Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/149

★ 139 ★ Without this manifest and tangible immortality we would not be able to truly think.

This observable inadequacy of the earthly bodily structure to be the expression and organ of the indwelling spirit is the indefinite, impelling thought thought that becomes the basis of all genuine thoughts, the cause for the evolution of intelligence, that urges us toward the presupposition of an intelligible world and an unending series of expressions and institutions for every spirit, whose exponent or root is its individuality.

113. The more narrow-minded a system, the more it will please the worldly wise. Thus the system of the materialists, the teaching of Helvetius, and also Locke, received the greatest approval among this class. So now Kant will still find more followers than Fichte.

114. The art of writing books has not yet been invented. But it is about to be invented. Fragments of this kind are literary seeds. Certainly there may be a few unproductive grains amongst them: yet if only a few of them sprout forth!