Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/34

 Our Age stands, I think, in this Epoch, taken with the limitations which I have already laid down,—namely, that I do not here include all men now living in our time, but only those who are truly products of the Age, and in whom it most completely reveals itself.

Let this then be now said, and said once for all. It was needful that I should say this once, for this my declared opinion is the only ground why I select for investigation that Epoch which I now take up, leaving the other four out of view;—otherwise I must have entered upon all five, or at least selected some other one for consideration. But I can here only announce this opinion, not prove it. The proof lies out of the domain of the philosopher, and belongs to that of the observer of the world and of men;—and this character I do not wish to assume here. I have said this now once for all.—I now proceed calmly and without restriction, as beseems a philosopher, to that higher principle which we have already laid down as the fundamental principle of any Age whatsoever, not as something of our own devising, but as deduced from the general conception of an Earthly Life; and from thence infer whatever may justly be inferred as to the form and phenomena of a life founded upon this principle. Whether the life which now exists before your eyes resemble that which I, guided only by the laws of syllogistic reasoning, shall deduce a priori from that principle,—this inquiry, as I have already said, belongs to you;—you must resolve it upon your own responsibility, and whatever you may or may not say on the subject, I shall have no part in it. If, according to your judgment, I have hit the mark, it is well;—if not, we shall at least have philosophized; and philosophized, if not upon the present, yet upon some other possible and necessary Age;—and so our labour not be wholly lost.

The Present Age, I have said, without further explanation; and it is sufficient at the outset if, without any stricter definition, these words shall be understood to mean the time