arrives, at the
stirring of the first emotion he perceives with terror that he has
changed nothing in himself, that the same temptations are present to
him, the same weakness takes possession of him, &c. In our business, in
our theoretical endeavors, &c., it may certainly happen that, on account
of want of time, or means, or humor, we may put off some work to another
time; but morality stands on a higher plane than these, because it, as
the concrete absoluteness of the will, makes unceasing demand on the
whole and undivided man. In morality there are no vacations, no
interims. As we in ascending a flight of stairs take good care not to
make a single mis-step, and give our conscious attention to every step,
so we must not allow any exceptions in moral affairs, must not appoint
given times for better conduct, but must await these last as natural
crises, and must seek to live in time as in Eternity.--

Sec. 149. (_b_) From Renunciation springs the injunction of
self-government. The action of education on the will to form habits in
it, is discipline or training in a narrower sense. Renunciation teaches
us to know the relation in which we in fact, as historical persons,
stand to the idea of the Good. From our empirical knowledge of ourselves
we derive the idea of our limits; from the absolute knowledge of
ourselves on the other hand, which presents to us the nature of Freedom
as our own actuality, we derive the conception of the resistless might
of the genuine will for the good. But to actualize this conception we
must have practice. This practice is the proper renunciation. Every man
must devise for himself some special set of rules, which shall be
determined by his peculiarities and his resulting temptations. These
rules must have as their innermost essence the subduing of self, the
vanquishing of his negative arbitrariness by means of the universality
and necessity of the will.

--In order to make this easy, the youth may be practised in renouncing
for himself even the arbitrariness which is permitted to him. One often
speaks of renunciation as if it belonged especially to the middle ages
and to Catholicism; but this is an error. Renunciation in its one-sided
form as relying on works, and for the purpose of mortification, is
asceticism, and belongs to them; but Renunciation in general is a
necessary determination of morals. The keeping of a journal is said to
assist in the practice of virtue, but its value depends on ho