Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/287

 power will cease to find nourishment in itself; but seize this flame and concentrate it by clear thinking, make the art of such thinking your very own and you will have added unto you the finest equipment of man, which is character. In and by that clear thinking maintain the source of the eternal bloom of youth; however much your body may grow old or your knees tremble, your mind will re-create itself in ever-renewed freshness, and your character will stand fast and upright. Embrace at once the opportunity that here presents itself to you; think clearly over the subject that is proffered to you for reflection; the clearness that has dawned for you on this one point will gradually spread itself over all the others too.

222. These addresses appeal solemnly to you, old men. You have just heard what people think of you; they say it to your face, and I, the speaker, frankly add thereto for myself that, with regard to the great majority among you, apart from the exceptions which are undoubtedly not rare and which are all the more worthy of honour, what people say is entirely justified. Go through the history of the last two or three decades; everyone except you yourselves is agreed (and even among yourselves each one is agreed except as regards the special branch with which he himself is concerned) that, always apart from the exceptions and with reference only to the majority, in every branch, in science as well as in the affairs of life, more inefficiency and selfishness was found among the older men than anywhere else. The whole contemporary world looked on and saw how every man that wished for a better and more perfect state of things had to fight, not only against his own lack of clearness and his other environment—his greatest fight was against you; the world saw that you had firmly resolved that nothing must