Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/300

 path thou hast begun! This, however, thou doest not, but turnest thyself against it, and summonest up all the resources of thy wit to cover it with ridicule. Wherefore give thyself this trouble? For this cause:—thou canst not bear the presence of this thought in its original and earnest form; thou hast no rest till thou hast clothed it in another and to thee more acceptable shape.’ Fickleness and frivolity are unerring signs,—and the more so the greater their degree,—that there is something gnawing within the heart from which we would willingly escape; and just upon that account they are proofs which cannot be mistaken that the noble nature which they disguise is not wholly dead. He who can cast a searching glance into such souls must feel the deepest commiseration for their state, and for the atmosphere of lies in which they live. They would make all men believe that they are in the highest degree happy and contented, seeking from others the confirmation of that which they themselves know to be false, and with a most sorrowful laughter at their own efforts making themselves appear even worse than they really are.

Have these follies wholly disappeared from our minds? do we no longer shun earnest reflection, but now begin to love it above all things else?—then our contemplations have assuredly belonged not to vacant but to True Time.

Has the Light of Religion arisen within us?—then it not only dispels the previous darkness, but it has also had a true and real existence within us before it could dispel the darkness;—now it spreads itself forth until it embraces our whole world, and thus becomes the source of New Life. In the beginning of these lectures we have traced everything great and noble in man to this,—that he lose his own personal existence in the Life of the Race; devote his own Life to the purposes of the Race; labour, endure, suffer, and if need be die, as a sacrifice to the Race. In this view it was always deeds,—always