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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

" All things have been delivered to me by my
Father" (Matt. 11. 27). It has ceased to be over-
powering, unapproachable, sacred, divine, etc., fra-
me; it is undeified, and now I treat it so entirely as I
please that, if I cared, I could exert on it all miracle-
working power, i. e. power of mind,--remove moun-
tains, command mulberry trees to tear themselves up
and transplant themselves into the sea (Luke 17. 6),
and do everything possible, i. e. thinkable : "All
things are possible to him who believes."* I am the
lord of the world, mine is the "glory.'' The world
has become prosaic, for the divine has vanished from
it: it is my property, which I dispose of as I (to wit,
the mind) choose.

When I had exalted myself to be the owner of the

world, egoism had won its first complete victory, had
vanquished the world, had become worldless, and put
the acquisitions of a long age under lock and key.

The first property, the first "glory," has been

acquired !

But the lord of the world is not yet lord of his

thoughts, his feelings, his will : he is not lord and
owner of the spirit, for the spirit is still sacred, the
" Holy Spirit," and the " worldless " Christian is not
able to become " godless." If the ancient struggle
was a struggle against the world, the mediaeval
(Christian) struggle is a struggle against self, the
mind ; the former against the outer world, the latter
against the inner world. The mediaeval man is the

* Mark 9 23.

[Heirlichkeit, which, according to its derivation, means "lordliness "]

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 123

man " whose gaze is turned inward," the thinking,
meditative man.

All wisdom of the ancients is the science of the

world, all wisdom of the moderns is the science of God.

The heathen (Jews included) got through with the

world ; but now the thing was to get through with
self, the spirit, too; i. e. to become spiritless or
godless.

For almost two thousand years we have been work-

ing at subjecting the Holy Spirit to ourselves, and
little by little we have torn off and trodden under foot
many bits of sacredness; but the gigantic opponent is
constantly rising anew under a changed form and
name. The spirit has not yet lost its divinity, its
holiness, its sacredness. To be sure, it has long ceased
to flutter over our heads as a dove; to be sure, it no
longer gladdens its saints alone, but lets itself be
caught by the laity too, etc. ; but as spirit of human-
ity, as spirit of Man, it remains still an alien spirit to
me or you, still far from becoming our unrestricted
property, which we dispose of at our pleasure. How-
ever, one thing certainly happened, and visibly guided
the progress of post-Christian history : this one thing
was the endeavor to make the Holy Spirit more hu-
man, and bring it nearer to men, or men to it.
Through this it came about that at last it could be
conceived as the " spirit of humanity," and, under dif-
ferent expressions like " idea of humanity, mankind,
humaneness, general philanthropy," etc., appeared
more attractive, more familiar, and more accessible.

Would not one think that now everybody could

possess the Holy Spirit, take up into himself the idea