The Immortal-Will and Genius - Part 5 - Book Review - Triumph of the Immortal Will by Mathilde Ludendorff

Summary of Mathilde Ludendorff’s Chapter: "The Immortal-Will and Genius"

In this chapter, Mathilde Ludendorff explores the "Immortal-Will" and its transformation into four divine wishes—goodness, beauty, truth, and love/hate—arguing that these elevate human consciousness beyond mere survival to a state of "God-living." She critiques materialistic and religious distortions, asserting that true immortality lies in timeless, conscious participation in the divine during life, not after death. Below is a summary of the key points:

1. Reason’s Limits and Soul’s Transformation
   • Reason compensates for the Immortal-Will’s conflict with death by managing pleasure and pain, but cannot resolve it fully. Ludendorff posits that the Will transforms spiritually through cultural development, shifting from survival instincts to higher soul expressions like goodness and beauty.
2. Divine Wishes: Goodness and Beauty
   • The Wish-to-Goodness emerges as a moral impulse beyond self-preservation, evolving from primitive fear-based cults (chthonian) to Nordic reverence for cosmic laws (sidereal). The Wish-to-Beauty, initially tied to reproduction, becomes a conscious aesthetic drive, culminating in art that reflects divine awe rather than utility.
3. Wish-to-Truth and Cultural Impact
   • The Wish-to-Truth, rooted in curiosity, progresses from practical survival to philosophical inquiry, often clashing with Christian dogma. Unlike goodness and beauty, it aligns closely with reason but thrives most through intuition, resisting materialist confinement.
4. Wish-to-Love/Hate and Emotional Depth
   • The fourth wish, divine love/hate, expands from instinctual bonds (e.g., mother-child) to broader kinship and folk loyalty. Christianity’s indiscriminate love distorts this, but it heightens the soul’s longing for eternity, intensifying the pain of death’s separation.
5. God-Living: Beyond Time and Purpose
   • "God-living" is a timeless, spaceless state of higher consciousness, achieved through these wishes, free from utilitarian motives. Art, noble actions, and truth-seeking act as bridges to this "beyond," distinct from Christian heavens or Darwinian utility.
6. Darwinian Distortion
   • Darwinism reduces these wishes to survival tools (e.g., goodness as social virtue, beauty as sexual appeal), stifling their divine potential. This materialist "Procrustean bed" sterilizes creativity, contrasting with the richer God-living of past cultures.
7. Immortality Realized in Life
   • True immortality is not unending existence but a conscious, eternal state within life, fulfilling the Immortal-Will’s quest. Unlike myths promising post-death eternity, this occurs before death, as consciousness ends with the soma cells’ decay.
8. Man as God’s Consciousness
   • Evolution aimed for man to become God’s consciousness, halting further species ascent once achieved. This unique role burdens humans with the responsibility to cultivate divine wishes, distinguishing "Hyperzoans" who live this fully.
9. Personal and Universal Unity
   • God pervades all, but only man can consciously embody this divinity. Personal traits shape individual God-living, yet it reflects a universal unity, reconciling the Immortal-Will’s loss in soma cells with its spiritual triumph in consciousness.
10. Moral and Cultural Implications
    • This God-cognisance rejects reward-punishment dogmas, urging a purposeless pursuit of divine virtues. It revalues life, emphasizing pre-death spiritual fulfillment over post-death myths, transforming ethics and culture profoundly.

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Key Themes

• Immortal-Will’s Evolution: Transforms from survival to divine consciousness.
• Four Divine Wishes: Goodness, beauty, truth, and love/hate define God-living.
• Critique of Materialism/Religion: Both distort the Will’s true potential.
• Timeless God-Living: Achieved in life, not after, as eternal consciousness.
• Human Responsibility: Man’s unique role as God’s consciousness.

Ludendorff presents a metaphysical vision where the Immortal-Will, through divine wishes, achieves a timeless immortality in life, redefining human purpose beyond materialist and mythic confines.

 The Immortal-Will and Genius

Our glance at all the erroneus conceptions man has formed 

in his apparently futile attempt to solve the mystery which the 

antagonism existing between the Immortal-Will and natural 

death presents him has plainly revealed how reason, to a certain 

degree, was able to make up to him for his failure. On the one 

hand it gave man the capacity not only to gain pleasure through 

satisfying his instincts but also to avoid pain; and on the other 

hand, as a consequence of all misery caused by the very 

sensitiveness of the human-soul to consider death in the reverse 

light of a comforter: Death could also become the liberator 

out of this vale of tears. Here the cognising powers of reason 

come to an end, save perhaps for one possibility more, the 

argument of which runs as follows: The inevitability of death 

and the Immortal-Will are a twofold fact which cannot be 

obliterated. But as the Immortal-Will is a component of the 

soul, might it not within the course of history, have undergone 

a transformation? 

Now, practically speaking, no fresh species have originated 

since the birth of man (the further development of man over 

the line unicell-man-superman we have already perceived to 

be a gross misconception); the history of man has, nevertheless, 

given evidence of a keener and mightier development of the 

innate powers of the soul, in as much as one generation was able 

to bequeath its knowledge and experience to succeeding gener- 

ations. In place of the animal-instinct there appeared under- 

standing among men. The mind of man became capacitated 

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to transmit the fruits of his logic and experience to posterity 

either in the form of words, books and works of art, so that 

one generation, so to speak, shouldered the other, giving mani- 

festation of a magnificent intellectual development. 

This development is indeed different in character from that 

which evolved the one-celled being into man, but it was so 

beneficial to the soul life of man, that the exalted man-of- 

culture grew to have little in common with the industrious 

stalwarts in the struggle-for-life. This implies that there is every 

reason to believe that the self-preservation-instinct, or in other 

words, the Immortal- Will underwent a transformation in exert- 

ing its powers of spiritual exfoliation, and that cultural deve- 

lopment, as it should be understood in its proper sense, was the 

result of this. As has already been said, the whole range of 

sexuality within the history of man has been gradually so 

interwoven with intellectual values, that this has become spiri- 

tualised in a most marvellous manner. This is only one instance 

in point among the many. Lippert, in the works we have 

already called attention to, has indicated in the most instructive 

and minutest manner, how all the religions became very grad- 

ually developed into a spiritualised state, not only in the cont- 

ually developed into a spiritualised state, not only in the con- 

tinuity of their myths but also in details and even use of words. 

The downfall of all religions from the height of their God- 

Living (Gotterleben) happened when the powers of reason 

started trespassing, and the important part was ignored which 

the diversity of race always plays. (This I have enunciated 

in my book entitled "Each Folk's own Song to God".) Lippert 

points out that words which originally gave expression to quite 

crude conceptions did not find a higher spiritual significance 

until much later. As, for example, the word jholy* which in the 

spiritual life (Gotterleben) of to-day means so much, originally, 

in the soul-cult meant nothing more or less than something 

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which belonged to the spirit of the dead. As such, no-one dared 

to touch the goods, let alone take them away, lest the spirit to 

whom they belonged should be angered. It was very gradually 

that the word "Holy" gained the meaning for something divine 

which one approached with awe and respect. Likewise we are 

justified in assuming that not only the possibility, but every 

probability exists (history confirms the fact) that the self- 

preservation-instinct attained to that more spiritualised state, 

when the soul became conscious that it desired more than to 

exist perpetually in the world-of-appearances (Welt der Er- 

scheinung). Many a historical figure gives witness to this fact. 

How many a one, within the course of history, although un- 

believing in a life hereafter, has gladly sacrificed his mortal-life 

for the sake of his Immortal-Will in order that its spirituali- 

sation might be realised. Now, what could have promoted this 

change in the self-preservation-will and made the change at all 

possible as well? 

We have already noted that the most significant and prime 

difference which separated the animal at its highest stage from 

the lowest stage of man was the ascent from a state of under- 

standing to the level of reason; the latter capacitated man to 

apply the conceptions he had formed of time, space causality 

to his surroundings, thus becoming conscious of his own person 

and within fine, live consciously his "Self". Since this means, 

also, that he naturally applied the cognition he had gained of 

death to his own person, he attained, as an ultimate consequence, 

all that knowledge pertaining to death as well. Amazing and 

significant at once for the trend of our thought is the following 

fact: In the ages, long past, the poets and believers in the myths, 

who were limited to a very crude knowledge of nature, while 

noting the important traits which distinguished man from the 

animal, laid the stress of all their arguments nevertheless on 

quite irrelevant matters. Whenever man was concerned with 

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ascribing to himself alone, among all the other living beings, 

the immortal soul, it never once struck him as being the issue 

from the ascent of understanding to reason. His prerogative 

he imagined to come from quite another fount. He experienced 

certain longings of his will which, being but faintly traced in 

the higher developed animals, were easier overlooked than re- 

marked in his observations. Now, these longings must be alive 

in the human-soul in order to prove their existence convincingly. 

But as in the majority they are more dead than alive, their 

manifestation is not much clearer nor more conscious than it 

is in the animal-ancestor. 

These peculiar will-longings which make men so sure-of-soul 

and so soul-proud are so often and so conspicuously in contra- 

diction to the wills belonging to his selfpreservation-instinct, 

namely, those in connection with the instinct for food and 

reproduction, that indeed they prove themselves, when com- 

pared to these, to be so utterly indifferent to such wants, as to 

seem to have their origin from quite another source. It was 

these marvellous wishes or longings of the will which gave 

profundity to the soul-cults; which for their part again formed 

the origin of all religions. 

Man became aware of his own sufferings; saw himself con- 

tinually threatened with tribulations; facts which, inspite of 

his reason's awakening, he was yet incapable of comprehending, 

especially when they were caused through the powers of nature. 

He saw too, how death overtook his relatives; how in the dead 

body 'life' no longer existed. "The spirits had escaped" he 

reasoned and must have taken up their abode in the grave. It 

was they, no doubt, who sent all the sufferings to mankind, the 

sense of which was so utterly incomprehensible to him; but also 

protection against harm the spirits yielded. And as sufferings 

and tribulation continued, and death, as being the relentless fate 

of everyone, still prevailed, he reasoned further, that the spirits 

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were angry and began to ponder for the reason of their anger. 

Soon these thoughts became interwoven with the emotions 

caused through the inherited memory of that earlier painless 

state of immortality which once prevailed in the unicell. As a 

consequence of these ponderings there arose the first beginnings 

of the conception of a Paradise Lost. It was believed that sorrow 

and death were sent as the punishment for the sins which the 

past generations had committed against the spirits. For had it 

not always been the fate of man to suffer sorrow and death? 

Therefore, in some way, the spirits had to be appeased in order 

that sorrow should have an end, and protection and even 

escape from death take its place. The means of atonement 

became multifarious. Offerings of the best of food were made, 

worship was given; in short, all sorts of cult-commandments 

arose as a consequence, and it was considered to be the worst of 

all wrong-doings, were these commandments ever ignored or 

opposed. Hence, the first beginnings of the grave-cult originated. 

Now, inspite of the progress which knowledge has made, diverse 

races of mankind are still concerned with this religious trend of 

thought. Inspite of all the experience handed down from one 

generation to another, the faith these profess still persists in 

the fear of the spirits. Herein, too, lies the fundamental differ- 

ence when compared to other religions which we shall still 

describe. To come back to these again: Their thoughts were 

continually filled with the fear of the dead and the demons. 

Originally they worshipped their gods in dark caves and 

attempted to appease them through practising cult-offerings. 

Science has termed this kind of cult-behaviour, the ,,Chthonian w 

or earth-cult. 

Other races, in particular the Nordic race, behaved very 

differently. At every step of intellectual-development, there is 

little manifestation of their being engrossed with their own 

sufferings or of death or with the blows which fate might event- 

ually deal them; instead a spirit of reverent awe and astonish- 

ment is revealed in which they were always approaching the 

holy mystery of life's growth and decay. Their gaze seems to 

have been forever fixed on the unendless cosmos. They deemed 

the nocturnal firmament to be the revelation of the ancient and 

most sacred looks of God. The inviolability and inexorableness 

of the cosmic-laws which they had discovered while studying 

the firmament had filled them with such confidence in God, 

that everything else in their surroundings which revealed to 

them the same lawfulness, they deemed likewise to be pervaded 

with the divine; namely the seasons of the year, the birth, death, 

growth and decay of all living things. Hence, this meant that 

they themselves were also subject to the same laws-of-nature, 

and this knowledge filled them with joy and thankfulness, in 

as much as it assured them that they, too, were cognate with 

that same divine power which pervaded all things, making them 

uniform with the mighty universe. Therefore, it was only 

natural, for them to annex all the events of their lives, such as 

birth and death, to the seasons. The student of science calls 

this kind of cult, the "Sidereal" or firmament-cult. The consequ- 

ence of such study and observation was, that all the folks 

akin to these races gradually lost all their fears of the spirits 

and death. What an infinite pity it was that this, their God- 

Cognisance, (Gotterkenntnis), was doomed in its development 

to be cruelly put a stop to. It was suppressed by Christianity. 

One thousand years ago, the representatives of the Nordic race 

who still aboded in the land of their origin were forced to 

accept the Christian religion by means of cruel laws which were 

imposed on them. In the case of the folks belonging to the 

Nordic race who forsook their native soil, the 'sidereal' cult 

suffered a different fate. Those who emigrated to other countries, 

such as the Dorians and the lonians in Greece, attempted to bring 

the religion of the native inhabitants into harmony with their 

own; an absurd and race-killing endeavour. Here they went 

practically half way to meet them. They unshelved their own 

universe-embracing gods from the firmament and placed them 

on the mountain tops of the Olympus, where they were allowed 

to retain a few traits only of their former state. (The "Great 

Mother" Frigge still kept to her necklace containing the images 

of the fixed stars.) Now, as the Dorians and lonians had become 

unfaithful to the faith of their fathers, the cave-gods of the 

Pelasgi stole out of the darkness of their caves into the dazzling 

light of the day, and, creeping up the Olympus, mixed there 

freely among the Nordic god figures. Although this mutual 

attempt at adaptation might appear at first to be laudible in 

that it was born of a spirit of peace and reconciliation it must 

nevertheless be strictly condemned, being antagonistic to all 

those sacred laws of race, soul and heredity which I have 

attempted to explain in the book entitled "The Soul of the 

Human-Being" Chapter "Subconsciousness". After having 

exchanged the God-life (artgemafie Gotterleben) nature to each, 

these folks, so different in everything to each other, mixed up 

together their salvation-creeds and race-ideals as well. This did 

infinite harm to their soul-lives, in as much as the principles 

pertaining to the maintenance of race-purity had been cruelly 

trampled under foot. Disintegration and decline were the 

inevitable effects. With the Nordic-folks who had been con- 

verted to Christianity, disaster likewise appeared. 

How and in what measure those two fundamentally different 

cult-forms, called the chthonian and the sidereal, were developed 

within the course of time through the benefits of experience 

which one generation bequeathed to another, can be best ob- 

served where a natural development took its own way without 

being interfered with through any conversions, as was the case 

of the soul-cult of the Chinese. The clearest evidence concerning 

the sidereal-cult yield those special Nordic folks who were 

spared the violence of a conversion to Christianity, and where 

the adaptation to the cult of the native inhabitants took place 

at a later period, as it happened to the sidereal cult in the case 

of the Indians. 

Where all the cults are concerned, a remarkable thing to be 

minded is, that only very few, by virtue of their keenly sensitive 

natures, really mount the path of development. It is they who 

attract the others who are capable of following them. The 

majority, however, remain stubbornly where they are, and even 

the civilisation of our present day cannot conceal them from 

being exposed to this fact! The spiritual-life of the most people 

in our day is nothing better than fear of demons and the 

anxious fulfilment of cult-commandments; the public ones 

belonging to the church and the secret ones to superstition; the 

only real sentiment prompting them to their religious-duties 

being the aim to shield themselves from sufferings before and 

after death or the supposed torments of hell. 

Now, what particular wishes might those have been which 

were the cause of religious faith becoming cast gradually into 

a deeper mould, and the meditations on the inevitability of 

death, the cosmic-laws and the significance of man's life to 

become fructified? Man was born with a naturally agressive 

spirit which, at the dictate of his self-preservation-will he was 

bound to exercise on all around him were he to maintain him- 

self. Yet at times he was keenly dissatisfied with himself, when, 

in the service of selfmaintenance, he adopted cunning and 

bravery with the selfsame assertion as the brute did. At a very 

early period already, he was fully conscious of this unaccount- 

able feeling which was like as if he had gone against some inner 

powerful wish. Now, how could this be accounted for? Was 

it because this innate wish stood in opposition the the self- 

preservation-will? No, it could never have been that for differ- 

ent reasons. For-instance, that horrible mal-contentment did 

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not make its appearance every time a struggle-for-existence went 

on, or when any particular desires of the body had just been 

satisfied. Only on certain occasions did it made itself felt. Some- 

times, even, it was obviously delighted, when, in view of the 

selfpreservation-will unwise things were done, and bodily 

instincts had reason to complain. The most curious thing about 

this unknown wish was, that no principles governing it could 

be found, for, at times, it even agreed with the instincts of the 

body. It was characterised by a special feature which in the 

body instinct was lacking. If these were not satisfied, they 

generally revenged themselves by giving rise to such a state of 

bad humour as to become almost intolerable, but which could be 

quickly got rid of as soon as they had been satisfied. How 

different it was to the other wish. The disapproval which met 

a deed at the time of its happening was but faint when compared 

to the strength of the mal-contentment of spirit which it was 

able to leave behind it for lengths of time. A deed which had 

met with any such disapproval could, somehow, never be oblit- 

erated. It remained vivid in the memory, paired with the dis- 

pleasure of that inner will-trend. There seemed no escape; in 

fact a whole life long it was able to torment the mind. And so, 

finally, through the consistency characterising that state of 

uneasiness which inevitably made its appearance when that inner 

wish had been displeased, sufficient in itself to dampen even 

the inclinations of the body-instincts, the potency of this wish 

became of such significance in the life of man, as to make him 

set the value of all his doings according to its standard. Conse- 

quently, man grew into the habit of calling the deed which the 

wish approved of 'good* and those which it disapproved of 

'bad'. And that unpleasant state of mind which followed like a 

voice continually warning him, he called the 'bad conscience* 

and the satisfied state of mind which followed after another 

kind of action he called the 'good conscience*. Now, as man was 

224 

incapacitated to explain the reason for this Wish-to-Goodness 

which the will within him manifested, and as it so often stood 

opposed to his pleasure-enslaved-selfpreservation-instinct, it 

goes without saying, that he searched for an explanation of its 

origin elsewhere, rather than within himself. As he himself was 

under subjection; it must come from somebody apparently 

greater than he was; somebody who, of -course, was immutable, 

who, unlike his own instincts could never be appeased. And who 

else could this great unchangeable one be than the 'spirits', gods 

or god. Thus some reasoned, while they credited their gods or 

god with the power to influence these wishes which led to spiritu- 

al isation of the chthonian-cults. They argued then further; in as 

much as the spirits, in being the powers of good and evil, could 

cause the joy or sorrow which was apt to befall man from the 

outer-world, they likewise could pervade the soul of man and 

take possession of it. Hence, the 'bad spirits or devil* as well 

as the good had equal power over the soul, and this evil spirits 

or the devil, no-doubt, were the cause which drove man to act 

contrary to the Wish-to-Goodness within him which was God's 

will. The religions computed to the 'devil in man', not alone 

all those actions which stood out clearly as being contrary to 

the good, but also everything else which was liable to distract 

man from dedicating himself to the service of this will. So that, 

even the reproduction-instinct, which, alas, led man so very 

often astray, and made him 'overhear' the voice of the Wish- 

to-Goodness, was considered 'impure'. All this reasoning, in that 

it lead to a state of mental confusion and final folk-decline, did 

infinite harm. 

In effect then, the spirits took up their abode in the soul of 

man, striving there, exactly as they were want to do in man's 

surroundings, one against the other for supremacy. They fought 

indeed for the very soul itself. But for what purpose? Now the 

very moment faith addicted itself to this error, the Immortal- 

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Will of the soma-cells, wounded at death's inevitability, became 

simultaneously interpenetrated with these facts. It was believed 

that the good and evil spirits were capable, not merely of sending 

joy, suffering and even death during this life, as it was contained 

originally in the soul-cults; their powers were still much greater. 

In man's soul they were at warfare for its immortality! 

If the old inherited cult of offering sacrifice to the spirits was 

the way undertaken in primitive times to appease the spirits 

for the trespasses of past generations and to appeal to them for 

protection in tribulations, the new way, now, in order to ensure 

eternal-life to the soul after death, was the dutious fulfilment 

of the demands of conscience. Herein, however, as we shall 

soon see, the sublime Wish-to-Goodness was left bereft of its most 

unique characteristic. The virtue of this characteristic lies in the 

fact that it raises the Wish-to-Goodness above the taint of any 

intention or selfinterestedness. Such was the influence which 

that unique trend of the soul exercised in the development of 

the chthonian cult. Now, how and in what way did it influence 

the sidereal cult? 

"How like unto the beauty of nature and the exalted grandeur 

of the firmament is the longing of my own soul". Thus spoke 

the folks practising the sidereal-cults. Their myths about their 

gods grew deeper in thought and cognisance. Themselves they 

believed were the gods' friends, certain of the fact that the 

longing or the sublime wishes of the soul, as we have termed 

them, were also divine, at the same time clearly aware of the 

fact that the intellect could err, and that these errors, together 

with the pleasure-enslavery of the selfpreservation-will, were 

something which had to be overcome. And yet the mystery of 

death they could not solve, so that it came as a matter of-course, 

that they also misinterpreted the real nature of the divine. 

The book of knowledge which is concerned with the inner 

nature existing in all things (Wesen der Dinge) is forever closed 

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to reason; but as reason is blissfully ignorant of this fact it is 

allowed to seduce man from the path of real knowledge. Vision 

(Erscheinung) can be marred by the law of reason which is 

governed by the laws of causation and intention. Therefore it 

comes only natural to reason to assume, that, when a Wish-to- 

Goodness is existing in the soul, there must be a corresponding 

purpose in it. And if a twofold purpose can be found all the 

better! Therefore, it says, that the Wish-to-Goodness innate in 

the soul is there to serve the selfpreservation-will and the desire 

for happiness; the purpose for doing good, in effect, is, that a 

life-immortal can be gained after death. As the fulfilling of the 

cult-commandments belong to the rubric of good deeds, in that 

they serve in the means of warding off evil and suffering, they 

serve a twofold purpose. They assure happiness on earth (fourth 

commandment "that thou may liveth long on earth") and 

eternal bliss hereafter. The alternative is the consequence of evil 

deeds, which is unhappiness and punishment here on earth, 

reincarnations or eternal damnation after death. It remains still 

to be seen what a mockery it became to the real nature of good- 

ness when this vital wish of the Immortal-Will and purpose 

became commingled. It was an error which for thousands of 

years made the folks almost incapable of developing this won- 

derful desire into powerful life. Although they knew this long- 

ing for goodness to be akin to the divine they all were subject 

to the same error. But our minds are happily unencumbered 

with the misconstruction which the workings of man's reasoning 

have caused. Therefore we can make emphasis of this: The mark 

which distinguishes the longing-for-goodness consists in its being 

far above ever stooping to any principles of utility in the 

struggle-for-life; itself neither being practical nor impractical. 

Further, we see good to lay stress on another fact and that is; 

that man has never succeeded, nor will he ever succeed in 

'defining* the conception of what is "Good" by means of his 

reasoning potencies! All attempts to do so are doomed to fail; 

at the best bearing the marks of being but mere 'phrases'. All 

which he can do in this respect is this: he can make a summary 

of certain deeds which are identical with the Wish-to-Goodness. 

Also, he can choose, out of a variety of deeds, the best and the 

better ones, although his choice, as is the case also of every other 

individual, will remain strictly within the limits of that degree 

of relationship in which he stands towards this wish-to-be-good. 

For quite a long time it remained the firm belief that, although 

the conception of what was 'good' could not be properly defined, 

every individual possessed within himself an incorruptible stand- 

ard of what was good; namely, man's conscience which pricked 

him after a bad action and put him into a state of 'good 

conscience' after a good action. But the belief that a man's 

conscience, or 'the voice of God' within him as he is wont to call 

it, is of so reliable a character, is one of the fallacies among the 

many which have done such infinite harm, actually, it has 

detained man from ever reaching a state of perfection. Now, 

there is nothing in all the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung) 

which can be less relied upon: In men of a highly developed 

moral standard, the "Voice of Conscience" can be compared 

to a keenly sensitive seismograph which reacts sharply at the 

slightest change, whereas in others it can be compared to a 

clumsy apparatus which responds faintly at even the greatest 

shock. Yet, even such an uniformity is not to be found among 

the diverse states of consciences; such a wide difference is there 

in the nature of their sensitiveness. For instance, one man's 

conscience, when applied to the range of morals in general, 

behaves like a clumsy machine which vibrates at nothing, but 

when it is applied to a particular standard of morals, let us 

say the morals prevailing in society, it becomes suddenly a 

tremendously sensitive thing. 

Villagers of certain mountain-districts steal anything without 

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suffering the slightest pangs of conscience, but when it comes 

to a certain kind of thieving, (the stealing of wood) their 

conscience changes suddenly into delicate seismographs. Indeed, 

the nature of man's state of conscience differs so widely as to 

actually contrast one with another. For instance, in one indi- 

vidual a certain action will call forth a state of good conscience, 

while the same action in another, a bad one, and so forth. 

History gives sufficient proof of the mutability of the human- 

conscience. To be convinced of this one has only to bear in mind 

the gross contradiction which the moral creeds display among 

the diverse races and periods, as well as all the massacres, tor- 

tures and burning at the stake which have taken place in the 

'name of God'. 

Therefore, we are justified in repeating, that it is vain to want 

to collect conceptions of what is 'good'. Neither the powers of 

reason nor intuition make a man capable of doing so; although 

he who is perfect may make the exception. This is a possibility 

which is still waiting for us to ponder over. 

Now, in view of this, it is of importance to find out, first, if, 

in the animal-kingdom also, the Wish-to-Goodness distinguishes 

the soul. Apparently it does, although, admittedly, we are 

limited to mere outward observation; yet, especially where our 

domesticated animals are concerned, we pause to think deeper. 

It is interesting to watch a dog, when it comes in contact with 

the awakened soul of man. In the process of its bringing-up it 

receives punishment for its disobedience. When it has done any- 

thing which it was forbidden to do, a cognisance of guilt makes 

itself manifest in the expression it wears, similar to a child in 

a like situation. We might at first be tempted to imagine that it 

was fear which gives vent to such expression in the dog's mien, 

as its powers of understanding, in applying, albeit unconsciously, 

the laws of causality, no doubt prophesies the consequences. But, 

when we then experience, how a good-natured dog can be 

229 

induced to become obedient, less through punishment and 

reward, than through praise, and still the signs of a bad consc- 

ience are manifest, even when its disobedience is not punished, 

we are obliged to admit that in the dog a wish to be good most 

certainly exists; it is identical with the wish of its master. This 

behaviour also is similar to the child's. Therefore, there is 

justification in assuming that this trend is innate in the dog, 

that means to say, innate in the subconscious animal, and, in 

the above mentioned case, is awakened to life in having come 

in close contact with the already awakened and more conscious 

soul of man. 

In the lower species already, the first beginnings of a second 

still more sublime wish of the Immortal-Will are manifested, 

even more distinctly than the Wish-to-Goodness is. In man, 

however, it was felt for the first time consciously; this was, when 

distinct pleasure was born at the sight of form, colour and 

movement, and when sounds, harmonies und rhythms caught 

his ear. Man has called this wishful trend of the innate Will 

within him, the wish for the beautiful. The powers of his 

intellect have attempted vainly to define what it is. Beauty is 

circumscribed, diverse expressions are chosen to describe what 

it is; harmony, rhythm, the harmony-of-form and-contents and- 

melody are often spoken of. Equal to the case of goodness, he is 

able to recount innumerable things which mean either beauty or 

ugliness to him, but the definitions of the beautiful which he 

puts forth in the overestimation of his reasoning-powers are 

similar to his definitions of what is good; they are nothing else 

than mere phrases. And in our day, the good as well as the 

beautiful have sunk so low as to remain but mere talk. In as 

much then as all this means that goodness and beauty are only 

capable of being inwardly lived (erlebt), it also implies that 

each individual lives the keenness of these wishes in a very 

divergent manner. In each one of us an inner incorruptible voice 

230 

decides what is beautiful according to that degree of the divine 

wish which each of us has developed in his soul; and if the 

kind of beauty before us is satisfying that inner-call, it is 

appeased, if not, it is discontented, so that we are justified when 

we call it our 'beauty-conscience*. 

If, in the performance of religious ceremonies, scope for 

expansion has been granted to the Wish-to-Beauty and emphasis 

laid on its value, as was the case with the Greeks, it goes without 

saying, that beauty's realisation is profounder, and its influence 

of a more vital nature, than the case is when a religion is 

indifferent or even hostile to beauty, as for instance, Christianity 

has proved itself to have been. The beauty-conscience is just as 

unreliable as the good and bad conscience is. In the cultivated 

it is like the delicate construction of a seismograph, while in the 

obtuse it is a very clumsy and heavy thing indeed. Moreover, 

it manifests a diversity, not only in its choice of what is beauti- 

ful, but in most cases the beauty-conscience of the cultivated 

stands in stark oppisition to the beauty-conscience of primitive 

natures. 

We have noted already how the Wish-to-Beauty, albeit some- 

times dormant, exists in every visible-thing (in aller Erschei- 

nung). As we dwelt on the Darwinian Evolution Theory, it 

will be remembered how easy it was for us to emphasize a fact 

constituting our cognisance, which is; the Wish-to-Beauty has 

played a tremendous part in the existence of all living things. In 

so far as the selfpreservation instinct could make allowance for, 

the choice of the form in which everything was able to manifest 

itself was left to the Wish-to-Beauty, and in the existence-struggle 

beauty sacrificed to the instinct of self-preservation as little of 

its display as possible. And when we come to look at the visible- 

scene, in comprehension of ist uniformity, we are not amazed 

to find all the ugly and clumsy corporeal forms obsolete to-day, 

and that the main cause of this was not the helplessness they 

manifested in the struggle-for-life. Indeed, beauty's unconscious 

zeal for harmony with the surroundings which is so apparent 

in every visible-thing (alien Erscheinungen) is of such magnifi- 

cence, that animal and plant forms, seen in the landscape, appear 

amazingly in tune with one another, and just as we should wish 

them to be. But, not only in the unconscious form, visible to 

the eye, does beauty care to manifest itself; we can trace in the 

animal-kingdom its first beginnings to consciousness. Here we 

are reminded of a certain story told by the Italian Beccari in the 

book of his travels. This book gained its fame through the 

interest of the public which the Darwinian sexual-breeding had 

awakened. Among the birds-of-paradise which are distinguished 

through the brightness of their feathers (The male-bird has a 

brighter colouring than the female has; he can afford it as he 

is less important for the maintenance of the kind than the 

female is) there is an insignificant black and brown kind of bird 

called, the Amblyornis Inornata, the male of which builds a 

kind of love-garden (a larger place strewn with sand with which 

he is occupied in decorating with bright-hued stones and 

coloured-berries.) He does this apparently in the hope of 

pleasing the female. But his trouble can only be successful if the 

female is able to appreciate the beauty of the little love-garden. 

Another thing corroborating this fact is the pleasure, female 

birds take in listening at certain times to the calling of the 

male. The results of ardent study have left no doubts that the 

female, who must be wooed to be gained, grows excited when 

the male-bird is calling at breeding-time. Now, that the Wish- 

for-Beauty, in its first beginnings, is closely connected with the 

instinct for reproduction, these two facts clearly show. Thus 

then, by the grace of this instinct, the animal is raised to the 

level of a higher being, in that it becomes oblivious of the 

struggle-for-life for a while; its sexual-passion of its own accord, 

brings joy of the beautiful in its wake. 

After this, it will surely not amaze us to learn in viewing 

man's development, that the first awakening of a conscious 

Wish-for-Beauty (for instance when for the first time joy 

awakened at the sounds of music) was connected with minne. 

Later, music became attached to the emotions aroused by war, 

when the battle-song was born. From these two springs, the 

spiritualised*) development of music originated. Now it can be 

said that, in primitive times, the conception of beauty consisted 

of the impression which the one sex made on the other, in that 

it was capacitated to awaken the mating-wilL The variety of 

glass- jewellery which the savages like to wear put us strongly 

in mind of the little love garden of the colibri, the 'taste* and 

effects of both being on the same level, with the exception, that 

the little male-bird lays the bright coloured stones at the feet of 

the little female, because it is not in his power to decorate her 

as the savage man can decorate his wife! 

Having once risen above this one time spring, the Wish-to- 

Beauty on its way to a spiritualised development releases itself 

more and more from every function serving to the maintenance 

of life. 

What a mighty step forward towards the liberation from the 

finite and conditional did that moment signify, when, for the 

very first time in the history of man, a certain object caught 

the eye of one of those old human ancestors of ours, and joy 

flooded his being, albeit his gaze and smile were still of the dull 

unconscious kind. A mighty thing, indeed, when it was happen- 

ing for the very first time, that a human being became aware of 

beauty and was capacitated to fix his attention on an object or 

living thing, not because his sexual-instinct was being roused, 

nor because it had anything to do with his struggle-for-exist- 

ence, but simply because of its beauty. At that event something 

* Here I recommend my book entitled "The Recuperation of Minne" which is a 

corrected edition of "Erotical Rebirth". 

happened to the dull disinterested brute-mind, which hitherto 

had been merely capable of perceiving what was of danger to 

it, edible things, or things otherwise of use, that awakened a 

will, potent enough to concentrate attention. Perchance in that 

sublime moment, that ancient ancestor of ours bore that look of 

exaltation which we are accustomed to see in the face of a man, 

who, having released himself from the petty problems attached 

to the struggle-for-life, has given himself up to the fulfilment of 

one of these unique wishes. Yet rare and fugitive must such 

experiences at that time have been! Life being so full of danger, 

there was no time for looking at the beauty of objects which 

were useless in the struggle-for-existence! There is something 

touching in the barrenness which marks those first beginnings 

of soul-life, in as much as all the grand artistic impulses of later 

higher cultural-life can be traced in their origin to these tiny 

beginnings. Stronger than these emotions of pleasure which the 

sight of beauty had caused must those first overwhelming emot- 

ions in the soul-life of primitive man have been which drove 

him, by means of a sharp stone implement, to make shy attempts 

to copy in sand or stone the beauty of the forms before him; to 

make, as Schopenhauer has termed it, a visible manifestation of 

his soul-life in its wish for the beautiful. Gradually man's soul 

became habituated to the trend of such kind of wishes which 

finally exercised a refining influence on his struggle-for-existence. 

He started to 'beautify' all the implements, used in his daily 

toils, in tracing on them all those graceful forms with which he 

had become so enraptured. Thus appeared the origin of all our 

sublime works of art. But reason, in its calamitous labours, could 

not fail to couple the Wish-to-Beauty to the principle-of-utility, 

in the same manner as already had been done with the trend-to- 

goodness, and it began to argue: As the soul-life of man was 

rendered so peculiarly unencumbered with the desires and 

struggles-of-existence when his sense of beauty was being satis- 

234 

fied, the longing for beauty in his soul must surely come from 

another and better world where naturally the spirits or demons 

abided. Now, all those, belonging to those races whose 'prime 

religion* consisted of a fear-pervaded soul-cult, were naturally 

overcome again with the fear of demons when confronted with 

beauty which in the first instance had been a source of such 

untainted joy and had been the means of the first ornaments 

originating. Reason began whispering that those primitive works 

of art and tracings must serve a certain purpose. It followed that 

they were put into the service of the soul-cult. The ornaments 

were considered to be charms which were effective in excorcising 

the spirits, and soon they were used as charms which dispelled 

the fear of demons. The other kind of races, on the other hand, 

whose wont it was to encounter death, and the blows of fate 

with a greater composure, and in whom the divine called forth 

respectful wonder more than fear, interwove beauty more closely 

into their religious conceptions, although not in such measure 

as they did it with the Wish-to-Goodness. And in as much as 

the folks and races differed one from another, the commingle- 

ment of beauty with religion was also different both in the 

measure and manner it was used, as well as the nature of its 

kind; but all the salvation-creeds alike gave in general less signi- 

ficance to the Wish-for-Beauty. To the Wish-for-Goodness more 

importance was attached. This brought one great advantage 

with it which was, that the Wish-to-Beauty escaped a long time 

from being ridden by the f anatism of practicability which would 

have been to its own confusion and distortion. It was able to 

experience a grander exfoliation, as the sublime works-of-art 

which were created in the heyday times of Nordic cultures give 

witness to. Contrary to the Wish-to-Goodness, it was not 

assumed of beauty that it was a means wherewith to gain 

immortal life, but it was always bound up, nevertheless, in a 

great measure with the sentiments of religious awe and was 

indeed the adequate means of rendering an exalted manifestation 

of this, so that, whenever man dared at all to represent the 

"Divine", "Beauty" became its distinguishing mark. This 

accounts for the fact that religious emotions became a mighty 

impulse to artistic creation. The Godhead never monopolised 

beauty as it did goodness, but it could never be divorced from 

this wish, as it was taken to be the sublimation of everything 

that was beautiful. In that a communion took place between 

the beauty-wish and the sentiments of religious awe, a most 

unique transformation came to life which is best described in the 

word 'exalted', and which found its sublimest expression in the 

Nordic cultures; in the Gothic architecture and Sebastian Bach's 

music. 

Accordingly, man's reverence for the myth reveals itself in 

his expression of beauty. Now let us see how the myth for its 

part treated that Wish for Beauty. All the religious conceptions 

of the Greeks, as well as the ideas revealed in the Socratic- 

Philosophy, give clear evidence of the value which these set on 

beauty. It was considered akin to the Wish-to-Goodness, and as 

such, one of the commandments which the Godhead had given 

to man. Other religions, again, professed the opposite belief. In 

the Vedas, the sacred books of the Indians, it can be found that 

man is warned against beauty, as being the cause through which 

man might succumb to the powers of "Maya" or illusion, 

although a strong sense of beauty and love for everything beauti- 

ful is revealed in the legends and parables of Jishnu Krischna, 

especially in the legend concerned with the birth of the first man 

and woman, called "Adima and Heva". These are to be found 

again, but alas, stripped of all their beauty, in the Bible which 

was the work of Jewish writers who stole the Indian legends 

for this purpose. 

A great indifference in regard to the Wish-of-Beauty is 

noticeable in primitive Christianity and in the Scriptures of the 

2)6 

Old-Testament, so that development of any kind can hardly be 

expected here, and, in effect, religious-architectural and picto- 

rial-art which arose in the course of the development in occident- 

al-culture is nowhere to be found. The Wish-to-Beauty was 

bound to gain some significance in 'occidental* Christianity, and 

sometimes it was considered as being a thing of goodness and 

sometimes not. For instance, if by any means it awakened minne, 

it was called bad, for the rest it bore little or no significance, as 

was the case exactly in primitive Christianity. The exception 

became the rule however, whereever the yearning of the Nordic 

Christians for the God-living native to them manifested itself, 

in that a creative evolution of Christianity took place, and works 

of art appeared, albeit still in the garb of Christianity which 

expressed the Nordic conception of God and beauty ideals' 1 "). 

The Wish-to-Beauty was given then full swing, but also merely 

because it served in the glorification of the church and was 

pleasing to the eyes of God. Thus it came about that the beauty 

conscience of man became so peculiarly moulded; for it was 

continually swayed by the religious conceptions of the Christ- 

ian churches and was pounded as well with their conscience 

of good and evil, although alas ! in a totally different sense to 

the ancient Greeks. Therefore, we should like to repeat; beauty 

was considered evil and disgusting, when it appeared in 'sex', 

indifferent and of little significance when manifested in lay 

works of art, but received great approval when its function was 

to aid in the glorification and transformation of Christianity. 

Thus then, as long as the Christian myth could maintain its 

inexorableness, beauty could develope. It attained such a height 

as to be of a veritable creative potency, in as much as the men- 

of-genius among the occidental peoples of culture laboured 

* Thus it happened that the "House of God" became so transformed. The Gothic-Dom 

(Cathedral) was once again the "Hallowed Grove" of our ancestors, and the Jews of the 

Old and New Testament became Nordic figures. (See "The Soul of the Human Being" 

chapt. "Subconsciousness". 

untiringly in their work of transformation. Christian legends 

were turned into things of beauty which, curiously enough, were 

so remarkably bare of any traces of beauty in themselves. 

It was so it happened, that such an absurd contradiction could 

come to life among the Christian peoples of the earth, by which 

is meant that the stupendous artistic works, such as music, archi- 

tecture and painting were created merely for the benefit of a 

religious belief which itself never once dreamed of awakening 

or nourishing any inclination for the beautiful in the breasts of 

its adherents. Therefore it can hardly be amazing to find grand 

music sounding in beautiful cathedrals, while the worshippers 

who are accustomed to kneel in prayer in them are remarkably 

devoid of a longing for beauty, obviously blind to the very 

existence of the works of art around them. The majority are 

there merely to offer prayers and sacrifices in the hope of 

appeasing the demons, they are so much in fear of. Their over- 

laden altars give witness to their stunted beauty conscience! 

How unlike this the Greeks were! Art of its own virtue meant 

to them the culmination of conscious life which again was the 

fulfilment of their desire. Inspite of the limits, already mentioned 

which were set to art, the plenitude of creative energy which is 

manifested in the art of the Middle-ages gives us an insight into 

facts pregnant with significance. When we compare this period 

to the 20th century we are shocked at the barrenness of creative 

potency which the Darwinian period exhibits, more so, when we 

bear in mind that the artist, living in the Darwinian period, 

was given the chance of reproducing everything he deemed right, 

as well as choosing in its minutest detail any style, without 

having to borrow from a preceeding one. After this we are 

obliged to conclude that the reign of Darwinism was a mighty 

unproductive one. The explanation for it is simple enough. God- 

living is essential should artistic work ever fructify into achieved 

facts. In this respect even an alien faith can drive the artist, as 

238 

one might say, to labour of his own accord in a work of trans- 

formation, whereas a sober matter-of-fact materialism does such 

infinite harm, in that it absolutely sterilises the soul. Now, when 

we speak of "God-living" (Gotterleben), we are not thinking of 

any dogmatic belief, nor any special religious work among the 

works of art influenced by it, neither have we forgotten how 

appallingly fettered and distorted Nordic art was during its 

plenitude in the middle-ages. Nevertheless, if materialism is 

allowed to stifle God-living, the result will be an activity of 

mere talents with a paucity of ideas. (Each Folk's own Song 

to God.) 

As we have already mentioned, everything else which came 

in touch with the Wish-to-Beauty remained also (through the 

influence which Christian teaching exercised) at a very low 

stage of development. This explains why so little beauty has 

been realised in the week-a-day-life among the cultural peoples 

professing Christianity. One might indeed shudder at the 

ugliness, prevailing in our times, after having once had a glance 

at the beauty which must have prevailed in the every day life 

of our ancestors, who lived in prehistoric times; (to which fact 

the treasures hidden in graves, especially those of the bronze- 

period, have given ample witness to.) 

Besides these two longings of the Immortal-Will which we 

have just spoken of, and which we have thought good to call the 

Wish-to-Goodness and the Wish-to-Beauty, there exists some- 

thing else in the breast of man, which one might think of as 

being a special kind of curiosity. It was this curiosity which 

drove man on in his search for the connecting-links existing in 

the visible scene (Erscheinungswelt) around him, and which, 

when observed in its first beginnings, might easily be mistaken 

for the instinct of self-preservation; for in the proceedings of 

self-preservation, it was often essential to be aware of the causal- 

coherency underlying all objects. For instance, how often could 

danger be averted through the knowledge, man possessed of the 

principles ruling his environment. Have we not already seen 

that it was just this which circumstanced the stage of under- 

standing to evolve into reason? (S. Above). Surely the endea- 

vours were both useful and sensible which were undertaken in 

order to discover the laws governing the elements, the life 

conditions of the enemy and the laws underruling disease; for 

the knowledge which might be gained of these, helped greatlv 

to facilitate the struggle-for-existence! And what value did 

research-activity gain, when, by its due, the will of the gods 

could be defined! It was due to this wish existing in the breast 

of man, that, in order to obtain aid in the struggle-for-life, the 

stars, the flight of the birds, the voice of the wind were all 

interrogated. The more powerful this instinct of curiosity 

became developed in the breasts of the rarer and nobler-livers, 

and the range of research more extensive as a consequence, and 

knowledge accumulated, the more obvious it became that this 

curiosity-instinct in man had then little or nothing to do with 

the struggle-for-life. Indeed, the greater the bulk of knowledge 

grew which man handed down to the next generation as the 

treasures of his experience, the easier it appeared for this wish 

to divorce itself from matters concerned in the struggle-for-a- 

living. And it is curious to note, how man's impulse for know- 

ledge has made him irresistibly search the path of truth, heed- 

less of the fact that there was no likelihood of his research ever 

bringing him a single benefit; on the contrary infinite harm and 

even death; a thing which has so often happened during times 

of cruel persecution which the Christians raged against the 

scientific-researchers. History is witness to the fact that many 

a scientist has been capable of sacrificing the strong impulse of 

self-preservation to this special wish. In fact, for its sake, they 

were all willing to die! 

Let us not be startled to find this wish, contrary to the other 

240 

two, still entirely devoted, in its first beginnings, to the course 

of usefulness. Altogether, it is interpenetrated with reason in 

a much closer degree than the other wishes are. While the Wish- 

to-Goodness is the factor which determines our actions, and the 

Wish-to-Beauty the valuing factor in our perceptions, this wish 

is the pilot of our thoughts, and, as such, is closely attadied to 

reason. The laws of "logic" are the implements by means of 

which the Wish-to-Truth achieves its fulfilment; but by no 

means does it depend solely on the support of these. On the 

contrary, the awareness of its cognising powers are keenest when 

they are derived from the inner eye; that spiritual-experience 

we call intuition, or the creative vision. It goes without saying, 

therefore, that the cognising powers relative to the Wish-for- 

Truth will never be able to gain that stage of supreme exfoli- 

ation to which they are entitled, until the potencies of reason 

are fully developed which implies that keenness of intellect, 

clarity of judgement are required, as well as power of intuition. 

Should the latter be highly developed, and the powers of 

intellect and judgement dull and stunted, the results can be 

amazing; for the profundest knowlegde will be found to go 

hand-in-hand with the most useless of fallacies! In the study and 

research of the laws governing the world of appearances (Welt 

der Erscheinung) less harm is done, if the powers of intuition 

are less developed, for potential reasoning powers are requisite 

in this case. This, by the way, explains why men of logic are 

invariably attracted to the study of natural-science, but also for 

the danger incurred when insufficient estimation is tolled to the 

grains of truth which are born of intuition. For this danger 

means nothing less than the being stranded in sheer materialism 

(in the sense of natural-science), of-course. 

A better possibility is given to define the Wish-to-Truth, than 

is given to define beauty or goodness. This is on account of the 

close association which the Wish-to-Truth has with reason. When 

241 

the question is put, "What is truth"? We are justified in saying: 

Truth is the identity of conception and reality. 

Hence it can be summarised, that the Wish-to-Truth, in order 

to satisfy its longing to penetrate into the inner nature which 

exists in all things, (Wesen aller Dinge) is the desire to collect 

and possess conceptions, as well as form new ones, which are 

completely identical with reality. However, this longing for 

knowledge which mentality affords is not made content with 

the cognisance which concerns the laws of the visible-scene 

(natural science) and the inner nature of life (philosophy) only; 

it wants more. It is keenly alive to know if the conceptions 

which we and others have formed of soul are identical with 

reality. It strives, therefore, for knowledge of Self and 

'genuineness* as standing in contradiction to hypocrisy and 

deception, and above all sincerity towards others in word and 

deed. This latter reveals how the divine Wish-to-Truth meets 

the Wish-to-Goodness. At a very early period, already, emphasis 

was laid on this last mentioned part-effect of the Wish for Truth; 

sincerity as being a simple duty which the laws-of-the land 

demand. In the daily-struggle-for-life it worked effectively 

against cunning and artifice. It is subtle enough to be awakened 

very early in the breast of the little child, and, when supported 

by moral-instruction, will leave an indefatigable imprint of 

what is good and evil on the conscience. Intellectually speaking, 

however, there is little scope allowed for truth, as the religions 

are averse to scientific facts for the sake of their bigotted dogmas. 

For this reason, it finds its culmination in the intellectual 

workings of the brain which belong to the very few only. And 

these men alone have what can be rightly thought of as a truth- 

conscience, in the same sense as there is a beauty-conscience and 

good-conscience. Now, for example, when we are taken up 

with the study and research of science, or may be, we are 

concerned with the examination of our own conscience, or we 

242 

arc testing the diarakter of our fellowmen, an indubitable 

uneasiness will take hold of us as soon as our logical thinking 

is induced to be distracted from its own unswerving line, in 

that we might have given ourselves up to the desires of affect, 

body-instincts, or any other kind of impulses, such as religious 

hopes and desires. The sharpest pricks which a highly sensitive 

truth-conscience can receive, however, is when it has been 

tempted to sacrifice an ingenious cognition to reason, simply 

because this believed itself capable of judging in matters belong- 

ing to realms, where it had no right to intrude itself. What bliss 

the truth-conscience will feel, when, on the other hand, in the 

act of thinking, the drive for truth gains the victory over all 

profane wishes. 

The Christians took on a specially hostile attitude towards 

the Wish-to-Truth when manifested in the work of research. 

For this reason, we meet so many in whom the Wish for Truth 

in this respect is unbelievably stunted. The upholders of the 

myths and dogmas thought fit to uphold truth as a virtue only 

where general speech and actions come in question. Little interest 

was taken in the drive for truth in matters of scientific-research 

as long as it did not collide with the myths. Yet the greater the 

steps were which reason put forth along the path of knowledge, 

and the nearer it came to the knowledge of nature itself, the 

more frequent were the collisions against the prevailing dogmas, 

and as a consequence, the hostility, hatred and persecution from 

Christianity followed. Hence, the wish for knowledge concern- 

ing truth was more often and more bitterly combatted in our 

epoch of culture, than ever the Wish-for-Beauty was in the most 

fanatical times of ascetic ideals! In itself, this fact is comprehen- 

sible. Every religious myth, at the time of its origin, corresponded 

with the knowledge prevailing at the time. But when the myth 

is still upheld in the centuries following as being immutable 

religious truth, as it happened in the case of Christianity, the 

collision cannot be avoided which inevitably happens when the 

knowledge gained in the search for truth has considerably 

widened und deepened. The more the human intellect became 

enlightened through the knowledge which preceeding generations 

bequeathed to it, the greater enemy it became of "Religion", and 

indeed the powers of reason have, so far already, sucked away 

the vital power of all "Religions". Observe then that the Wish- 

to-Truth was treated more strictly than the Wish-to-Beauty. It 

was allotted but conditionally to the row of virtues. For 

instance, as long as it made no attempts to shatter any dogmas, 

all was well. But woe to it, if this did happen. It was then 

declared to belong to the 'works of the devil' and suffered the 

same fate as the 'beautiful witch': It was burnt alive. Now, if 

the distortion of the other two wishes had suffered through the 

limitations imposed on them, in that they were made to serve 

purposes and conditions alien to their nature, the maltreatment 

of the Wish-to-Truth, in comparison, was appalling indeed. 

Everywhere it was oppressed by the commandments in practice 

which persisted in implicit faith to the dogmatic creeds of 

Christianity. And as long as the oppressive exercitation of the 

church reigned, in that these dogmatic creeds were compelled 

to be accepted as inexorable truth, it is obvious, that the 

Immortal- Will in its trend for actual truth could achieve its 

clearest state of consciousness in the few men-of-genius only. 

On account of its close association with the cognising powers 

of reason, the Wish-to-Truth, even in the garb of its faintest 

beginnings, was barred being present in the animal-kingdom. 

With the Wish-of-Beauty, the matter was different, for the 

colibri-bird and so many songsters have given witness to the 

fact of its existence in the animal-world, although but faintly 

traceable. That will which is ruled by the self-preservation 

instinct, whose function it is to distinguish the useful objects 

from the harmful ones, may certainly not be mistaken for the 

244 

Will for Truth. Yet, nevertheless, just as we were bold enough 

to state that every living thing is as beautiful to the extent, its 

own selfpreservation-will can afford, we can also state, that 

every living thing is 'genuine', that is, rings true, as long as the 

struggle-for-life permits. The practices of artifice and cunning 

are only put to use in cases of strict emergency. Animals, given 

to pretence, are the exceptions as well as really ugly animals are. 

In the animal-kingdom, as seen from the human point of view, 

the brutal and selfish side of life's struggle is tackled with the 

slightest pretence of hiding purposes. The sexual-wishes in plant 

and animal-world come likewise quite truly. Their expression, 

therefore, must be 'genuine'. In short, in all things living there 

is manifested, as being a rule, a conformity of motive and 

behaviour. Only in times of danger do exceptions happen to 

this rule. Hence, after this, we are justified in saying, that in the 

unconscious components of the soul of all the living species, 

truth's-trend finds its adequate expression in perceptible behav- 

iour which is the true reflexion of the will-impulses which was 

its cause. And now let uns turn to see how man, in that he was 

graced with reason, has painfully deviated from the path of 

truthfulness. In him but a fragment of the Wish-to-Truth has 

been left; it is found in the labours of his scientific-research. 

This was due, mainly, to the peculiar way, man was swayed 

under the state of his own confused moral-conceptions together 

with his ignorance of the history-of-evolution and the laws 

governing the soul-life, all of which, in fine, compelled him to 

sheerest absurdities. 

Although it would be a most fascinating and instructive study 

to compare the fate which happened to the three wishes of the 

divine Will in the different races, religions and developing stages 

of a certain cultural-epoch, we must here refrain from doing so 

and choose, out of the many, a few details only. Thus then, we 

first remind the reader of the fate which the Wish-to-Truth 

245 

suffered at the hand of Christianity together with the Indian 

origin of its contents. Although the Indian-myth, when con- 

fronted with the knowledge of nature we are in possession of 

to-day, sounds impossible as well as improbable, and the Theo- 

sophical attempts, shallow and unnatural, when these made the 

legends of Krishna and Buddha look less like those of the Old 

Testament; the fact, notwithstanding, cannot be escaped, that 

the creeds of Krishna and Buddha are far superior to the 

distortion which Jewish plagiarism made out of them. Their 

superiority lies in the fact that so much value was set on the 

will making for knowledge which all the creeds contained in the 

Vedas as well as those belonging to the Indian period of decad- 

ence so clearly reveal. Here, a will prevails which ardently 

and unswervingly searches for the truth concerning the ultimate 

mysteries of life; this also accounts for the traces of the highly 

developed philosophical sense which can be found in them. The 

ignorance of nature which they exhibit, beseeching almost in its 

helplessness, makes merely a contrasting note. And among all 

this childlike ignorance of the most elementary laws-of-nature, 

and, among all the confusion, caused by the primitive notions 

of cause and effect, a remarkably strong will runs rampant in 

the one endeavour to grasp the mysteries of life and death. It 

seems as if every other interest diminished besides this one. Even 

the interest in their own personal fate seemed of no consequence, 

compared to the longing, they felt to solve at last that what 

they deemed to be the profoundest of all mysteries. There issued 

from this that second stately and enthralling characteristic, 

cognate to that of our own ancestors which manifested itself in 

the being free from the petty habit of bewailing one's fate in 

the greed for happiness, a habit, namely, which helps to make 

the demeanour of man so undignified when fate confronts him. 

The worst what could befall the Indian was not so much the 

danger of falling into a state of sin, as falling into the danger 

246 

of a state of error, that means to say, not so much the failure in 

the endeavour for goodness as in the endeavour for truth. And, 

while the Christian believer stoops to degrade his Immortal- 

Will in associating it with his desire for happiness in the state 

of "Eternal Bliss" in a life-hereafter, the ancient Indians (our 

kindred ancestors) (Blutsbriider) longed for eternal life merely 

for the sake of the solution, they hoped to gain, concerning the 

ultimate mysteries of life. But now there had never been any 

cause given to the Indians to make them feel hostile towards 

the Wish-to-Truth. The visible-world (Ersdieinungswelt) the 

Hindu had been taught to despise as being "Maya", illusion, so 

that his interest was never sufficiently awake to make any 

scientific study of it. He dedicated his thoughts to philosophy 

alone. And so it came about that his myth was not doomed to 

suffer the harm which the knowledge of truth always brings in 

its wake. The Indian-culture was left singularly unacquainted 

with the progress of natural-history, so that the interpenetration 

of the twofold wishes with the desire for immortality was each 

in its way of a very divergent kind. 

In the course of time a change came to pass in the fate of 

these wishes. Gradually but surely they divorced themselves 

from the clumsy principles of self-interest. This could be 

expected from the nature of our folk whose fighting-spirit in the 

course of freedom and truth no cruelty nor coercion of any 

kind could kill. It makes up for much to notice how the asso- 

ciation of the Wish-to-Goodness to principles of self-interest 

which is everywhere to be found in the "Holy Scriptures" of 

the Christians have nevertheless given way to more refined 

intentions. It is quite an easy matter to follow the traces of those 

attempts which the Christians made to release the Wish-to- 

Goodness from principles of self-interest; the 'obligatory* 

Immortal-Will was gradually loosened, and finally it was only 

associated with the optional wish-to-happiness. Within the 

precincts of the church the crude principles of self-interest which 

were followed in the works of charity are particularly noticeable 

in the prelutherian times. They surpass even the bargains which 

Jahweh in the Old-testament was wont to make. For instance, 

with a collection of good deeds as his capital a man was not 

only capable of delivering himself from a state of sin, but also 

of buying "Bliss Eternal" for himself. There was even a chance 

still for the dead; if these had missed the chance of making such 

bargains while alive, their time of punishment could be short- 

ened for them through others buying masses said for the dead. 

There was even a 'balance sheet*, and when a surplus of good 

works happened, as in the case of the 'saints', this was put to 

the credit of debtors. That the principle-of-utility ruled the 

Wish-to-Goodness could surely not be more candidly manifested 

than it is here. Therefore in nowise could it find echo in the soul 

of the German. Accordingly, in the 16th century, it happened 

to the great joy of Luther, to discover words in the Bible which 

seemed to condemn this barter in good works. He thought them 

adequate enough to conceal at least the intention, if not get rid 

of it altogether. To be delivered from the oppression of such an 

undignified misconstruction worked its wonders on Luther. 

"Man shall not be judged according to his works, but according 

to his faith*. These were the words Luther had discovered in the 

Bible. Paul had taught that eternal bliss could never be gained 

through the practice of good works alone, because no matter 

how ardent the desire to be good in the breast of man was and 

no matter how great his penitence was, his guilt remained still 

greater and could never find redemption. Only the grace of 

God, and the belief in the redeeming power of the death of 

Christ brought salvation. Now, a doctrine which taught that 

grace could be obtained through the innocent death of a son of 

God was not liable to liberate the trend towards goodness from 

the purpose-fraught-thought, much less be adequate enough to 

248 

be the regulator as the world of conceptions contained in the 

German God-Cognisance and its morals would like it; but it 

was capacitated to prompt goodness if this virtue kept free of 

the spirit of gross bargaining; the spirit so apt to make the virtue 

of goodness its own distortion. 

The Wish-to-Goodness also became gradually less entangled 

with the wish-to-happiness; that happiness which meant the 

eternal state of bliss hereafter being the exception. According to 

the Old Testament though, there is still another promise of 

happiness which can happen to a man before his death; it is 

the reward for his being good. In this case, God is supposed to 

reward the good deeds with long life and well being. The 

persistent contradictions happening, however, eventually caused 

the belief in such a crude doctrine of reward as this was to be 

shattered, and within the course of centuries it experienced a 

gradual refinement. Better men, by the very virtue of their own 

sensitive nature live naturally in accordance with the nature 

(Wesen) of the divine wishes. They will revolt at the notion of 

attaching any intentions to the Wish-to-Goodness. Only a very 

spiritualised state of happiness is able to smuggle itself into 

their souls. The following words give utterance to it: Do good 

to gain inward peace; the state of mind which brings joy and 

happiness with it. Do good to others also, that their happiness 

be greater; then the joy of your own soul will become greater. 

Evil deeds cause discontent and trouble to the soul. Now, this 

doctrine was capable of finding its justification in the minds of 

good men from a twofold fact; first, the nature of their own 

soul-life confirmed it, and secondly the pricks of a bad conscience 

were indeed likely to trouble their soul! 

No matter what our assumption of the Voice of God* looks 

like; be it in a strictly dogmatical sense or pantheistical sense, 

one thing is certain: Our own personal experiences give witness 

to the fact, that after an evil deed the mind is troubled, and 

249 

after a good one it is peaceful. Then we 'rest in God', or we 

are 'At peace with God', and how could this state of mind, in 

comparison to the opposed, not be called happiness? Here is an 

interpretation which conceals intention and purpose the most 

softly of all. No wonder, that the Christian, in his dogmatical 

belief, is not the only one to whom this interpretation appeals 

and allows his thoughts to be dominated by it. The majority of 

mankind are under its sway. Therefore, it can be expected to 

live in the minds of men for a very long time to come yet. What 

a comforter it is in misfortune, and how adequate it is to still 

the yearning for happiness. "Oh may the evil-doer carry the 

victory in the struggle-for-life!" (This is generally the case). 

"His happiness can be but apparent, for in reality he must be 

suffering torments caused by the state of his bad conscience. My 

own peaceful state of mind and inner happiness I would never 

be induced to exchange for his apparent good luck!" 

How praiseworthy this doctrine seems to appear at first. It 

excels everything else in that the wish to be good is but so finely 

fraught with intentions and purpose! It is indeed the able com- 

forter in the disappointment which overtakes us when we are 

obliged to stand aside for the happiness (even in spiritual 

matters,) of the man less worthy of it. I suppose it will require 

a very long time and much courage before mankind will be able 

to confess to the truth. In every case he will have first to stand 

his moral conceptions being shaken to their very foundations. 

The truth he is obliged to face is this: In the first place it is 

contrary to fact, whenever it be assumed, that the morally 

unscrupulous, that means to say, all those whom fate favours 

with victory in the general struggle-for-life, (because they have 

laid no moral restraint on themselves in their selfish chase of 

pleasure) are plagued with the qualms of a bad conscience. It 

never persecutes them. On the contrary they enjoy to the full 

their 'peace of soul', albeit it be not the 'peace of God'; they 

250 

are either in peace with mammon, the enjoyments of the table, 

sexuality, or any other idol which they think good to adore 

at the moment. It is a great fallacy (which can strangely confuse 

the minds of men) to believe that the "Erinnies" persecute the 

murderer, or that every criminal is overcome with shame. This 

is not so. As the nature of each conscience differs widely to the 

next one, it issues, that certain deeds are capable of torturing 

that kind of conscience only, quite irrespective of all the other 

kinds, to which they stand in opposition. Hence, a murderer will 

feel qualms of conscience only, when the deed he has just 

committed stands really in opposition to demands of his own 

conscience, or when, through his own initiative or the induce- 

ment of another, he changes on the strength of better reflexion 

the demands of his conscience after the deed is done. Yet the 

fact will always remain that the good man inevitably suffers 

greater in this respect than the bad man does. This is owing to 

the fact that in the good man the Wish-to-Goodness is in a more 

perfect condition, and his conscience-sense highly strung, while 

in the bad man the wish-to be good is stunted and his conscience 

more so. 

As a consequence of this knowledge, we are led naturally to 

reflections bearing on education and the influence it exercises. 

Let us now give our attention to one among the many facts 

which seems to be the most important at the present. The wish- 

to-be-good never can stoop to the wants of man's happiness. 

Therefore, we may not miss saying here to all those striving for 

this wish-fulfilment, (in their endeavours to obtain 'inward 

peace* and happiness), that it would be more to the point, if 

they kept the state of their consciences in as primitive a state 

as possible and not encumber it unnecessarily with the values of 

moral standards; for then at least the chance would be ascertain- 

ed of their living and experiencing, not only 'inward peace', but 

also success in life; moreover, every likelihood also of satisfying 

their greed for wealth, ambitious aims; and all the other desires 

of this world. If men would but try to cognise the truth of what 

we have just been saying, how very near they would be to that 

sublime state, (in their wish to be good,) where purpose is not! 

Notwithstanding all this it cannot be mistaken that the joy, 

which, under circumstances, a group of good actions will afford 

tends most certainly to stiffen the emphasis which is apt to be 

too readily laid on the belief which makes happiness its highest 

object (Eudemonism). The obstinary with which this error has 

been kept up will amaze us no more as soon as we bear in mind 

how the Christian churches have always preached that the 

fulfilment of the Wish-to-Goodness was a surpreme demand of 

morality, not forgetting either that philosophy, especially the 

system of Schopenhauer, has done this even more emphatically. 

In effect, the work of charity which comes from the compassion 

for our fellowmen releases such self-satisfaction generally, as to 

actually surpass the satisfaction which might be expected at the 

experience of our own well-being. This fact serves also as an 

apparent confirmation. Yet, there is still another side to the 

matter. When a man realises, that his work of charity is of no 

avail in eliminating suffering, the strain of his compassionate 

mood will make him suffer so much, that satisfaction at doing 

good pales beside it. And as this is more often the circumstance 

than not, it goes without saying, that the really philanthropic 

man will more often experience pain than joy in his work of 

charity. Other types of men do not suffer at all at the sight of 

their fellow-mens' suffering. These are of the brutally selfish 

kind, who are capable of going so far as to bargain with and 

even make profit out of the misfortunate state of another. 

Although no other doctrine has had such potency to lead 

mankind so near the truth as this Krishna creed of the Indians 

has done, in that the principles of self-interestedness entwined 

with the Wish-to-Goodness were of such a highly spiritualised 

kind, we are obliged to reject it because of its fallacy. Had 

those sacred duties which are so essential, should family, folk 

(Volk) and God in the breast of man be preserved, been made 

part of the contents, the Krishna creed (which the Evangelists 

made use of later) could have been counted to the sublimest of 

all the Indian-legends. The laws governing the preservation of 

folk, family and God in the soul of man, I have treated fully in 

other books. 

Charity is but one of a very small group of attributes effected 

by the Wish-to-Goodness. (Later on we shall find the proof for 

this.) It developed through the influence of a fourth wish which 

awakened to consciousness in the soul of man. It was the spirit 

of this fourth wish which aided in the development of the 

Wish-to-Goodness. By its virtue man's emotions emancipated 

from the mere struggle-for-existence and learned the feelings 

of love towards his neighbour. 

Like his animal-ancestors, man was compelled, originally, to 

depend on himself only in the general-struggle-for-existence. He 

was always surrounded by beings which he either hated, or 

which, at the best, were indifferent to him. Sexual-intercourse 

alone was capable of releasing a will-to-approachment for a few 

fleeting moments. Beyond this there was also the attachment of 

the mother to her young which was of longer duration, of-course. 

By virtue of the greater possibilities of the human-consciousness, 

and also on account of the long beseeching helplessness of the 

off-spring, this maternal attachment developed into mother-love. 

Besides these two, new attachments grew. There sprang up 

feelings of friendship and fellowship. They all owed much, in 

their development, to the three wishes we have already dealt 

with. The greater, however, the wishes of the soul grew in 

power, the more did the soul itself have to suffer. It was the 

wish to apprehend truth which made man recognise that a 

similarity existed between his soul and the soul of his f ellowmen. 

The Wish-to-Goodness was the means of facilitating peace after 

war was over, and the Wish-to-Beauty found satisfaction in the 

peaceful harmony which the intervals during the combat yielded. 

It came natural, that, where the two older approachment-wills 

were already present (sexenthusiasm and love of the brood) a 

man should extend more easily his feelings to others of his kind. 

And so it came about, that, when man became domiciled, the 

feelings of his attachment stretched out to all those who were 

related to him in blood, irrespective of any affinity of a spiritual 

kind. In our days, the majority, actually, are not much farther 

than this primitive stage. And yet, even in those primitive 

times, when, as we have already observed, men were merely 

animated with a spirit of interest towards the beings around 

him who impressed him with hatred or indifference (expect for 

the fleeting moments of sexual-intercourse and ties of rela- 

tionship), men-of -genius lived who apprehended that there was 

a deeper and more diffusing love which took the whole folk 

related in blood into its arms, as well as mankind in general. The 

Indians, who were living at the time when the sin committed 

against the purity of race was doing its deadly work, began to 

preach the redemption doctrines of their Buddha and Krishna. 

They suddenly lost sight of the power which the love of family 

and folk yields in the maintenance of race and taught instead 

that it was a 'virtue* to love all men. The indiscrimination which 

mainly features the 'love your neighbour as yourself in Christ- 

ianity is even still worse in its effects. We must condemn the 

Krishna-creed on account of all the snares concealed in the love 

(without choice) for all men which it preaches, and we must set 

up new tables in its stead. (The Evangelists copied those legends, 

putting Jesus of Nazareth in Krishna's place.) Notwithstanding 

the fact, that this doctrine was powerless to hinder the growth 

of selfishness, (does not the work of charity assure one against 

hell?) it was, on the other hand, capacitated to alleviate much 

pain. 

We are not amazed to find that man could not imagine this 

fourth wish of the will to be other than purpose-fraught. And 

so the usual reward after death is promptly forth-coming. But, 

as it also is the cause of the tremendous conflict which exists 

between the fact of natural death and the wishes of the soul 

being felt more intensely, it is also the cause of the greater 

increase of the yearning innate in the breast of man for the 

eternal bliss which all the myths have promised. For it is exactly 

the feeling of love, we nourish for others which makes the 

separation caused by death so hard to bear and the fact of 

death's inevitability so incomprehensible. How few realise what 

death means until the death of any beloved one compells them 

to face it as a fact. How they still resemble Gilgamesh, although 

unlike him, they are not called upon to wander the long and 

rough way to Utnapishtim in order to receive the answer to 

their anxious inquiries; for Christianity gives them sweet 

comfort; they are told that their beloved dead has only gone 

before them to a place where separation will never take place 

again. Of-course this serves to tighten the dogmatic ties and 

silence the doubts which reason might eventually be putting 

forth. 

Notwithstanding all the stumbling-blocks which religious- 

errors and the habit of attaching purpose to spiritual matters 

put in the way of mankind, that sublime wish, innate in the 

soul of man, experienced in due course a grand exfoliation. But 

an end was put to this, as soon as reason, owing to the progress 

made in the knowledge of nature, destroyed the faith in the 

myth and instead succumbed to materialism in much the same 

way as the "Maya" sense of natural-science. If even religions 

were not immune to the fallacy of harnessing the four sublime 

wishes of the divine Will to the principle-of-utility, although 

they were indeed pervaded with a spirit of belief in the meta- 

physical and approached the mysterious, to a certain extent, 

in a spirit of humility, what can be expected of the Darwinian 

period? Verily, during this period the four wishes were indeed 

honoured with the exalted title 'usefulness' in a broader sense 

of the word and done in a spirit of greater self-consciousness 

and impudence, than ever before. They were confined strictly 

to the principles-of -utility in such a monotonous fashion as the 

Christians had never been able to do. The only two motives 

around which the Darwinian doctrine circles were, first, the 

advantage in the struggle-for-life, and secondly, the utility in 

the interest of the species 'humanity'. On this mean "Pro- 

crustean-bed" the four wishes were stretched out, and although 

it was not an easy task, it was done with zeal, until the four 

wishes were cut down to shape. Narrow-mindedness was never 

slow to nip in the bud the superlative beauty and richness of 

spiritual-life (which we have thought good to call God-living) 

in order to make it fit to the vision of a narrower horizon! 

The task of fitting the Wish-to-Goodness to the Procrustean- 

bed was undertaken lightly in that everything which did not 

belong exactly to the 'social virtues', known as charity, was 

rejected. To this, "Philanthropy" was added after it, also, had 

been cut down to conform with the health and interest of the 

'perpetual species'. 

This, however, did not mean that the august law controlling 

race should be minded, on the contrary; to these materialists 

the word 'species' meant nothing more than that promiscuous 

mass of humankind which they had termed 'humanity' and 

which had seemingly nothing in common with that race-purity 

under the suzerainity of which all the other animate beings 

stood. Thus then, 'philanthropy* and 'charity' meant serving 

humanity, or in other words, promiscuous crowds, and curiously 

enough the Darwinians proclaimed them to be duties towards 

2 5 6 

the preservation of the 'kind'. Men were called upon to sacrifice 

themselves in the interest of the 'perpetual kind* and as the 

'social virtues' found their proper place in this respect, an 

adequate explanation for their appearance in human nature was 

promptly found. It was said, that, within the process of evo- 

lution, these virtues had come mechanically into being through 

the laws ruling natural-selection, in about the same way, it was 

explained, as the claws in the cat-kind appeared, and therefore, 

there could be no more 'wonder' attached to them than there 

was to these. What a good explanation this is indeed! Especially 

when it is scrutinized more closely, for then we are called upon 

to remember all those in whom the Wish-to-Goodness really 

exists in its most glowing positive form. We can observe then, 

how, in the untiring-struggle-for-life, the good ones often fail 

and so have the very least chance of multiplying. And then 

there is another thing which evidently is forgotten, and that is, 

that the 'social instincts' constitute only a part of the Wish-to- 

Goodness and as such are far from exhausting the field of philan- 

thropy; that, moreover, the desire, inherent in the breast of man 

to love his own kindred folk and race, is the potency in the 

prime which upholds the maintenance of the 'species'. And it 

might be added, that the unpretentious ness which seems to 

characterise the apostles of the above mentioned creed is indeed 

itself a cultural marvel which is unprecedented. 

The Wish-to-Beauty seems to present more difficulties. It was 

not such an easy matter to accomodate it into the Procrustean- 

bed of the Darwinians. With all the effects which it manifests 

in the works of art, and the emotions which these cause, it is 

also put, of-course, into the service of the perpetual-kind, but 

its significance is but indirect and therefore subordinate. If a 

comparison might be drawn, it is of less importance than the 

bee's sting; for instance, although it still possesses sufficient value 

as to have been spared being completely eliminated in nature's 

process of selection. A factor on which the greatest value is laid 

is the appeal which beauty makes to sexuality. According to our 

developed sense of beauty, this is its crudest form. But here 

emphasis lies in the fact, that sexual-life is the strongest agent 

in the perpetuation of the immortal-kind. Therefore, from the 

Darwinian standpoint, the Wish-to-Beauty which is not con- 

nected with sex is of much less importance, and when manifested 

in the music of Beethoven or Bach, can only gain sense at 

all, when it affords pleasant intervals of recreation during the 

otherwise very tiring struggle-for-existence. Beauty then is 

given limited rights, for does not recreation invigorate the 

powers of man, so that he is able to serve with renewed strength 

the god which he now calls the perpetual race? This indeed 

seems another good explanation, although the fact is forgotten, 

that in creating and enjoying beauty, mankind can also be 

seduced to a state of indigence and incapacity, and be hindered 

therefore altogether from being able to partake in the practice 

of Social virtue'. 

We can hardly expect to find the Darwinian period intending 

to give such a clear view of the significance of art like I have 

just done. On the contrary, behind the notions of man's ascent 

to superman and progress, attempts were made to conceal their 

paucity of soul-life, allowing, of-course, for the cultural- values 

at any right moment to speak in here and there. Now, these 

conceptions were born of a neccessity, as being the indispensible 

consequences of the Darwinian world-viewpoint, despite the 

fact that its adherents have never had the courage themselves 

to confess to it openly in the light just described. The chemist 

Oswald perhaps is the exception. He confessed openly and 

courageously to the doctrine of mechanical-evolution even to its 

bitter ends. In the discourses he held on Sundays for the benefit 

of the Monistic congregation, he applied, seemingly in all good 

faith, his own doctrine of 'energetics* to the four divine-wishes. 

258 

This indeed is a striking witness of the historical culture of his 

times! Within the course of the Darwinian century these kind 

of conclusions became so taken for granted, that involuntary, 

without any necessity of their being loudly expressed they were 

the determining factors in the valuation of everything. If this 

had not been the case how on earth would those artists, (who 

were not exactly mentally deranged) in calling themselves, 

futurist's, cubists, dadaists and what nots, have taken the impud- 

ence to call their work art, if they had not been already tainted 

with the spirit of the Darwinian judgement which had already 

suffused the world. Consequently, works of art went parallel 

with the needs of man contained in a refreshment room adjoin- 

ing any factory. In order to fulfil their purposes, these had to 

come up or down to the 'taste* of the few or many as the case 

might have happened. Did they succeed in doing this, they 

were sure of being stamped as works of art. It simply required 

anyone or other, albeit he might have had no notions of what 

a conscious god-living was like at all, to proclaim that such 

rubbish 'appealed' to him, and at once it was stamped with the 

hall-mark of 'art*. This meant, in reality, that these 'artistic' 

works had been elevated to the important and useful state of 

functioning as a welcome refreshment in the midst of the 

strenuous struggles of gaining a living! 

The easiest to adapt itself to the Procrustean-bed was the 

wish for knowledge of truth. Natural-science proved its 

importance, and so it was allowed to manifest itself accordingly. 

In effect, the researcher-sense had aided not a little in the 

struggle-for-life. The Wish-to-Truth was granted acknowledge- 

ment because its activity helped to 'save energy' which in the 

words of Oswald was also a gain in an 'ethical' sense. Thus then, 

it was found fit to serve the new god. Again this also appears 

to be a good explanation, but its justification requires one to 

forget, that the potentially strongest Wish for Truth is mani- 

fested in philosophical-research. Now, philosophy was never 

great in alleviating the material burdens imposed on man in his 

struggle-for-existence, much less save 'energy*. It was thought 

to be a 'pity', that so much time had been lost in the work of 

research, when the results were of so little practical use; although 

something was found which could still be said in its favour. It 

was this: The results of research- work might fructuate in the 

future into the achieved facts and so become one day of use 

in the general struggle-for-life. Hence, of their own virtue they 

were not any worthier of more attention than, let us say, the 

colour spots which were the origin of "Mimicry". Has not 

Darwin so ably convinced us that the widespread habit of 

imitating colour which later took place in the animal-world 

originated from these spots through natural selection? This is 

what the Wish-to-Truth looks like from the Darwinian point- 

of-view. It is more than obvious what little scope was given to 

its development, for how often have we been able to observe the 

fact, that, during the Darwinian period, the scientific research- 

ers seemed blind to the most essential truths come to light 

in the study of the evolution-history. They held fast with a sur- 

prising tenacity to any absurdity, simply because it helped them 

in their denial of God. 

Such was the fate then in the 19th and 20th century of those 

sublime wishes which once had been called the "Voice of God". 

After the experience of Darwinism, one might well say how near 

the truth men were, when they used this expression, for, in spite 

of all other facts, (for instance, the abuse of the divine wishes, 

in that they were strictly kept within the limits of man's own 

aprioristicai form of thought which courses through space, time 

and causality) men seemed well aware at least, that the wishes 

had their origin in a 'beyond', where these forms of thought 

were not. 

Verily, they are born in a 'beyond' where cause, space, and 

260 

time are not, for they are exalted far 'beyond* the conditional, 

be it in time, space or causality. Cause they know not. The 

touchstone of wisdom will remain beyond the reach of man, as 

long as he cannot grasp the fact that it is futile to want to 

apprehend the divine-wishes innate within him by the means 

of his reason's potencies, for they are absolutely beyond his form 

of thought. Now, in order to make ourselves intelligible, we 

should like to call these four wishes in future, either by the 

name of "God", "the Divine Wish", or the "Wish-to-Genius". 

We are doing this, in spite of the prevailing fact that the name 

of "God" has been so abused in that the religions always talk 

of a personal God. We are obliged, therefore, to draw a sharp 

line between the achieved fruits of our cognisance, and such 

misconceptions of God, in order to keep us clearly apart, as well 

as we must keep apart from any of those notions relating to 

"Pantheism". The doctrines of Pantheism teach; that God exists 

in man in much the same degree but not more than in the rest 

of nature. From this fact then it must be concluded that man 

can carry no greater responsibility for his actions than to the 

extent of the power which has been given to him. What we 

declare is this: God exists in all things (in aller Erscheinung), 

although the state of God's consciousness in all things varies 

greatly. It was due to Schopenhauer when it became general 

knowledge, that the Will, known to exist in all the animate 

beings, existed also in the inorganic world. Incidently, however, 

Schopenhauer did not give the attention which is due to the four 

divine-wishes. Contrary to Schopenhauer, we recognise that, in 

the existence of just these wishes, the potency lies which enables 

man to live his soul-life. In having perceived the following we 

have even gone further. One of these four divine-wishes, the 

one we have called the Wish-to-Beauty manifested itself visibly, 

although still unconsciously, in the "Inorganic" world already, 

more distinctly in the living beings of the 'organic' world of 

prehuman times, and in a fully conscious state in man, after 

reason had awakened. As the elevated position which man takes 

among all the rest is due exactly to the consciousness of the 

divine wishes, we cannot help saying, that from a philosophical 

point of view, those men only can be considered to belong to 

the Hyperzoa who, not only live according to the grace of their 

reason, but also consciously according to the divine-wishes. 

Moreover, all mankind is included in the conception "Hy- 

perzoa" in as much as all are attended by the possibility of 

the divine-wishes within them awakening to consciousness one 

day or other, although it cannot be denied that for the majority 

there is little probability of their ever doing so, because they 

have been allowed to grow so stunted. 

The divine wishes do not suffer themselves to be fettered to 

one particular faculty of our consciousness, but instead, they 

penetrate the whole soul-life with the rays of their glory. And 

yet each wish, at the same time, seems to have chosen a favourite 

spot from where it desires to manifest itself; or in other words, 

each sublime wish has evidently chosen a special colour where- 

with it may be distinguished, and therefore we must take to 

different words in order to give expression to these different 

colours. Hence, potency is given to our reason through the 

Wish-to-Truth, to our actions through the Wish-to-Goodness, to 

our perception through the Wish-to-Beauty, and to our feeling 

through the Wish-to-Divine-Hate and Love. We shall soon 

comprehend, how futile it is to want to form definitions of 

these wishes. Rational thinking can work disaster to the appre- 

hending soul; Schopenhauer is an adequate example of how 

disastrous these consequences can be. Evidently even this super- 

lative philosopher could not escape the disease of his day, the 

name of which is Rationalism. He became so far infected with 

it, as to be able to call those three words, goodness, truth and 

beauty the clumsy phrases of superficial philosophers, just 

262 

because really superficial thinkers had tried so industriously to 

give a definition of these wishes, gushing over them in silly talk, 

and, also, because freemasonry had monopolised them, in order 

to conceal crimes which in these phrases were lauded. 

The distinguishing mark which characterises each divine-wish, 

as well as the God-life they cause in the soul, is the happy 

unconcern exhibited towards time, space and causality. We 

assume rightly, therefore, when we declare them to be beyond 

the reach of reason's researching. Reason can cope with the 

visible-scene (Welt der Erscheinung), but its potencies are inept 

to cope with the invisible (Wesen der Erscheinung). Hence, it 

comes natural to say, that we are living in realms beyond, when 

the divine-wishes come to life, and the soul in all full conscious- 

ness is steeped in the experience of them. The expression serves 

to distinguish such kind of experiences from others subject to 

reason, and which are described generally as belonging to 'here 

on earth'. Now we are fully aware of the risks we run in making 

use of the same expressions, should my books be ever distributed 

among Christian populations. It is common knowledge, that all 

the Christians are under the sway of certain conceptions they 

have formed of heaven, and which they also call the 'beyond'. 

To make ourselves understood properly, we are, unfortunately, 

obliged to use the same expressions which are bound up so 

closely with the notions of time and space. But we may not pass 

on, without emphasizing the fact, that the meaning of words 

which stand for the trends of the divine will such as beyond 

should in every case be made faultlessly clear in the first place. 

We know that God exists in all human kind, although more often 

than not men suffer the God in them to lie inert. When it comes 

to pass, that in a single individual one of the wishes of the 

Divine- Will has been given the priviledge of particular develop- 

ment, so as to become an appearance, (in Erscheinung) (as is the 

case when a work of art appears), such we shall call "Men of 

genius". A man in whom the Wish-to-Goodness has been part- 

icularly developed can also be described as a man imbued with 

the wish-to-genius, in that he has been able to create a work of 

art out of his own soul which is then manifested to others in 

his words and actions. 

In history, witness is given to the fact, that not infrequently, 

it becomes the rule for one of the divine wishes to be specially 

developed in the soul of man. The grander then the effect is 

(perhaps on account of its rarity) when all the wishes develope 

to their superlative height at the same time which makes an 

appeal to us to reserve for such individuals only the title of 

'Perfection'. 

What a sublime appearance in the history of mankind do 

perfect men afford, especially when we compare them to other 

men of the creative-spirit in whom one wish only has succeeded 

in growing to virtue. For-instance, how grieving it is to observe 

how degenerate the WIsh-to-Goodness was in so many artists 

of the Renaissance-period, and how degenerate the Wish-to- 

Beauty which the world-religions reveal. 

Because the growth of virtue in one wish only, instead of 

all in unison, is so often encountered in the course of our 

experiences, it might be conjectured, that all the divine-wishes 

existed independently of each other, and moreover that all that 

was requisite is the growth of that special wish which a work 

of art symbolisies. 

In one way this is right; but for the Wish-to-Goodness (which 

finds its expression in actions of a divine nature) there must be 

reserved a regal place, but not because we are falling into the 

same habit, as the religions had, in that all the other wishes 

were put under the Wish-to-Goodness. Nor do we think a 

moralising tendency in art its proper function. Yet one thing 

cannot be denied, and that is, no matter what work of art we 

look at, it is certain to reveal the degree of goodness which its 

264 

master has attained. I should like, in respect to this, to draw 

an example from the world of science. Chemistry knows of a 

substance which, by its mere presence, causes the decomposition 

of other substances, although the substance itself remains un- 

changed (Catalysis). In like manner, the Wish-to-Goodness, by 

its mere presence, causes the improvement of the other wishes. 

The greater the creative-spirit is inflamed by the graceful 

presence of the Wish-to-Goodness, the more this grows in virtue 

itself. The presence of the achieved work-of-art is the cause of 

this. Thus then, the Wish-to-Goodness fructifies the works-of- 

art, and these, again, for their part, aid in strengthening and 

developing the Wish-to-Goodness in the creator. Afterwards 

the finished work-of-art tells of this mutual promotion and 

enrichment. To those watchful eyes among the public gazing at 

it, it reveals plainly, in what manner and to what degree the 

process happened. Once Beethoven defined this. In a convers- 

ation with Bettina von Arnim he said: "The moral-sense lies 

at the foundation of music just as well at it does in all the other 

arts. Every genuine emotion is a moral step forward in the 

labours of progress." 

The power of developing the divine- Will in its trends to 

Goodness, beauty truth and discriminated feelings-of-love-and- 

hate is a possibility which is given to each and every one, 

provided, of -course, the soul is kept alive. It has certainly not 

been the priviledge reserved to the men of perfection or the 

men of genius only. In order to succeed in the progress of spiri- 

tual-development it is necessary to keep the divine-wishes pure. 

The purpose- fraught- thought may not contaminate them; so 

that men and women should be recommended to-day to break 

away, especially, from the creeds preaching of punishment and 

reward. The God within us will begin to exfoliate as soon as we 

can say to ourselves honestly; I do good, I search the truth, I 

long for beauty, my feelings of love and hate are guided by 

choice, but not because I want eternal bliss hereafter, nor earthly 

goods, nor even spiritual-happiness and inner-peace, for these 

are designs and intentions of a self-seeking character, but simply 

because I want to of my own free will which is beyond any 

purpose; and therefore noble men will very easily overcome all 

these difficulties, save perhaps for the last mentioned one which 

is spiritualised 'eudemonism'. Now this might seem absurd at 

first! For, are we not accustomed to think that the profundity 

of our soul-life (a state which above everything else might be 

entitled to be called happiness) arises from the divine qualities 

within us? What, for instance, can afford us greater delight 

than to look at the work of any great painter or sculptor! All 

the pleasures of an every-day-kind dwindle besides these. It 

seems so true, for the more a man has been priviledged to 

partake of the bliss belonging to the realms beyond, as well as 

that he knows also what superficial joys are like, the less will 

he be inclined to exchange his estate with the man who has 

failed to cultivate the love of genius within himself. Yet, what 

a fallacy this is in spite of its apparent truth. For one reason. If 

a man has been capable of entering those realms where God 

reigns supreme through the victory gained by the divine wishes 

within him, he will most assuredly partake of that joy the 

profundity of which alone is due to God; but neither will he be 

spared the immeasureable pain (so great sometimes as to shatter 

his very soul) which is also a part of the life in God. What are 

the pains and sorrows of the less nobler man compared to his? 

They are indeed dwarflikc. What here is called pain and suffer- 

ing appear to him to be mere discomfort or superficial sadness, 

and what is called joy mere pleasure when measured to his. In 

his aspiring flight to God, man is so often wounded, that pain 

becomes inevitable. Suffering frequents his heart more often than 

joy does, so that there is no justification whatever in saying 

that triumphal God-living brings inevitable happiness. Ample 

266 

witness can be found for this, when we stop to observe the lives 

of men in whom the divine-wishes have fructified into achieved 

works of art, and whose behaviour besides, in their endeavours 

towards the accomplishment of genius, shows how devoid they 

were of any mean or petty purposes of a self-seeking kind. It 

can be found then, that the nobler men are not a whit happier 

than the less nobler, callously-indifferent men of the world. On 

the contrary, when their lives are being described, one thinks 

more of martyrdom than anything else. And, although the spirit 

of degeneration which characterises all the Christian peoples, 

together with the heinous crimes of the "Secret Societies" which 

cause a great deal of their misery, the chief cause of all their 

suffering is due to their own superiority which, by the very law 

of its being, brings pain in its wake like unto no other in its 

intensity. In as much as this means, that the more potential the 

divine traits in man are, the greater will his capacity be for 

sorrow or joy; it also means, the more immune he will grow 

to the influence of superfmal joys and sorrows, until in the end, 

his soul is liberated from them altogether, in that the signific- 

ance, attributed to them, dies away. Buddhism also taught this, 

although rather onesidely. Moments can happen wherein the 

soul is utterly free form sentiments of either joy or sorrow. But 

this freedom does not come of the contempt of joy and sorrow, 

as it is taught in Buddhistic circles, for the simple reason, that 

joy and sorrow characteristic of God, can never be despised by 

men who live according to the divine spirit within them. Neither 

are the joys and sorrows which happen in the daily routine to 

be despised. They are merely less important in comparison to 

those of the spiritual-kind. It is a freedom from that emotional 

state, caused by pain and sorrow which, in its kind, is indeed 

unique; and although it is impossible to describe a state of the 

soul-life in words, because this the soul itself alone can live, I 

should nevertheless like to give utterance to possibilities of a 

267 

twofold kind leading to it. If the endeavours of a man to trans- 

form his imperfect nature have not yet fructuated into the 

achieved state of perfection which, as a consequence, causes him 

to sway alternately from the life 'here* to the life 'beyond', his 

first experience in the realms of God will be marked by a strong 

emotion of the soul which utterly fails description, except for 

the single word "Exstasy". Hysterical conditions of a diseased 

mind are often mistaken for this. Now if the state of exaltation 

issues from a healthy frame of mind and not from a diseased 

one, the cause is either a noble sorrow or joy. These can shatter 

the soul to its foundations, and then a man will say, "I was 

overcome with a deep emotion". If, on the other hand, the cause 

of man's exaltation is neither sorrow nor joy but merely a 

gliding of the soul into the life of God, the word 'contemplation* 

is used in order to describe this state of mind. Yet it cannot be 

described by the means of reason, nor is it comparable to any 

other experience which happens in the general course of super- 

ficial life. In fine, its peace is not in the least of the kind generally 

known. Real art seldom results from the labours undertaken 

when the artist is shaken by the state of his emotions. A master- 

piece, modelled on lines of perfection, is born of the fruits of 

contemplation, or after the shattered emotional state has been 

calmed down to succeed in contemplation. It will chance, most 

likely, that the conception of a work of art will be born during 

the time the soul is shaken with its emotions, but the actual 

creation of the work-of-art happens when only the memory of 

these are left. Thus, master-pieces appear on the visible scene 

(Welt der Erscheinung) which manifest superbly the God-living 

of the artist. Either the emotional joyful or sorrowful state of 

the soul is revealed, or the state of the soul in emotionless 

contemplation. This distinction is seen the clearest in musical 

works. Beethoven's works are more of the emotional than the 

contemplative kind. The listener, who has gone through kindred 

268 

states of emotion, will feel the deeper accordingly; Bach's works 

reveal peaceful meditation for the most part and therefore can 

be better understood from a contemplative point-of-view. 

I would be a great mistake to think of the emotional and the 

contemplative works as being different to each other in their 

value and probably want to arrange them in a scale of order 

according to their value. This would mean using measures of 

a very unjust and forcible kind. Two paintings can never differ 

in their value, simply because the one leads us to the stages of 

emotionless contemplation, and the other, through the beauty 

of the sadness or joy depicted, to realms of divine vitality. 

Observe then, that God-living does not exact the elimination 

of sentiment, as it is put forth in the salvation-creed of Buddha, 

nor does God-living require sentiment. Therefore, it is evident 

that God-living is fully independent of happiness or unhappi- 

ness, just as it is not contrary to purpose but fully independent 

of it. 

All we have just been saying about God-living must be 

thought of as the mere hint of something which every attempt 

to describe in words, or seize with our reasoning powers will 

forever remain futile. God-living belongs to the consciousness 

of a higher grade, the nature of which differs very widely from 

the lower grades; so much so, that if a man has not yet been 

admitted into this state of higher consciousness, it will remain 

such a mystery to him as to be quite beyond his imagination. 

This situation is similar to the animals in that these are utterly 

unaware of the different grades of consciousnes which man is 

familiar with in his daily life. This incapacity accounts for the 

rampant lack of judgement which such men, above mentioned, 

manifest, when face to face with any master-piece of art, how 

these possess the power of leading mankind to God. This does 

not mean to say, that the art-critics know nothing of the value 

of art. They do, of-course, in a certain measure. For, in that a 

269 

work of art is visible to the eye and therefore arranged in time 

and space, reason has been able to collect an abundance of 

points-of -support, according to which the value of art can be 

duly measured. Yet at some time or other the actual ignorance 

of all these critics comes to light. For instance, when they give 

praise to the work of an artist and call it a model of perfection, 

while to all, who have ears to hear and eyes to see, it manifests 

mere talent; because the work is not born of God-living. In spite 

of all their theoretical knowlegde, and the competency of the 

judgement which issues from their reason, these critics of the 

fine-arts will still remain impotent as long as they lack that 

inexorable sureness which is the distinguishing mark in the 

judgement of men who have experienced for themselves the life 

in God. A last but most important lack of sureness will always 

be obvious in their criticism, especially when a painting or 

sculpture must be judged the first time. Petty imitations are apt 

to be praised for their 'originality* or their 'novel' traits, while 

better productions which clearly reveal the divine spirit, in 

which the artist was living while they were being made, are 

rejected, simply because they are thought to be lacking in 'novel' 

traits. In short, the ignorance, that the latter have their origin 

in a 'beyond* is clearly revealed. It is a curious thing, but this 

lack of noble judgement is to be found mostly in the actual 

lovers or 'connoisseurs of art*. The last word is indeed well 

chosen, for it tells the tale, how men will always strive to seize 

God with their reasoning potencies. Apparently, the study, they 

have made in the theory of art, has been the cause of their 

actual impotency to judge art. A peasant woman might be 

deemed a worthier and more reliable judge, when, for a rare 

sublime moment, her soul is capable of being lifted away above 

the turbulent life of this world into the realms of God which 

the noble masterpiece, she is contemplating, reveals to her! 

Art can ring true only in the fulfilment of its right function 

270 

which is in the manifestation of the life, born in the realms 

beyond. It is then identical with God. To this fact men must 

be fully alive when they take to study the laws of the rhythm, 

light, form and sound pertaining to the visible world (Erschei- 

nungswelt). Observe now, on the other hand, the sureness and 

self-confidence which will inevitably characterise the opinions 

of that man, who, in his judgement of art, is vitally conscious 

of the divine within himself as well as the divine in the art 

before him. Moreover, the stronger the divine features grow 

within him, the more capable will this man be of judging, if 

the art before him is the work of a man whose soul was dead or 

not, as well as he likewise can rightly judge, if the souls of the 

critics are dead or not! 

But it is not only in art, that it has become the custom for 

the least capable ones to express audaciously their opinions. It 

is alike everywhere in the fields of God-living. It is always the 

man, who does not possess the necessary support of a higher 

grade of consciousness, who is actually the one distributing 

opinion. 

I repeat, that the life in the realms of God is characterised 

by its independency of joy and sorrow and its superiority to 

intentions of any kind. In fact it is very far above these and 

is indeed the life 'sui generis*. Yet time and space can form the 

link between the 'here* and 'there*. Has it an connection with 

these? We can happily deny this also. 

The realms of God are even beyond time and space. Yet 

bridges, by means of which man is capable of entering the 

spaceless and timesless realms of God, can be constructed. The 

works of art which have been created in memory of the life, 

spent in God's realms, the fulfilments of the Wish-to-Goodness 

and emotions of a divine trend manifest in noble actions, the 

unconscious Wish-to-Beauty, made apparent in all things, the 

Wish-to-Truth, come to life in scientific nij 

we can think of, which lead to the realms where man can live 

God's life. 

In order to be able to understand better what the timelessness 

of the 'beyond' means, let us just think a while how little the 

exactitude of time means to a man who happens to go through 

'interest', c weariness s , 'pain* or 'joy'! Interest and joy make 

months or weeks appear to be mere moments. Weariness and 

pain stretch hours to the length of eternity. In such cases, a man 

is labouring merely under illusions which govern his feelings 

detaching him for a while from time. By no means is he existent 

in that state where time is not. In dreams we are even more 

deceived about time. (According to experiments, the most 

dreams are dreamt in the few seconds before a man awakens.) 

There is no stretching or shortening of time, as is the case when 

pain or joy are experienced. Yet in dreams we can experience 

years of pain and sorrow, lead long conversations, and think 

out long problems. This shows plainly what can happen to the 

soul when left to its own devices, in that it is without the control 

of the potencies of reason. With magical speed it changes its life 

from one state to another. Its emancipation from the actuality 

of time is amazing. A condition which is utterly unknown in 

the wakeful state of every day life. Notwithstanding all this it 

is not the timeless state of the beyond. For the simple reason 

that in some way or other it is bound up with time in its estim- 

ation of 'long' and 'short', in spite of its wilful behaviour and 

ill-adjustment to the beat of the time which the earth takes to 

turn on its axis. 

After this, one might assume, that life in the realms of God 

is in a still greater measure under the rule of time, than life 

is in the dream-state. Do not the divine emotions of the soul 

which awaken at the sight of the beauties of art or nature appear 

to be of a duration shorter than the actual time, comparable 

to the experience of pleasant sentiments which we are familiar 

with in our superficial life? Have we not all of us, at one time 

or other, laboured under the illusion that the time spent in 

contemplation of a masterpiece of art had passed in the briefness 

of a few 'seconds'? Yet, inspite of its apparent plausibility this 

assumption is erroneous. Let us think deeper. Now, a melancholy 

picture, simply because of its melancholy nature, does not 

necessarily make time appear longer, for we are liable to 

deception in such cases quite irrespective of the nature of our 

sentiments. Observe then, how the wilfulness of the illusion is 

again of a unique kind. In reality however, the point is; when 

men are in such moods of contemplation, they have managed 

generally to have reached the bridges leading to God where they 

are then lingering. The participation in the actual life beyond 

is not yet theirs. It seems as if many a year must pass before 

the divine is sufficiently awakened within the soul of man as 

to allow of him to enter into the realms of God-living! It might 

then happen, much later in life, that the picture or landscape 

which once had enticed our steps to walk along the bridge, where 

the fetters of time could not encumber us, rises so vividly before 

our sight as to make us succeed this time really in entering the 

realms of God in all full consciousness. All this, however, is not 

a preliminary essential, for at the very first acquaintance with 

God as manifested in art, there is the likelihood of a man being 

priviledged to enter God's realms. The majority of mankind, 

however, stop at the bridge, which of -course they deem to be 

the sublimest of all experiences, and, inspite of their frequency 

to the bridges leading to the beyond, they seem to remain for- 

ever incapacitated to participate in the God-living awaiting 

them. Beethoven was so aware of this fact when he said: 

"Therefore many are acquainted with music, yet they still 

remain ignorant of what it strives to reveal". Indeed few are 

'chosen', but not, as is so widely imagined, through the injustice 

of 'an act of grace'. Those have been 'chosen' who themselves 

have given scope to those potencies of the soul innate in all men. 

Now, should any man be anxious to find out, if he belong to the 

'few* or the 'many', he has but to examine closely the nature of 

his God-living (Gotterleben). He must be able to discriminate 

if his enthusiasm for art or nature have been dictated by a 

suggestive power coming from out of his surroundings, or if its 

origin is to be found in the potency of its own virtues. Now 

if this remains still inconceivable to him, that means to say, 

if the enlivenment, which his soul has received when God has 

met him in art or nature, has been effected through suggestive 

powers coming from those around him, it is certain, that, not- 

withstanding all the love he cherishes for art, science, nature and 

man, he knows not the life 'beyond'; he has been merely linger- 

ing on the bridges for all these, in the inefficient way, he has 

embraced them, in fine, are merely the bridges and nothing more. 

Moreover, that man, who gets accustomed to frequent the 

divine-bridges, without making any attempts to enter the 

'realms beyond* then, turning back regularly to the superficial 

life familiar to him, will run great risks of enfeebling his chances 

of ever attaining a God-living, in that the 'animation* and 

'enjoyment', he constantly receives, will make him incapable of 

doing so. The rarer ones among men, the chosen 'few', however, 

are just as capable by the virtue of their own inner powers, as 

they are independent on outer influences, to ascend into the 

realms of God. Even were they doomed to be fettered down to 

a spot on earth, where no traces of art or culture exist, they 

would, nevertheless, remain of their own accord in the paths 

of God, although it goes without saying, that there is nothing 

which could mean greater bliss to them, than the crossing of 

those divine-bridges of beauty (each so different 'individually') 

which lead to divine life. By the grace of the selfsame natural 

ease they can enter the realms of God as well as leave the bridges 

to return. There is no coercive force or laws which compell them; 

and this God-living of theirs has nothing in common whatever 

with hysterical extasies, methodistic systems and mystical 

experiences. 

But once they are in God's realms, in conciousness of a higher 

grade, they are partaking in the life which is timeless and space- 

less. That means to say, they have become utterly oblivious of 

time and space which belongs to the realms of intellect only! 

While God-living is happening, it matters little if a thousand 

years or only a second slips by; the soul is completely indiffer- 

ent to the span of time! Owing to this complete releasement, 

men-of-genius are so lost after their return 'here'; they are 

obliged once again to suit themsleves to reason's form of thought, 

in that the present be linked up as a matter of course with the 

time before their God-living had happened. This would be 

tremendously difficult were clocks not ticking the time and 

calendars recording days. Their return within the bounds of 

time make them want, subsequently, to annex the notion of 

time to the life experienced in God's realms; a thing which had 

been impossible while it was happening. However one little 

word seems to them to be alone adequate. It is "Eternal". 

After their return again 'here', nothing for a while seems more 

incomprehensible than that they themselves are still living and 

their children also. Accordingly, their leife, arranged in time, 

grows more in the nature of a dream; not that they live it less 

keener than their fellowmen, who are unaware of an existence 

other than the one bound up within the limits of time: It is 

merely found wanting in interest and spirit when compared to 

the depth and profundity of his God-living. It were futile to 

want to elicit more about that timeless existence in God. 

Descriptions of every kind will always remain but vain endea- 

vours, because our world of thought is completely subject to the 

powers of reason. 

Hence, this means that all we are capable of saying in our 

endeavours to describe that existence of the soul of man which 

you know now to be God-living, and which is that state of 

consciousness which is on the highest level, is this: It is oblivious 

of any sense of time. The influence, it exercises, is of such a kind 

as to make us attune our lives to the conviction, that our God- 

living alone is reality, and that this reality is clothed in manifold 

garments as is presented to us in the visible-world (Welt der 

Erscheinung) around us. After our soul has succeeded in asserting 

itself so far as to have achieved a certain high degree in the 

enfoldment of God-living, it remains in this condition. Then 

we are capable of sinking into contemplation; in complete 

'oblivion* of the visible- world (Welt der Erscheinung), without 

any necessity of diligently pursuing intentions. For this reason 

it seems so curious, funny almost, to watch men (Theosophs) 

exhaust themselves in their endeavours to attain God-living 

through daily 'practice of concentration', while in reality, it 

is given to man in such a natural and graceful way and can never 

be gained through artificial means! 

Once a man has gained entrance into the exalted realms 

which are beyond those, where time, space and causality are, he 

knows of a certainty, that he has attained the true dwelling- 

place of his soul; absent, he always longs to return and is glad 

of the bridges, that is, the images of God which others have 

created in works of art and wisdom. And when his own spirit 

has grown in resembling God efficiently, he begins, earnestly 

and intelligently, in loving remembrance of the God-living he 

has experienced, to create similar immortal divine images. Yet 

the gradual ascent in the Godward direction remains the 

sublimest part of all his life. The more often he has succeeded 

in crossing over the bridges, the less will the world enthrall him. 

In fine, all his thoughts and actions he dedicates solely to God. 

Even the sheer superficial wants which remain are given nobility 

because of the divine touch which always accompanies them. 

276 

We have said God-living was timeless. Now, does not time- 

lessness mean the opposite to timeness? Would it not be more 

proper in respect to the deeper sense of the word, to say 

"Eternity" instead of "Unendlessness" when we think of that 

state which is oblivious of a sense of time? Moreover, is not the 

entrance into the realms of timelessness and the conscious 

participation of the same a personal kind of life immortal 

(Eternity), the participation of which, in the spiritual sense, is 

more profound than the unendless existence of the unicell? In 

effect, is not this the fulfilment of the unquenchable desire for 

immortality which persists in all the soma-cells, inspite of their 

doomful decay and death? 

When man imagined 'Eternity' to mean 'without an end* his 

conception was right, in so far as it embraced the inner nature 

(Wesen) of all visible-things (Erscheinung), but when he went 

so far as to believe that he himself would participate con- 

sciously in eternity, without its ever ending, his conceptions 

became stigmatised with error and fallacy; for his conscious 

"Self" may enter the "Beyond" only under certain conditions 

during his life-time. Never at all, after death! Now, as time has 

no significance in the realms beyond, it would matter little how 

long his participation in the same would last. What might he 

care, if it lasted a billion or even more years. In God-living 

there is no sense of time, especially when it is borne in mind 

how 'fleeting' the experiences of daily life appear when com- 

pared to the soul's experience of God-living which always bears 

the mark of 'eternity' and is therefore 'everlasting*. 

Thus then, through the process of development, the Immortal- 

Will deepens and spiritualises, to realise its fulfilment in the 

grown consciousness of the wishes of the Divine- Will. Instead 

of the unconscious unendless existence in the timeness of the 

unicell, the Immortal- Will is given the conscious endless exist- 

ence in the timelessness, called 'eternity 1 ! 

Such a transformation might appear at first to be impossible. 

Observe then, how all life reveals an ardent desire to live for- 

ever. Likewise man. All the myths contain a promise to man of 

a life everlasting after death which is to be found in a beyond 

as the realisation of that wish. It can certainly not be from the 

effects of deeper thought, but more from want of thought, that 

a wish of such kind should have taken root so long. Men seem 

still blind to the fact, how like hell in heaven that kind of 

Ahasver fate would be, which, according to his knowledge of 

time, he thinks to be unendless. 

It is not unendlessness, but a state which is beyond any sense 

of time which the awakened soul of man, from its dawn forth, 

requires for a conscious participation. Now, should the achieve- 

ment of the state beyond time be actually possible before death, 

the participation in it would have to satisfy the demands of 

the Immortal-Will proper to a conscious soul; also the desire 

to participate would be felt, as long, only, as any consciousness 

existed. (Therefore during life and not after death.) But is not 

this conception identical with the 'kingdom of God on earth' 

contained in the myths? That divine kingdom perchance which 

we can participate in during our lifetime albeit in a very 

imperfect way? 

The following will soon enlighten us. The world-point-of- 

view (Weltauffassung), morals and the paths which the fruits 

of our cognisance lead to differ very widely from those, con- 

tained in doctrines teaching of a beyond after death or on earth, 

albeit here of an imperfect kind. 

Whenever, on our way to knowledge, it was our good fortune 

to encouter any sublime truth which, on account of the absence 

of general knowledge had been perceived by others of the past 

in the light of revelation, we were filled with a sense of deep 

satisfaction. This cannot be otherwise, for even without the 

help of general knowledge and intuition all men are given the 

278 

possibility of attaining God-living. Ten years after I had finished 

the present work (during its preparation for the new edition) 

I came across something written by Schleiermacher who was a 

staunch Christian. "To be united to the unendless and thus be 

eternal every moment of our lives means being immortal in the 

midst of the endness." If anything, this seems a contradiction to 

the doctrines he preached, namely he believed in immortal-life 

after death. Yet what has just been said fits in capitally with 

our cognisance of God. 

Faith and cognisance however are two different things. 

Because we have succeeded in holding fast all along the line to 

truth, belonging to reason, (Evolution History) without having 

had to give up a single inch of the ground we gained intuitively, 

we have been given the sovereign right to call the attention of 

all the faithful to this fact which is, that the myths, they believe 

in, must be condemned as errors, inspite of all the right suspic- 

ions they contain. And now it will be seen among all who have 

gone so far with us which ones have really and rightly under- 

stood the truths, revealed in the Evolution-History. Whosoever 

has steeped his thoughts in the truth of the irrevocable and 

inevitable decay of the body-cells which all the multicellular- 

beings possess and faced the hard fact, that the soul participates 

in all the daily tribulations which those serving-cells have to 

suffer, he will know that: consciousness is lost for ever, when 

in death the cell-state returns to inorganic substance or, in other 

words, unconscious visibility (Erscheinung). He knows that not 

even the monotone life, proper to the unicellular-being, remains. 

He knows in fact, that that visible form we call "I" has dis- 

appeared forever. 

Now, we, for our part, have learned this truth in conscious 

endeavour. But it thrusts itself at times even on the mind of the 

most pious Christian, who actually believes in a life hereafter. 

For instance, how cruelly does the fact of natural-death thrust 

itself on him, when he stands at the death-bed of someone he 

has loved! 

The reality overwhelms him at the open grave! Face to face 

with death, the stern reality of truth fills his soul for a while 

with doubts in the creed he adheres to. He is almost startled at 

his own 'heresy'. After the grave is closed, the words of com- 

fort which he whispers to himself or those which the priest is 

in the habit of using help him to regain his equilibrium and with 

it his faith again in the existence of a heaven and hell. Yet, 

notwithstanding this fact, in those moments of doubt, his soul 

had been touched with truth's graveness and calm. Thus he 

might have queried: How can the personality of the dead man 

be preserved, if the smile, essential to it, disappears along with 

the dead man's lips! Was not each and every cell necessary to 

make just that particular smile appear? The way he walked, 

the turn of his head, the sound of his voice, and the expression, 

peculiar to his eyes, were habits noting the oneness and unique- 

ness of the character native to him. It was the cooperation of all 

these single features of his which made up his personality. In 

fact he could not be thought of at all without them. Like his 

conscious life, they also were caused through the workings of 

his body-cells which now for ever have disappeared in death. 

They have turned to dust. 

In effect, when death is happening, it will come home to the 

staunchest believer in heaven, that the myth of immortality, he 

puts his faith in, is just as incapable of giving him any assurance 

of his personal immortality as the doctrine of Darwin is which 

teaches of the immortality of the species as being the promise 

of life immortal. Let the Will-to-Truth make us strong in the 

bitter times, caused through the loss of any dear friend, and 

make us capable to understand, that beyond the grave personal- 

life is not! 

Yet the selfsame consciousness which has been the means of 

280 

helping us to seize this grave truth is also the means of saving 

us from being separated from the departed! Our "I" is capable 

of gliding into a beyond which is not distinguished by a yester- 

day, to-day or to-morrow, so that the once-experienced and the 

experience of to-day are equal in their vitality. We can live 

hours and hours over again in company with the departed friend, 

provided his character and actions have left a deep enough 

impression on our minds, and also, if the mutual exchange of 

the treasures, proper to the beyond, actually took place during 

his lifetime. Therefore, there but remains for the one living- 

longer, to have power enough to enter the realms beyond in 

order to enjoy the company of one who is dead; and verily this 

experience is of a profounder nature than any other experience 

can yield which is in the way of a remembrance of a mere 

superficial kind. Hence, as long as the one, who is remembering, 

still lives, no real separation can take place, notwithstanding 

the fact, that the consciousness of the departed one is forever 

effaced. Yet we are lost completely to the one dead, but of his 

loss he has no feeling. This is the kindness and peace which 

death means. Moreover, this is also the gist of truth contained 

in the otherwise crude, materialistic doctrine which maintains 

the direct intercourse with departed 'spirits', generally known 

as spiritism. The gist of truth which of-course is absolutely free 

of any of the notions which are likely to be of a supertitious 

kind, such as, that the spirits are still living and are capable of 

reappearing. Once in possession of this truth, we shall no more 

be forsaken when face to face with death; it will give us strength 

to bear even the most cruel sting. Thus then, in all full con- 

sciousness, that the beloved one, we have just lost in death, has 

gone forever, we gaze once more at the peacefulness revealed in 

his features. This last vision of him, as a remembrance of the 

greatest solemnity, will act like a kindly light leading to the 

realms beyond, where for the benefit of our consciousness he 

281 

rises in our own soul again, and we are joined together again as 

closely as we were before his death! 

Our immortality, as has been said previously already, must 

be realised before death takes place. It is the knowing of this 

truth which divides us from other men who confess to a belief 

in heaven. In everything almost it makes us different to them. 

Above all our morals take on a different aspect. 

The reason why immortality, the kingdom of life eternal, 

can be within the reach of the soul as long only as there is 

vitality, is on account of consciousness which is the great 

essential to God-living. The individual-being cannot be im- 

mortal, for the simple reason, that it depends for its vitality 

on body-cells which are mortal. Thus it issues, that the "I" 

consciousness cannot be immortal either; it disappears forever 

also, when death overtakes the visible form; immortal alone is 

the Divine which is innate in all visible things (Erscheinungen), 

the internal. Therefore the inner nature of the visible-being, 

known as man, is also immortal. But, like all mortal multicelled- 

beings, man also returns one day to that visible form which is 

unconscious. 

That death became known to man was owing to his con- 

sciousness. He is given the scope to misapprehend, as well as 

fully comprehend what death means. This priviledge, however, 

reigns only as long as vitality pulsates through the cell state, 

that means to say, only as long as 'personality' exists. For it is 

just the wish for a personal immortality which makes itself felt 

particularly strong within us! Not that we have lost sight of the 

fact, that Godliving leads us away from the fetters of our 

personality; indeed, the very fact of this being-lifted-away from 

our-own-person, is one of the surest signs of the life which is 

beyond. But the way, all this is undertaken, remains the special 

priviledge of our own person in that it depends on the emotions 

which may or may not accompany it, the way we proceed to 

282 

throw off the fetters of reason, as well as whidi divine Wish 

is allowed to be cultivated the strongest. Therefore, there is 

nothing more silly, than when religious communities lay down 

fast rules or directions-for-use which should be gone according 

to for the purpose of obtaining God-living. The knowledge, 

we cherish, that no life exists after death, is more adequate to 

compel the soul to spiritual-flight, than belief in a heaven is. It 

is pitiful to watch the wearying attempts, made by all those 

who go according to 'recipes' in their agitation to flutter towards 

the light! How uncommon each person's individual God-living 

turns out to be, despite the fact that God-living, by the law of 

its being, transcends all the limits of personality, the master- 

pieces of art clearly reveal in the personal traits of their extreme 

manifoldness. (Masterpieces of art are born of the life beyond.) 

These traits of personality reveal themselves so distinctly, that 

we are able to tell, for instance, in music, after the first few 

bars have been played, who the composer is. And finally, each 

single piece makes on each one of us a different impression which 

is called forth according to the individual response of our own 

nature. Observe then, that after all this, we are fully justified 

in saying, that the wish for the special immortality of our 

own person is duly gratified in the life of God which you have 

often heard us call Godliving (Gotterleben). But alas! As men's 

conception of immortality are so often warped with error and 

ignorance, immortal-life remains the singular prerogative of 

the few only. As a rule, the rest end their lives in the arms 

of eternal death, without having once experienced the partici- 

pation of immortal-life. A great hindrance to live immortality 

is formed, when it is said, that it does not begin until after death; 

another hindrance happens, almost graver, when men stunt their 

soul-lives. 

This comes to pass, when men keep down purposely the wishes 

of the divinity within them and instead attach themselves to 

283 

superficial desires. Through this habit, the divine-wishes become 

at last so insensible as to become completely incapacitated to 

develope a state of consciousness at all. Yet, some there are, 

who have never once succeeded in opening the entrance to the 

beyond, but who, at best, have managed to cross its bridges. 

When death approaches, it might happen then to these that 

the Immortal-Will within them will rise up so tremendously 

against its final suppression, that its agony gives power to the 

soul for its last and only flight into the realms of the beyond. 

This is reflected then in the change which takes place. The ugly 

distortions of the body, caused by the agonies of death, give 

place to a beautiful calm. The eyes take on that peculiar far-off 

look when the soul painlessly and quietly glides into the state 

where being is not. 

Note here, how a participation in life-immortal was gained, 

in the end, albeit in the last few hours of life, after which the 

Immortal-Will was fulfilled and gave up its struggle. Now, the 

mourners, standing at the bedside, read in the dead man's face 

the traces of what happened. Death had 'glorified* his features. 

A 'holy peace' lay over them. The 'far-off look' lay still in the 

eyes. And at the sight of this they become overwhelmed at the 

thought, that such features could be capable of such sublime 

beauty which during life had been so often distorted. In whisper- 

ing tones they remark to each other: "He has gone". "He is 

already in realms beyond". The belief, they confess to in a life 

beginning after death, is once more strengthened. The last 

expression which the rigid hand of death had imprinted on the 

features confirms it. "He is already beyond", how right they 

are in meaning what they have witnessed. How erroneous the 

sense what they mean. Instead of the word 'already', they ought 

to have said c at last'. For, during the agonies of death the soul 

had been given the power indeed 'for the first and last time' to 

284 

participate in life eternal which, however, ended at once at the 

moment, death arrived. 

It is an indisputable fact, that, the nearer death approaches 

(in the case of old age and serious illness), the greater the under- 

standing becomes for the life beyond. This fact is not difficult 

to understand as soon as we look at it in the light of our 

cognisance, by which we mean here the fact, that the Immortal- 

Will finds its fulfilment before death, and the conscious life, 

after death, irrevocably passed forever. When a change like 

this takes place in child-hood, it becomes very obvious. Being 

still so far from old age and death, however, children as a rule 

are not attracted to the life beyond, and the sight of the longing 

for it, manifested in their elders, awakens no interest in them 

at the time, although the child, itself, lives unconsciously in 

direct connection with the divine-trends (S. "The Child's Soul 

and its Parents' Office"). But when it happens, that a serious 

illness overtakes a child, and death is probable, the Immortal- 

Will begins to make itself strongly felt in its anxiety to fulfil 

itself precipitating the young soul which is ensnared in the 

dangers to its life into the serenity of the beyond. It grows 

precociously, surpassing often the wisdom of those still deeply 

steeped in superficial interests, who are around it, and, on the 

other hand, is often beseechingly helpless to partake in the silly 

games of the other children of its own age. 

How wisdom-fraught is this transformation; and in knowing 

the goal, how sublime does the course of evolution appear to 

us! Within the course of thousands and millions of generations, 

the Immortal-Will was the impetus which compelled the gradual 

ascent to higher stages of consciousness. On the way, the body 

cells (somata) were left behind; each in its turn had to pass away, 

without the Immortal- Will having once been realised, and 

utterly unconscious of its fate; until in man reason was born. 

Then the trends of the Divine-Will could develope to a state 

285 

of ever keener consciousness, until, among men the first was 

born who was able to understand why the body-cells were 

obliged to be robbed of their immortality, as well as receive the 

grace to live a new immortal-life in the realms of God. 

As we have previously observed, the ascent to consciousness 

in ever higher stages began, when the first multicelled being lost 

the 'potential* immortality which, as a unicell, it had once 

possessed. The ascent stopped when the highest developed multi- 

celled-being had regained this 'potential' immortality in a 

spiritualised form. It is clear now, why the scientist is incapable 

of finding any proofs to confirm the further ascent of man to 

superman. He is but capable of pointing to the fact of the 

growth of some of the organs of sense in man and some stunted 

'rudimentary organs', inherited from the animal, of which there 

are about two hundred. This is now fully explained, however. 

Already, in primitive man, the possibility of a spiritual 

development lay innate in the potencies of his soul. For the 

realisation of the spiritual 'potential' immortality, however, the 

enfoldment of the divine-wishes is essential which must be a 

free development, unencumbered by reason's form of thought, 

and undertaken under the endeavours of man himself! Men of 

the past and present, who have succeeded in these endeavours, 

are the ones alone entitled to the name of hyperzoan; they alone 

are not only death-wise but immune to death's sting. 

The Immortal- Will, deprived as it was of fulfilment in the 

unconscious mortal body-cells (somata), strove for a state of 

consciousness for the sake of its own redemption. Through a 

process of evolution, in which it obliged the outward appearance 

of the forms of nature to undergo a continual transformation, 

its aim fructuated into an achieved fact in the final appearance 

of man. We shall never get at the reason for the paradox great 

variety of forms, we see manifested in nature, until this fact is 

clear. Although it is tempting, we must, nevertheless, refrain 

286 

from traversing all the new ground again which the potencies 

of our intuition laid open to us at the time we were in search of 

the truth (which since has become our sole property,) for fear 

of being lost now in detail. One fact however we must mention, 

as bearing weight which we have already pointed to in an earlier 

page; it is, that every man of science is sure that the bequeath- 

ment of acquired characteristics is a supposition, which if denied, 

would make many a fact, concerning the evolution theory, vain. 

Also, every man of science knows perfectly well, that no 

practical experiment which has ever been undertaken has yielded 

any precise evidence however to this fact. Yet, the fact's, 

contained in the cognisance we have collected, are capable of 

yielding enlightment to the matter of the bequeathment of 

acquired characteristics. The mystery is easily solved, if we 

know all about that state of coherency in which nature rests. 

The existence of one single impulse was essential which, in a 

state of coherency, had the power to change the element of 

heredity within the germplasm so as to cause the form which 

was necessary for the higher stages of consciousness to differ- 

entiate accordingly. This powerful impulse belonged to the 

Immortal-Will which acted thus in the life of the many-celled- 

being. If changes of another kind had taken place within the 

germplasm in the course of the multicellular existence which 

had not been to the service and aim of this purpose, the process, 

evolving to a state of consciousness, would have been con- 

siderably endangered. Therefore it does not in the least surprise 

us to learn, that in the kingdom of man, where consciousness has 

succeeded in gaining its highest level, a bequeathment of 

acquired characteristics takes place no more*). The reason why 

it is absent in the animal-kingdom to-day will also become clear 

to us, if, with the support of the knowledge we have just 

* In my book entitled "Origin and Nature of the Soul" 2nd. part "The Soul of the 

Human-Being", I have gone into detail concerning the plasticity of the human germplasin 

in regard to the divine-wishes. 

received, we give our attention for a while to this remarkable 

fact: The ascent making for the stages of higher consciousness 

came to a stop in all the animal kingdom without except as 

soon as man was born. 

The Immortal-Will seemed aided by invisible wings, when 

it undertook to carry the world of multicellular-mortal-beings 

out of the darkest stage of unconsciousness into the light of 

wakefulness. On the way, innumberable beings were doomed 

to perish without ever beholding the light from even afar. And 

man, to whom alone the priviledge was given, was forward 

enough to believe he could 'seize' it with the powers of his 

intellect. To this fallacy, cultural-epochs have succumbed time 

after time, until at last, reason began to criticise itself and found 

out that it also had its limits. And now, after a space of three 

hundred thousand years of the history of mankind, we are 

capacitated, in a deep spirit of reverence before the incompre- 

hensible, to join together the acknowledged laws-of-growth to 

what we have learned in the realms of God; and behold, we find 

redemption in cognisance! Henceforth, to partake in the life 

of God will be our aim; all our actions and thoughts, our feelings 

of hate or love, altogether, our whole existence will be complete- 

ly changed through the cognisanse, that Godliving is attainable 

before death only. For the man, who is redeemed, everything 

changes in its value! 

After this, it must be an easy matter to understand, that there 

will be no 'higher species' to come to succeed to the throne of 

man, for the simple reason, that man has already regained 

possession of the attribute of 'potential immortality'. What 

happened to the impulse to evolution in the animals, after they 

had gone such a long way towards the heights of consciousness? 

Why can't an amphioxis evolve into a vertibrate to-day like 

it once happened? Why can't mammal, or let us say rather an 

ape, evolve into a kind of human-species which is given reason? 

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The process of evolution stood still in the animal-kingdom, 

as soon as man was born. What has science to say to this curious 

fact? Science surmises that in earlier periods the cosmical con- 

ditions exercised a greater plastical influence, and owing to this 

fact mutations more readily took place, than would be possible 

to-day. In other words, the men of science are ignorant still; 

but the evil about it is, they don't take any trouble to solve the 

mystery. Well then, none should be annoyed, if philosophers 

take it upon themselves to solve this mystery, according to the 

laws and train-of- thought which belong to their special realms! 

The realms of God which are beyond causality, time and 

space, and the seizure of reason have been known to man up till 

now by such names as "God", * Nature of all things" or the 

"Thing-Itself". This was the conception of God in the universe 

which men generally accepted. They seldom stepped any further 

than this, hardly ever into the high office of representing the 

most awakened soul in the universe which was theirs by right. 

They shied the responsibility of ever uttering admittance to this 

fact. It was left to us to summon the courage to proclaim it, by 

the right given us in having united the historical facts of 

evolution with the experience, gleaned from the life lived in the 

realms of God. By virtue of his reason man became the con- 

sciousness of the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinungen) (as Kant 

already indicated), and in like manner man can become God's 

consciousness, if he is capacitated to live in accordance with the 

laws governing the inner nature of all things (Wesen der Erschei- 

nung). As the ascending process of evolution ended as soon as 

God's consciousness became a possibility in view, this must have 

been the final aim of evolution. This aim could be achieved in 

that the body-cells were robbed of their right to immortality, 

whereby the Immortal- Will was given the impetus which 

compelled the evolving ascent in order to regain its immortality. 

That man can become the consciousness of God or the 'nature 

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of all things' (das Wesen dcr Erscheinungen) is a matter of truth, 

belonging to our cognisance, which separates us from all the 

different kinds of Pantheism and Deism. While those doctrines 

reject the idea of a personal God, but acknowledge that the 

universe is God-pervaded, they fail to perceive the tremendous 

responsibility which rests alone with man amidst all else in 

the universe. Our philosophy says this means the very kernel 

from which all the fruits spring forth. It gives the meaning to 

our lives. It benefits our morals with the character of earnestness, 

clarity, potency and inexorableness, making the prevailing ideas 

within the range of culture turn topsy-turvy. And yet this is 

still but the faint suspicion of the real sublime office of man. 

The possibility, we know, is given to man to become God's 

consciousness. But this is not all. Among all living beings on 

earth man is the only one who has this prerogative which 

shoulders him with a tremendous responsibility in that his virtue 

expects of him to become God's consciousness before he dies. 

Of all this we are sure, for we have the confirmation of the 

History-of-Evolution itself for the facts. 

In the History of Evolution it is clearly revealed, that a 

general stop took place in the ascent to consciousness. Also, that 

the whole animate world had had its part in the ascent, man 

included, which had had its origin in the most primitive of all 

the animate beings (Volvox). Now, here is the historical fact 

which is the confirmation of an ancient suspicion which existed 

in the soul of man, and which philosophy since a very long 

time has surmised. It is, that all things in the visible-world 

(Welt der Erscheinung) are inwardly closely associated with 

one another! This uniformity is obvious in the visible-world 

(Welt der Erscheinung). It is an easy matter to compare the out- 

ward appearance of one thing to another, but it is impossible 

to compare any of these with the "Thing Itself" (Wesen der 

Erscheinung). The same applies to the great cell-state-man. 

290 

Among all the cells whidi make up the human being, only a 

small group are reserved (the greater brain-cells) to be the 

bearers of the faculty of consciousness, and again, among all the 

mass of animate beings, men alone, owing to their reason, are 

reserved to be the consciousness of the visible-world (Welt der 

Erscheinung) and finally among all human kind, only a very 

few number of individuals are called upon, through the potency 

of their own self-asserted virtue, to be the consciousness of God. 

This uniformity or "God-pervadedness", as I should like to 

call it here which embraces all the visible-things (Erscheinungen) 

of the universe, was the cause of the mutual participation of 

the multicellular-beings in the general ascent to consciousness, 

as well as the general stop when man was born. Their part in the 

ascent meant (from the stage of the volvox onwards) an untir- 

ing process of transformation in the outward appearance which 

was the manifestation of the special endeavour of each one to 

attain to a higher stage of wakefulness. The birth of man 

indicated the fact, that that animate being had succeeded to 

existence which alone was capable, in that it could become God's 

consciousness, of partaking in immortal-life. Thus the growth 

of the species was made to come to an end. "Creation" was 

finished. 

As soon as we have grasped this unity of nature which under- 

lies the whole universe, we shall most surely be conscious of 

what God is, if we are sure about the fact, that the unity 

embraces, too, all living species which might eventually be living 

on other planets. We may not allow ourselves to be misled 

through the comparison, just mentioned of the cell-state, called 

man, for every comparison is imperfect and as such may lead to 

errors. All animate nature which might eventually be in exist- 

ence on other planets must show the selfsame unity in God 

who is beyond space. Therefore it goes without saying, that all 

the animate beings, habituating any other planets, were also 

291 

involved in the general stop which took place among the animal- 

kingdom as soon as man had appeared; for the aim in view 

which had set their development in motion had been achieved; 

a being, man, in the universe existed, in which God could live 

consciously. Moreover, we can gather from this angle, that there 

will be no reason for an evolving process to start again on any 

other planets until the end of man has come, which might take 

place simultaneously with the end of the world, or before this 

event. Also, it is just likely that on some planet or other, in the 

time before life was born on our earth, animate beings existed, 

possessing the inherent capacity to become God's consciousness, 

and not until their end came, could the process of evolution start 

again on our earth. The state of divine consciousness, as we 

shall get to understand later on, can only be attained by the 

human-soul best explained on the assumption that it's nature 

is imperfect, but carries within itself the freedom of will to join 

God in perception, thought, feeling, and action. The misery 

which the state of imperfection brings with it, as well as the 

calamities caused by the laws of the elements, steep the life of 

the conscious beings so deeply in suffering as to make us 

convinced that only one thing is capable of reconciling us to the 

fact of God's perfection, and that is, that human races can be 

the bearers of God's consciousness (Gottesbewufitsein) on one 

planet at the time being. 

This means a confession which is of a significance as yet 

unheard of, not only for the existence of certain soul-laws in 

rule, but also for the laws governing the history and cultural- 

life of the different folks of the earth. To all those without any 

personal experience of such a general insight, this might appear 

at first to be an assumption of a very 'wilful' or 'unimportant' 

kind altogether, while, in reality, it is the key opening the gate 

to the knowledge revealing the sense of human-life as well as 

its history and culture. Indeed hardly any other truth, can be 

292 

more capable of fructifying the moral values, we are about to 

set forth, than this ground truth is: The state of God's conscious- 

ness is to be found in man alone*). This fact in itself must mean 

sublimeness to man, yet it includes something more which is of 

greater importance still: As God is the absolute, is perfection, 

it issues, that the being, in whom alone God can be manifested 

consciously, must be granted, by virtue of this very fact, the 

inherent possibility of self-creation to a state of perfection which 

happens as the result of the subjection of all our conscious life 

and deeds to the divine-wishes. And after the soul has succeeded 

in living the absolute, death follows, as it does to all body cells 

as a natural course. Death obliviates consciousness, after which 

the cells, returned to dust, reveal manifestations of the will, 

similar to all "dead* stone, in the form of 'physical and chemical 

characters' (substances). 

Thus, the guilty feeling which will overcome man before God 

is not surprising in front of the fact, that, in becoming God's 

consciousness, the responsibility lies solely upon man himself, 

and the only chance for its accomplishment is during the time 

he lives! Indeed how few are what they are able to be! There is 

another superb historical fact which, when seen from this angle, 

gains deeply in meaning: When worldly desires and errors keep 

man from fulfilling his sacred duty, the divinity in one man has 

been known to awaken suddenly, in the stress of danger, to such 

a state of clear consciousness, as to be the means of leading 

other men back again to a godly life. 

Observe then, how our philosophy raises man to unbelievable 

heights, in that it gives witness to his being God's consciousness. 

In revealing to man the fact that he alone, admist all the rest 

of the universe, stands elevated so high, the assurance of obtain- 

* To dwell here on the philosophical proof for the statement, that "the single state 

where God finds consciousness is within man alone", would lead us too far into phrenolo- 

gical details. It has been therefore treated in full as the problem "liberum arbitrium 

inditferentiae". (S. "Origin and Nature of the Soul", "The Soul of the Human- 

Being", chapter Freedom of the Will.) 

ing a state of perfection already in this life was also given to 

him, as well as the responsibility of fulfilling his life in this 

sacred sense. Especially in times of evil, when men in general 

have given up God, to lead an immoral life instead, cognisance 

of such a weighty kind means double responsibility to the few, 

who have managed to keep their divine-wishes alive within 

them! 

The ability to cognize exactly how sublime and unique the 

nature of the task is which has been allotted to us in the universe, 

compells the antidivine to give way to the divinity within us. 

Also, the divinity within us will grow strong in the grave know- 

ledge, that the realms beyond are obtainable only before death 

occurs; never after. In the longing to gain this life beyond, many 

things lose the significance they once had. Wonders are worked 

within the soul; it awakens to the state of the highest conscious- 

ness. Then the time is at hand, when, elevated beyond itself and 

the world-of-appearances (Welt der Erscheinungen), it can 

partake in the life of God. In this state of the soul it is clearly 

revealed to us, that time, space and causality belong to reason's 

form of thought which enable us to research the visible-world 

(Welt der Erscheinung), but which we have no right to use when 

we are concerned with the life of God, for God-living is out of 

their reach. Our God-experience tells us how foolish it is to 

want an explanation of the internal nature of things (God) 

(Wesen der Dinge) through reason's instrument. Man would not 

do this, were he less entangled in wordly snares. We have ceased 

to put the silly questions about the beginning and end of God; 

instead, we have attached our lives to God, thus participating in 

the eternal-life; for we know that the visible-world (Welt der 

Erscheinungen) only has a beginning and an end, and in respect 

to this world only is it right and proper to apply forms of 

thought such as space, time and causality. "What is the cause 

of God's existence" and such like questions, concerning the 

beyond, reveal how ignorant man is in the use of reason's 

potencies. He might just as well use a barometer to tell the time, 

as put the instrument of reason to such a purpose. It is a futile 

endeavour. But all these tantalising mysteries are solved of their 

own accord, as soon as we are lifted to that state of conscious- 

ness which transcends the mundane planets; namely, when our 

consciousness has become God's, or the consciousness of the inner 

nature of things (Wesen der Erscheinung). We can put reason 

in its proper place then. When we are at the task of researching 

the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung) around us, we use 

reason's potencies, like the fine intsrument it is, but when we 

want to comprehend the inner nature of things (Wesen der Er- 

scheinung), we lay it aside, as being an instrument neither 

proper nor useful for such a purpose. 

As previously mentioned, in our endeavours to arrive at the 

truth we have not relied on the inner voice alone. As far as 

reason was capable of supporting us, we have conscientiously 

trodden the path of logic and scientific knowledge. Whereever 

reason was forbidden, intuition became our guide. Therefore the 

results mean something more than a "new faith". Indeed it is 

knowledge, it is cognition, which according to its intrinsic 

nature, might rightly be called 'wisdom', for it culminates in 

God. Now, the real sage does not obtain his wisdom through 

blind 'belief, but through the 'insight' which he has been capable 

of gaining. He will always opine that words are inadequate to 

describe to others how and in what way the goal may be 

attained, for the remembrance of his God-Living fills him still 

with too much awe and respect. He knows it to be a part of 

a man's life which can be lived but never talked about. 

Nevertheless, in the summary which now follows, we put 

forth this wisdom, as being the confession of our God-Cognition; 

it must strictly be refrained from being looked at in the light 

of a dogma, for, by the very virtue of its being, our God- 

295 

Cognition is loathe to any kind of dogma. It has come to our 

knowledge in the selfsame way, as the laws of nature have been 

made known to mankind, through 'insight'. 

I. I know, that only the unicelled-beings, like the germ-cell, 

have the potency to live without end in the realms of the 

visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung). I, myself, must die 

like all the other somatical-beings. 

II. I know, that when mortality happened to the soma-cells, 

in order to assert itself, began a process of transformations 

until consciousness was born in man. 

III. I know, that, owing to my conscious state, the possibility 

is given to me to live God (the Divine, the Genius, the 

Beyond) consciously and by this to fulfil my Immortal-Will 

as long as I live (after death it is eliminated). 

IV. I know, that man, by virtue of his reason, has become the 

consciousness of the visible- world (Welt der Erscheinung). 

Moreover, a few, by their own free decision become God's 

consciousness as long as ever they live. I, too, can gain 

perfection through my own free decision and deed of self- 

creation. 

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