Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/205

 for a series of Ages under this constitution, and new generations had been born and had grown to manhood beneath its sway, and from them again younger races had arisen; then the habit even of inward temptation to injustice would gradually disappear altogether; and men would live with each other peacefully and justly, without the outward appearance of the least Evil-will, exactly as if all were virtuous of heart;—while it might still perhaps be only Law which restrained them, although now with a silent and gentle authority; and in moments when its dominion should be cast off we might witness very different scenes.

Let us not be afraid like certain reasoners,—who also assume the name of Philosophers, and who recognise in Virtue nothing but a mere negation, and can only conceive of it as the opposite of crime,—let us not be afraid that in such a state of society Virtue should be no longer possible. If these reasoners speak of outward actions in society which shall even surpass the Law of the State, and which may perhaps spring from inward Virtue, perhaps from other motives;—then are they quite right; for, in the Perfect State the virtuous man finds everything relating to society which he himself loves and desires to do already outwardly commanded; and everything which he detests and would never consent to do already outwardly forbidden: in this State it is impossible to go beyond what is commanded, and thus it can never be determined, from the outward action itself, whether a man has done right from Love of Goodness or from Fear of Punishment,—with his own free consent or against his will. But Virtue does not need this outward recognition; it rests in its own Love of Goodness without reference to what is commanded, and in its own aversion to Evil without reference to what is forbidden; it is sufficient for itself, and is supremely blessed in its own consciousness of rectitude.

And so it must be at once admitted, that, through the