Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/27

 does our Present Age belong to one of these. It shall be my business to point out, according to my knowledge and experience of the world, to which of these five it belongs, and to unfold the necessary phenomena in which the principles above stated must manifest themselves; and it will be yours to consider and observe whether you have not encountered these phenomena during your whole life both internal and external, and do not still encounter them;—and this shall be the business of our future lectures.

The Present Age considered as a whole, I mean;—for since, as I have remarked above, different Ages may, in perfect accordance with their spiritual principle, coexist in one and the same chronological Time, and even cross or run parallel to each other in different individuals, so it may be anticipated that such will be the case in our own Age, and hence that our application of the a priori principle to the present condition of the world and of humanity may not embrace all men alive in the present Time, but only those who are truly products of the Age and in whom it most completely reveals itself. One may be behind his Age, because in the course of his culture he has not come into contact with a sufficiently extensive mass of his fellowmen, but has been trained in some narrow circle which is only a remnant of a former Time. Another may be in advance of his Age, and bear in his breast the germs of a future Time, while that which has become old to him still rules around him in true, actual, present and efficient power. Finally,—Science raises itself above all Ages and all Times, embracing and apprehending the as the higher source of all Ages and Epochs, and grasping that vast idea in its free, unbounded comprehension. None of these three can be included in the picture of any present Age.

The object of our lectures in this course, during the present winter, is now strictly defined, and, as it seems to me, clearly enough set forth and announced;—and such