Evolutionism, fatalism, pessimism, nihilism--how strange it is to see
this desolate and terrible doctrine growing and expanding at the very
moment when the German nation is celebrating its greatness and its
triumphs! The contrast is so startling that it sets one thinking.
This orgie of philosophic thought, identifying error with existence
itself, and developing the axiom of Proudhon--"Evil is God," will bring
back the mass of mankind to the Christian theodicy, which is neither
optimist nor pessimist, but simply declares that the felicity which
Christianity calls eternal life is accessible to man.
Self-mockery, starting from a horror of stupidity and hypocrisy, and
standing in the way of all wholeness of mind and all true
seriousness--this is the goal to which intellect brings us at last,
unless conscience cries out.
The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is
not to fluctuate between levity and despair.
* * * * *
Before giving advice we must have secured its acceptance, or rather,
have made it desired.
* * * * *
If we begin by overrating the being we love, we shall end by treating it
with wholesale injustice.
* * * * *
It is dangerous to abandon one's self to the luxury of grief; it
deprives one of courage, and even of the wish for recovery.
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