, the child of war. Civilization began on the day on which one
man, by subjecting another to his will and compelling him to do the work
of two, was enabled to devote himself to the contemplation of the world
and to set his captive upon works of luxury. It was slavery that enabled
Plato to speculate upon the ideal republic, and it was war that brought
slavery about. Not without reason was Athena the goddess of war and of
wisdom. But is there any need to repeat once again these obvious truths,
which, though they have continually been forgotten, are continually
rediscovered?

And the supreme commandment that arises out of love towards God, and the
foundation of all morality, is this: Yield yourself up entirely, give
your spirit to the end that you may save it, that you may eternalize it.
Such is the sacrifice of life.

The individual _qua_ individual, the wretched captive of the instinct of
preservation and of the senses, cares only about preserving himself, and
all his concern is that others should not force their way into his
sphere, should not disturb him, should not interrupt his idleness; and
in return for their abstention or for the sake of example he refrains
from forcing himself upon them, from interrupting their idleness, from
disturbing them, from taking possession of them. "Do not do unto others
what you would not have them do unto you," he translates thus: I do not
interfere with others--let them not interfere with me. And he shrinks
and pines and perishes in this spiritual avarice and this repellent
ethic of anarchic individualism: each one for himself. And as each one
is not himself, he can hardly live for himself.

But as soon as the individual feels himself in society, he feels himself
in God, and kindled by the instinct of perpetuation he glows with love
towards God, and with a dominating charity he seeks to perpetuate
himself in others, to perennialize his spirit, to eternalize it, to
unnail God, and his sole desire is to seal his spirit upon other spirits
and to receive their impress in return. He has shaken off the yoke of
his spiritual sloth and avarice.

Sloth, it is said, is the mother of all the vices; and in fact sloth
does engender two vices--avarice and envy--which in their turn are the
source of all the rest. Sloth is the weight of matter, in itself inert,
within us, and this sloth, while it professes to preserve us by
economizing our forces, in reality attenuates us and reduces us to
nothin