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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

that one is shut up in a house with fools. " Thou
shalt not call thy brother a fool; if thou dost--etc."
But I do not fear the curse, and I say, my brothers
are arch-fools. Whether a poor fool of the insane
asylum is possessed by the fancy that he is God the
Father, Emperor of Japan, the Holy Spirit, etc., or
whether a citizen in comfortable circumstances con-
ceives that it is his mission to be a good Christian, a
faithful Protestant, a loyal citizen, a virtuous man,
etc.,--both these are one and the same " fixed idea."
He who has never tried and dared not to be a good
Christian, a faithful Protestant, a virtuous man, etc.,
is possessed and prepossessed* by faith, virtuousness,
etc. Just as the schoolmen philosophized only inside
the belief of the church; as Pope Benedict XIV wrote
fat books inside the papist superstition, without ever
throwing a doubt upon this belief; as authors fill
whole folios on the State without calling in question
the fixed idea of the State itself; as our newspapers
are crammed with politics because they are conjured
into the fancy that man was created to be a zoon
politicon,--so also subjects vegetate in subjection, vir-
tuous people in virtue, liberals in humanity, etc., with-
out ever putting to these fixed ideas of theirs the
searching knife of criticism. Undislodgeable, like a
madman's delusion, those thoughts stand on a firm
footing, and he who doubts them--lays hands on the
sacred ! Yes, the " fixed idea," that is the truly
sacred !

Is it perchance only people possessed by the devil

* [gefangen und befangen, literally " imprisoned and prepossessed "]

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 57

that meet us, or do we as often come upon people
'possessed in the contrary way,--possessed by "the
good," by virtue, morality, the law, or some " princi-
ple " or other ? Possessions of the devil are not the
only ones. God works on us, and the devil does; the
former " workings of grace," the latter " workings of
the devil." Possessed* people are set in their
opinions.

If the word " possession " displeases you, then call it

prepossession; yes, since the spirit possesses you, and
all " inspirations " come from it, call it--inspiration
and enthusiasm. I add that complete enthusiasm--
for we cannot stop with the sluggish, half-way kind--
is called fanaticism.

It is precisely among cultured people that fanaticism

is at home; for man is cultured so far as he takes an
interest in spiritual things, and interest in spiritual
things, when it is alive, is and must be fanaticism ; it
is a fanatical interest in the sacred (fanum). Ob-
serve our liberals, look into the Saechsischen Vater-
landsblaetter, hear what Schlosser says: " Holbach's
company constituted a regular plot against the tradi-
tional doctrine and the existing system, and its mem-
bers were as fanatical on behalf of their unbelief as
monks and priests, Jesuits and Pietists, Methodists,
missionary and Bible societies, commonly are for me-
chanical worship and orthodoxy."

Take notice how a " moral man " behaves, who to-

day often thinks he is through with God and throws
off Christianity as a bygone thing. If you ask him

* [besessene] [versessen] "Achtzehntes Jahrhundert," II, 519.