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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

aroused are my own, egoistic, because they are not as
feelings drilled into me, dictated to me, and pressed
upon me; but those which are imparted to me I re-
ceive, with open arms,--I cherish them in me as a
heritage, cultivate them, and am possessed by them.
Who is there that has never, more or less consciously,
noticed that our whole education is calculated to pro-
duce feelings in us, i. e. impart them to us, instead of
leaving their production to ourselves however they
may turn out ? If we hear the name of God, we are
to feel veneration ; if we hear that of the prince's ma-
jesty, it is to be received with reverence, deference,
submission ; if we hear that of morality, we are to
think that we hear something inviolable ; if we hear of
the Evil One or evil ones, we are to shudder; etc.
The intention is directed to these feelings, and he who
e. g. should hear with pleasure the deeds of the
" bad " would have to be " taught what's what" with
the rod of discipline. Thus stuffed with imparted feel-
ings, we appear before the bar of majority and are
" pronounced of age." Our equipment consists of
" elevating feelings, lofty thoughts, inspiring maxims,
eternal principles," etc. The young are of age when
they twitter like the old; they are driven through
school to learn the old song, and, when they have this
by heart, they are declared of age.

We must not feel at every thing and every name

that comes before us what we could and would like to '
feel thereat; e. g., at the name of God we must think
of nothing laughable, feel nothing disrespectful, it be-
ing prescribed and imparted to us what and how we
are to feel and think at mention of that name.

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 85

That is the meaning of the care of souls,--that my

soul or my mind be tuned as others think right, not as
I myself would like it. How much trouble does it not
cost one, finally to secure to oneself a feeling of one's
own at the mention of at least this or that name, and
to laugh in the face of many who expect from us a
holy face and a composed expression at their speeches.
What is imparted is alien to us, is not our own, and
therefore is " sacred," and it is hard work to lay aside
the " sacred dread of it."

To-day one again hears " seriousness " praised,

" seriousness in the presence of highly important sub-
jects and discussions," " German seriousness," etc.
This sort of seriousness proclaims clearly how old and
grave lunacy and possession have already become.
For there is nothing more serious than a lunatic when
he comes to the central point of his lunacy; then his
great earnestness incapacitates him for taking a joke.
(See madhouses.)

§ 3.--T

IERARCHY

The historical reflections on our Mongolism which I

propose to insert episodically at this place are not
given with the claim of thoroughness, or even · of ap-
proved soundness, but solely because it seems to me
that they may contribute toward making the rest
clear.

The history of the world, whose shaping properly

belongs altogether to the Caucasian race, seems till
now to have run through two Caucasian ages, in the
first of which we had to work out and work off our