Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/259

 in its pure, unchangeable form; and that this alone shall remain so to the end.

In pursuance of the plan which we have formerly indicated, we have to-day to set forth the character of the General and Public Manners of the Present Age. After what has been previously said, you will not be surprised if here again we revert to Christianity, as the principle of all Public Manners in Modern Times.

In the first place, what is meant by Manners? and in what sense do we use this word? To us, and according to our opinion, in every intelligible use of language, it signifies,—the accustomed Principles which regulate the mutual intercourse and reciprocal influence of men, and which have become a second nature throughout the whole domain of Culture, but on that very account are not distinctly recognised in Consciousness. The Principles, we have said;—and therefore by no means the fortuitous actual course of conduct, determined, it may be, by mere accidental circumstances; but, on the contrary, that concealed Principle of conduct which always remains the same, the existence of which we always presuppose in Man whenever left to his own instincts, and from which we can, with so much apparent certainty, calculate beforehand the course of conduct which will be its necessary result. The Principles, I said, which have become a second nature, but on that very account are not distinctly recognised in Consciousness:—and hence there are to be excepted from this definition, all those impulses and motives influencing the general course of conduct which are founded upon Freedom,—the inward impulse of Morality, as well as the outward motive of Law;—whatever Man must first consider and then freely resolve upon does not fall within the category of Manners. In so far as a fixed standard of Manners may be ascribed to an Age, in so far is it to be regarded as an unconscious instrument of the Spirit of the Time.