by which an infinitely more
perfect world is concealed from me. It is but the germ out of which
that infinitely more perfect shall unfold itself. My faith enters
behind this curtain, and warms and quickens this germ. It sees nothing
definite, but expects more than it can grasp here below, than it will
ever be able to grasp in time.

So I live and so I am; and so I am unchangeable, firm and complete
for all eternity. For this being is not one which I have received from
without; it is my own only true being and essence.

ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION

(1807 to 1808)

TRANSLATED BY LOUIS H. GRAY, PH.D.

ADDRESS EIGHT

The Definition of a Nation in the Higher Sense of the Word, and of
Patriotism

The last four addresses have answered the question, What is the German
as contrasted with other nations of Teutonic origin? The argument will
be complete if we further add the examination of the question, What is
a nation? The latter question is identical with another, and, at the
same time, the other question, which has often been propounded and
has been answered in very different ways, helps in the solution. This
question is, What is patriotism, or, as it would be more correctly
expressed, What is the love of the individual for his nation?

If we have thus far proceeded aright in the course of our
investigation, it must become obvious therefrom that only the
German--the primitive man, not he who has become petrified by
arbitrary laws and institutions--really has a nation and is entitled
to count on one, and that only he is capable of real and rational love
for his nation.

We smooth our way to a solution of our proposed task by means of the
following remark, which appears, at first sight, to lie outside the
context of our previous discussion.

As we have already observed in our third address, religion is able
absolutely to transport us above all time and above the whole of
present and perceptual life without doing the least injury to the
justice, morality, and holiness of the life influenced by this belief.
Even with the certain conviction that all our activity on this earth
will not leave the least trace behind it and will not produce the
slightest results, and even with the belief that the divine may
actually be perverse and may be used as a tool of evil and of still
deeper moral corruption, it is, nevertheless, possible to continue
in this activity simply in order to maintain the divine life that
has co