XIII. The Value of Life (Optimism and Pessimism)

It cannot be denied that the views here outlined may easily be misunderstood. Immature persons without any moral imagination like to look upon the instincts of their half-developed natures as the full content of humanity, and reject all moral Ideas which they have not themselves originated, in order that they may “live themselves out” without restriction. But it goes without saying that a truth which holds for a fully developed human being does not hold for half-developed human natures. Anyone who still requires to be brought by education to the point where his moral nature breaks through the shell of his lower passions, cannot expect to be measured by the same standard as a mature man. But it was not my intention to set down what an undeveloped man requires to be taught, but what is contained in the essential nature of a mature human being. My intention was to demonstrate the possibility of freedom, and freedom is manifested, not in actions performed under sensual or soul constraint, but in actions sustained by Spiritual intuitions.