he would, to begin with, not even obtain a clear and vivid sense-image such as was certainly obtained by a Roman of old. The latter saw every day with his own eyes the flexible politeness of an ambitious candidate to all and sundry, and outbursts of the slave mind too; and those words vividly re-presented these things to him. Even from the Roman of a later period these sights were removed by the change in the form of government and the introduction of Christianity; and, besides, his own language was beginning to a great extent to die away in his own mouth. This was more especially due to Christianity, which was alien to him, and which he i could neither ward off nor thoroughly assimilate. How 'was impossible for this language, already half dead in its own home, to be transmitted alive to a foreign people? How could it now be transmitted to us Germans? More over, with regard to the symbolic mental content of both those expressions, there is in the word Popularity, even at the very beginning, something base, which was perverted in their mouths and became a virtue, owing to the corruption of the nation and of its constitution. The German never falls into this perversion, so long as it is 'put before him in his own language. But when Liberality is translated by saying that a man has not the soul of a slave, or, to give it a modern rendering, has not a lackey's way of thinking, he once more replies that to say this also means very little.
Moreover, into these verbal images, which even in their pure form among the Romans arose at a low stage of ethical culture or designated something positively base, there were stealthily introduced during the development X)f the neo-Latin languages the idea of lack of seriousness / about social relations, the idea of self-abandonment, and L the idea of heartless laxity. In order to bring these GERMANS & OTHER TEUTONS COMPARED 67 things into esteem among us, use was made of the respect we have for antiquity and foreign countries to introduce the same words into the German language. It was donex, so quietly that no one was fully aware of what was actually \" intended. The purpose and the result of all admixture has ever been this: first of all to remove the hearer from the immediate comprehensibility and definiteness which are the inherent qualities of every primitive language; then, when he has been prepared to accept such words in blind faith, to supply him with the explanation that he needs; and, finally, in this explanation to mix vice and virtue together in such a way that it is no easy matter to separate them again. Now, if the true meaning of" those three foreignjwords, provided they have a meaning, had been expressed to the German in his own words and within his own circle of verbal images, in this way: Menschenfreundlicbkeii (friendliness to man), Leutselig- keit (condescension or affability), and Edelmut (noble- mindedness), he would have understood us; but the base associations we have mentioned could never have been slipped into those designations. Within the range of German speech such a wrapping-up in incomprehen sibility and darkness arises either from clumsiness or evil design; it is to be avoided, and the means always ready to hand is to translate into right and true German. But in the neo-Latin languages this incomprehensibility is of their very nature and origin, and there is no means of avoiding it, for they do not possess any living language |j by which they might examine the dead one; indeed, || when one looks at the matter closely, they are entirely without a mother-tongue.
54. This single example will serve to demonstrate what could with ease be followed up throughout the whole range of the language and found present everywhere.
68 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION It is intended to explain to you as clearly as is here possible what has so far been said. We are speaking of the supersensuous part of the language, and not immediately or directly of the sensuous part. This super- sensuous part, in a language that has always remained • alive, is expressed by symbols of sense, comprehending lat every step in complete unity the sum total of the teensuous and mental life of the nation deposited in the language, for the purpose of designating an idea that like wise is not arbitrary, but necessarily proceeds from the jwhole previous life of the nation. From the idea and its designation a keen eye, looking back, couTcThot fail to reconstruct the whole history of the nation's culture. But in a dead language this supersensuous part, which, while the language was still alive, was what we have described, becomes with the death of the language a tattered collection of arbitrary and totally inexplicable symbols for ideas that are just as arbitrary; and with both idea and symbol there is nothing else to be done but just to learn them.
55. With this our immediate task is performed, which was to find the characteristic that differentiates the German from the other peoples of Teutonic descent. The difference arose at the moment of the separation of the common stock and consists in this, that the ^German speaks a language which has been alive ever since it first issued from the force of nature, whereas the other Teutonic races speak a language which has movement on the surface only but is dead at the root. To this circumstance alone, to life on the one hand and _death on the other, we assign the difference; but we ~are not in any way taking up the further question of the intrinsic value of the German language. Between I life and death there is no comparison; the foimer has GERMANS & OTHER TEUTONS COMPARED 69 infinitely more value than the latter. All direct parisons between German and neo-Latin languages are therefore null and void, and are obliged to discuss things which are not worth discussing. If the intrinsic value of the German language is to be discussed, at the very least a language of equal rank, a language equally primitive, as, for example, Greek, must enter the lists; but such a comparison is far beyond our present purpose.
56. What an immeasurable influence on the whole _ human development of a people the character of its lan guage may have — its language, which accompanies the in dividual into the most secret depths of his mind in thought and will and either hinders him or gives him wings, which] unites within its domain the whole mass of men who speak it into one single and common understanding, which is the true point of meeting and mingling for the world of the senses and the world of spirits, and fuses the ends of both in each other in such a fashion that it is impossible to tell to which of the two it belongs itself — how different the results of this influence may prove to be where the relation is as life to death,* all this in general is easily perceived. In the first place, the German has a means of investigating his living language more thoroughly, by comparing it with the closed Latin language, which differs very widely from his own in the development of verbal images; on the other hand, he has a means of understanding Latin more clearly in the same way. This is not possible to a member of the neo-Latin peoples, who fundamentally remains a captive in the sphere of one and the same language. Then the German, in learn ing the original Latin, at the same time acquires to a certain extent the derived languages also; and if he should learn the former more thoroughly than a foreigner does, which for the reason given the German will very likely 70 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION be able to do, he at the same time learns to understand this foreigner's own language far more thoroughly and to possess it far more intimately than does the foreigner TTiimself who speaks it. Hence the German, if only he j makes use of all his advantages, can always be^uperior ^ to the foreigner and understand him fully, even better than the foreigner understands himself, and can translate the foreigner to the iullest extent. On the other hand, the foreigner can never understand the true German without a thorough and extremely laborious study of the German language, and there is no doubt that he will leave what is genuinely German untranslated. The things in these languages which can only be learnt from the foreigner himself are mostly new fashions of speech due to boredom and caprice, and one is very modest when one consents to receive instruction of this kind. In most cases one would be able, instead, to show foreigners how they ought to speak according to the primitive language and its law of change, and that the new fashion is worth- ess and offends against ancient and traditional good usage. 57. In addition to the special consequence just men tioned, the whole wealth of consequences we spoke of comes about of itself.
It is, however, our intention to treat these consequences as a whole, fundamentally and comprehensively, from the point of view of the bond that unites them, in order to give in this way a thorough description of the German in contrast to the other Teutonic races. For the present I briefly indicate these consequences thus:— (1) Where the people has a living language, mental t culture influences life; where the contrary is the case, ' mental culture and life go their way independently of , each other.
(2) For the same reason, a people of the former kind GERMANS & OTHER TEUTONS COMPARED 71 is really and truly in earnest about all mental culture and wishes it to influence life; whereas a people of the latter kind looks upon mental culture rather as an ingeni ous game and has no wish to make it anything more.
(3) From No. 2 it follows that the former has honest diligence and earnestness in all things, and takes pains; whereas the latter is easy-going and guided by its happy nature.
(4) From all this together it follows that in a nation of the former kind the mass of the people is capable of education, and the educators of such a nation test their discoveries on the people and wish to influence it; whereas in a nation of the latter kind the educated classes separate themselves from the people and regard it as nothing more than a blind instrument of their plans/ The further discussion of the characteristics indicated I reserve for the next address.
FIFTH ADDRESS THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIFFERENCE THAT HAS BEEN INDICATED 58. WITH the object of describing the characteristic quality of the Germans we have pointed out the funda mental difference between them and the other peoples of Teutonic descent, viz., that the former have remained in the uninterrupted flow of a primitive language which develops itself continuously out of real life, whereas the latter adopted a language which was foreign to them and which under their influence has been killed. At the end of the previous address we indicated other manifestations among these peoples, who differ from each other in the way we have shown. To-day we shall deal more fully with these manifestations, which are a necessary conse quence of that fundamental difference, and establish them more firmly on their common foundation.
An investigation which endeavours to be thorough can rise too high to be involved in many disputes or to arouse much jealousy. Our method of investigation in the present instance will be the same as it was in the one to which this is a sequel. We shall take the fundamental difference that has been indicated, and deduce its con sequences step by step; our sole concern will be to see that this deduction is correct. Whether the various manifestations which, according to this deduction, ought 72 CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIFFERENCE 735 to exist, are actually met with in experience is a question which I shall leave entirely to you and to any observer fore I decision. As regards the German especially, I shali- indeed prove at the proper time that he has in fact revealehe himself to be what our deduction shows he was bouity, to be. But, as regards Teutons in other countries, are shall have no objection if one of them, with a real undoed standing of the true nature of our present discussio, is is subsequently successful in proving that his compatrioth have been just what the Germans have been, and is ablchj to show that they are entirely free from the opposite <V characteristics. In general, our description even Jr* these opposite characteristics will not dwell on what is harsh and disadvantageous, for such a method makes victory more easy than honourable, but will merely point out what are the inevitable consequences, and will do this with as much consideration as is consistent with the truth.
59. The first consequence of that fundamental differ ence, I said, was this: among the people with a living language mental culture influences life, whereas among a people of the opposite kind mental culture and life go their separate ways. It will be useful first of all to explain more fully the meaning of this statement. First of all, when we speak here of life and of the influence exerted upon it by mental culture, we must be understood to mean primitive life in its flow from the source of all spiritual life, from God, the development of human relationships according to their archetype, and, therefore, the creation of a new life such as has never hitherto existed. We are by no means discussing the mere preservation from decay of those relationships in their present stage. StLl less have we in mind the assistance of individual members who have fallen behind in the general development.
, + ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION Next, when we speak of mental culture we are to under- 'tand thereby, first of all, philosophy, for it is philosophy rhich scientifically comprehends the eternal archetype '. all spiritual life. We must designate it by the foreign me, as the Germans have shown themselves unwilling adopt the German name l that was recently suggested, r this science, and for all science based upon it, the claim low made that it influences the life of a people who have living language. But, in apparent contrast to this ssertion, it has often been said, and by some among mrselves, that philosophy, science, the fine arts, etc., ^c ends in themselves and not handmaids of life, and that it is degrading them to esteem them according to their utility in the service of life. Here we must define these expressions more closely and guard against any misinter pretation. They are true in the following double but limited sense; first, that it is not the duty of science or art, as some have thought, to be useful at what may be called a lower stage of life, e.g., temporal or sensuous life, or for everyday edification; then, that an individual, in consequence of his personal seclusion from a spiritual world regarded as a whole, may be entirely absorbed in these special branches of the universal divine life without needing a stimulus from outside them, and may find in them complete satisfaction. But they are in no wise true in the strict sense, for it is just as impossible that there should be more than one end in itself as that there should be more than one Absolute. Thejsole end in itself, apart from which there can be no other, is spiritual life. Now this expresses itself in part and appears as an eternal stream, with itself as source — that is, as eternal activity. This activity. eternally receives its pattern from science, and its ability to form itself according to 1 [Wissenschaftslehre, i.e. Theory of science.]
CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIFFERENCE 75 this pattern from art, and in so far it might appear that } science and art exist as means to an end, which is active ) life. But in"this form of activity life itself is never com pleted and made absolute as a unity, but goes on into the infinite. Now, if life is to exist as such an absolute unity, it must be in another form. This form is that of pure thought, which produces the religious insight described in the third address, a form which, as absolute unity, is utterly incompatible with infinity of action and which can never be completely expressed in action. Hence both of them, thought as well as activity, are forms incompat- V ible only in the world of appearance, but in the work beyond appearance they are both equally one and the same absolute life. One cannot say that thought exists and exists as it does, for the sake of activity, or vice versa; one must say that both must simply exist, since life must be a completed whole in the phenomenal world, just as it is in the /noumenal. Within this sphere, therefore, and according to this view, it is not nearly enough to say that science exerts an influence on life; science itself is life perpetual in itself. Or, to connect this with a well-known expression, one sometimes hears the question put: What is the use of all knowledge, if one does not act in accordance with it? This remark implies that knowledge is regarded as a means to action, and the latter as the real end. One could put the question the other way round and ask: How can we possibly act well without knowing what the Good is? This way of expressing it would regard knowledge as con ditioning action. But both expressions are one-sided, and the truth is that both, knowledge as well as ' action, are in the same way inseparable elements of I rational life.
60. But science is life perpetual in itself, as we have 76 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION just expressed it, only when thought is the real mind and disposition of the one who thinks, in such a way that, without special effort and even without being clearly conscious of it, he views and judges everything else that he thinks, views, and judges according to that fundamental thought, and, if the latter exerts an influence on action, just as inevitably acts according to it. But thought is in no wise life and disposition when it is thought only as the thought of a life that is strange or foreign, however clearly and completely it may be comprehended as a thought that has a mere possibility of existence in this way, and however clearly one might think, as perhaps bomeone could think, in this fashion. In this latter case, between our thinking at second-hand and our real think ing there lies a wide field of chance and freedom — a freedom that we feel no desire to use; and so this think ing at second-hand remains apart from us; it is a merely possible thinking, one made free from us and always freely to be repeated. In the former case thought has by itself directly taken hold of our self, and made it into itself; and through this reality of thought for us, arising in this way, we obtain insight into its necessity. As we have just said, no freedom can forcibly bring about the latter con sequence, which must be produced of itself, and thought itself must take hold of us and form us according to itself. 61. Now this living effectiveness of thought is very much furthered and, indeed, where the thinking is of the proper depth and strength, even made inevitable, by think ing and designating in a living language. The symbol in such a language is itself directly living and sensuous; it re-presents all real life and so takes hold of and exerts an influence on life. To the possessor of such a language spirit speaks directly and reveals itself as man does to man. But the symbol of a dead language does not stimulate CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIFFERENCE 77 anything directly; in order to enter the living stream of such a language one must first recapitulate knowledge acquired by the study of history from a world that has died, and transport one's self into an alien mode of thought. How superabundant must be the impulse of one's own thinking, if it does not grow weary in this long,< and wide field of history and in the end modestly content itself with the region of history. If the thinking of the possessor of a living language does not become alive, he may rightly be accused of not having thought at all and of having merely indulged in reverie. The possessor of a dead language, however, cannot in a similar case be similarly accused without hesitation; it may be that he has " thought " after his own fashion, i.e., carefully developed the conceptions deposited in his language. Only he has not done that which, if he succeeded in doing it, would be accounted a miracle.
Incidentally it is evident that the impulse to thinking, in the case of a people with a dead language, will be most powerful and produce the greatest apparent results in the beginning, when the language has not yet become clear enough to everyone. It is also evident that, as soon as the language becomes clearer and more definite, this impulse to thinking will tend more and more to die away in the chains of the language. It is further evident that in the end the philosophy of a people of this kind will consciously resign itself to the fact that it is only an explanation of the dictionary, or, as un-German spirits/ among us have expressed it in a more high-sounding ( fashion, a jnetacritic of language; and, finally, that such a people will acknowledge some mediocre didactic poem in comedy form on the subject of hypocrisy to be its greatest philosophical work.1 1 [Fichte seems to refer here to Moliere's T artujfe.~\ 78 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION 62. In this way, I say, spiritual culture — and here especially thinking in a primitive language is meant— does not exert an influence on life; it is itself the life of him who thinks in this fashion. Nevertheless it necessarily strives, from the life that thinks in this way, to influence other life outside it, and so to influence the life of all about it and to form this life in accordance with