the good things of life,
were contemned, and when they were obliged to reject everything which
had no reference to their purely ideal view. That could alone maintain
the uprightness of noble souls in a time of oppression under foreign
rule; and this teaching could have been given at a time only, and by a
soul, which sees all that is worth living for vanishing away, which
builds up a new creation, and in which pure thought has entire sway.
But if each one gives away, and gives away continually, who is there in
that case to be the recipient? And why is it that this doctrine, that
no one is to possess anything, has not become a command of the Church?"

"I am glad," answered the ecclesiastic, "that you have touched the real
point. Our Church has commands which are not universally binding, but
are only so for him who wishes to be perfect, as, for instance, the law
of chastity and of poverty. Only he who wishes to be perfect comes
under it."

"I ask," interposed Eric, "is the teaching of revelation, which is
amply sufficient for the purely spiritual, sufficient also for the
worldly? In the course of the development of humanity do not new social
conditions establish themselves in the world, as out of nature new
forces, steam, electricity--"

"Man," replied the priest, "is always the same from eternity to
eternity, the citizen only changes. But I see now, you are letting
yourself be guided into the right path. I do not desire--the rich man
himself did not desire it--that the boy shall be perfect, and therefore
the command to sell his possessions is not applicable to him. I only
say to you, you will not be able to educate this boy unless you give
him positive religion. The brute does all he has power to do; with it
there is no word 'ought;' but man does not do all that he has power to
do. Simply to do that for which one has the strength, or, yet more
properly, the inclination, and to do everything purely from
inclination, that is not the human; the human begins there where one
tramples his inclination under foot, and does what God's law commands.
Were every one to act according to his inclination, then should we be
sure, at no time, what would become of humanity. The law of God holds
it together, and holds it erect. Here is the significance of the law of
God, here begins the fall, which the gentlemen of natural science have
never got over. The animal has urgent impulses; man can voluntarily
awaken impulse, excite it, goad it