Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/36

 Instinct;—Liberation being understood to mean the state in which the Race gradually works out its own Freedom,—now in this, now in that individual,—now from this, now from that object, with respect to which Authority has hitherto held it in chains;—not that in which it already is free, but at most only that in which those who stand at the head of the Age, and seek to guide, direct, and elevate the others, are, or imagine themselves to be, free. The instrument of this liberation from Authority is Understanding; for the characteristic of Instinct as opposed to Understanding consists in this,—that it is blind; and the characteristic of Authority, by means of which Instinct has governed in the preceding Age, is this,—that it demands unquestioning faith and obedience. Hence the fundamental maxim of those who stand at the head of this Age, and therefore the principle of the Age, is this,—to accept nothing as really existing or obligatory but that which they can understand and clearly comprehend.

With regard to this fundamental principle, as we have now declared and adopted it without further definition or limitation, this third Age is similar to that which is to follow it,—the fourth, or Age of Reason as Knowledge;—and by virtue of this similarity prepares the way for it. Before the tribunal of Knowledge, too, nothing is accepted but the Conceivable. Only in the application of the principle there is this difference between the two Ages,—that the third, which we shall shortly name that of Empty Freedom, makes its fixed and already acquired conception the measure of existence; while the fourth—that of Knowledge—on the contrary, makes existence the measure, not of its acquired, but of its desiderated belief. To the former there is nothing but what it already comprehends: the latter strives to comprehend, and does comprehend, all that is. The latter—the Age of Knowledge—penetrates to all things without exception;—to the Conceivable, and even to that which still remains absolutely