Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/165

Rh everything is purpose which is so called, and much less is everything volition which is called volition! And if you arrive at the conclusion : "Then there is only one realm, that of accidents and stupidity!" we must add: well, perhaps there is but one realm, perhaps there is neither a volition nor purposes, we have only imagined them. Those iron hands of necessity, which shake the dice-box of chance, continue their game for all infinite period: there must be throws which appear perfectly similar to expediency and rationality of every grade. Perhaps our voluntary acts and purposes are but such throws, and we are only too narrow-minded and too vain to perceive our utter weakness of intellect : which makes us shake the dice-box with iron hands, and do nothing in our most intentional actions but play ourselves the game of necessity. Perhaps! To get over this "Perhaps we ought, indeed, to have been guests of the Nether-world and of those regions beyond all surfaces, playing at dice and betting with Persephone at the goddess' own board. —How the general moral judgments have shifted! Those greatest marvels of ancient morality, Epictetus, for instance, knew nothing of the glorification, so usual now, of taking thought for others, of living for others; according to our moral fashion, we ought really to call them immoral, for with every