Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/186

 the first form of the State the Subject remained personally free: he did not become a Slave. Had all been made Slaves, then the nature of the whole institution would have been lost. In this condition, however, not even the personal freedom of the Subject was guaranteed: he might be reduced to slavery by one of the Rulers; he had therefore no Civil Freedom,—that is, as we have explained it above, he had no Right secured to him by the constitution: he was in fact not a Citizen but only a Subject; a Subject, however, only to a certain extent,—not being a Slave; and beyond the limits of his subjection he was free,—not through Law, but through Nature and Accident. In the second form of the State, each Individual, without exception, received back through the constitution a portion of freedom,—not exactly of arbitrary power, but of independence,—by which he compelled all other men to respect a certain purpose or Right which belonged peculiarly to him;—and every one had thus his own degree, not of mere personal liberty, but of secured and therefore Civil Freedom; while beyond this he was a Subject; and if the Privileges of others, by which he was restrained, were more extensive than his own,—he was more a Subject than a Citizen. In the Absolute form of the State, where all the powers of all men are called into activity for the necessary purpose of the whole community, each Individual binds all others just in so far as he is bound by them: all have equal Civil Rights or Civil Freedom; and each Individual is thus at once a complete Citizen and a complete Subject;—and, for the same reason, all are Citizens and Subjects in like manner. If we call that the Sovereign power which in reality gives its purpose to the State, then, in this last-mentioned form of the State, every Citizen will be a part of the Sovereign power in the same manner and in the same degree;—and if in this respect we bestow the title Sovereign upon Individuals, then the principle just laid down may also be expressed thus:—Each Individual is