Page:Immanuel Kant - Dreams of a Spirit-Seer - tr. Emanuel Fedor Goerwitz (1900).djvu/171

 Rh at the same time, is like dwellinq in a house which has no foundation, which gradually either sinks, or becomes full of chinks and breaches, or totters till it falls."—H. H., 528.

"If the life of man be viewed and explored by rational intuition, it is discovered to be threefold, namely, spiritual life, moral life, and civil life, and those lives are distinct from each other. The spiritual man believes in the Divine, and he acts sincerely and justly, not merely because it is according to civil and moral laws, but also because it is according to divine laws. For the spiritual man, inasmuch as he thinks about divine things when he acts, communicates with the angels of heaven, and as far as he does this, he is conjoined with them, and thus his internal man is opened, which viewed in itself is a spiritual man. When man is of such a character, he is then adopted and led by the Lord while he himself is not aware of it, and then in doing acts of sincerity and justice which are of moral and civil life, he does them from a spiritual origin; and to do what is sincere and just from a spiritual origin, is to do it from sincerity and justice itself, or to do it from the heart. His justice and sincerity in the external form appear altogether like the justice and sincerity with natural men, even with evil and infernal men; but in the internal form they are altogether dissimilar. For evil men act justly and sincerely merely for the sake of themselves and the world; and therefore if they did not fear the law and its penalties, also the loss of reputation, of honour, of gain, and of life, they would act altogether insincerely and unjustly, inasmuch as they neither fear God nor any divine law, and are not restrained by any internal bond. They would therefore in such case to the utmost of their power defraud, plunder, and spoil others, and this from delight. … Although such a person does not commit adultery, still because he believes it allowable, he is perpetually an adulterer; for as far as he can, and as often as it is permitted, he commits it. Although he does not steal, yet inasmuch as he covets the goods of others, and regards fraud and evil arts as not contrary to law, in intent he is continually acting the thief. The case is similar as to the precepts of moral life, which teach not to bear false witness and not to covet the goods of others. Such is the character of every man who denies