Immanuel Kant’s
Bemerkungen
zu den Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des
Schönen und Erhabenen
(Remarks on
the Observations on the Feeling of the
Beautiful and Sublime)
This translation is being made
free of charge on the web. It is based
on the German version of Kant’s Bemerkungen zu den Beobachtungen über das
Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen, available in volume 20 of the Academy Edition
of Kant’s gesammelte Schriften (Vol
20, Ed. Gerhard Lehmann, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co: 1942) and on the
web at http://www.ikp.uni-bonn.de/dt/forsch/kant/aa20/. An updated and heavily annotated German version of these Remarks can be found in Kant -Forschungen Band 3: Bemerkungen in den Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen, Marie Rischmueller, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1991. Kant’s text Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime is
available (in German) in volume 2 of the Academy Edition and at http://www.ikp.uni-bonn.de/cgi-bin/Kant/lade.pl?/default.htm. The text has been translated into English as Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful
and Sublime (John T. Goldthwait, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
I strongly welcome any comments or criticism of this translation. THE CURRENT TRANSLATION IS A ROUGH WORKING DRAFT , and I hope to have a more refined translation, along with further annotation and a short introduction, in the near future. Please direct comments and criticism to frierspr@whitman.edu.
I would like to thank Whitman College and the Perry Endowment for financial support to make this translation possible.
For this version, Kant’s own
notes are marked with * or **. The
translator’s explanatory notes (which are, unfortunately, far from complete!) are
marked with numbers.
[3] The man’s art of appearing inconsiderate and the woman’s of appearing clever.
A man can employ twofold beneficial emotions on
others, respect and love, the former by way of the sublime, the latter by way
of the beautiful. A woman reconciles
both. This composite feeling is the
greatest effect that can ever happen to a human heart. Yet, it {the heart} can be strong enough for
only two dull feelings. If one of the
two should be strong then the other must be weak. One wonders now which of the two one wants to
weaken. Basic principles are of the
greatest sublimity. For example,
self-esteem demands sacrifice. E.g. a
man can be ugly but a witty woman cannot.
The Coquette exceeds the feminine, the rough pedant the masculine A prude is too masculine and a petit
maitre too
feminine
It is ridiculous that through understanding
[Verstand] and large income a man wants to make a woman fall in love with him
The diversity of women as that of faces. Character parallels between feeling and
ability [Vermögen]
A more tender (dull:) a finer [feinerer] (coarser)
taste
Sympathy for the natural misfortune of others is not necessary, but it certainly is in the injustices suffered by others.
[4] The feeling with which I am dealing is of the
sort that I don’t need to be learned in order to feel it
The finer [feinere] feeling is that where the
idealistic does not chimerically contain
the noble reason of pleasantness
Voltaire
Why women are embarrassed among one another
dolce piccante the pleasant acidity
Bold
The third gulp
Alexander took from the chalice was sublime although rash
The splendor of a rainbow of the setting sun
Cato’s death. Sacrifice
Our current constitution makes it so that women can
also live without men which ruins everything
strange and peculiar the powerful person is kind. Jonathan Wild.
The brave youngster.
[5] Women are stronger because they are weak - -
their courage
Menfolk will be casual towards Vapeurs and
hysterical accidents hat under the arm
Love and respect
Self-revenge is sublime. Certain vices are sublime. Assassination is cowardly and low. The majority never have courage enough for
great vices
Sexual love
always presupposes lustful love either in feeling or memory.
This lustful love is also either crude or refined
[fein]
Tender love has a great mixture of respect
A woman does not reveal herself easily; for this
reason she doesn’t get drunk Because
she is weak, she is clever
In marriage unity not agreement [Einheit nicht
Einigkeit]
Tender love is also different from the love of
marriage
- - {Latin} What you desire is in you
do not seek yourself outside of
you Persius
Of moral rebirth
What a true or imagined need supplies is useful mihi
bonum
The appetites which are necessary for man through
his nature [6] are natural appetites.
The man who has no other appetites and not to a higher degree than
through natural necessity is called the Man of Nature and his ability to be
satisfied by less is sufficiency of nature
The first part of science is [zetetisch] the other
dogmatic
The amount of cognitions [Erkenntnisse] and other
perfections that are required for the satisfaction of nature is the simplicity
of nature. The man in which as much simplicity is encountered as the
sufficiency of nature is the Man of Nature.
Whosoever has learned to desire more than that which
is necessary through nature is excessive [üppig].
The needs of the Man of Nature are mostly
A reason why the idea [Vorstellung] of death does
not have the effect that it could is because as busy creatures by nature we are
hardly meant to think about it at all
Gaiety is playful, annoying, and disruptive; but the soul in peace is
complaisant and kind.
Wit belongs to unnecessary things a man who takes this to be very important in
a woman acts just like one who uses his fortune to buy monkeys and parrots
One of the reasons why excess while in an unmarried
state among the female sex is reprehensible is because of the fact that [7]
when men in this state are excessive they are not thereby preparing themselves
for infidelity in marriage because their
concupiscence has certainly increased but their capacity [Vermögen] has
decreased. On the other hand, with a
woman the desire is uncontrolled, if the concupiscence increases then she will
not be held back by anything therefore becoming in charge of [präsumirt] lewd
hussies- - they will be unfaithful wives but not of similar men
All purpose of science is either eruditiv (memory) or speculativ (reason). Both must result in making man more
reasonable (more clever, more wise) in the world, which is generally adapted to
human nature, and thus more sufficient.
A tender woman-love [Weiberliebe] has the
characteristic of developing other moral characteristics, but the lustful ones
suppress them.
The moral taste is made such that one regards
science that does not improve as unimportant
The sensitive [Gefühlvoll] soul at rest is the
greatest perfection in discussion, in poetry, {and} society, but it cannot
always be so, instead it is the last goal - - Also even in marriages. Young people surely have much feeling but
little taste the enthusiastic or zealous
style ruins taste. Distorted taste
through novels and gallant flirtations.
The healthy, pampered, spoiled taste.
A knowledgeable but not clever man {is} not cunning - - a clever but
not wise man. Higher manners
[8] A woman has a fine taste in choosing that which
can affect the sensations [Empfindungen] of a man and the man has a dull
{taste} therefore it pleases him most when he thinks least about pleasing. On the other hand the woman has a healthy
taste for whoever is concerned with her own feelings
Bearded women beardless men. Valiant domestic.
The honor of a man consists in the valuation of his
self, of women in the judgment of others
A man marries in accordance with his judgment, a
woman not against the parents’ judgment
A woman opposes injustice with tears, a man with
anger.
Men become sweet towards women if the women become
masculine. Insult to women in the habit of flattering them.
Softness gets rid of more virtue than
wantonness the dignity of a housewife.
Vanity of women makes it so that they are only happy
in the glimmer of external masses
The bravery of a woman consists of the patient
bearing of evil for the sake of honor or love.
That of a man in the eagerness to defiantly drive it {evil} away.
[9] Omphale forced Hercules to spin
Because so many foolish needs make us soft, the pure
unaffected moral drive cannot give us enough powers. Therefore something fantastic must be formed.
Whence the stoic says: my friend is sick; what does
it matter to me
There is no man who does not feel the heavy yoke of
opinion and no one can do away with it.
The chimera of friendship in our condition [Zustand]
and the fantastical friendship in the ancient {condition}. Aristotle
Cervantes would have done better if
instead of making the fantastical and Romanic passion ridiculous he had made
something of it.
The Romans make noble women fantastical and common
ones absurd. Noble men also fantastic,
common ones lazy
Rousseau’s book serves to improve the Ancients
In accordance with the simplicity of nature, a woman
cannot do much good without the providing of a man. In the condition of inequality and wealth,
she can immediately
Moral luxury.
In sentiments that are without effect
Inner grief
about the inability to help or about the sacrifice when one helps, even when one’s own cowardice makes us
believe that others suffer much although they can bear it fairly, brings about
pity. Incidentally this is a great [10]
antidote against selfishness. These
drives are altogether very cold in natural humans.
The natural elevations are degradations in his state
[Stand], for example to raise oneself to the position of craftsman
Relative evaluation is really unnecessary but in the
case [Stand] of inequality and injustice
it is good to set oneself against the pompous high-ups with a certain
pride or at the least indifference in order to disapprove of unimportant things
One must with a certain wide…
Although a tall man is not a great man for it,
physical greatness does indeed conform to the judgment about moral things
It is easier to educate a nobleman than an
{ordinary} person. He is a despiser of
the common rabble, for he must call them the industrious and suppressed so that one believes he has
been created to support him.
The scholars in
Among all situations there is nothing less useful
than a scholar as long as he is in natural simplicity and no one more necessary
than the same {the scholar} in a state [Stand] of oppression by means of
suspicion or force
The thoughtfulnesses belong to small and pretty
dispositions
A woman’s affects are just as large as a man’s but they are more superior primarily when it come to respectability, the man is rash. The Chinese and Indians have affects that are just as great [11] as Europeans but they are calmer. A woman is revengeful
The rising sun is just as splendid as the setting
sun but the sight of the former hits upon beautiful, the latter the tragic and
sublime
What a woman does in marriage comes much more from
natural bliss than what the man does at least in our civilized condition
[Zustand]
Because so many unnatural appetites find themselves
in a civilized relationship there also occasionally originates the cause of
virtue and because so much luxuriance is found in enjoyment and knowledge there
originates science. In a natural
condition one can be good without virtue and reasonable without science
Whether man would have it better in simple
conditions is now difficult to have insight into [einsehen] 1. because he has lost his feeling for simple
pleasures. 2. because he commonly
believes that the corruption that exists in civilized conditions also exist in
conditions of simplicity.
[12] Bliss without taste is based on innocence and
modesty of inclination, with taste it {is based on} the sentimental [Gefühlvoll]
soul at rest [Ruhe]. For this reason it
is possible for one to be happy without society. Amusements not needs. Rest after work is pleasant One must never chase after pleasure.
One must distinguish whether he is in accordance
with the taste of others or he has taste in consideration of judgments about
others. Women know very well how to evaluate
in accordance with the taste of others and for this reason easily know other
minds and have good taste to satisfy them, but they have a bad taste for
others, which is good. For this reason
they also all marry the richest
Tenderness and affection of sensation. Taste chooses in trifles
Logical egoism {is} skillfulness in taking
standpoints.
Common duties do not require for a motive the hope
of another life but greater sacrifice and self-denial surely have an inner
beauty, yet our feeling of pleasure for them can never be so strong that it
outweighs the annoyance of inconvenience where there is no representation
[Vorstellung] of a future condition of the persistence of such moral beauty and
the bliss that is thereby increased, so that one will find himself more capable
of acting, thus it {the representation} comes in handy.
All pleasures and pains are either physical or
ideal. As for the latter
[13] A woman gets offended through crudeness or
oppressed where no responsibility but only threat can help. She uses her touching weapon of tears of
melancholy reluctance and complaints, but she endures the evil anyhow before
she ever returns the injustice. See here
the courage of woman. The man gets angry
that one might be so bold to offend him; he returns force with force,
frightens, and lets the insulter feel the consequences of his injustice. See here the courage of man. It is not necessary that the man be indignant
about the evil of illusion, he can despise it in a masculine way. Yet he will be as truly infuriated about this
evil as about true insults if it befalls a woman.
A woman never uses the scolding of reproaches as the
external weapons of her anger against a woman but against a man, except by
means of the threats against another man
When women squabble or fight the men laugh about it
but not the other way around
Duels primarily have their basis in nature for the
sake of women.
[14] In the present condition a man can use no other
means against injustice than a woman can, that is, authority is arranged not in
accordance with the order of nature, but instead the civil constitution
Rousseau. Proceeds synthetically and starts from
natural humans, I proceed analytically and start from civilized humans
The country life delights everyone primarily the shepherd’s life and indeed the civilized person uses up boredom in it
The heart of man may be constituted as it likes, so
the question is simply whether the state of nature or civilization develops
more actual sin and skill in it {the heart}.
It can subdue moral evil so much that merely an amount of great purity
appears in action but never to a noticeable degree of positive vice (whoever is
not so saintly is for that reason not vicious) on the other hand, this can
develop even so that it becomes detestation.
The simple person has little temptation to become vicious. Merely [15] luxury [Üppigkeit] accounts for
great provocations and the cultur of moral feelings [Empfindungen] and understanding
will never hold itself back if the taste for luxury is already great
Piety is the means of complementi of the moral goodness to holiness. Therefore the question is not in the relation of a person to
another. We cannot naturally be saintly
and we lost this through original sin, but we can be completely morally good.
Is it not enough for us that a man never lies if he
has a secret inclination which, were it put in the situation, would develop
into lying?
We surely ask whether a man undertakes his actions
of honesty, of fidelity, etc. out of consideration for a divine obligation if
he only does them, although these actions are condemnable before God insofar as
they do not arise through this {consideration}
In order to prove that the man of nature is corrupt
one appeals to the civilized condition.
One ought to appeal to the natural.
Actions of justice are those which when neglected by
another will naturally move us to hate. Actions of love when neglected will be no reason
for love of others towards us.
Because the basic characteristics of women are used up in the research of the man [16] and his inclinations also easily create illusion [Blendwerk], they {women} are made to rule and govern also everything in nations that have taste
There is a perfect world (the moral) in accordance with the order of nature, and we ask ourselves about this one to the same extent that we do about the supernatural.
Virtuous people see the rank of others with
indifference although when it relates to themselves, with consideration
One can either confine his luxuriant impulses or, by
maintaining them, discover remedies against their diseases. To the latter belong science and respect for
life for the sake of the nearness of death and solace for the future
Boredom is a type of longing for an ideal pleasure
The holy word affects more improvement if
supernatural powers accompany it. The
good, moral upbringing {has more effect} if everything should happen purely in
accordance with the order of nature
[17] I admit that through the latter we cannot bring
forth saintliness, which is justified, but we can bring about a moral goodness
coram foro humano, and this is promotable for the former.
Just as little as one can say that nature has
implanted in us an immediate inclination for acquiring (the stingy greediness)
so little can one say it has given us a immediate drive to honor. Both develop and both are useful in general
luxury [Üppigkeit] but here they let themselves be excluded: just as nature
brings about healing through hard work, it also creates remedies within its
injuries
The difference [Verschiedenheit] of position makes
it so that, as rarely as one puts himself in the place of a subservient horse
in order to introduce himself to his wretched feed, just as rarely does one put
himself in the place of wretchedness in order to understand it.
The provisions [Vorschriften] of the blissful life
can be twofold:
1.
That one reveals how, after all the already acquired inclinations of
honor and of luxury, one can maintain his purpose and at the same time prevent
the grief that originates in ideas like that of future life, the nothingness of
this life, etc.
2.
Or that one attempts to bring the inclinations themselves to moderation
The stoic their mistake that they, through virtue,
search for merely a counterweight to the pain of luxury. Antisthenes’s school tried to eradicate
luxury itself.
The Stoic teaches of anger out of respect for others.
The current moralists presuppose much as evil [Übel]
and want to teach to overcome it and many temptations for evils [Bösen] and
write motives for overcoming them. The Rousseauian method teaches to regard
the former as not evil and the latter, then, as no temptation.
[18] There is no one more massive in enjoyment than
a poor person. The poor greediness comes
from an eager desire for all kinds of pleasure to which there is no actual, but
only a chimerical, inclination in the poor person because from hearsay he
regards it as a great good even if he himself is already moderate. This is bold poverty. The cowardly poverty.
The threat of eternal punishment cannot be the
direct [unmittelbare] foundation of morally good actions, but certainly a
strong counterweight against the impulses to evil ones so that the immediate
[unmittelbare] sensation of morality does not become outweighed.
There is no immediate [unmittelbare] inclination to
morally evil actions but certainly an immediate {inclination} to good ones
This idealistic feeling sees life in dead matter or
imagines seeing it. Trees drink from the
neighboring brook. The zephyr whispers
of loved ones. Clouds cry on a
melancholy day. Cliffs threaten like
giants. Solitude is inhabited by dreamy
shadows and the deathly silence of graves by fantastical ones. This is where the pictures and the
picturesque spirit comes from.
[19] Philosophical eyes are microscopic. Their view is exact but small and their
intention is truth. The sensible
[sinnliche] view is bold and provides fanciful excess that is moving although
only it will only be encountered in the imagination.
Beautiful and sublime are not the same. The former swells the heart and makes the
attention fixed and tense thereby tiring it.
The latter lets the heart melt in a kind of softish sensation and, as it
leaves the nerves behind here, the feeling becomes a gentler emotion which, if
it goes too far, transforms into feebleness, boredom, and disgust
The good-natured and well-mannered [wohlgesittete]
man are quite different. The first may
not have drives that have been turned tame because they are natural and
good. The representation [Vorstellung]
of higher natures. If he thinks about it
perhaps he will say he is in another life.
One must be good and expect the rest.
The second is 1. only civilized [gesittet] 2. Well mannered.
[wohlgesittet] In the former case he has
many fantastical friends whose any idea that cannot be intuitive he must oppose
in order to maintain himself well. The
second one is a civilized [gesitteter] man who will extend his morality
[Sittlichkeit] over the simplicity of nature until it expands to the object for
which he only wishes and believes
This natural morality [Sittlichkeit] must also be
the touchstone of all religions. Because
if it is uncertain whether people in other religions can become blessed and
whether they cannot restore the torments of this world to bliss in the next
one, then it is certain that I should not follow them. This last one would not be the case if the
natural sensation were not sufficient for exercising all duties of this life.
[20] As the Portuguese Celebes discovered, the inhabitants
understood the correctness of their religion, but sent to Malacca for Don
Pedro as often
as to Achin for the queen. {They} got
double the priests and…
Everyone who’s a coward lies but not vice versa.
What makes one weak brings about lying. The foolish lust for honor and shame that
Shame and modesty are different. The former is a betrayal of a secret through
the natural flow of blood. The latter is
a means of concealing a secret for the sake of vanity, in other words a sexual
excitement
It is far more dangerous to be with free and greedy
people than with the subjects of a monarch in war. Use those who have vanity from this.
[21] I will say of everything where there are seldom
exceptions. For in accordance with the
rule of prudence, that which occurs so seldom that one regards it as a stroke
of luck {can be said to} never happen, and that {is said to} be generally in
accordance with the rule of prudence where any cases that one can seek of the
contrary accord with no rule. I speak of
taste, I take then my own judgment so that it is generally true in accordance
with the rule of taste (aesthetic) whether or not it is also exactly in
accordance with the rule of measured reason (logic) {or is} only valid on its
own
Where does it come from that our society
[Gesellschaft] would be quite unadorned were it not for the women, for that was
certainly not the case with the Greek or the Romans. Back then one spoke of virtue and fatherland,
now this is an empty matter whose position can be taken up at the very most
with false devotion. Jokes have no
correct life among unsophisticated men and also become uncivilized. We are mushy and feminine and must [22] be
among women. Primarily most men are
feminine or common and so even worse than women in conversation
A heart expanded through sensibility prepares itself
for longing and will finally be used up from the sensations of all the things
of life; for this reason it sighs for something that is outside its circle, and
as true as its devotion is to itself, just as fantastical is it with respect to
most people because they are themselves chimerical, and {it} comes about that
they offer their love {and} their sincerity only with respect to God and are
cold with respect to the former [love] while misplaced with respect to other
[sincerity] because one can be more easily deceived concerning the former than
the latter
Because one can make for himself a concept of higher
moral characteristics, sacrifice for the common good, everlasting devotion,
fulfillment of marital intentions without sensual pleasure, immediate
[unmittelbare] inclination to science without honor, one imagines these all to
be suitable for the state of humanity and finds the situation that one sees to
be corrupted. They are the same eager
desires [Begierden], {they are} fantastical and even develop from the sources,
just like the general corruption. Even
these shortcomings become no more blameworthy when regarded in consideration of
humanity when the remaining corruption is raised up
Whole nations can even deliver the example of a
human being. One never finds great
virtues where great they are not also combined with great excess, like with the
English, Canadian savages. What is the
cause{?} The French are more proper and
also all the sublimity of virtue is missing.
The place [Stelle] of mankind in the order of
created being [Wesen]
[23] All devotion that is natural has only one use -
- if it is the result of a good moralitat. Under the same {category} is also taken
natural devotion that is related to a book.
For this reason the spiritual teachers correctly say that it [devotion]
does no good except where it has been affected by the spirit of God, whereupon
here it is intuition, otherwise it is very enjoined to self-deception.
The reason why married people are so cold-minded is
this: because both members have so many external, chimerical bonds of decorum,
of grace, and if one or the other part depends strongly on an opinion, he
becomes indifferent towards the opinion of the other. From this arises contempt, finally hate. For this reason, in relation to the roman love it is only the
characteristic of a hero. Coquette.
That the doctrine of virtue consists of teaching
piety makes a whole from a part, because piety is only a type of virtue.
It seems to us from now on that the human race has almost no value if it contains no great artist and scholar, therefore [24] the country people, the farmers, appear to be nothing to themselves and only as some kind of support for the former. The injustice of this judgment already shows that it is false. That is to say, one feels that if he had extended his inclinations, he may do what he wants, {that} life would be nothing, and that the extension of these inclinations is therefore injurious.
There is a great difference {between} overcoming
one’s inclinations and eradicating them, that is to say, making it so that one
loses them, this is again different from restraining inclinations, namely,
making sure no one gets them. The former
is necessary for older people and the latter for younger ones.
There is a great difference between a good human and
a good, rational being. As the latter is
perfect, it has no bounds but finitude, the former has many bounds.
It belongs to a great art to prevent children from
lying. For, since they are far too
wanton and far too weak to tolerate negative answers or punishments, they have
a very strong incitement to lie, as old people never do. Primarily, since they can provide nothing for
themselves like grownups can, but instead everything depends on the way in
which they represent things according to the inclinations that they notice in
others. Thus, one must only punish them
for things that they cannot deny and not grant them things on spurious grounds.
By all means, if one wants to mould morality, one
must not bring up motives that do not lead to morally good actions, e.g.,
punishment, reward. For this reason one
must also immediately portray lying as repulsive, as it is in fact, and never
subordinate it to any other rule of morality, for example, duty towards others.
(One has no duties towards oneself, however one has absolute [25] duties, that is, in
and for itself an action is good. It is
also nonsensical that we should depend on ourselves in our
morality)
In medicine one says that the doctor is the servant of nature:
it works just the same in morality. Just
hold off the external evil, nature will already take the right course
If the doctor said that nature in itself is ruined,
by what means does he want to improve it.
Just so morality
A man does not take more of a share in the luck or
misfortune of others than what makes him feel contented. If it happens that he is contented with very
little, then it will produce kind people; otherwise it is for nothing.
General human love has something high and noble in
itself, yet with humans it is chimerical.
When one performs it {general human love}, one is accustomed to deceive
himself with longing and idle wishes. As
long as one is so very dependent on things, one cannot participate in the
happiness of others.
[26] The simple man has a feeling [Empfindung] of
what is right early on, but very late or never at all does he have a concept of
it. That feeling must become developed
long before the concept. If one teaches
him early on to develop by rules he will never feel {it}
It is difficult, after the inclinations have
developed, to imagine [sich vorstellen] good and evil in other circumstances
[Verhältnissen]. Because I will waste
away a long while without an eternal pleasure, I imagine this for myself, also
of the Swiss man, who grazes his cows in the mountains. And this man {the Swiss one} cannot
understand how a man who has had enough can want even more. One can hardly understand [begreifen] how, in
such a lowly state, this lowliness does not fill one up with pains. On the other hand, when the rest of men are
also stuck with the evil of illusion, some cannot understand how they could
have gotten this illusion. The noble man
imagines that the evil of the contempt of stolen splendor that a citizen has
can be crushed, and the latter [the citizen] does not understand how he [the
noble man] could become used to [27] counting certain delights among his needs.
A ruler that gave nobility wanted to issue something
that certain people could serve instead of everything else superfluous. Yet they have a tidbit of nobility. Let the rest of the mob have the money.
Can anything be more perverse than the children who
have hardly stepped into this world before being talked into something.
They also tire of others. One does not listen long to precocious
talk. A person who never neglects
himself becomes troublesome. Too much attentiveness
to oneself looks meticulous.
Like a fruit when it is ripe enough breaks away from
the tree, and approaches the earth to let its own seeds take root, so the
mature person also breaks away from his parents, plants himself, and becomes
the roots of a new race
[28] A man must depend on no one else so that the wife depends entirely on him.
It must be asked how far the inner moral grounds [Gründe]
can carry [bringen] a person. Perhaps
they will carry him far enough that he is secured in a position of freedom
without great temptations, but if other injustices or the coercion of illusion
forces him, then this inner morality does not have power enough. He must have religion and be encouraged by
means of the reward of a future life and human nature is not capable of an
immediate moral purity. But if
supernatural wisdom produces [wirken] purity in him, future rewards will no
longer have the quality of motives
This is the difference between false and healthy
morality: the former seeks only for antidotes for evil, while the latter is
concerned that the cause of evil is not there at all
The appearance if it announces sublimity is the
gleam, if it announces beauty it is the pretty or also the ornamentation of
finery if it is contrived
Among all types of finery is also morality. Sublimity of position consists of the fact
that he deals with much worth the beautiful
is here called the suitable
The reason why those of the nobility commonly pay so
poorly
It is a great shame for a genius when criticism
comes before art. When in a nation it
{criticism} blinds before a standard is set and they have revealed their own
talents.
[29] Sublime attitude which overlooks trivialities
and notices the good among deficiencies.
Tobacco
It is unnatural that a person pass most of his life
to teach a child as it should someday live itself. Every private tutor like Jean
Jacques is in
this way artificial. In simple
conditions a child would be afforded very little service; as soon as he has a
bit of strength he would carry out small, useful adult activities, like with a
farmer or craftsman, and would gradually learn the rest. Meanwhile, it is suitable that a person spend
his life teaching so many others how to live that, on the contrary, sacrificing
his own is not to be regarded. Schools
are necessary for that. In order for
them to become possible, one must raise [erziehen] Emile. One wishes that Rousseau had shown how schools could
originate out of this.
Preachers in the country could begin to do this with
their own children and their neighbors
Taste is not attached to our needs. A man must already be civilized if he wants to
chose a wife in accordance with taste.
[30] Be not very refined [fein], because then only
small traits will be noticed, substantial traits [Grossen] will only be
apparent to simple and coarse eyes.
It is a discomfort to the understanding to have
taste. I must read Rousseau until the
beauty of expression no longer interferes with me and then I can examine him
with reason for the first time
Great people only glimmer in the distance that a ruler loses it in front of his valet
comes from the fact that no man is great
Something that is again a great impediment to the
doctrine of eternal bliss and allows one to suppose that it {the doctrine} is
not appropriate for our situation, is that those who believe it become thereby
no less passionate about the bliss in this life, which must happen if our
determination to act for a great cause breaks.
If I want to put myself into a great although not
complete independence [31] from people then I must be able to be poor without
feeling it and slightly obliged without respecting it. Yet, if I were a rich man, in my enjoyment, I
would primarily bring in freedom from things and people. I would not overburden myself with things
like guests, horses, or subjects from whose loss I must be secured. I would not have any jewels because I can
lose them, etc. I would arrange myself
according to the delusions of another so that he doesn’t actually harm me, for
example, reduce my acquaintance but not so that it makes me comfortable.
How freedom in actual understanding (the moral and
not the metaphysical) is the topmost principium of all virtue and also all
bliss
It is necessary to intuit [einsehen] how late the art of daintiness and civilized disposition came about and how they are never in their own area of the world (e.g. where there are no pets) so that one distinguishes between what is foreign and accidental to nature and what is natural to it. If one considers the bliss of the savage it is not in order to turn back to the forest, but instead in order to see what one has lost, by making gains elsewhere. Thereby one does not paste enjoyment and the employment of sociable luxury together with unfortunate and unnatural inclinations, and {one} remains a civilized person of nature. That consideration serves the standard. Because nature never created a person into a citizen and his inclinations, his endeavors are aimed merely at the simple state [Zustand] of life.
It appears that the primary vocation
[Hauptbestimmung] of the majority of other creatures is that they live and that
their kind lives
If I assume this of human beings, then I must not
despise the lowliest savage
[32] How, out of luxury, simple [Bürgerlich]
religion and also the force of religion (at the very least every new
transformation) become necessary
Pure, natural religion does not at all suit a
country [Staat], and skepticism still less.
Anger is a good natured feeling [Empfindung] of weak
people. An inclination to suppress it
brings about unforgiving hate. Women,
men of the cloth. One does not always
hate those at which one is angry.
Good-naturedness [Gutartigkeit] of people who get angry. Feigned modesty conceals anger and makes
false friends
For such a weak creature as man, the partly
necessary partly voluntary ignorance of future things is very suitable
I can never convince another except through his own
thoughts. I must therefore assume that
the other has a good and correct understanding [Verstand], otherwise it is
futile to hope that he will be capable of [33] being won over by my reasons. I cannot even move someone morally except
through his own sentiments; consequently, I must assume that the other has a
certain goodness [Bonitaet] of the heart, or else he will never feel abhorrence from my portrayal
of vice or motives from my praises of virtue in himself. Because it would be rather impossible that
some morally correct feeling would be in him or that he could suspect [vermuten] that his
feeling was in harmony with that of the entire human race, if his evil were
really and truly evil, then I must grant to him the partial goodness of it and
the slippery resemblance of innocence and portray the crime as illusory in
itself.
Greek profile
A thick body - - great tallness - - wide shoulders
The chief reason to create is because it is good. A consequence of this is that, because God,
with his power and great knowledge, finds himself to be good, he also finds
everything good that is possible to actualize. [34] Secondly, he has a liking for everything
that is good, but mostly whatever aims at the greatest good. The first is good as a result, the second as
a reason
Because revenge assumes that people who hate each
other stay close, failing which, if one can withdraw himself when he wants, the
reason to take revenge falls away, so that it {revenge] cannot exist in nature
because it {nature} does not assume that people will be confined near each
other. But anger is a very necessary
characteristic and suitable to a man, that is to say, if it is not passion
(which is different from an affect), {and} is certainly found in nature
One cannot imagine of convenience what he has not
required, just as the Carib detested salt, because he was not used to it.
Agefilaus and the Persian satrap despised each
other, the former said I know the Persian sensual pleasure but you know nothing
of mine. He was wrong
The goods of weak [Weichlich] luxuriance and of
delusion - - the latter accrue from the comparative manner of evaluation in
science, in honor, etc.
Christianity says that one should not attach his heart
to temporal things, beneath this it is also understood that he should prevent,
early on, that he acquires any such dependence.
Still lastly, to nurture inclinations and then expect supernatural
assistance to govern them, that is to tempt God.
Stages freedom, equality, honor. (The delusion). Precaution henceforth loses him his entire
life.
[35] Two touchstones for the difference of the
natural from the unnatural: 1. Whether it is suitable to something one cannot
change 2. Whether it can be common to all people or to a few with the
oppression of the rest
A certain great monarch of the North civilized, as
it is called, his nation, If God wanted, he would have brought morals to it,
but then everything he did was political welfare and moral ruins
I can make no one better than the remaining good
that is in him, I can make no one more prudent [klüger] than the prudence [Klügheit]
remaining in him
Vicious people can be considered with affability
because vice comes to them very much externally through our ruined constitution
From the feeling of equality comes the idea of
justice {which is} as much constrained as coerced. The former is duty towards others, the latter
is the sensed duty of others towards me.
[36] So that this has a standard gauge in understanding,
we are able to put ourselves in the place of another in our thought and, so
that it does not lack motives, we are moved through sympathy by the misfortune and
distress of others just as by our own.
This duty will be recognized as something whose lack
in another will let me consider him to be my enemy and make me hate him. Nothing stirs something up more than
injustice, all other evils that we endure are nothing in comparison. Duty concerns only the necessary
self-preservation in so far as it is preservation of the kind, everything
remaining is favor and goodwill [Gewogenheit].
Still, I will also hate anyone who sees me
struggling in a pit and cold-heartedly passes over it.
Kindnesses find themselves only through inequality. For I understand in kindness a readiness to create good, especially in those cases where the general, natural sympathy would not be a sufficient reason for it. Now it is not simple and natural even to sacrifice so much convenience as I show to another because one person is worth as much as another. So if I should be ready and willing for it, I must judge myself more harshly [stärker] with respect to discomforts than another, I must consider it a great evil from which I spare another and a small one that I suffer myself. A man would despise another if he showed such kindnesses towards him.
The first inequality is of a man and child and of a man and women. To a certain extent, he considers it a duty since he is strong and they are weak to sacrifice something to them.
Apparent nobleness is good behavior. Esteem The apparent splendor {is} the luster. The apparent beautiful {is} the ornamented
[37] The beautiful is either charming or pretty
The adventurous taste parodies.
Pranks parody Hudibras
comic sublime.
Every unjust valuation that does not belong to the purpose of nature also disturbs the beautiful harmony of nature. Through the fact that the arts and sciences are held to be so important, anyone who does not have them is made disdainful and brings us to injustices that we would not overcome if we were to consider them as more than resembling us.
If something is not suitable to the length of a lifetime, or not to its epochs, or not to a large part of humans, finally, to the extent that it is subjected to chance and is only difficultly possible, it does not belong to the blissfulness and perfection of the human race. [38] How many centuries have passed by before actual sciences existed and how many nations exist in the world that will never have them.
One must not say that nature calls us to the sciences because they have given us skills, for what the air concerns can be purely affected. Because the insidiousness of the sciences has been proven, there is much more to judge: we have a capacity for understanding that goes further than our vocation [Bestimmung] in this life, thus there will be another life. If we try to disentangle this here, we will poorly satisfy our position. A grub that would feel that it ought to become a butterfly.
Scholars believe that everything is for their sake. Noble people also If one has traveled to barren France, then one can find comfort again in the academy of sciences or in the society of good fashion just like one happily gets away from all the beggars in the church-city, in Rome one can delight himself until intoxicated about the splendor of the church and antiquity.
[39] From just the previous reasons one should judge that those who want to know too much prematurely here will thereby be castigated by weakness as punishment. Just as a prematurely clever child either dies or fades and becomes dumb at a young age.
A person may tinker as much as he wants, but he cannot force nature to follow other laws. He himself must either work or others {work} for him, and this work will rob others of so much bliss that he will increase his own beyond the average
If one person wants to enjoy without working, then others will want to work without enjoying
One can promote one’s welfare either by letting desires extend themselves and striving to satisfy them one can promote righteousness if one lets the inclinations of illusion and luxury grow and endeavors to oppose them with moral motives But in both problems there is yet another solution, that is, not to let the inclinations arise. Lastly, one can also promote good conduct by putting aside all immediate moral bonitaet and simply form grounds {from} the orders of a worthwhile and punitive lord.
The evil proper to science for humans is primarily this, that the largest part of them who want to adorn themselves with it not acquire any improvement of the understanding but instead only a perversion [Verkehrtheit] of it, not to mention that it {science} serves the majority only as a tool of vanity. The use for which the sciences have is either luxuriance, e.g. mathematics or the hindrance of evil that it wreaked itself or also a certain decency as an indirect result.
[40] The concepts of civil justice and what is natural and the feeling of duty that comes from it are almost directly opposed.
If I solicit from a rich person who got his fortune by extorting his peasants and I give this to the poor, then I carry out a very noble action in the civil understanding, whereas I only do a common duty in the natural {understanding}.
[41] With general luxury one complains about the divine rule and about the rule of the king. One does not consider that, as concerns the latter, just the same desire for honor and immoderacy that the civilians control can have no other form on the throne than as they have 2 that such civilians cannot otherwise be ruled. The subject wants the master to overcome his inclinations of vanity in order to promote the good of his lands and {he wants} to think that demands of him do not occur in consideration of lowly things even with the law. Are wise people themselves in the first place righteous and moderate these virtues will soon rise to thrones and also make the prince good. See here the weak princes who show kindness and courage in such times, could they practice something completely different as with great injustice towards others because this puts the courage in nothing other than the distribution of robbery that one stole from another. The freedom that a prince gives out to think and write like I am doing now is worth just as much as many privileges of a greater luxury because through that freedom everything of this evil can be improved.
The greatest concern of man is to know how to properly fulfill his place in creation and correctly understand what one must do in order to be a human. If, however, he gets to know pleasures above or below himself that flatter him, but to which he is not organized and which opposes the style of arrangement that is suitable to him by nature, if he gets to know moral characteristics that gleam, then he will disturb the beautiful order of nature himself and only prepare the ruin for others, because he has avoided his post; for, since he does not let himself enjoy that for which he is destined, since he steps out of the circle of humanity, he is nothing and the hole that he makes spreads his own corruption to the neighboring links
[42] Among the harms wreaked by the flood of books that our part of the world is drowned in yearly, is one that has not the slightest bit of real usefulness and that is seen swimming here and back again over the wide ocean of book-scholarliness [Büchergelehrsamkeit] and must share the fate of decrepitude with the residual chaff. The inclination to read much in order to say that one has read. The habit of not lingering long on a book, and
Luxury brings the people in the city together Rousseau wants to bring them to the country
Evil pretty much replaces the developed immoderacy
of man. The desire for freedom and the
exclusive force of a dominator is a great misfortune, but it becomes just as
much an orderly system, in fact, there is actually more order, although less [43]
bliss than in
One of the greatest harms of science is that it takes away so much time that virtue gets neglected in customs; secondly, that they habituate the mind to the sweetness of speculation that good actions stop.
Moral beauty, simplicity, sublimity. Justice - - Righteousness is simple. The passion of the sublime is enthusiasm. Beloved virtuous. Friendship. Beautiful ideal.
The first impression that a reasonable reader, who is not reading for vanity or entertainment, gets from the writings of Mr. J. J. Rousseau is that he encounters an uncommon astuteness of the spirit of a noble flight [Schwung] of genius and a sensitive [gefühlvoll] soul combined to such a high degree as perhaps no writer of any era or nation has possessed. The impression that follows is surprise about strange and absurd opinions that are in such opposition to what is generally passable that one easily gets a suspicion that the author, by virtue of his extraordinary talents, has only proven the [44] magical power of eloquence and wants to make himself the queer fellow who sticks out among all his rivals in wit by way of engaging novelty [neuigkeit].
The third thought, to which one only arrives with difficulty because it only seldom occurs…
One must teach virtue to cherish the common understanding as much for moral as for logical reasons.
I myself am a researcher from inclination. I feel the entire thirst for knowledge and the desirous unrest to proceed further in it or also the happiness with every acquisition. There was a time when I believed that this alone could constitute the honor of mankind and I despised the mob that knew of nothing. Rousseau brought me around. This blinding preference vanished, I learned to honor human beings and I would think myself less useful than the common worker if I did not believe that this consideration of everything else could have worth in establishing the rights of mankind
[45] It is quite ridiculous to say you should love other people, instead one must rather say you have good reason to love the ones near you. This even goes for your enemies.
Virtue is strong, thus whatever disables and makes one soft under pleasures or dependent on delusion is opposed to virtue.
Whatever makes life despicable or entirely abhorred does not lie in nature. Whatever makes vice easy and virtue difficult does not lie in nature
Universal vanity makes it so that one only says they know living of those who never understand living (outside themselves)
It is not at all conducive to bliss to extend the inclinations to luxury, because there are very many cases where the circumstances of these inclinations are not favorable towards a desired situation and they create a source of displeasure, grief, and worry of which the simple man knows nothing
It also does not help with this to preach noble endurance.
If there is any science that man requires then it is the one that teaches a person to properly fulfill the place which was allotted to him in creation and from which he can learn how one must be in order to be human. Suppose he got to know deceptive enticements above and below himself that brought him unnoticed from his proper place, then this instruction would lead him back again to the state of a human and, [46] even if he also might still find himself to be small or inadequate, in such a way he will be correctly at his allotted post because he is precisely what he should be.
The mistake of saying this is universal among us thus absolutely universal is easily avoided by intelligent {people}. But consequent judgments are apparent: nature has given us the opportunity for pleasure, why do we not want to attend to it; we have the capacity for sciences, it is a call of nature to seek it; we feel in us a voice that speaks to us that is noble and righteous, this is a duty to act in such a way.
Everything passes us by in a river and the changeable taste and the different forms of man make the entire game uncertain and deceptive. Where do I find definite points of nature that man cannot displace and that could give him signs as to which bank he has to attach himself
[47] That all size is only relative and there is no absolute size can be seen here. I measure the sky by the diameter of the earth, the earth’s diameter by miles, the miles by feet, these by the relation with my body
The question is which condition suits the humans as inhabitants that are running around on a planet 200 sun-diameters from her {the sun}.
Just as little as I can step onto Jupiter from here, so little can I demand to have characteristics that are that planet’s own. The one who is so wise about another place of creation is a fool about the one he inhabits
I do not at all have the ambition to want to be a seraphim, my pride is only this, that I am a human
The one phrase [Satz] is difficult to compose that does not lay or it lays [48] in nature, that is, nature has given no drive for it, instead they are contrived, no such affliction is inherent, instead they are accidentally grown - - the other is easier - - that does not conform with nature - - that is that opposes whatever actually is in nature. Often Rousseau proceeds towards the first things and because human nature has now acquired such a devastated form, natural first principles [Grundlagen] become dubious and unrecognizable
The moderate civilian can form no concept {of} what else the courtier can lack, who can live on his goods just as he pleases, meanwhile the latter grieves to death
Many people have theology and no religion except perhaps to someday apologize for awful viciousness when they become threatened by the terrors of hell
Of the worth of this life in itself or immediately and of the worth of this life only as a means to another life.
The life of the purely pleasurable without contemplation and morals [Sitten] appears to have no worth
With people and animals, the most strong has a certain average size
Moral taste with respect to sexual inclination, since everyone wants to appear to be quite refined [fein] or also pure in it. The truth is not the highest perfection of social life; the beautiful appearance drives it here just like it does more so in painting. Of taste in marriage
[49] A sign of crude taste is nowadays is that one requires so much pretty make-up but in fact the finest [feinste] taste is of simplicity
In a civilized state, one becomes clever very late in the game, one could certainly say along with the Theophrast, it is a shame that one then ceases to live just when he hoped for success.
The certainty in moral [sittlich] judgments mediates [vermitteln] the comparison with the moral feeling, {which} is just as great as that with the logical feeling, and I will make just as certain that lying is repulsive through the analysis of a person as that a sensation thinking body is incoherent [ungereimt]. Deception with respect to moral judgment happens just like that of the logical {judgment} but the latter is yet more frequent
In the metaphysical foundations of aesthetics the [50] differentiated immoral feeling is to be taken note of - - with the first principles of the civilized [sittlich] world, the differentiated moral feeling of people towards the difference of gender, of age, of upbringing and governance of races and climates is to be taken note of
Of the religion of a woman – of the bold facial expression.
A certain timidity, suspicion, etc. suits her well.
Use her loquacity
Why the difference in position is shown mostly among women.
The woman is closer to nature
A man who knows how to live - - what a woman he will marry
Of Rousseau’s attempt to move through love {and} the best talents
Women educate their men themselves; they can attribute it to themselves if they turn out bad.
Anyone who is foolishly accommodating will become a disgruntled husband
Of empty longing through a feeling of the sublime that is disproportionate and poorly suitable to humans. Novels. Rousseau took his sweetheart to the village.
[51] A marriage of an overly refined and choice man to a coquette.
One imagines two marriages of which one has, so to say, a good sound and the other is domestic
The moral taste is inclined to imitation, the moral principles rise above this. Where there are courts and great distinctions of people everything amounts to taste, in republics it is otherwise. Therefore the taste in society is more refined there and more crude here. One can be very virtuous and have little taste. If the social life should grow, taste must be expanded because the agreeableness of society must be easy, while principles must be difficult. This taste is easiest among women.
Moral taste easily reconciles itself with appearance, but not the principle.
[52] Swiss, Dutch, English, French free
cities. Suicide in
Taste for pure virtue is somewhat crude; when it [taste] is fine, it must be able to require [kosten] mixing it [virtue] with folly
What people call the finer [feiner] part of life is a wonderful weaving of trifling distractions, boring amusements, {and} still more troubles - - of vanity and a whole swarm of silly distractions. The loss of the same is commonly regarded as death or even much worse than death; a person who knows how to live {but} who has lost the taste for it [living] has died to pleasure
Refined crude feeling. Refined self-acting ideal sometimes chimerical
One has reasons for not refining his feeling too much, firstly so as not to open the gates of pain, secondly in order to be closer to what is useful
Sufficiency and simplicity demand a crude feeling and make {one} happy
The beautiful is loved, the noble respected, the ugly {are met} with disgust, the ignoble despised
The courage of a woman to follow a man in misfortune and her tenderness. With a more tender, a more valiant man, the man feels himself in his woman and shares no pain with her
[53] Small people are courageous and hot tempered, large {people are} composed
The natural human is moderate not because of future health (for he does not foresee [prospiciren] {this}), but because of present well-being.
A reason that women are proud towards each other is that they are more similar to each other because the basis [Grund] of nobility is in the men. The reason that they are embarrassed near one another and are competitive is that the man’s happiness does not come so much from kindness as from service, so that they make themselves happy, while the latter are made happy by others. On this is based their inherent inclination to please
The reason why the excesses of lust are sensed so sharply is because they concern the basis [Grund] of propagation, that is, the preservation of the species; and because this is the only thing women are good for, it constitutes their highest perfection, whereas the preservation of their selves depends on the man
The capacity to produce profit with fertility is limited for a woman and broadened for a man.
Luxury causes one to make a big differentiation between one women and another
Desires do not satisfy one through love, but through marriage; they are at the same time the most pure
[54] The distinguishing feature [Merkmal] of social life [Geselligkeit] is not to always prefer another. Always preferring another is weak. The idea of equality regulates everything
In society and in fashion [tractamenten], simplicity and equality make it easy and pleasant.
Conquer illusion and be a man so that your wife esteems you highest among all people, do not yourself be a servant to the opinions of others.
When your wife honors you, she does not see a slave of others’ opinions. Be domestic; {let} taste and not expense, comfort and not superabundance prevail in your community [Gesellschaft]; more a choice of guests than of dishes
It would be better for women if they actually worked
[55] A good of illusion consists in this, that only opinion is sought after, but the thing itself is either regarded with indifference or even hated. The first illusion is that of honor. The second of spirit. The latter only loves the opinion that he can have many goods of life through his money without ever wanting it seriously anyhow
Anyone who is not convinced of what is obviously certain is a blockhead. Anyone who is not impelled by what is obviously a duty is a scoundrel.
A dull head and corrupt heart.
That the drive to honor comes from the desire of equality is seen here. Would a savage call upon another in order to show his excellence? If he can relinquish his {excellence}, then he will enjoy his freedom. Only when he must be together with him, will he try to outdo him, therefore the desire for honor is indirect
The desire for honor is just as indirect as the desire for money of a stingy person. Both originate from the same kind
The Arcadian shepherd’s life and our chivalrous life of the court are both in bad taste and unnatural though alluring. For true pleasure cannot take place when it is done out of occupation. The recreations of an employed person that are seldom or short and without preparation are alone lasting and of genuine taste. Because she does not now have anything to do but to muse about entertainments, a woman becomes annoying and gets a bad taste for men who do not always know to quiet this thwarted inclination
[56] Others’ love of honor is so highly valued because it indicates so much renunciation of other benefits
The question is whether, {in order} to motivate my affects [Affecten] or those of others, I should take the starting-point [Stützungspunkt] outside of the world or in it. I answer in the state of nature, that is, I find it [the starting point] in freedom
Women have female virtues.
Of sympathy one must only note that it never governs, but must always be subordinated to the capacity and reasonable demands to do good
He who cannot do without much or is lazy has an idle compassion.
[57] The natural man without religion is preferred to the civilized {man} with a purely natural religion. For the latter must have his morality to a high degree if he should administer a counterweight to his corruption.
Meanwhile, a civilized person without any religion is much more dangerous
In natural conditions, no correct concept of God can originate and a false {one} that one constructs is detrimental. Consequently, the theory of natural religion can only be true where science is, therefore it cannot bind [verbinden] all people
Natural theology, natural religion; a supernatural theology can nevertheless be bound with a natural religion. Nevertheless, those who believe as Christian theology says only have natural religion in so far as the morality is natural. The Christian religion is supernatural in consideration of the doctrine and powers it exercises. How little ordinary Christians have to linger over natural origins
Knowledge of God is either speculative, and this is uncertain and subject to dangerous errors, or moral through faith [Glauben] and this thinks no other characteristics in God other than those that aim at morality. This faith is either natural or supernatural
Providence is primarily to be praised for this reason, that it fits so well with humans in their present situation, namely, that the direction {of Providence} does not conform to their foolish wishes, that they suffer for their folly and {that} nothing wants to harmonize with the person who has stepped out of the order of nature. [58] If we consider the need of animals and plants, this conforms to providence. It would be quite perverse if the divine governance were to change the order of things, just as man has changed himself, in accordance with the illusion of humanity. It is just as natural that, as far as he [humanity] has deviated, everything must seem to be perverse with respect to his degenerate [ausgeartet] inclinations.
Out of this delusion [Wahne] springs a kind of theology as a phantasm of luxury (for this is every time feeble and superstitious) and a certain sly cleverness to interweave the highest things into his business and schemes through subjugation
Diagoras.
Rousseau discovered first of all, among the
multiplicity of humanly accepted forms, the deeply concealed nature of them and
the hidden law, in accordance with which providence [59] is justified through
his observations. Before this, the
objection of Alphonsus and Manes was still valid. In accordance with
pleasant melancholy
true virtue cries
[60] The savage is a part of human nature
A luxurious person roams further out of its [human nature’s] borders and the morally affected goes above it [human nature].
Of friendship generally
Of beauty and nobility of company and of banquets; simplicity, magnificence.
When something keeps a youth, who has become a man, from becoming a father, if something gets in the way of enjoying life, if it is short and demands preparation for future things in order to lose the present, if something makes us think that we hate life or that it is unworthy or too short, then it does not come from nature
Masculine strength does not manifest itself in that one forces oneself to endure the injustices of others when he can drive them back, but rather in bearing the heavy yoke of necessity even while putting up with deprivations as a sacrifice for freedom or for whatever else I love. Endurance of insolence is a monk’s virtue
[61] The sanguine [sangvineus] endured insults because he feared the great extent of revenging them.
The foolishness of conceit consists in {the fact} that anyone who values others as so important that he believes their opinion to give him such high worth nevertheless despises them so much that he considers them to be almost nothing compared to himself
parallel to poverty
The character of beauty agrees with the art of illusion [scheinen]. For the beautiful does not consist in the useful, but in the mere opinion. Since, moreover, the thing itself makes loathsome that which is beautiful when it doesn’t appear [schein] to be new, so the art of giving a pleasant illusion with things, since the simplicity of nature is all the same, is very beautiful. The female sex possesses this art to a high degree, which also creates our entire happiness. Through this is the deceived husband happy, the lover or partner sees English virtues [62] and much to conquer and believes {himself} to have triumphed over a strong enemy. Dissimulation is a perfection of women but a vice for men.
Uprightness [Aufrichtigkeit] complies with the noble a woman pleases even if she is ill-bred [plump] but good-hearted.
A choleric person is honored in his presence and criticized in his absence, he has no friends. –The melancholic - little and good, -The sanguine - much and careless. The choleric person looks as if filled with secrets
If one keeps in mind that man and woman constitute a moral whole, then one must not attach the same characteristics to them, but instead {attach} those characteristics to one that the other is missing
A woman endeavors to acquire much more love than men. The latter content themselves with pleasing one, the former everyone. If this inclination is to be understood as evil, then a person of universal loyalty originates
They do not have as much feeling for the beautiful as man, but more vanity
All stirred-up delights are feverish and deadly languor and numb feeling follow the ecstasies of joy. The heart gets used up and the sensation gets coarse
The melancholic person is just and embittered about injustice.
[63] Anger is a good-natured passion in the simplicity of nature, but in the silly vanity of society it makes a fool.
The melancholy person who is choleric is frightful. Extinguished blue eyes filled the sickly face of Brutus. (Of humor, mood, {and} hypochondria. A woman and a visionary have moods) The melancholy person who is sanguine is cowardly {and} depressed, afraid of people, {and} jealous (the sanguine is chivalrous). The melancholy person loves stronger {things} and becomes less loved by women because women are fickle [veränderlich]. The choleric is a trickster of state [Staatsfintenmacher], secretive, and important in bagatelles, the sanguine makes fun out of important things. The melancholy-sanguine is a hermit or penitent in religion; the melancholy choleric {. . .}
[64] The sanguine choleric is valiant like a choleric, vain like a sanguine drive to fame and yet gracefully loves change and is therefore brave. For this reason {he} gives consideration to his pranks, loves the coquette and his wife merely from the viewpoint of how they please others. The melancholy person is domestic, the choleric is a courtier. The sanguine person thrusts himself into every jovial circle [Gesellschaft]. In misfortune the melancholic choleric is rash and desperate, the sanguine is in tears and disheartened, the choleric is ashamed of becoming obliged, the choleric sanguine distracts himself through amusements and is pleased because he seems to be happy. In clothing, the melancholic sanguine is clean but something is always missing, the choleric sanguine is of good choice, the phlegmatic is dirty by neglect, the melancholic choleric is pure and simple
Before one inquires into the virtue of women, one must first ask whether they need it. In the state of simplicity there is no virtue. With men, to protect strong inclinations and honesty, with women loyal submissiveness and flattery. In luxuriant conditions the man must have virtue, the woman honor.
One can hardly place the motion of refined moral feelings or decoration (moral yeomanry. Alongside the pomade tin of the greaseball) in the place of domestic occupation, [65] and she who weaves a gown for her husband is shamed every time by the galante dame who in this case allows a tragedy.
Longings.
In speech the melancholic person is still and serious. The sanguine person talks a lot if one jests and changes the subject. The choleric tries to set the tone and adorns himself. The choleric person laughs forced by decorum. The sanguine {laughs forced by} habit and friendliness. The melancholic person laughs when everyone else has stopped.
When both sexes degenerate, the degeneration of the man is more scandalous
He who suffers nothing other than excessively furious expressions has a numb feeling, he who suffers nothing but very beautiful people, only screaming colors, only great heroic virtues has numb feeling. He who notices the impulse that soft handwriting and noble simplicity hides in morals has a subtle [zart] feeling. The feeling becomes tenderer in middle age, but gradually gets also weaker. The subtle feeling is not as strong as the coarse one
Good consequences are certainly signs of morality but not the only ones, because they cannot always become know with certainty. As most lies can have good consequences.
The reason for the divine legislative power [potestatis legislatoriae divinae] is not in kindness because the motive would then be gratitude (subjective moral basis type of feeling) and consequently not strictly duty. The degree of the legislative power [potestatis legislatoriae] presupposes inequality and makes one person lose a degree of freedom against another. [66] This can happen only if he himself sacrifices his will to another. If he does this in consideration of all his actions, then he makes himself into a slave. A will that is subjected to that of another is imperfect and contradictory because a person has spontaneity; if he is subjected to the will of a person (if he himself can still chose) then he is repulsive and despicable, but if he is subjected to the will of God, then he is close to nature. One must not do actions out of obedience towards a person that one could do out of inner motives, and obedience assisting, where inner motives would have done everything, produces slaves.
The body is mine because it is a part of my I and is moved by my power of choice. The entire animated or unanimated world that does not have its own power of choice is mine in so far as I master [zwingen] it and can move it in accordance with my power of choice. The sun is not mine. The same goes for another person, therefore no property is appropriated or an exclusive property. In so far as I want to claim something as exclusively my own, I will presuppose that the will of the other is at least not opposed to mine, nor {is} the action of the other opposed to mine. [67] Therefore, I will carry out the actions that identify myself, chop the tree down, timber it, etc. The other person tells me that it is his because, through the actions of his faculty of choice [Willkühr], it is as though it belongs to himself.
A will that should turn out to be good cannot invalidate itself if it is universally and mutually taken; similarly the other will not call his that on which I have worked, or else he would assume that his will moved my body
By the fact that a person calls many a thing his, he thereby tacitly [tacite] promises in similar circumstances through his will not to {. . .}
The obedience of a child towards parents is not based 1. on gratitude 2. on the fact that they cannot sustain themselves, because that would be based on use, but rather because they do not have their own complete will and it is good to be directed by the will of others. Because they are so much a thing [Sache] of the parents, for they live only through their will, it is morally good to be governed by them. If they could support themselves, obedience would cease.
[68] We belong as though to the things of god and exist through him and his will. Many things can be suitable to God’s will that would not be good from inner motives, e.g., to slay one’s son. The good quality of obedience is based on this. My will in accordance with its vocation is constantly subject to the will of God, thus it is consistent with itself best when it agrees with the divine and it is impossible that it be evil to be conformed to divine will.
The wife [Frau] seeks pleasure and expects {her} needs from others, the man seeks needs and expects pleasure from women [Weibe]. When both seek needs they are in agreement but poor, when both seek pleasure they are foolish
A man finds more pleasure in making a woman comfortable than a woman, yet the latter wants to appear to impart before enjoying; for, to be sure, the former is opposed to her primary vocation to have the need to conceive
I do not know what those who regard their imagined needs as right and natural could find for solace in a providence whose fulfillment is promised to them. I, who I know suffer no evil but that which I cause and that it only depends on me to be happy through the kindness of divine order, will never murmur against it
Now if a woman marries a twenty year-old man, she takes for herself a fop. The reason for this is, among others, that he has not yet become acquainted with the deceptive art of women to appear better and more pleasant than they are. For this reason, he will make a bad husband because he will always believe that he could have chosen better or also because he actually fell in love and chose poorly. On the other hand, [69] if with more age he gets to know the sex and sees the empty illusion [Schein], then he turns back to simplicity, where according to nature he already could have been from the start. For this reason, the path to a good marriage goes through slovenliness, an observation that is very unpleasant primarily because it is true.
The time of the coming-of-age of a gentleman and of a farmer is never different. A woman has never come of age without a man.
Why must one speak French in order to be proper - - Dames messieurs chapeaux Cornetten*
Males fall much further in love than women**, which also comes from nature. However, if the latter grows in the art of illusion [Scheinen] [70], an illusion that ceases in marriage, then a kind of deceived reluctance in the marriage emerges from this, which finds less agreeableness than it had expected. It is not good to make a future husband fall too much in love, one must save something for the future
To do without art, that is, to not let inclinations germinate in oneself, is the means of bliss, therefore one can either seek honor, that is to say, earn the creditable opinion of others, or strive to do without them completely and be indifferent towards it [honor].
That the choleric person is angry comes from his love of honor because he always believes himself to be insulted
The reasonable person desires nothing but equality and has little occasion to be angry.
In the lands where the women are not beautiful they are treated tyrannically, as among savages, because the weak must influence inclination or else be oppressed
[71] The main ground of lasting beauty is illusion [Schein]. Make-up. A kind of truth that is lovelier than truth. Correggio goes off of nature
Women like to love bold men and these modest, decent men. Judgment of a woman by Bayle. Hercules endeared himself more to Omphale through his 72 girls than through his spiders.
As far as gender is concerned, women have more of a firm taste, men more of a fine one. They love good behaviors and manners more to display their own vanity.
For one with wild taste, the eating-houses would please the best
If the inclinations of women and men grow similarly, then they must come in disproportion, namely, that the latter have less capacity for their inclinations to be in accordance with proportion
In everything that belongs to beautiful and sublime sensation, we do best if we let ourselves be led by the model of antiquity. In the sculpture, architecture, poetry, and rhetoric of ancient morals and {the ancient} constitution. The ancients were closer to nature, we have much frivolous or luxurious or slavish corruption between ourselves and nature. Our age is the seculum of beautiful trifles, bagatelles or sublime chimeras
character in society
The sanguine person dives in where he is not invited - - the choleric person does not enter where he is not invited as suits propriety [72] the melancholic person makes sure that he is not invited at all. In company, the melancholic person is still and observes - - the sanguine person discusses what occurs to him - - the choleric person makes observations and explanations. In domestic conduct [Wesen], the melancholic person is poor, the sanguine is a bad host, and the choleric is greedy but magnificent. For the melancholy person, generosity is magnanimity, for the choleric {it is} boasting, for the sanguine {it is} thoughtlessness.
The melancholic person is jealous; the choleric, power-hungry; the sanguine, amorous
The coquette is an admirable maitresse but surely no wife, excepting for that of a French man.
Of providence. The fools that forsake the order of nature are astonished about providence: that it did not improve their terrible consequences. Augustin with his Crapula.
[73] Unity [Einigkeit] is possible where one can be whole without the other, e.g., between two friends and where none of the others is subordinated. There can also be unity [Einigkeit] in exchange or contracts of a way of life. However, oneness [Einheit] depends on only two forming a whole together in a natural way, as much in consideration of needs as of agreeableness. This is with a man and woman. Indeed, here oneness [Einheit] is tied to equality. The man cannot enjoy a single gratification [Vergnügen] of life without the wife and she {cannot enjoy} a single need without the husband. This also creates the distinction of their characters. The man will {direct} his inclination in accordance with merely his needs {rather than also with his gratification}, {and} in accordance with his judgment, and {to} seek gratification in making the wives’ {needs} into his needs. A woman will seek gratification of her needs and abandon the needs of the man.
In countries where the societies consist mainly of
men, one values personal income in accordance with the understanding of honesty
and the useful zeal of friendship or also of common use. Where they are always intermingled with
women, in accordance with the wit of good behavior, the jest of amusements, malicious gossip [medisance]. [74] With the old Germans, before French
morals corrupted us, the women had to be in special rooms like in
A man who has a wife is complete, detaches himself from his parents, and is alone in the state of nature. He is so much disinclined to associate himself with others that he even fears the approach of others. For this reason {we have} the condition of war. Hobbes
The well-bred woman does not need to have embarrassment and blushing as a part of herself; {she} is very charming and, particular to the gender where it is still encountered, she is thus a good bulwark of chastity
Womanly grace. Womanly traits are laudable in a woman, if she has masculine traits, it is a shortcoming
With marriage, the amorous infatuation is exhausted so that the wife lacks the unlimited reign over the heart of the man and the rank of goddess that she had had before the marriage; however, the man does not feel nearly as dominated as he was and wishes {to be} - - The wife loses more vanity; the man, tenderness. The fantasy of infatuation instills yet more exaggerated concepts in the man than in the woman
The woman wished to keep ruling, while the man {wished} to be ruled. The wife sees herself as obliged to flatter, the man finds no other inclination in himself than kindness
The man is stronger not merely because of his build, but also in principles and the steadfastness of bearing things, therefore his clothes must be so, the wife’s {must be} delicate and clean
[75] Taste in the choice of company [Umgang]. Taste for virtue {in} friendship. One turns more on taste than on necessity
Nature equipped the wife to make [machen] {her husband} affectionate [zärtlich] and not to be affectionate
They are never truly tender, which men can see directly in {the fact that} all women want to rule and reasonable men let themselves be ruled - - now he who, without noticing that he is stronger, reluctantly surrenders his power must have more tenderness than the one who is aware, for whom it [surrender] happens reluctantly, still preferring himself to the other
Women are more for lustful love, men are more for affectionate love. All widows marry, but not all widowers
A woman must not marry a vain man
[76] In any event, unity can also take place with equality - - but never uniformity - - because uniformity must exist in marriage, it must be that one person, the man or the woman, rules everything. Now it is the inclination and not reason that rules here. Therefore, the inclination of either the man or the woman can rule, {but} the latter is the better
War can only produce virtues if it is patriotic, that is, if it doesn’t serve to gain money and support, but instead to preserve itself, and if the soldier becomes a civilian again
Lustful love is the ground of sexual inclination. For this reason, everything beautiful and sublime in this love is only a phantasm if this is not presupposed. The husband must be a man by night and day. This remark also serves to warn of affectionate and highly respectful love between the sexes [Liebe der Geschlechter], for this degenerates more often with the outbreak of lust.
[77] A woman must be kept from being unfaithful through love and honor, if the man does not secure her affection, then he can count less on her duty. That is a reason why women ought to be met with kindness. For they have an widely extended capacity remaining[1]
Distinguish he who requires little because he lacks less from he who requires little because he can go without much. Socrates. The enjoyment of {a} gratification that is not a need, that is, that one can go without, is agreeableness. If, nonetheless, it is regarded as a need then it is concupiscence. The condition of people who can go without is moderation - - that which counts the dispensable as a need is luxury.
The contentment of a person originates either because he satisfies many inclinations or because he has not let many inclinations sprout and is therefore content with fewer fulfilled inclinations. The condition of someone who is content because he does not know agreeableness is simple moderation. The former demands no self-constraint and privation, but the latter does - - the former easy to mislead, the latter has been misled and is safer for the future. The condition of a person without dissatisfaction because he doesn’t know of greater gratifications that are possible for him, and therefore does not desire {them}.
Virtue does not simply consist of one prevailing over acquired inclination in certain circumstances, but seeking to be rid of such inclination and so learning to do without them. It does not consist of [78] one fighting with natural inclinations, but one making it so that he has nothing but natural ones, for then one can always serve them well
The characters of human nature are the degenerations of their vocation -- -- likewise the necessity of war, the rule and servitude of religions and science
It is the question of the noble and why it agrees more with the useful than with the beautiful
Women will always prefer a man with masculine agreeablenesses who is wild, for they believe every time that they will rule him. Most of the time they are right about this, and this excuses them if they fail. This is also the beautiful side of the female gender, that they can rule men
One will perhaps find more men that deserve the gallows than women who get drunk
[79] If one wants to maintain the fantastical things of love in marriage, then jealousies and adventures must take place, if one wants to maintain the amorous things, then the wife must be a coquette; if both should cease to exist, then merely the simplicity of nature remains
In countries that are rich and monarchical where
many, with their private employments of self-interest, have nothing to do with
the public {dealings} of the state, everything arises from the skill of the
society. From this springs
politeness. In
Of fashionable disposition
A woman is always ready to deceive a lover who is respectful and, without much ado, abandon the one in secret who is bold and enterprising. In the state of simplicity the man rules over the woman; in {the state of} luxury, the woman {rules over} the man. The refined taste of free association [Umgang} makes it necessary
[80] {Latin} The power given by law to affect the senses of a subject well or badly does not depend on love, but the respect of the moral power of obligation [Noetigen]. The logical ability to enact laws (on account of wisdom) is non-moral nature.
The still and peaceful serenity [Heiterkeit] in the beautiful is turned into himself with a man and outwards with a woman
Pelisson and Madame Sevigne
Bold position and amorous or ingratiating laughter. Of the habit of women to take serious pause.
Whoever is empty of sensations (that is, surely has feeling for opinion but not for need) can perpetually maintain them far easier with others. For this reason, the woman must be less affectionate
Because we have so many vain jealousies [Jalousie], friends are also rivals. Thus only friendship can take place among needs
Light and warmth appear to distinguish themselves like noise [Schall] and wind - - light and colors like noise and sound [Ton]
Taught strings must make undulations.
A coal fire in the hearth is a space empty of aether, the aether of which goes out through the chimney; since thereby all the bodies standing around are freed of aether, it gives warmth. In such a way is warmth received
It is the question whether when bodies becomes warm they let go of the fire [81] or take it in. It depends on whether bodies are saturated with fire in absolute cold, for then a warm body becomes cold if it absorbs fire and this heats a body, which it forces to let go. Is a heated oven empty of fire? Yes, it absorbs it gradually in itself, the fire thereby releases into others and makes them warm and gets cold itself.
In this way, the suns are the space emptiest of fire element. Through this, the spreading of light can also be comprehended, for it is easier that a thread of agitated material is attracted into infinity by penetration into an empty space than by an impact.
In this way, light might perhaps be a movement towards the sun rather than one away from it
Sound [Schall], although air is squeezed out of the lungs, can perhaps be generated through the withdrawing of air rather than the forcing out. Fire above a body (earth) makes it cold underneath, but only to a certain extent, for it frees the fire element from the near {body}, [82] {but} the more remote {body} attracts this already released fire element to itself, thus becoming many poles.
a
x y
b c d
It is with fire ‘a’ that the fire element will be released out to ‘b’, but always weaker than at ‘y’ and ‘x’; to bring out movement from ‘b’ to ‘a’ in empty space is weaker than to be drawn from ‘b’ {and} move towards ‘c’, therefore ‘bc’ is attractive and consequently is cold only in that it penetrates, {and} accumulates in ‘c’, although with delayed movement, so that ‘c' is no doubt positively warm, that is, lets fire go, but behind ‘c’ until ‘d’, {it is} negative again.
The sun warms the earth, that is, makes it so that the fire is released into it or rather that there is a space empty of fire on the earth; assume a body high in the air, and it is in a space that is full of fire; thus, no fire comes out of itself or into itself because it [the body] does not give off such an element
[83] The true concept of fire seems to consist in the fact that with heating the fire does not change from warmth to cold, but from cold to warmth; in cooling, the body that is becoming cold is put in the state of absorption and fire passes into it. From this follows that only the body which warms others becomes cold and conversely, one who becomes cold warms others, for he cannot warm without releasing the fire in others, but the more he fills himself, the less is he in a state to release it in others. Yet, if a body becomes [wird] cold, it falls into a state of absorption and thereby warms others. A body is cold with respect to others if he cools them, that is, fills others with the element of fire and thereby lessens their absorbing condition in that he gets warm himself, that is, lets fire go. Comets are, among all heavenly bodies, those which are mostly full of the fire element; they come into the empty space of the aether, or rather their elemental fire is violently released which soars out behind them
If a fire is in the hearth, then the air in the whole area, and also the nearby bodies, will be warm. Remote {objects}, however, draw it out and become cold because the fire becomes released from the air. Or so: the acrid hurrying aether makes waves and is denser in its own places than before, thus will the body found there absorb rather than emit [saugen anstatt zu rauchen]
All the affected rules for a wife come about in order to prevent others from pleasing us more or making us lustful. Constrain your own lustfulness and your wife will be adequate
A brave woman, she is something completely different than a romantic [84] beauty, the latter is best for a lover, the former for a husband. German women are brave, French {women are} coquettes
A good housewife is venerable for a man, how will a galante dame earn this name
A man must show some disrespect with respect to his finery; it must be seen that he has worn the hat. His cuffs must not worry him
If I should chose a wife, I would want to take one who has not much wit, but perceives it.
The corruption of our time allows it to come about that no person demands to be happy or good, but instead to appear so.
One laments that marriages are not as good as the unwed state. The reason for this is above. One never enjoys himself
{Latin} Punishment is either political or moral. The first is, as motive, [85] the cause of omission, the latter is the cause also of inspection of actions. Moral punishment is, in an actual sense, disheartening or avenging, but it also has the function of being a means for improvement of the sinner in view of either earlier or future errors.
The cause of all moral punishment is this. All evil action, if it were sensed with as much aversion through the moral feeling as it is worth, would never happen. Yet if it is carried out, then it is a proof that it has sweetened the physical stimulation and the action seemed good, but it is absurd and ugly that what is morally evil is yet good on the whole; nevertheless, as a result, a physical evil must replace the loss of reluctance which was missing in the action.
It is fortunate to a certain extent that marriages become difficult, because if they became frequent, gentlemen would increase them and injustice would become more common
Women are far more capable than men among each other in judging masculine merit and their [men’s] useful weaknesses. Men, on the other hand, more easily see the worth of a woman than a women sees that of others, but {they do} not so easily {see} the failings as a woman {sees those} of others. Thus, women rule over men and deceive them more easily than visa versa. It is easy to deceive a man, but not visa versa. Traitor - - You don’t love me anymore, you believe more in what You see, etc.; no man can say such a thing to wife; she sees even what he does not himself and sees correctly
They rightly carry out the same intrigues {as us} in retaliation for the injustices we show them, that we want them to be chaste and have been unchaste ourselves.
[86] The reason why there are so many cuckolds is because the time of the debauches of men has ended and that of women has begun.
It is very good that the woman is chosen - - she herself cannot chose
Why the aging of a woman is so terrible, of men not so, because the latter is suitable to the sublime
Youth is a great perfection for a woman in marriage; one loves her afterwards in age for the sake of the memory of her youth. That elderly women marry comes about because of our injustice.
Women are all covetous [geizig] except where vanity is stronger - - they are all devout and devoted to the spiritual
The honor of a man resides in his judgment about himself, while {the honor} of a woman {resides} in the judgment of others
[87] If there were a man by whom I was hated, it would trouble me. Not as if I were frightened of him, but because I would find it ugly to have something in myself that could become a cause for hate in others, for I would assume that another would not have formed an aversion without any apparent occasion. Therefore, I would search him out, I would better reveal myself to him, and after I had seen some benevolence towards me developing in him, I would let myself be satisfied with this without ever wanting to take advantage of it. Yet, if I considered it to be inevitable that common and vulgar prejudices, a miserable envy, or a yet more despicable jealous vanity make it impossible to completely avoid all hate, well then I will say to myself it is better that I am hated than that I am despised. This motto is based on an entirely different cause than that which contrives only self-interest; I would rather be envied than pitied. The hate of my fellow citizens does not overcome [aufhebt] their concept of equality, but scorn makes me unimportant in the eyes of others and always causes a very annoying [verdriessend] delusion [Wahn] of inequality. Yet, to be scorned is much more injurious than to be hated.
Female pride. Male pride.
The degenerated woman was Arria Margaretha - - slap on the face
It does not behoove a wife to make the husband happier by way of something other than by way of her person
The wife buys for herself a jester or a tyrant with her money
The greatest perfection is domesticity
[88] Women can command incomparably in their countenances, {they} have more accent, {they} persuade
A human has his own inclinations and his power of choice can arrange his actions to follow the beckoning of nature. There can be nothing more terrible than that the actions of one person should be subordinated to the will of another. Thus, no aversion can be more natural than that which a person has towards slavery. For the sake of this {aversion} a child cries and embitters itself if it has to do what others want, without someone having bothered to endear it to {the child}. It only wishes to be a man soon and act in accordance with its will. Which new slavery of things has to promote itself in order to usher in the former.
In accordance with her build, a woman is already adapted to being sought, {and} therefore knows to attract enlistments and be adept at conceding or also refusing. Thus, she must know {how} to capture [89] but also how to conceal desires in order to prevent disdain. From this she can more easily adopt a modest and cool-headed nature [Wesen], can dissimulate excellently, and is equipped with all characteristics {needed} in order to appear at any time as she should be. It is therefore soberly discussed, never imprudent, etc.
Shamefacedness is never a cause of chastity, but something that procures in its place incentives of decency {and} produces just the same effects
A woman wants to have men be enterprising in things of love.
The sweetness we find in the beneficence of respecting people is an effect of the feeling for the universal welfare that would take place in the condition of freedom.
[90] The refinement of the times is an adeptness to deceive and our academics furnish a mass of swindlers
Drunkenness is the fault of man
Roughness
Anger
The law-giving power of God with the first humans is based on property. The human was freshly placed in the world, all trees belonged to God and he forbade one to them.
This idea
has ended. The law-giving power of God
over the Jewish people is based on the social covenant. God wanted to lead them out of
Paul judges that the law only makes unwillingness, because it gives rise to one doing something unwillingly that has been ordered, and this is how things are - - for this reason he sees the law abolished through Christianity and merely mercy {as} a basis to love God rightly from the heart, which is not possible in accordance with nature and whereby actions will be brought to morality and not to theocratic politics.
[91] One can hate he who is right, but one is forced to respect him.
Self-interest fights against public utility. The latter from inclination acquires love
Will men always like to devote troublesome, sleepless nights to their investigation if the woman only knows how she ought to rule them.
Of the mutterings against providence
Of Freedom
The human depends on many external things, {even if} he may also be in conditions that he wants. He always attaches to some things by way of his needs and to others by his lustfulness and, in so far as he is surely the administrator of nature but not her master, he must [92] conform to her force, for he will not find that she will always conform to his wishes. Still, what is much harder and more unnatural than this yoke of necessity is the subjection of one person under the will of another. There is no misfortune [Unglück] more terrible for whoever would be used to freedom, {whoever} has enjoyed the good of freedom, than to see himself delivered to a creature of his own kind that could coerce [zwingen] him to do whatever he wants (to negotiate [begeben] his own will). It also requires a very long habituation to make the terrible thoughts of subservience more sufferable; for every person must sense it in himself that even if there were so many discomforts that he might not want to cast off by the risking life, nevertheless, no doubt would take place in the choice between slavery and death in preferring the risk of the latter.
The cause of this is also very clear and legitimate. All other evils of nature are still subordinated to certain laws that one comes to know in order to choose later how far one wants to give into them or be subject to them. The heat of the burning sun, the harsh wind, {and} the current always allow something for the human to devise that will protect him against them or{…}
But the will of every human is the effect of his own drives {and} inclinations and agrees only with his own true or imagined well-being. But if I was once free, nothing can present a more terrible prospect of grief and despair than [93] that henceforth my condition should reside, not in my own will, but in the will of another. Today it is bitingly cold, I can go out or stay at home, whichever I please, but the will of another does not determine what is most agreeable for me in this case, but for him. I want to sleep so he wakes me. I want to rest or play and he forces me to work. The wind outside is blustering {and} compels me to flee to a cave, but here or elsewhere it [the wind] finally leaves me in peace, but my master seeks me out and, because the cause of my misfortune has reason, he is much more adept at tormenting me than all the elements. I also presume that he is good who is my superior and does not change his mind. The movements of matter do indeed maintain a certain definite rule, but human self-will is lawless [regellos]
Not only are there things of external danger in subjection, but also a certain ugliness and a contradiction that indicates its illegality. An animal is not quite a complete being because it is not known to itself and its drives and inclinations may become opposed to one another or not, it surely senses its ill, but it {the ill} disappears before it {the animal} every moment and it knows nothing of its own existence. However, that a human requires no soul, as it were, and should have no will of its own and that another soul should move my extremities is absurd and perverse: any person who is subordinated to a great extent is also despicable in our constitutions - - - - - livery - - -
Instead of freedom raising me [schiene] above cattle, it places me under them because I can be more easily forced
Such a person is, as it were, nothing to himself but the household appliance of another. I could just as well pay tribute to the boots of the master [94] as his lackey [Laquey]. In short, the person who depends on this is no longer a human, he has lost this rank, he is nothing except a belonging of another human.
Subjection and freedom are commonly mixed to a certain degree and one depends on the other. But even the smaller degree of dependence is too great an evil than that is should not naturally terrify.
This feeling is very natural but one can also weaken it quite a bit. The power to withstand the evils of others can become so small that slavery appears to be a lesser evil than the unpleasantness. Nevertheless, it is certain that in human nature it stands above{…}
Indeed, cattle are forced by humans, but the human {is forced} with delusion by humans
The momentary power of attack is much smaller than servitude.
There could certainly be stimulations that the human prefers to freedom for a moment, but at once [gleich] he will be thoroughly sorry for them.
[95] They make the strongest satires of marriage who regard the marital excesses as trifles, which deserved no insult or revenge, because then the state {of marriage} does not distinguish itself from that of gallantry {and} from the indifferent sort.
The woman accepts a satire of her sex as a joke because she knows well that the mockery of the little mistakes of her sex actually concern the men, for the sake of which she loves him even more - - but a satire of marriage insults them all {women} because this seems to be more serious and they also feel some truthfulness in this reproach. Yet, if such a basic principle takes the upper hand, then her sex will be brought down to the man’s power of choice.
Of the legitimate expression my husband/lord [mein Herr]
Society makes one value himself only comparatively. If others are not better than I, then I am good, if all are worse, then I am perfect.
[96] Proportional evaluation is still distinguished from honor.
Chastity cannot be a lack of amorous passion, for then it is really a flaw; if this same passion is too small for the whole purpose, still, it is good in so far as it is suitable to one’s age and the fortune, but this good quality [bonitaet] is not moral.
To preserve chastity is either a direct shamefacedness (the concern to make one’s sexual attribute contemptible) or an indirect consequence of the general concept of honor. This last is either purely a concern with contracting no dishonor, and it is a preservative of virtue for which many institutions could be made, or a tender stimulation of self-censure in so far as it is connected to sincerity and might not conceal itself, therefore it shows itself in blushing - - this characteristic is the best preservative
[97] We have all kinds of drives that should serve us as means to serve others, and {these drives} more often directly rule {us}. First, to compare ourselves to others so that we can evaluate ourselves - - from this springs the falsity of evaluating one’s worth comparatively, even evaluating his courage and good fortune in the same way - - jealousy. Second, to put ourselves in another’s place so that we know what he feels - - from this springs the blind sympathy that also puts justice in disorder. Third, to investigate the judgments of others because this can correct our truth as much logically as morally - - from this springs the thirst for glory [Ruhmbegierde]. Fourth, to acquire and save all sorts of things for enjoyment - - from this springs greediness that is miserly.
One says that the thirst for glory is the last weakness of the wise. I believe that where wisdom is not of the kind that comes with age, the love of women is the last weakness
The use of the terms women and hats [dames u chapeaux], although it is only a fashionable trifle in German conversation, points out quite well the foolishness in taste that creeps into us and makes a mockery [98] of the ridiculous customs of a nation that is active and deluded in its own character. The everlasting conversation of the French with women is in accordance with their character, but this is not the case with the Teutons [teutschen]. Our woman does not have near the lively coquetterie of the French. Therefore, these manners of interaction must always be somewhat tasteless. They are still proud here
Because women are weak, they are much less capable of virtue, but they have things that they can do unnecessarily.
Virtue becomes ever more necessary but also ever more impossible in our present {political} constitution
Because virtue clearly makes itself known, it must
suit warlike states, more
Oneness [Einheit] in society is not possible among many
When we count among needs the works of another, why not also his wife
When they are in society, men assess their worth only in relation to one another: the women {assess their worth} only in relation to the men because then each discovered charming characteristic or presumption [Anmassung] {is} accepted, {while} every other wanton demand {is} questioned; in such a way they give each other very bad reputations
Each well-behaved [artige] woman tries to charm [einnehmen] the entire {male} sex [Geschlecht] although she does not mean to profit by it. This comes about from the fact that because she should be being sought, she must possess a general inclination to please, for were this restricted she might fall to someone she doesn’t want. In marriage, this inclination rides out through her gates
[99] That a wife has feminine traits is no evil, but surely {it is an evil} that they be encountered in a man. Just as it is a biting mockery rather than a eulogy that a woman has masculine traits in her
A wife constricts the heart of a man and one commonly loses a friend when he marries
A man is such a dandy in marriage
Beauty is domineering. Merit [Verdienst] {is} peaceful and yielding. The wife retains the affection of the man through jealousy
The man who slips away with tears held back with difficulty. This is how he suffocates the pain that he compresses in his chest whenever tender melancholy moves him, and the effort to bear it unwaveringly shines forth in his condolences. A woman can let her sadness out in lamentations with dignity and alleviate her sensation. She also passes easily from pain to joy [100] even when the former has been serious, which is also good for a beautiful sex [Geschlecht]
A man loves more affectionately, a woman more steadily
Of the agreeablenesses that one makes into need and visa versa
Ideal gratification. Chimerical {gratifications} that deceive in fulfillment
1. Of need and agreeableness. quiet - - change - - boredom [lange Weile]
Of luxury and sufficiency, preparation - - foresight [Vorsicht]
Of ambition. Of courage and cowardice - -health and sickness
Of the qualities [Gütern] of delusion. Scantiness
Of sexual inclination. Of science
Of refined and crude sensations. Of foresight
Of the person of simplicity
Of natural humans in comparison with civilized ones - - Of the great welfare of both
Of the value of human nature
A free person values himself more than a slave. Dependence on power is not so disgraceful as {dependence} on delusion
Of industriousness and laziness
Of the luxury of civilized people.
[101] Of the sciences of healthy and fine understandings
Of enjoyment and delusion foresight [prevoiance {French}]
Of the capacity for enjoyment and delusion
Of welfare and misery.
Of generosity and guiltiness - - moral
Of the drive for acquisition or defense - - war
Of truth and lies. Of decency and righteousness. Of the perfection of human nature
Of friendship.
Of sexual inclination
Virtue - - upbringing - -religion
Of natural and artificial conditions
The officer who got embarrassed, or pretended to do so, by the gaze of Ludwig XIV expresses the sentiment of a slave. The embarrassment of a man with a woman does not derogate his noble characteristics; his boldness is here clumsy indifference. A woman must not be embarrassed in consideration of masculine virtue consica decoris Venus. Her noble propriety is quiet and gentle not bold
I revere the beautiful girl in a noble or princely person [Persohn].
If he is always talking about virtue then he is corrupt - - if he constantly talks of religion then he is corrupted to the utmost
The priests in the country could maintain large schools for the education of children
[102] Of inequality
When this has once begun, then the evil of oppression is not nearly as great as {the danger} that the minds of the oppressed become abject [niederträchtig] and think very little of themselves. A farmer is a much more miserable person and has cruder vices than a savage who lacks everything, and also than a common worker.
If I go into the workshop of a craftsman, I do not wish that he can read my thoughts. I dread this comparison; he would have insight into [einsehen] the great inequality in which I evaluate [befinden] myself in relation to him. I accept as true that I could not live one day without his industriousness - - that his children will be reared into useful people.
Of the defensive passions
Although the person of nature hates no other person, he does indeed fear him. Thus, he is alert and the equality that he thinks about losing every moment brings him to arm himself. The state of warriors begins soon. But because it is based on a noble ground, [103] it certainly brings about evil but not ignominy. It is less dangerous to dishonor human nature than a slavish peace*
Virtue that depends on strength can also only last long in warlike states. The English still have the most virtue among all the European nations. Their luxury is acquired through difficult work and is squandered away with wildness [Wildheit]
Everything that unnerves kills virtue at its source.
The female sex is closer to nature than the male. For the present age is the age of decency, of beauty, of good behavior. However, these are its specific inclinations. [104] The male sex has come to an end and the noble characteristics last no longer because [nachdem] everything is trimmed with ornamentation
The state of virtue is a violent [gewaltsam] state; therefore, it can only be encountered in violent states of an ordinary being [gemeinen Wesen].
The luxurious life enriches [vermehrt] people to a certain degree. The work of women ceases - - they get more children. There are enough whores [Huren] who want to suckle children or poor women who neglect their own and raise upper-class children, etc. In an even greater degree luxury makes for a stagnation of increase and eventually even a diminishment. From this comes poverty, but before this rises or if it arises, then the greatest vices occur
Of religion in natural conditions.
One must not reproach the savages without religion for things that would make one think less of those with religion. For whoever does what God wills that he should do, mediated by [vermittelst] the motives that God set in his heart, is obedient to Him without knowing of His existence. But whoever knows God but is brought to such actions only through the naturally good morality has theology, or if he reveres God for the sake of his morality then this is simply a morality whose object had been broadened. Christians can become just as little holy, if their faith is not living, as those who have had no revelation at all, though with them something more has happened than what naturally take place.
If Diogenes had farmed the field instead of rolling his barrel, he would have been great
[105] One must not ban any books now; it is the only way for them to destroy themselves. We have now come to the point of return. The rivers form their own shores if one lets them flood. The dam that we set against them serves only to make their destructions unceasing. For the author{s} of useless things have for their excuse the injustice of others before them.
In the states where industriousness in things of need is not honored and respected, where the people who work these same trades do not value themselves, there a man without honor is the worst good-for-nothing, wanton, a double-dealer, deceitful, and larcenous. But where the simplicity of nature rules, honor can very well be done without.
See there, honor wreaks much evil and then it also serves as means to prevent the greatest excesses of the same. The sciences wreak much evil and then they serve as a means to improving their own ills. War makes more ill than it takes away but, to a certain extent, it brings about state of equality and noble [106] courage. In such ways corruption as much as virtue are prevented from increasing rapidly
He who is not so proud watches the noble ladies’ game of vanity with not a small amount of pleasure
Shamefacedness - - frailty. Embarrassment
Satires never improve {anything}; for this reason, even if I had the talents for it, I would not make use of them.
The vanity of a woman is either that of the sex of that of the condition [Stand].
The pride of sex or condition
Because nobility and the honor based on it depend solely on the choice of the prince, pride over it is quite foolish. He who is angry and strong does not hate
That the drive for honor originates only from the idea of equality, [107] one can see from this: 1 because as far as another is also stronger, but only appears not to employ comparison, we fear him completely (from which respect originates) but we do not hate him. 2. that the inclination to show his worth to superiors [Groessere], but nobility to equals or inferiors is worthy of hate and that a man who does not value himself is despised
The highest pinnacle of fashionable taste is when young men get refined [fein] before vulgar brazenness or {when} the young woman quickly abandons discreet modesty and has learned early how to carry on the game of coquetterie with liveliness. For this is necessarily the most charming manner that catches the eyes of most - - a reasonable man in such a society looks like a blockhead or pedant - - a modest and decent woman {looks} like a common landlady and the more refined distillation [Auszug] of society plays the roles of courtiers. Thus, they soon withdraw from the common taste, and reason and domestic virtue are kept on in memory of old, rusted memorials of taste. But as with all evils that one can never bring to the highest point without the weight on the other side turning the scale, here again is found stagnation and return. For gradually the women who have practiced the female art long before marriage will make use of this freedom with ease where they can do it with certainty. The men, warned by such examples, instructed themselves by the seduction that they instigated themselves and, with the prospect of a wild vanity that would never let them rest, will love the marriages of others but make difficulties for their own. The contempt for the beautiful sex follows from adoration [Vergöttung] and, what is most terrible for them, the masculine is prudent to no longer be deceived by them.
[108] The greatest hindrance that the male sex cannot return to happy simplicity is the female sex
I plant humans. Decency. An assisting instinct of chastity.
Men are exceedingly easy to deceive, women are not.
The old-fashioned seclusion also has its troubles. Interaction [Umgang] is speechless, full of stiff ceremony, farmerly and craftsmenlike dryness. Vanity and trickery of gallant company to some extent serve to put passion to sleep by way of fluctuating games of distraction and to divert finery and vanity to fashion instead of seclusion [Einsamkeit] introducing that which society has forbidden.
Blushing is a pretty characteristic of a woman and impudence does not destroy blushing; instead, she who do not easily blush is easily brazen and wanton
[109] There are many more men who have reason to praise the generosity of women who do not use the privilege which nature has given to them to fulfill the fair demand on their husband through other men than men who can complain about it. With so many many enervated men, a foolish or chimerical marriage-project originates from which they want to make friendship out of the marriage and demand great virtues of the wife for a self-conquest of those impulses [Regungen] that are very acceptable and that cannot be stilled.
A woman is not so completely virtuous that she is able to make men so. As strange as it is, they are the greatest means of chastity in men, because an otherwise scatterbrained man will not be made more chaste by anything other than love towards a girl.
A woman has a quick concept of everything concerning sentiments but she does not exactly feel them. For example, when a man is supposed to practice it himself, he will think to call {something} a hero’s virtue, but the woman will only think so if it is done towards her or by her husband. If she speaks with great secrecy, then she figures she has a lover. For this reason, some virtues that have no noticeable aim for her sex will not be respected (for example, the simplicity of nature)
This is primarily because the woman is the whetstone of virtue frangere vix cotis etc. and male virtue would have no object of exertion if the woman were the same because then it could be dispensed with.
Perhaps this is a concealed reason why we always attach ourselves to women {whether} we want to or not.
[110] Whether I can anteactum imputiren to a morally modified person
The absolute cold is where a body is saturated with fire, the absolute warmth {is} where it has let go of all fire that is possible {to let go of}, that is, that the attraction of expansive force is precisely identical to this
When a body pulls fire from another, it warms it, when it lets it [fire] go, it cools it.
 |
a b c
The heating is in ‘a’, so it is put in the condition of absorption through the loss of its fire element, at ‘b’, then, it must be cold as there is more fire element to be encountered in it and {it} will gravitate towards the same parts; because the fire element will accumulate in ‘b’, it must spread and give an empty space in ‘c’ that will become warm, and so forth. From the airwaves in warmth to those in light. Yet this distinction can only last a short while.
[111] When water is over fire, then there is an empty space underneath, so when the water has let all the fire go, that is, boiled, then, if one removes it [the water], it [the fire] must go out the bottom and absorb from the top since the movement had at that time been given to the element - - thus, above it is hot and below {it is} cool. In boiling, bubbles must develop at the bottom, which soar up - - the free fire-element will not go through copper as quickly as through water and assembles in bubbles - - in these, vapors are created and soar up into the air since they are made of an elastic medium.
All bodies vitrify and are comparatively empty of fire element, therefore, while light brings warmth with others, at its innermost it here makes only light, that is, not so much overflowing of aether as vibrations.
The size of punishment is either evaluated practically, namely, that it is big enough to prevent the action and then no larger punishment is allowed, but then it is morally possible that punishment as serious as physical {punishment} is not always necessary
Or its size is evaluated in moral proportion: e.g., [112] of the man who kills another in order to take his money it will be judged that, because he has valued another’s life as less than money, one must also value his as less than as much money as any one allocates [austragen] in relation to life
Few go about deceiving their prince, which is a sign that they sense the injustice of the government
{Latin} The natural tendency [Anlage] in view of the motives is either simple or menial, the latter is that of a mercenary or a slave
{Latin} The fear of a simple nature is either of a childish kind or menial
In the method of morality [Moral] where one regards the characteristics that are now common from birth on as natural (not disposed to sin) and extracts the rules from that as to how they can be good in the situation, [one] does not err if even the supposition could be false. In this way, I can say that the human of nature who does not know God is not evil.
Because God was a political lawgiver in the Old Testament, he also gave an account of political grounds for rewards and punishments, but {he did} not {give} moral {grounds} until later times.
A prince cannot draw up rewards for all his laws because he himself has nothing
{Latin} The simple tendency is either that of love or reverence; the first predominates in the Gospels, the second in the law. Love could not have taken place in the first testament, in the new testament love can only emerge through divine arrangement
[113] Of the rèpublique Geneva of Rousseau’s peculiar way of life
Love is either lustfully bodily, or morally spiritual [geistig] - - towards women something from the former is always intermingled, it can also be towards the old or else they would only be valued as men. Fathers spoil daughters and mothers spoil sons
All follies have this in common with each other, that the pictures that appeal to them float in the air and have no support or fixedness. They marry a woman without common sense [Witz], without manners, without birth and family, which is the downfall of their taste. Oh, that is not the rule of my taste, you might answer. But what will the people say, consider what the world will judge of you. Before I engage myself in this important difficulty, I ask you what one understands by such people and the world whose opinion is critical for my happiness. Those are, one answers me, a mass of individuals in which each is just as troubled {by} what people will say, and I belong along with the number [114] of these so-called people whose judgment is so important. Oh, I answer, we people collectively do not want to trouble ourselves any longer with the other’s opinion because they robbed us of enjoyment because we no longer understand ourselves or, at the least, I understand you all - - I am no comedian that can be paid by applause
Conceit and mean greed are never to be healed.
A woman is never generous - - this is also completely proper [ordentlich] because they are not actually the ones who acquire, but instead they save - - so it would be reversed if they gave away for nothing because that is a thing of gentlemen. But they are just subordinated gentlemen; and, although they never want it to be, nature indeed keeps their rights. They put effort into finery because this does not appear to be given away and they collectively negotiate with right what the man owns
Error is never more useful than truth, all things considered, but it is often {more useful than} ignorance
[115] The childish intellect is one that only judges that which is presently useful to it. The manly intellect judges about future use - - the aged intellect despises present use and has an imagined use of purpose whose future will never be. With respect to the intellect, women are quite childish and, as concerns the future, they are devoted to stinginess in spite of all foresight.
More than that being troubled by external circumstances and sacrificing others to his worries, the courageous man acquires powers of his own with respect to the future. In the household, an awesome [wunderswürdig] oneness arises out of this.
If one solely depends on things then one does not require much reason but only understanding
Pride for religion’s sake is the most ridiculous because the representation [Vorstellung] that others do not become blessed should make me much more sympathetic and helpful [hilfleitend] than proud. Pride for the sake of money is common and coarse [plump] because he bases himself on something that easily passes from one to another - - thus, he is crude. That for the sake of freedom is noble and proud. That for the sake of birth is finer because it is permanent and that of office is most permissible.
The Jews, Turks, and Spanish have religion-pride - - they are also either treacherous if they are cowardly or tyrannical if they are powerful. The Dutch for the sake of money - - the English for the sake of freedom and power. The conceit [Einbildung] of nations about their Great Monarchs makes vanity and vanity also brings about monarchical constitution. A proud nation is free - - a rough and industrious {nation is} also free and money-grubbing. The Spanish pride will indicate a spirit of persecution [Verfolgungsgeist] in all religions, and so also with the Turks.
Where there are many genteel {people} and also many subjected {people}, there is flattery on one side and pride on the other, like with Poles.
[116] A woman troubles herself only with the delightfulness [Ergötzlichkeit] but not with the necessity of life. Therefore, they let the man see to the need, while they attend to taste. And in religion they let others determine what is true, but they are intent to fashionably copy it with good form.
I want to observe yet one more thing (but this is said just amongst us men) - - through their behavior [Betragen], they could be made more chaste than they really are and {could} comfort themselves about the loss of an inclination through the satisfaction of vanity in having instilled respect.
A woman likes to see a strong man so that they can seem with good form to be forced
The woman makes of a man what she wants - - she has formerly made heroes and now makes monkeys. Whether she makes reasonable men is to be doubted - - this {reasonable man} can not at all become educated by others, but must become it himself
[117] Of taste for society is to be distinguished from that in society
The capacity for pleasure and displeasure is generally feeling. Insensitivity
The capacity for pleasure and displeasure in things that do not belong to needs {is} taste. This is coarse taste in so far as it is close to needs - - Fine {taste} is true taste in those things that are far removed from needs.
In so far as the powers of the soul cannot be merely passive [leidend] but active and poetically-creative [dichtend], taste is called spiritual [geistig] and ideal (if the most elegant [vornehmste] feeling is stirred not through external sensation but through that which one poetically-creates)
Feeling in consideration of morality [Sittlichkeit] either stays merely for needs, that is, obligation, or goes further - - in the latter case it is sentiment
The beautiful and sublime in the highest degrees are closely related. If they are to be sensed, both presuppose {that} the soul {is} in [118] peace. Yet they are so different that when activity, sprightliness [Munterkeit], and liveliness are accentuated, beauty comes forth - - if they cease and peaceful contentedness shines forth then the sublime soars forth. Early morning {for} the former, evening {for} the latter
In the inferior kinds, the beautiful is related to the change [Wechsel] of fluctuating news [Neuigkeit], the sublime {is related to} prudence, monotony and changelessness - - plurality with beauty, unity with the noble
Only the unnecessary is beautiful, but the noble still lets itself be connected to the useful. Indeed, in moral things the noble must not be considered outside of the viewpoint of use. Flowers are beautiful, fruit is useful - - Spring and girls are beautiful, Autumn and wives are useful. (The usefulness of girls {is} that they are sterile)
With this fine sensation it is presupposed that the person is not, through necessity, dependent on things, otherwise the fine taste is foolish. (Charmed by beauty, astonished by sublimity)
[119] The beautiful to a lesser degree is agreeable and handsome, if sublimity disappears {it is} pretty. When beauty is imitated, it is decorated like golden hens
The powers of humans seem to become as though stretched by the feeling of the sublime, pulled together by the beautiful
The taste which expands itself in consideration of the direct sexual inclination is the amorous one and is a sign of corruption in consideration
There are moral and nonmoral necessities (obligation) which one presupposes before the conversation is of beauty. The sciences in the head are, for most people, just as useless as the hair powder on the same and, as it would be very foolish to have flour in one’s curls but not in one’s soup, it is absurd to know unnecessary arts and to undervalue those which constitute the welfare of life.
Before we consider the good behaviors we must first be truthful and honest. It is peculiar that the lover troubles himself over the free woman before he knows whether she is also faithful. Before we inquire into generosity we must recall obligation. {“}Stop, audacious one{!”,} shouts the merchant.
Good manners with inner dishonesty, good behavior of a woman without domesticity are like so much ribbon-work and a dirty shirt.
The common opinion that previous times were better comes from the evil that one feels and the presupposition that otherwise everything would be good.
Clothes are only signs of comfort and the superabundance of life. They do not have to be made so that they [120] draw attention exclusively to oneself. (lurid colors are contrary to the eyes which get attacked too much). Likewise with rank and title. They themselves have little worth {and} are damned to golden frames
In marriage, pure love without respect is enough to attach the man to the woman and pure respect without love {is enough to attach} the woman to the man. Therefore, although understanding and merit have little effect on a woman outside of marriage, marriage is the most harmonious when, even if the years are different, the man instills respect through understanding - - Wolmar
I would rather be the happy Saintpreux than courting a wife
The correct cognition of the universe in accordance with Newton is perhaps the most beautiful product of the inquisitive human reason; meanwhile, Hume noticed that the philosopher can get easily get disturbed in this amusing contemplation by a little, brown-haired maiden [Magdchen] and that regents will not be moved to despise their conquests by the smallness of the world against the universe. The reason is because it is indeed beautiful but unnatural to lose oneself outside of the circle that [121] the heavens have designed for us. Similarly, it is just the same with the sublime contemplation [Betrachtung] of the heaven of the blessed ones.
If light has a streaming [stroehmend] movement then when striking a slanted surface and {when} warming, it would retain its force [Stärke] not as the square of the sine of the inclination, but as its cube.
That the poles do not pull at all is clear from the experiment of Bougeurs who put a magnet-needle on a copper {plate}
The onlooker says that the fool and clever person are distinguished in that the former thinks aloud, etc. This is a very correct comment on our present type of cleverness. Because both sexes advance proportionately in this and the feminine generally surpasses the masculine in the art of appearing, the women must be much more perfect in it and rule.
That the anticipation [Prospicientz] of death is not from nature is to be see from the fact that the consideration of death does nothing at all against inclination {to} orient it [122] to make preparations as though one were to live long, and the person just as seriously makes arrangements at the end of his life as if he had never lived at all. Therefore, he is quite fond of vanity and the thirst for glory on dead grounds because the natural human flees shame and knows nothing of death, thus he extends the natural drive over the death that surprises him
It is with the moral as with the art of apothecary. That doctor is the best who teaches me how I can be relieved of illnesses and remedies. This art is easy and simple. Yet it permits everything corrupt and to improve afterwards is artificial and complicated
The odium theologorum has its reason in this: because it will again maintain the decency of the priests, {and} express the fast and forcible movement of anger, and since this is suppressed he degenerates into a hidden bitterness, parallel with wives and Indians.
Being extremely large [Riesengroesse] is a sickness - - one could ask whether it is so even in consideration of intellectual characteristics - - at least, it seldom makes them happy Cato Brutus
[123] Colossal plans without power and emphasis are like the children whose heads are too big. premature cleverness. Margarethe Maultasch.
Thank goodness for mediocrity [Mittelmässigkeit]. Good, content citizens.
Difficult relationship between condition [Stand] and talent. Alexander had large weapons left behind not in order form the opinion of the Indians[2] due to the colossal [Riesengröße] size of his army but instead to reinforce it
Tender taste loves quiet and gentle beauty and will be wounded (screaming) by very strong prominence of annoyance, affectation, {and} loquacity.
Large taste (is very different from insensitivity) requires stronger stimulation displayed in a lively way and shows its wear and tear. Old, broken-down lover. Whether the virtue that loves tragedies does not have a coarse taste
ugly and nasty.
The ideal of beauty is well preserved in hope but not in possession
[124] Wanton people become very skeptical with respect to women’s chastity and make others so as well
I do not know whether or not is true what they say about the very extended submissiveness of married women in civilized states and {I} let those who know from experience judge it, I do know enough {to say} that if all sensations increase beyond their borders, the female capacity, which is not so restricted, will go much further than the male {one}.
Nothing can replace the loss of female charm, not even noble decency.
Impertinence, which should be concealed by all means, it is most dangerous for women outside of marriage, in marriage it is most dangerous for men. Thus, one can presume already, prior to any experience, the female sex will be reserved before marriage and impertinent in marriage, and visa versa for the man
Any gratification that is connected to the fulfillment of needs is called coarse. Drinking, sleeping, eating, and cohabitation [Beiwohnung]. The last is considered so crude that Tiresias had to endure an evil encounter from the Juno because he ascribed it specifically to the female sex.[3]
Taste is therefore always attached to that which is actually no necessity. From this it follows that if similarity to nature is called for in painting, e.g., landscapes [naturalien]{or} portraits, then this nature must be met, {but} ideal gratifications compose the most noble {things} for the rest. Nature is not good enough for our gratification. Our frailty and tenderness of organs are indeed tended to by our [125] imagination. That is why painting can so thoroughly diverge from nature like poetry and theatrical action
Truth is more of an obligation than beauty. Thus, one must conceal obligations to be beautiful.
The tenderness of the nerves is one of the directed vocations of taste, for thereby the degree of contrast or affect will restrict the hardness of sensations, etc.
Harmony comes from the agreement of the manifold in music just as in poesie and painting. Those are points of rest for some nerves
Unity is in conformity with comfort in so far as it is connected with activity, which the manifold desires.
A woman seems to lose more than a man because the beautiful characteristics end for the former while the noble {characteristics} stay with the man. The old woman seems to be good for nothing more.
[126] Of fineness [feinigkeit] and the scale of this sensation
The sense of the eye offers long and tender albeit very ideal gratification - - dissatisfaction is small except when related to gender [Geschlecht]. Terror {is} great.
The sense of hearing effects long-lasting gratification, but only through change - - {it} is less ideal but very lively - - dissatisfactions are small and don’t last long.
The sense of smell gives some ideal gratification - - they are short in gratification and short and strong in dissatisfaction, that is to say, disgust demands change.
The sense of taste is not at all ideal - - it is great in gratification but short and broken-up - - {it} demands change (without necessity) - - the dissatisfaction is far more sensitive and {is} disgust.
The sense of feeling is short and exhausting in sensual pleasure, {it is} short and sensitive in warmth {and} in titillation - - in pain it can last a long time and be coarse. {It} can easily become outweighed by understanding (excepting sexual inclination).
The sense of the face reveals most things moral, but then so does hearing
[127] That it is harder for women to keep their chastity in marriage than it is for men to keep theirs has come about because their capacity to give is greater than the man’s, hence the fantastical desires go further with them
Of the old facial characters in comparison with the moral {ones}
Beautiful and noble actions consist primarily of those to which one has no obligation.
Obligation is a kind of moral need - - whatever corresponds more closely to it is simple.
All affects that stimulate tenderness and moral sensation must be taken from the vocations [Bestimmungen] of a person
For if one already presupposes beauty as necessity it becomes a kind of need and then simplicity is also possible with the beautiful and sublime
Because it {is} in accordance with all such sensations for the beautiful, which [128] are sometimes stronger than needs, it requires a great art to acquire the simplicity of nature, although it is superfluous, because one wants only to keep from going astray, but {it is} still great, {and} so a special kind of the sublime
A pampered feeling that is not strong enough for simplicity is feminine
Nature at peace is the greatest beauty (indeed, trickling brooks because they lull people to sleep) grazing herds of cattle. Therefore the evening is more moving than the morning
Gaiety is not beautiful {and} also does not last. Of the agreement of beautiful faces and beautiful loves with the soul
The free enjoyment of sensual inclination and unchecked discovery of one’s object invalidate everything ideal that can become spread over inclination, this is the reason it is so difficult to preserve the ideal gratification in marriage. Except if one concedes control to the wife.
[129] Some individuals are more pleasing when one is away from them, others when one is more present - - the former ones are more suitable for the idealistic gratification of marriage
When fantastical love mates well with knightly virtue.
Novels end at marriage and the story begins - - however, they can be prolonged beyond the same {marriage} by jealousy, for example, a wife who is coquette of her husband and of others
All female beauty is diffused over the sexual drive, for supposing you have experienced that a woman has a certain ambiguity of her gender, all her infatuating charms [Verblendungen] will cease, although this does nothing for agreeablenesses, which you believe alone will enchant you.
A pregnant wife is apparently more useful but not as pretty. Virginity is useless but agreeable
[130] It is quite uncivil that we do not want to allow women to be ugly, even when they are old.
Because needs are common, the domesticity of a wife will be considered a disrespectful thing by a gallant man.
If the masterpiece is from gratification, it will bore [schaal].
I love the French as such but not the Germans when they imitate them.
Many a wife misuses the license that wives have to be ignorant
In proportion to their power, the princes are by far not as corrupt to do evil as the common man.
Inner honor. Self-esteem - - external honor as a means of each to assert themselves. Thus, a man of honor. honestas. External honor as a means is {as} true as {its} purpose {is} a delusion. That takes place either for self-preservation, equality, or for preservation of the species on preference. The desire for honor (direct) is based either on the opinion of important perfection (patriotism) and is called ambition or in trifles and is called vanity. The consciousness of his honor, as in the possession of which one believes himself and never measures himself against others, is called pride. Worth
Gallantry is either of pride or of vanity - - the former of petitmaitres, the latter of a supporter.
The pride that others despise is arrogant. If he wants to show it [131] through pomp {it is} haughty. The arrogant person who shows his disdain is puffed up [aufgeblasen]
The honor of a man with respect to a woman is courage and {the} chastity of the woman. These points are peculiar [eigentümlich]. When the seculum becomes soft then the first honor is palatableness [Süffigkeit] and the second is understanding and boldness, the former makes things romantic, while the latter makes things affected and courtly or fashionable
Because Philosophy is not a thing of necessity but of agreeableness, it is strange that one wants to restrict it by way of careful laws
Because the lustful man chooses the wife as his ruler, he poetizes her quite admirably, for one does not want to be subordinated to even a noble idol - - conversely, the woman wants to rule. Onlooker black monkey, applied to the hidden secret of all tender inclination towards the sex [Geschlecht]
The strongest gratification will at first be boring [schaal].
[132] What it is that is called being domestic; making a need out of society. Boredom [Lange Weile].
The housewife is venerable. {The} beautiful decorum of her domestic concern, intermixed with cleanliness and ornament, must appear to prefer being out of the house no more than {being} at home
The man is the one who courts, the woman the one who chooses - - that is the point of making oneself rare. Should they choose the Romance fancies of fancily dressed fools [Putznarren] or the selfish and phlegmatic {ones} of unfeeling people.
S. Evermond wanted to choose a wife and chose a coquette. That happens because he is from a country where every wife is a coquette {and} grumpy towards her husband.
The man who does not make his enjoyments into his business but into recreation, who knows how to live, that is, does not make his intention acquisition but enjoyment, who enjoins peaceful gratification of interaction and friendship is he who is a man
All gratifications become tasteless if they are not recreations but jobs. The wife and husband who have something to do will not become tired with one another
The wife [Die Frau] possesses the skill of always being womanly [Weib zu sein] to a further extent than the man, but she would rather not employ this skill except with her husband, who is tired of her
The standard of bliss is the household
I leave a blooming field and the Arcadian valleys for meager fields
[133] The novel ends and the story begins - - Henceforth the magical haze gradually dissipates through those who saw the lover’s madness of their idols. The marriage bed welcomes a human girl and the next morning she, instead of being worshiped as a goddess, suffocates the opposition of her slaves as wife
The lover, drunk before with his imaginations, wakes from beautiful dreaming and
The sight of blossoms. A gallant person is always blossoming.
Love is a unity - - Salomo never loved
Beauty is without usefulness because this is pressuring a thing to another purpose, thus no perfection achieved in itself announces itself. Therefore, the more useful things are, the more corners they show, so to speak, as means to accommodate themselves to other relations - - the roundness of a sphere is perfect in itself
Gallantry - - a new kind of morals beauty - - politesse.
[134] The former is a certain sweetness in pleasant behavior, the latter is a certain gracious cautiousness
The former is affected, the latter peaceful and composed
Not all women are beautiful in the physical or spiritual understanding, but all of them encounter gallantry with that subjection that is shown by him who, through his inclination, will be ruled by one weaker
The sensation of beauty - - young boys gave the most disgraceful passion to the origin of Greek love that has ever stained human nature and they [the Greeks] completely deserved {the fact} that their criminals were given over to the revenge and abuse of the wives, etc.
The allowable illusion is a kind of untruth that is not then a lie - - it is a cause for ideal gratification whose object is not in things
Illusion in a large gathering as if they all would be cleverer than one
That one who thought himself the president in the marriage bed wanted to contrive something that could make the obscured magical power of illusion strong again
Illusion gets along so well with the beautiful that if one is also aware of it, it will please, but not so with the noble. Appear clever, pious, sincere, {and} honest.
Benevolence is a peaceful inclination to view the bliss of others as an object of one’s joy and also as a motive of one’s actions. Sympathy is an affect of benevolence [135] towards suffering people in which we imagine that we would do something concerning the cause of the situation to help them - - it is therefore for the most part a chimera because it is neither always in our power nor in our will. The citizen is sympathetic towards others who become suppressed by the princes - - the nobleman {is sympathetic} towards another nobleman but hard in person towards peasants
With luxury the fantasy of human love refines itself [excoliren] and lessens gratification and pleasure. The simple person employs no others except those he can help
Understanding makes no increase of moral feeling - - he who speciously reasons [vernünfteln] has only cooled-off affects and is more cold-headed, {and} consequently less evil and less good. Moral good makes much more intelligible
Man [Man] has long tried to explain the feeling of pleasure about the ridiculous. In nature, nothing is ridiculous
[136] One demands illusion of priests and women, the former should appear to take no part in frivolous gratification, the latter {should appear} to have no inclination for lustful intimacy. Thereby one makes them deceitful
Illusion of religion as it is taken for the thing itself in the end. Then it is a delusion.
One must pay respect to priests for the sacrifice of so many freedoms and gratifications (they are almost in as tight boundaries as a woman)
One must handle both with attentiveness because both do not have either the capacity or decency to boldly resist insult on their side
The formality of all perfection consists in multiplicity (in addition to endurance and strength) and unity - - they can also give gratification by themselves
Sensitive. Insensitive.
The will is perfect in so far as it is, in accordance with the laws of freedom [137], the greatest basis of good generally. The moral feeling is the feeling of the will’s perfection.
Whether God is the author of morality, that is, whether we can only distinguish good from evil through the known will of God
Sulzer says that what the natural effect of the soul facilitates and promotes stirs me with gratification. He says only that it promotes the natural attempt at gratification
{Latin} The ruin of one is the rise of another. {Deutsch} Through the smell of putrefaction, nature wanted to warn us of the greatest basis of dissolution and fermentation of the destruction of animals
The man is stronger in every capacity than the woman - - But he is weaker in consideration of inclination, which he cannot tame so fully, and in consideration of the susceptibility of his tenderness and confidence. The woman is weaker in consideration of power but also more cool-headed and therefore more capable
The sexual inclination adopts the most ideal decoration of anything.
A reason that women soon show off [Staat machen] their great understanding is that one puts up with them in the choice of matters so that at last they believe that there is no other
Women have a very quick but not thorough grasp - - they comprehend something as much as is necessary in order to discuss it and believe there is nothing better
Of the means to measure the dryness and humidity of the air
[138] With women, my courage makes me into a slave, with men, my cowardliness {does the same}
The really great respect [Achtung] of people is based on chimerical preferences that we lend to others - - that author who said that when he observed a grave man in his serious or sublime attire, he mitigates his blind reverence through the representation of his familiarity with the wife or the general necessity. He did not need to have had this representation. Still, this seems to be why the Roman churches have forbidden priests to have wives
The free will (of one in need) is good for itself if it wills everything that contributes to its perfection (gratification) and {it is good} for the whole if it seeks all perfection at the same time. As incapable as the person who has this will may be, the will is indeed good. Other things might be useful; other people might will to a small degree and many {people} do much good in doing a certain action, so the ground of willing the good is purely and simply moral
[139] The mathematician and the philosopher are distinguished in that the former requires data from others while the latter examines them himself. Thus, the former can prove {things} from each revealed religion.
The fable of the swallow that wanted to catch the bird
The French love only the laughing beauty, the Italians only the peaceful beauty.
A selfish (lustful) person requires a person who he can love - - a generous (affectionate) person requires a person who loves him, that is, who he can make happy through his obliging behavior
No woman will easily admit, with her unhappiness in marriage, that the long fasting in her marital satisfaction does her harm, for the woman always wants to appear only giving and not requiring - - if she appears to be needy because she is already otherwise needy with respect to all other parts of the man, then an inequality will originate out of this
Her refusal is a kind of beautiful untruth
[140] All things, if they are only known as they are, have little agreeable in them - - they elevate sensation only through the fact that they appear [scheinen] as they are not - - all ideal gratifications will be promoted through the art of illusion [scheinen]. If a woman could appear [scheinen] at any time as she liked, the skill would be one to love very much - - the evil therein {is} that the thing comes and the illusion [Schein] disappears
He who does more than he owes is called kind insofar as he has no obligation at all to the other, who nevertheless has nothing but obligation to him, so he is merciful
A natural human can be merciful towards no one, for he has obligations to each. Nevertheless he can be merciful towards a captured enemy. In our state, inferiors ends {and}, thus, they alone are debtors - - nobility owe them nothing. For this reason, these nobles are called merciful lords [gnadige Herren]. He who needs nothing from them [141] but justice and can hold them to their obligations does not need this subjection
A woman’s modest (civil) behavior, if she imitates, is an obligation - - female grace is kindness and must be requested not demanded. Therefore, noble women [Damen] can certainly be called merciful ladies, but their husbands cannot {be called} merciful lords. If she is defiant and puffed-up, then she transgresses her obligation - - if she is indifferent then she will be treated as equal.
Of common and countrified faces
What the inequality in conditions [Stände] maintains in delusion is, among other things, that people of low birth imagine this {inequality} themselves, whereby a simple [bürgerlich] woman feels lowliness with herself - - she hates and her disquiet shows itself, which {is} the pride of the noble
Of the he, you and she [Er, Ihr, und Sie]
Of even and uneven numbers
Of the youthful feeling [Jugend Gefühl]
Of the reasons why he who pays is thanked although he doesn’t give more than he gets. He makes merely money (Pope’s joke if there were no money). For he who has money is richer that the one who has merchandise because he has choice. He who sells unnecessary things (gallantry-monger Caffetier) and lives on it must be more courteous than his customer, but not he who sells necessary things, especially if he finds a customer every time
A merciful [gnädig] lord who has no money is an absurdity, but a merciful lady without money can certainly exist
[142] A married man acquires and earns more respect than a single man [Junggeselle] and an old confirmed bachelor [Hagestoltze].
A wife [Frau] {is} more than a girl [Mädchen]. Also, a widow {is} more than a girl. The reason is because the vocation is then completed and also the other people appear to be needy, that is, a girl wants to have a husband (without difficulties) but a wife never wants to be a girl. Moreover, the encounter with a wife is considered to be double and at the same time just the opposite with the man
He must know much who is supposed to teach others how to be wise with little knowledge. It is much to wish that this art become more refined [excoliren] - - dumb and wise ignorance.
The custom of imagining deity as like princes has brought about many false concepts of religion, for example, insult. The honor of God
If I presuppose that everything in relations between the sexes [143] runs inversely then there are two possibilities 1. that the girl is abstinent and yields to excess as wife, 2. that the girl yields to excess and is abstinent as wife - - the 2nd is more in accordance with nature, the first {is more in accordance with} the age of decency, for if the wife gets pregnant it will seem every time as if her husband is the father.
Among friends, each can talk about himself, because the other acts as though it concerns himself - - among people and friends according to the fashion, one must not talk about oneself (also not in books) - - if one wants to talk about oneself, then, it must be something that can be laughed about.
In a society of fashion I must regard each as exclusively egotistical, and therefore I must praise neither those who are present nor those who are absent, and thus, so that it be interesting, either joke or badmouth
Calumny is based in part on the drive for equality - - ostracism. Aristides
[144] The ability to recognize something in others as perfection does not at all bring about the consequence that we feel gratification about it. Yet, if we have a feeling that finds gratification in it, then we will also be moved to desire it and exercise our power for it. Thus it is to be asked whether we feel gratification directly at others’ well-being or that the direct pleasure actually lies in the possible exercise of our power to assist it. Both are possible, but which is actual? Experience teaches that in simple conditions, a person regards others’ happiness with indifference, but if he assisted it, it pleases him infinitely more. The evil of others is commonly just as indifferent, but if I precipitated it, it hurts more than if done by another. And as concerns the sympathetic instinct of compassion and good-naturedness, we have reason to believe they are merely great attempts to alleviate the evil of others stemming from the self-approval of the soul that brings about these sentiments.
We have gratification in certain of our perfections, but far more if we ourselves are the cause. The free choice of the will to subordinate everything is the greatest perfection. And the perfection [145] of the free choice of the will as a cause of possibility is far greater than all other causes of the good even if they were to bring about actuality
{Latin} The disposition of an action from the individual will is moral solipsism
{Latin} The disposition of an action from the universal will is moral justice
The feeling of pleasure and displeasure is either about that from which we are suffering or about ourselves as an active principal [principium] through freedom for good or evil. The latter is the moral feeling. Past physical evil pleases [erfreuen] us, but {past} moral {evil} grieves us and it is a completely different kind of joy about the good that devolves upon us and that we do.
We have little feeling for another’s condition if it is good or evil except in so far as we feel powerful to raise the former and assist the latter. Sympathy is an instinct that only works in rare and important opportunities - - its other effects are contrived.
Because the greatest inner perfection and the perfection originating from the subordination of the collective abilities and susceptibilities exist under the free choice of the will, the feeling for the good quality [bonitaet] of the free power of choice must be directly far different and also larger than all the good consequences that can become actualized [actuirt] through it.
This power of choice contains just as much the purely individual will as the universal or the human considers it together in consensus with the universal will.
That which is necessary through the universal will is an obligation
With the French, the mind does not mature by way of grounds [Gründe], indeed he [the Frenchman] does not expect from them [grounds] either discovery [Auswikelung] or examination. The German seeks grounds for all thoughts and is patient in fixing
[146] The French demand almost as much indulgence as a woman.
Because the person of nature requires so little and the more he requires (egenus), the more miserable he is, the human is perfect in so far as he can do without - - in so far as he still has many powers left over to promote the needs and bliss of others, he has a feeling for a beneficent will outside of himself. Because the power of choice, in so far as it is useful to the acting subject, is physically essential [notwendig] in consideration of necessity, it has no immediate good quality [bonitaet]. For this reason, the moral good quality of action is unselfish
In the state of nature one cannot be selfish, but neither can one be civically-minded [gemeinnützlich] in it, but friendships are possible
Adolescence is more enjoined to friendship because it is more unselfish, more participatory, more benevolent, and more sincere than the later {ages}
[147] Of the bliss in all ages of people. The youthful inconstancy and disquiet prevent many gratifications. The old person has fewer lively inclinations, but the peaceful ones satisfy him. Indeed, we must not change the positions of life
One already has a biased attitude for a nation that
has a single [einerlei] language.
Prussian
{Latin} The inner sense of pleasure and displeasure precede desire and repulsion, because receptivity of joys and repulsions is in the subject, also when it – the subject – still has no knowledge of the object of this sense, as there is no desire for something unknown.
{Latin} Desire is either original or derived, the first is also different in regard to quality.
{Latin} The inner sense is, if it is asserted as the logical principal of the judgment of moral law, an occult quality; if as the capacity of the soul, whose basis is unknown, a phenomenon
[148] A pactum is not possible between a domino and mancipio. God enters into a union with humans because they have no sufficient [genugsam], practical concept of his dominio and so that they be led through the analogy with the pacto of humans and not abhor the commanding severity
A virtuous [tugendhafte] action is always a morally good [sittlich gute] action, that occurs reluctantly or at least has occurred
{Latin} All conditioned good quality [Bonitaet] of an action is either under a possible stipulation (like the problematic) or an actual {stipulation} (like the rules of prudence; each wants to be healthy), but, in a mediated or conditioned good quality, the absolute will is not good if the powers aren’t there and the circumstances of time and place. And it is a good insofar as the will is effective, but one will only be able to examine this good quality with regard to the will. Also, if the powers might be lacking, then the will is certainly praiseworthy. In large things, it will do to have had the will. And this absolute perfection, insofar as it is indeterminate, {and} whether or not something will be affected by it, will be called moral.
The wife can do without much more with respect to gratification {and} needs, but not with respect to vanity
[149] Balance of sensations is the soul at peace. This even surface will only be roused to indignation through passions. It is a primary ground of bliss to feel not only agreeable, but also to be conscious of one’s entire condition, which is hindered through strong sensation
The natural human is spared this disquiet through insensitivity
Sufficiency* with respect to needs is called simplicity. Insofar as the agreeablenesses themselves are counted among needs it is partly beautiful and partly noble simplicity.
Where superfluousness in consideration of needs combined with the effort to effect agreeablenesses becomes evident, that is contrived - - in consideration of the beautiful {it is} adorned {and} decorated - - in consideration of the sublime {it is} magnificent {and} grandiose.
Taste certainly is not exhausted in needs, but it cannot hinder them like pomp [Pracht] {can}.
Regularity agrees with simplicity, for, if the rule does not determine the kind of connection, it would be so random and indeterminate that it would also contradict needs, for example: symmetry. Following in pairs. Thus, it serves to determine the purpose of each among those united together.
{Latin} The objective goodness [Gutsein] of a free action (is subjective in God at the same time) or, what is the same, the objective necessity is either conditioned or categorical. The first is the goodness of an action as a means, the latter [150] as a purpose; thus the former is mediated, the latter is direct, the former contains a problematic, practical necessity, the latter etc.
{Latin} A conditioned, good, free action is for this reason not categorically necessary, for example, my munificence is useful to other needy people, and thus one must be munificent. But if the action of an open-hearted munificence is not only good for others but in itself, then it is subject to an obligation.
{Latin} About the moral feeling and the possibility of the opposite.
{Latin} Providence has linked the moral feeling to such an extent with the public and universal utility, just like it also has with private benefit, that the goodness [Gutsein] of the will will not be as highly valued as it should be.
When I say that this action will give me more honor than the other, I mean that I appeal to the universal judgment {and} that the judgment that I pass on my own action is grounded.
The disputes in the world-wisdom have the utility that they [151] promote the freedom of understanding and provoke a mistrust towards the system that was supposed to have been built upon the ruins of another. In refutation, one is still so happy
In the majority of languages simplicity and stupidity mean pretty much the same thing. That is because a person of simplicity is easily deceived by a falsehood that he considers to be as honorable as himself
People always talk so much about virtue. One must first abolish injustice before one can become virtuous. One must remove conveniences, luxury and everything else that oppresses others while it advances me, so that I am not one of all those who oppress their own race. All virtue is impossible without this resolution.
All virtue is based on ideal feeling. Therefore, in a state of luxury no virtue will be encountered in a person who has purely physical feeling, in the state of nature, however, simplicity in degrees of sensations and simplicity in morals exist together completely
[152] Where the lengths of days throughout the year
are more equal, there one is more orderly, thus in
It is funny that luxury makes the estates [Stände] poor, primarily {that of} the princes
The misery of people is not to be pitied, but to be laughed at: Democrit
Swift’s linen weaver, etc.
Among all vanities the most common is that one wants to appear to be happy, - - therefore, one would rather pretend [vorgeben] that one does not want to do something good (for example, marriage serves the common being [Wesen]) than that one cannot do it, because the person who does without something or refrains from doing it purely with his will is happy insofar as he has sufficient ability to satisfy his desires
[153] We can see other worlds in the distance, but gravity forces us to remain on earth - - we can see still more perfections of spirit above us, but our nature forces us to remain humans.
Because in society everything {that’s} mine or
yours depends on pacta, but this
{depends} on keeping one’s word [Worthaltung], a love of truth is the
foundation of all societal virtue and lies {are} the main vices against others
along with robbery, murder, and rape [the stuproviolato]
If people subordinate morality to religion (which is also only possible and necessary for the oppressed mob) they will thereby become hostile, hypocritical, slanderous - - but if they subordinate religion to morality, then they are kind, benevolent and just
The true marriage in its perfection, the poetized marriage in its perfection. Perfect bliss {and} peace
All choice must have to do with future taste
The human in his perfection is not in the state of sufficiency [Genugsamkeit] {and} also not in the state of luxury, instead {he is} returning from the latter state to the former. Strange quality [Beschaffenheit] of human nature. This most perfect state rests on the tip of a hair - - the state of simple and original nature does not last long - - the state of re-established nature is more lasting but never as innocent.
very social women do not blush anymore and if they are untrue [unwahr] {they blush} still less than the man - - the scatter-brain [etourdi] who doesn’t blush
A great proof of luxury is that whole states are now becoming poorer and poorer. National guilt. Standing armies
[154] All amusements intoxicate, that is, prevent one from feeling the entire sum of bliss
It is to be asked whether all of morality could be derived from the soul at peace [Ruhe] - - with natural humans {it is} completely understood. Delights and excesses are opposed to peace. The sexual inclination finds its peace only in marriage. To offend others disquiets [beunruhigen] oneself. Affects generally disquiet {one}. It is horrible that according to these morals, no other person has a use*
Religion determines the Jewish way of life. For, because they fear being forced by another at all times, they abhor every way of life in which they would not have enough freedom to avoid it. For this reason they don’t till the ground
[155] In flourishing countries the landlords and workers are polite and seek to serve, whereas the customers and guests are domineering and there is, so to speak, more diligence than money, that is, even money has an inner principal of increase - - In poor countries there is still more money than diligence.
In rich countries the merchants (in detail [en detail]) are cool-headed and the customer is fair [billig] without haggling because there is just as much merchandise as money - - in poor {countries} there is more merchandise than money and the merchants are servile [kriechend]
In all nations, the custom of drinking among the men has ceased as soon as the society was adorned with women. The Greeks drank, the old Germans, Prussians, the English still drink because the women are separated. That would still be good with certain women. Our lifestyle is nowadays as though Arcadian - - one always has society and love and game to entertain. But black sorrow, discord and boredom rule at home
Why an old woman is an object of disgust for both sexes except when she is very clean and not coquettish
{Latin} The objective necessity of action (its goodness [gutsein]) is either conditioned (under the condition of some desired good) or categorical. The first is problematic and is a necessity of prudence if the drive, which is considered as a necessary condition of action, is considered not only possible but actual. In order to recognize it, it will be necessary to recognize all drives and instincts of the human soul so that an account [Berechnung] can be made of what is better with [bei] the subject’s inclination. And this {applies} not only in the present state, but also in future one. The categorical necessity of an action does not cost much effort, but only demands the application of circumstance to the moral feeling.
{Latin} In certain life situations a lie is quite useful and therefore [156] lying will be in accordance with the rule of prudence, but extensive prudence and a shrewdness for consequences is required for that. If one considers it on moral terms it will be understood on the basis of moral simplicity, what one should do.
{Latin} Also, if false testimony might be useful sometimes for others, then it is still a lie, if a strict obligation does not necessitate it. From here on, one can see that truthfulness does not depend on the general human love, but on the feeling of right, through which we learn to carefully distinguish what is just. But this feeling has its origin in the nature of the human spirit, through which it judges what is categorically good (not beneficial), not for private or foreign benefit, but through transferring [verlegen] the same action into others; if then a contradiction and contrast arises, it displeases, if harmony and unison arise, they please. Hence the ability to put oneself in the place of others as heuristic means. Of course we are by nature social and could not in fairness sanction that in us which we criticize in others. The public spirit of true and false is, of course, no different than human reason, taken generally as the criteria of true and false and the public spirit of good and evil is the criteria just from that. Opposing heads would cancel out knowledge-certainty, opposing hearts {would cancel out} moral certainty.
[157] {Latin} The goodness of the will leads itself away from the effects of private or public benefit [Nutzen] and the immediate inclination for them, and the former has its basis in need, the latter {has its basis} in the power for the good, the former relates to one own benefit, the latter {relates} to the general benefit, both feelings are concordant with natural simplicity. But the goodness of the will as that of a free principal will be recognized, not insofar as every advantage originates out of it, but in so far as it is possible in itself. And the happiness of others is concordant…
Obligation (naturally towards people) has a determinate measure, {but} Christian duty does not. The former consists in that nothing more is done than what I would have another do to me and that I give to him only what’s his, consequently, everything is equal in accordance with such an action (sympathy is taken from this.)
If I promise something to him, then I am robbing him of something because I have made a hope that I cannot fulfill. If he is hungry and I do not help him, then I have not overstepped any obligation. But if I should, in the case that I myself were hungry, desire to get things from others only on the condition of giving it back, then it is [158] an obligation to also satisfy him with food. A robber certainly wishes that he might be pardoned, but know well himself that he would not pardon himself if he were judge. The judge punishes even if he knows that if he were delinquent he would not want to be punished, but with punishment it is different - - the deprivation of life does not occur through the judge, but through the criminal on account of his misdeed. No one in a time of need can imagine that, were he a rich man, he would help every needy person
{Latin} In the first condition of humanity, his obedience was that of a slave, after that a subject, then a son. The law-given power was that of a master, prince, father.
{Latin} Whoever binds slaves to himself as master, sets only punishment as incentive, the prince who has subjects bound to him (legitimately) {sets} rewards and punishments {as incentive}, the father {sets} only love and rewards {as incentive} for his son. The basis of obligation is natural slavery and guilt in the first case, the second contains a moral basis of a compact, {and} the third includes everything previous and an internal morality.
Christ tried to bring people to a simple moderation through religion in which he presented to them the glory of heaven - - his speeches could only produce inverted concepts from the Jews because they [the Jews] all along only posited their religion in empty concepts and also built these {concepts} on no other condition than the recovery of their kingdom
All truthfulness presumes an idea of equality, therefore, the Jews who in their opinion have no duty at all to others are lying and deceiving without having any pangs of conscience. haereticis non est fides
Women are much more domestic by nature than men because they [159] have children to suckle. Our gallant wives who don’t have any {children} and our girls who know that they will never nurse are not domestic because it is not necessary. Their beautiful natural aptitude for clean housekeeping and for care of a sick person even if for more thrifty use of what has been acquired{…}
Masculine dignity and feminine grace are lost in society. Mademoiselle Montagu
Authors seem to be profound when they dispel all wit - - just like crude people seem to be honorable
Just as one deceives oneself through the illusion of wealth, so a woman believes to actually have those virtues in the end, to whose illusion she has devoted herself to from the beginning.
In order to be good as a common person, more belongs to this than to be a good prince. If he is merely not exceptionally evil, then he is already good for it.
[160] The sensitive young person, even with as much understanding as he has, will be easily persuaded through female illusion [Schein] and wants to be subjected to illusion [getäuschet] - - he is seriously submissive and meek. The experienced and [abgewitzte] wanton person has longest had insight into the mirage of illusion; for this reason he is bold, unembarrassed, and, because he has excused the other forceful gender from the decency of being careful, it [female illusion] is agreeable to him.
Duels have their true origin in the time of gallantry from the inclinations of women, because with common courtship the beauty picks out the most courageous and triumphs over her rivals in love so that thereby her lover is frightful to her {rivals}. With insults that befall her, he cannot maintain her respect other than through courageousness.
Who wants the women to grasp decency
It seems to me that Epicurus is different from Zeno in that the former imagined the virtuous soul at peace after having overcome moral hindrances, but the latter {imagined} it in the struggle and effort [Übung] to prevail {over such hindrances}. Antisthenes never had such a high idea - - he desired that one should flaunt the vain {bliss} and only contemplate the false bliss and choose to be a simpler man rather than a great one
Honor cannot be a natural impulse because it would depend on the opinion of others - - when drinking and fighting (dueling) is fashionable, one who does them is justifiable
{Latin} As long as an object obeys my changeable will, it is mine, but I can always transfer my will to another.
Obligation is social selfishness in equilibrium [in aeqvilibrio]
{Latin} Duty is either Christian duty or obligation. Actions of the first kind are morally [161] spontaneous, actions of the latter kind are morally forced. (This distinguishes itself from political force.) The will is either the individual will of the person or the universal will of the person (the obligation from the universal to people).
{Latin} (Something necessary originates from {either} the good, particular will of the person or the universal.) Right, wrong.
{Latin} Then an action considered under the aspect of the universal will of the person is, if it contradicts itself, externally, morally impossible (illegal). Permit me to be in the act of seizing the fruits of another. If I then see that no person, under the condition that what he has acquired will be snatched from him, will want to acquire {anything}, then I will just privately want what belongs to another, while refusing it publicly.
{Latin} Of course, as far as something depends entirely on the will of a subject, it is impossible that he contradicts himself (objective). And yet, the divine will would contradict itself if it wanted there to be humans whose will were opposed to its own. The will of people would contradict itself if they wanted to stand in contradiction to the universal will. In the case of a collision, the universal will, of course, carries more weight than the individual will.
[162] {Latin} The hypothetical, conditioned necessity of an action as means to a possible end is problematic, {as means} to an actual end it is necessity of prudence, the categorical necessity is moral.
Making a station [stationes zu machen] belongs to morality first, in the judgment of others about action (if it is an instinct, ambition originates from this and goes farther than the means for determining legality), second, in the sensations of others, so that one senses their hardship or happiness (thus, moral sympathy arises as an instinct)
The origin of love of honor regarding the beauty of actions lies thus in a wicked-minded means [medio] of managing one’s own morality, which falsely becomes an end
The origin of love of honor regarding the judgment of physical characteristics lies in the means for freedom, self-preservation, and style [der Art].
To compare oneself to others is a means of making comparative greatness or worth one’s intention, {but this} is backwards and is the origin of envy
Bravery is only a means - - the savage values it as an end.
In the end, honor can be placed in drinking and vice
With a great corruption of morals, the girls remain chaste and the wives stray to excess because the latter act purely against obligation, while the former act contrary [wieder] to decency
I require things or also people
[163] It is already honor to not be despised.
Honor is either indirect or direct. In the first case, it is a drive of
enjoyment; in the second, of illusion.
In the first case, the needs are either true or imagined, to which the
honor is a means, and the former {needs are} either in the natural or
artificial states. Needs in natural
conditions for things to be procured do not require honor (because every person
can procure them himself), but in order to preserve them and oneself, they
demand that others have an opinion of equality for us so that our freedom
doesn’t suffer, since we are able to seek our needs as we please. People’s natural need of acquisition is a woman. For
this, he has the opinion not of preference but of equality necessary with other
men and {he} easily acquires it as well.
Still, in both cases the person will raise the drive for real honor
above equality, partly so that freedom is more assured, partly because he begins
to prefer one woman to the others so that she also prefers him. Finally, in the state of inequality, the
drive for honor is either the true need or the [164] artifical one. In
At the same time the honor of illusion arises, primarily with respect to gender [Geschlecht], which, in the end, will sacrifice the honor that is a means of enjoyment
The man and the woman do not have the same sentiment and also should not have it, but even from this arises unity, not identity, but the subordination of inclinations, since everyone feels that the other is necessary to him for the greatest perfection. Friendship presumes agreeing sentiments
Slavery is either that of force of that of illusion. The latter is based on either dependency on things (luxury), or on the illusions of other people (vanity). The latter is absurd and also harder than the first because things are in my power more easily than the opinions of others, and it is also more despicable
The loss of freedom is based on either devotedness or subservience. In the first case one is ruled by means of his inclination (either for things or for people as [165] in love, friendship, and parental love) or against his inclination. The former is a consequence of weak luxury, while the latter {is a consequence of} dreadful cowardice and is a result of the former
The drive of honor with respect to sex [Geschlechts] also becomes pure delusion in the end, and marriage, which should promote self-preservation, promotes this pure delusion, and vanity is a cause of singleness [Ehelosigkeit]
With women, the drive of honor is erected solely upon the sexual inclination and mediates the same upon needs, because she must be sought - - since this is not necessary with men, they will only be advanced [gezogen] through business and, therefore, can be resolved to singleness
What well proves the fantastical nature of love is that one loves the beloved object more is its absence than in its presence - - with friendship it is different.
The drive of honor is founded on the drive for equality and the drive for unity. As it were, two powers, which move the animal world - - the instinct for unity is either in the judgments and thoughts or also in the inclinations. The former achieves logical perfection, the latter {achieves} moral {perfection}.
The single, natural, necessary good of a person in relationship to the wills of others is equality (freedom) and oneness with respect to the whole. {By} analogy, the body fills its own space through repulsion just as each {fills} its own. Attraction, through which all parts combine into one.
[166] The truth of a perfection consists in the amount of pleasure that is not precluded, with respect to itself and other greater ones [groesserer]. If falsity could be lasting and {offer} more gratification than truth, then the pleasure from this deception would be a true pleasure, though a false knowledge
Natural instincts of active benevolence towards another consist of the love towards the opposite sex and towards children. That towards other people depends purely on equality and oneness
It is oneness in the sovereign state but not equality - - when the latter is combined with oneness, thereby is constituted the perfect republic
The drive to evaluate oneself purely comparatively, as much with respect to his worth as with respect to his welfare, is extended much further than the drive for honor and contains this within itself. It {the drive} is not in nature and is an indirect result of the practice of knowing better the means of his own condition through comparison with others.
Ambition, which is a spur of science, arose from the comparison of our judgment with the judgment of others, thus requiring, as a means, respect for the judgment of others
The Indians are wondrously calm and not violent
The South Americans are indifferent and phlegmatic
The Negroes are very careless and vain
The Europeans are lively and hot tempered
The affects of the Indians are nevertheless still stronger than the Europeans’.
A reason why Montesquieu could have said so many admirable things is that he presupposed {that} whoever would introduce customs [167] or give laws would always have had a reasonable ground
The main intention of Rousseau is that education be free and also make a free person
We must esteem the common understanding and common taste
A woman does not like to give away, in contrast, she takes
No one knows contentment - - everyone means delightfulness in its place.
Golden rain in the laps of the Danai. Jupiter {is} a bull. Alcmene was faithful in Amphitrio
How education helps the police is to be seen from the fact that the former makes many goods e.g., silk, gold, entirely unnecessary, whereas the latter prohibits them in vain because it only offends [kränket] thereby
A woman loves less affectionately than a man or else she would not assume rule over him and obviously prefer herself to him. She is also aware that she bears more affection if the man does not have this refined sensation, so then he is called coarse and hard by her
Marriage gives no ideal gratification as mere sympathy
Illusion is sometimes better than truth, for the [168] gratification from the former is a true gratification. Make-up - - if one knows it, it is no longer a deception.
Long and little life or short and much life - - much life in enjoying or in acting
Both in the greatest proportion is the best.
That vitality decreased from the 16th Century on
It should be noticed that we don’t value the good quality of an action because it is useful to another; otherwise we would not value it higher than the benefit that it creates.
The moral feeling applied [applicirt] to one’s own actions is conscience
It is surely good that
[169] de stationibus: Physicis - - the moon is occupied
Logicis for want of egoism
Moralibus for want of solipsism
{Latin} To morally put oneself in the place of another happens either through instinct, sympathy or pity. Or through intellect.
Magnetic force is probably based on the dissimilarity (diversa gravitas specifica) of ethereal [aetherisch] material of which the iron is full (the earth is full of iron), whereby the heavier things sink to the bottom
Therefore, the magnetic quality appears more in length, e.g., more if a clump [Klump] of iron is long and vertical than thick and short, because just the quantity of aether there must give more distinction to the thickness. One can assume that the clumplings [Klumpchen] are small that have negative and positive poles.
Electricity consists of rubbed-off parts, the magnetic does not, so the latter is penetrating and affects according to the mass, the former does not
[170] The two homonymous poles push each other back because two elastic spheres of ether aether of similar thickness push them, but the two nonhomonymous, because one is a lighter kind (according to the elements themselves, not purely by rarefaction [ob rarefactionem]), will be engulfed by each other and will pull the magnet
The needle sinks with its heavy end in the universal magnetic atmosphere and the other end rises
The sensitive soul in tranquility, in faces, in societies, in eloquence, poetry, in marriages and sexual desire [Geschlechtertriebe]
The difference of sex
Blessedness and cheerfulness
Perhaps the moon, by effecting the electrical [referingirend] material that extends so much higher, causes the winds and ebb and flow
Perhaps it is the pushed-together ether [Himmelsluft] itself from the center of gravity [Centro gravitatis] to the center [Centro] of the earth
[171]
Thoughtlessness [Ètouderie]
(tasteless boldness) rises above the effort of illusion [Bemühung zu scheinen]
and expresses only a certain high-spirited dependability in consideration of
that which can please. A petitmaitre is
a scatter-brain [ètourdi] who is gallant, but he must appear to be known by
many in the great world. He is lucky
with women. The Germans travel to
A dandy is actually a fancily dressed fool [Putznarr] and is much different than the petitmaitre who even affects free carelessness
I posit magnetic matter to be a sphere of dissimilar aether that yet in its expanse contains all species one beneath the other [172], although the thicker parts {are} nearer to the center [Centro] of the earth {while} the lighter {are} on top. If this atmosphere were to have a joint center [Centrum] with the earth, then no direction towards the poles would take place, - - were their Centrum in the axis, then no declination would take place. For, because the intersection of the horizon {with} two balls is a line of a compass [cirkellinie], to which the needle must stand perpendicularly, if they should sink [einsenken] as far as possible into the magnetic circle, while all these compasses [Cirkel] run parallel with the equator, then the needles will hold the Meridian.
If this Centrum is not in the axis, then only the linea expers variationis is there where the meridian of the earth agrees with the meridiano magnetico. Now, because the magnetic axis lies on such a plane with the earth’s axis that the meridian that goes through the earth’s poles also goes through the magnetic {poles}, the linea expers variationis would be a meridian at all times. Now, should it not be a meridian, then the magnetic horizon must be spherical or else irregular, in that case, however, the magnetical attractions must not aim at the Centrum of the magnetic spheroid, but instead diverge from it. Suppose that this oblateness comes from the centrifugal force of the earth, then the size of the divergence from the magnetic Centro will suppress the divergence from the Centro of the earth in proportion to the strength of the conducted magnetic force. Therefore, the magnetic horizon can be bent very differently and not only the inclination, but also the declination {can} be quite manifold
Moral delusion happens when one takes the opinion of a possible moral perfection for an actual one.
We have selfish and altruistic sentiments [Empfindungen]. The former are older than the latter and the latter create themselves at first in the sexual inclination. A human is needy but also powerful over needs. [173] He who is in the state of nature is more capable of altruistic and active sentiments, the one in luxury has imagined needs and is selfish. One takes more interest in evil, primarily the injustice that others suffer, than in welfare. The sympathetic [teilnehmende] sentiment is true if it resembles altruistic powers, otherwise it is chimerical, it is universal in an indeterminate way as long as it is extended to one out of all those I can help, or {it is universal} in a determinate way {when it extends} to help every sufferer - - the latter is chimerical. Kind-heartedness originates through the culture of moral but inactive sensations and is a moral delusion. Of the private kind-heartedness to do no evil and the justice of doing one’s obligation
The moral philosophy that wants nothing but unselfishness is chimerical, also the one that is sympathetic towards imagined needs. The moral philosophy that affirms only self-interest is crude
The officia beneplaciti could never bring about that one robs himself of his own needs, but surely the officia debiti {could}, for these are moral needs
[174] Virtue carries along with it a natural wage, but not for goods of luxury, but of moderation
It is worth commemorating a perfect person of nature, but not one of art
The former takes care to impose some obligations on himself, and also the latter
The sweetness of present need is chimerical
Friendship of agreeableness or need - - They must be similar, else it is not called friendship, but enjoyment
Friendship is always mutual, thus not between father and child and, since the wife never desires the man as much as the latter does her, marriage is only closely related to the most perfect friendship.
In the state of luxury, marriages must cease to become friendships.
The friendship of delusion that consists of mutual, good wishes [175] without effect is foolish [thörigt] but beautiful, that of convivial friendliness and agreeing sensations is the most common, but such a person, while perhaps open-hearted and secretive in company, is no friend.
The education of Rousseau is the only means to aid
the flourishing of the civilian society again.
For since luxury always increases quicker where need, oppression,
disdain for position, and war arise, the laws can accomplish nothing against
it, as in
The doubt that I accept is not dogmatic, but a doubt of postponement. Zetetic [zetetici] (ζήτεĩν) searcher. I will advance [erhöhern] the grounds of both sides. It is strange that one concerned [besorgen] about danger from it. Speculation is not a thing of necessity. Knowledge [Kenntnisse] with respect to the latter is more certain. The method of doubt is useful in that it preserves the mind, not to act upon speculation, but upon healthy understanding and sentiment [Sentiment]. I seek the honor of Fabius Cunctator.
Truth has no value in itself, whether an opinion about the inhabitants of many worlds is true or false, it is all the same. One must not confuse it with truthfulness. Only the manner in which one arrives at truth has a determinate worth, because that which leads to error can also do so in practical things
If gratification from the sciences should be the motive, then it is all the same whether it is true or false. The ignorant and precocious people have an advantage over the reasonable and cautious in this. The final end is to find the vocation of humanity
[176] The opinion of inequality also makes people unequal. Only the doctrine of MR. R{ousseau} can make it so that the most learned philosopher with his knowledge, and without making use of religion, honestly does not regard himself as better than the common man
What a miserable condition it is when oppression is so universal and commonplace that an industrious and honest person cannot demand justice, but instead must invoke mercy. The more we fail to recognize our obligations, if we are not yet entirely corrupted, the more favors [Gewogenheiten] remain for us; primarily we neglect the obligations towards some and give favors to others.
In order to make up for the weakness of women in the active characteristics, nature has made men weak insofar as they surrender themselves to illusion and let themselves be easily deceived. The man is inclined to create great concepts of a beloved object and almost feel unworthy to them. Yet the woman commonly imagines herself worthy of courtship and makes no fantastical ideas of preference of the man. They soon believe that they are able to rule over the heart of the man. The man is inclined to value his wife or beloved higher than himself, the wife never {does this}. [177] If one merely considers the purpose of the sexes, then the wife evidently rules and is more clever. The generous person believes easier than the selfish and weak person.
Gallantry (of men) is the art of appearing in love. For women, coquetterie is the art of making illusion of their inclination to rule. Both are ridiculous in marriages. The art of appearing virtuous is decency and especially appearing chaste - - modesty, refined and selective in taste, coyness, appearing affable - - politeness - - refinement - - The individuals who best understand this art make the worst marriages
If illusion is employed for the purpose of {entering into} marriage, then it is still good, if it lasts after marriage, then it is quite ridiculous. Indeed, the men demand such women, who, as they say, do them credit, who are sought after, {and} who one would like to take away.
{Latin} There is a strict duty towards the Lord from obedience/reverence, towards the benefactor from love, in the new covenant one can love God, in the old covenant {one can} worship him.
[178] Bodies are either positive transparent, or negative (reflective), or zero (black). All bodies on the surfaces are both at the same time, primarily little membranes [Blätchen].
The little membranes of magnets of iron have this characteristic and pull in whole clumps with their different poles. Electrical bodies only have it on the surface
With women, book-reading occurs in order to seem learned
The marriage that has no illusion has honesty in the same way
{Latin} While the law [Recht] is the epitome of the obligations of indebted people, the disposition of actions, which are decided on the basis of right, establishes justice, which is either of the people owed (active) or the people owing (passive). The former (gstr.: enforces the actions of others, but only as long as they correspond to right, the latter enforces only such actions and the latter only so long as and to the extent that they promote the basis of right. The latter is a disposition…) is the disposition to decide on actions that would be enforced through the legal grounds of others: … (both can from…) If the disposition of actions corresponds to justice, then the former will {promote} strict justice, the latter…
__ __
{Latin} The disposition (of actions) of duties that overstep the boundaries of active justice, equity, such as of passive justice.
{Latin} Predisposition
{Latin} The sentence with regard to civil law: the greatest right is the greatest wrong. It is true as concerns the civilian, not the judge.
The illusion of friendship. Aristotle -- --
[179] If we wake, then we have mundum communem
A young groom is on that account not good because he has not yet considered the falsity of illusion
Hume means that priests very much practice the art of appearing. Truth only adapts itself to the robe, the formal habit, the illusion. All kinds of illusion in clothes. Make-up. Alexander v. Antipater purple interior
Envy ceases when I can wipe off the deceiving illusion [täuschenden Schein] of others’ bliss and perfection
Of the means of imagining a president or dignified man with his wife
The most perfect wife. Reasonable and brave, rational if she is willingly [willkührlich] exempt from subtleties. Clever, wise – witty, refined, gallant. Foolish woman [Narrin] - - the exemption from domestic business makes foolish women [Thörinnen].
He who knows how to satisfy his desires is clever, he who knows how to rule them is wise.
World-wisdom
Costs and expenses [Kosten und Unkosten]. They are expenses if one can have the gratification [180] of money or work and thus also misses them. That poor person has the greatest expenses who knows how to live - - with the expenditure of all money {comes} the greatest profit. {It is} avaricious to spend it every time for his contentment (not delightfulness).
Just as the greatest of people cannot grow above average without becoming weaker and also {cannot} remain below average without being too weak, so it is with the moral and graceful characteristics
Greek Roman face
Characters of nations in company [Umgang] the Spanish, French, Germans, {and} English
That our youths and men still look so childish is because before they did not have enough permission to be children. The trees bloom in the fall whose blossoms were not properly allowed to break out by the spring
Simplicity is either ignorant or the rational and wise simplicity
In all moral definitions, the expression mediocritas is very wretched and indefinite, e.g., in parsimonia, for it only indicates that there is a degree that is not good by reason of the size without saying how large the good must therefore be
This mediocritas aurea is qualitas occulta
Distinction between: he knows how to appear or he knows how to live.
[181] One could say that metaphysics is a science of the bounds of human reason
Doubt of metaphysics does not overcome [aufheben] useful certainty, but only useless certainty
Metaphysics is useful in that it puts an end to illusion, which can be harmful
In metaphysics there are not thoughts on the opposing side as well, bias, it also doesn’t speak lies, in actions it is different
One falls in love only in illusion, but one loves truth
If one should discover the illusion of most people, then they would seem like every bride, of whom it is said that she takes off her pretty, silken eyebrows, a pair of ivory teeth, some cloth that supported her bosom, {and} excellent ringlets and has wiped off her make-up for her confounded lover
Illusion requires refinement and art, truth requires simplicity and peace.
After Swift, everything in the world is clothes
The most ridiculous thing is that one creates illusion for so long towards others that he himself imagines it to be true - - children do the same with religion
An illusion, if it is regarded as the thing itself as intended, is delusion.
The illusion that the woman intends as a means to the attainment of marital love is no delusion, but {it} surely is in any other case.
Of the art of making easy things difficult
[183] Loose Leaves
to the
Observations on the feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime
The inclination of women to novels comes from the
fact that they wish that love were the sole inclination by which men are ruled.
Just as the greatest abundance that arises from free
inclination in the end amounts to casting off everything into slavery and
finally poverty, so does the unnatural
freedom of the female sex and the agreeableness that they enjoy and give out
through it [the freedom] at last amount to making them downright despicable
and, in the end, making them into slaves.
Mr. Hume believes that a woman who has no knowledge
of the history of her fatherland or of
The woman, because she always wants to rule, accepts,
without consideration, a fool.
The brave wife wants to be honored through her
husband, the vain wife would not ask for this honor but wants to be striking
herself. The coquette has the intention to
influence inclinations, although she has none herself, it is purely a game of
vanity.
All inclination are either exclusive or
sympathetic. The former are selfish, the
latter are altruistic. However,
self-love and self esteem are according to their nature not exclusive; however,
egoism and self-conceit are. In accordance
with the law of nature, female love is exclusive with respect to other
men. The purely lustful impulse [Trieb]
or the lover’s rage can even be exclusive [184] with respect to the object of
love, hence rape, Herod, etc. The direct
drive for honor is exclusive with respect to honor. The characteristic of the mind that
exclusively desires everything in objects is called envy where this drive
[Trieb] is not justified by nature. Envy
is a kind of pain [Weh]. But emulation,
a sadness about inequality, can only concern an imagined inequality;
incidentally, it is then only a perverted application of a good law of
nature. The impulses [Triebe] that are
sympathetic are the best: only in sexual impulses must sympathy concern only
the object of the enamored [verliebt] inclination.
Refusals of women are an irresistible impulse of
appearing [scheinen] - - the men who have not yet become extremely wanton have
the characteristic that they will be very easily deceived by this illusion [Schein]
- - this relation holds the strength of the opposing inclination within its
bounds.
The civil condition, if the taste for a great
quantity of feigned gratifications and attractions is missing, is simplicity,
that which is acquired by way of this taste is virtue, but even heroic virtue
has to do with overcoming needs. Thus,
one can be good without virtue. Right
judgment, which is acquired through experience that depends on needs, is
understanding - - if the taste for many things increases and magnifies the
manifoldness of concerns, then reason is necessary and indeed even fine [fein]
reason. But healthy reason is a fine
reason that returns to what is necessary to judge and know. One can be very reasonable without much
fineness [feinigkeit] of reason.
Simple taste easily degenerates, and moral
simplicity, for lack of knowledge of seductive charm, is easily deceived,
therefore it is the greatest perfection
That wife who has acquired no special taste for all
distractions, gallantries, and vanities can be good without virtue and
reasonable without brooding. If she is
pulled from the middle [185] and seat of this fine gratification, then
thousands of enticements act on her and she requires virtue to be a good wife.
The most perfect wife would be she who knows the
various fine delights of life, {knows} the manners {and} gallantry in her lovely charms, and
has taste, but willingly prepares herself for domesticity and simplicity by way
of reasonable insight into their uselessness and knows how to compel herself
through virtue.
A wife needs even more virtue in marriage than the
husband, primarily if the necessity of chaste [sittsam] illusion has gone
completely out of style and the gallant freedom, as innocent as they might call
it, emerges. For she has a sure game, as
one can easily guess, and will be more often called upon.
According to the rule of prudence, one can assume that
something will never be encountered if it is encountered exceedingly seldomly
and where it is encountered, it is difficult to know; for this reason it is not
in accordance with prudence to allow this deceiving agreeableness of women to
lead.
Aged individuals love jokes and whatever arouses
laughter, youth is in love with stirring tragedy that arouses strong
sensations. What is the cause.
I find almost universal the mistake that one does
not ponder the brevity of human life enough.
Therefore, it is indeed perverse to have it [human life] in front of
one’s eyes so that one despises it and only looks to the future. But thereby one would be correctly in his
place and not postpone it [human life] too long by way of [186] a foolish
imagining of the plan for our actions.
The epitaphs of various ages make use of the same as encouragement for
lustful and luxurious enjoyments and as an avaricious greediness for
gratification. But well understood, it
serves only to free the mind, through sufficiency, from the rule of impulses
that entangle us in preparations against the brevity of life that are not in
accordance with the efforts of enjoyment.
Contemplation of the proximity of death is agreeable in itself and {is} a corrective for bringing people towards simplicity and assisting them in
{attaining} the sensitive peace of the soul; this begins as soon as {that} blind
ardor ceases through which one previously chased after the imagined objects of
his wishes
The woman who is constantly busy with the management
of exquisite attire must be kept in this practice in marriage. For, since she is supported by no other
inclination for purity and agreeableness than pleasing others, she will become
filthy and swinish if she is to live alone with her husband.
In society, the man is more often lost in
contemplation of what pleases him in women, while the woman is more often lost
in contemplation of what pleases men in herself.
All the enjoyments of life have their great charm in
that one hunts after them; possession is cold and the enchanting spirit [Geist]
has evaporated. Thus, the greedy
merchant has thousands of gratifications as long as he is earning money. If he considers enjoying this earning he will
be tormented by thousands of worries.
The young lover is extremely happy in hope and the day his happiness
rises to its highest it begins to decline again.
A certain quiet self-confidence combined with the
attributes of respect and morality acquires trust and goodwill, on the other
hand, a boldness that appears to give little respect to others brings about
hate and opposition
[187] In disputes, the quiet place of the
mind is combined with kindness and indulgence towards the ones fighting, a sign
of one being in possession of power whereby the understanding of his victory is
certain. Just as
Few people will endure their mockery and contempt
with a peaceful mind if they are in front of a large crowd even though they
know that the people in the crowd are all ignoramuses or fools. The greatest crowd always instills awe,
indeed, even the onlooker shivers with fright about the false step of whoever
compromises himself in its [the crowd’s] presence although each individual
would find little disparaging in the speaker’s disapproval if he were alone
with him. But if the great crowd is
absent then a steady man can inspect their judgment quite well with complete
indifference.
With respect to the beauty of objects, men are very
well adorned with an intense passion, embarrassment and a languishing longing for
women, but {also} a peaceful affection.
It cannot be good that the woman makes offers to the man or prevents his
declarations of love. For he who alone
has the power must necessarily be dependent upon whoever has nothing but charm,
and the latter must be conscious of the value of her charm, else there would be
slavery instead of equality
That which is mechanical in laughter is the shaking
of the diaphragm and lungs together with a contorted face, since the mouth is
pulled by others, etc. - - women and fat people love to laugh. One laughs most violently when one is
supposed to remain serious. One laughs
most strongly about those who look serious.
Strong laughter is tiring {and} breaks out through tears as with
sadness. Laughter that is provoked by
tickling is also very fatiguing [beschwerlich], while that which is provoked by
imagination is certainly amusing, but can end up in convulsions. Over one about whom I myself laugh, then if I
suffer harm from him, I cannot be evil [böse] any more. The memory of something ridiculous gives much
pleasure and also does not wear off so easily [188] as other agreeable
anecdotes. The abbot terrasson with the cap on his head.
The cause of laughter seems to consist of the
trembling of quickly pinched nerves that transmit themselves through the entire system;
other gratifications come from uniform movements of the nervous fluid. Therefore, if I hear something that has the
appearance [Schein] of a smart, purposeful connection, but is itself entirely
nullified in trifles, then it will {have} bent nerves on one side {and,} at the
same time, repelling and quivering {nerves}.
I wouldn’t want to wager but I’ll swear to it any time.
Pelisson should have been painted in place of the
devil.
Sexual inclination is either amorous need or amorous
concupiscence. In the state of
simplicity, the former rules and thus {there exists} still no taste. In the state of art the amorous concupiscence
becomes either one of enjoyment of everything or of ideal taste. The former constitutes lustful
immoderacy. In everything, the former is
to be seen in 2 pieces. The female sex
is either mingled with the male sex in free company or excluded. If the latter is the case then no moral taste
takes place, but at most simplicity (lending the spartan wives), or it is a lustful
delusion together with an amorous greed to possess much for enjoyment without
being able to enjoy {even} one correctly - - Salomon. In the state of simplicity, mutual need
rules. Here need is on one side and
scarcity on the other. There, fidelity
without temptation existed; here, guards of chastity that is not possible in
itself. In the free company of both
sexes, which is a new invention, concupiscence grows but so does moral
taste. One of the characteristics of
this impulse [Trieb] is that it underlies the ideal charms but then must be
promoted [muß getrieben werden] always as a kind of secret; from this arises a
kind of [189] modest decency only with strong desires, without which this would
become common [gemein] and, in the end, subjected to weariness
[Überdrusse]. Secondly, that the female
sex takes on illusion as if it [illusion] were not a need for them [the sex];
this is necessary if the amorous inclination is supposed to remain united with
ideal gratification and moral taste in the state of art. In lustful passion this illusion is not at
all necessary. Therefore, female
surrenders appear to be merely either forced or marks of favor
[Gunstbezeigungen].
A young man who expresses no amorous inclination
will be indifferent in the eyes of the woman.
If religion really can provide a use that is
directly focused on future bliss, then the most natural first {religion} is
that which focuses morals in such a way that they are good for the fulfilling
of {one’s} station [Posten] in the present world, so that one thereby becomes
worthy of things to come. For what
concerns fasting, ceremony, and chastening does nothing to benefit the present
world. But if this native [einheimisch]
benefit should be achieved, then morality must be refined [excolirt] before religion.
Montesquieu says that it would be
entirely unnatural for a wife to run a household, but it could very well happen
that she would run a country.
If morals {are} wholly simple and all luxury is banned, then the husband
rules; if public issues are in a few hands and the majority of men become idle,
then the women go beyond their solitude and have great influence over the
men. If the women inspire virtue and roman respect in the men, then
they rule hereafter in the household through kindness; if they do not acquire
him through coquetterie before they mislead and make him foolish later, then
they will rule him with thumping and willfulness [pochend und eigenwillig]. In
a good marriage, both {partners} have only one will and that is the will of the
wife, in a bad marriage as well, but with the distinction that the husband
agrees with the will of the wife in the first case, in the second he opposes it
but is outweighed.
[190] This is the age of rule by women, but {women}
with less honor because they degrade the worth of the man. They make him firstly vain, flexible and
foolish and, after they have taken from him the dignity of masculine honor,
they have no obstructions. In all
marriages the women rule, but also over men of dignity.
There are two ways of the Christian religion,
insofar as it should improve morality, 1stly: beginning with the revelation of
mysteries [Geheimnisse] in that one expects a consecration of the heart from
the divine supernatural influence 2. To
begin from the improvement of morality in accordance with the order of nature
and, after the greatest possible effort that is adept at it [the improvement of
morality], expecting supernatural assistance in accordance with the divine
order of his decree that has been expressed in revelation. For it is not possible, insofar as one starts
with revelation, to expect moral betterment from this instruction as a success
in accordance with the order of nature.
The refined [excolirte] prospect of things to come,
if it is carried out to the end, namely, the goal [Ziel] of impending death,
brings [führt] its own remedy [remedium {Latin}] with it. For why should one torment oneself with many
afflicting preparations when death will cut them short soon anyways.
A man easily grasps a respect towards a woman who
takes him in, while the woman for her part has more inclination than
respect. Therefore it comes about that
the man expresses a kind of courage in overcoming his own lustful inclination,
without which many women would be led astray.
A tempted wanton is a dangerous person among women.
It is good [artig] that although the sensitive heart
at peace is always beautiful the affect of love is nevertheless present in him
before marriage, while for the woman it is quiet submissiveness: thus the man
can appear to be in love without the least bit of bad manners, but the woman
merely appears to love.
[191] It is strange that women have so much
attentiveness and memory in things of decoration, propriety, and politesse, while men have so little.
One is not compassionate about the grief and
distress of another, but about these insofar as their causes are natural and
not imagined. Therefore a craftsman has
no compassion for a bankrupted merchant who is degraded to the position of
broker or servant because he does not see that anything is different besides
his being rid of imagined needs. A
merchant has no compassion for another merchant who has fallen out of favor and
must live off his own merchandise for lack of business. Indeed, if both are regarded as benefactors
of the people, then one does not consider the evil according to his own
sentiment, but that of the other. But
the merchant has compassion for the downfall of another who is otherwise honest
if he does not have advantage because he has just the same imagined need as the
other. In any event, with an otherwise
gentle woman one also has compassion for her grief about imagined misfortune
because one despises the husband for his weakness in such a case, but not the
wife. But everyone has compassion for
any evil that is in opposition to true needs.
From this it follows that the kind-heartedness of a person of much
luxury will contain a very extensive compassion, while that of a person of
simplicity {will contain} a very restricted one. One has unrestrained compassion for one’s children
The more extensive the compassion is, if its powers
remain, the more idle it is; the more the imagined needs keep growing from this
[hiebey], the greater the obstruction of yet other remaining capacities to do
good. Therefore the kindness of the
luxurious condition becomes pure delusion
[192] There is no sweeter idea than idleness and no
other activity than that which is skilled at gratification. This is also the object one has before his eyes if
he wants one day to sit in peace, but all of this is a phantasm. He who does not work dies of boredom and is,
in any event, numbed to delights and never tires, but revives and satisfies
The drive for honor with respect to those characteristics
whose higher worth can make the judgments of others more important and general
is ambition, that {drive for honor} with respect to the characteristics of less
meaning about which the judgments of others is frivolous and fluctuating is
vanity.
Self-esteem, humility. Ridiculous ridicule [Das Auslachungswürdige
Hohngelächter] is better hated than despised.
Self-esteem is based on equality and this leads if
they have understood evil out of respect.
Why incapacity is regarded as more disgraceful than
an evil will, namely, in those cases where the incapacity overcomes [aufheben]
the good consequences
That the desire for honor is based in part on the
state of equality one can see from the fact that courtly people despise the
judgment of the lower people very much.
That it would be based on sexual impulse one can see because the
contempt of a woman is very hurtful