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130
THE EGO AND HIS OWN
to be a fellowship of free and equal men, and every
one is to devote himself to the " welfare of the whole,"
to be dissolved in the State, to make the State his end
and ideal. State! State! so ran the general cry,
and thenceforth people sought for the " right form of
State," the best constitution, and so the State in its
best conception. The thought of the State passed
into all hearts and awakened enthusiasm; to serve it,
this mundane god, became the new divine service and
worship. The properly political epoch had dawned.
To serve the State or the nation became the highest
ideal, the State's interest the highest interest, State
service (for which one does not by any means need to
be an official) the highest honor.
So then the separate interests and personalities had
been scared away, and sacrifice for the State had be-
come the shibboleth. One must give up himself, and
live only for the State. One must act " disinterest-
edly," not want to benefit himself, but the State.
Hereby the latter has become the true person, before
whom the individual personality vanishes; not I live,
but it lives in me. Therefore, in comparison with the
former self-seeking, this was unselfishness and imper-
sonality itself. Before this god--State--all egoism
vanished, and before it all were equal; they were
without any other distinction--men, nothing but men.
The Revolution took fire from the inflammable ma-
terial of property. The government needed money.
Now it must prove the proposition that it is absolute,
and so master of all property, sole proprietor ; it must
take to itself its money, which was only in the posses-
sion of the subjects, not their property. Instead of
MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 131
this, it calls States-general, to have this money
granted to it. The shrinking from strictly logical
action destroyed the illusion of an absolute govern-
ment; he who must have something " granted " to him
cannot be regarded as absolute. The subjects recog-
nized that they were real proprietors, and that it was
their money that was demanded. Those who had
hitherto been subjects attained the consciousness that
they were proprietors. Bailly depicts this in a few
words: "If you cannot dispose of my property without
my assent, how much less can you of my person, of all
that concerns my mental and social position ? All
this is my property, like the piece of land that I till;
and I have a right, an interest, to make the laws my-
self." Bailly's words sound, certainly, as if every one
Was a proprietor now. However, instead of the gov-
ernment, instead of the prince, the--nation now be-
came proprietor and master. From this time on the
ideal is spoken of as--" popular liberty "--" a free
people," etc.
As early as July 8, 1789 the declaration of the
bishop of Autun and Barrère took away all semblance
of the importance of each and every individual in leg-
islation ; it showed the complete powerlessness of the
constituents; the majority of the representatives has
become master. When on July 9 the plan for divi-
sion of the work on the constitution is proposed, Mira-
beau remarks that " the government has only power,
no rights; only in the people is the source of all right
to be found." On July 16 this same Mirabeau ex-
claims: " Is not the people the source of all power ? "
The source, therefore, of all right, and the source of