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xviii
INTRODUCTION
I am content if others individually live for themselves, and thug
cease in so many ways to act in opposition to my living for my-
self,--to our living for ourselves.
If Christianity has failed to turn the world from evil, it is not
to be dreamed that rationalism of a pious moral stamp will suc-
ceed in the same task. Christianity, or all philanthropic love, is
tested in non-resistance. It is a dream that example will change
the hearts of rulers, tyrants, mobs. If the extremest self-surren-
der fails, how can a mixture of Christian love and worldly cau-
tion succeed ? This at least must be given up. The policy of
Christ and Tolstoi can soon be tested, but Tolstoi's belief is not
satisfied with a present test and failure. He has the infatuation
of one who persists because this ought to be. The egoist who
thinks " I should like this to be " still has the sense to perceive
that it is not accomplished by the fact of some believing and
submitting, inasmuch as others are alert to prey upon the un-
resisting. The Pharaohs we have ever with us.
Several passages in this most remarkable book show the au-
thor as a man full of sympathy. When we reflect upon his de-
liberately expressed opinions and sentiments,--his spurning of
the sense of moral obligation as the last form of superstition,--
may we not be warranted in thinking that the total disappear-
ance of the sentimental supposition of duty liberates a quantity
of nervous energy for the purest generosity and clarifies the in-
tellect for the more discriminating choice of objects of merit ?
J. L. WALKER.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
If the style of this book is found unattractive, it will show
that I have done my work ill and not represented the author
truly; but, if it is found odd, I beg that I may not bear all the
blame. I have simply tried to reproduce the author's own mix-
ture of colloquialisms and technicalities, and his preference for
the precise expression of his thought rather than the word con-
ventionally expected.
One especial feature of the style, however, gives the reason
why this preface should exist. It is characteristic of Stirner's
writing that the thread of thought is carried on largely by the
repetition of the same word in a modified form or sense. That
connection of ideas which has guided popular instinct in the
formation of words is made to suggest the line of thought which
the writer wishes to follow. If this echoing of words is missed,
the bearing of the statements on each other is in a measure lost;
and, where the ideas are very new, one cannot afford to throw
away any help in following their connection. Therefore, where
a useful echo (and there are few useless ones in the book) could
not be reproduced in English, I have generally called attention
to it in a note. My notes are distinguished from the author's by
being enclosed in brackets.
One or two of such coincidences of language, occurring in
words which are prominent throughout the book, should be
borne constantly in mind as a sort of Keri perpetuum for in-
stance, the identity in the original of the words " spirit" and
" mind," and of the phrases " supreme being " and " highest
essence." In such cases I have repeated the note where it