Here I bring to an end my review of these terrible powers of evil; it is an array reminding one of the Princes of Darkness in Milton's Pandemonium. But my plan, which in this respect of course differs from that of all other moralists, required me to consider at the outset this gloomy side of human nature, and, like Dante, to descend first to Tartarus.
It will now be fully apparent how difficult our problem is. We have to find a motive capable of making a man take up a line of conduct directly opposed to all those propensities which lie deeply ingrained in his nature; or, given such conduct as a fact of experience, we must search for a motive capable of supplying an adequate and non-artificial explanation of it. The difficulty, in fact, is so great that, in order to solve it, for the vast majority of mankind, it has been everywhere necessary to have recourse to machinery from another world. Gods have been pointed to, whose will and command the required mode of behaviour was said to be, and who were represented as emphasising this command by penalties and rewards either in this, or in another world, to which death would be the gate. Now let us assume that belief in a doctrine of this sort took general root (a thing which is certainly possible through strenuous inculcation at a very early age); and let us also assume that it brought about the intended effect,—though this is a much harder matter to admit, and not nearly so well confirmed by experience; we should then no doubt succeed in obtaining strict legality of action, even beyond the limits that justice and the police can reach; but every one feels that this would not in the least imply what we mean by morality of the heart. For obviously, every act arising from motives like those just mentioned is after all derived simply from pure Egoism. How can I talk of unselfishness when I am enticed by a promised guerdon, or deterred by a threatened punishment? A recompense in another world, thoroughly believed in, must be regarded as a bill of exchange, which is perfectly safe, though only payable at a very distant date. It is thus quite possible that the profuse assurances, which beggars so constantly make, that those, who relieve them, will receive a thousandfold more for their gifts in the next world, may lead many a miser to generous alms-giving; for such a one complacently views the matter as a good investment of money, being perfectly convinced that he will rise again as a Croesus. For the mass of mankind, it will perhaps be always necessary to continue the appeal to incentives of this nature, and we know that such is the teaching promulgated by the different religions, which are in fact the metaphysics of the people. Be it, however, observed in this connection that a man is sometimes just as much in error as to the true motives that govern his own acts, as he is with regard to those of others. Hence it is certain that many persons, while they can only account to themselves for their noblest actions by attributing them to motives of the kind above described, are, nevertheless, really guided in their conduct by far higher and purer incentives, though the latter may be much more difficult to discover. They are doing, no doubt, out of direct love of their neighbour, that which they can but explain as the command of their God. On the other hand, Philosophy, in dealing with this, as with all other problems, endeavours to extract the true and ultimate cause of the given phaenomena from the disclosures which the nature itself of man yields, and which, freed as they must be from all mythical interpretation, from all religious dogmas, and transcendent hypostases, she requires to see confirmed by external or internal experience. Now, as our present task is a philosophical one, we must entirely disregard all solutions conditioned by any religion; and I have here touched on them merely in order to throw a stronger light on the magnitude of the difficulty.
[1] I venture to use this word although irregularly formed, because "antiethical" would not here give an adequate meaning. Sittlich (in accordance with good manners) and unsittlich (contrary to good manners), which have lately come into vogue, are bad substitutes for moralisch (moral) and unmoralisch (immoral): first, because moralisch is a scientific conception, which, as such, requires to be denoted by a Greek or Latin term, for reasons which may be found in Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. ii., chap. 12, p. 134 sqq.; and secondly, because sittlich is a weaker and tamer expression, difficult to distinguish from sittsam (modest) which in popular acceptation means zimperlich (simpering). No concessions must be made to this extravagant love of germanising!
[2] In Sucht (siech = sick) and Selbst-sucht (suchen= seek) there is an apparent confusion between the two bases SUK (seuka) to be ill, and SÔKYAN, to seek. V. Skeat's Etymological Dictionary.—(Translator.)
[3] It should be noticed that while from the subjective side a man's self assumes these gigantic proportions, objectively it shrinks to almost nothing—namely, to about the one-thousand-millionth part of the human race.
[4] The war of all against all. Hobbes uses this expression. —(Translator.)
[5] This man is black; of him shalt thou, O Roman, beware. V. Horace, Sat., Lib. I. 4. 85.—(Translator.)