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48
THE EGO AND HIS OWN
so-called religious truths, we go far astray, and en-
tirely fail to recognize the breadth of the concept
" higher being." Atheists keep up their scoffing at
the higher being, which was also honored under the
name of the " highest " or être suprême, and trample
in the dust one " proof of his existence " after another,
without noticing that they themselves, out of need for
a higher being, only annihilate the old to make room
for a new. Is " Man " perchance not a higher essence
than an individual man, and must not the truths,
rights, and ideas which result from the concept of him
be honored and--counted sacred, as revelations of this
very concept ? For, even though we should abrogate
again many a truth that seemed to be made manifest
by this concept, yet this would only evince a mis-
understanding on our part, without in the least de-
gree harming the sacred concept itself or taking their
sacredness from those truths that must " rightly " be
looked upon as its revelations. Man reaches beyond
every individual man, and yet--though he be " his
essence "--is not in fact his essence (which rather
would be as single* as he the individual himself), but
a general and "higher," yes, for atheists "the highest
essence." And, as the divine revelations were not
written down by God with his own hand, but made
public through " the Lord's instruments," so also the
new highest essence does not write out its revelations
itself, but lets them come to our knowledge through
" true men." Only the new essence betrays, in fact, a
more spiritual style of conception than the old God,
* [einzig] [" the supreme being "]
MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 49
because the latter was still represented in a sort of
embodiedness or form, while the undimmed spiritual-
ity of the new is retained, and no special material
body is fancied for it. And withal it does not lack
corporeity, which even takes on a yet more seductive
appearance because it looks more natural and mun-
dane and consists in nothing less than in every bodily
man,--yes, or outright in " humanity " or " all men."
Thereby the spectralness of the spirit in a seeming-
body has once again become really solid and popular.
Sacred, then, is the highest essence and everything
in which this highest essence reveals or will reveal it-
self; but hallowed are they who recognize this highest
essence together with its own, i. e. together with its
revelations. The sacred hallows in turn its reverer,
who by his worship becomes himself a saint, as like-
wise what he does is saintly, a saintly walk, saintly
thoughts and actions, imaginations and aspirations,
etc.
It is easily understood that the conflict over what is
revered as the highest essence can be significant only
so long as even the most embittered opponents concede
to each other the main point,--that there is a highest
essence to which worship or service is due. If one
should smile compassionately at the whole struggle
over a highest essence, as a Christian might at the war
of words between a Shiite and a Sunnite or between a
Brahman and a Buddhist, then the hypothesis of a
highest essence would be null in his eyes, and the con-
flict on this basis an idle play. Whether then the one
God or the three in one, whether the Lutheran God or
the être suprême or not God at all, but "Man," may