of that
other world than that everything there is different from ours--even that we
should there have no possible points of contact with this world: then we
should have nothing else but a gloomy dualism of the world for which
neither our intellectual, nor our psychical, and least of all our physical,
organization is in any way prepared, we should have in it no satisfaction
of our noblest instincts, no goal to which we would be led by any of the
guides who show us the paths which we have to follow on earth. Only a
resurrection and transfiguration of the earth and the universe, as well as
of a glorified mankind, show us such a goal. For this aim, for such a
_real_ continuation of life of the single personality, and of all mankind,
after the long work of moral and intellectual development, all noble and
worthy instincts of mankind are prepared--from the instinct of
self-preservation up to the instinct of self-sacrifice for ideal purposes
and the instinct of moral perfection and community with God. We find that
in all the rest of creation, instincts and inherent powers {334} are
present to be satisfied. The naturalistic tendencies which at present
control so many minds, are very much inclined to found their whole view of
the world upon this correlation of instinct, function, and satisfaction.
Should, then, the highest instincts of the highest creature on earth alone
make an exception? Have they originated from illusions, and do they lead to
illusions? We cannot refrain from quoting a word which Alb. Reville, of
Rotterdam, has written in the first part of the October issue of the "Revue
des Deux Mondes," 1874, on the occasion of a criticism of E. v. Hartmann's
"Philosophy of the Unconscious"; though it was written only in defence of
theism in general. We quote from a report of E. P., in the _Augsburger
Allgem. Zeitung_, Oct. 27, 1874, which is all at present at our command:
"When the young bird, fluttering its wings on the edge of its mother's
nest, launches forth for the first time, it finds the air which carries it,
while a passage is opened for it. Instinct deceived the bird just as little
as it deceives the multitude of large and small beings which only live in
following its incitations. And should man alone, whom spiritual perfection
attracts--man whose characteristic instinct it is to raise himself mentally
toward the real-ideal, the superiority of which he cannot sufficiently
describe, should man, who obeys his nature,