There is no
Nature more. Thou, thou alone, art.
It no longer appears to me the aim of the present world that the
above-mentioned state of universal peace among men, and of their
unconditioned empire over the mechanism of Nature, should be brought
about merely that it may exist, but that it should be brought about
by man himself, and, since it is calculated for all, then it should be
brought about by all, as one great, free, moral community. Nothing
new and better for the individual, except through his dutiful will,
nothing new and better for the community, except through their united,
dutiful will, is the fundamental law of the great moral kingdom of
which the present life is a part.
The reason why the good-will of the individual is so often lost for
this world, is that it is only the will of the individual, and that
the will of the majority does not coincide with it; therefore it has
no consequences but those which belong to a future world. Hence, even
the passions and vices of men appear to cooeperate in the promotion of
a better state, _not in and for themselves_--in this sense good can
never come out of evil--but by furnishing a counter-poise to opposite
vices, and finally annihilating those vices and themselves by their
preponderance. Oppression could never have gained the upper hand
unless cowardice, and baseness, and mutual distrust had prepared the
way for it.
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