner. All which has since been called \u201cthe Church,\u201d\nor \u201cthe relations between the Church and the State,\u201d and which has\ntaken up so great a space in the thoughts of the nations, has, as an\norganization, no support in the original records of Christianity;\nindeed, it often almost seems as though the attainment of a definite\ngoal of human development and the consequent end of the present age of\nthe world were dimly surmised by the early Christians to be nearer than\nproved possible, in the sequel. The Kingdom of God is wholly founded\nupon the freedom of the human will, and it depends on that with what\nspeed and intensity Christianity will or can come to realization in an\nindividual, or in a nation, or in an epoch.\n\nIt is a serious article of belief with the Protestant group of\nchurches, that not merely in a general way, but for every single\nindividual during his earthly life, Christianity is to be realized\nthrough a \u201cchurch\u201d; this \u201cchurch\u201d stands for the continuous visible\nembodiment of Christianity, and accordingly it receives the individual\ninto its constituency as a mere unit in the totality, in order that it\nmay furnish him a safe passage through the judgment that shall finally\ntake place on all the deeds of men. And this does not prevent many men,\nin all the Christian communions, from believing that membership in\nthese communions is the chief matter; and they busy themselves about\nthe fundamental conditions of such a membership only for a couple of\nhours on Sundays.\n\nThis accounts for the title of this chapter. For we are going to\nask, not what belongs dogmatically to the Christian doctrine, but\nwhat kind of preliminary dispositions are required in the human\nintellect and will before we can accept and understand the teachings\nof Christianity. In this sense they are \u201cprolegomena.\u201d If some reader,\nafter going through this chapter, should say that the very substance\nof Christianity itself lies therein, I shall not disturb him in his\nconception; for his conception would at any rate do him less harm than\nthe other view, which would declare these preliminaries to be too\ndifficult, or not necessary, for entrance into the church of Christ.\n\nThese first steps are quite easily outlined in a few words: first,\nto regard God as an actual existence and not as a mere philosophical\nidea of the schools,--and then, in consequence, to fear him alone and\nto serve him alone--to have no other idols beside him, neither men,\nnor possessions, nor glory; secondly, to love the men among whom one\nis placed \u201cas oneself,\u201d as Christ says, in practical words we can\nunderstand--not often more than oneself apparently, and as a matter\nof fact, in most cases less; thirdly, not to devote one\u2019s life to\npleasure even of the so-called \u201cnoblest\u201d sorts, nor, on the other\nhand, to suffering, to mere asceticism,--but to surrender oneself to\nthe doing of the will of God, in the firm confidence that this must\nbe practicable, though not through one\u2019s own moral power, yet through\nthe divine help and grace; and, fourthly, if any one should at first\ndoubt whether all this is possible for man, to believe that, so far as\nconcerns himself, the matter lies only in his _will_, the only thing he\ncan, but must, contribute thereto.\n\nThese are the \u201cprolegomena\u201d of Christianity which every one must\nconsider, before he resolves, upon reaching his years of discretion,\nto make a real entrance into the Christian life, instead of going\nforward upon the broader way, easier at the first, but sure to be\nunsatisfactory in the end.\n\nIf he does not consider these things, or if he relies upon his own\nstrength in the conduct of life because he trusts in the possibility of\nan ethical uplifting tendency already present in human nature and does\nnot think he needs any transcendental support, then he is either like\nthe man in the Gospel who built a house upon the sand which stood only\nas long as the weather was fair, or like that other who began to build\na tower which afterward he could not finish.\n\nOr if he finds these demands too high-pitched, then, even under the\nbest conditions, there springs up in him that consumptive, an\u00e6mic,\nhalf-hearted Christianity which is forever evading the urgings of\nconscience and is consequently always dissatisfied--that hypocritical\nand unlovely Christianity which we all know only too well.\n\nIt is not necessary to say much in \u201cexplanation\u201d of these demands.\nThe requirements of the Christian religion are not usually lacking in\nclearness; it is the human will that is lacking in the resoluteness to\naccept them. It much prefers to have them explained away.\n\nBelief in God is naturally the first and the most necessary preliminary\nstipulation of Christianity, without which it does not exist, or is but\nan empty dissembling name for an entirely different way of thinking.\nThis is also the case when the word \u201cGod\u201d is accepted as a designation\nfor the totality of all things, or the Absolute Being, or, as with\nmost adherents of \u201cdeism,\u201d as an expression for a something that\nexercises no influence upon worldly things, but somehow exists only as\nthe law that in the beginning created the universe, but is now forever\nunchangeable; where it itself came from and why it no longer continues\nvital and active, no one can tell.\n\nTo be sure, we can not explain a \u201cliving\u201d God, as we have often already\nsaid. All explanations or so-called proofs of God are defective, both\nthe positive and the negative. It is not worth the trouble to linger\nover them. God is something that can not be explained, but he is not\nsomething that can not be experienced. But he is to be experienced\nonly by those who \u201ckeep his laws,\u201d and one may be practically quite\nsure that those people who will not do this are atheists at bottom, in\nspite of all their asseverations; just as there are men, on the other\nhand, whom God probably still regards as his followers, though we have\nourselves long given up regarding them as such.\n\nThe experience of God expresses itself thus: first, in spiritual\ntranquillity, satisfaction, quieting of the thirst for truth (as Christ\ncalls it), a sort of strengthening of the spirit and of the inner life\nsuch as is vainly to be attained in any other way, whether through\nphilosophy, or through a refusal to think at all about such things;\nsecond, in inward serenity which, gained in any other way, is not so\nlong-enduring; and finally, in a general deeper intensity of life, the\neffective cause of physical and spiritual health and so of the manifold\nblessing which springs from this belief in God, both for individuals\nand for nations.\n\nIt is this blessing that is showing itself when all one\u2019s\ncircumstances, apparently of their own motion, so shape themselves that\nwhat is truly excellent (the furthering of the inner, the protection of\nthe outer life) always prevails, and danger is averted; on the other\nhand, no travelling in byways, no wrong actions, are attended with\ngood results. The latter is the usual punishment of evil men, whereby\nthey are hardened and kept from turning to a better life. It is also\nthe ever-visible means of distinguishing between the divine blessing\nand that outwardly similar worldly \u201cgood fortune\u201d in which even the\nshrewdest of men often put an inconceivable and quite groundless\nconfidence, until, some time or other, it leaves them in the midst\nof dire difficulties; for the most part at the very moment when they\nbelieved they had definitely secured it and had attained to the proud\nsummit of their desires. Men are never faithful to the mere \u201cchildren\nof fortune,\u201d but only to their fortune; while they can not, if they\nwanted to, oppose those endowed with the divine blessing.\n\nOn this point the Old Testament contains many positive assurances\nand many actual examples, and it may in general be said that for the\npresentation of the Laws of God the New Testament alone would not\nsuffice; nor is that its purpose, for it always implies a knowledge of\nthe Old Testament.\n\n\u201cThe man who keepeth my laws shall thereby live,\u201d is the sum of these\npromises. For these laws are the principle of life itself, and to\nignore them is to come within the jurisdiction of death. That may be\nput to the test, and ought to be put to the test, if it is done with a\nsincere desire to know what to believe, and if it is not continually\nrepeated after one has once gained a sufficiently clear knowledge. But\nfor those who will not do even that there is nothing left save to make\nfor themselves other gods \u201cto go before them.\u201d\n\nThese gods are, as a rule, human beings or the products of their mind\nin some form,--once again to-day, as in the period of the so-called\nRenaissance, pre\u00ebminently in the form of art. Great crudeness of morals\nand the absence indeed of all ethical conceptions may go hand in hand\nwith the finest and highest culture in this special direction, thus\nshowing that art can not be the highest goal men can strive for and\nattain. We ought not to have had to experience this for the second\ntime, though it is often to be feared that we are now doing so.\n\nWe should never make idols for ourselves of even the dearest and best\nmen, not to speak of those who are highly gifted or hold a high place\nin the world\u2019s esteem. Not only the New Testament, but even the Old,\nlays down in a very practical way the proper and easily recognized\nlimit; for they prescribe that we are to love God \u201cabove all,\u201d and\nmen \u201cas ourselves,\u201d no more and no less. Even the simplest person can\neasily compute this; and if in certain exuberant, \u201cheavenly\u201d moments of\nlife it seems too little, yet, taking one\u2019s whole life into account, it\nis really more than any of us perform, and at any rate is much more\nsalutary for our neighbor.\n\nThe opposite quality to \u201creliance upon men\u201d is (what at first seems\nunlikely) sympathetic compassion; when reliance departs, compassion\nenters to heal. This is something quite different from what is\nordinarily called \u201clove to men,\u201d and is much more. It is something,\ntoo, that does not naturally lie within us; we have to learn it,\nusually late in life and through troublous paths. But when a man has\nit, then it is henceforth sure that he is \u201cfit for the Kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nIf it is not men and their works, then it is possessions, ambition,\nor the continuous search for enjoyment that stands most in the way\nof that sincere union of the human soul with the divine spirit which\nnecessarily forms the foundation of all Christianity;--above all, it is\nthe \u201cdeceitfulness of riches,\u201d as the Gospel well calls it, the very\ncommon delusion that possession and happiness are identical, a delusion\nfrom which the man first awakes when he holds in his hands that for\nwhich he was striving and for which he had often sacrificed body and\nsoul; and now for the first he discovers that, looked at closely, it\nwas not, even on the best interpretation, worth all this exertion.\n\nIn the Gospel are found these words of Jesus: Lay not up for yourselves\ntreasures upon the earth; ye can not serve God and Mammon; whosoever\nhe be of you that renounces not all that he hath, he can not be my\ndisciple. If I were an adherent of the atheistic Socialism of our\nday, I would constantly hold up these sayings of their Lord and\nMaster before the sincere followers of Christianity, who are by far\nthe most dangerous opponents of Socialism; for if they should obey\nthese sayings, without any further effort the solution of the social\nquestion would follow. But there are many passages of the Bible which\nare almost divested of their value because of a kind of disqualifying\nlaw of customary usage; or they are at least not spoken of in religious\ncircles, because they have little that is \u201cedifying\u201d for many of those\npresent.\n\nIf we must admit that such passages designate the goal or ideal toward\nwhich we should strive, rather than that to which every one can at once\nattain, we should, nevertheless, keep our eyes continually upon it\nand have the earnest will to make our way thither; else all the other\nmessages of the Gospel profit us nothing and are for us as if they\nwere not there.\n\nTo speak practically, then, one must never fix his heart upon\npossessions, nor regard them as the most important thing to be lived\nand striven for, nor make them the measure of his valuation of men and\ncircumstances, nor be unready or disinclined to diminish them at any\ntime for the sake of God or the common good, and if necessary even to\ngive them up altogether. They who can do this when it is required of\nthem are the only men who are free and worthy of God\u2019s kingdom. At\ndifferent times in life they will often be put to this test, and if\nthis has never yet happened, it is no good sign for their inner life or\nfor their standing in God\u2019s grace. Often it goes no farther than the\ntesting of their will, and when the will has surrendered, God does not\nrequire of them the actual deed, or he lets the trial so shape itself\nthat in the end it is the more easily endurable. Sometimes, however, as\nwith Job, it comes to a real loss of all one\u2019s goods; and not always\nis there finally a double compensation therefor, but there always is\na complete consolation for what one has done, provided one will seek\nfor it and not merely helplessly and weakly bewail. In order always\nto have the mastery of oneself and to put this to the proof, it may\noften be a good thing, even before one resolves upon Christianity, to\nmake the test of Polycrates, who cast a much-treasured ring into the\nsea. Try it once, this surrender of your dearest possession; though,\nto be sure, the test will in most cases come to you unbidden, if it\nis your lot to become a free man by God\u2019s grace instead of a slave to\nMammon. But no matter how it comes to you, if you have shown yourself\nable to make this surrender, you will be set free from the strongest\nfetter with which the spirit of the world keeps man bound; the rest of\nyour possessions will henceforth become more a matter of indifference\nto you. Of course, in this question of possessions, the concern is\nrather with the spirit and the will than with the mere deed. One can\nalso \u201cpossess as though he possessed not\u201d (though the possibility of\ndeception here is very great), and if one no longer spends anything\nfor mere enjoyment or luxury, but applies everything to useful\nends, not counting among such ends the mere senseless heaping up of\npossessions for heirs and successors down to the remotest ages, then\none may believe his actions respond to the real meaning of the words\nof Christ. We at least will not cast the first stone at those who so\ncomport themselves.\n\nOne good help in this, besides the firm resolve to forego all luxury,\nis, as already explained in a former chapter, systematic giving;\nanother is, to reckon and calculate as little as possible, and to busy\noneself as little with money as is compatible with a necessary order in\none\u2019s business and private affairs. For money has an evil charm about\nit like that of philosophical heresy; neither will easily let a man go\nagain when once he has become much involved in them.\n\nGlory is for many just as strong a fetter as mammonism--not only\nthe excessive eagerness for the ordinary human and civic honors\n(exposed though they always are to the judgment of contemporaries\nor, in the greater instances, of posterity) but also the anxiety for\nrespectability. As to the former, Paul, one of the most abused of men,\nhas left us a very good statement in 1 Cor. iv. 3 ff.; and that any one\nloses the regard of his citizens quite without blame is really much\nrarer than is commonly supposed. On the other hand, God often enough\nmakes one\u2019s former enemies to be those who become the most satisfied\nwith him, and the prophetic words of Isaiah come splendidly to take\nthe place of the earlier underestimation: \u201cAnd the sons of them that\nafflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised\nthee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet.\u201d But one\nmust be able to endure things if he is to adopt Christianity; those\ntoo-sensitive Christians who crave the esteem of even those they do not\nthemselves esteem only show that the world and its praise are still far\nfrom being enough a matter of indifference to them.\n\nThe real positions of honor are, after riches, the most dangerous thing\nthere is for faith; on this point the Gospel leaves not the least\ndoubt. Whoever runs into this danger quite of his own free will, even\nperhaps with eager zeal, quite commonly perishes therein, so far as\nconcerns his better and only worthful life. But whoever, by his calling\nor by his lot, is compelled to accept such positions and yet would like\nto become or remain a Christian, has every cause to be watchful, and to\nbe thankful for occasional humiliations, an article in which, happily,\nthe world seldom lets him be lacking.\n\nFor the greater number of men in the ordinary situations of life\nthe hardest part in the prolegomena of Christianity is perhaps the\nconquering of one\u2019s desire for pleasure. The humbler classes often\nescape this desire with still less success than do the wealthy and\nthe aristocratic, who may have learned, through experience, to place\na better estimate upon the worth or worthlessness of the pleasures of\nthe material life. One often finds in the lower classes a much more\nunrestrained passion for pleasure, which, joined with the atheistic\nmood they purposely cultivate, sometimes degenerates into a true\nsavagery and makes them like animals, and animals not of the noblest\nsort, either.\n\nBut unfortunately the upper strata of society often enough lead the way\nby their own bad example. They often complain of the love of pleasure\nand the frivolity of the serving classes; but things would go better if\nthe servants did not perceive in their masters the same propensities\nthat restlessly agitate them.\n\nPleasure set up as a rule of life, sensuousness (taken in the widest\nsense) established as the controlling power in the life of a man--this\nis the infallible death of all faith in transcendent things. These\ntwo powers, pleasure and faith, do not long exist side by side in a\nman, but the one or the other must leave the field. Happy he in whom\nit is the power of the sensual element that retreats before that of\nthe spiritual, vigorously striving for the mastery. For every victory\nover the love of pleasure (what is not otherwise always the case on the\nso-called path of virtue) brings at once its own reward in an increased\nvigor of the ideal life, and often in a broad spiritual progress in the\nwider sense. We can truthfully say that the most of the great advances\nin the inner life are ushered in by some renunciation which brings its\nown compensation.\n\nThat to the love of pleasure all sorts of attractive names are given\nand that it in truth assumes now finer, now coarser, forms, should not\nlead us astray. It is, nevertheless, under all circumstances, that\ntrait in us which most resembles animal nature and forthwith reveals\nits ignoble character in the fact that it is always united with egotism\nand the exploitation of others for our own selfish inclinations. The\npartial na\u00efvet\u00e9 of the ancient world is wanting in humanity now, for\ntheir eyes have been opened to its meaning; and a universal failure to\nconquer the love of pleasure through higher interests would, in these\ndays, be an unprecedented and quite impossible relapse of humanity into\nan earlier age.\n\nWith the pursuit of pleasure dies the inclination for riches and honor,\nwhich are partly only means in that pursuit and not ends in themselves;\nand instead there springs up joy in work, the best salvation from all\nevil, that otherwise always surrounds and tempts a man in one way or\nanother. For when the pursuit of pleasure disappears as a rule of life,\nthen a man must work, or the world is too dreary. On the other hand,\nwith the pursuit of pleasure as his innermost spring of action, a man\nwill always look upon work as only a means, and a disagreeable one, to\nthe attainment of pleasure.\n\nThat one may, nevertheless, find an artless enjoyment in the beauty of\nnature, in the serene succession of the days and the years, in one\u2019s\nfamily and in true friendship, in uplifting art and science, in the\nlife and welfare of his nation, even in the inoffensive animal and\nplant worlds, and, above all, in all the great and good activities that\nare going on in the whole realm of humanity--all this is to be taken\nentirely for granted. Indeed, a keen sensitiveness to such things is a\nsure mark of an unspoiled temperament, and especially of years of youth\npurely spent, a youth that has not, by poisonous pleasures, prematurely\ndeadened its feeling for the true and harmless joys of life.\n\nFurthermore, an excessive repression of the life of the body is\ncertainly not advantageous for spiritual progress--still less is it a\ndivine command, but it is rather, whenever it appears, merely a human\ndevice with no decisive value. On this point a thoughtful commentator\nof the oldest biblical records says, very truly, that men always have a\ntendency to heighten the commands of God, which are themselves properly\nmeted and adapted to men\u2019s capabilities; and that, in the Old Testament\nnarrative of the first trial of obedience, God did not say that Adam\nand Eve should not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,\nbut only that they should not eat of its fruit; it was Eve herself who\nadded the further prohibition, \u201cneither shall ye touch it,\u201d and by so\ndoing placed the Tempter in the desired position of making an alleged\ndivine command manifestly untrue on its face, because the mere touch of\nthe tree did not cause death. (Genesis ii. 17, and iii. 3, 4.)\n\nThus it is, indeed, with many exaggerated and unnecessary commands\nwhich parents lay upon their children or churches upon their adherents,\nthe non-fulfilment of which they then with equal facility overlook.\n\nAn exact and literal obedience to all the real divine commands, which\nare all practicable, and a thorough scorn and disregard for all the\n\u201ccommandments of men\u201d--this is the only way by which our Christian\nconfessions could now bring themselves new life.\n\nEven the inclination to undergo suffering and renunciation is somewhat\ndangerous, and the more so because it is often joined with a secret\ndesire for praise, in which case one devil is but supplanted by\nanother, perhaps still more powerful. A man should not throw away\nhis life, not even by a lingering neglect of his powers; only, he\nshould not overvalue his body\u2019s well-being nor put it too much in the\nforeground.\n\nChrist himself is in this respect an inimitable example of a simple\nmoderation which, at times, allowed itself to enjoy an almost luxurious\nhomage, as in the case of the box of precious ointment, which\nevidently made Judas, the apostle of literal asceticism, to lose\nfaith in him. Even the most advanced Christian should live quite like\na natural man, not like a hermit or a pillar-saint, and should seek\nthe worth and purpose of life neither in pleasure nor in suffering and\nrenunciation, but only in the carrying out of the will and commission\nof God. A wise saying of Blumhardt\u2019s, often quoted, declares that one\nmust be twice converted, once from the natural to the spiritual life,\nand then back again from the spiritual to the natural so far as is\njustified; but that this is, perhaps, accomplished in some cases at\na single stroke, without a preliminary exaggeration of the spiritual\nnature. Many linger too long in this double mutation, and during this\nperiod afford no very agreeable spectacle.\n\nFinally, one\u2019s own power can never set the upward-striving man free\nfrom all those enemies of his real happiness which keep him, in a very\ngenuine sense, from entering into true Christianity. The \u201cold Adam\u201d\nis still to-day, as at the time when the expression was first used,\n\u201ctoo strong for the young Melanchthon,\u201d and all good resolutions give\nas good as no help, so long as the man will not lay hold on the aid\nsent us by God himself to that end. But even he can not help unless\nthe man completely surrenders his will. This is the man\u2019s share in the\nwork of his liberation from the fetters of the natural, selfish life;\neverything else is done to him.\n\nDante, in particular, explains this very clearly in the twenty-first\ncanto of the _Purgatorio_, where the joyous trembling of the mountain\nof purification, when a soul finally rises into its higher region, is\nportrayed in the following verses:\n\n  \u201c_It trembles when any spirit feels itself\n  So purified that it may rise, or move\n  For rising; and such loud acclaim ensues.\n  Purification by the will alone\n  Is proved, that, free to change society,\n  Seizes the soul rejoicing in her will.\n  Desire of bliss is present from the first;\n  But strong propension hinders, to that wish\n  By the just ordinance of heaven opposed--\n  Propension now as eager to fulfil\n  The allotted torment as erewhile to sin.\n  And I, who in this punishment had lain\n  Five hundred years and more, but now have felt\n  Free wish for happier clime._\u201d\n\nEvery one acquainted with his inner life will confirm that for a long\ntime at first a partial will toward the good fought in him with\ninclinations of which he very well knew that they would bring him just\nsuffering. So long as the soul is, nevertheless, unable to conquer this\ndesire, it will remain in essentially its former state. But if it holds\non to the impulse to freedom notwithstanding, by God\u2019s grace there will\ncome a memorable day on which it will at last feel in itself the fully\ndetermined will to move forward, and then forthwith it is free, and\nafterward does not understand how it could have delayed so long.\n\nYet it would not be right to wait inactive till the will is thus fully\ndetermined. Christianity, like many another thing, is learned only\nthrough trial, not through study. On the contrary, idly talking about\nit is most foreign to its spirit, and so-called learned explanations\neasily make it but darker and more dubious; that is a \u201cscience\u201d which,\nlike every other, one may leave entirely in the hands of those who are\ncalled thereto, and which very often contributes nothing of moment\nto their spiritual advancement. Christianity is surely completely\nunderstood only through that spirit which the Gospel calls the Holy\nSpirit. What that is, we do not know; we can only know that it is a\nvery real phenomenon which becomes manifest in its effects upon our\nlife, and which can gradually make us more and more indifferent toward\neverything that the world considers as the greatest possessions and\nthe most indispensable pleasures. To this freedom we are called, and\nit has been made possible through Christianity--what before might well\nseem very doubtful. But we are not done when we have found Christianity\n\u201cinteresting\u201d--often because of its extravagances rather than because\nof its real sobriety in the conception of man and his natural powers;\nwe must above all things make a beginning, and then progress therein\ncomes quite of itself.\n\nTherefore, O soul, thou who, from the mazy gardens of the common\nlife of the world that no longer wholly satisfy, hast arrived at\nhappiness by this simplest and best of all roads, but nevertheless\nstill standest, somewhat trembling, before the actual entry into the\nforecourts of Christianity itself (perhaps because thou seest there a\ncompany that does not fully awaken thy confidence), take thy resolution\nnotwithstanding, and dare! It will not be long before thou seest at\nleast enough to have made thy daring seem worth while. It is but rarely\nthat any one turns back again from this road, and never yet, for\nthousands of years, has any one who has travelled it quite to the end,\nlifted up complaints of a wasted life, or even of an existence too hard\nto be borne.\n\nBut how many there are to-day who complain, on the other roads to\nhappiness!\n\nNo one who is willing to confess the truth can deny that in every human\nsoul, even in one already resolutely set toward faith in transcendental\nthings, serious doubts can now and then arise as to the reality of\nall its conceptions and hopes. They who most vehemently condemn such\ntemporary doubts in others are not the ones who are the best confirmed\nin the faith, for by such zeal they are often only seeking forcibly\nto suppress their own doubts. But in such moments, thus much remains\nsure, that there is no certainty anywhere to be found as to the great\nquestions of the present and future life, better than that which\nChristianity affords, and that there is no adequate satisfaction\nto be found in trying to content oneself with only the results of\n\u201cnatural science,\u201d many of which are still very uncertain; while one\nsimply banishes from his thoughts all further questions, as to the\ninterrelation of all things in a higher sense, and as to the moral laws\nof the universe,--questions on which the life and welfare of humanity\nmost of all depend. That will never succeed for long; after every such\nperiod of a bare realism which limits itself to a smaller aim, in all\nmen not wholly superficial, not wholly submerged in the world of sense,\nthere arises with irresistible power the impulse to investigate anew\nwhether and how far the high pretension of Christianity to be the real,\nthe unique truth, and the only truth that brings happiness, is a just\npretension.\n\nThis impulse you also will more or less experience; otherwise you would\nnot have taken in your hand this book, which had its origin in that\nsame impulse. In no case thrust the impulse back from the threshold;\nfor it springs from the better part of your nature.\n\nAccept, rather, one more bit of counsel: First consider more closely\nthe \u201cprolegomena\u201d of Christianity--those preliminary truths which\nit considers to be self-evident; its dogmas take account of only\nafterward, when you have already been able to resolve to live up to\nthese preliminary truths with all the power you have. The reverse way\nis, to be sure, the more usual one, and it is the one to which we are\nwont to be directed in our schools and churches. But if this more usual\ncourse is taken, now and then there lies \u201ca lion in the way\u201d which does\nnot appear upon the path proposed in this chapter.\n\nThe power of resolve, of course, you will always be obliged to have,\nfor only \u201che who overcometh shall inherit all things;\u201d for the\nirresolute, as well as for those completely without faith, even in the\nmost favorable case only the decay of their personal life stands in\nnear and certain prospect.\n\n\n\n\nVIII. THE STEPS OF LIFE\n\n\n\n\nVIII. THE STEPS OF LIFE\n\n\nIt is an old and obvious fancy, that of dividing the inner life into\na series of steps, or of describing it in the allegorical form of a\npilgrimage with its various stages and halts and hindrances of one\nsort or another. Yet I do not know of any such description that suits\nthe needs of our own day, especially the needs of people of culture;\nindeed, it is, and has ever been, a fault of most sermons that while\nthey depict life\u2019s attainable ideal with more or less exactness, they\nare noways able to give as plain an account of the way thither. Yet\nthis is just the service (and the directions should be quite specific,\ntoo) which the church, it would seem, is called upon to perform for\nthe present generation. What is known by the somewhat distasteful name\nof \u201cthe cure of souls,\u201d so far as it exists at all, has become too\nprofessional (not to say too commercial) a matter with the churches:\nin the things of the spirit there is nothing if not freedom and\nindividuality; yet it is just here that a kind of rigid technical\nnomenclature has been devised, with expressions that once may have been\njustified, but are now meaningless to many men and at some future time\nwill have to be replaced, perhaps, by others.\n\nOf the writings we possess on the unfolding of the inner life by\nsteps, only one has come down to us from classical times; this is an\nessay of Plutarch, the Greek professor of philosophy (as we should\nnow call him), who was born at Ch\u00e6ronea in B\u0153otia about 50 A.D., and\ndied between 120 and 130 A.D. at Rome, where, among other things, he\nis said to have been the teacher of the future emperor Hadrian. Of his\nhundred and more writings, some shorter, some longer, the \u201cParallel\nLives\u201d are now almost the only ones read, and even these are less read\nin the schools than is perhaps proper. Of the rest, which are usually\ncomprised under the general title of \u201cPlutarch\u2019s Ethical Writings,\u201d one\nof the most readable is that dedicated to Sosius Senecio, consul under\nTrajan,--\u201cHow One may be Conscious of his Progress in Goodness.\u201d On\nthe whole, it exhibits the Eclectic view (in the sense of Ciceronian\nEclecticism) as contrasted with the teachings of the Stoics, who only\nrecognize the perfect wise man who observes their principles, on\nthe one hand, and on the other, the man addicted to vice, without\nintervening transitional grades. In this treatise, as each reader will\nat once notice, there is a special lack of the depth which first came\ninto morals through Christianity (then but little known as yet), and\nwhich will always come into morals only by that path; but it possesses\nin considerable degree a sound and natural human good sense, which\nis directed toward the nobler things of life, and whose development\nin youthful temperaments is an indispensable purpose in so-called\nclassical culture.\n\nOf the later writings of this kind the best are Bunyan\u2019s \u201cPilgrim\u2019s\nProgress,\u201d a book from the great Puritan days in England, and the\n\u201cHomesickness\u201d of Jung-Stilling, written about a hundred years ago.\nIn reality, the biographies of distinguished men should render this\nservice of pointing out the way to their contemporaries and successors;\nbut there are, unhappily, but few good and really true writings of\nthis sort. For the biographers do not always understand the inmost\nexperiences of those whose lives they are describing, many of which\nexperiences really can not be made comprehensible to them in their\nfull significance, since they were small occurrences with great\nconsequences. Yet the autobiographies, which could tell all this,\nare usually marred with vanity and are sometimes the least true of\nbiographies. It will therefore be well, on the whole, to recognize that\nin all these writings the individual character preponderates and that\nthere is no \u201cmethod\u201d that reveals the proper course of life. The most\nuseful thing about them, perhaps, is the very practical observations\nthat might serve to encourage the wanderer on this much-travelled,\nyet universally unknown, way when he is likely to become weary, or\nto enlighten him when the continuation of the journey appears too\nuncertain or too much deflected from the presumably proper direction.\n\nIt is first of all to be said that every life has steps, and that\nno life runs from beginning to end in unchanging uniformity like a\nclear, murmuring meadow-brook, or in a straight direction, like an\nartificially contrived canal. But no life perfectly resembles another\nin its course, and even the apparently most natural steps often happen\nin the reverse order, so that there are men who in their youth are\npreternaturally wise, and have their youthful qualities only when old.\n\nYet there is never an inwardly healthy human life that shows no visible\ndevelopment at all, or that has spurts or pauses in it that are wholly\narbitrary. A life that proceeds in a perfectly normal way is just\nas rare, but in every life there are mistakes that could have been\navoided, and gaps that later it is no longer possible to fill out.\n\nFor every period in life has its purpose and its task. In spring the\ntree must do little more than grow and blossom, but not bear fruit as\nyet. The fruits one produces on the modern dwarfed trees, purposely\nhindered in their natural growth and designed merely for a speedy\nproduction of fruit, acquire neither the good quality nor, apparently,\nthe soundness of fruits ripened on trees that have attained their\nnatural full growth.\n\nThe various periods of life, then, must deposit and store away in\nthe human being each a product peculiar to itself; in childhood the\nchildlike nature, without which a man never becomes a well-rounded man,\nexerting a kindly influence upon other men; in youth that freshness\nand enthusiasm of spirit which begets the power of doing things; in\nmanhood and womanhood the fulness and ripeness of all the thoughts\nand feelings, and the firmness that springs from a character steeled\nby deeds already achieved. Only thus can age also do its worthy task,\nnot in falling into disconsolate decay, but in the quiet possession and\ncontemplation of what life was and should be, and in the preparation\nfor a greater and broader development.\n\nWhoever skips any such period, or, as is more frequently the case,\nhastens over it and makes no use of its peculiar advantages, will\nseldom or never be in a position to retrieve it later, but will always\nhave a very perceptible deficiency in his make-up.\n\nTo prevent this in younger years is a matter of education, of which\nI will not speak here, but in later life it is one of the chief\naspects of that self-training to which a man is indebted for the real\nacquisitions of life more than to all the things that others can do for\nhim.\n\nIn reference to its general character, in the aspect which one usually\ncalls happiness or unhappiness, or a hard or easy lot, experience shows\n(and in most cases very plainly) that every life consists of three\ndivisions, of which the first and the third are alike and the second\nunlike. Whoever has had a hard, unhappy youth is more likely to have\na more favorable and successful manhood, but scarcely a cloudless end.\nOn the other hand, when the days of youth are golden, they are almost\nalways the precursor of exertions and storms in the middle part of\nlife, on which there follows a quieter evening of age. Oftentimes this\ndistinction also holds good for the minor steplike subdivisions of\nthese three great divisions.\n\nWhich is the happier case may well be doubtful. Very energetic men fond\nof activity, who are substantially minded not to let \u201cthe vestiges of\ntheir earthly days vanish in the \u00e6ons,\u201d will be disposed to lay the\ngreater value upon a successful manhood; but sunny-natured men need an\nuntroubled youth and likewise a rougher middle period, if they are to\nbe strong enough to exhibit in their age the pattern of a fully ripened\nlife, perfected in every direction, so far as lies in the power of man.\nOnce in his life, at any rate, a man must have it hard and heavy if he\nis to attain to the right way himself and to gain an understanding of\nthe burdens of others; and on the whole a strong old age is best suited\nfor that. And if the childhood days have been joyous, they afford\nan afterglow for the whole life, and in the reverse case, a bitter\nfeeling of wrong. It is likewise difficult to be obliged, for the first\ntime, to bear the hardest lot of all in old age.\n\nOne can not change the form of this lot; in this respect, at least,\na man is surely not the moulder of his own happiness; only, he is\nnot the inert slave of a blind Fate either. That is, if a hard youth\npredestines him to an old age not quite without care, he can make\nthe best of this destiny by a clear and conscious submission and a\ncourageous endurance; or if he has a beautiful childhood behind him,\nhe can be thankful that it did not continue on thus into that stormy\nperiod of later life which is necessary for the steeling of his\ncharacter. Thus conceived, even in these destinies the bold saying\nturns out to be exactly true, that to those who love God all the\nevents of life, of whatever sort they may be, must turn out to their\nadvantage. But in the lives of all thinking men the question to be\ndecided is this: whether to choose much sorrow with much help from God,\nor much sorrow without such help, but with the temporary forgetfulness\nof momentary pleasure. The impotent Nietzschean revolt against such a\nfate for men helps nothing.\n\nFinally, one can not make of himself something quite different from\nthe native stuff that is in him. It is not proper that every one\nshould be able to become everything; a very extended many-sidedness\ncomes often only at the expense of depth. At the proper time rightly\nto criticise oneself in order to correct the many errors of education,\nwhich only very rarely estimates a human being quite correctly--this\nis the chief task of the most decisive point of life. This point, if\nlife has proceeded quite normally, is at the beginning of the thirties,\nwhen the man has the last step of education behind him, and now, \u201cin\nthe midway of this our mortal life,\u201d begins his self-training, for good\nor for bad. At this moment of life some recognize, with deep pain of\nsoul, that they can not become all that to which the dreams of youth or\nthe advantages of birth and education seemed to destine them, and they\nturn in despair to pleasure or to pretence. But others resolutely seek\nthe point whence they may conquer their special world, and henceforth\npursue a destiny which, perhaps, was not sung to them at their cradle,\nbut which shows itself, nevertheless, to be the right one.\n\nOn the whole, however, the dreams of youth are not to be despised.\nIn most cases they point to an unconscious native ability and so\nlikewise to the dreamer\u2019s destination, which expresses itself at first\nin fantastic pictures of the future; that is, in so far as they really\ncome from within and are not the products of a false education or of\na mistaken belief in the inheritance of talents. For it is only quite\nrarely that talents are inherited and that the sons of great men are\nthemselves great. This is, to be sure, often made difficult for them\nbecause of comparison with their fathers, and not less because of the\njealousy of men, who do not willingly suffer intellectual dynasties to\nrule among them; in this they are all republicans. On the other hand,\nmen of much consequence seldom have or take the time to busy themselves\nintently with the bringing up of their children, and in such families,\nmuch oftener than in far simpler ones, the children fall into neglect,\nunless a mother of sufficient intelligence steps in, and is not herself\ntoo much busied with her celebrated and often very exacting husband.\n\nIt is scarcely necessary to say further that the mothers are the\ndeciding element of the family for the education and the formation of\nthe character of the children, especially the sons, and that the sons,\nas a rule, take after them more than after the fathers. It is a less\nfamiliar fact that the sons often resemble the mother\u2019s brothers in\ncharacter and natural ability, and that the best though sometimes also\nthe most dangerous moulders of one\u2019s youth are the grandmothers on the\nmother\u2019s side.\n\nThe promise of a curse upon families that have shown themselves\negotistical for several succeeding generations surely comes true; and\nexperience shows that a want of love towards one\u2019s parents is avenged\nthrough one\u2019s own children, and, _vice versa_, a peculiar blessing\nthroughout life accompanies those who have shown their parents much\nlove.\n\nThere is no need to be anxious about the proper time for entering upon\nnew steps of life, if the earlier ones have been rightly used; they\nwill then do their own announcing through first an inner summons, and\nfinally a definite determination, to advance farther, and without this\nexperience it could not be well for any one to be in a higher plane.\nWe can not stand a task that is yet too great for us; such a task we\nfeel to be too ethereal, and we long for the coarser elements of life.\nOn the other hand, the divinely-led man does not as a rule know very\nlong beforehand what he has to do next or to what he will be called;\nhe could not commonly endure it. But any one who has already really\nexperienced many such instances of being personally guided in life\nwill at last be sure in his faith as to the existence of such a higher\nguidance even in the life of individual men, while others (by their own\nfault, to be sure) count only in the mass, not as individuals.\n\nFinally, steps in the inner life are not, of course, for those to whom\nlife means nothing else than eating and drinking and dying to-morrow.\nThe steps of the inner life exist rather only for those who are\nresolved to struggle out of a merely natural existence common to many\nothers, on through to a really spiritual life.\n\nFor these, Thomas \u00e0 Kempis points out the safest way in the following\ndialogue:\n\n  MY SON, the perfect freedom of the spirit thou canst not win nor\n  keep, if thou press not through to the complete renunciation of\n  thyself.\n\n  Slave-chains are borne by all who cling to something selfishly,\n  who love themselves, who desire the outer world with eagerness\n  and longing and curiosity, who seek the things that flatter the\n  senses and not the things that further the Kingdom of Christ, who\n  will always build and strengthen what yet hath no foundation; for\n  everything falleth into nothingness that is not born of God.\n\n  Hold thyself to this short saying, for it meaneth much: Forsake all,\n  and thou findest all.\n\n  Bid farewell to every desire; then enterest thou upon rest. Let this\n  word never leave thy thoughts; bear it within thee day and night; and\n  when thou hast brought it to fulfilment, then shalt thou understand\n  all.\n\n\n  But this, O LORD, is not the work of a single day, nor is it child\u2019s\n  play. In this shell lies the whole kernel of the perfection of those\n  who seek God.\n\n\n  SON, that must not frighten thee back, nor discourage thee, but\n  rather draw thee to climb upward to the higher goal, or at the least\n  to bear a longing thereto in thy heart. If thou wert already so far\n  on the way that thou wert free from all blind love to thyself, and\n  wert ready and prepared to obey every beck of thy fatherly superior\n  whom I have set over thee, then might mine eye rest with pleasure\n  upon thee, and thy whole life would flow along in peace and joy.\n  For as soon as thou no longer wishest this or that in thine own\n  self-conceit, but shalt have yielded thyself wholly to thy God\n  without gainsay and from the innermost depth of thy heart, and shalt\n  have laid down all thy wishes into the hand of God, from that moment\n  onward shalt thou be at rest, and shalt find thyself at one with God,\n  in that no other thing shall be to thee so agreeable and pleasing as\n  God\u2019s pleasure.\n\n  Whoever hath thus, in simplicity of heart, swung his thoughts upward\n  to God, and hath loosed himself from the inordinate love or hate of\n  any created thing, he alone shall be fit and worthy to receive the\n  gift of devotion. For where the Lord findeth empty vessels, there He\n  layeth in his blessing. And the more completely any one looseneth his\n  heart from the love of that which perisheth, and the more completely\n  he maketh his own self to waste away under deepest disregard, by so\n  much the quicker cometh this mercy, by so much the deeper it presseth\n  in, and by so much the higher the free heart of man is lifted up.\n\n  Then the eyes of man are opened, then standeth he amazed in rapture,\n  then his whole heart is dilated, for the hand of the Lord is now\n  with him, and he hath given himself wholly and for all eternity into\n  His hand. Lo, thus is that man blest who seeketh God with his whole\n  heart, and letteth his spirit no longer cling to the things that\n  perish.\n\n\nI\n\nEverything spoken in this dialogue is wholly true; only it is not\nmerely not the work of a single day, but not even the work of a single\nlife-period; it is rather an uncompromising process of growth that can\nnot be hastened at will, but must gradually unfold itself in four great\nstages and must furthermore be properly brought to maturity in each\nseparate period, if any real and beneficial good is to arise therefrom.\nThere may be no compulsion about it; a hastening of growth occurs only\nin times of suffering; the first half of every task is mostly the\nhardest; from that point onward it goes more quickly and easily to the\nend.\n\nThe first stage is the seeking for a philosophy of life, and the\ndissatisfaction with the usual conceptions of the universe: \u201cHow many\nhired servants of my father\u2019s have bread enough and to spare, and I\nperish here with hunger!\u201d The second is the turning to the eternal,\nsupernatural truth: \u201cLook unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the\nearth; for I am God, and there is none else.\u201d The third stage is the\nnew life which must gradually take shape therefrom, though falling\ninto many divisions. And the last has the promise of the prophet\nZechariah: \u201cAt evening time there shall be light.\u201d Out of the first\nstage the youthful man must pass with pure thoughts directed toward an\nideal, with no stigma of immorality upon his conscience, with pleasure\nin work, and with a considerable amount of knowledge useful for his\nlife-calling. If the second period is rightly spent, it will be devoted\nto the acquisition of three important things: position as a citizen of\nthe state, a worthy marriage, and a sound religious and philosophical\nview of life. The third stage is that of the confirmation of this\nview in the struggle of life; this stage forms the real work of life.\nThe fourth is the crowning of life with true success, and the final\ntransition to a larger sphere of activity.\n\nIt is clear from the beginning that this course of development really\nrests upon self-training, and usually takes its start in that period of\nlife in which every earnest man is tired of the \u201cfables of the world\u201d\nand is in the same frame of mind in which Dante has his great poem\nbegin with the words: \u201cIn the midway of this our mortal life, I found\nme in a gloomy wood astray;\u201d or in which St. Theresa says: \u201cMy soul was\nsubmerged in the dream of earthly things, but it has pleased the Lord\nto awaken me from this slumber of death, and I beseech Him nevermore\nto let me fall back therein.\u201d What education can do up to this point\nis, as regards the inner life, merely of a preparatory and prophylactic\nnature, and consists in keeping the young human being away from a\nwholly materialistic conception of the world, as well as from a merely\nformal religion, both of which would make difficult his later approach\nto a true philosophical and religious conviction. Such children as are\neducated in the natural sciences alone, as well as those who have heard\nof Christianity too early and too often, or have been trained to make\nuse of religious expressions and forms mechanically (often against\nthe grain), only rarely grow up to be men who later have the power of\nfinding the way of peace. It is the especial task of education to keep\nthe young soul free from the strain of immorality, and inclined toward\na purer life than one that is based merely upon the senses. The soil\non which the noble plant of a true religion should later take root and\nflourish is rendered unfit for that purpose by nothing so much as by\nthe dominance of sensuality. The soaring-power of the spirit is thereby\nbroken, and is regenerated again only with difficulty and partially,\nif at all. With this, we return to the thought already expressed\nelsewhere, that for the education of those who are to be given a higher\nculture (for the boys, at least, and probably also for their mothers\nand governesses and women teachers) the so-called classical education\nis indispensable, and on the whole to be preferred to the ordinary\nreligious and moral instruction. Christianity then comes easily of\nitself, later on, if any one has honestly traversed this stage of\ninstruction in the classical philosophy (which can not and should not\nbe the final stage); and, as history has shown, Christianity bears its\nfinest fruits upon a classical substratum. In particular, a classically\neducated spirit will never be able to sink into mere ecclesiasticism,\nand still less into the insipidities and the trivialities which,\nmuch as they are foreign to the great and noble nature of pristine\nChristianity, nevertheless, to its immense harm, cling to the quite\ncommon conception of it.\n\nBesides, Christianity undoubtedly contains an element of alienation\nfrom the world, an element that can not be so suitable for the\neducation of a young human being still intent upon the growth of all\nhis intellectual faculties, as it is for the self-training that comes\nlater. Indeed, one may go so far as to say that physical well-being\n(though by no means the highest form of feeling nor the highest\ndestiny), and a certain human impulse to self-exaltation (which later\nfinds its limit in the true humility of Christianity) are natural and\neven necessary to the growth of youth, and for this very reason the\nclassical examples and ideals (and those of the Old Testament also, of\ncourse) fit in better with this period than do those of the Christian\nera. Only, the classical education must be adapted to the circumstances\nof the pupils\u2019 environment, or this environment must itself be able\nto be elevated at the same time, or it will often make the pupils\ndiscontented with their lot. Indeed, it is even as Flattich rightly\npointed out of old in the na\u00efve words, \u201cYouth must have its time of\nraging, though not wickedly so;\u201d and for those who do not have this\nperiod in youth, it often comes afterward, only worse and more secretly.\n\nWhen education has planted in the young human being a disposition\ninclined toward the ideal, and has begotten in him an aversion to\nall that is vulgar, together with some good life-habits, then it has\nperformed its most important duty. At present, indeed, it wants to do\nmore than this, but in reality it accomplishes less.\n\nTwo things must be made particularly clear to the young man at the\nconclusion of the first life-period: in the first place, within the\nlimits of natural laws men attain to everything, so to speak, that\nthey earnestly desire. Only, they must begin at the right time, must\nproceed in the right order, and must above all things not chase two\nhares at once. To become rich, renowned, learned, or virtuous, there\nis need in every case of a single-minded and orderly struggle that\nsuffers no competition of some rival purpose. One must therefore know\nwhat one wants to be, and choose the right thing as early as possible.\nThen \u201cthe man grows, of himself, along with his greater aims.\u201d Without\nthese, he is vainly tempted to seek his development in the artificial\nforcing-beds of education.\n\nThe way in which this subjectivity (not wrong at the first) comes to\nan end is not one that can be exactly determined, either as to the\ntime the end takes place or as to the cause that brings it about. The\nchange usually begins with premonitions which eventually become strong\nimpressions. These are often called forth merely by isolated words\nwhich sometimes have been spoken by men, apparently by chance, but are\nmore frequently derived from reading. Books that fall into a man\u2019s hand\nat just the right time are nowadays most frequently the instrumentality\nof the summons to a higher life. Many a time, also, the soul suddenly,\nin moments of elevation, sees itself transported to a quite different\nplane from that on which it really lives. It espies, as often happens\nto the mountain-wanderer, a new and beautiful region quite near before\nit, but which is still separated from its present standing-ground by\na vast chasm, over which a bridge leads, but only far below in the\ndepths.\n\nIn this period isolated experiences also occur which may be classed\nas strange, as hard to be described, and as by no means essential to\ndevelopment. On this point mystic writers say that there are three\nkinds of more intimate union with the divine: first, the quite regular\nkind (thus already understood in the Old Testament), that comes through\nsubmission and sincere love, a union that always remains open in its\nnature, that nothing can interrupt save a man\u2019s own will contending\nagainst the will of God, and that is at once re\u00ebstablished as soon as\nthe will is again accordant; second, an extraordinary kind, that comes\nthrough devout contemplation, which can not, however, be artificially\nproduced, but which is only a yet greater affection of the heart,\nwaiting in patience and humility for the response that God will perhaps\ngive thereto; and lastly, a still more sensitive feeling of nearness\nto God, coming for the most part quite unexpectedly, but, of all the\nthree, the least necessary and important for the progress of the inner\nlife.\n\nThe end of the first stage of life is not satisfying--can not and\nshould not be. All subjectivity is a form of thinking that ends in\ndissatisfaction, and the nobler the soul, the more quickly and deeply\nit falls into it. Along with this there very often comes a certain\nfailure in the outer life, almost enigmatical; the cause is given in\nvery picturesque language by an Israelitic prophet, Hosea, \u201cI will\nhedge up the way with thorns, and I will make a fence against her, that\nshe shall not find her paths.\u201d It is the genuine mercy of God when\nevery false way a man wishes to strike into is hedged with thorns; or\nwhen he, in another beautiful Israelitic simile, like a lily among\nthorns, can find his growth only straight upward. Those are the sorrows\nof youth for which later one is most thankful.\n\nNevertheless, because of these things a certain sadness masters\nthe soul, and but few noteworthy men are to be found who have not\ntemporarily suffered melancholy in their youth. Even at best, they live\nin the mood which Goethe depicts in the words:\n\n  _So still and thoughtful? Something is lacking; freely confess.\n  \u201cContented am I, but \u2019tis not well with me, nevertheless.\u201d_\n\nBut, as every brave young soul sees, life is not given us with the\npurpose that we may always be only \u201cstill and thoughtful,\u201d nor that we\nmay consume ourselves in disconsolate complaints or in the pessimism\nthat wastes the soul\u2019s powers. Those are the conditions that attend\ntransition, and must appear. A new life must spring therefrom, but one\nfeels, indeed, that a kind of death first lies between.\n\nThis is the surrender of the personal will, intent upon the selfish\nlife; this will a man renounces with so much difficulty that Calvin was\nable to found upon this fact his doctrine of a formal predestination\nof some to this development of his true existence, and of others to a\nloss of it. But every such death, for those who bear within them the\nseed of an eternal life, is not the final goal, but the means to a\nnew and higher development of life. Whoever is unable to hold fast to\nthis hope with the tenacity with which Job clung to it, and yet is no\nlonger able to find any satisfaction in the world of the senses, falls\nnow into a gloomy asceticism which is forever shovelling at his grave;\nor into an idle dialogue (in diaries and letters) with his painful\ndissatisfaction with the universe; or into the confused Buddhistic\nlonging for some Nirvana; or, finally, into one of the various other\naberrations of the human spirit, which all agree only in considering\nthe true way as an impossible or fantastic one.\n\nAt this point of life, for a time, the word of salvation is, Forward!\n\n\nII\n\nAt about the middle of a man\u2019s life, and often the most quickly in the\ncase of the best and most successful lives, there comes a moment of\ndissatisfaction with all that has hitherto been attained. This is more\nfrequently the case among the cultured than among the other classes,\nbecause the continuous struggle of the latter for existence partly\nspares them this dissatisfaction and more clearly shows the way to\nfree themselves from it. When, at this time, any one stands quite at\nthe exit-gates of earthly existence, all human concerns appear to him\nliterally nothing worth, and he would never feel kindly toward them\nagain, even in their highest activities, if the wisdom of this world\ndid not bring him back into the belief that these are only morbid\nsensations that must be overcome by a feeling of robust vitality.\nThis, to be sure, they must do, but not unless a real death of the\nselfish nature precedes; upon such a death the most in every human life\ndepends, although this event does not always come to pass in just the\nsame form. The same feeling, however, is present in all nobler souls,\nthat they do not get forward with their \u201cintentions to do better,\u201d\nbut daily find new hindrances in themselves and in the surrounding\nworld; and that, in their own nature, what is lacking is not the dream,\nindeed, but the _power_ of attaining an existence truly worthy of man.\nThose are conditions that often last for years; in their later period\narise thoughts which, to some, make this process seem to resemble the\nascent of a mountain.\n\nBut this ascending of the mountain does not always lead to the true\nsummit it is designed for, even in the case of the best men, and in\nthis respect, also, one is tempted to believe in predestination.\nAnother mountain-peak which is sometimes attained is a noble\nscepticism, such as Gottfried Keller gives expression to in the\ntouching words that, at some time or other in life, one must accustom\nhimself to the thought of a real death, and that if he then gathers\nhimself together, he does not become any the worse man therefor.\nCertainly not, only he is no perfectly satisfied man, with the thirst\nfor truth and eternal life slaked; that is a goal which the most\nbeautiful sceptical philosophy never reaches.\n\nDoubting thought stands on a still higher plane in \u201cThe Holy Grail\u201d of\nTennyson:\n\n  \u201c_Thereafter, the dark warning of our King,\n  That most of us would follow wandering fires,\n  Came like a driving gloom across my mind:\n  Then every evil word I had spoken once,\n  And every evil thought I had thought of old,\n  And every evil deed I ever did,\n  Awoke and cried: \u2018This Quest is not for thee.\u2019_\u201d\n\nBeyond this thought the most earnest and sincere souls would never get,\nif it were not for the solution which the English poet himself offers\nat the conclusion of his profound poem:\n\n  \u201c_Let visions of the night or of the day\n  Come, as they will; and many a time they come,\n  Until this earth he walks on seems not earth,\n  This light that strikes his eyeball is not light,\n  This air that smites his forehead is not air\n  But vision--yea, his very hand and foot--In\n  moments when he feels he can not die,\n  And knows himself no vision to himself,\n  Nor the high God a vision, nor that One\n  Who rose again._\u201d\n\nIt is very strange that a matter that has been in existence for almost\ntwo thousand years, that has already busied the minds and hearts of\nmillions of teachers and writers, and that has been borne with great\ncost and exertions over seas and preached to nations to whom it was\nunknown, has become unfamiliar in its own place of dominion and among\nthe most cultured nations of the globe. Or can we asseverate that the\nspirit, or, let us say, even the thought, of Christianity is something\nthat is generally known and acknowledged in our European states?\n\nFar removed from this view, some within so-called Christendom, like\nthe Roman procurator Festus, hold Christianity to be a sort of more or\nless harmless superstition concerning \u201cone Jesus, who was dead, whom\nPaul affirmed to be alive\u201d; others regard it as a society which it is\nthe proper thing to belong to, without necessarily having any further\ninterest in it; a third class looks upon it as a hierarchy of priests\nwhich, for reasons mostly external, they either reverence or abhor.\nTo yet others it is a science called theology, to penetrate which\nthere is need of very long courses of study and many examinations.\nAnd when they come to the particulars in the \u201cstructure of doctrine,\u201d\nnot many among the learned wholly agree as to what faith is, or\nmercy, or the significance of the \u201csacrifice of Christ,\u201d whether\nthere is predestination and eternal punishment, or a \u201crestoration of\nall things,\u201d or what are the methodical steps one must take, to be\nsaved. Every one who ventures into these labyrinths of theological\nand philosophical thought, without at the same time possessing a\nvery decided aspiration toward the highest truth and a very sound\nunderstanding of human nature, is apparently in danger of losing the\none or the other. And so, thousands of the most cultured men of our day\nhave, in fact, given up making any further trial of what seems to be\njoined with only trouble, contention, doubt, and renunciation of the\nnatural enjoyments of life, only to lead, at the end, to nothing other\nthan a kind of human slavery, without any better assurance than before.\nChristianity is now, for the greater part of Christians, a doctrine of\nthe churches and the schools, which one listens to as long as one must,\nbut from which a cultured man will inwardly free himself as quickly as\npossible, even if he still outwardly believes he must allow himself to\nfit into forms of the social life when once they have become historical.\n\nThe simple answer to this is that we can neither dispense with\nChristianity nor put something in its place. We do not know (and it\nwould be useless to wish to discover) what would have become of the\ncivilized world, if Christianity had not appeared in it when it did;\nbut it is certain that we can no longer get away from it now, nor\nignore it, but we must reckon with it as with something that will\nendure, yet can not be wholly explained by science. True, science\ncan not be prevented from discovering, as completely as possible,\neverything that is knowable, or from extending the sphere of the\nknowable as widely as possible; that is its right and its duty. With\nthis there goes, in the conception of particular minds, the supposition\nthat everything is knowable that concerns mankind, or that, at any\nrate, everything can be made knowable in time. This is the basis of\na considerable part of the courage and the perseverance found in\nscientific investigation. But just as little may it be forbidden us to\ndoubt that men will ever succeed in completely fathoming human nature\nin all its relationships to the universal Being and in its connection\nwith all things; but even so, it is the duty (and of cultured people\nmost of all) nevertheless, to stand firm, and in particular to put\naway the presumption with which imperfect knowledge, or even mere\nhypotheses, are wont to be set up in the place of the inward conviction\nas to the existence and worth of super-sensual things.\n\nHighly as humanity has cause to value science and its steady advance,\nit would, nevertheless, take a tremendous backward step, if one should\nbe able to remove from the sphere of its life and from the motives of\nits actions everything that is not scientifically provable. This is the\nideal of many educated people of our time, but it is a false and a very\ninadequate one.\n\nOur knowledge is patchwork, and will remain such. We shall scarcely\never be able to know even everything that concerns ourselves. Nor\ndo the strongest motives of our best actions spring from the sphere\nof knowledge; otherwise the most learned people must always be the\nmost perfect, which is by no means the case. Our spiritual Ego is\nrooted rather in the Unexplainable, and experience shows that if this\nsomething unexplainable is ever taken from the Ego in questions of\nfaith, it tries to make up for the loss by adopting some superstition\nor other.\n\nOf all the objects of faith, however, faith in Christ is historically\nthe best established, humanly the most intelligible, and as a matter\nof personal experience the most easily found to be true. If in any\nman it is not all this, truly and enduringly, then the cause lies in\nhis own will, or absence of will, for which the Gospel of John finds\nthe correct expression, \u201cas many as received him, to them gave he the\nright to become children of God.\u201d Luther also truly says: \u201cBecause\nthe expression \u2018to trust God and serve Him\u2019 must be so elastic that\nevery man follows after his own thoughts, and one thinks so and the\nother thus, therefore He has fixed Himself to a certain place and to a\ncertain person, since He wants to be found and met in such a way that\none may not miss Him.\u201d A man\u2019s faith is, therefore, itself no force\nor power, else superstition must also be such, but all true power in\nspiritual things is the property of God. But he summons this power and\nmakes its appearance upon earth possible.\n\nOnly, this is likewise true, that Christianity has no effect in a\nman whose spirit is unbroken, who has no inner humility, but then it\nremains an empty form at best. If it is then united with the office\nof teaching, or with some other pretension of a special position or\ndistinction, it conduces to the man\u2019s destruction. What is regarded in\nthe outer life as an irreparable harm, \u201ca broken existence,\u201d a rent\nthat runs through all the plans of life, is not at all such in the\ninner; on the contrary, that is the soil in which faith in Christ best\nprospers, and they of all men are most to be pitied who despair just\nat the moment when they find themselves in such a position and can not\ngrasp how near they are to salvation.\n\nFrom this moment of humility there enters into man the real\nregenerative power of the good, which springs from that true\nrighteousness which \u201ccounts\u201d with God.\n\nHis further journey is, on the one hand, much easier than is often\nrepresented, for nothing more is now required of the man for which\nhe has not power and insight in sufficient measure, together with\na gladness of hope that can no longer be wholly troubled, and with\na special, personal guidance that lightens all. But, on the other\nhand, it is more difficult than is, in this first moment, believed.\nFor life is yet far from its termination; indeed, now is its real\nstarting-point, and there begins a long series of occurrences which\nall have the purpose of showing man his real nature more clearly than\nhe was in position to bear earlier, and of gradually being no longer\nindulgent toward him in any respect, as was hitherto in great measure\nthe case. For \u201cZion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts\nwith righteousness.\u201d But all this happens only in the following, or\neven, now and then, in the final, period of life; before, it would have\nbeen quite impossible.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe difference between this \u201cnew life,\u201d as Dante already called it,\nand the earlier seems not to be very great at first, and particularly\nnot so great as fantasy, which always flies higher than reality, and\nenthusiasm, which must accompany every great resolve, had expected.\nIndeed, it is possible that there will still be moments in which the\nsoul, freed from the slavery of selfishness, is seized with a certain\nbackward-glancing desire for the \u201cflesh-pots of Egypt\u201d; for, in truth,\nthe old \u201cenjoyment of life\u201d fades away only by slow degrees.\n\nBut there is one essential difference that is always noticeable: first\nof all, in the taking away of the feeling of fear and anxiety before an\nuncertain future, and of the continual fluctuation between exultation\nand dejection, which never let the feeling of security prevail. But\nnow there is a fixed point where there is always rest. From this\nthere follows, of itself, more patience with oneself and others,\nand less dependence upon them, besides a juster discernment for the\nessential in all things, and therewith the true wisdom of life that\nsprings therefrom. Finally (and this is the chief matter), there is\nan absence of the continuous sense of sin because it can always be at\nonce abolished, and there is a certainty of the right road, of steady\nadvance, and of a good outcome at the end of life: \u201cthe path of the\nrighteous is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the\nperfect day.\u201d\n\nThe first period of this division of life is usually filled up with the\ncontinuous strengthening and confirmation of these principles through\ntests of many kinds. These can not fail to appear very soon, for faith,\nin spite of what has been said above, is nothing traditional that\npersists once for all, but something that must be engendered anew daily\nand hourly. A faith that is not always living and present could not\nbe capable of successfully withstanding the attacks of Apollyon, who\ndesires surely to reclaim his rebellious subject.\n\nThe power of this \u201cSpirit of the World\u201d is very great; happily, one\nexperiences this only gradually in life; otherwise, perhaps, no one\nwould have the courage to take up the battle with it. But there is one\npower that is still greater, and that is the power of God, which is\nmade alive in a man through true Christianity. The chief matter in this\n(for most) the longest period of life is, therefore, steadfastness and\ncourage. \u201cHold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown;\u201d\nand look not back, when thou hast once laid hand to plough.\n\nPerhaps the most remarkable thing in this period of life is the union\nin man of divine control with freedom. Whatever God wills, he carries\nout in the man--easily, if he gives up his will, with difficulty and\nsorrow, if he resists or desires to go another way, and no power in\nthe world can any longer prevent it. But there are, nevertheless, long\nportions of time at this stage of life when all principles or doctrines\nof belief refuse their service, and everything transcendental persists\nin appearing again as a mere dream and sport of fantasy. Those are the\ndangerous times in which the soul must keep itself quite still and\nbeware of all decisive activity. But if it is obliged to act, then let\nit say with the Spanish poet, \u201cAnd be my life or truth or dream, right\nmust my actions be.\u201d\n\nThere must especially rise to full certainty in the soul the conviction\nthat an eternal divine order exists, against which all the might of\nmen who still have freedom of action contends quite vainly, and that\nall real success and all true happiness consists only in the free\nharmony of the free human will with this order, and that punishment\ndoes not _follow_ every violation of this harmony, but resides within\nit, and can only be set aside through God\u2019s mercy. Then, as the\nBerlenburg Bible says, \u201cthe commands of God acquire a pleasant aspect,\nand we become their good friends and look upon them as true helps\nand preservers, by whose means God wishes to set to one side whatever\nhinders us from companionship and union with Him.\u201d\n\nOnly when this conviction has become established within us, can we have\na guiding principle for fruitful activity outward; before, it is too\nearly, and so in most cases without result. Salvation is not a doctrine\nin which one can remain quite the same, can say Lord, Lord, and yet be\nfar from him, but it is some actual thing that really happens to us if\nwe give up our will to it.\n\nBut in order that this may be able to happen to us, we must first\nbe free from self-love, from self-concern in all its forms; that is\nthe difficult work that is wrought within us slowly, with many a\nhalting-place and with much cross-bearing. For we must be quite empty\nof ourselves before we can receive everything that we need for our\nunderstanding and feeling, but it must come in daily rations like the\nmanna of the Old Testament, not all at once as the crafty \u201cold man\u201d\nwould much rather have it, so as to be as independent as possible of\nGod\u2019s daily grace; that is the \u201clast error, that is worse than the\nfirst.\u201d To train us thereto, so that we may receive the right gifts in\ntheir fulness, is the meaning of our life-guidance up to this point;\nonly then, and not before, will our activity be full of blessing. In\nthis connection the \u201csocial question\u201d comes in, not only for the men\nof our time, but of every time; it has always existed, and always\nwill exist, so long as there are human beings; it will never find its\nsolution either through Church or through State, but only through the\nethical power and the personal love of infinitely many individuals,\neach one of whom must, in the sphere of work indicated to him, do that\nwhich is specially laid upon him, and neither bury nor exchange his\ntalent. That is his outward task in life, which he may neither evade\nnor be unfaithful to, and only when and in so far as he is just to\nthis shall he teach it to others also, and help, during his lifetime,\nto maintain this teaching of love upon the earth. When once money,\nambition, and pleasure no longer play any considerable r\u00f4le with a man,\nthen he finds so much leisure time upon his hands that he must really\nlook about him for some activity to fill it up, else he runs the risk\nof falling back, through tedium, to where he was before.\n\nThis period is, therefore, essentially made up of work and struggle,\nbut if all goes rightly, the work is more and more joyous, done with\ngreater and greater gladness, and without any feeling of distress, and\nthe struggle against everything undivine in oneself or in others is\nmore and more victorious, more and more quiet; and in this period there\nis finally \u201ca rest that remaineth for the people of God.\u201d God will give\nthem the end they are waiting for, and an end that is not sad, like\nthat of so many noble men who had a different aim in life.\n\nSchiller\u2019s picture is not the right one when he says, \u201cQuietly, with\nvessel barely saved, the old man returns to the harbor from which,\nin youth, he set out with a thousand masts.\u201d No; thankful for all he\nhas done and suffered, content with what he has become through God\u2019s\nmercy, and with the confident prospect of a yet greater and better\nfield of action, he already, without waiting for his death-bed, lays\nhis life-accounts to one side, and looks with simple quietness upon the\n(for him) unimportant transition into a new sphere of life.\n\n\nIV\n\nAge comes on suddenly, in most cases; very often with some special\nevent, usually some sickness, which performs the function of what\nis called picket-duty in military life. Then oftentimes there is\ndisclosed, just as suddenly, the difference (hitherto concealed)\nbetween men and the various outcomes of their lives. While some still\nendeavor with redoubled eagerness to enjoy the last fruits of their\nautumnal days (though age often reveals them now as so little worth\nwhile), or else give themselves up to pessimistic despair over the\ntransitoriness of all things earthly (which always forms the close\nof each great period of pleasure), more earnestly minded spirits are\nnow for the first time saying: \u201cWhither am I bound? The world\u2019s call\nto pleasure sounds hollow to me, now that the doors of eternity stand\nopen before; I am sated with the whited bowl of untruth and its vapid\ndraughts, and I bear my empty pitchers to thy springs, O thou city of\nGod!\u201d These are the laborers that stood idle all the day, or fatigued\nthemselves with useless toil. These also will be accepted still, and\nwill receive their penny at the end of the day\u2019s labor as well as those\nwho came earlier. The mercy of the Lord of Toil thus wills it, though\nmany murmur against this, even yet.\n\nBut it is better, nevertheless, if this incoming has taken place\nearlier and the third period is not a time of turning about, but merely\nthe natural sequence and development of the second. For the true steps\nof life have about them something of the Dantean Paradise; namely this,\nthat in each of them, even in the lowest, already resides something of\nthe uppermost--something that pacifies the soul, without longing for\nmore, and yet with hope for more.\n\nIn the life of people who have become old, three sorts of dispositions\nare regularly shown. The ordinary one, when outward circumstances are\nfavorable, is that of elderly people who are fond of life and who want\nas much as possible to enjoy the remnant of their existence in a finer\nor coarser manner, and accordingly sink now and then into caricatures\nof youth. The basis of this disposition is selfishness, which, even\nin its finer form, at last affects unpleasantly every one who meets\nit. Aristocratic idlers have such an exit to life, for the most part.\nA worthier end is when people who have been busy for the most of life\ntake their repose, whether it be a resting upon their laurels, or, as\nmore frequently happens, upon their accumulated capital. These are,\nin the best instances, the cheerful old people who are treasured and\ncared for by their relatives, spend their last days in respectably\ndoing nothing, revel in memories of their youth, or student-years, or\ntravels, or campaigns, and now and then compose memoirs, or let their\njubilees be celebrated. Apart from a certain vanity and pettiness that\nis always joined therewith, this is an innocent exit to life, and\nthe world is as a rule lenient toward it--if for no other reason, at\nleast for the reason that these people no longer stand in anybody\u2019s\nway; therefore it gladly gives them a handsome burial and a few\nfitting obituary notices in the papers on the day of the funeral, and\nwith that its concernment is definitely fulfilled. The third kind of\nconclusion to life is the moving forward to a higher existence, the\nhand continuously at the plough, never looking backward to the past,\nbut always directing the eyes toward what is yet to be attained. This\nconception of life is really only possible with persons who believe\nin a future life; nevertheless, it also appears among other earnest\nworkers, but is then joined with sadness over the continual decline\nof the powers. This is the worthiest, indeed the only worthy exit\nto life, though often accompanied with sorrows of some sort, to\nkeep one in fit condition for conflict. These three endings of life\nresemble the three caskets in Shakespeare\u2019s drama: the first, in the\ngolden casket, is outwardly the most splendid, but within is full of\nemptiness and is at bottom to be despised; the second, in the silver\ncasket, is not unworthy, but somewhat \u201cordinary\u201d; the third contains,\nin mostly invisible form, the real crown of a life that has been wisely\nunderstood and well-employed to the very end, and that bears within\nitself the full assurance of a yet better continuation beyond.\n\nAt any rate, the special task of the final step of life is living in\nall sincerity in nearness to God--something that it is much easier\nto think of than to describe. The descriptions of those who have\nthemselves experienced this suddenly leave us, as a rule, in the lurch,\nwhether because they lived in order to act, and not to describe, or\nbecause they disdained saying things about themselves which, at their\nstage of advancement, seemed matters of course and nowise meritorious,\nbut something to be continuously received in humility. The goal of this\nperiod is just here--no longer to receive anything for one\u2019s own sake,\nbut to become a blessing to others in that humble spirit which now has\ncome to belong to the virtues that have been won.\n\nTo begin with, there will usually come a great and final trial; for\nall men in whom God takes a real interest (if we may so speak) must\nagain and again, in the different periods of their life, pass anew\ninto a kind of smelting fire, whose glow, as Dante says, alone brings\nthe spirit to its majority and separates the inferior elements of its\nnature, which perhaps appear as still necessary at a lower stage.\nWithout a firm trust in God, such as should now exist in this final\nperiod of life, these last trials were often not to be endured; yet in\nthem, nevertheless, each hard blow now has a tenfold effect. It is the\nbest sign of advance if the soul possesses the grace to welcome this\nsuffering and not to be tired of it until God himself removes it as\nquite superfluous. Psychologically correct in this regard is the remark\nof St. Angela of Foligni, that men at this stage must still, for their\npenance, harbor within themselves for a time, quite against their will,\nthe very faults which once they voluntarily cultivated.\n\nOut of all this there then arises the thoroughly humble man, no longer\nin the least infatuated with himself, to whom everything is right that\nbefalls him, who believes he deserved nothing better, but something\nstill worse if pure justice had been done, and who can let everything\nplease him if it is God\u2019s will. But if this is all genuine and not\nmere pious talking, this is a difficult task for which the man will be\ncompletely qualified only toward the end of his life. For self-love\nmust be burnt out still more thoroughly than before, and he must be\ninflicted, or at least threatened, with the hardest blow that can be\ngiven to his special failing. If he passes through this without ever\nlosing his trust in God, then he has approached nearer to the divine\nthan could happen in any other way; and if there is such a thing at all\nas a life of blessed spirits after the fashion of our present feelings\nand conceptions, then he will be brought so near to this by acquiring\nsuch a temperament, that a transition to that life will now appear\nconceivable and possible to him.\n\nBut in that case the last aggravations of the earthly life have,\nwithout doubt, the further purpose of making the departure from it less\ndifficult for the man thus tried; just as nothing in old people pleases\nus less, or makes a more vulgar impression upon us, than when they\nstill hang tightly on to life.\n\nOne of the best aids is never to look back, because he who in Purgatory\n\u201clooks back, must turn back\u201d; and further, not to lose a single minute\nof life, but to keep one\u2019s full activity up to the last moment. For the\npurpose of life in the period of age is to bear fruit, not to repose,\nand so long as something is still left to be done, what is already done\nis to be regarded as nothing.\n\nThe characteristic quality of this sort of old people is not an\nimaginary \u201csaintliness,\u201d but their wholesouledness. The only\nsaintliness we attain to on this earth consists in a complete harmony\nwith the divine will and in a complete readiness to fall in with it,\nso that no serious struggle between good and evil any longer finds\nplace within ourselves. On the other hand, a medi\u00e6val saint rightly\nsays that saintliness, whenever it is genuine, sets the outward man in\norder also. For God is a \u201cGod of order\u201d and by no means a friend of\nsingularities of any sort, especially in outward things. People who\nset a value upon such singularities, though they may not be wholly\nspurious \u201csaints,\u201d are certainly, nevertheless, very weak ones, whose\npeculiarities make them sometimes uneasy to live with. If religion, in\nthis final stage of life, does not at least set such things right, but\nlets the man go on being querulous and selfish and difficult for those\naround him, then it has never been of much worth. A special indication\nof the ripeness of age, furthermore, is the union of qualities which,\nat other periods of life, are wont to exclude one another; for example,\nna\u00efvet\u00e9 and shrewdness, dignity and childlike gayety, fineness of taste\nand complete simplicity, sternness and gentleness, clear judgment and\nenthusiasm of emotion. This alone gives the impression of completeness,\nas far as is possible here upon earth.\n\nOne or the other of my readers may still ask how one can remain young\nin old age. The most important spiritual means is probably \u201calways\nto be learning some new thing,\u201d to have an interest in something and\nto keep something always before oneself. Therefore the great apostle\nof Christianity said shortly before his departure: \u201cForgetting the\nthings which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which\nare before, I press on toward the goal, unto the prize of the high\ncalling of God in Christ Jesus: let us therefore, as many as be\nperfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye are otherwise minded,\neven this shall God reveal unto you.\u201d This, then, is a clear and\nsimple road, and in this direction is already contained the final\nwatchword of life: Obedience. Everything that is done for oneself,\nfor one\u2019s own elevation, even in the best sense, has, nevertheless, a\nslight after-taste of self-seeking, and in old age one will scarcely\nkeep his life spiritually sound to the final moment, if it does not\nresult at last in an absolute military obedience, and in a \u201charvest of\nGod,\u201d--reaped, that is, for Him, and not for ourselves. The secret of\nreligion lies indeed in one\u2019s keeping near to God, in all the stages\nof life; but first, one must learn to endure it (not to flee from it);\nthen to seek it; and finally to have it, and \u201cdwell in the everlasting\nglow.\u201d\n\nThat this can not happen upon earth altogether without suffering,\neven to the very end, lies in the nature of things, and is shown in\nthe life of many admirable men, who have eagerly longed for rest, and\nhave said with old Simeon at the end of their days, \u201cNow lettest thou\nthy bondservant depart, O Master, according to thy word, in peace.\u201d\nBesides, as already pointed out, it may really happen that a so-called\nbeautiful death, in the circle of one\u2019s own people and amidst the\ngeneral recognition of one\u2019s fellow-citizens, may not at all mean the\nbest destiny and the highest recognition on the part of God, as would\nsome heroic death which is itself a last deed done for country or for\nhumanity. But our time has become so feeble in its Christianity that\nsuch a thought now lies quite outside the reckoning of most men, even\nthe most devout. But at any rate it does not lie in their power of will\nwhat form their death shall take, any more than formerly what form\ntheir life should take, and they must, under any circumstance, have\nfound their peace with God in respect to this last of all life-problems\nalso.\n\nThe most beautiful thing about a life near to its close is its repose\nof soul, that abounding peace which nothing can shake any longer, and\nwhich has fought it out with God and men, and has prevailed.\n\nThe essential element in all religion requisite thereto is very simple,\nand really lies already in the forgotten meaning of that word itself.\nIt consists in the careful and constant maintenance of the \u201cbond\u201d\nwhich unites us with God, through our unfailing good-will toward Him,\nand through our renunciation of all that stands in the way--what the\nScriptures call \u201cseeking God.\u201d This is our part. Then God also comes\n\u201cere we are aware, and lets much good fall to our share.\u201d He comes even\nto such as know him only very imperfectly (and, for that matter, that\nis the case with us all), if only there is a sincere longing for Him in\ntheir hearts.\n\nBut unless He does come, each and every religious practice, in\nwhatsoever form it now takes or may conceivably take hereafter, is\nbut a still-born device of man, and never procures us what we are all\nnevertheless seeking--Happiness.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] Originally an address before an association of young merchants.\n\n\n\n\nBy CARL HILTY\n\nHAPPINESS\n\nTranslated by the Rev. Francis G. Peabody, Plummer Professor of\nChristian Morals in Harvard University\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.25 net\n\n\nProfessor Hilty\u2019s essays long ago took rank in Europe as classics in\nthe sphere of personal culture in ethics and religion.\n\nWithout haste, without fuss, he seems to see more deeply into the\nordinary experiences of human life than most men can. There is with all\nhis insight a simple gentleness and sympathy in his way of treating\nthe deepest things of life, the primal motives that stir the soul.\nHe discusses the Art of Work, How to Fight the Battles of Life, Good\nHabits, The Art of Having Time, Happiness, The Meaning of Life.\n\n\n\n\nBy THOMAS R. SLICER\n\nPastor of the Church of All Souls, New York, Author of \u201cThe Power and\nPromise of the Liberal Faith,\u201d etc.\n\nThe Way to Happiness\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $0.00\n\n\nDr. Slicer has written a practical, readable book based on the belief\nthat a great many unhappy folk are so not because there has been any\nincrease in the world\u2019s misery, but because the consolations upon which\npeople have depended in the past seem to them inadequate. The author\ntherefore first restates certain old, old principles, which seem to\nhave lost force from detachment, in the forms of conception, and in the\nspeech, of modern life. The making of a character which is for itself\na sufficient consolation seems to him the only permanent relief from\nunhappiness, and he sets forth the positive principles on which such a\ncharacter is based.\n\n\n\n\nBy HENRY C. KING\n\nPresident of Oberlin College\n\n\n=Rational Living=\n\n\u201cAn unusually valuable book on practical ethics ... admirably adapted\nfor clubs and classes which wish to study ethical questions, and\nequally valuable for all who wish the latest and clearest information\non such subjects.\u201d--AMORY H. BRADFORD, First Congregational Church,\nMontclair, N.J.\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.25 net (postage 12c.)\n\n\n=Personal and Ideal Elements in Education=\n\n\u201cI am reading it with great profit. It is a magnificent\nutterance.\u201d--WILLIAM F. ANDERSON, Secretary Board of Education of the\nMethodist Episcopal Church.\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.50 net (postage 11c.)\n\n\n=Reconstruction in Theology=\n\n\u201cIts pages represent what is nearly if not actually the highwater\nmark of skill and success in blending a fearless yet discriminating\nprogressiveness with a loyal conservatism in theology.\u201d--_The\nCongregationalist._\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.50\n\n\n=Theology and the Social Consciousness=\n\n\u201cA valuable contribution to current discussion ... it is not\nscholastic; it is not phrased in the technical language of the schools;\nthe thoughtful layman will readily understand it.\u201d--_The Outlook._\n\n  Cloth      Crown 8vo      $1.25 net\n\n\n\n\nBy the Rev. HUGH BLACK\n\nAuthor of \u201cFriendship,\u201d \u201cWork,\u201d etc.\n\n\n=The Practice of Self-Culture=\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.25 net\n\n\n\n\nBy FRANCIS G. PEABODY\n\nPlummer Professor of Christian Morals in Harvard University\n\n\n=Jesus Christ and the Christian Character=\n\n_An examination of the teaching of Jesus in its relation to some of\nthe moral problems of personal life._\n\n\u201cThe lectures are full of power and present a study of Christian ethics\nwhich is truly inspiring.\u201d--_Independent._\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.50 net (postage 11c.)\n\n\n=Jesus Christ and the Social Question=\n\n_An examination of the teaching of Jesus in its relation to some\nproblems of modern social life._\n\n\u201cIt is vital, searching, comprehensive. The Christian reader will find\nit an illumination; the non-Christian, a revelation.\u201d--_The Epworth\nHerald._\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.50\n\n\n=The Religion of an Educated Man=\n\n_Religion as education--Christ\u2019s message to the scholar--knowledge\nand service._\n\n\u201cThe lectures are a distinct contribution to a branch of literature of\nwhich we stand in great need.\u201d--_Boston Transcript._\n\n  Cloth      12mo      $1.00 net (postage 7c.)\n\n\n\n\nBy NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS\n\nPastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn\n\n\n=The Quest of Happiness=\n\n_A study of victory over life\u2019s troubles._\n\n\u201c\u2018The Quest of Happiness\u2019 is Dr. Hillis\u2019s very best book.\u201d--AMORY H.\nBRADFORD, Pastor of First Congregational Church, Montclair, N.J.\n\n  Cloth, with colored page borders      $1.50 net\n\n\n  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n  PUBLISHERS      64-66 FIFTH AVENUE      NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Emboldened text is surrounded by equals signs: =bold=.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.\n\n  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.","title":"The steps of life: further essays on happiness","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":51928}