Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/230

 of honour dwelt within him, have to stand in dread of the testimony and judgment of neighbouring States, and of posterity whose opinion will be guided by that judgment; or, should he even have cast aside this feeling, he would still have to fear the consequences of the loss of general confidence. Thus there would arise by means of this Religion a Public Opinion throughout the whole realm of Culture, and in it, a Sovereignty of no mean importance over Sovereigns, which would leave them at full liberty to do good, while it would often effectually restrain the desire of wrong-doing.

Such is the influence of Christianity on the State, when this Religion and its influence are considered absolutely. Another influence is that which this Religion may exercise contingently, determined by the conditions of the time amid which it, as yet, only strives to attain an independent existence and fitting sphere of action. This contingent influence, which it did actually exercise and in part does exercise even to the present day, was determined by the condition of the men upon whom it was first directed. At that time the superstitious dread of the Godhead as a hostile being, as well as the feeling of personal sinfulness, weighed more heavily and universally than at any other upon the inhabitants of civilized countries; and there existed a secret looking towards the East, and particularly towards Judea, whence some means of atonement and expiation were expected to arise. Many circumstances in History prove this:—for example, the attachment to Oriental Mysteries which was so generally diffused even in Rome itself; and the immense treasures which found their way from all parts of Asia, and even from Europe, to the temple at Jerusalem. Christianity, as we have shown in the proper place, is no method of atonement and expiation: Man can never disunite himself from the Godhead;—and in so far as he fancies himself so disunited he is a Nonentity, which on