Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/185

 to their ability to enjoy it. This would be the third stage of the development of the State;—in which it would be perfected, at least according to its Form.

It will be found, and perhaps it may be understood at once by the more attentive and prepared auditor, that by means of this perfection of its Form, the State for the first time obtains possession of its true Material,—that is, the genuine purpose of the Human Race which has associated itself within it; and that it has still to go through many stages of its progress before its end shall be attained. We speak here in the meantime only of the Form of the State.

I have undertaken these preliminary inquiries in order that we may be enabled to show what point of its development the State has attained in our own Age,—in those countries, of course, where it is farthest advanced. In the meantime I may declare, that in my opinion the State, still occupied with the completion of its Form, has now firmly established itself on what we have described as the second stage, and endeavours to attain the third;—which latter it has even attained in part, and in part has not yet attained. Hence, that in our own Age more than at any previous time, every Citizen, with all his powers, is subjected to the purpose of the State, is thoroughly penetrated by it, and so has become its instrument; and that the State endeavours to make this subjection universal and complete:—this constitutes, in our opinion, the fundamental character of the Age in its Civil Relations. What we precisely mean by this assertion, and that it is actually the case, will be most easily shown by depicting Times when it was not so; and by setting forth historically how, and by what course, it has gradually become as it now is. We reserve this inquiry, as well as some other investigations, which must precede it, for the following lectures.

Let us, however, discuss one not unimportant point of this Material to-day:—that of Political Freedom. Even in