The Morals of Life - Part 9 - Book Review - Triumph of the Immortal Will by Mathilde Ludendorff
Summary of Mathilde Ludendorff’s Chapter: "The Morals of Life"
- Philosophical Foundation
- Ludendorff preserves her original work’s structure, enriched by later insights from "History of Creation," focusing on soul-laws, self-creation, and race purity’s role in God-living, contrasting with Darwinian estrangement of God and man.
- God-Living vs. Struggle-for-Life
- Unlike the Darwinian view equating life with struggle, God-living thrives beyond combat, awakening divine wishes peacefully. Perfection arises not from fighting "evil" but from aligning with God’s will, revealing true enemies through example, not force.
- Perfection as Aim
- Perfection, not happiness, is the goal—attainable by all as God’s consciousness, not through combat or external grace. It harmonizes struggle-for-life with divine life, valuing existence’s sanctity while prioritizing soul-growth over mere survival.
- Moral Development
- Self-examination and meditation foster divine wishes, especially early when weak, eschewing Christian "spiritual weapons" or forced humility. Progress reduces combat, as baseness fades naturally through noble acts.
- Wish-to-Truth
- Truthfulness and genius-in-thought require resisting animal cunning and societal deceit (e.g., politics, commerce). Divine hate targets hypocrisy, not for revenge but to awaken others, rejecting compromise as soul-damaging.
- Wish-to-Beauty
- Beauty, equal to other wishes, demands cultivation in appearance, actions, and soul, countering Christian disdain. Art’s divine role (e.g., Bach’s contemplation) contrasts with modern discord, urging youth to trust personal taste over reason.
- Wish-to-Love/Hate
- Love and hate, guided by divine discrimination, reject Krischna’s indiscriminate ideals. Divine hate targets threats to God-living (e.g., envy, malice), while love fosters soul-growth, avoiding peace-disturbers to preserve inner harmony.
- Self-Knowledge and Inequality
- Goodness: Linked to charity, it must be discerning, not indiscriminate, to foster divine growth in oneself and others.
- Truth: Beyond mere honesty, it demands rigorous self-examination to overcome ingrained deceit and pursue philosophical insight, with science and genius as vital tools.
- Beauty: Equal in importance, it should permeate daily life and art, reflecting divine harmony rather than superficiality or utility. Ludendorff critiques modern art’s discordance and calls for nurturing aesthetic sense, especially in youth.
- Discrimination in Love and Hate: Rejecting universal love or hate, she advocates emotions guided by divine alignment, hating what harms "God-living" and loving what enhances it, with a focus on racial and spiritual integrity over equality.
When I undertook the task of revising this book ten years
after its first appearance, it was not with the intention of
effacing the line, by means of which the development of my
philosophy could be traced. I never had the intention of adding
to this, my first philosophical work, the fruits of a deeper and
more prolific insight which I gained later. (These fructified into
achieved facts in my work, entitled "History of Creation.") In
the accomplishing of this work I was granted an insight into
the workings of the soul-laws and their connection to one an-
other, as well as "Selfcreation" and "Soultransformation" which
it is possible for man to attain during his lifetime. What I did
in the way of revision was, however, to lay more stress on the
importance of keeping the laws controlling race more holy as
well as to point out the harmful effects which the creeds of
equality bring about, for it was obvious all this trampled on
the inexorability of the soul-laws. I had nothing to change, as
nothing at all turned out to be error; on the contrary, all my
later works sprang into being from out of the cognition laid
down in "The Triumph of the Immortal- Will". Therefore this*
chapter "Morals of Life" is in the main in the original, although
the inner sight 1 gained into man's soul, and its laws and the
growth of the universe, has contributed not a little to its pro-
fundity. Oh! May all those, who have understood me up till
now, follow still in my footsteps, in order to experience the
truth of my convictions for themselves. They will soon then
be convinced of the importance of noble self-esteem and other
things. But to do this, it is essential to make an observation of
the growth-of-life on its way to the creation of man, not
from a personal point of view, nor from the outward appear-
ance of things (Erscheinung), like we have done in this book,
but from the standpoint taken from the soul which exists in all
things (Wesen der Dinge), as it has been done in the "History
of Creation". Until this is undertaken men will remain ignorant
of that sublimeness which the human-soul is capable of.
During the period of Darwinism, God and men became
estranged. The majority of mankind (not the superficial ones
either) cannot perceive any right reason for separating the
morals-of-life from the morals-of-the-struggle-for-life. They
believe this to be a superfluous thing to do, for they say; life is
one continual struggle. In fact the untiring strugglers founded
the saying "No life without struggle" and infected even the man
of a more worthier soul with the spirit which this breathed forth.
Accordingly, where no struggle is, there must be death! Is not
the process which all matter undergoes, be it of a chemical, phys-
ical or physiological kind, the manifestation of a struggle of
conflicting powers? Does this not also mean continual combat
with the 'evil powers' in our own breasts (to use Christian words)
which ends with the final victory of the good or bad? Is not
human-life a manifestation of a continual struggle between the
noble and the ignoble? Is not public opinion animated with the
spirit to aid the good to victory through the might of mentality?
Here, it is obvious, that only one side of life is being examined,
either from a logical or illogical point of view. The inner and most
essential part is forgotten. We have something else to say to
this. But, no doubt, a sage of the prehistoric times would under-
stand it better than the Christian or Darwinist of our times.
It is this:
Combat itself is not progress. The divine-wishes and the
divine Will of God awakens to power where combat is not. Let
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us but remember how many human-lives have passed away in
a futile combat against 'the evil spirits' within their own breast,
without once having had the chance of reaching the state of
perfection. How many there are fighting daily in public for the
welfare of mankind, and yet, everywhere evil reigns still; un-
daunted people reply: Failure in this respect may not discourage
us. The reason is because we are so few. We must win over more
to fight with us. But they never stop to consider if the 'evil',
they are striving to put down, is being searched for in the right
place, or if the way, they are fighting, be the right one, making
bad worse in doing so. To this our philosophy replies: Combat
is powerless to awaken life. And to the warriors it turns to say:
Go, forsake the public place of battle. Let only the few remain,
in whom God is strong enough for there to be able to teach the
truth. And you others return to help when you have grown in
the spirit of God strong enough to do so, that means to say,
when you are able to live yourselves according to the divine-
wishes of God's Will, and not merely for the struggle-for-life
alone. Your combat for the good will then consist of revealing
to the world those deadly enemies which work in secret. To
the mind of the confused you will reveal the true meaning of
life, freeing them from all the fallacies which serve to enslave
them. But 'the evil spirits within the breast of man' will be
something you will leave unuttered, for you know, from your
own experience, that redemption came to you from your very
soul itself. Very few will become real helpers. In kindness,
however, the few will show man how 'evil' the nature of their
wishes are. Never will they use persuasion, on the contrary,
they will point out the reason, why mens' lives are bad and
explain them the power which belongs to their own free will,
in asking them, if they want to remain in such an evil state or
not. And because the helpers themselves are animated with the
spirit of God, their words will have power to awaken in others
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the desire for perfection. Soon it will be revealed to them, that
perfection can never be attained through 'fighting* down the
superficial-desires, but rather in listening to the voice of God
within them. Gradually the craving for baser things will give
way. They will hardly notice its progress, until one day all
baseness has been overcome altogether, for each time they have
been capable of acting truly noble the God within them has been
strengthened.
In the process to perfection no 'spiritual weapons* are neces-
sary at all.
'Spiritual weapons' are in their proper place in the wordly-
field of combat, for desires and aims of the struggle-for-life or
to fight human-enemies, whose purpose in life it is to kill the
divine spirit in man.
Indeed, it is a mighty and extensive field where it is proper
to use 'spiritual weapons' to fight with, for, there is not one
single part of the struggle-for-life where it is incorrect to say:
"I must refrain from looking at it from the moral point of
view." Now, it is a wonderful thing to notice, how, in this
matter, the two sexes differ from one another. Although in the
realms-beyond, sex plays no part at all, as it belongs decidedly
to the world-of-appearances (Welt der Erscheinung) the female-
sex, nevertheless, distinguishes itself, through the preference it
has for quiet activity, as opposed to combat. In other words,
woman strives to beautify life in illuminating it with the light
which is of God. (s. "The Cultural Achievement of Woman'*).
Therefore the harmonious state of life which saves mankind
from destruction can be expected to come from woman alone.
Here we touch the blessing of genius itself; the divine can per-
vade all struggle-for-life, but the latter can never enter with its
desires and combats into the realms which are beyond itself.
God-living of the soul is beyond all strife. Not until we are
able to grasp this truth and all what it means, shall we be able
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to detect properly when the rights of the struggle-for-life make
infringements on the rights of God-living. To avoid this error
ourselves, in the task of working out our special morals, we have
divided the divine claims in order to treat them separately. On
the one hand there are the claims on our God-living, and the
claims on the struggle-for-life and minne on the other hand.
Our morals claim due respect and subjection to God in all. Our
morals of life demand the potential development of our genius,
the goal of which is perfection.
This aim is superior to any thoughts fraught with purpose
even to those connected with our Immortal- Will, for this can
be redeemed through the grace of one single experience of the
life of God, if it but happen in the hour of death. Perfection is
happiness neither, for it can contain pain as well as happiness,
and the individual, craving for happiness alone, will never look
upon perfection as the aim of his life. It is not the manifestation
of an admonitor, demander, forcer, but is the aim of the will of
the few. And this is the fact which is so shattering, for we know
from the truth our cognition has yielded, that the possibility is
given to us all to gain the state of perfection, in that we alone,
among all the rest of life, have the grace of becoming God's-
consciousness. Put this possibility (selfachieved perfection) at
the base of all the ideas or language contained in the morals of
life; of a certainty the demands, you find, will accord with
reality.
Now if we recourse to a separate study of the morals-of-life,
it is not out of consideration for the original conflicting nature
of Godliving in being opposed to the struggle-for-life, but be-
cause we are conscious of the fact, that, if all struggle-for-life
stands under the control of the morals of Godliving, a state of
harmony between the struggle-for-existence and life itself will
be created. The spirit of animosity which animates Godliving
when it comes in contact with existence will be dissipated
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through their influence. No more will the profane be disdained,
no will its laws be rudely trampled on, as we see the religions
doing, and as the morals -of -minne so clearly have shown us. The
Buddhistical disdain for superficial joys and sorrows are absent
in our morals. On the contrary, they know that every experience,
be it joy or sorrow, can animate the human-being with the spirit
of God, besides which, they teach us wise discrimination, so that
we are saved the humiliation of giving ourselves up to every
kind of joy and sorrow which fate might happen to throw in
our way.
For the same reason our morals-of-life admonish us to refrain
from awakening any artificial emotions in the soul of the young
child. Children should be left in peace to develope very gradually
into a state of Godliving. Who can tell, if not the once heartily
enjoyed delicacy in childhood was not the means of enabling
a genial enjoyment of later years? To the spiritual development
of genial forces it does harm to 'spring two or more steps' at a
time, as Nietzsche has it. Therefore, the tutors' task is not an
easy one. Children are still very uninterested in God or the
questions concerning the ultimate things pertaining to the mean-
ing of life. Thus then, in such matters, he must adapt himself to
the particular stage of interest which the child has arrived at.
Infinite harm is caused which can never again be put right, if
the degree of spiritualisation is overestimated. In this way it
only breeds mock piety which brings sure death to the life of
the soul. In this way innumerable individuals can be robbed for
ever of the capacity of living God. How often, for instance, does
it happen that countless adults find themselves incapable of God-
living through the fault of their having been made to rattle
down prayers during their childhood!*
Just as much as our morals-of-life have nor the intention of
* We refer the reader to the book "Works and Deed of the Human-Soul", 1. part,
"The Child's Soul and its Parents' Office".
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forcing men to leave superficial joy or sorrow for the life beyond
at a time when these may hardly be fit to arrive at the bridges
do they neither turn their back on useful work. Through
subjection of the morals-of-existence the opposition is easily
overcome. As we have seen already, discrimination must be
always practised. What is found to be essential for the susten-
ance of existence is also found worthy. This is a novel truth
which animates us with an eager spirit to leap to the new day
in order to gain a living. It makes men-of-genius work for their
livelihood without the feeling of a 'bad conscience' tormenting
them. Knowing what the true meaning of human-life is, as well
as that one day our personality of a surety will end, we are made
fit to do the work which is necessary for our livelihood, as we
shall be safe from endeavours of a trivial kind. All those, in
whom the divine potency is great enough to be able to manifest
itself visibly in immortal works of art and science, are not guilty,
when they accept the sacrifice of others who want to spare them
the trouble of earning a living. This is far from being immoral;
on the contrary, our morals expect it. As it is done for the sake
of genius, the one, who sacrifices himself in this circumstance,
acts morally. What is more, the spirit of God will increase
within him. Yet, these differ (in that the nature of their self-
sacrifice is different) to all those thoughtless individuals, who,
in working from morning until night industriously, according to
the pattern of the Christian ideal, without self-esteem and dis-
crimination, often help the most worthless of creatures or things.
If we should scrutinise them more closely, it would become
quickly obvious, how, in the end, their industrious labours are
undertaken for the sake of ridding themselves of the vacancy
which fills their souls. We must strictly refrain from dedicating
ourselves to work of all kinds, especially when, according to
the truths we now know to be, it bears the characteristic of im-
morality, much less undertake to do it in the light of a 'duty*.
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The selfsame Will-to-truth which induces us to keep faithful
to any given promise would also be the cause of a moral conflict
to arise in our spirit which would lead to equally fatal conse-
quences. Therefore, as in all the other cases, let us here also con-
sider first before we act in order to convince ourselves, if the
promise we are about to give has the full consent of the divine-
wishes. Not until this is the case, should we think it our 'duty*
to undertake any single piece of work or take on an office of
any kind.
In the chapter dedicated to the "Morals of the Struggle-for-
Life" we have already mentioned, that, according to our cognis-
ance, the sustenance of life is not the prime duty in the life of
man, notwithstanding the fact that it is indeed a sacred and
important duty. It becomes a sacred and important duty in as
much only as it is completely under the guidance of the divine-
wishes. For this reason, voluntary death even can become a
moral-action in special circumstances. The Immortal-Will,
innate in the unicelled-being, strives for unendlcss existence in
the world of appearances. (Welt der Erscheinung.) The aim of
our Immortal- Will is different in that it allows the selfpreser-
vation instinct to work its way at will, but only so long as no
harm is being done to the God within us. It is prepared even to
give up preservation-of-self in time, and therefore the conscious
life in timelessness, if this be for the good of any divine-wish,
or if living on meant the loss of the fulfilment of any divine-
wish. Thus the man- of-genius will prefer death to the surrender
of his doctrines which he knows to be true. All death for the
sake of an idea which has been suffered within the course of
time is a divine accomplishment in the light of our point of
view, provided it was not suffered in the hope of a "heavenly-
reward* or 'immortal-fame*. Cases can exist, therefore, when
selfdestruction is the only alternative to choose, should the
moral-self be saved. Thanks to the truth we have gained, we
388
are well aware of the tremendous sacrifice this means. Now, if
a man believe that there is a conscious-life after death, he ought,
as a logical consequence, walk light-heartedly unto death, for
in doing so, he is able to put an end to this 'imperfect* fleeting
life and enter earlier than he would otherwise do into the realms
of 'eternal bliss*. And on the other hand, if a man do not believe
in a life hereafter and is living his life similar to the animals,
merely for the material world, he will, under certain circum-
stances, also commit suicide, in order to put an end to the troubles
and tribulations earlier than these naturally would have ended.
In fact, he may take courage for the last step, in telling himself
of the escape he is about to make from the miseries of old age,
and may be able to end his animal-existence, he calls life, with
even a joke on his lips. Finally there is the other kind of man,
who knows, as we do, that immortal-life can be partaken-in
before death only. Perchance, such a man will also sacrifice his
chance of immortal-life for the sake of God. If he do so in this
spirit only, his action indeed is a divine one. How great must
the dominion of his Godliving over his soul have been to enable
him to bear and to overcome the pains of his loss. Everyone,
imbued with the spirit of the truth which our philosophy has
revealed, will be incapacitated to make such a mighty sacrifice
other than for the purpose of saving the God within him from
shrivelling. Never would any superficial aims of his own, his
family or folk be strong enough to persuade him to do so; the
exception would be, when life was in danger. Self-destruction
cannot be committed by one who knows the meaning of life and
death, except for the sake of God. When the truth of this has
come home, there is hope that a gradual disarmament will be
undertaken in the proper light of discrimination. If war be still
inevitable in the future, then only folk-wars will have the right
to be fought out. Up till now the folks of the earth were ignorant
of the fact, that they were driven to war and revolution for
389
other purposes than for the self-preservation of their race. For
the first time in history, however, the eyes of men have been
opened. They can perceive now, if they will, those secret world-
powers, that are the unscrupulous instigators of war. These men
are greedy for power and, to attain their unscrupulous ends,
make atrocious abuse of the unsuspecting folks of the earth. The
more the principles of our cognisance will be allowed to govern
the lives of men, the sooner it will be seen, that wars, caused for
any other purpose, save for the life of a folk and the freedom
of its mentality, must be strictly condemned for that which
they are, murder and outrage. When we are called upon to
judge any case of voluntary-death (suicide) we must make use
of our discriminating potencies, like we have done in all our
other moral estimations up till now. The act of self-destruction
has a dual character. It can be a virtue as well as a crime. It is
so: In the estimation of all mens' actions our morals conduct us
to God's scales to have them weighed in the balance of the di-
vine-wishes, so that indeed only the 'peerless* actions, in the deep-
est sense of the word, are found worthy of the moral-self. The
necessity of this continual examination, however, makes the
potency-to-perfection grow within us. The state of our con-
science grows gradually more and more refined through this
unremitting practice. Then, almost reflexively, our judgement
will be made up quickly and reliably, until at last we are cap-
able of striding along the narrow path in harmony with all the
divine-wishes, balancing ourselves with the surety which is
comparable to a somnambulist only.
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The morals-of-lifc give the instructions to all those will-
decisions of ours which aid in the development of the divine
trends or wishes, as we have called them, of the Will of God.
Perfection is their lofty aim. Perfection can be gained, when men
make it their habit to participate in the life-bcyond. Thus each
of the four divine-wishes ought to be treated separately in con-
nection with the morals-of-life. As divine-deed is included always
when morals are spoken of, it is not exactly essential to treat
this subject separately, for morals mean, that in all our will-
decisions, the Wish-to-goodness has been applied. Yet it should
not been left unsaid in which way we can develope this inborn
wish to so high a degree as to make all other wishes, not of the
divine-kind, pale beside it.
At the start of our spiritual-ascent the divinity within us is
naturally very weak still. At this period, consequently, medit-
ation and self-examination is a necessity .The nearer one approach-
es the state of perfection, the less self-examination is needed.
In its stead the life in union with God has taken place. We have
called this achieved divine state of the soul, God-living. In
connection with this fact the explanation can be found for the
reason why so many human-individuals could not find the right
way to the moral development of self, although they were able
to break away from the Christian church through the strength
of their own convictions. When they broke away from the
church, they evidently were standing at that moral state still,
when daily self-examination is an absolute necessity. The great
391
importance of meditation is seen from the results attained from
religious prayers, when these ask merely for the grace of God
and are unmingled with any longing for happiness, albeit more
often than not even these are not completely free from selfish
intentions. There are prayers begging God or the saints to turn
away tribulation or give reward and happiness etc. There is
little good in anxiously begging for help or ignobly begging for
grace or begging to be distinguished from others in acquiring
happiness. There is no place for these in the realms beyond, for
Godliving is never fraught-with-purpose. The one, who makes
it a habit of doing this, will never make any progress at all. In
fact he can keep on praying like this, day by day, year
by year, it will all be to no avail. Death will put an end one day
to all his immoral mutter ings; that is all.
Already we have given utterance to the significance of the
Wish-to-Goodness in an artist, on account of the fructifying and
vivifying influence which it exercises over all the other wishes.
But this applies to all of us not only the artists, of course. The
Wish-to-Goodness has a particularly superior place, for in as
much as the development of any of the other wishes suffices for
a man to enjoy immortal : life, a potentially strong Wish-to-
Goodness in the first place is essential if a man ever wants to
attain perfection. Unfortunarely, in the past, these facts were
only partly recognised and accordingly valued. Men lacked the
greater view which is required to scan the extensive realms be-
longing to the Wish-to-Goodness.
We have been given the opportunity at different times to
notice what confusion arises when restrictions of any kind are
laid upon the Wish-to-Goodness. In so many cases it was limited
to the duties demanded by the common-law, and chanty which
is known generally as the "Social Virtues''! Granted that 'thy
kingdom come' and 'suffer not the loss of thy soul' is also the
pith of most of the religious doctrines prevailing today; the
39*
advice which is given to mankind to get there, however, is full
of error. Moreover, few are the claims which, when seen in the
light of our philosophy, can expect our approval. This is because
the are so full of confusion where the Wish-to-Goodness as
well as charity are concerned. What a difference it would make
if the other three divine wishes were put under the dominion of
the Wish-to-Goodness. Let us turn now to these other three
wishes for guidance to see how profoundly their influence
effects our actions.
393
We spoke just now of the necessity of self-examination,
especially at the time when man is starting his process to per-
fection. Selfexamination is most essential, should we desire to
be strengthened in our Wish-to-Truth. Unfortunately, the major-
ity of mankind have become incapacitated to undergo self-
examination of a genuine kind. This is on account of so much
that is blameworthy in the bringing-up of children. (We refer
the reader to the book which has already been often mentioned
in this respect.) The usual habit of attaching reward and punish-
ment to moral-behaviour, as well as to the behaviour which is
governed by the duty attached to life makes the divinity shrivel
up within the human-child. If early youth succeeds in escaping
punishment through telling lies, the adult, as a matter of -course,
will intentionally deceive himself in order to keep up his self-
esteem. Any stray reason will do in the attempt, subsequently,
to justify anything in his conduct which he might have doubts
about. By all means he will try to prove his own innocence,
thereby supporting the soul-laws governing self-deception which
by itself is sufficient to make self-knowledge a difficult matter.
Our attention has been given to this in the books entitled "The
Soul of the Human Being" and "Creation of Self.
Thus then, self-creation for the purpose of obtaining the
state of perfection is made almost impossible, although in such
cases there is hope that men can come to reason, whereas, in the
case when a person is always ready to proclaim himself guilty
even in the most trivial excusable things, there is not a vestige
394
of hope left. These are blissfully ignorant of the crime they are
committing against their own soul and are irrevocably lost
because neither they themselves nor anybody else around them
have the faintest idea what hypocrites in reality they are.
It will be found, that just in those men in whom the spirit of
God is not exactly dead, men who are not likely to care for low
company, this way of injuring God (the opposite kind of hypo-
crisy) comes easily into being. It happens like this. When these
love strongly, let us say, their parents, children, husband or wife,
they will easily be induced to pretend that the fault is theirs
only. They cannot bear to find fault with anybody they love.
Therefore, in minimising the faults of others, they succumb to
the crime of magnifying their own. But in this way they suc-
ceed in preserving their 'ideal'. It is nevertheless deception of a
likewise immoral kind which one day revenges itself bitterly.
Their exaggeration and self-deception will always be an impe-
diment to their own inner-development, and the development in
the "Self-Knowledge" of those they love. Generally, the latter
are of the sort, who easily incline to throw the fault on others
instead of on themselves because of the weakness of the divine-
spirit within them. And because the other gives way to their
weakness just for love of them, the blindness to their own
shortcomings get the upperhand, so that they remain, morally
speaking, where they are through the very fault of the one who
really loves them.
Hence, we must strongly recommend the practice of self-
examination in order to strengthen the Wish-to-Truth within
us, if only to put down the cunning we have inherited from our
animal-ancestors which induces us to practice self deception. It
was a bad thing for the Wish-to-Truth that all the religious
commandments were directed against the animal-kind of decept-
ion only. (Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh-
bour.) Thus attention was drawn only to a small part of the
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workings of the Wish-to-Truth, and later, bad was made worse
in this respect when religious authority suppressed the work-of-
researdi when this happened to go against the doctrines of the
church. The result was the elimination of genius (God)-in-
thought which would have been complete, had it not been saved
by the indestructability native to race-inheritance. When the
greed for money and pleasure became the habitual feature
of the general struggle-for-life, the inherited trait of animal-
cunning became appallingly aggravated in human-nature. It
grew to be no more the deceit of the animalkind which was to
be applied in emergency only; it became perversity which per-
vaded all mens' actions. Without the least blush of shame men
use means to deceive their fellowmen just as if they had taken the
figures of the Old Testament to be their models. It is easy
enough to deceive others without 'the necessity of bearing any
false witness against ones' neighbours. Thus the conduct of
the Christian has become very similar to the manner in which
the Jews behave: The Jews consider it to be a virtue to deceive
others who are not of the Jewish race. Just observe how the
habit of lying has become rampant in the daily life of mankind.
In politics and commerce, in fact, truth is considered to be
'madness* and deception 'cleverness*. The conclusion is, that if
such a state of immorality is allowed to prevail, it stands to
reason, that the most unscrupulous Her is the one who gets on in
life, be it the single individual or a folk-body. What is required
to get on, is, according to the prevailing state of affairs, the
development of reason. The 'reasonable' man is the successful
one, for he has learnt the art of falsehood best and knows how
to deceive his fellowmen to his own advantage. Now, this was
just the right soil in which to grow the Darwinian theory (the
struggle-for-life). All the world applauds such brave 'fighters'
and cannot do otherwise, as all dream for themselves the same
good fortune and are readily prepared to stoop to the same
396
means of gaining it. If they never succeed as others have done,
it is merely the lack of logical consequence or strong will or
highly developed powers of reason. When they lie or strive to
deceive they are more stupid than the others; so they are not
successful; that is all.
Now, the side which is the saddest of all this is, that even
the morally better individuals tolerate this kind of thing. Not
that they put down the Wish-to-Truth altogether, but they put
limits to it. For instance, in 'affairs of the heart' in 'pure human
matters' they certainly are genuine; they ring true. But when it
conies to matters involved in the struggle-for-life, for instance,
in politics and economy they say to themselves c in this wicked
world, truth would be very misplaced' or 'in Rome one must do
as Rome does' or else folk and family will go to ruin*. If the
good men in this case would tell the truth and nothing but the
truth, the good ones would be more suppressed than they are
already. More suppressed than they are already? Now, would
they?
This is hardly possible. For who are the exclusive masters in
the world today? Only those in whom hypocrisy, tyranny and
powers of logical reasoning are combined. Should a man give
way to the Wish-to-Truth, he would not succeed inspite of his
powers of pure reasoning and his potential will to dominate
(tyranny). No matter how great that capacity in a man is which
makes him successful in 'adapting' himself to the present state
of life, if any of the four divine-wishes (goodness, beauty, truth
and wise discrimination in the emotions of love and hate) have
power over his soul he is certainly doomed to fail. But what
does he loose when he prefers to behave like this? Here we are
confronted with the inviolable in the field of morals which will
suffer no 'halfs' and no 'adaptions'. The slightest adaption to
* In politics deliberate methods of deception are used. This science is called "Tactics".
Nevertheless the politicians not only consider themselves honourable men, but they are
considered so by everybody else.
397
the cunning struggler which is not of the unintentional but the
well considered kind, the 'compromise' which cannot be so
easily 'done without in this imperfect world of ours* will be the
means of hindering a man on his way to perfection. It can never
be said of him who acts (if but occasionally) against any of the
divine-wishes, that this man 'stands upright*. On the contrary
he has suffered himself to be terribly bent down within the
course of his lifetime. May he rid himself altogether of the desire
to climb to the heights of perfection, for in this manner, he will
never achieve them. Gods with bent backs, there are not.
But would it not mean the ruin of an individual and a folk
also, if one should want to ring true among a world full of lies?
Even should this actually be the case, it would not change the
mind of any one who confesses to the discrimination demanded
from our moral-of-lif e. We have already experienced many cases
in which the man-of-genius has willingly committed self-destruct-
ion, preferring the death of the body to the death of his soul.
Thus then, a folkbody or any of its members (suppose God is
still alive within them) would choose death instead of maintain-
ing life on a foundation of lies. Fortunately the real case is not
so bad as all this. If a folk -body as well as its individual member
is capable of looking at life in the light of the life-beyond, and
is content with the honest necessities of life and nothing beyond
in this respect, there is no danger of destruction either to the
folk-body or the individual-man. But both must be aware of
elements hostile to the divine-wishes. In truth, whoever limits
his worldly-wants to the material necessities of life and for the
rest lives for God alone, will learn gradually, to his own sur-
prise, that deception can be climated even in the bitterest struggle-
for-life, especially as it is quite in accord with our morals-of-lifc
to keep a watchful eye on others, so as not to be caught by their
hypocrisy or lies. The inexorable service in the course of truth
makes the eye remarkably keen in detecting hypocrisy, cunning
398
and make-believe in others. How quick we are to recognise the
diattering-corpse by the very look of his flickering eyes! How
quickly we can detect falsehood, no matter where it is we en-
counter it! Thus then, we are not obliged to fall a prey to the false
play of any others. Vigilence, silence, prudence, life-experience,
foresight and wisdom are virtues which willingly join in with
the divine-Will-to-Truth. Verily we are not left unarmed in the
battle-of-life. Ours is the victory over hypocrisy and sly attacks.
Let us ascend, therefore, to the heights of perfection. Something
else yet which is good to know. It is marvellous to think how
a man who is given to the truth and nothing but the truth is
capable of teaching another to throw off his bad habits. Through
his good example he is the only one who is capable of doing so.
In fact, he would not have this power were he in any way a
'relativist', that means to say, if he gave way to any 'comprom-
ise* in the realms of divine-thought. From this it is now easy
to see why the lovers of truth are few in number. Hardly any
man is free from stooping to make compromises. The rest are
downright liars.
But is not a lie, morally speaking, justified when spoken for
the sake of another divine-wish? Can we uphold the lie told in
emergency? Are there not cases in which it would be a cruel
thing to tell the truth; when we must lie for the sake of pity?
For instance, when we refrain from telling a sick patient the
truth about his illness and even those about him, in order not
to darken their lives with the thought of inevitable death, is this
not praise- worthy? Truth, no doubt, can be cruel and brutal;
but generally it becomes so through the inadequate way the
truth is broken to anyone. Either we tell matters which the
other one need not know, and which we were not asked to tell,
and the silence of which would have meant no deception on our
part, or we not only neglect to tell the truth properly, but fail
also to imbue the others with the strength to bear it. This
399
happens because most people lack the proper sense of charity or
Cognisance-of-God. (Gotterkenntnis). It must also be rememb-
ered that come-down Christian folks who are used to telling
lies in all emergencies will neither fight shy of putting unworthy
questions*. Our Germanic ancestors knew well what was meant
by such questions. In the Edda, Brunhild says to Gudrun: "The
question is unworthy of you." A folk brought up to tell the
truth will know very well when a question injures the moral-
sense. These are the questions of an insinuating kind which
induce people to make false statements. Truthful persons always
respect the silence of others when this is not soft concealment of
facts but the distinguishing characteristic of the chaste, reserved
kinds of natures. Yet life of such a lofty nature can hardly be
expected to find approval among the 'cultural folks' of the
present day. All are such busybodies; always chattering and
asking silly questions in their industrious way and always telling
lies to get out of any emergency. To come back to our other case.
If we keep the patient and those around him in the dark as to
the real state of his illness for the sake of pity, we are committ-
ing, in doing so, an act against morality of a twofold kind. How
many cases have proved to us already that the knowledge of
death approaching has been the very means of expanding the
divine-wishes in the patient, thus giving him the chance of his
last flight into the realms beyond. Inspite of all their erring, even
superficial men, when stricken with a mortal disease, have exper-
ienced, in the face of death, the redemption of their Immortal-
Will and sometimes gained the state of perfection in the quick
progress they made in creating their moral-self. Had vain hopes
of recovery been nurtured in the breasts of these kind of men,
little hope would have existed that the God in them would ever
have awakened at all. As to the other kind, no difficulties present
themselves when the time comes to tell them of their approaching
Englishmen are still wont to say: "Don't ask questions".
400
death, for these have already grown in the spirit of God before
their illness, and being familiar with it, await it calmly. And
finally, all those, who partake in the knowledge of the truths we
have gained, would resent, as being an insult, any protection
given through the telling of a lie, for, having already attuned
their lives to the rythm of God's sublime truths, they have no
craving for a 'happiness' 'before or after death' which is able to
be given through lies only.
Now, in this world of lies, better-men, guided by the moral
feeling of charity, have brought about a division of untruthful-
ness into two different classes. To the one class belongs the
contemptible lie. It is accounted to be 'immoral' because it is
prompted by selfishness, for it is told either to harm another or
in the hope of profit for oneself. The 'moral' lie is the opposite
kind. It is told for the good of another and sometimes harms
oneself. It is the lie of selfsacrifice (altruism). Our morals-of-
life reject altogether the doctrine which teaches that egoism is
always immoral and altruism is always moral, for this is a
foolish misconception of what is moral-in-emotions. Instead,
our morals advise the application of wise-discrimination where
the feeling of sympathy for our fellowmen is concerned. Besides
which, it is impossible for divine-feeling to be realised at the
cost of divine-thought, for our morals have taught us that
all the divine-wishes have equal rights. One may never be
put down for the sake of another. It is only natural of-course
that we all should hate the selfish lie which, by the way, insults
two divine-wishes at once. It hinders the development of the
moral-self more than the lie does which is born of the spirit of
'altruism'. Now, if a man would dedicate his attention to all
the four wishes equally, there would be no trouble here at all.
A good man would never accept the grace of a benefactor were
it supported by a lie. The only kind of deception existing which
is not immoral but amoral is the animal-kind of cunning. As long
401
as mankind is struggling like animals, threatened with danger
of death, cunning is in its right place, for it helps man and
animal to escape danger. In fact it is a moral demand in such
cases, in that opportunity must be given for the realisation of
Immortal-Life. Cunning, used as the weapon of defence to
escape death from the murderer's hand, (the animal-cunning)
is in all such cases amoral, that means morally neutral, for the
reason, that it is applied in order to save life, but not the life of-
course which is at the cost of the moral-self. (The morals-of-life
prefer self-destruction to the destruction of the moral-self.) The
murderer, on the other hand, who denies his deed in order to
save his life acts just as immorally as Galilei did when he denied
his own truths to save his life. Other cases in which cunning
might appear justified, albeit there is no actual danger to life
threatening, never can be amoral (morally-neutral). For instance,
there are artists who believe they serve their genius when they
resort to deception. They try to improve the standard of their
living in order to get 'known* and make a 'career' so as to gain
more 'time* for their art. In doing so, they merely reveal their
nonknowledge of the true nature of real genius which may never
be tied to time, but is dependent on just how fully and richly the
participation in the life of God is. The apparently more favour-
able circumstances in which an artist might be placed through
resorting to pretence would merely help to close the well from
which the genial spirit springs, so essential to his art. The mor-
ally-upright, on the other hand, those who keep to the path of
truth inspite of all want and suffering will earn their living in
honest work just in order to keep the spirit of their art chaste.
Despite want and bodily weakness the spirit of genius within
them keeps alive, for the Wish-to-Goodness here is the greatest
benefactor.
Truthfulness is only a part of the Wish-to-Truth. Now the
genius-of-research is not given to everybody, especially in the
402
search for truth by means of logical thinking. The importance of
this, however, should not find appreciation from the researchers
alone. The vision of all men should be opened to the knowledge
which the researchers of science have gained in order that all
may be given the opportunity of gaining truth and wisdom. A
pity, that the desire for philosophical-knowledge is so small. The
majority, therefore, hardly step over the threshold to con-
sciousness. Theirs are the powers to sense merely what is useful
or harmful, similar to the animals, everything else is of little
consequence to them which again can be compared to the 'not
existent* of the Greeks. The pondering on the ultimate things
of life which easily result in doubts they even dare to call 'sin'.
Moreover the knowledge, gained about the laws governing the
visible-world (Welt der Ersdieinung), thanks to the potency of
human intellect, seem more harmful than useful to them. It goes
without saying, that, not until the dogmatic belief for some had
lost its power, could the labours in the endeavour for truth bear
any fruit. Yet the more the dogmatic-belief removed itself from
the real facts, the quicker it seemed that men were obliged to
fall to that new error; the denial of the soul. But also intensive
study started. Men were anxious to find out the truth concern-
ing the laws which govern the universe. Natural-science which
the power of the church had suppressed at the penalty of death
blossomed, inspite of all the Goddeniers of the "Darwinian
Period". A sublime proof indeed for the divine-Wish-to-Truth.
Grand achievements were made in the study of the visible-world
(Welt der Ersdieinung). But they remained the property of the
realms of reason only. These freethinkers seemed struck with
a peculiar kind of soul-blindness. All sense of divine-perception
seemed absolutely wanting in them, and strange to say, the
crudest errors were accepted if they helped them in their denial
of God. Now this peculiar feature which characterised the period
when science was about to 'flourish* confirms clearly the fact we
403
here put forth. For a potential development in the realms-of-
thought divine intuition is almost essential. Hence, Darwinian-
science was potential enough to throw light into the darkness
which enveloped the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung), but
failed completely when it touched on matters belonging to the
invisible world (Wesen der Erscheinung). Did not the researchers
deny the existence of the soul? Therefore, it was not to be
expected, that their "Philosophical world-viewpoints" (Weltan-
schauung) and 'moral creeds' should be of the loftier or moral-
kind. Actually they serve to confirm this our cognisance: The
world-beyond, which is God, can penetrate the material-world,
but the material- world is not capacitated to penetrate into the
world-beyond. Any attempts to do so would mean an abuse of
its powers.
The scientific truth-researchers remind us that the purpose
of divine-thought has not only the one aim in view; the applying
of itself to all our actions (the state of truthfulness). It has also
another aim which is to perceive truth by the virtue of its own
divine faculty. It is essential that this faculty be of the divine
kind (genius) should it be worthy of leading to cognisance. The
manifestation of divine-thought is to be found in the works of
art and science. Yet few men possess this trait-of-genius, al-
though to each and all the possibility is given to attend to what
the scientific-researchers reveal. This is a duty, for the attention,
they give, awakens the divine part of their own mentality and
guides them to bridges leading to the beyond which genius has
already erected, thus enabling them, through the knowledge of
truth, to partake also in the life-beyond.
The full development of all the four divine-wishes is the goal
which our morals-of-life strive for. In this endeavour the most
important leader is science; for science is capacitated to come
into the closest touch with the nature in all things (Wesen der
Dinge) which the material world, of its own power, has not the
404
power to do. Therefore, in a similar way to the works-of-art,
science can be divided into three different classes. The first class
is concerned with the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung) only
together with the laws which govern it. Natural-science belongs
therefore to this class. Here, the invisible-world, the nature,
innate in all things (Wesen der Erscheinung) which is God throws
its light upon the material world which is the visible form of
this inner nature. Its concern is the material-world (Welt der
Erscheinung) only. To the second class all those works belong
which divine-thought has created when it made the study of
the laws governing the visible-world (Welt der Erscheinung), its
object as well as the use of intuition, thus partly protruding
already, or should do so, into the realms-beyond which is the
inner nature of all things; God (Wesen der Erscheinungen). They
are generally known as 'psychology'; soul-science and "Ped-
agogy" (the science of teaching). Now, the reason why so many
fail here their calling is because they imagine they can cope
with their duties by means of their reasoning powers only,
whereas in most cases the soul-experience should be called upon
and be ready to hand, should the reasoning powers bear their
fruit. Nothing has been able to lead "Pedagogy" more astray
from its right path, than when it was allowed to realise its
calling in reason's attempts to grasp the being 'child 1 by means
of its visible-form (Erscheinung) only. It is obvious that these
sciences have a greater right than natural-science has to lead
human-kind into the realms-beyond. By the very nature of its
endeavours, natural-science is only too apt to forget, or even
deny altogether, that there is in every visible-thing (Erscheinung)
an inner-nature (Wesen der Erscheinung). Would it but unite
its powers to the science which belongs to the third class, man's
powers of perception would be able to scale sublime heights.
The potential bridge which leads to the entrance of the world
beyond would be erected, and through knowledge, 'cognisance-
405
redemption* would be ours. The science which belongs to the
third class is "Philosophy"; divine-thought in the pursuit of the
divine. The realms of its endeavours are, or at least should be,
in the beyond, for it is concerned exclusively with the inner-
being (Wesen der Erscheinung). Among the three classes it
predominates, picking and choosing from these the facts which
may be useful to it, in its divine-endeavour to perceive the
divine. Thus, how ridiculously futile it must be to dedicate one-
self to this science if one has never experienced for oneself what
the life, which is beyond, is like, for the step to the bridges is
not sufficient. Yet innumerable men do so in the belief they are
called, because, through the potency of their reasoning-powers,
the capacity has been given to them to grasp the logical trend
of thought which creative philosophy yields or because of the
critical eye they may possess which enables them to perceive
the reason for the gaps and contradictions existing in the works
of others; in fine, because of the great capacity they possess in
showing off in a gleaming play of logic. To them philosophy
is like playing a difficult 'esoterical* game of chess which only
the eminently intelligent ones can play. In reality their lifework,
to use a Christian expression, is the e sin against the holy ghost*
for it is apt to distract better men from the right path, men who
otherwise might well have disentangled themselves from super-
ficial ties. Now, as almost all philosophical-men are of this
kind, it goes without saying, that the better-men in search of
truth stumble on their works first. No wonder then, that they
soon put them aside in disgust and give up their honest attempts to
understand philosophy altogether, for the mere display of hand-
ling difficult conceptions and the grovelling in one's own sophistry
which is exhibited in the work of a man whose soul is dead, serves
more to dampen the fervent interest in the mind of the more
worthier man than anything else. Moreover, it must still be said
of these apparent-philosophers, that in their judgement of the
406
older philosophical works, they are fully incapable of discerning
if the work is the fruit of genius or of a man whose soul is dead.
They are too ignorant to be able to judge this. The philoso-
phical-works which come from the hand of a man in whom the
divine spirit is dead will reveal the logical chain as being the
only contents, while the man of true genius, in whom the spirit
of God is still alive, will reveal the logical proofs to be the
good scaffolding put up for the student of his works to climb
in order for him to approach more easily the magnificent edifice
erected by the seer's inncrsight and live through the selfsame
experience. But as the scaffolding does not lean on to any point
but stands upright in the air, he must fly to the beyond himself,
that means, his own experience will always be of the absolutely
individual kind and is the most important event altogether, in
the participation of the philosophical work; the logical-ladders
merely facilitate the philosopher's theory. Thus then, the philo-
sophical work of a man of true genius does not by any means
lead everyone who peruses it to the knowledge of truth, on the
contrary, this, each and all must gain for themselves. Now,
those philosophers, who in reality are merely ones in appear-
ance, are perfectly oblivious of this fact. After having ascended
up and down the ladders, put up for their benefit, they believe
themselves in possession of the whole philosophy and have the
impertinence sometimes to think they have the right to decry
forever a creative work of genius, just because their shrewd
eyes found a defect or two in the ladders they were given the
priviledge to make use of. Thus it happens, that men continue
to teach barren subjects together with the philosophy belonging
to the man of genius. However, the melancholy of all this is
redeemed in the certain knowledge that the student, who must
work his own way through the medley of philosophical works,
will soon come to find out where the man-of-genius is, that is if
his own soul is not dead. As philosophy comes of the divine
407
Will-to-Truth, the philosopher who is deaf to the calling of
God will inevitably give himself away at every turn. And one
such turn is sufficient to mark him as being dead of soul. There-
fore, let us not disturb the dead; there is no use in rustling the
dry decayed leaves of any of his books.
Now these are grievous conditions of no trivial kind; and we
owe it to the morals-of-life that they should be remedied. All
the dead must be removed from the temple of philosophy to
save the ardent newcomer from falling into the hands of the
God-deniers!
408
fbitte*f> exception*
Our morals of life desire the full development of the four
wishes of the divine will equally. They bear the divine message
that the Wish-to-Beauty is just as important as the Wish-to-
Truth and the love of our fellowmen is. What a tremendous
change this idea should cause in the life of a folk that has
laboured more than a thousand years under the impression that
the Wish-to-Beauty bore little or no significance simply because
its religion did not esteem beauty at its right value. Observe
how little sensitive to beauty he also was who founded this
alien religion. How positively hostile, save when it was to the
glory of the faith, its priests were. And what a state of ugliness
it was in which the people passed their daily-lives, although
the great urge for beauty which in reality was theirs, found
its outlet in the creation of art for the glorification of the alien
faith. As the ancestral art of the prechristian era had been
destroyed, except for what had been hidden in the grave, the
eye of the artist turned wistfully to the Grecian art which was
the manifestation of beauty itself. The Greeks were the very
first to perceive that beauty was interwoven with goodness,
living their lives accordingly. How shameful, in comparison, is
the dull undeveloped beauty-conscience of the so-called "Cult-
ural Folks" of our day. How few are aware that the beauty-
conscience is just as important as the good-conscience is, and
that it is their duty to make their daily lives as beautiful as it
lies in their power to do so. The admiration of the works of
an is not sufficient to satisfy the demands which the Wish-to-
409
Beauty expects to be fulfilled. It is almost incomprehensible
that the human-kingdom should be so devoid of beauty, while
in the animal-kingdom and the 'inorganic' world so much bount-
eous beauty prevails. We shall understand the reason for it
well and good if we but bear the bigotry of the Christians in
mind. The Immortal-Will was considered to be connected with
ugliness. The beauty of the human-body was the devil calling,
bringing up visions of hell. Beautiful mothers were burnt at
the stake because they were thought to be 'witches'.
As the Wish-to-Truth finds its expression in every true word,
thought or deed, the Wish-to-Beauty, likewise, finds its express-
ion. It can do so in our own appearance and in the appearance
of the things we use around us. But in its pursuit, we must be
directed by our own sense of what is beautiful and not what
others think beautiful. This will depend of -course on the degree
our beauty-sense has been allowed to develope. This applies
to all with the exception of the actual artists and scientific
researchers. Namely these, the creative artists are generally, in
this respect, incapable of realising at all the Wish-to-Beauty.
An artist is capable of pointing out the beauty in the harmony
of certain tints, while his own dress will reveal a clashing of
the most awful colours. He will be sensitive to the beauty in
the inner decoration of a house, while in his own home the
most ugly things are tolerated. This arises from the priviledge
which God accords his chosen ones, in order to spare their sens-
itive nature being too hardly wounded in their hard driven
daily life. Their eyes are made so as to see but beauty only; to
ugly objects around them they are blindfolded. Now this should
mean a matter of grave concern to all the others to whom it
is given to see. They must make up for what the artist fails to
see in striving for the realisation of the Wish-to-Beauty innate
within them with double fervour, and in the best way they
can. May the man-of-genius also keep our morals before his
410
eyes, in respect to this particular duty towards God. The divine
spirit within him wants to develope in order to achieve perfect-
ion. Therefore we ask him not to forget to persevere in little
things, thus showing his gratitude for the richness of the beauty-
wish which has been given to him. He will then be spared the
mortification of being set up as an example in order to justify
the similar untidy habits of the cheaper sort of human-beings.
However, the divine-wish coming in the garb of beauty will
not be satisfied with the beauty of a person's outward appear-
ance or the beauty of his environment alone. More is required.
We are expected to put under beauty's guidance all the express-
ions of our soul, all our movements, speech and the expression
of all our emotions. This is called self-control which leads us
along the path of moderation. Here again it is clearly revealed
how beauty and goodness are closely associated to one another.
On the achievement of this aim, our ancient forebears of pre-
christian time laid great value. Among the ideal figures of their
sagas which was deemed most worthy of imitation was the
Goddess "Mass" (measure) because she lived her life in Vise
moderation'. Moderation in all things is closely linked up with
the sacred meaning of life. How much human misery would be
spared if men would but cultivate their sense-of-beauty. Sense
of moderation would repress many an outburst of rage and
passion. In some such circumstances as these it might appear as
if the Wish-to-Truth should dominate the Wish-to-Beauty in
the open confession to all the emotions raging within the
breast, but nevertheless equal consideration must be given to
the Wish-to-Beauty, as the strength of both wishes should be
equally developed and held in the balance.
Influenced by Christian thought, the majority came to neglect
the element of beauty in their outward appearance and the look
of their surroundings. Only the morals of 'society' deemed beauty
a worthy asset which fact, as being cultivated by the upper class,
411
made the mentally primitive begin to suspect beauty to be bad.
But as 'society' was stimulated with the vain spirit to look and
dress beautifully merely to impress others of their own class,
it happens generally that the urge to look and dress beautifully
does not come from the divine Wish-to-Beauty, but merely to
be in the 'fashion*. Moreover, as men and women of 'society*
were not ashamed of stooping to the immoral behaviour of putt-
ing the emphasis on the mere outward appearance which was
thought necessary to be kept up at any price, better men grew
disgusted, especially as it was so obvious that artificial manners
were more acceptable than true morals, sham feelings more wel-
come than expression of the true ones. A great confusion of
ideas has arisen as a consequence of all this. For instance, the
endeavours of anyone to make the very best of their appearance
is likely to be called 'vanity* or 'superficiality'. Bad taste in dress
and the careless indifference of outward appearances, the sign
of a 'spiritualised', pious, or grave state of mind. Graceful
behaviour and a desire to be moderate in all things is very
likely to be called 'affectation' or pretence, while pointed bad
manners, undisciplined rough behaviour, is often considered the
sign of an unbribable character.
Thus, when the 'morals of society' are looked at properly,
it will be noted, that the artificial garb in which beauty trends
its way through society-life is but the revenge of nature making
itself manifest; for the instinct to surround ones daily life with
beauty, as our ancient Aryan forebears were wont to do, had
been cruelly suppressed. An example, pair to this, can be found
in the folk-costumes which were worn in the middle-ages. The
craving for beauty found its vent in the beauty of the bright
colours which tried to redeem the ugliness and unhealthiness of
men and women being muffled up in such clothes.
But the Wish-to-Beauty will not suffer itself to be restricted
to work in the outward appearance and in the emotions of the
soul life alone. It requires a still greater scope for its endeavours.
Its aim is, through the divine assertion of the soul itself, to make
a veritable work of art out of the inner life of human-kind.
It aims at bringing about peaceful co-operation of all the divine
wishes within the soul. At the command of beauty they join
together or separate, rise and sink in divine or superficial joy
and sorrow which they bear. And the sublime height of per-
fection which the divine Wish-to-Beauty hereby can attain,
together with the height of perfection which the Wish-to-Good-
ness can achieve, constitutes the richness of the inner-life of man
which is incapable of being imparted to anyone else, although
its existence is revealed strongly to others in the quality of a
man's actions. It is of the selfsame beauty which appeals to us
in all the grand masterpieces of art, as being the manifestation
of the spiritual beauty which has been attained through the
steady exfoliation of the painting and architecture; genius-in-
deed. Little is to be noticed of divine features in the art of the
present day. The music of the 20th century is characterised by
a discordant clashing of sound, colour and form. They are the
manifestations of a hasty, nervous, unsettled state of mind which
is vexed with the rise and fall of instincts, feelings and sensat-
ions, all hostile with one another. If not this, then it is cold
reasoning-work which is revealed. The works of pure genius
are the rare exceptions. What is it that make them all so hollow?
It is because of the evident impotency of the artists to render
any experience of the life beyond.
Above all, their works lack the triumph of beauty. In trans-
forming the alien religion to their liking, the artists of the
middle-ages were still capable of sensing God, and accordingly
their works could manifest Godliving which is the mark distin-
guishing genius.
In dwelling on the art of the present day, we come from the
capacity of art creation to the enjoyment of art. Now, for the
413
man, who knows that the possibility is given to him to become
God's consciousness as well as that the Wish-to-Beauty, like the
other divine-wishes, is the manifestation of his soul, he will
also know, that the conscious perception, the 'enjoyment* of
beauty is 'divine service' in the deepest sense of the word. The
perceiving of beauty in nature is like attending 'divine wor-
ship', albeit here beauty has been unconsciously created; how
much more adequate is the term 'divine service' when used to
describe the state of contemplation of the conscious Godliving
which is manifested in works-of-art. The masterpieces of beauty,
similar to the creations born of divine-thought, namely scientific
work, can also be arranged into three classes according to the
quality of their nature. The beyond can and does penetrate this
visible world (Welt der Erscheinung). Thus, a certain kind of art
will arise which represents the unspiritualised struggle-for-
existence with all those kind of desires and instincts belonging
to it. For instance all the dancemusic and love-songs which tell
of sexual-life or the struggle-for-existence belong to this kind.
Not being animated with any spirit of a divine-nature, this
kind of art cannot be considered in the light of a 'divine service',
nor do they form themselves into those bridges which lead to
the beyond for man's benefit. Yet a mark how often the street
song itself is superior to the experience it is telling of: Just stop
a minute to observe the singer. Look at the expression of his
face, listen to his voice when he tries to bring about the full
effect of the song! In every case, there is a spirit of something
higher which is trying to raise the experience above the atmo-
sphere of its baseness.
The works-of-art which belong to the second class serve as
capital bridges for the worldly youth, as something of the spirit
of God is always revealed in them. Their contents are generally
concerned with sublimated sexuality or "Minne", as we have
termed it, with all its joys, pains and struggles. Sympathy is
414
held in praise; that divine feeling which draws men to each
other, how it loses and wins in the conflicting battles against
'unfaithfulness' and hate. That here also the work of art itself
is of a greater quality than the actual experience lies in the fact
that the divine-wish, in its garb of beauty, labours with the
selfsame intensity in all the happenings and emotions which are
being described, as it would do in the soul of a man when this
is endeavouring to mould and shape itself into a work of genius.
If this mark of distinction is missing in the artists achievements,
there will arise, instead of art, something which likens to a
photographic reproduction, but which now-a-days is often
believed to be art. When an artist attempts to make an exhibit-
ion of any experience which he himself has never been able to
feel, there will but arise, in the result, a mere bungling thing
which leaves no impression on the mind at all. The musical
works of Richard Wagner are examples of masterpieces belong-
ing to this second class, albeit, for all who have experienced
for themselves the life beyond, his Parcifal, although it should
be classed to masterpieces belonging to the third class, reveals
the fact that in Parcifal, Wagner had got lost in experiences
strange to him.
The works of art which belong to the third class are the
highest of all. They are the precincts sacred to the few only.
The men-of-genius who create them must be capable of living
their lives in all full consciousness according to the rules of a
clear God-Cognisance. The form, colour, rythm and sound
which manifest this Godliving are the sole links which connect
it to this world at all. It is the divine art which is concerned
with the divine alone. With the visible-world (Welt der Erschei-
nung) and its experiences it has nothing to do at all. It stands
on the same level as Philosophy which might be called the holy
of holies among the sciences. It reveals exclusively either religious-
emotions or contemplation; Bach's music is a good example of
415
this level. Pictures which represent this high level of art are
often seen hanging among the pictures belonging to the other
two classes which prove how little the art-connoiseurs possess
of the divine nature of art. It is much the same in concerts. The
'program' begins with pieces belonging to the highest class and
then follow pieces belonging to the other classes; very often
altogether light music; which is indeed asking a lot from the
audience. The inevitable e sin against the holy ghost* artists will
commit, just as philosophers are capable of doing, who are
soulless. Works of art make their appearance without a trace
of the divine in them. Now, in art, reason's potencies do not
play such a part as they do in scientific-matters. This accounts
for the fact that temple-sacriledge does not so often happen
in art as it does in science, although it frequently happens among
the lovers of art.
Our morals of life aim putting an end to such blasphemy,
for this it is, when soulless men believe themselves called upon
to grasp art with the powers of their reason, and what is more
teach others such fallacy in doing so, causing infinite harm to
our folk, as the exfoliation of the divinity in the garb of beauty
is badly impeded. If these would but keep quiet, but they won't.
Possessed of a certain knowledge concerning the laws of art,
they are impertinent enough to approach any and every work
of art, not in that spirit of awe which is due to the artist alone,
in order to find out the experience he is trying to impart, but
merely to criticise if the space and the reflection of light and
shadow have been properly divided, cutting it into pieces as
it were for themselves and others, leaving hardly a rag behind
which is worth anything in the way of art. As these knowers-
of-art evidently will keep on in this way till the end of their
days, it is our duty to appeal to the younger generation. Our
morals will point out to them the intentions of art, and what
we ourselves desire of art. We shall refrain in the first place
416
from wanting young people to appreciate already high artistic
work. One thing, however, we shall point out to them, and that
is, not to listen to what others believe to be good art, but to
have confidence in their own feelings as to what is beautiful or
not. If they honestly believe a thing to be beautiful, there is
no good in contradicting them, even if the thing is actually ugly
with no pretence at art at all. At least in this way we can keep
youth honest in its opinion, which is the main thing. The very
best way in which to cultivate the Wish-to-Beauty in a youth
is to show sympathy for his tastes and allow him to please
himself in this respect in his own dear way. This will keep his
interest in art awake and in time his taste will improve of its
own accord. Preaching reason would do infinite harm and must
therefore be strictly avoided. In this way the young will be
given the chance to grow up to be men who have that sense,
which our morals call 'aesthetic'. That is, men who would always
like to see beauty realised everywhere, who would be induced
to sacrifice beauty for utility's sake only in the case of a great
emergency. In fact men who are in perfect harmony with nature,
pervaded with the selfsame spirit of beauty as all else is in the
universe, but priviledged before all else in that they can live
consciously fulfilling this divine-wish. After which that man
will be born who, gradually, gains through his own experience
that higher developed taste for what is beautiful, and what is not,
without first having to reason it out or listen to the judgement
of another. It will he that divine good he has achieved of his
own accord and will bear therefore the distinguishing mark of
peerlessness.*
In bringing up youth to cultivate its own sense of beauty, we are
saving them from becoming men of 'unaesthetic' tastes, men who
are against refinement. According to our morals the men of bad-
* This fact will help to explain why the Greeks found no use for 'art-history' or
'art-critic', aud yet possessed such a great sense of beauty which was given to all alike.
4*7
taste (undeveloped Wish-to-Beauty) are all those who prefer
utility to beauty, even when the element of utility serves to no
purpose; all those who try to grasp beauty with their reason,
and finally all those who have no sure, true judgement of their
own, but repeat parrot-like what any professor, critic or the
'masses' of the public say.
The man of our new morals, the 'aesthetic man', that is, the
man pervaded with the divine spirit of beauty, is alone capable
and no other of developing his inner-nature (Seele). One day he
will certainly be able to cross the bridges as well as enter the
realms beyond and live the life in God (God-living) through the
good influence of art, while the best, others will achieve, is the
life at the gates outside the beyond; the sensing of the deep emo-
tions which art gives them to experience, (s. above) We know
already how dangerous to the life of the soul it is when men
make it their habit to frequent the bridges leading to the beyond,
returning to the usual routine of daily-life without making
attempts to succeed in entering the beyond. This habit will gain
such power over them that one day the chance will be lost for-
ever of entering the realms of God by means of that bridge which
they have made it their habit to stop at. Being alive to this fact,
our morals of life must call this immoral because of the danger
it-means to our Godliving. In order to prevent such evil spread-
ing our morals appeal again especially to the young. As God-
living (the soul-life in the realms of God) can happen without
the stimulating help from anything outside, in fact, the divine
in man developes more steadily if the soul has virtue enough to
undertake the flight into the beyond without outward help, the
answer to the following question is of matter. "Can the stimul-
ating influence of art do harm to the independence of the soul
in its flight into the realms of God?" The only sure answer is
this: It weakens the strength of a man if he visits the bridges,
built by others, too frequently, for there is the danger of being
418
overwhelmed which would impede his own progress. Principles
underlie this fact. The greater the creative power is, the richer
his inner life is, the less he must give himself up to enjoy the
creations of others, but the more he must strive to create his
own, especially in his most fruitful years. He is none the poorer
for this. On the contrary. The joy of creation is sufficient to
make up for anything he might miss in joy which others could
afford him. Has such an one made it a habit in immature years
to frequent the bridges, he has run a twofold risk. The first is
the danger of letting his own potencialities get stunted, in that
he grows indolent in the endeavour to develope them; the second
is the very likely matter of his attempting to build bridges of his
own long before his potencies are sufficiently developed. As this
is more often the case than not, the claims of our morals-of-life
go in the opposite direction to the aims of the systems of educat-
ion which prevail. For instance, we must be very careful with
the intelligent child that gives promise of developing genius. For
the sake of the life of its future creations we must refrain from
making it acquainted too early with the great masters either of
the past or present. Not that we should forbid the child anything
in this respect, for then it would be tempted to satisfy its long-
ing in secret; we should try, instead, to distract its attention in
giving it plenty of opportunity to play with other children. If,
on the other hand, a child is little or not gifted at all, we do well
in conducting it very often to the bridges in order to awaken
its sense of art. Thus then, thanks to our cognisance, in time we
shall see less of those stupidly ignorant parents who think it
their duty to overwhelm their talented child with the treasures
of art and erudition, and delight in hearing its precocious critic-
ism, quite oblivious of the appalling fact, that, in acting so, they
are stunting the child's own creative potencies in putting a strain
on them at such an early time. It must be remembered that the
spiritual-experience of the child, with rare exceptions (highly
419
gifted children), cannot be compared to the Godliving of the
adult. The child is incapable of partaking in the Godliving of
another. Its spiritual-experience is born in the realms of imagin-
ation and is merely fantasy. (We refer the reader to "The Child's
Soul and its Parents' Office".) Therefore a wise tutor will take
pains to find out the right methods of stimulating the child's
imagination. The one degree might stifle it while the other will
develop it. But in all cases he will studiously refrain from in-
itiating the child into the realms of Godliving by means of art,
.science or 'religious instructions'. Such endeavours would only
be futile, as the child is absolutely incapacitated to partake in
the life of God.
420
If already the Wish-to-Truth and the Wish-to-Beauty are
obviously interwoven with the Wish-to-Goodness, the Wish-to-
Goodness itself is closely interwoven with the divine feeling of
sympathy which exists for our fellowmen. In fact it is the deter-
mining factor in all our actions. The Indian Krischna, overcome
at the sight of all the sufferings of mankind which had been
caused by the feelings of hate, spite, indifference and continual
strife, invented an alluring albeit fallacious creed in order to put
an end to all this unnecessary suffering. He taught men to desire
'peace on earth'. He told them to give up hating altogether and
love all men without using discrimination and forgive all with-
out using discrimination. Krischna's creeds are fallacies of a
folk-destroying character.
The ignorance of the his tory-of -growth which prevailed at
that time was the cause of the error and confusion which Jischnu
Krischna's message contains. No doubt he believed the demons
which were supposed to be in our own breatsts caused the hatred
to be in the world and fancied the only way to overcome the
evil was to love one's neighbour as oneself and with God's aid
then it would one day be eliminated altogether. He even believed
it to be truth, when he taught 'love thy enemies'. Now, these
doctrines only aided in the destruction of man and his race. Of
man's-soul because he tried to pretend something which he could
never accomplish, and all because men had laboured under a
misconception of the intrinsic nature of hatred. When a man
believes life to be a passing journey with eternal-life after death
as its destination and the reincarnations as so many changes
only, it is but natural, he should be easily called upon to resign
the feeling of hatred towards those who want his life, for these
in reality are helping him to gain eternal-bliss before he would
otherwise have done so. For this reason alone he ought to love
the man who murders him. But in reality it is not so, thanks to
the God in man that protects him from succumbing to this fall-
acy. (In the unconscious part of the soul slumbers the truth con-
cerning reality.) But in order to do justice to Krischna's com-
mandments (which the Jews, later, put into the mouth of Jesus
of Nazareth) men tried to 'love' every-body, although these
were not actually their enemies who 'wanted their lives' in the
sense of Krischna's commandment. In spite of this, all the appall-
ing characteristics born of the feeling of hate were still rampant
in the soul of man. His reasoning powers were the cause of this.
The animal is devoid of them as reason's awakening was given
to mankind as his priviledge alone. We have learnt to under-
stand the hate which is proper to the animal. The anger which the
Self preservation- Will feels when it is being threatened Jn any
way is natural. It is innate in all living things. Therefore it is
an impossibility to eliminate hate as long as the Selfpreservation
and Immortal-Will exist. In fact, in the human-kingdom which
is made up of conscious beings, who therefore are given the
capacity to care deliberately for the preservation of their kind,
hate should be consciously used as one of the controlling factors
in the preservation of the race. (If race-mixture has not yet
taken place this instinct comes quite natural.) Thus then, each
individual should hate its enemy. Mankind above all because it
is a will which he is capable of spiritualising.
But does not hatred clash with the divine-feeling of sympathy
which men should possess for their fellowmen? Will it not be
an impediment and therefore hinder men in their desire to love
their fellowmen? Should it not, therefore, be completely elimin-
422
ated in order that the feeling of love towards others should be
allowed to thrive? Already previously (s. above) we have been
able to point out how the divine-wishes can succeed in overcom-
ing the conflict which exists between the struggle-for-life and the
life which is beyond this, in that a union of the two lives (strugg-
le-for-life and Godliving) was brought about. Now, should not
genius be capable of bringing about the same thing here? As hate
is inseparably paired to the Sclfpreservation-Will, and the self-
preservation-Will is inseparably paired to all that possesses life,
it is futile to want to eliminate this vital power. Therefore, the
only way to bring about a state of harmony is to refine the
selfprcservation instinct, and create a divine potency out of the
hate which is of the animal-kind.
Let us ask first, who is our enemy really? According to the
truth of life's meaning, as seen in the light of our cognisance,
everything which dares to harm our Godliving is our enemy. The
animal-like hate must rise within us of-coursc, when the life of
our family or folk is in danger, but must subside, even in such
an emergency, if the divine-wishes should have to be sacrificed
for the sake of living on. (s. above.) In all who are alive to the
sacredness of life's meaning the power to hate will grow mighty
when they see any danger threatening the God-living of their
own soul, or of their own folk or, for that matter, the God-
living of the folk-soul of all others. But that kind of hate which
all men can experience through having been given the powers
of reasoning must be strictly repressed because it can cause such
evil to the soul. Life is given to this kind of hate when men
consider that the meaning of life lies in the endeavours to heap
up as much pleasure as possible and avoid everything which
causes pain. Thus, the hate connected with the Selfpreservation-
Will will undergo a process of transformation in those human
individuals who have gained a divine sense of direction in the
pursuit of their hate.This transformation is of ten very gradual like
4*3
the process to the state of perfection is. These two, in fact, go hand
in hand. A man will then become aware how his failings and
errors become less frequent within the course of time, although
the change for the better which has taken place within his soul
is not of such a radical kind as to be apparent to either himself
or others arround him. But when the day arrives on which he has
ultimately succeeded in directing his hate into new channels; in
the course of what is divine alone, he will experience a renewal
of his inner-self. This will cause the trend of his whole life to
change, especially in his behaviour towards his fellow-men. For
the first time he knows what it is to be released from all those
appalling fetters, unknown to the animal, which men have
called the 'powers of evil*. Of a certitude he will never again
fall into the temptation of 'his every thought and wish being of
evil*. The actual state of perfection he has not yet gained; but
he is on the way to it.
But what are 'those devilish powers' which, in having directed
his feelings of hate anew, he so amply succeeded in overcoming
after others had failed so completely, namely the adherents to
the Krischna creed? As soon as a man understands the origin of
the rise and fall of these 'satanic' powers they will have lost
their power over him forever.
Let us recall again to mind the animal's forgetf ulness of joyful
as well as of painful experiences. It is owing to this capacity
that the sight of the enemy arouses hate in the animal, but which
immediately is forgotten as soon as the enemy is out of sight,
and will be rearoused as soon as the enemy is again in sight. How
different it is with the human-being. Once torments of any kind
are experienced they will impress themselves so deeply on his
mind as to keep the anger of the Selfpreservation-Will keenly
alive. Moreover, as his awakened reason is able to find out the
secret of amassing joyous experiences, it discloses the secret
of it to the Selfpreservation-Will. Now all his actions are
424
guided in the pursuit of 'happiness* as reason and hate have
joined hands together. All his thoughts are turned in the one
direction, which is, how he best can protect his state of happiness
from being harmed, but also how he best can harm the happy
state of others. In this way those appalling 'characteristics' are
born in the breast of man which I have called the offspring of
hate and reason; these cause the life of most people to become
a hell on earth, and the earth itself a 'vale of tears'. In the spirit
of quarrelsomeness, revenge and spitefulness, a veritable 'devil's
brood' has come to life. The most candid confession to these sins
which cultural history reveals is found in the veneration of the
Catholics for "St. Disturber of the peace" in Luxemburg. Count-
less staunch Christians make regular pilgrimages to this Saint.
They can be seen in progression carrying blessed-candles with
the purpose of dedicating them to "St. Disturber of the Peace".
Afterwards hundreds of pins are stuck into the candle wax, in
the hope, that, when the candle has burnt a pm down and it lies
at the feet of the saint, he, the 'kind' one, will make the enemy
suffer the cruelest pains. How many bad people have wishes and
do actions worthy of such a saint although the holy candles are
missing which they ought to be carrying in their hands.
And yet there would still be room left for a 'paradise on earth 1
in spite of the sinister children of reason and hate, for there are
many still who are peace-loving as long as their own peace is
not disturbed. Unfortunately these are not the only children of
this awful wedlock which made its first appearance in the human-
kingdom, and so it happens, that, compared with the hell on
earth which these cause, the other were a paradise, for the
'devil's brood' which we are now about to speak of poisons the
life of the most peace-loving of all.
The longing to heap up enjoyments, that is, happiness which
each man fosters is of a certitude very different. There is the
spiritualised kind of "Eudamonism" as well as the cruder type
with stages, almost unimaginable, running between; all kinds of
which are praised as constituting the good of life. But in one
respect all men are alike in their chase for happiness, (most
human-beings are of this type). One and all must be prepared
that that dragon-brood; envy, greed and malice will make their
souls nitty as soon as hate and reason have been allowed to
marry there. Now these characteristics are worse than those we
first mentioned, for they will even cause a man to persecute
another who has never done him any evil at all. All those whom
they believe to be 'happy* are their sure victims. The most
beautiful places on earth can become like a murderer's cave, in
which the human soul will suffocate on account of the pest these
cause. And yet how indifferent the prevailing morals-creeds are
to these evils of the soul. Up till now all the creeds, preaching,
in relation to these, of eternal bliss or eternal damnation, have
proved of little good; moreover they are also fallacies. All men
have failed therein, except those perhaps who resigned happ-
iness altogether. No wonder that the latter was considered the
only way to salvation, so that 'ascetism* and 'the resignation of
the world' and disdain of 'worldly joys' and sorrows found its
way into the life of human-kind.
Now, how good it must be to hear that this brood is neither
unconquerable nor is it the power of 'satan'. It is innate in all
mankind and comes to life when reason awakens. But, as the
divine wishes in man take longer to develope, man remains the
victim of his passions, for redemption can come to him through
cognisance alone. Man's hate becomes transfigured as soon as
the Godliving within him has grown strong enough to enable him
to give up the idea that happiness constitutes life, and instead
of this endeavours to become God's consciousness, in that he
succeeds in living Godlike, which means that he is capacitated
to partake in the life-beyond which is that state of perfection
he is striving for. As soon as he succeeds in this his hate, now,
426
will be roused to strike anything which comes in the way of his
Godliving, or the existence and godliving of his kindred folk.
Nothing else will be found worthy of his hatred. Thus he will
perceive in that brood of hell, conceived by hate and reason, the
greatest enemies to his immortality. And there is nothing in all
the world or for that matter in his own soul, which is strong
enough to rouse the divine hate of his Immortal-Will so much
as this brood of hell can do. Already the Indian 'religion of love*
recognised this fact, but as it was believed their origin and power
came from a devil whose aim it was to lead man to eternal dam-
nation, every attempt made to overcome them remained futile.
Now, be it known, that in reason they have their origin, and
that knowledge of their birth and growth robs them of their
appalling power. The hate which comes of the spirit of God
suffers them not. It overcomes them without any resort to
combat even.
Observe then that the man who pursues in this hate all the
sinister brood in his own soul has by no means resigned hatred
as the Indians Krischna and Buddha recommended, on the con-
trary he must hate everything existing either in his own soul or
about him which goes in any way against the divine trends of the
Divine Will, and the worse the enemy of God is, the greater will
his hatred grow. Therefore, he will exhibit little patience with
those superficial good-hearted sort, who say 'live and let live*
because they are too weak to put up any fight against their own
passions. He will leave them to themselves as long as their
example does no harm to others, but he will hate intensely all
those others, who, with the weapons of their reasoning potencies
tear to pieces the works of art born of the Godlife of others, for
he knows how this kind of criticism and mockery keeps others
away from partaking in the life of God. He will hate, also, all
those restless soulless workers in the course-of -utility who make
the life of so many a burden through the inconsiderate way they
4*7
have of calling the attention of others to their own narrow every-
day-life and so distract these from their Godliving. He will hate
all those in whom the children of hate and reason are still alive. He
will hate the liars and hypocrites, especially those who dare to
lie in matters of a spiritual kind. He will hate all those who
make abuse of the faith of others; those who pretend to be
genuine in order to steal the love of others for the purpose of
gaining power over them. He will hate all, who, in neglecting
to cultivate the Wish-to-Goodness within them, have spoilt their
own souls and work through the poison they gave to their genius.
In fine, he will hate all those who fit their art to the best way
of getting a living, instead of preferring famine to such contam-
ination from the principles of utility, for this is like committing
treason.
It is surely obvious, now, that those human-beings in whom
the divine-wishes are potent, in whom therefore the Wish-to-
Love all men is extraordinarily keen, are just those who are
doomed to hate the most. We can well imagine how such tender-
hearted individuals, so warm in their feelings for others, will
suffer in having to hate so much, so that verily a 'martyrdom*
is made out of their lives, a fact, which also proves the best how
little our God-Cognisance satisfies the desires for happiness.
Now let us hope that many will take advantage of this truth,
and thanks to the benefit it gives them, turn over a new leaf. In
weeding out of their souls those children born of hate and reason
and placing the divine wishes to grow in their stead, there is
every hope that the better men, we have spoken of, will be able
to realise the love they cherish for mankind without having to
deliberately act immorally.
Now, it would be absolutely futile to want to judge the
feelings of hate which a man who is alive to God cherishes, if we
ourselves have not succeeded in getting farther than the natural
feelings governed by the innate laws of consciousness, that
428
means to say the general feelings which arise from the pairing of
hate with reason. We should only arrive at a completely wrong
estimation of his soul. The potential feeling of divine hate is free
from anything like the spirit of quarrelsomeness, revenge, malice,
envy, jealousy or greed. A man who hates in the divine way
only is imbued with the greatest desire to see the divine spirit
awaken and grow in those whom he must hate. He is prepared
to change his hate into love at any moment when he can be
convinced that the individual he was obliged to hate is rising
to a higher standard-of-morals. In fact he is always ready to
help him do so. One thing only he will never be induced to do,
and that is, live together with anyone who causes him to neglect
the cultivation of his Godliving, for all such who are ignorant
of what this is are only too apt to keep us back in our spiritual
progress, in that they disturb our peace of mind at any moment
they please, if they intend to or not. Among this kind and sort,
the worst are those who are very lively and communicative, for
their poison is the deadliest to another's Godliving. Peace, ver-
ily, means life to the man who has trained himself in the spirit
of God; disturbance of his peaceful state the loss of immortality!
For this reason, the man who has learned to change his emotions
of hate into the kind which are divine must take great care in
his desire to help others to become good not to go so far as to
make his actions immoral. As divine-hate merely wants to devel-
ope the Godliving in the other without resorting to combative
means, the duty to forgive and forget which the Indians Krischna
and Buddha put forth as commandments become invalid. If
another will spoil our lives and we are tempted to do wrong in
return, there is no good in forgetting like the animal does when
it is over. On the contrary each word and deed which has made
us suffer should be so imprinted on our souls as to be a warning
to ourselves and the others. The less we are capable of forgetting,
the more hope there is that it will be for the very last time we
429
or our companion will succumb to the temptation of doing evil
Yet for those others, who still cherish within their breasts the
brood born of hate and reason, the only way to overcome the
temptation of revenging themselves is to try and forget.
The divine hater of-course possesses a divine sense of discrim-
ination as well with regards to those he loves. Long ago he gave
up sympathising with all men indiscriminately as it was first
taught by Krischna thousands of years ago and later by other
religious doctrines. His feelings of sympathy are not like the
'sun which shines over just and unjust alike*. He is even called
upon to refrain from loving his 'nearest relations' if these are
likely to become the grave diggers to his Godliving, for this
would certainly be immoral, and if for this reason he is capable
of refraining from loving his next of kin, how much more easier
must it be to refrain from giving way to an indiscriminate 'love
of all men' which tramples on the claims of family and folkdom.
He must be expected first to examine the character of his fellow-
men before his decision falls in love or hate towards them. The
familiar tone may come sounding only when the affinity is of a
divine nature which is knitting kith and kin together.
The love we feel for another depends solely on the progress
which the divine-spirit in the one we want to love has made in
its development. Now see how this moral fact must inevitably
put an end to the error of equality of man. Men are not all equal,
neither is it truth that all have 'human weaknesses', nor are all
men 'sinners*. These are easy going doctrines indeed, and for
that very reason they have worked such disaster in the human-
soul. The spiritual indolence they cause hinder a man on his way
to perfection, for he is made too lazy to undertake the pains of
giving divine shape to his soul. Now just let us see how totally
different men are to one another; in fact the difference manifested
among the humankind is more obvious than among any other
living kind. For instance there are the mere strugglers-for-life.
430
These have lost all the genuiness and simplicity which disting-
uishes the soul of the animal, although they have diligently kept
alive the 'dragonbrood' in their souls. They are even far below
all the unconscious and subconscious animate beings. They have
gained simply nothing, but have lost tremendously. Then there
is the divine kind of human-being. It is he who has gained the
state of perfection; he, who as long as he breathes, lives in union
with God; he, in fine, who is God's consciousness. So now,
indeed, I am entitled to believe that a tremendous gulf separates
these two, for the one is 'high* and the other is 'low 1 , and in
between there exists ever so many different kinds and sorts, not
one resembling the other in inner value. Nothing is capable of
equalising mankind, not even family features nor the features,
native to the race. At first sight the difference is not so obvious
of -course. All men, it is true, have their 'human weakness* until
they have become perfect, but there is a great difference between
the nature of the 'weakness* of the one who is 'high* and the one
who is 'low*. Human weakness, seen in the latter, means that
the soul has gone out of its original shape and has grown crippled
and distorted, while the 'weakness' of the 'high' can be likened
to the minor disproportions which happen to appear, sometimes,
in a superb image-of-God. As long as we keep blind to the
difference existing among human individuals our vision will be
marred. It will make us incapable of judging what is sublime
or not.
The equality of mankind is a realisation which broods melan-
choly over mankind, for it makes men unfit to see what is great
in the human-individual of their own time. It makes this phrase
always ring in their ears: "We are all human with human weak-
ness", so they simply overlook what is great. Not until the man-
of-genius is dead, is he valued for that what his own virtue has
made of him.
The doctrine-of-equality makes it for the silly majority almost
43 1
impossible to suspect mankind to be good at all, as men natur-
ally judge everybody else according to themselves. Their own
failures and the many disappointments they have been made to
experience, have caused them to loose all their faith in mankind.
Consequently they read into the soullife of their neighbour the
same as they themselves experience. If they experience very little
of what is divine, they think it pretence if they see it manifested
in any one else, as they themselves are ready to pretend anything
if it brings them benefit, swayed back and forward as they are
in the disorder of their own conflicting instincts. They are ready
to judge the behaviour of others in the light of their own petty
motives and cling to these, their own opinions, even when an-
other tries to persuade them that noble motives underlie other
mens' behaviour. In no wise does this fact make them feel mel-
ancholy at all. On the contrary, it makes them smile knowingly
and they say: "He has got his human weakness as all the rest of
us have." In regard to human-behaviour, the flabbiness of Crist-
ian tolerance has caused men to loose their good sense of what
is rightly human. They have forgotten all about that high funct-
ion which must be graced with dignity and worth, should the
animate-being known as the human-being have its virtue at all.
Instead, 'human* has grown to mean something most awfully
imperfect. For this reason the great among the living are apt to
be overlooked. Only the great who have passed away have
value. Here we are coming to the clearest proof of the evil effects
which the doctrine of equality has caused. Listen! The sublime
truth which our philosophy reveals is superfluous; there is no
place for it in the breasts of men today for these would only
call it 'pride' to want to soar to those heights which man is
capable of by virtue of his own rights and power. Yet worthy
of being called man is the sublimest man alone. This we are
rightly justified in saying because we know that man alone is
able to become God's consciousness. Thus then, contrary to aJl
43*
others, we expect human perfection; this is the aim which is
gained when a man practices self-creation.
Our morals are not content with just knowing that there is a
tremendous difference existing among men. They demand men
to adjust themselves accordingly. Now, as the sympathy we
show for our fellowmen should be the result of wise discrimin-
ation, in that we have allowed our feelings to be guided by no
other wishes than the divine alone, it goes without saying, that
we must first make a grave and truthful examination of the one
we want to love! But not only this. Our morals expect us to take
the same consideration of the God within ourselves as of the
God within others. Therefore it is a sacred duty to examine one-
self conscientiously in which case love-of-self can be just as much
a duty as self-hate is, when self-knowledge reveals the mortal
enemy to God to be in oneself. Observe well, how our morals of
life condemn indiscriminate love-of-self (egoism) just as much
as they condemn indiscriminate self- sacrifice (altruism). The
love we are compelled to feel for the Godliving in our own souls
makes it just as often necessary for us to act selfishly (egoism)
that is, put our own wishes first, as the God we love in others
makes it essential for us to consider the wishes of others instead
of our own (altruism). Selfishness (egoism) which stands in con-
tradiction to the divine wishes, in that the divine wishes of an-
other are put back for the sake of self-interest, is just as immoral
as self-sacrifice is (altruism) when it suffers the God within one's
own breast to be neglected for the sake of the undivine wishes
of another. This truth really is another proof of how essential
it is, in justice to the morals-of-life, to weigh all our actions in
the scales of the divine-wishes. As rules of any kind here are
useless, each and everyone must attain the gift of weighing his
own actions properly according to the scales of the divine-
wishes. His perseverence will be rewarded; for according to his
djutif ul weighing, the genius will strengthen within him, until at
433
last it will be so strong as to enable him to act Godlike always.
Now, when the feelings of charity are kept within their right
bounds by the divine-wishes, they naturally accord with the
feelings of sympathy. Each time help is given to another, two
wishes at the same time find their realisation, the Wish-to-Do
and the-Wish-to-Feel. For this reason, charity, when divinely
directed, helps to develope the soul more than divinely directed
self-consideration and self-help.
Now, just see how all these truths overthrow the Christian
ideals of charity. The name of virtue may never grace an indis-
criminate 'devotion to the welfare of others'! Our moral tells
us that everybody must work for his own living. The infirmed
and sick only may be a burden to the state. The malconditions
in the government of a land account for the existence of so
many 'charitable institutions'. In this respect, 'charity' conceals
a multitude of sins. In reality "Charity" mortifies the receiver
and therefore brutalises the soul of the 'benefactor'. There is
only one kind of charity which is not capable of this, and that
is, when a man awakens the divine-wishes slumbering in the soul
of another, thus liberating the spirit of God which exists within
that-one. As self-knowledge is a prime essential to self-welfare
and self-help should these be of the divine character, as well as
it is likewise essential in the case of charity, we are compelled
to overthrow the Christian ideal of humility also, for this is not
always virtue. The Christian ideal recommends mankind to be
humble before God. As man still remains a 'sinner' inspite of all
his endeavours to be righteous, it is but natural that humility
should come to be considered a virtue! If a man is but capacit-
ated to become evil through the virtue of his own strength but
requires the grace of God if he wants to be good, it can be
expected that he cannot stand upright before his God but must
throw himself down on his face instead. We, who have been
given the priviledge to perceive the possibilities innate in man,
434
will have nothing to do with humility or pride, but instead we
are taken up with the grave concern of self-examination in order
to judge rightly and truly the moral level we are standing on.
Should anyone of us have actually gained the state of perfection,
then, verily, this will not be considered as something extraord-
inary. On the contrary, this man will perceive this truth in such
a natural manner as if he were saying; "The sun is shining".
Humility and pride we reject. In their place we put self-
knowledge which can be gained through strict, persistent self-
examination. Perfection is our pattern. That "Self" innate in all-
things is perfection. It manifests itself in the different stages of
moral perfection (made visible to us) in our fellowmen. As this
intrinsic divine-essence frees men from the evil fetters, such as,
greed of riches, fame, vanity etc., we need not fear that a truly
good man, who has been capacitated to scale the heights-of -per-
fection through the power which the knowledge of the truth has
given him, will fall ever again a prey to such undivine features
as to make him become identical with those whom the silly
crowd will celebrate as 'the men-of-genius', but who are indeed
very far from perfection.
The sympathy we feel for our fellowmen in unison with the
wish we feel for beauty demands us to cultirate the divine will
to peace, to reconciliation. The fallacies which cropped up at the
period of the decline of the Indian-race (the resignation of hate,
indiscriminate love of one's enemy, indiscriminate forgiveness)
have amply proved their incapacity to redeem the God-in-
man from the fetters of existence and the children of hate and
reason, so that true peace could never be realised. It would
therefore appear natural that the experience men made of all
the failures in their endeavour to realise peace would but confirm
that indignity namely, that man was powerless to avert 'sin*.
In the persistent combat, raging between 'good and evil', did not
evil always succeed? This again gave rise to the doctrine which
43J
was the main cause of mankind's imperfection. It was the doc-
trine which taught of the grace of God, who was ever ready to
forgive. If already the Indian morals were saturated with a
promiscuity of unnature, immorality and matters selfunderstood,
which hampered, rather than helped mankind to perfection, how
much more harm did that doctrine to which taught that the
grace of God brought redemption, for this tempted the very
Immortal -Will itself. This doctrine has such a weakening effect
on humanity, that, verily, all but the few who are egregiously
strong, must succumb. What is our message to humanity? It is a
glad one, albeit it lays a grave responsibility on the shoulders
of mankind himself. It tells of the redeeming potency of the
Immortal-Will innate in man himself which enables him through
his own free will and strength to live eternity and perfection
before his death under the condition that he takes upon himself
the full responsibility for all his actions. At the right time, it was
before we found redemption in intuition, reason cognised the
fact that neither thought, word, nor deed could ever be effaced
through repentence, forgiveness, or forgetfulness; a truth, with-
out which perfection through personal power would never be
able to fructuate into an achieved fact. For, thanks to 'psycho-
logical' research we were led to perceive the grave fact that noth-
ing which, in a spirit of forgiveness we can forget, is really
effaced from our soul, for it actually lives still in the subcon-
sciousness of our nature and uses its influence over the soul.
This fact puts an end to that doctrine which teaches that it is
a 'virtue to forget and forgive', at least all those must reject it
who want to cultivate the God in themselves and in others. It
shows us plainly the grave inexorability and irrevocableness
which distinguishes all the actions of mankind and fills us at the
same time with awe at that potential power of the human-will
which leads to words and actions. Now, the respect which is due
to the soul of others will save us from giving way to word or
436
deed in a spirit of excitement as these should have their measures
taken according to the trends of the Divine Will; for we know
that word and deed can cause wounds which, inspite of the best
we can do to 'forget', will never heal, and which therefore might
be the cause of the divine spirit in the other going to destruction.
But also the knowledge of this truth protects us in a peculiar way
from being harmed through the evil words or deeds of another.
Let us not 'forget* what our emotions have experienced; let us
neither allow them to sink into our subconsciousness. Instead, let
our own injustice as well as the injustice of others burn in our con-
sciousness in order to be the protecting shield to save us from
wounding others as well as from being wounded ourselves. Let us
disdain to 'forgive and forget* because of the immorality this en-
tails, in that it induces us to repeat our evil. Provided we are free
from the offspring of hate and reason our nonforgetfulness will
not lead us into the temptation to quarrel and revenge ourselves
as might be expected, instead it will lead us to make sure if thr
injustice of the other as well as our own be true, in the same
way as the remembrance of our own evil deeds will be an aid
to us in growing better. So now see how the spirit of grave
responsibility does not even desire to forget, but carries the
burden of what has happened, in the sure knowledge that noth-
ing until death is effaceable. It desires to remember in order to
make the memory of injustice done, the means of helping others
as well as oneself to do better in the future. Compared to this,
how contemptible the impotency of others appear to be who,
any day can forgive and forget alternately and do evil seventy
times seven; dire changes indeed which keep them all their lives
from ever rising above the moral standard of the morasses.
Salvation will never be theirs. Therefore every Sunday sees
them in church until their hair is growing grey. Each time they
come to confess (just as they did in their youth) that they have
committed 'over and over again the same sin against the com-
437
mandments of God 1 . How the very stones of the altar can put
them to shame! Fancy having to confess to the same humility
and weakness which they have fallen to for years and years!
Why can they not stride up proudly to the altar and confess
thus: "My will grew stronger so that my transgressions against
thy commandments have grown less frequent. I intend to continue
on my way to progress so that one day I hope to stand before
thy altar and be able to say that I have attained the height of
perfection in that it has become a thing impossible for me to
transgress thy commandments. 19
The myth which confessed to the fact that the offspring of
hate and reason were not to be eliminated from the soul of man
took its refuge in oblivion as a consequence. For a time injustice
could be forgotten which was the only possible thing to do, were
reconciliation and peace to reign among men. Now, our cog-
nisance was capacitated to give us the power to free ourselves
from the yoke of that dragon -brood; our souls will not suffer
themselves to be kept down in the morasses through the folly
of such errors. They desire the state of "Perfection". They ask
not for grace but will a true and righteous judgement, in order
to be able to ascend to the heights by the virtue of their own
powers.
If others would unite with them in the self-same ideal, in that
these also have dedicated themselves to the divine-wishes and so
have become rid of the dragon-brood, the usual discord would
disappear of itself and there would be no cause for 'forgiveness*.
Strife, unkind words and deeds, like mankind is generally
acquainted with, would have no right in their midst. That which
is the wish of God would reign; supreme-peace. The sublimest
state of all.
Yet for the realisation of this, one thing is requisite. We must
keep away from all those individuals who still keep the children
of hate and reason alive or partly alive in their breasts. Also the
438
other kind, who, from sheer ignorance or misunderstanding,
continually drag us away from the realms-beyond to tease us
with petty things. For, all the benefit we should gain from their
company would be to be completely misunderstood, as they
inevitably would read into all our actions the selfsame distort-
ions proper to their own soul. Moreover, they would ever be
ready to make us feel their own moral preponderance in their
preparedness to forgive and indiscriminately love which they
tenaciously consider to be a 'virtue', (as this makes life much
easier for them), It would be futile to think any good would
come of living together. We should never succeed in leading them
our way to perfection. But they would succed over and over
again to disturb our peace of mind, our Godliving, the labours
we love, in fact everything which means life and beauty to us.
And all this they would succeed in doing with the best conscience
in all the world. The only time to come in contact with them
rightly is when the ordinary necessary things of every day life
have to be settled or when there is a chance of our being able to
awaken in them a spirit to fulfil the divine-wishes. For the rest,
verily, we are not their 'equals'; we are absolutely incapable of
helping them until the singular life we lead makes them under-
stand how unequal we are to each other. It would be idle to
want to live together with them, without the risk of acting
immorally ourselves, until they have actually pulled themselves
together so far as to be capable of living God.
Thus we can see how our morals-of-life point to new ways in
order that divine-feeling may be realised. We are given new
morals for hating and loving. They tell us:
All your emotions, both of love and hate must be guided by
the divine-wishes, be they directed towards others or yourself.
To be capable of hating and loving in this divine way, it is
essential first to know who you are yourself and who others are;
439
above all you must be fully aware on which level, leading to-
wards perfection, you are standing.
This kind of hate and this kind of love strictly forbid a man
to incline indiscriminately either to selfsacrifice or selfishness.
Potency and profound sense is given to this kind of love and
hate directed to the redemption of Godlife whereevcr this is
lying in fetters.
Let all your actions he directed by the deep responsibility
which the knowledge of irrevocableness yields. So, you will
never forget that evil which has been done to you or which you
have done to others. Refrain from living closely with the
unredeemed, for if you do, you run the risks of having your
own Godliving spoilt.
The living of your life according to such rules will make you
capable of becoming a pioneer to others who desire to become
perfect.
The morals-of-life born of our cognisance concerning the
sacred office of mankind, will lead mankind to the sublime
heights without strife of any kind being necessary: To those
heights where the rare ones of all times took up their abode;
albeit these scarcely suspected their own divine superiority. The
clearly-conscious perception of the high office which has fallen
to mankind will tend to change the life of man so tremendously
within the course of future generations that the results will make
it appear as if for the first time on earth God's consciousness had
come to light: the 'kingdom of a thousand years' (fantastically
described in the myth) which kingdom men always were anti-
cipating and which was supposed to be the higher form of exist-
ence. But it will not begin until all men have grasped that life
has a deep meaning. Not that all men in the future will be per-
fect. For this will never be. That tremendous gulf which has
always existed will still exist forever. There will always be men
440
who have lost what animal and plant-life have retained; that
something which imparts to anything its characteristic of Inno-
cence', but who will neither have succeeded in gaining what the
animal lacks, because through their own neglect of what is divine
within them, they are incapacitated to partake in the life of
God. But that potent revolutionary power which alone belongs
to the rarer ones among men will at last be set 'free' to command
the way to the ones who are backwards, provided these at last
have recognised the fact that life bears a meaning of a very
exalted kind as well as that they possess the potency within them
to gain perfection.
Albeit the fact that the rarer kind among men were capable
at all times of living God, there is something tremendous never-
theless about redemption in cognisance.
When it comes to pass that the thruth comes home to a man,
in that he is given to perceive the fact that he only can live
consciously the divine-wishes, when a man can say to himself:
"Among all the living creatures of the earth, the priviledge to
become the consciousness of the Godhead has been given to me
alone"; when it comes to pass, in fine, that a human being has
succeeded in fulfilling the divine meaning of life; then a tremble
passes through the immeasurable cosmos, through God's visible-
form.
When it comes to pass that a mortal human-being, in being
the only one who can be capable of guilt, nevertheless succeeds
in resolutely striding the path of salvation, and illuminates, in
passing, the way for others of his own day or those who come
after him with the divine light of his works, words or actions;
when, in fine, he has succeeded in becoming perfect like all the
unconscious beings of the universe are; when, finally, he has
succeeded to harmonise permanently with the Divine; then he
lives God consciously until death, but not unmerited grace was
given to him by a personal god, it was his own free Will and
441
Deed. Each and every time this happens on earth, the reason for
the evolution and existence of all the dumb planets which since
unthinkable times have gone circling round and round and which
will do so still for unthinkable times yet to come, and the reason
for the evolution and existence of the immeasurable cosmos
itself has attained its fulfilment*
44*
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