In regard to the so-called moral end of life, there has been much variety and contrarity of teaching. I shall touch only upon that aspect of the doctrine5 expounded6 in the previous book wherein it seems to resemble other doctrines7, and where a distinct statement of the difference is therefore imperative8. “So act as to develop the faculties9 of thy fellowman” is not the rule proposed. “So act as to develop the so-called good qualities in the man” is not the rule proposed. The rule reads, “Act so as to bring out the spiritual personality, the unique nature of the other.” Now, in putting the matter in this way, we incurred10 the danger of seeming to concentrate attention on the individual as a detached being, we seemed to have him only in mind, though it is true, in respect to what is intrinsic in him, the irreducible ethical11 unit which he essentially12 is. We must, therefore, constantly remind ourselves that the ethical unit, while unique, is at the same time an inseparable member of a society of differentiated13 units; that its very distinctiveness14 consists in injecting, as it were, streams148 of dynamic energy into its fellow-beings. Or, as I have elsewhere figuratively put it, the distinctiveness of any ethical being consists, so to speak, in emitting a ray the color of which is nowhere else to be found, the miraculous15 quality of which consists in acquiring this color at the very instant in which it causes counter or complementary colors to appear in its fellow-being. (I am using the words “instant,” “miraculous,” “ray of light,” etc., of course, in a wholly figurative sense.)
We have at last, this is my belief, achieved a positive definition of the spiritual nature. The spiritual nature is that which forever is social in a supra-social sense, as embracing not only human society, but a universal society of spirits. The spiritual nature is that of which the very life consists in starting up unlike but equally worthwhile life elsewhere, everywhere. The spiritual experience to get hold of, therefore, is the consciousness of this interrelation.
The moral end to be realized, in accordance with the deductions16 of Book II, is “So to act upon another as to evoke17 in him, and conjointly in oneself, in the same movement and counter-movement the consciousness of the interlacedness of life with life, the reciprocal, universal, infinite interrelatedness.” Now, as a fact, we never realize this end. If we did we should possess what alone is properly called freedom,—freedom in the positive sense being the exercise of power peculiar18 to ourselves, welling up out of our veriest self, and executing the totality of its effects. Freedom is marked by these two signs: energy coming unborrowed out of self, and producing the totality of its ef149fects. I am free when the thing I do is verily my own, when the power released is the power of my essential self; and when that power is nowhere checked, inhibited19 or interrupted, so that it produces its due, that is, its universal effects.
An ethical being in an ethical universe would be free. The dynamic energy proceeding20 from it would be aboriginal21. And since it would radiate upon every other member of the infinite society, it would also produce the unstinted plenitude of its effects. Each ethical unit, at its station, would be at once the producer and the recipient22 of the totality of life.44
It is apparent from what has been said that the superlative, sublime23 thing, freedom, is not realizable except in an infinite world. And hence that the supreme24 end to be realized by man as a finite being cannot be the full release of unique power in himself. But neither can the end be approximation. In so serious a business as a philosophy of life we ought not to play with words, nor delude25 ourselves with the implication of proximity26 seemingly contained in the word approximation. For it being admitted that we cannot reach the ideal, approximation seems to suggest that we come into its neighborhood. But the truth is that the more we advance the less do we arrive in the immediate27 neighborhood of the ideal, the distance at which it lies becoming ever more remote.150 The moral end, therefore, for a finite nature, like that of man, is just to realize the unattainableness of the end. There must be no heaven-on-earth illusions, no resting in the development of our inadequate29 human faculties, and no illusions as to approximation. The unattainableness of the infinite end in the finite world by the finite nature is the Alpha and Omega of the doctrine, as I propound30 it. Only after this truth has been fully31 faced and recognized, shall we be in a position to take in the vast significance of the fact that we are nevertheless under a certain coercion32 to persist in our efforts to attain28 the unattainable, and in inquiring into the source from which this pressure comes, we shall be led to infer the influence in us of an infinite nature enshrined in this finite nature of ours. In other words, to admit the unattainableness of the end in a finite world by a finite being is the very condition of our acquiring the conviction that there is an infinite world, and that we, as possessing an infinite nature, are included in it.45
I have now covered the points mentioned: the end to be realized, the incongruity of the two orders, and the cardinal33 importance of frustration as a spiritual experience, as a means of spiritual education.
From this point of view the whole question of how to deal with the frustrations34 of life assumes a new aspect. Lessing published his well-known essay on the Education of the Race towards the close of the eighteenth century.46 Interest in the subject has since been obscured by151 the scientific movement, and especially by the evolutionary35 philosophy. The latter excludes the idea of education in the proper sense, and substitutes for it a natural process, a genetic36 unfolding. The education of the human race, and of the human individual from the spiritual point of view consists in a series of efforts never to be intermitted, but not necessarily following each other in an orderly series, aiming to embody37 the infinite in the finite.
Both partial success and failure in these efforts are instrumental to the achievement of the task of mankind. Both serve to make more explicit38 the character and extent of the ideal, while the ultimate inevitable39 failure painfully instructs man in the fact of the incongruity of the two orders. The only outcome of human history that we can view with satisfaction on a large scale, is the same as that which we should regard as the best outcome of an individual life, namely, the growing conviction and the clearer vision of the eternal spiritual universe as real. We might say that that man had lived best who on his deathbed could declare with perfect truth: “I have achieved the certainty, and in through the vicissitudes40 of my life, that there is a universe.” I here emphasize again the distinction between universe and world. To say that the universe is “good” is equivocal. The term “good,” as commonly used, describes the moral striving of a finite nature, and not the quality that belongs to the spiritual universe and its members, thinking of them as ideally we must, as freed from finite limitation. Of the spiritual universe, we might use the term “supra-good,” only we should then be careful to add that the “beyond good” is to be conceived as lying in the di152rection of the good, while transcending41 it. Thereby42 we avoid the pitfall43 of Nietzsche and of others who speak in a totally different sense of the “beyond good and evil.” We read of a man blessing44 his children on his deathbed. The highest type of man is the one who in articulo mortis can bless the universe.
The discrepancy45 of the finite and the infinite order appears on the physical and moral sides. On the physical side it thrusts itself upon our attention in the circumstance that juxtaposition46 and sequence are incapable47 of being unified48, or totalized. Space and time and that which fills them, matter, are by nature incongruous with spirit. On the moral side the incongruity appears in the deflecting49 forces of appetite and passion which hinder us in the attainment50 of the spiritual end and in the fact that our so-called higher faculties are in irreconcilable51 conflict with one another. The harmonious52 union of all of them in any individual is a fiction. It is impossible to be fully developed on all sides. And in addition the social substrata in which the spiritual relation has to be worked out, are themselves too deeply beset53 with internal contrarieties to serve their purpose adequately. The sex relation, for instance, is to a certain extent favorable to the achievement of spirituality, that is, of living in the life of another; yet on the other hand there are elements in it that defeat this very object.
I write, therefore, at the head of such words of counsel as I can hope to give in respect to the conduct of life, the word Frustration. It is understood that this word is not used in the pathetic sense. First because there is partial achievement, moments in life at which153 the rainbow actually seems to touch the earth. Love and marriage, the completing of a beautiful work of art, the discovery of a new law of nature, the emancipation54 of an oppressed class, are examples. But these partial successes are presently seen to be partial; they are followed, or even in the moment of triumph, permeated55, with the sense of incompleteness and the foreboding of new obscurities and perplexities advancing upon the mind. Yet essentially the doctrine is not a melancholy56 doctrine, because frustration, though a painful instrument, is yet a necessary instrument of spiritual development. We are not open to the reproach of dampening the zest57 and relish58 for life of those who are setting out to try the hazard of their fortunes. They shall put forth59 their best effort to succeed, but let them be so guided herein that they may meet in the right attitude of mind the disillusionment which is the condition of the revelation. The shadows will and must descend60 before they can be parted, disclosing the landscape of the spiritual universe.
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1
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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frustration
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| n.挫折，失败，失效，落空 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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differentiated
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| 区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征 | |
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distinctiveness
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| 特殊[独特]性 | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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inhibited
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| a.拘谨的，拘束的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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recipient
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| a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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delude
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| vt.欺骗；哄骗 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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propound
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| v.提出 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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coercion
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| n.强制，高压统治 | |
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cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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frustrations
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| 挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意 | |
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evolutionary
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| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
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genetic
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| adj.遗传的，遗传学的 | |
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embody
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| vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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41
transcending
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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pitfall
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| n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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45
discrepancy
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| n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾 | |
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juxtaposition
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| n.毗邻，并置，并列 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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unified
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| (unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的 | |
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49
deflecting
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| （使）偏斜， （使）偏离， （使）转向( deflect的现在分词 ) | |
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50
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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55
permeated
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| 弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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