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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

the unholy, to the pure and the impure. The impure
man renounces all " better feelings," all shame, even
natural timidity, and follows only the appetite that
rules him. The pure man renounces his natural rela-
tion to the world (" renounces the world ") and follows
only the " desire " which rules him. Driven by the
thirst for money, the avaricious man renounces all ad-
monitions of conscience, all feeling of honor, all
gentleness and all compassion; he puts all considera-
tions out of sight ; the appetite drags him along. The
holy man behaves similarly. He makes himself the
" laughing-stock of the world," is hard-hearted and
" strictly just " ; for the desire drags him along. As
the unholy man renounces himself before Mammon, so
the holy man renounces himself before God and the
divine laws. We are now living in a time when the
shamelessness of the holy is every day more and more
felt and uncovered, whereby it is at the same time
compelled to unveil itself, and lay itself bare, more
and more every day. Have not the shamelessness and
stupidity of the reasons with which men antagonize
the " progress of the age " long surpassed all measure
and all expectation ? But it must be so. The self-
renouncers must, as holy men, take the same course
that they do as unholy men ; as the latter little by
little sink to the fullest measure of self-renouncing vul-
garity and lowness, so the former must ascend to the
most dishonorable exaltation. The mammon of the
earth and the God of heaven both demand exactly the
same degree of--self-renunciation. The low man, like
the exalted one, reaches out for a " good,"--the
former for the material good, the latter for the ideal,

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 77

the so-called " supreme good " ; and at last both com-
plete each other again too, as the " materially-
minded " man sacrifices everything to an ideal phan-
tasm, his vanity, and the " spiritually-minded " man
to a material gratification, the life of enjoyment.

Those who exhort men to " unselfishness "* think

they are saying an uncommon deal. What do they
understand by it ? Probably something like what
they understand by " self-renunciation." But who is
this self that is to be renounced and to have no bene-
fit ? It seems that you yourself are supposed to be it.
And for whose benefit is unselfish self-renunciation
recommended to you ? Again for your benefit and
behoof, only that through unselfishness you are pro-
curing your "true benefit."

You are to benefit yourself, and yet you are not to

seek your benefit.

People regard as unselfish the benefactor of men, a

Franke who founded the orphan asylum, an O'Con-
nell who works tirelessly for his Irish people; but also
the fanatic who, like St. Boniface, hazards his life for
the conversion of the heathen, or, like Robespierre,
sacrifices everything to virtue,--like Koerner, dies for
God, king, and fatherland. Hence, among others,
O'Connell's opponents try to trump up against him
some selfishness or mercenariness, for which the O'Con-
nell fund seemed to give them a foundation; for, if
they were successful in casting suspicion on his " un-
selfishness," they would easily separate him from his
adherents.

* [Uneigennuetzigkeit, literally " un-self-benefitingness."]