Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/79

 on any given existence, but on the contrary itself giving laws for that existence, and propose to immerse every child of man in this knowledge from the very beginning, and to keep him from that time onwards continually under its rule. On the other hand, we regard that nature of things which can be learned only from history as an insignificant accessory that follows of itself. When we do all this, then the ripest products of the old education oppose us, reminding us that it is well known there is no a priori knowledge, and saying they would like to know how there can be any knowledge except through experience. In order that this supersenuous and a priori world should not reveal itself in the place where this seemed unavoidable, namely, in the possibility of a knowledge of God, and that even in God Himself there should be no spiritual spontaneity, but that passive submission should remain all in all—to meet this danger the old education has hit upon the daring expedient of making the existence of God an historical fact, the truth of which is established by the examination of evidence.

So in truth the matter stands; yet our generation should not therefore despair of itself, for these and all other similar phenomena are themselves not independent, but only flowers and fruits of the uncultivated root of the past. If only this generation submits quietly to the grafting of a new, nobler, and stronger root, the old will be killed, and its flower and fruits, deprived of further nourishment, will of themselves wither and fall. As yet this generation cannot believe our words; it is inevitable that they seem to it like fairy tales. Nor do we want such belief; we want only room to work and to act. Afterwards it will see, and it will believe its own eyes.

39. Everyone who is acquainted with the productions of recent years will have noticed long ago that here again