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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

ing to any end, therefore it is stationary; it fears
dying, it cannot let go its dear Jesus, the greatness of
finiteness is no longer recognized by its blinded eye;
the object of fear, now raised to veneration, may no
longer be handled; reverence is made eternal, the re-
spected is deified. The man is now no longer em-
ployed in creating, but in learning (knowing, investi-
gating, etc.), i. e. occupied with a fixed object, losing
himself in its depths, without return to himself. The
relation to this object is that of knowing, fathoming,
basing, etc., not that of dissolution (abrogation, etc.).
" Man is to be religious," that is settled; therefore
people busy themselves only with the question how
this is to be attained, what is the right meaning of
religiousness, etc. Quite otherwise when one makes
the axiom itself doubtful and calls it in question, even
though it should go to smash. Morality too is such a
sacred conception; one must be moral, and must look
only for the right " how." the right way to be so.
One dares not go at morality itself with the question
whether it is not itself an illusion ; it remains exalted
above all doubt, unchangeable. And so we go on
with the sacred, grade after grade, from the " holy "
to the " holy of holies."

Men are sometimes divided into two classes, cultured

and uncultured. The former, so far as they were
worthy of their name, occupied themselves with
thoughts, with mind, and (because in the time since
Christ, of which the very principle is thought, they
were the ruling ones) demanded a servile respect for
the thoughts recognized by them. State, emperor,

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 95

church, God, morality, order, etc., are such thoughts
or spirits, that exist only for the mind. A merely liv-
ing being, an animal, cares as little for them as a
child. But the uncultured are really nothing but
children, and he who attends only to the necessities of
his life is indifferent to those spirits; but, because he
is also weak before them, he succumbs to their power,
and is ruled by--thoughts. This is the meaning of
hierarchy.

Hierarchy is dominion of thoughts, dominion of

mind !

We are hierarchic to this day, kept down by those

who are supported by thoughts. Thoughts are the
sacred.

But the two are always clashing, now one and now

the other giving the offence; and this clash occurs, not
only in the collision of two men, but in one and the
same man. For no cultured man is so cultured as not
to find enjoyment in things too, and so be uncultured;
and no uncultured man is totally without thoughts.
In Hegel it comes to light at last what a longing for
things even the most cultured man has, and what a
horror of every " hollow theory " he harbors. With
him reality, the world of things, is altogether to cor-
respond to the thought, and no concept to be without
reality. This caused Hegel's system to be known as
the most objective, as if in it thought and thing cele-
brated their union. But this was simply the extremest
case of violence on the part of thought, its highest
pitch of despotism and sole dominion, the triumph of
mind, and with it the triumph of philosophy. Philo-
sophy cannot hereafter achieve anything higher, for its