Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/161

★ 151 ★ is exactly what distinguishes the monarchy, that it is based on belief in a higher-born human being, on the voluntary acceptance of an ideal human being. I cannot choose a superior from amongst my peers; to anyone who is biased by the same circumstance as I, I can cede nothing. Therefore, the monarchy is a true system because it is bound to an absolute middle point; to an essence that belongs to humanity but not to the state. The king is a higher man to whom an earthly fate is given. This poetry imposes itself on a person necessarily. It alone satisfies a higher longing in his nature. All people should be qualified for the throne. The means of educating toward this distant goal is a king. He gradually assimilates the mass of his subjects. Everyone is sprouted from an ancient royal lineage. But how few still bear the stamp of this descent?

13. It is a large shortcoming of our states that one sees too little of the state. The state should be visible everywhere, every person to be characterized as a citizen. Wouldn't one love to see badges and uniforms instituted? Anyone who something like this is insignificant, does not know an essential peculiarity of our nature.

14. A regent can certainly not care for the preservation of his state in the present times more expediently than if he tries to individualize it as much as possible.

15. The old hypothesis that comets were the revolutionary flame of cosmos certainly applies to a different kind of comet that periodically revolutionizes and rejuvenates the spiritual cosmos. The spiritual astronomer has long noticed the influence of such a comet on a considerable part of the spiritual planet, which we call humanity.