is already implied in the What. All philosophical knowledge is, by its nature, not empiric, but genetic, — not merely apprehending existing being, but pro ducing and constructing this being from the very root of its life. Thus, with respect to the Scholar, the de terminate form of whose being we have now described, there still remains the question, — How does he become a Scholar? — and since his being and growth is an uninterrupted, living, constantly self-producing being, — How does he maintain the life of a Scholar?
I answer shortly, — by his inherent, characteristic, and all -engrossing love for the Idea. Consider it thus: — Every form of existence holds and upholds itself, and in living existences this self-support, and the consciousness of it, is self-love. In individual human beings the Eternal Divine Idea takes up its abode, as their spiritual nature; this existence of the Divine Idea in them encircles itself with unspeakable love; and then we say, adapting our language to common appearance, this man loves the Idea, and lives in the Idea, — when in truth it is the Idea itself which, in his stead and in his person, lives and loves itself; and his person is but the sensible manifestation of this existence of the Idea, and has, in and for itself alone, neither significance nor life. This strictly framed definition or formula lays open the whole matter, and we may now proceed once more to adopt the language of appearance without fear of misappre hension. In the True Scholar the Idea has acquired a personal existence which has entirely superseded his own, and absorbed it in itself. He loves the Idea, not before all else, — for he loves nothing beside it, — he loves it alone; — it alone is the source of all his LECTURE I. 253 LECTURE I. 253 joys, of all his pleasures; it alone is the spring of all his thoughts, efforts, and deeds; for it alone does he live, and without it life would be to him tasteless and odious. In both — in the Finished as well as in the Progressive Scholar — does the Idea reside, with this difference only, — that in the former it has attained all the clearness and firm consistency which was pos sible in that individual and under existing circum stances, and having now acquired a settled abode within him, spreads itself around, and strives to flow forth in living words and deeds; — while in the latter it is still active only within himself, striving after the development and strengthening of such an existence as it may attain under the circumstances in which he is placed. To both alike would their life be valueless, if they could not fashion either others or themselves after the Idea.
This is the sole and unvarying life-principle of the Scholar, — of him to whom we give that name. All his deeds and efforts, under all possible conditions in in which he can be supposed to exist, spring with absolute necessity from this principle. Hence, we have only to contemplate him in all the conceivable; relations which are requisite for our purpose, and we may calculate with certainty both his inward and out ward life, and describe it beforehand. And in this way it is possible to deduce with scientific accuracy, from the essential Mature of the Scholar, its manifes tations in the world of freedom or apparent chance. This is our present task, and that the rule for its solution.
We shah1 turn first of all to the Students, — that is to say, to those who are justly entitled to the name L'o4 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
of Progressive Scholars in the sense of that word al ready defined; and it is proper that we should first apply to them the principles which we have laid down. If they be not such as we have supposed them to be, then our words will be to them mere words, without sense, meaning, or application. If they be such as we have supposed them to be, then they will in due time become mature and perfect Scholars; for that effort of the Idea to unfold itself which is so much higher than all the pursuits of sense, is also infinitely more mighty, and with silent power breaks a way for itself through every obstacle. It will be well for the studious youth to know now what he shall one day become, — to contemplate in his youth a picture of his riper age. I shall therefore, after performing my first duty, proceed also to construct from first principles the character of the Finished Scholar.
Clearness is gained by contrast; and therefore, wherever I show how the Scholar will manifest him self, I shall also declare how, for the same reasons. he will not manifest himself.
In both divisions of the subject, but particularly in the second, where I shall have to speak of the Finished Scholar, I shall guard myself carefully from making any satirical allusion to the present state of the literary world, any censure of it, or generally any reference to it; and I entreat my hearers once for all not to take any such suggestion. The philosopher peacefully constructs his theorem upon given princi ples, without deigning to turn his attention to the actual state of things, or needing the recollection of it to enable him to pursue his inquiry; just as the geometer constructs his scheme without troubling him self whether his purely abstract figures can be copied LECTURE I. 255 with our instruments. And it may be permitted, especially to the unprejudiced and studious youth, to remain in ignorance of the degeneracies and corrup tions of the society into which he must one day enter, until he shall have acquired power sufficient to stem the tide of its example.
This, gentlemen, is the entire plan of the lectures which I now propose to deliver, with the principles on which they shall be founded. To-day, I shall only add one or two observations to what I have already said.
In considerations like those of to-day, or those, necessarily similar in their nature, which are to fol low, it is common for men to censure, — first, their severity, — very often with the good-natured suppo sition that the speaker was only not aware that his strictness was disagreeable to them, — that they have only frankly to tell him this, and he will then reconsider the matter, and soften down his principles. Thus we have said, that he who with his Learned Culture has not attained a knowledge of the Idea, or does not at least struggle to attain it, is, properly speaking, nothing; — and farther on, we have said he is a bungler. This is in the manner of those severe sayings by which philosophers give so much offence. Leaving the present case, to deal directly with the general principle, I have to remind you that a thinker of this sort, without having firmness enough to refuse all respect to Truth, seeks to chaffer with her and cheapen something from her, in order by a favourable bargain to obtain some consideration for himself. But Truth, who is once for all what she is, and cannot change her nature in aught, proceeds on her way without turning aside; and there remains nothing for 256 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
her, with respect to those who do not seek her purely because she is true, but to leave them standing there, just as if they had never accosted her.
Again, it is a common charge against discourses of this kind, that they cannot be understood. Thus I can suppose — not you, gentlemen, — but some Finished Scholar according to appearance, under whose eye, perhaps, these thoughts may come — approaching them, and, puzzled and doubtful, at last thoughtfully ex claiming: — The Idea — the Divine Idea, — that which lies at the bottom of all appearance, — what may this mean? I would reply to such an inquirer, — What then may this question mean? — Strictly speaking, it means in most cases nothing more than the following: — Under what other name, and by what other for mula, do I already know this same thing which thou dost express by a name so extraordinary, and to me so unheard of? — and to that again, in most cases, the only fitting answer would be, — Thou knowest not this thing at all, and during thy whole life hast under stood nothing of it, neither under this nor under any other name; and if thou art to come to any knowledge of it, thou must even now begin anew to learn it, and then most fitly under that name by which it is first offered to thee.
In the following lectures the word Idea, which I have used to-day, will be in many respects better de fined and explained, and, as I hope, ultimately brought to perfect clearness; but that is by no means the business of a single hour. We reserve this, as well as everything else to which we have to direct your attention, for the succeeding lectures.
( 257 ) LECTURE II.
FARTHER DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPTION OF THE DIVINE IDEA.
THE following were the principles which we laid down in our last lecture as the grounds of our investigation into the Nature of the Scholar.
The Universe is not, in deed and truth, that which it seems to be to. the uncultivated and natural sense of man; but it is something higher, which lies behind mere natural appearance. In its widest sense, this foundation of all appearance may be aptly named th*' Divine Idea of the world. A certain part of the meaning of this Divine Idea is accessible to, and con ceivable by, the cultivated mind.
We said at the close of last lecture, that this notion of a Divine Idea as the ultimate and absolute founda tion of all appearance, which as yet remained obscure, should afterwards become quite clear and intelligible by means of its subsequent applications.
Nevertheless we find it desirable, in the first place, to define this Idea more fully in the abstract, and to this purpose we shall devote the present lecture. To this end we lay down the following principles, which, so far as we are concerned indeed, are the results of deep and methodical investigation, and are perfectly z -2 258 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
demonstrable in themselves, but which we can here only commmunicate to you historically, calculating with confidence on your own natural sense of truth to confirm our principles without perfect insight into their original source; and also on your observing that by these principles, thus previously laid down, the most important questions are answered, and the most searching doubts solved.
We lay down, then, the following principles: — 1. Being, strictly and absolutely considered, is living and essentially active. There is no other Being than Life; — it cannot be dead, rigid, inert. What death, that constantly recurring phenomenon, really is, and how it is connected with the only true Being — with Life, — we shall see more clearly afterwards.
2. The only Life which exists entirely in itself, from itself, and by itself, is the Life of God, or of the Absolute; — which two words mean one and the same thing; so that when we say the Life of the Absolute, we only use a form of expression, since the Absolute is Life, and Life is the Absolute.
3. This Divine Life lies entirely hidden in itself; — it has its residence within itself, and abides there com pletely realized in, and accessible only to, itself. It is — all Being, and beside it there is no Being. It is therefore wholly without change or variation.
4. Now this Divine Life discloses itself, appears, becomes visible, manifests itself as such — as the Divine Life: and this its Manifestation, presence, or outward existence, is the World. Strictly speaking, it manifests itself as it essentially and really is and lives, and cannot manifest itself otherwise; and hence there is no groundless and arbitrary medium interposed between LECTURE II. 259 LECTURE II. 259 its true and essential nature and its outward Manifesta tion, in consequence of which it is only in part revealed, and in part remains concealed; but its Manifestation, i. e. the World, is fashioned and unchangeably de termined by two conditions only; namely, by the essential nature of the Divine Life itself, and by the unvarying and absolute laws of any revelation or Mani festation abstractly considered. God reveals himself as God can reveal himself: His whole, in itself essentially inconceivable, Being comes forth undivided and un reservedly, in so far as it can come forth in any mere Manifestation.
5. The Divine Life in itself is absolute, self-com prehending unity, without change or variableness, as we said above. In its Manifestation, for a reason which is quite conceivable although not here set forth, it becomes a self-developing existence, gradually and eternally unfolding itself, and constantly advancing towards higher perfection in the ever-flowing stream of time. In the first place, it continues in this Mani festation, as we said, to be life. Life cannot be mani fested in death, for these two are altogether opposed to each other; and hence, as Absolute Being alone is life, so the only true and peculiar Manifestation of that Being is living existence, and death has neither an absolute, nor, in the highest sense of the word, has it even a relative existence. This living Manifestation we call the human race. The human race is thus the only true finite existence. As Being — Absolute Being — constitutes the Divine Life, and is wholly exhausted therein, so does Existence in Time, or the Manifestation of that Divine Life, constitute the whole united life of mankind, and is thoroughly and entirely exhausted 2GO THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
therein. Thus, in its Manifestation the Divine Life becomes a continually progressive existence, unfolding itself in perpetual growth according to the degree of inward activity and power which belongs to it. Hence, — and the consequence is an important one, — hence the Manifestation of Life in Time, unlike the Divine Life, is limited at every point of its existence, — i.e. it is in part not living, not yet interpenetrated by life, but in so far — dead. These limitations it shah1 gra dually break through, lay aside, and alter into life, in its onward progress.
In this idea of the obstructions which surround Existence in Time, we have, when it is thoroughly seized and pondered over, the idea of the objective and material world, or what we call Nature. This is not living and capable of infinite growth like Reason, but dead, — a rigid, self-inclosed existence. It is this which, arresting and hemming in the Time-Life, by this hin drance alone spreads over a longer or shorter period of time that which would otherwise burst forth at once, a perfect and complete life. Further, in the develop ment of spiritual existence, Nature itself is gradually interpenetrated by life; and is thus both the obstacle to, and the sphere of, that activity and outward ex pression of power in which human life eternally unfolds itself.
This, and absolutely nothing more than this, is Nature in the most extended meaning of the word; and even man himself, inasmuch as his existence is limited in comparison with the original and Divine Life, is nothing more than this. Since the perpetual advancement of this second life, — not original, but derived and human, — and also its finitude and limi- LECTURE II. 261 LECTURE II. 261 tation in order that such advancement may be so much as possible, — both proceed from the self-manifestation of the Absolute, so Nature also has its foundation in God, — not indeed as something that is and ought to be for its own sake alone, but only as the means and condition of another being, — of the Living Being in man, — and as something which shall be gradually and unceasingly superseded and displaced by the perpetual advancement of this being. Hence we must not be blinded or led astray by a philosophy assuming the name of natural,* which pretends to excel all former philosophy by striving to elevate Nature into Absolute Being, and into the place of God. In all ages, the theoretical errors as well as the moral corruptions of humanity have arisen from falsely bestowing the name of life on that which in itself possesses neither absolute nor even finite being, and seeking for life and its enjoyments in that which in itself is dead. Very far therefore from being a step towards truth, that philo sophy is but a return to old and already most widely spread error.
6. The truth contained in the principles which we have now laid down may be conceived of by man (who himself is the Manifestation of the Original and Divine Life) in a general luay, as we, for example, have now considered it, — either through rational con viction, or only from being led to it by an obscure feeling or sense of truth, or from finding it probable because it furnishes a complete solution of the most important problems. Man may perceive it; that is, the Manifestation may fall back on its Original, and 262 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
picture it forth in reflection with absolute certainty as to the fact; but it can by no means analyze and comprehend it fully, for the Manifestation ever re mains only a Manifestation, and can never go beyond itself and return to Absolute Being.
7. We have said that man may perceive this in so far as regards the fact, but he cannot perceive the reason and origin of the fact. How and why from the one Divine Life, this and no other Time-Life arises and constantly flows forth, can only be under stood by man on condition of fully comprehending all the parts of this latter, and explaining them all, one by the other, mutually and completely, so as to reduce them once more to a single idea, and that idea equiva lent to the one Divine Life. But this forth-flowing Time-Life is infinite, and the comprehension of its parts can thus never be completed: besides, the com- prehender is himself a portion of it, and at every conceivable point of time he himself stands chained in the finite and limited, which he can never entirely throw off without ceasing to be Manifestation, — with out being himself transformed into the Divine Life.
8. From this it seems to follow, that the Time-Life can only be comprehended by thought as a whole, and according to its general nature, — i. e. as we have endeavoured to comprehend it above, — and then as a Manifestation of the one Original and Divine Life; — but that its details must be immediately felt and experienced in their individual import, and can only by and through this Experience be imaged forth in thought and consciousness. And such is actually the case in a certain respect and with a certain portion of human life. Throughout all time, and in every LECTURE II. 2G3 individual part of it, there remains in human life something which does not entirely reveal itself in Idea, and which cannot therefore be anticipated or super seded by any Idea, but which must be directly felt if it is ever to attain a place in consciousness; — and this is called the domain of pure empiricism or Expe rience. The above-mentioned philosophy errs in this. — that it pretends to have resolved human life entirely into Idea, and thus wholly superseded Experience; instead of which, it defeats its own purpose, and in attempting to explain life completely, loses sight of it altogether.
9. I said that such was the case with the Time-Life in a certain respect and with a certain portion of it. For in another respect and with another portion of it, the case is quite otherwise, — and that on the follow ing ground, which I shall here only indicate in popular phraseology, but which is well worthy of deeper investigation.
The Time-Life does not enter into Time in individual parts only, but also in entire homogeneous masses; and it is these masses, again, which divide themselves into the individual parts of actual life. There is not only Time, but there are times, and succession of times, epoch after epoch, and age succeeding age. Thus, for example, to the deeper thought of man, the entire Earthly Life of the human race, as it now exists, is such a homogeneous mass, projected at once into Time, and ever present there, whole and undi vided, — only in appearance spread out into world- history. As soon as these homogeneous masses have appeared in Time, the general laws and rules by which they are governed may be comprehended, and, in their 264 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
relation to the whole course of these masses, antici pated and understood; while the obstacles over which these masses must take their way — that is, the hin drances and interruptions of life — are only accessible to immediate Experience.
10. These cognizable laws of homogeneous masses of Life, which may be perceived and understood prior to their actual consequences, must necessarily appear as laws of Life itself, as it ought to be, and as it should strive to become, founded on the self-supporting and independent principle of this Time-Life, which must here appear as Freedom: — hence, as laws for the free action and conduct of the living being. If we go back to the source of this legislation, we shall find that it lies in the Divine Life itself, which could not reveal itself in Time otherwise than under this form of a law; and, indeed, as is implied in the preceding ideas, nowise as a law ruling with blind power and extorting obedience by force, such as we assume in passive and inanimate nature, — but as the law of a Life which is conscious of its own independence, and cannot be deprived of it, without at the same time tearing up the very root of its being; hence, as we said above, as a Divine Law of Freedom, or Moral Law.
Further, as we have already seen, this life according to the law of the original Divine Life, is the only True Life and ground of all other; — all things else besides this Life are but hindrances and obstructions thereto, only possessing existence that by them the True Life may be unfolded and manifested in its strength: — hence, all things else have no existence for their own sakes, but only as means for the development of the True Life. Reason can only comprehend the con- LECTURE II. 2G5 LECTURE II. 2G5 nexion between means and end, by supposing a mind in which the end has been determined. A thoroughly moral Human Life has its source in God: by analogy with our own reason, we conceive of God as proposing to himself the moral Life of man as the sole purpose for which He has manifested himself and called into existence every other thing; not that it is absolutely thus as we conceive of it, and that God really thinks like man, and that Being itself is in him distinguished from the conception of Being, — but we only think thus, because we are unable otherwise to comprehend the relation between the Divine and the Human Life. And in this absolutely necessary mode of thought, Human Life as it ought to be becomes the idea and fundamental conception of God in the creation of a world, — the purpose and the plan which God intended to fulfil by the creation of the world.
And thus it is sufficiently explained for our present purpose how the Divine Idea lies at the foundation of the visible world, and how, and how far, this Idea, hidden from the common eye, may become conceivable and attainable by cultivated thought, and necessarily appear to it as that which man by his free activity ought to manifest in the world.
Let us not forthwith restrict our conception of this ought, — this free act of man, — to the familiar cate gorical imperative, and to the narrow and paltry applications of it which are given in our common systems of Morality, — such applications as must neces sarily be made by such a science. Almost invariably, and that for causes well founded in the laws of philo sophical abstraction through which systems of Morality are produced, it has been usual to dwell at greatest A a 2G6 THE NATURE OF THE SCHOLAR.
length on the mere form of Morality, — to inculcate simply and solely obedience to the commandment; — and even when our moralists have proceeded to its substance, still their chief aim seems to have been rather to induce men to cease from doing evil, than to persuade them to do good. Indeed, in any system of human duties, it is necessary to maintain such a generality of expression that the rules may be equally applicable to all men, and for this reason to point out more clearly what man ought not to do, than what he ought to do. This, too, is the Divine Idea, — but only in its remote and borrowed shape — not in its fresh originality. The original Divine Idea of any particular point of time remains for the most part unexpressed, until the God-inspired man appears and declares it. What the Divine Man does, that is divine. In general, the original and pure Divine Idea — that which he who is immediately inspired of God should do and actually does — is (with reference to the visible world) creative, producing the new, the unheard-of, the original. The impulse of mere natural existence leads us to abide hi the old, and even when the Divine Idea is associated with it. it aims at the maintenance of whatever has hitherto seemed good, or at most to petty improve ments upon it; but where the Divine Idea attains an existence pure from the admixture of natural impulse, there it builds new worlds upon the ruins of the old. All things new, great, and beautiful, which have ap peared in the world since its beginning, and those which shall appear until its end, have appeared and shall appear through the Divine Idea, partially ex pressed in the chosen ones of our race.
And thus, as the Life of Man is the only immediate LECTURE II. 207 implement and organ of the Divine Idea in the visible world, so is it also the first and immediate object of its activity. The moral training of the human race is the object of the Divine Idea, and of those in whom that Idea dwells. This last view makes it possible for us to separate the Divine Idea into its various modes of action, or to conceive of the one indivisible Idea as several.