Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/184

 position, since it confers Rights upon some of its Citizens which exceed the Rights of others who are nevertheless able to keep their ground, is far from subjecting all the powers of these favourites to its purpose: nay, since by these Privileges of its favourites it hinders the others in the free use of their powers, that it even wastes these powers for the purposes of Individuals; and therefore, with all its Equality of Right, is far removed from the Absolute form of the State. The case we have now described would be the second fundamental form of the State, and the second stage upon which our Race would find itself in its progress towards the perfect form of the State. Lastly,—that all the individual members of the State are subjected to the purpose of the Whole, may also mean, that they are not merely subjected negatively thereto, but also positively; so that absolutely no Individual can propose any purpose to himself, and devote himself to its furtherance, which is his own merely and not at the same time the purpose of the whole Community. It is obvious that in such a constitution all the powers of all men are taken into account for the common purpose,—this common purpose being no other than the purpose of all men without exception considered as a Race; and that therefore this constitution manifests the Absolute form of the State, and a true equality of Rights and Powers begins. This equality does not by any means exclude the distinction of Classes in society; that is, the different modes in which human power may be applied, which are left to the exclusive cultivation of Individuals, who again leave the other modes of this application of power to the exclusive cultivation of other men. But no Class, and no exclusive application of power, must be permitted, which is not dedicated to the purpose of the Whole, and which is not absolutely necessary for the Whole;—the produce of which is not actually partaken of by all other classes, and by all the Individuals who compose these classes, according