It is for their sakes alone that
the world exists! They are indeed its kernel; and those who think
otherwise must be regarded as merely a part of the transitory world so
long as they reason on so low a plane, for they exist merely for the
sake of the noble-minded and must accommodate themselves to the latter
until they have risen to their height.
What, now, could it be that might give solid foundation to this
challenge and to this belief of the noble in the eternity and the
imperishability of his work? Obviously, only an order of things which
he could recognize as eternal in itself and as capable of receiving
eternal elements within itself. Such an order is, however, the
special, spiritual nature of human surroundings, which can, it is
true, be comprised in no concept, but which is, nevertheless, truly
present--the surroundings from which he has himself come forth with
all his thought and activity and with his faith in their eternity--the
nation from which he is descended, amid which he was educated and grew
up to what he now is. For however undoubtedly true it may be that his
work, if he rightly lays claim to its eternity, is in no wise the mere
result of the spiritual, natural law of his nation, simply merging
into this result--no, it must be thought of as an element greater
than that--a something which flows immediately from the primitive
and divine life. Nevertheless, it is equally true that this something
more, immediately after its formation as a visible phenomenon, has
subordinated itself to that special spiritual law of nature, has
acquired a perceptual expression only in accordance with that law.
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