Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/60

 uttered something very profound and secure from controversy. At present, however, I only wish to know this,—whether you do not feel constrained to respect and admire in the highest degree such a course of thought and action, quite independently of any consideration of its prudence, upon which no judgment is now demanded.

Let us cast a glance on the world around us. You know that even now many tracts of the Earth’s surface are still covered with putrid morasses and impenetrable forests, the cold and damp atmosphere of which gives birth to noxious insects, and breathes forth devastating epidemics; which are almost entirely the dwelling-place of wild animals, and only afford to the few creatures in human form who are to be found in them the means of dragging on a dull and joyless existence, without freedom, usefulness, or dignity. History informs us that the countries which we inhabit at the present day formerly bore the same character to a large extent. Now, the morasses are dried up; the forests cleared out and changed into fruitful plains and vineyards which purify the air and fill it with enlivening fragrance; the rivers are taught to keep their channels, and enduring bridges are laid across them; villages and towns have arisen, with lasting, convenient, and agreeable dwelling-places for men, and public buildings, which have already braved the storms of centuries, for the purposes of mental improvement and elevation. You know that, even at the present day, savage hordes roam over vast wildernesses, maintaining a miserable life upon impure and loathsome food, and yet, when they encounter each other, engaging in warfare for the sake of this scanty subsistence, and of their wretched implements of acquisition and enjoyment,—extending the fury of their vengeance even to devouring their fellow-men. It is in the highest degree probable that we are all of us descendants of such races; that our forefathers, at least in some of their generations, have passed through this condition. Now, men are assembled from out the