ting the lofty, spiritual sense which fills his
soul, in all his actions and in the whole compass of his Being. If the
contemplation of the Holy and the Godlike awakens a kindred emotion in
them, how joyfully does he cherish the first presages of religion in
a new heart, as a delightful pledge of its growth even in a harsh and
foreign clime! With what triumph does he bear the neophyte with him to
the exalted assembly! This activity for the promotion of religion is
only the pious yearning of the stranger after his home, the endeavor
to carry his Fatherland with him in all his wanderings, and everywhere
to find again its laws and customs as the highest and most beautiful
elements of his life; but the Fatherland itself, happy in its own
resources, perfectly sufficient for its own wants, knows no such
endeavor.

_JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE_

* * * * *

THE DESTINY OF MAN (1800)

ADAPTED FROM THE TRANSLATION BY FREDERIC H. HEDGE

BOOK III: FAITH

* * * * *

"Not merely to know, but to act according to thy knowledge, is thy
destination." So says the voice which cries to me aloud from my
innermost soul, so soon as I collect and give heed to myself for a
moment. "Not idly to inspect and contemplate thyself, nor to brood
over devout sensations--no! thou existest to act. Thine actions, and
only thine actions, determine thy worth."

* * * * *

Shall I refuse obedience to that inward voice? I will not do it. I
will choose voluntarily the destination which the impulse imputes to
me. And I will grasp, together with this determination, the thought of
its reality and truth, and of the reality of all that it presupposes.
I will hold to the viewpoint of natural thinking, which this impulse
assigns to me, and renounce all those morbid speculations and
refinements of the understanding which alone could make me doubt its
truth. I understand thee now, sublime Spirit![2] I have found the
organ with which I grasp this reality, and with it, probably, all
other reality. Knowledge is not that organ. No knowledge can prove
and demonstrate itself. Every knowledge presupposes a higher as its
foundation, and this upward process has no end. It is Faith, that
voluntary reposing in the view which naturally presents
itself, because it is the only one by which we can fulfil our
destination--this it is that first gives assent to knowledge, and
exal