Category: Philosophy & Ethics
Seldom has a man gone through such profound religious changes as this Swede, who died last May. The demonic element in him, which spurred him on restlessly, made him scale heaven and fathom hell, gave him glimpses of bliss and damnation. He bore the Cain's mark on his brow: "A...
=Penitents.=--The teacher continued: "Muhammed early traversed the stage of desolation and became a pietist, when he believed himself persecuted by devils. Set free finally by s...
2. Part 2My thoughts have lately been occupied with death and with the life after this. Yesterday I read Plato's _Timæus_ and _Phædo_. At present I write a work called _The Island of the...
5. Part 5=Under the Prince of this World.=--The teacher wandered in Qualheim and came to a town. In the midst of the chief market-place there stood a bronze image of the destroyer of his...
7. Part 7=My Caricature.=--The teacher said: "Men often appear in our lives as though they were sent; we do not know why they interfere with our destiny; they themselves perhaps do not k...
15. Part 15Anyone who reads a short history of philosophy, and observes how one system replaces and refutes another, must be inclined to say, "Surely it is time to make an end of this driv...
8. Part 8=Faithful in Little Things.=--The pupil said: "I had a friend, who died lately at the age of sixty. According to my view, he has in his own way realised the type of a good citiz...
9. Part 9=Revolution-Sheep.=--The teacher continued: "In the year 1889 we celebrated the French Revolution, but there was little life or order in the celebration. Everything which was up...
6. Part 6"I do not know! But the promise to Abraham, 'In thy seed shall all nations be blessed,' has already been fulfilled by Abraham's descendant, Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Ch...
14. Part 14=Night Owls.=--The maggot in the apple doubtless imagines that the apple was grown for its sake, and that the world could not exist without apples. So we also imagine that scien...
11. Part 11=Telepathic Perception.=--The pupil said: "While I lived in the most intimate relations with a woman, I arrived, like Gustav Jäger, at 'the discovery of the soul.' I was always...
10. Part 10"On one occasion a liar with whom I lived on intimate terms made me think that my last book had been a failure. For five years I believed it, suffered under the belief, and lost...
12. Part 12=Religious and Scientific Intuition.=--The pupil said: "The everlasting strife between Faith and Knowledge would have been stifled at the outset if some sharp wit had discovered...
3. Part 3"Their feelings may be perverted, like a man's who believes he has a snake in his stomach. Perhaps they have committed soul-suicide. Perhaps they think the doctrine of immortali...
13. Part 13=Paw or Hand.=--The pupil said: "In Kipling's wonderful _Jungle Book_, the boy is intimate with all kinds of animals but not with apes, which are the worst of all creatures and...
1. Part 1Seldom has a man gone through such profound religious changes as this Swede, who died last May. The demonic element in him, which spurred him on restlessly, made him scale heave...
16. Part 16This street, this street, this house, these stairs which only a short time ago he had hurried up with his hands full of presents in order for an hour long to see his beautiful h...