Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/189

 single Individual:—it being understood, in this last case, that this single Individual chooses his assistants according to his own judgment, who remain subject and responsible to him. Civil Freedom, and that to an equal degree, is absolutely required for all men; but Political Freedom is, at most, only necessary for one. All the inquiries which have ever been set on foot concerning the best Government, particularly in later times, have had finally in view to find a means of restraining the all-restraining power of Government:—first of all, in order that, as an absolutely correct insight cannot be obtained by force, there may at least be the best possible insight actually applied to the Government; and, in that case, that this best possible insight shall be actually realized. How useful soever this inquiry may be in itself, and however possible the theoretical solution of the problem, which indeed may actually have been solved somewhere; yet thousands of years may pass over our Race before this solution can belong to a philosophical characterization of any Present Age. It is a fortunate and satisfactory thing for us, that in the actual position of all cultivated States, and in the whole present Stage of Culture, there are numerous urgent and constraining reasons for every Government striving to attain the clearest possible insight into the true purpose of the State, and acting at all times with all its powers, according to the best insight which it has attained.

In the pursuance of our inquiries, we shall have opportunities to refer to these reasons. Could such indications on our part, and the whole range of inquiries which we have begun to-day, contribute anything especially towards making the particular Constitution under which we live more intelligible, and thereby dearer and more valuable, to us, then would one end be attained which belongs to the purpose of these lectures.