Were we to renounce the former, the world, and, with it,
ourselves, we should sink into absolute nothing. We raise ourselves
out of this nothing, and sustain ourselves above this nothing, solely
by means of our morality.
II
* * * * *
When I contemplate the world as it is, independently of any command,
there manifests itself in my interior the wish, the longing, no! not
a longing merely--the absolute demand for a better world. I cast a
glance at the relations of men to one another and to Nature, at the
weakness of their powers, at the strength of their appetites and
passions. It cries to me irresistibly from my innermost soul: "Thus it
cannot possibly be destined always to remain. It must, O it must all
become other and better!"
I can in no wise imagine to myself the present condition of man as
that which is designed to endure. I cannot imagine it to be his whole
and final destination. If so, then would everything be dream and
delusion, and it would not be worth the trouble to have lived and to
have taken part in this ever-recurring, aimless, and unmeaning game.
Only so far as I can regard this condition as the means of something
better, as a point of transition to a higher and more perfect, does
it acquire any value for me. Not on its own account, but on account of
something better for which it prepares the way, can I bear it, honor
it, and joyfully fulfil my part in it.
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