Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/70

 has a clear perception of the incorrigibility of the age; when the toil of sowing is courageously borne without any prospect of harvest; when good is done even to the ungrateful, and those who curse are blessed with deeds and gifts, although it is clearly foreseen that they will curse again; when after a hundred failures man persists in faith and in love; then, it is not mere morality which is the motive, for that requires a purpose, but it is religion, the submission to a higher and unknown law, the humble silence before God, the sincere love of His life that is manifested in us, which alone and for its own sake shall be saved, where the eye sees nothing else to save.

31. Hence, the knowledge of religion, obtained by the pupils of the new education in their little community in which they grow up, cannot and shall not become practical. This community is well ordered, and in it whatever is properly attempted always succeeds; besides, the yet tender age of man shall be maintained in simplicity and in quiet faith in his race. Let the knowledge of its knavery remain reserved for personal experience in mature and stronger years.

It is, therefore, only in these more mature years and in the life of earnest purpose, long after education has left him to himself, that the pupil, if his social relations should advance from simple to higher stages, could need his knowledge of religion as a motive. Now, how shall education, which cannot test the pupil in this while he is in its hands, nevertheless be sure that this motive will work infallibly, if only the need arise? I reply: In this way; the pupil is so trained that none of the knowledge he possesses remains dead and cold within him when the possibility of its coming to life arises, but it all inevitably influences life so soon as life requires it. I shall give further reasons for this statement in a moment, and