Part 31 (2/2)

or as the ”goal of history”; it is not present time to him.

The individual can only have a part in the founding of the Kingdom of G.o.d, or, according to the modern notion of the same thing, in the development and history of humanity; and only so far as he has a part in it does a Christian, or according to the modern expression human, value pertain to him; for the rest he is dust and a worm-bag.

That the individual is of himself a world's history, and possesses his property in the rest of the world's history, goes beyond what is Christian. To the Christian the world's history is the higher thing, because it is the history of Christ or ”man”; to the egoist only _his_ history has value, because he wants to develop only _himself_, not the mankind-idea, not G.o.d's plan, not the purposes of Providence, not liberty, and the like. He does not look upon himself as a tool of the idea or a vessel of G.o.d, he recognizes no calling, he does not fancy that he exists for the further development of mankind and that he must contribute his mite to it, but he lives himself out, careless of how well or ill humanity may fare thereby. If it were not open to confusion with the idea that a state of nature is to be praised, one might recall Lenau's ”Three Gypsies.”--What, am I in the world to realize ideas? To do my part by my citizens.h.i.+p, say, toward the realization of the idea ”State,” or by marriage, as husband and father, to bring the idea of the family into an existence? What does such a calling concern me! I live after a calling as little as the flower grows and gives fragrance after a calling.

The ideal ”Man” is _realized_ when the Christian apprehension turns about and becomes the proposition, ”I, this unique one, am man.” The conceptual question, ”what is man?”--has then changed into the personal question, ”who is man?” With ”what” the concept was sought for, in order to realize it; with ”who” it is no longer any question at all, but the answer is personally on hand at once in the asker: the question answers itself.

They say of G.o.d, ”Names name thee not.” That holds good of me: no _concept_ expresses me, nothing that is designated as my essence exhausts me; they are only names. Likewise they say of G.o.d that he is perfect and has no calling to strive after perfection. That too holds good of me alone.

I am _owner_ of my might, and I am so when I know myself as _unique_. In the _unique one_ the owner himself returns into his creative nothing, out of which he is born. Every higher essence above me, be it G.o.d, be it man, weakens the feeling of my uniqueness, and pales only before the sun of this consciousness. If I concern myself for myself,[242] the unique one, then my concern rests on its transitory, mortal creator, who consumes himself, and I may say:

All things are nothing to me.[243]

THE END

INDEX

The following index to this translation of ”_Der Einzige und sein Eigentum_” is intended to help one, after reading the book, to find a pa.s.sage which he remembers. It is not a concordance to aid in a.n.a.lytical study. Hence the designations of the matter referred to are in a form intended to be recognized by the person who remembers the pa.s.sage; I have generally preferred, so far as convenience permitted, to use the words of the text itself, being confident that a description of the subject-matter in words more appropriate to the summary form of the index would never help any person to find his pa.s.sage. If the designations are recognizable, I have permitted them to be rough.

Of necessity the index has been made hastily, and I hereby confess it to be guilty of all the faults that an index can possess, though I hope that the page numbers will prove to be accurate. The faults that I am most ashamed of are the incompleteness which usually omits the shorter occurrences of a given word or idea and the indefiniteness of the ”ff.”

which does not tell the reader how far the reference extends. It has actually not been in my power to avoid either of these faults, and I hope they will not prevent the index from being of very considerable use to those who pay continued attention to the book. These two faults will be found least noticeable in the references to proper names and quotations: therefore the reader who wants to find a pa.s.sage will do best to remember, if possible, a conspicuous proper name or a quotation whose source is known--perhaps oftenest from the Bible--and look up his pa.s.sage by that. In the indexing of quotations, however, I have omitted anonymous proverbs, lines of German hymns, and quotations of whose authors.h.i.+p I was (whether pardonably or unpardonably) ignorant.

The abbreviations are: ftn., ”footnote”; f., ”and next page”; ff., ”and following pages.”

S. T. B.

Age: coming of age, 220.

Alcibiades: 282 f.

Alexis, Wilibald: ”Cabanis,” 291.

Algiers: 343.

Alien: the same in German as ”strange,” 47 ftn.

America: citizens presumed respectable, 233.

duelists how treated, 314.

Germans sold to, 351.

kings not valued in, 351.

Ananias and Sapphira: 102.

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