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SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 "Sver'tbincj comes t' bim who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/sixletterstopiouOOhein 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAI, 
 
 INTRODUCED BY 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO BISHOP HUGHES, 
 
 BY 
 
 KARL HEINZEN. 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 NEW YORK: OFFICE OF THE "PIONEEE." 
 
 1856. 
 
 Price 10 cents ; 100 copies $6. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by K. HEINZEN, 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the South- 
 ern District of New York. 
 
 Stereotyped by 
 
 Miller & Holman, N. Y. 
 
TO BISHOP HUGHES. 
 
 An Introduction to the 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 You are acquainted with the old adage : "Extremes meet". 
 May the word "meet" be applied to a hostile rencounter, or 
 may it serve to distinguish similarities, which present just the 
 most heterogeneous elements, — the old adage will always hold 
 good. In permitting myself, out of favor to you, to be consid- 
 ered the representative of an "extreme", I appear before yon, 
 the representative of the opposite extreme, not merely as an ad- 
 versary, but I am also sufficiently just to acknowledge those 
 qualities on your side, which "meet* 1 mine. It is, above all 
 things, your jesuitical consistency in the pursuance of your aims, 
 to which I would do all justice. Endeavoring, myself, to be 
 consistent in acting as well as in thinking, being convinced, that 
 only consistency can secure the attainment of great ends, and 
 taught, at the same time, by daily experience that nothing in 
 the world is so rare as consistency, I readily acknowledge the 
 same even there, where I see it devoted to a bad purpose. The 
 clear recognition of ends and means, joined to talent and the 
 will, to accomplish the one, by perseveringly employing the 
 other, is ever something uncommon and must always command 
 respect. 
 
 If I now begin with the acknowledgement of your consistency, 
 you will certainly smile at my directly following that admission 
 with requesting an inconsistency of you, namely, the inconsist- 
 ency of stepping, from the province of faith, over to that of 
 reason. But I will facilitate the task for you, in as much as I 
 do not demand, that you shall defend your doctrines with 
 the arguments of reason, but merely that, with them, you shall 
 overt hrowmine. As reason, with you, ranks below faith, 
 you have the advantage of availing yourself also of the seconda- 
 ry weapon, to which I challenge you ; and if the "aim hallows 
 the means", with which I perfectly agree, without, however, 
 conceding that your aim is a hallowed one, you will not perceive 
 an inconsistency in my requesting you to advance the lofty in- 
 terests of faith with the low means of reason. 
 
 We live in an age that urges all to Parrhesy, that is, to the 
 necessity of drawing the last consequences, to say the last word, 
 or by deed, as it were, to play out the last trump. In this 
 state of Parrhesy, revolution and reaction stand opposite each 
 other in every province, and all middle positions must be resign- 
 ed as untenable. As now, within the province of politics, only 
 
red revolutionists and red reactionists are really yet taken into 
 account, thus, within the province of religion, only Atheists or 
 Materialists and J esuits are of import. Atheism is the Parrhesy 
 of the law of reason ; Jesuitism the Parrhesy of religious faith. 
 Jesuitism is the citadel, in which religious belief must find its 
 last protection — and its grave. No wonder that the citadel 
 is now more strongly fortified than ever ; but the stronger is 
 also the desire to take it or to blow it up. Now, I am not one 
 of those impetuous combattants, who at once attack the scaling 
 ladder ; nor are my inclinations of so subterranean a cast, that 
 I would busy myself with the laying of mines. I am sufficiently 
 humane to content myself with forming a line of rational argu- 
 ments, that you and your comrades may have the choice of 
 bursting the line with the shafts of reason, or surrendering in 
 silence. The objections at first expected, I will meet in the be- 
 ginning, in order that the business of refutation may be easy 
 to you ; if, however, you do not refute, then your silence will be 
 the avowal of your defeat. 
 
 Consistency demands, that at the extirpation of a tree one 
 should secure the roots and not rest satisfied with chopping off 
 the limbs and branches. It was a fruitless struggle to attempt 
 the annihilation of Jesuitism on the ground of belief. Within 
 the province of belief, Jesuitism does and must remain victor ; 
 it alone is justified, alone consistent and all Protestantism, of an 
 old or new kind, is nothing more than the idle disobedience of the 
 child toward the father. Whoever would attack J esuitism, must 
 pursue it further than to Father Loyola ; must grasp it at the 
 root of life, which secures to it growth even without Loyola. 
 This root is belief, and the issuing point of belief is "God" ; 
 is that much talked of and all-unknown "being ", from whom all 
 existence and nonexistence is said to proceed ; is that authority, 
 which never demands personal respect, and respect to which is 
 only vindicated by others ; is that power now represented as 
 Greatness, now as a Terror, that can do everything, and yet 
 is guarded like an enervated old man ; is that stern Sovereign 
 and Judge, who can see into the hearts and kidneys of all, and 
 nevertheless suffers certain persons in black coats, with fat and 
 flaccid bellies, with short and "long" fingers, without any writ- 
 ten permit, nor any document whatever from His cabinet, to 
 nominate themselves His repsesentatives, ministers, generals, po- 
 lice, taxcollectors, privy counselors, adjutants, jailors, yes even 
 his hangmen, in order to govern, exercise, watch, leech, casti- 
 gate, aye, even to behead mankind in His name. 
 
 It is clear, that as long as this wondrous Sovereign exists and 
 is respected, his ministers, generals &c. will have an easy game 
 and, through fictitious cabinet-orders and the imposition of taxes, 
 dispose at pleasure of heads and purses. But if this Sovereign 
 
dissolved to naught, or if he be recognized as the creature of 
 his so called servants, then these also, from the representative 
 down to the hangman will have come to an end ; and well may 
 they rejoice, if deposition be their sole punishment. 
 
 You see, Reverend High Shepherd, that I appear against 
 you with all possible honesty. You will call him no common 
 enemy, who challenges you to slay him, that you may remain 
 alive. Do not, however, let yourself be drawn into the error of 
 thinking, that the declaration of my belief, with which in the 
 following letters I shall oppose you, is merely intended to elicit 
 controversy, and that I am only an atheist because you are a 
 Jesuit. The sun does not shine exclusively for the purpose of 
 transforming our earthly night into day ; it becomes day even 
 because the sun shines, and it would shine still though our earth 
 were to sink into an abyss of the universe. 
 
 The following letters contain the confession of the belief of an 
 "Atheist" in a concise form. They have already existed ten 
 years in the German language and have in vain awaited refu- 
 tation ; perhaps they will prove more fortunate, having made 
 their appearance in the English language, if you, Sir, famed as 
 a controvertist, will honor them with your attention. 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 First clear sky, then clear ground ! 
 
 I. 
 
 You condemn me as an infidel. I will give you an opportunity 
 of founding your sentence of condemnation, in as much, as I shall 
 disclose, with all human candor, my inmost thoughts to you. 
 Let us begin with the main point, with the "cause of all things", 
 with your " God". But I must premise the subject itself with 
 a few remarks upon the manner, in which you are in the habit 
 of treating the same. 
 
 If you are as consequential in thinking as in acting, you will al- 
 low me to point out the contradiction, in which the kind of your 
 god-worship stands to the conception of your ,,God". If, name- 
 ly, you really imagine your „God" such as you seek to repre- 
 sent him, I must then ask you, who offends him more, I, who 
 deny him, or you, who seek to defend him against me ? What 
 ,,God" is he, who must be defended by his creature, that kneels, 
 powerless and humble, before him ? What ,,God" is he, who 
 is endangered by being denied ? What „God" is he, whose an- 
 ger is aroused, as you assume, by his creature being too blend- 
 ed to recognize him ? What „God" is he, who needs to his rescue 
 the assistance of police or of rabble ? What ,,God" is he, whose 
 most zealous defenders are the combatants of reason and free- 
 dom ? Reverend father, I would be justified in doubting your 
 truthfulness, when you say, that you believe in a ,,God", for, 
 whoever believes in a ,,God", must certainly also form an idea 
 of him, and whoever forms an idea of him, must form a more 
 worthy one of a ,,God", than that he should require the protec- 
 tion of populace, priests or police. How will you expect me 
 to believe in a „God", whom you let appear the abstract, at once, 
 of hate and impotence ? You can give your ,,God" no greater 
 "testimonium pauper tatis", than by the animosity, with which 
 you watch and persecute the doubts of his existence. You as- 
 sert, that you are as well convinced of „ God's" existence as of 
 your own. If I should think of denying your existence, you 
 would laugh at me ; but if I deny your „God", you consider 
 him endangered and persecute me. How does this harmonize, 
 „god worshipper" ? You unconsciously give to understand, that 
 you assume the possibility of your ,,God" being annihilated and 
 
4 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 with him the foundation of your spiritual existence and world of 
 belief. You are aware, that you are not the creature of a ,,God" ; 
 but that ,,God" is your creature. In this your creature and in 
 your „ belief in the same, you do not guard ,,God", who can 
 not need protection, but your office, your influence, your means 
 of sway, in short your priestly egotism. As long as your ,,God" 
 exists, you are a potential man ; as soon as he falls, you fall 
 also ; you may, from a richly endowed priest, perhaps, become 
 a beggar, from a man of property a vagabond, from a patron of 
 the church a servant, from a general a petty officer, or from a 
 pattern of virtue you may become a scoundrel, that is, a declared 
 one. 
 
 Would you prevent me from giving expression to the fact, 
 that I can not believe in your „God" ? Would you, in honor 
 of your ,,God", make me a liar unto him ? Would you main- 
 tain, that out of regard for your „God", one may not think 
 what in accordance with his nature he must think, and not say 
 what he thinks ? Are you the censor of your „God" ? Think 
 what you can, and believe what you will, and say what you be- 
 lieve ; but allow me to do the same, or you will have to admit, 
 that I, without the assistance of a „God", act more tolerantly 
 and godly" than you at the hand and in the name of your 
 „God". But may you be intolerant and prevent what you will; 
 as little as you can hinder Woman from bringing forth that 
 which she bears in her womb, * as little shall you hinder my na- 
 ture from following out its necessities and setting to light, in 
 comprehensible language, as its spiritual fruit, the creed of a 
 new time. 
 
 According to your principles, presupposing their uprightness, 
 it may seem consistent to pity me as one missing the ,, consola- 
 tion" of believing in your ,,God"; but if, on account thereof, you 
 get angry at me, you act extremely inconsistent, for attempt- 
 ing to compel a man to believe in ,,God", is but to streng- 
 then him in his d o u b t s of „God". 
 
 As to the ,, consolation", leave it calmly to me, to make out 
 my case with ,,God" between ourselves, if you believe, that I 
 shall come in collision with him. If you fear as little for your 
 ,,God", as I fear for myself, you can readily grant me this re- 
 quest. But you also must grant it, for if it be an outrage, not 
 to believe in ,,God", then you are at most justified in appearing 
 as witness, but not as j u d g e in the case. How can you be 
 judge in the affairs of a being, whom you can not comprehend, 
 and by whom, according to your own assurance, you yourself 
 will be judged? If this being be so constituted as you imagine 
 him to be, you must admit, that he alone is capable of judging 
 his own case, and that he also does not require your testimony. 
 
 As with your ,,God", you deal likewise with the religion ap- 
 pended to him. You praise its might, its immutability, its un- 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAX*. 5 
 
 shakableness, and yet you cry aloud and complain of the under- 
 mining of all „ godliness " whenever it is touched with the knive 
 of unbelieving criticism. Can anything more ridiculous, than 
 this proceeding, be thought of, and can there likewise be a more 
 speaking proof of the insolidity of your own belief ? If a boy 
 tells you, that he will dash the Chimborasso to fragments with 
 a pebble, will you prevent him from making the trial ? Will 
 your anger be excited, because he gives you an opportunity to 
 convince him of his folly ? Well then, you represent your ,,G-od" 
 and your religion as a Chimborasso, and give yourself the ap- 
 pearance of holding criticism for the boy with the pebblestone. 
 Why do you not permit him to arrive at the conviction of the 
 unshakableness of the Chimborasso through his own experience, 
 and by his vain endeavors also to impart his conviction to 
 others ? Should you not rather wish for than hate criticism, 
 if you believe in its inefficiency ? I must straightway declare 
 to you, that you become a liar unto your ,,G-od" and your reli- 
 gion no less than unto yourself, if you preach ban and flames 
 against those, who give you the opportunity of proving that 
 which you proclaim as your belief. You unweariedly repeat : 
 ,,They shall not overcome the portals of hell' 7 ; but scarcely are 
 the portals of reason opened, and you hold all for lost. With 
 your heavenly affairs, it is exactly the same as with the affairs 
 of earthly gods, who likewise so haughtily boast of their rocklike 
 durability, jvhilst they do not believe themselves secure in their 
 laughable existence for a week's time, unless through censorism, 
 and by other forcible and false means, they prevent the expo- 
 sure of their imbecilities. All of you may take axample by me 
 and those like me. What we believe and what we are, we 
 fearlessly and without reserve make subject to each criticism, 
 if this criticism reject but one aid, which we, on our side, as 
 little wish for as possess, and which, you will have to aknow- 
 ledge, is nowhere more unaptly placed, than at the side of a 
 „GocF : I mean the aid of police and rabble- fists! 
 
 You say, that which is holy dare not be touched. But what 
 then is h o 1 y ? How can anything attest its power, the effect 
 of its ,, holiness", if from the very first I declare it unapproach- 
 able ? How can any thing be testet by the „ portals of hell", if 
 from the very first I determine, that it dare not approach them ? 
 Is not the assertion of such holiness a bare attestation of weak- 
 ness ? Upon what is this holiness based ? Upon the nature of 
 the holy itself — impossible ! for if the holy is conscious, that it 
 can bear no touching, then verily, it is not worth being deemed 
 holy. Whereupon then ? Upon the will of those, who venerate 
 the holy ? Well then, I ask again, whereupon this will is based ? 
 Certainly not upon the reliance, that the holy can actually stand 
 the test. What else remains to you in opposition to this 
 assertion, but to permit of the test being made ? If you will 
 
6 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 not accede to this, if this ,, holiness" is to depend merely on your 
 arbitration, then I lay claim to the same liberty as you take for 
 yourself, and herewith demand, that my unbelief in your ,,God" 
 and your religion be likewise considered holy. You speak of 
 freedom of conscience ; would you have it for yourself alone ? 
 Believe me, Sir, my convictions, in certain respects, are more 
 sacred to me, than your belief is to you. The difference merely 
 consists in my vindicating the right of my convictious being test- 
 ed, and in your vindicating the right of withdrawing your belief 
 from the test. For me, there is nothing in the world more 
 sacred than truth ; and truth wants and demands to be tested. 
 
 Pious man, above all things, keep aloof from me with your 
 "holiness", for "holiness" is nothing but a shield for the despo- 
 tism of falsehood. There is nothing in the world more sacred 
 than right on the one side, and duty on the other. At these 
 sanctuaries, built on the foundation of truth, you may shake 
 and criticize as you will ; they remain what they are, and rea- 
 son builds them up again whenever falsehood has destroyed 
 them. But that by right and duty I understand something 
 different from your interpretation, will be subsequently shown. 
 
 II. 
 
 As long as Man had not become conscious of himself and 
 could not arrive at a closer knowledge of things that were and 
 wrought beside himself, it was quite natural, that he should 
 ascribe all phenomena and effects of nature to a power, which 
 he conceived and magnified according to his own being. Every- 
 thing thus received in his eyes a supernatural, yet nevertheless 
 from human nature abstracted origin and character ; and as every 
 living being conceives things according to the benefit or injury 
 they do to him, it simply so happened, that miscomprehending 
 Man attributed to all, that met his senses, a design relative to 
 himself, and by which the imagined higher power made known 
 its relation to him. The good weather, that ripened his fruits, 
 betokened the good design of a higher power, and he offered 
 thanks ; the hailstorm, that crushed his fruits, betokened an 
 inimical design, and he prayed for grace. Thus Man arrived at 
 the belief in a "God". Not the heart, as has been maintain- 
 ed, but interests and miscomprehension have created that 
 which is generally called "God". God is, in truth, nothing 
 but the unrecognized cause of things, which Man 
 conceived as a potential human, that is, a superhuman being, and 
 which he in his conception gradually so modeled, that he enter- 
 ed into an imaginary relation to the same, not only with his 
 in hope and fear abiding interests, but also with his ideas and 
 feelings. Thus was not only "God" originated, but also the 
 "Father", the "King of the World" &c. 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 7 
 
 You perceive at once, from this view of the origin of the god- 
 idea, that it is an impossibility for my understanding, to form a 
 compromising agreement with the belief in your "God". You 
 must therefore advance rational arguments for this belief, and if I 
 am to be converted, you must so settle, and so enthrall my rea- 
 son, that it can neither out nor in, as for instance is the case 
 when you say : twice two are four. Let us then look at your 
 arguments somewhat closer. 
 
 The reasons, which you generally offer for the existence of a 
 "God", have not come in contact with the doubt of "God", 
 but only with the b eli e f in "God", and are therefore no reasons 
 for me. Guided by the principles of reason, I must proceed 
 from the right of doubting all that I cannot comprehend, and 
 then make my belief depend on the arguments, that may arise 
 pro and contra, Not belief, but doubt is to me the magic 
 wand of Truth. Hitherto belief in "God" has prevailed in the 
 world and disbelif becomes opposed to belief. If disbelief had 
 hitherto prevailed, and belief should now take its place, the 
 courseof argumentation must provequite adif- 
 ferent one. Imagine to yourself, that no farspread belief 
 existed, that you were about to found the same, found it in an 
 educated world, which from the very beginning recognized only 
 that, which I place in the stead of the belief in "God", and 
 then ask yourself, what reasons you would furnish for this belief? 
 Put this question earnestly to yourself, and you will at least 
 come to exert your reasoning powers more, than the habit of 
 believing has hitherto made necessary to you to do. If you de- 
 mand belief of me, then I demand, that you will forthwith pro- 
 duce unequivocal evidence of the existence of "God" and 
 fixed views of his being, or else I will continue to deny him "in 
 contumaciam". 
 
 There is to be no effect possible without a cause, consquently 
 no creation without a creator. This is the main and in fact the 
 only argument worthy of examination, whereby you and others 
 support and can support yourselves. In reply I must simply 
 remark to you, that I can not admit of a creation, where noth- 
 ing has been, consequently can only conceive of a change of 
 the already extant, be it by transformation, be it by 
 decomposition, be it by combination, or be it by devel- 
 opment of a germ. A creation is a nonsense. You would 
 prove by your proposition, that there once existed no world and 
 that the same was created by a being, whom you call "God". 
 Consequently this being must have existed prior to te world. 
 But, I ask you, wh ere did this being exist, and what existed 
 before him? "Who again created this being ? You answer : 
 He existed from eternity. Well then, if nothing remains to you 
 for a foundation but this eternity, beyond which I as little as 
 yourself can go, and which does not at all admit of an enquiry 
 
8 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 after the p r im e cause, I then ask, why do you not shorten 
 the processs and at once declare : the world exists from eter- 
 nity? ! If "God" could exist without a cause, then the world 
 could also exist without a cause, that is, be the cause of itself. 
 If you can imagine a "God" who existed without the world from 
 eternity, then you can much easier imagine a World, that 
 existed from eternity without "God". I maintain, that you can 
 as little imagine a "God" without a world, as a "God" 
 beyond the world. Consequently you are obliged, to let your 
 "God" and the world exist together from eternity. 
 But thereby your "God" again gets into a dilemma, because he 
 must have existed i n the world and was thus not independent 
 of the world, and therefore no "God". I will spare him this 
 embarrassment ; I make no distinction between this "God" and 
 this world, but imagine to myself simply aworld, that has 
 existed from eternity, that in its development has undergone, 
 and still will undergo, many changes. I can not conceive, 
 that this world, or the material for it, did at one time not 
 exist, and that, as you say, it in the course of time grew out of 
 nothing, for, out of nothing can now and never arise a some- 
 thing. If' I once assume, that the world, this great "organism" 
 of suns and stars, could have arisen from nothing, then 
 verely there is, also nothing to prevent me 
 from letting it arise without the assistence 
 of a "God". But if I would absolutely imagine, that the 
 world was born out of a "God", who, as nothing can proceed 
 from nothing, must necessarily have had all the material for the 
 world within himself, I do not perceive, why I should not rather, 
 instead of that "God", whom I know not where to place out- 
 side of the world, take the world itself and consider "God" 
 to be the world and simply declare, that the world was born 
 of itself, that is, developed ? The simple solution of your enig- 
 ma is therefore this, that "cause" and "effect" coin- 
 cide, that creator and creation are one and the 
 same, namely, the World or Universe. 
 
 Further enquiries, as to the manner of the world's develop- 
 ment and the primitive matter of the same, lead me into 
 chemical, geological, and astronomical science ; in respect to 
 its beginning and its prime-impulse, I come back to 
 eternity, before which you with your "God" stand even as still 
 as I without a "God", as on the whole theology has simply 
 borrowed all its conceptions from common sense, in order 
 to in turn impress them as something higher, in mysterious form 
 upon the same. It no longer condescends to meet the doubts 
 of common sense and proudly shuns its enquiries. Ask yourself 
 for instance, quite simply, where then your "God" remained, af- 
 ter he had created or born the world ? Do you imagine him, 
 once again this question, perhaps outside of the world ? 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 9 
 
 outside of the world? Can you do this ? Do you perhaps as- 
 sume, that htewrold has separated itself from him as a child from 
 its mother ? Then I must ask, what became of the mother ? You 
 will certainly not assert, that there exists a particular world, 
 wither the creator of our's retired as to a palace, and whence 
 he issues his commands? You say rather yourself, 
 that he is "omnipresent'', which idea you have again borrowed 
 from common sense. But if he be "omnipresent if he be pres- 
 ent in all parts of the world, then he cannot get out of it, then 
 he is simply apart of all parts of the same, is inseparable 
 from it, is himself World. There remains, if the word "God" 
 is to be retained, only a worldly "God" or a godly world, but 
 not a god a n d a world. This little word and decides all. 
 Then say rather, with common sense, that "God" is the 
 world or the world is "God", or be quite consequential and say : 
 the world is — the world, and "God" is a chimera. 
 
 In reducing the world to itself, I have, indeed, not solved the 
 riddles, which you commonly propose by extolling the won- 
 drous "guidance" and "preservation", by which instead of 
 the laws of Nature you introduce an independent monarch's 
 will, as though the world were a kingdom after Solomonic 
 pattern. In a word, I have not yet expounded or fathomed 
 the laws o f N a t u r e. But apart from this, that not all things 
 can. be fathomed, as every investigation but opens the road 
 to new investigations, and the solution of all problems would 
 be equal to the cessation of all development, or to Death, I merely 
 ask,ifyou can conceive a digression from Nature's 
 laws? Can you conceive a sovereign of the world, in whose 
 will it lay, to remove but a single power of Nature, or compel 
 it to produce an other effect than that which it has hitherto pro- 
 duced ? Let your "God" once change water to fire and the earth 
 to water and in a few hours he will have nothing more to 
 "guide" nor to "preserve", not even himself. But if you must 
 admit, that your Lord* of the world cannot transpose the laws 
 of Nature, that he therefore, instead of governing, is governed 
 by them, then all the sovereign wisdom, which you would attrib- 
 ute to a monarch independent of Nature, falls down before 
 Nature's necessities. "Wisdom", "order", and organic life of 
 the world are nothing else and nothing more than the simple 
 and inevitable result of the material powers of different elements 
 reconciled by responding combinations. 
 
 As I can not think of anything beyond the universe, thus I 
 can also think of no more universes than one. This one, this 
 allcomprising, this unit world, I can as little conceive to be 
 finite in space as in time, and even as little finite in its 
 development. The acme of this development runs into self- 
 conscious-grown spirit and this spirit manifests itself in human- 
 kind. I indeed assume, that on the other celestial bodies there 
 
10 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 are also beings, in whom the spirit is manifested in a similar 
 manner, and perhaps in still higher potency, than in mankind ; 
 but as long as mankind comes not in contact with these beings 
 (a contact, which for the rest could afford Man no disclosures 
 running contrary to his development, as otherwise, this develop- 
 ment could not have led to these disclosures), it has no other 
 foundation of knowledge, than i t s e 1 f, as it also has no other 
 aim, than its development, which is at once development of the 
 world. But the purpose of its development is nothing else but 
 conscious knowledge and happiness. May Man recognize that 
 his aim is himself, and he then will. also attain that k aim. 
 
 The world is an infinite whole of physical matters and powers 
 existing from eternity. This definition does not at all suffer 
 from the fact, that the elements combined out of chaotic masses 
 and their powers, erst after various revolutions found their 
 proper sphere of action. These powers operating in matter, 
 presented themselves partially as bound, partially as free, thus 
 partially as socalled natural, partially as socalled spiritual 
 powers ; but they are such not from an original distinguishment 
 ot Nature and Spirit ; the socalled spirit first formed itself 
 through a cooperation of various natural powers and is, as it 
 were, an extract of Nature. Through this cooperation, Nature, 
 after having further developed herself, first in subordinate form- 
 ations, the animals, arrives in the form of later originated Man 
 to "consciousness", to "freedom", to "reason", and now dispo- 
 ses of herself, studies herself, cultivates herself, perfects herself 
 with mind. She will also come so far, as to make herself in 
 the form of Man, and that Man will entirely learn to know and 
 govern his being and his mind, in respect to its origin as well as 
 to its constitution. The presentiment of this perfection it was, 
 wich gave to Man the idea of an "Omnipotence", an "Omnis- 
 cience" &c. ; but as he did not yet see them realized in him- 
 self, and had not the courage to attribute them to himself, he 
 transferred them meanwhile to an imaginary being, whom 
 he called "God". He had likewise the presentiment of "omni- 
 presence", which signifies nothing else but his connection with 
 the whole of Nature, whose noblest powers, as it were, stream 
 in him together. 
 
 As I have already told you, I meanwhile stand still with you 
 before eternity. I accept of it, I presuppose it ; but I even so 
 presuppose the eternity of the existing matter and its powers, 
 with the germ of an eternal development. A reason existing 
 prior to these matters and powers, into which it should have 
 infused existence and development, is to me nonsense. For, 
 firstly, I can not imagine reason as something having an isolated 
 existence, not without these matters and powers ; secondly, if 
 these matters and powers came into existence erst after and 
 through reason, to then recieve from it the law of reason, I 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 H 
 
 must assume, that reason had originally produced them as some- 
 thing unreasonable, which is a contradiction ; and thirdly, rea- 
 son were very unreasonable, if, capable of existing for itself, 
 it still were to make itself dependent on those matters and 
 powers, in which it first made its appearance. 
 
 These observations will make it clear to you, how absurd your 
 assumption of a socalled "providence " is. You assume, as it 
 were, a government existing from eternity, but which, neverthe- 
 less, did not exist as long as it had nothing to govern, and which 
 therefore created for itself a kingdom called the world. Is this 
 not absurd ? And still more absurd is the further consequence, 
 namely, that the government which as "allknowing" and "all- 
 wise " must beforehand know to all eternity, what it will do and 
 whereunto it will govern, should still give itself the everlasting 
 trouble of this governing ; thus, in fact, carrying on the 
 business of a frightful, eternal, "godly " ennui. As "allmighty" 
 this government would act far more sensibly, by at once 
 consummating perfection, instead of eternally turning round on 
 its own wisdom, at most for the purpose, as it were, of taking 
 "godly " exercise upon the infinite prairie of omniscience. 
 
 III. 
 
 As you are aware, there are socalled Pantheists, who take the 
 whole world to be "God". You are partially a Pantheist your- 
 self, since your belief teaches, that "God" is omnipresent. 
 Pantheism is virtually a nonentity and in substance quite similar 
 to 'socalled Atheism. It shuns denying . "God" openly and 
 honestly and thinks to conciliate both parties by placing "God" 
 everywhere, instead of supplanting him by that wherein it 
 places him. It thinks to rescue "God" by getting rid of him 
 ina round-about way. It seems to me like one, who, 
 not at once to do away with the nobility and still not to offend 
 the citizenship, would make nobleman of all the citizens. If I 
 convert the whole world to "God", consequently transfer "God" 
 partially and chiefly into mankind, then it is in reality the same 
 as if I partially convert "God" to Man ; but if I do this, then 
 the personal, specifically different, apart 
 from the world and mankind existing "god", 
 is done away with, and this is just the decisive point. 
 The subterfuge, that there could be in the world a central 
 point, a heart, as it were (which does not however suit to the 
 idea of infinity), in which the world-spirit has its primeval seat 
 of life, and in which it sooner came to consciousness than in 
 mankind, does not at all alter the case. To enter upon such an 
 assumption, it is not denied, that, as the spirit of Man, con- 
 centrated chiefly in the head, with the whole human body, thus 
 the socalled world-spirit forms likewise with the body of the 
 
12 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 world an undividable whole, and that of this whole 
 mankind forms an inseparable, necessary and equally entitled 
 part. But on this the question just depends. If the power or 
 combination of powers, which, to favor you, I will call world- 
 spirit, has perhaps even before the existence of the human race 
 developed and selfconsciously manifested itself upon another 
 part of the world, in other beings, or by other means, this can 
 as little affect us as if, within the confines of mankind, its spirit 
 had sooner become conscious in Europe than in Africa. The 
 Africans are therefore just as well men as we are. In a like 
 manner our spirit is just as well "world-spirit", as perhaps that 
 spirit, which upon the sun or elsewhere is active and may have 
 already been active before us. Wether we call this "spirit", 
 this exhibition of power, "God", and consequently the human 
 spirit godly, or wether we call it Man, and consequently the 
 god-spirit human, is all the same. The name is of no account, 
 and I only object to the name Pantheism, because with the theo- 
 logical term there is always connected the old idea of a particular, 
 domineering, mysterious being, that annihilates all clear views 
 of life and confuses all conceptions of right, and to which mankind 
 is brought in an unequal, dependent, subordinate, devotional, 
 illegal, humble, unworthy, debased, obligatory, sacrificing re- 
 lationship. I would also not ^av ail myself of the word Atheism 
 (Non-God-belief), if I could' introduce another more suitable 
 term, since Atheism is something merely negative, merely ex- 
 pressing opposition to something not existing. A living being 
 is by no one called a non-deceased beiug, but simply a living 
 being. Thus an Atheist should merely be called, perchance, 
 a world-man or in short, a man instead of an unbeliever or infidel. 
 
 If a "God", as I have said above, is nothing but an express- 
 ion for the uncomprehended cause of things, then an Atheist is 
 nothing but a friend to the comprehension of that cause. This 
 must be kept in view, in order to estimate the absurdity of those, 
 who would debase the term Atheism to an epithet of disgrace. 
 And further the different points of view must be borne in mind, 
 from which the believers fling forth this word as fulmination. 
 There is a Catholic, a Protestant, a Mormon, a Quaker, a 
 Turkish, an Indian, a Chinese, a Russian, a New-Zealand 
 "God", in short, there are a thousand quite different "Gods", 
 who are of course all true "Gods", consequently all 
 Atheists to each other, not to speak af those who believe 
 in them. In which of all these gods is one to believe in order 
 not to be an Atheist ? In the "true" one you will say, and 
 the true one is of course yours, and yours is your imagination 
 or your falsehood. Then, not to be an Atheist I must believe 
 in you, and yet you are (sit venia verbo !) a — blockhead or a 
 hypocrite. And consequently, not to be an Atheist, I must 
 in the last instance believe in a blockhead or a hypocrite. 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 13 
 
 IV. 
 
 You thus perceive that I can not imagine or accept of a 
 personal, apart from the world existing, or even from the 
 world and mankind separable and independent being, whom you 
 call "God". I abstract entirely from the idea as from the name 
 of "God" and imagine merely a World; but myself with my 
 fellow beings (even as flowers, animals &c.) I conceive as parts 
 and expressions of this world, in wich it developed and propa- 
 gated its life ; and indeed, as the acme of this world-life I must 
 recognize the socalled spirit, which is revealed in earthly man- 
 kind and, according to my supposition, in other mankinds on 
 other stars. Above the spirit of Man I can know and aknow- 
 ledge nothing, since that which I know and comprehend, is 
 not above me, and that which I do not comprehend, does not 
 yet exist for me. All that exists for me I must also learn to 
 comprehend, and this learning to comprehend is human devel- 
 opment, is human life, is the road to human happiness. For 
 mankind there is no higher aim, there can be no higher aim, 
 than conscious knowledge and happiness, or if you will, mere 
 happiness, as knowledge forms the chief part and the real worth 
 of happiness. But to the attainment of this end Man will be 
 found sufficiently fitted by nature, if, or as, the world is 
 sufficiently fitted to the attainment of its end and Man forms, 
 at his place, an active part, a chief expression of the same. 
 
 In thus cutting clear from my conceptions all that you attach 
 to the name of "God", in consequence whereof a socalled theo- 
 logical world no longer exists for me, I of course also cut off 
 all that the mind of Man has through the course of his unde- 
 fined development attached to that theological world ; thus all 
 that is presumed to have been imparted to him from an outward 
 and to flow back from him to a particular outward source, thus 
 revealed religion and immortality, according to the whilom 
 conception. If no "God" exists or can exist beyond mankind 
 or the* world, then he can have revealed nothing to them from 
 beyond ; nothing is revealed to the mind of Man exept that, 
 which he d e v e 1 o p e s out of himself or the 
 w o r 1 d. As further the spirit can not have come in the world 
 from beyond, but must have always been in it, thus it can not 
 return to a "God" from whom it did not proceed ; therefore it 
 quietly remains in the world. I too believe in immortality, in as 
 much as I believe in the immortality of the world. But in a 
 personal continuance of Man I of course do not believe, 
 neither does it interest me, having once recognized the impossi- 
 bility of it. Even to you it must be indifferent, if you do not 
 straight-way believe in the resurrection of the flesh with skin 
 and bones. For from what other motive would you wish your 
 existence continued, if not because you hope to continue, after 
 
14 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 death, your individual life, and indeed, if possible, with other 
 human beings, whose individuality is endeared to you ? But 
 what forms your individuality ? Nothing but the union of your 
 flesh, your blood, your nerves &c. Dissolve this union, destroy 
 but one single part of this organic, corporal combination, and 
 the product of the same, Reverend N. , is likewise vanished or 
 changed; and even though you assume a separate continu- 
 ance of the spirit, after this dissolution, you can only con- 
 ceive this "spirit" as perfectly indifferent, that is, provided you 
 do not reconnect it with the remaining parts of your personality. 
 I do not imagine the spirit separate, neither in Man nor in the 
 whole World, but consider it as not without existence, and 
 existence not without life, and life not without "matter " and 
 matter again not without life. 
 
 But this is Materialism ! you will exclaim. Yes, *it is 
 Materialism ! "Materiatism" in a like manner to "Atheism" 
 has become an epithet of abuse, which is applied by narrowmind- 
 edness and illwill to that which they do not understand, or 
 which is inconvenient to them. I maintain that in the world 
 there can be nothing immaterial. And what is lost by it ? Is 
 that which we call soul, thought, feeling &c, less soul, 
 thought, feeling, because I do not separate- them from 
 matter ? Would you have the perfume of the flower without 
 the flower ? Abusing "Materialism" is the most stupid thing 
 in the world. As long as it is found necessary to bring the 
 sensitive and material, that is, the existing to be aknow- 
 ledged and respected, so long there can be no talk of a general 
 happiness and general rationality. As long as people need the 
 ghosts of things instead of their substance, so long will they 
 bother themselves with chimeras. The mind is nothing but the 
 result of an organic combination of physical powers. The whole 
 world is, as it were, a chemical, magnetical, electrical &c, 
 laboratory, in which, the material powers (also called vital pow- 
 ers) consummate their unceasing changes and transformations. 
 Where one formation ceases, another begins. Even the corpse 
 of Man lives ; but this is no longer human life, it is only the 
 life of "anorganic" Nature, to which the human form, after its 
 dissolution, returns, and out of which "organic" Nature repro- 
 duces itself. There is nothing dead in the world, and dying 
 implys only a retransformation to the material of common life. 
 But if the special spirit, which is the subject of contest, the 
 spirit of a single human being, is to reappear, there 
 must from that material, by way of generation and sustenance, 
 an organic human form be redeveloped ; and how you are to 
 imagine the reproduction of all the millions of individual human 
 forms, which have returned to that material, remains with your- 
 self. Where is the perfume of the flower, when the flower is 
 withered ? Where is the spirit of Man, when Man is deceased ? 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 15 
 
 With the same right, wherewith you claim a resurrection of 
 Man, I might claim a resurrection of the flowers. And that 
 animals have as much claim to your "immortality" as yourself, is 
 a matter of course. 
 
 However, the desire for ressurrection after death must de- 
 crease more and more, in proportion as mankind learn to 
 properly fill out their lives, to rationally outlive themselves. 
 If they do this, they will depart from Life with equanimity. In 
 sixty years a man can live and experience so much, that he is 
 perfectly satisfied, provided of course, that mankind have erst 
 humanely arranged theiy social relations. Kow the fife of most 
 men is but a continuation of troubles and tortures, unnecessarily 
 imposed upon them by their fellow beings. When erst the 
 despots, the priests, the bloodsuckers are done away with, and 
 the conditions of a truely humane life are secured to All, then 
 those, who must take leave of life before their time, without 
 having preenjoyed their "immortality", without having humane- 
 ly outlived themselves, will belong to the exceptions, whilst 
 now they form the generality. 
 
 V. 
 
 You have in a rather unexpected manner conquered yourself 
 in permitting me, at least briefly, to say, what in the main 
 points I believe and do not believe, although you perhaps would 
 not have had the tolerance to permit my more fully demonstra- 
 ting the acknowledgement of my belief in opposition to the whole 
 of yours. Neither will this be requisite, as the criticism of your 
 Christianity is already perfectly exhausted. You now ask me 
 what I have in reality gained, after having cut off your "God", 
 your religion and immortality, after having reduced mankind 
 and the world to itself and deprived Man of the prospect of a 
 "better life,, ? 
 
 What I have gained ? Why, all that I need. I can mean- 
 while think of no greater benefit to mankind, than the loss of 
 their theological ideas and that what they understand by "relig- 
 ion" and "immortality". Think not, that I treat the subject 
 frivolously, I take it very earnestly. I also request you to 
 coolly overcome for a time your fright at my denial of "God" 
 and let go the stupid old-foggy idea, that a socalled Atheist 
 must be a criminal or a monster. Such an idea easily attaches 
 itself to all that appears new or stands alone. But your Christ 
 also at first stood alone, and yet he involuntarily fulfilled that 
 which was his historical task, namely to level by way of the 
 feeling the terrain of the vain "universal Love of 
 Man", upon which reason build up the universal 
 Rights of Man. You will therefore admit, that standing 
 alone forms no ground of argument, and you must know that 
 
16 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 there can be times, when a single human being forms mankind. 
 Do not estimate the worth of a man according to the number 
 of his company, nor the worth of a creed according to the number 
 of its votaries. Be assured, that an Atheist can mean better 
 towards his fellowman, than thousands and thousands of ado- 
 rers of "God", yes, that he must mean better, because he 
 recognises the proper individual Rights of Man. Let me now 
 briefly notice, what the positive result of my negations is. 
 
 1. The belief in a master of the spirit is the father of all 
 bondage ; the casting off of this belief is the mother of all spirit- 
 ual freedom. As soon as the mind recognizes a master, it is no 
 longer master of itself, but simply becomes the servant of the 
 phantasies that it forms about such a master. It has thereby 
 properly ceased to be spirit, for, the legitimation of the mind 
 consists in masterless, in free recognition. There is no greater 
 contradiction, than spirit and "God". There is only one spirit; 
 if that exists above mankind, then it exists not i n mankind ; 
 but if it exists in mankind, then mankind can not be subordinate 
 to it. The highest in mankind, as well as on the whole, is the 
 spirit. It can, so to express myself, be divided into different 
 quantities, but qualitatively it must be of the same kind. 
 If there were two qualitatively different spirits, the one would 
 know nothing of the other, would stand in no relation to the 
 other, consequently, exist always only for itself. Whoever does 
 not aknowledge this, renounces his spirit in order to make him- 
 self the slave of something, which is, at all events, foreign to 
 his spirit. Whoever renounces but a hair's bredth of his spirit, 
 destroys it at the same time, delivers himself up, is slave of him, 
 who takes advantage of his spiritlessness. And in as much as 
 believing Man the bearer of the spirit, which as of a higher 
 kind, as nonhuman, he places above himself, can ever imagine 
 but a M a n and acknowledge one of his fellow men, so in prac- 
 tice the god-belief becomes slavish belief and god- worship but 
 priest-worship. 
 
 2. If mankind turn their eyes from a being and a world, 
 which exist not, and cast them upon themselves and the 
 actual world, they will learn to recognize their position, their 
 task, their worth, and direct their care to themselves alone. 
 They will learn to perceive, that they are an entitled, a highly 
 entitled part of the world and not an unentitled race, who exist 
 merely by charity, having to thank for, or even sacrifice their 
 right of happiness to an imaginary "Lord". They will learn 
 to recognize themsslves as their own Lord and their own aim. 
 They will learn to direct their endeavors solely to their happi- 
 ness, when they have unlearnt to look at unhappiness as 
 their highest obligation ; they will learn to seek their happi- 
 ness here, when they perceive, that it is never and 
 nowhere else to be found. They will learn to recog- 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN* 
 
 17 
 
 nize, that it is folly and crim e to neglect a happiness which 
 has its source only in themselves, and that this crime may cease, 
 they will make of human happiness a common human cause; 
 they will learn to have a solidary care for human 
 happiness. They will learn to hold together after they have 
 recognized, that they are confined to themselves, and they will 
 consciously strive towards their designation as soon as the circle 
 of their consciousness circumscribes them in discernable proximity, 
 and the misty sphere of phan'tastic conceptions is vanished. 
 They will make that which you call Christian Love, to Truth, 
 and Christian Love will be transformed to actual Love of Man. 
 They will direct love to themselves, the love which above all 
 you would have transferred to an unapproachable being, a being, 
 to whom, if he could exist, such love must evidently be very in- 
 different. 
 
 3. When the belief in a "God" has ceased, every obligation, 
 which yon would impose on Man towards "God", will also cease, 
 and only the duty of Man towards Man will 
 remain. Morality will be simplified, and partially quite 
 transformed ; theological morality will become human 
 morality. This morality will no longer know any other duty 
 than that which one human being has to fulfil towards another ; 
 the common Rights of Man will be recognized as the 
 source of these duties, and in the nonfulfilment of these duties, 
 the expedient of appealing or referring to "higher duties" will 
 be entirely cut off. No socalled higher duty can further come 
 in collision with the duties towards fellow men, as little as a so- 
 called higher right can come in collision with the rights of Man. 
 Neither a despot nor a priest may longer appeal to the "gracs" 
 and the "will of God", when depriving men of their equal rights 
 and plundering and misleading them to other ends than those 
 which stand prescribed on the way of their human happiness ; 
 the theological order of rank among mankind, by which some 
 are raised like demi-"godly" beings in an artificial nimbus above 
 others, will be deprived of its fundament and fall together. Is 
 that debasing culture of human gods, called majesties, anything 
 else but a reflection of the god-belief ? Does not the oppression 
 and the degradation of the god-belief transplant itself from the 
 man at Rome as well as from the man at St. Petersburg and 
 all the other masjesterial set, through all grades of society down 
 to the sexton and the body-guard ? Does the degradation of 
 European peoples rest virtually on another foundation than, for 
 instance, the degradation of the Chinese ? Is not the political 
 as well as the social life of the whole civilized world still im- 
 pregnated and corrupted with the fictions and debasements of 
 theology ? Is theology not the means by which everywhere one 
 part of mankind outwardly elevates itself above Man in order 
 to degrade the other part below Man? Would there be an 
 
18 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 emperor of Russia, if there were not an imperial Russian Lord- 
 God ? Would the people cover themselves with the ignominy of 
 sacrificing their freedom and happiness to such a man, if they 
 had destroyed the nimbus in which he exists and sanctifies him- 
 self? This whole edifice of human degradation must and will be 
 hurled assunder. The old puppet show of thousands of years, 
 with its whole superstructure and appurtenance, in which the 
 high puppets, called Majesties, Holinesses, Eminencies, Excel- 
 lencies &c, are strung up on " godly" threads, and to the pro- 
 longing of their comedian existence press from the people the 
 slave-tax of sacrificing admiration, must and will tumble to- 
 gether. 
 
 If there were only one single human being in the world, could 
 this one human being commit evil deeds ? In no wise, because 
 he could injure the rights of no other human being or misuse him 
 to ends contrary to humanity. Towards trees and stones evil 
 deeds are not committed ; only in the relationship of one human 
 being to another are vile acts possible. Consequently, h u - 
 man morality is nothing but the law ofmu- 
 tualrespectfortheRights of Man. Man, perhaps, 
 might be i m m o r a 1 for himself, as far as immoral implies an 
 injury to reason and human feeling, an insult to the h o n o r of 
 Man. Free, spontaneous direction from the one, but free 
 self-government from the other side, is the right and the left of 
 morality ; and the command of that self-government consists 
 with the individual man in the regard for his reason and his 
 human honor, besides, in relationship to others, it consists in 
 the respect for the common Rights of Man. In all that does 
 not infringe on this command, Man is perfectly free, and this is 
 the crown of his existence. 
 
 4. As morality is no longer attached to an imaginary being, 
 to whom are ascribed all sorts of unnatural demands, the com- 
 mand of Nature will thus be emancipated and the road to 
 happiness freed of all those hinderances, which consist in some- 
 thing apart from the regard for fellow beings and human honor. 
 As soon as morality is reduced to the basis of human rights, 
 " e v i 1 " will only yet consist in the degeneration of 
 human egotism which turns itself against 
 fellow beings; and that mysterious evil, that 
 evil for itself, whichhas caused you and those 
 of your kind so much trouble, and with which 
 you have so long worried human nature, is 
 abolished. The art to make "evil" of that which is ne- 
 cessary and natural, has thereby also ceased. Recollect, in 
 order to arrive at clearness upon the subject, but the renowned 
 fall of your forefather Adam. If you will be candid, you must 
 admit, that in reality there is nothing else to be understood by 
 this fall, but the sexual act, by which Adam and Eve (these 
 
SIX L ETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 19 
 
 persons accepted as first parents) laid the foundation of their 
 posterity. Now ask yourself, wherefore and how far this act 
 could have been a sin ? Without that fall, the good Adam 
 could not have put the posterity, who are said to have inherited 
 from him the sin of procreation, into the world. Should he not, 
 in order to have avoided that fall, have dispensed with the pos- 
 terity, to the advantage of whom this avoidance should be ? 
 Is it not the grandest absurdity for this posterity to desire, that 
 their forefather should have made them without making them ? 
 And does not the stamp of this nonsense, this immoral morality, 
 which with its harpyian filth pollutes even Love, the fairest 
 relation of human life, imprint itself, even yet today, upon the 
 conceptions of millions of fearful believers, who, at the command 
 of their priests, were capable of perceiving a "Sin" even in 
 their eating and drinking, yea, even in their very existence ? 
 What confidence and what pride can he have in mankind, who 
 ascribes its origin to a sin ? By this single conception, the whole 
 world and all life is, to the believer, already empoisoned. 
 Therefore are such contemptible doctrines actual moral poisoning. 
 Aye, pious man, it is perfect desecration, to brand mankind 
 with the stamp of sinfulness, in order to win, for gold and ser- 
 vility, the merit of its purification. From this example you may 
 comprehend wither it leads, if one convert the gross fables of a 
 childish, to the dogmas of an advanced world, and make "Sin" 
 the cloak for want of knowledge or the means of speculation. 
 But the source of all these errors and futilities is the belief in a 
 "God", in which Man transplaces his follies and his passions, 
 first to make them "holy", and then tyrannize others with them. 
 You will know, that the "fall of Adam" is not the only absurd- 
 ity and inhumanity distinguished by your theological moral. 
 But human morality does not think of gaging and disforming 
 Nature ; it rather makes her the law, under the supervision of 
 the common Rights of Man and human honor (reason) which 
 she adorns with the crown of Beauty. 
 
 5. As morality only yet consists in the command of respect 
 for the rights and dignity of Man, thus immorality will 
 only consist in the infringement of these 
 rights and dignity of Man. Those will consequently 
 be the worst men, who curtail the rights or the means of happi- 
 ness to their fellow men and degrade them to means for selfish 
 purposes. Henceforth "sinners" will be sought elsewhere than 
 hitherto. The "egotists" will be the greatest sinners, and those 
 will be the greatest egotists, who, on account of their personal 
 interests, rob the greatest number of human beings of their 
 rights and means of happiness. But human rights and the 
 means of human happiness consist in liberty and the proportion- 
 ate division of the goods of this earth. Whoever robs us of 
 freedom and curtails our means of human existence and human 
 
20 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 happiness, commits the highest crime there can 
 b e ; he is an enemy to mankind and the friendship of "God" 
 can no longer rescue him. A "higher" tribunal no longer speaks 
 him free, and we alone form the tribunal, who judge him. 
 Look around in your circle, count the number of your pious 
 enemies of freedom, and you will be affrighted at the piles of 
 , acts of endictments, which arise at the moment when theologi- 
 cal morals are abolished and human morals introduced. You 
 will be appalled at the number of those, who hitherto in the 
 name and under the protection of "God" have oppressed, mis- 
 used, plundered, enslavec], tortured, murdered their fellow beings, 
 and in short, swindled them of Life and the aims 
 of Man. You will recognize that the colossal, and at the 
 same time "legitimate" crimes of these enemies of mankind, 
 measured according to the usual criminal code, must call down 
 a frightful judgement upon their heads. At the thought of them ; 
 I see the sin-scale in the hand of Themis spring sky-high into 
 the air, and all the guillotines of the world begin to tremble. 
 But not in vain does Themis bear her scales, as little as her 
 sword, and she will hold her day of judgement. On this dread- 
 ful day all the criminals against mankind, who thought they 
 could authorize and save themselves by a "God", will be dealt 
 with. Was there ever a criminal, a villain, a tyrant, ever a 
 bandit great or small, whose legitimation and support was not 
 called "God"? "God" grasped in the pockets of the oppressed, 
 "God" sucked them to their very blood, "God" threw them into 
 dungeons, "God" swang the scourge of the jailor, "God" guid- 
 ed the stroke of executioner, "God" was the commissioner, the 
 patron, the reserve, the deputy, the agent, was the consecrator 
 of all villainies, all perjuries, all robberies, all revengefullness, 
 all deeds af blood and of all bestiality and horrors, that ever 
 were committed. In India there are hereditary bandits versed 
 expressly in the art of strangulation, who commit vast numbers 
 of the most frightful murders. Before court they seek to justi- 
 fy themselves as having been appointed to their business by 
 "providence", and that they are but tools in the hands of "God". 
 And exactly so do the hereditary, benign bandits' with crown 
 and tiara, who let whole nations be trodden under foot, plun- 
 dered and butchered by armies of murderers and executioners 
 in the name of "God". A day will come, when this abominable 
 "God" will drown in the blood of his abominable proteges, who 
 have invented him as a means of deception and as the protector 
 of crime. There will come an actual "day of judgement", when 
 all human beings will arise and all unhuman beings will tumble 
 in the pit, and for this day, pious man, you also may tremble. 
 
 To men of faith it will gradually become clear, wherefore their 
 pious enemies are so zealously devoted to bringing them up in 
 the "fear of God", making them what is called religious, and 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 sustaining them in the' belief of a "better life" ; it will become 
 clear to them, why just in the worst States and by the worst 
 governments "God" and "religion" are the most put under 
 the protection of the police, and why just those are persecuted 
 by despots and priests with dungeon and bans, whose aim it is 
 to humanize Man and free him from the dependence on a tyran- 
 nizing belief in mysterious powers, in the name of which by 
 their" earthly representatives, he is robbed of his happiness and 
 dignity ; it will become clear to them, that with the belief in 
 those powers the floor will be drawn from under the feet of 
 their pretended representatives also, and that, as long as 
 this floor is secure, all struggle against des- 
 pots as well as against priests, against the 
 oppressors of nations as well as againstJes- 
 uits, will remain fruitless, as not touching 
 attherootofthe evil. It is lamentable, reverend 
 father, to see how you and your collegues are attacked from all 
 corners, whilst at the same time the field, wherein the weeds 
 grow, is zealously worked, fructuated and protected. But 
 so it yet is in the world, that the obedience of believers may 
 occasionally be enforced by the thread of freeing them 
 from the oppression against which they rebel ! 
 Do we not yet daily experience, that when a congregation gets 
 into a quarrel with its pastor, the oxen permit themselves to be 
 decoyed by their shepherd locking up the stable of the Church, 
 for which they themselves have paid, and then retiring pouting- 
 ly like a monarch, who chastizes his residence with his displeas- 
 ure ? Why does it not enter the mind of any of these congre- 
 gations, to let their pouting pastor go as he pleases, or chase 
 him to the devil ; in any case show him, that they can live 
 without him and his church, and that without him they find 
 themselves much better off than before. The answer to this 
 question is easily found ; you, reverend father, and* your col- 
 legues are consequential and "wise", but your congregations 
 condemn themselves to eternal imbecility and stupidity. 
 
 6. The belief in "God" has hitherto been the seed of all 
 slashing discord among men. The different modes of worship- 
 ping an imaginary being has caused more war and destruction 
 among mankind, than all the differences of egotistical interests. 
 With the belief in "God" the basis of all religious enmity vanish- 
 es, and in its place arises the basis of human equality 
 and of universal peace. All wars have grown upon two kinds 
 of ground : upon the political ground the "kingly" subjects 
 combated for their earthly, and upon the religious ground the 
 "godly" subjects combated for their heavenly despots. And as 
 upon the political field the bond of nations is founded by the 
 annihilation of majesty and subjectdom, thus, by the annihila- 
 
22 
 
 SIX LETTEKS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 tion of god-majesty and beliefdoni upon the religious domain, 
 is founded the bond of humanity. 
 
 VI. 
 
 After having briefly heard what I have won by the renunci- 
 ation of the belief in "God" &c, you will also wish to know, 
 how I intend replacing that which is pretended to have thus 
 been lost. I must openly declare to you, that this request 
 appears to me somewhat childish, as I find it difficult to recon- 
 sider all those presuppositions of a belief, which I have so long 
 and so totally outgrown ; yet to favour you, I will enter upon 
 a few of the main points, as I do not resign the hope, that at 
 least some interest in Truth will be at the bottom of youp quest- 
 ions. You fear, that "inward contentment " will be lost. But 
 I maintain, that it will be secured. Accept of it as an uncon- 
 trovertable law, that he, who is capable of arriving at know- 
 ledge, is also capable of bearing it. But not only this. The 
 more knowledge, and the more regulated it is, the more and 
 securer will be the contentment. As long as I was still divided 
 between the belief, wherein I was brought up, of another world 
 with its pretended "Lord", and the penetrating doubts of my 
 reason, I experienced a perfect martyrdom of soul ; since I have 
 beaten a clear path through the domains, which gave birth to 
 my doubts, I have become something whole ; I have become a 
 man firmly settled in myself and contented, so far as Man ever 
 strugling for clearer knowledge can and, I would say, d a r e be. 
 Believe me, there is more solid ground for contentment in the 
 consciousness of being an entitled, selfsubsisting member of the 
 whole great world, advancing independent of all arbitration 
 freely along the road of the immovable laws of Nature, than in 
 the belief of following in blind dependence an incomprehensible 
 power, and indeed unto an end, whereof no believer can have 
 a conception. But this consciousness will become the firmer a 
 basis of contentment, the more generally it penetrates mankind, 
 the more mankind in themselves are supported by it, the more 
 they reciprocally bear themselves. It is not 
 sufficient, that an individual is in harmony with himself, he 
 must also find harmony in his relations to his fellow beings. Now 
 the inimical attacks of those, thinking differently, are already 
 sufficient to embitter the contentment, many a one has found in 
 knowledge. Whoever, compelled by the law of his reason and 
 with the purest motive, is striving to free men from their false 
 conceptions and direct them to their true position, will indeed, 
 when all around he sees his endeavors arrested by the appre- 
 hension and persecution of those, for whom he labors, have to 
 consider his personal happiness as a secondary affair, un- 
 less he find it alone in the consciousness and possession of Truth. 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN* 
 
 23 
 
 When he has rid himself of all, that supports the common man 
 in his afflictions, and now instead of those sought men, to whom 
 he would transfer all stay and consolation, sees but enemies be- 
 fore him; if he no longer has a "God" and now also finds no 
 Man; if he set all and all upon mankind and only meets with 
 such as are too stupid to comprehend him, or too egotistical to 
 do him justice ; then, indeed, he must have brought his views 
 of life and character to an elevation, whereupon he is inaccess- 
 ible to all temptations of enervating imbecility and reserved 
 melancholy. It is not every man's business, to go through 
 such trials. The most rather become hypocrites, leaving an 
 open acknowledgement be for times, when sufficient security for 
 the free expression of the same will have been obtained by the 
 struggles of others. It is, however, a matter of course, that 
 this standing alone ond subject to assailment is a position, which 
 must be occupied and borne by some, even though personal 
 misfortune really be their fate. It will then at least be recog- 
 nized, that the source of such misfortune lies not in the doctrine 
 taught, but in the inhumanity of those, who miscomprehend 
 and persecute the same. But persecution, and again persecu- 
 tion, pious man ! The fear of this persecution alone it is, which 
 prevents thousands from trusting themselves to better convic- 
 tions. Most men fear nothing more, than making an acknow- 
 ledgement of that which would do them most honor. Is this 
 not strange ? Not the ridiculous fear of the tortures of hell, 
 the day of judgement, and such like nonsense, but the fear of 
 those who believe in such godly absurdities, or hypocritically 
 speculate with this belief, it is, which prevents thousands from 
 forsaking the ranks of the "faithful". And this is, what you 
 call contentment ? From my heart I pity those poor "Content- 
 ed", who in the eternal fear of their "God" and their fellow- 
 beings keep an account of "Sins", they do not commit, and hold 
 those, which they commit, for virtues. Be assured, that pro- 
 gressing mankind will not miss a "God", when it is once no 
 longer educated with the belief in him, and that the more it 
 will have learned to seek the source of contentment within itself, 
 the more contented will it be. It will, indeed, be long before 
 mankind in general have so far progressed ; for you and your 
 likes have in all directions so peopled the world with such 
 images of terror, that a whole ocean of the Lethe waters of a 
 better knowledge must be consumed, before they are all for- 
 gotten. Your "God" you have made the appari- 
 tion of the whole world, and your belief is 
 nothingbutauniversalbeliefinapparitions. 
 Yes, in relation to mankind, "God" is for you, as it were, the 
 police chief of the world and your morals nothing but "godly" 
 fear of police. And with the belief in hobgoblins, and by fear 
 of police, you would lead mankind, endowed with reason and 
 
24 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 born to freedom, to contentment ? If I were not forced to pity 
 you, there would nought remain for me, but to detest you. 
 
 On the other hand, you are of the opinion, that the unfortu- 
 nate and the weak would lose their last stay as soon as they are 
 deprived of their faith in a "heavenly father". But asside from 
 other things, you must consider, that as mankind withdraws 
 from this belief to itself, it also makes corresponding advances 
 in science and in the endeavors to lessen the misfortune, to which 
 that belief is to serve as a support. If we but erst come to gen- 
 erally possess the means of happiness, namely freedom and a 
 title to the goods of this earth, then a great number of those, 
 who in need and oppression are referred to another world, will 
 have vanished, and they will rest more contented in the lap of 
 mankind than in "Abraham's lap". Do but recognize, that 
 mankind itself it is that creates the unhappiness, to the endu- 
 rance of which it takes refuge in an imaginary world. But if 
 unavoidable and undeserved misfortune, which happens and al- 
 ways will happen to the individual, be spoken of, then again it 
 is mankind that consoles and repairs the same as far as it can, 
 and such a reparation of human love, which to a fellow-being is 
 guarantied by an imperative right, by the 
 right of reason, and not adjudged to him by 
 humorsome excitement of feeling, is, I should 
 think, something more real and effectual, than the vague belief 
 in a reparation after death through an unknown being. 
 
 How little true human love, in spite or on account of refer- 
 ring to "higher" instances, has gained footing and has effected, 
 may be seen by the state of human rights. Do you not 
 at all ends and at all corners hear love preached by weakheads 
 and scoundrels, whilst they carry on or approve of the abroga- 
 tion of human rights in millions of individuals ? Has not socall- 
 ed human love hitherto been the hidden enemy of human rights, 
 of which it should be the realization or the precedent ? What 
 is human love without securement of human 
 rights? A lie, a detestable and Man -murderous lie, the 
 most desecrated lie of the whole world. But this lie will be 
 destroyed as soon as mankind returns to itself. We will and 
 must arrive at another love, than the confused, sickly, sorrowful, 
 weakly, sentimental, or even perfidous belief-love, which either 
 consists in fruitless words, or exagerated itself in ascetism, or 
 as disguised lovelessness makes Man unhappy. We must have 
 a fresh love, a love become life and flesh, a love proceeding from 
 free consciousness, based upon solid ground, and which is the 
 expression of the common feeling of the rights and duties of 
 human society footed in itself. Can there be a greater and a 
 truer love of Man; than that which would have all just desires 
 of all men brought to acknowledgment and realization? But 
 not thus does the Christian, only the purely human, the Athe- 
 
SIX LETTEKS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 25 
 
 istical love of Man, which flings off all nonhuman views and 
 duties, and will, as socalled "Socialism", reconstruct society. 
 Mankind will not become really humane in 
 its aims, until it becomes really humane in 
 its conceptions. All non-human, consequently all the- 
 ological views are contrary to humanity, are from the bottom 
 inhuman, and can only lead to inhumanities. To pretend 
 to be "humane" in the name or with the idea of a "God" is to 
 pretend to be free in the name or with the idea of a despot. 
 But if all theological phantastry be cut off from mankind, that 
 is, if nothing be imagined above it, which exists not, then will 
 Man erst become humanly free and purely human, will learn to 
 respect Man as such, ascribe to him no fictious "Evil" and 
 " Sinfulness", and make him his own Master, Ideal, and Aim. 
 That which is sacrificed to "God", is wit held 
 from mankind. Sacrifice the "God", and the Man is 
 won. Only by letting go the belief in "G o d" is 
 that attained, which through that belief it 
 was hoped would be obtained. 
 
 Therefore do not be anxious, that in assailing your theologi- 
 cal human love, I have a love in sight, which in reality amounts 
 to the same. I will even acknowledge to you, that the love, 
 which I mean, is little or not at all founded upon actual sacri- 
 fice, but upon egotism ; not upon undefined feeling, but upon 
 cool understanding. Only upon this ground does it prove some- 
 thing firm and durable. A real love I only know of in the 
 relations of single persons ; a general human 1 o v e I know not. 
 And yet I preach it ? And yet, after having combated and 
 accused others of egotism, I would make egotism a maxim ? 
 Aye, egotism is the soul of the world. It is the first necessity, 
 it is Life. Can you imagine a man, who has no idea of himself, 
 who works not for himself, who proceeds not from himself, who 
 acts not according to h i s motives, and yet lives ? I can not. 
 He would be a stone and not a man. Consequently egotism is 
 the basis of existence, it is existence itself. But since I acknow- 
 ledge this for my person, I am, by force of reason, absolutely 
 obliged, to acknowledge it likewise for my fellow-beings, 
 who stand to me in homogenous and equally entitled relation- 
 ship. Reason, that tells me this, proclaims to me further, that 
 according to its nature it cannot be satisfied, until each single 
 egotism has attained its righteous validity and realization. If 
 upon this motive alone I found my human love, it is more firmly 
 based than upon your "godly" commands. This motive tells 
 me : "That which you would have done or left unto you, that 
 shall, that must you likewise do or leave unto others, if you 
 would not by your reason and conviction be condemned as a 
 barbarian and as unworthy". Your bible indeed says some- 
 thing similar, but with you it is only the expression of a vague 
 
26 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 "love", which, without the establishment of equal common 
 rights, has no substance aud is subservient to the whim of 
 the moment or, under circumstances, turns its back upon the 
 beloved fellow being. Your love says at the same time : Render 
 unto Caesar the things, which are Caesar's ; but nowhere does 
 it say : Render unto Man the things w T hich are Man's, namely 
 his equal common right to freedom and happiness. Now, I 
 would render nothing unto "Caesar" as little as unto "God" 
 and his servants ; but unto Man I would render All. Thus I 
 would completely satisfy his egotism, on condition, that he would 
 concede the same to the egotism of each one of his fellow beings. 
 This is true egotism and, at the same time, true love of Man. 
 I make each human being an egotist, but I dispute his right of 
 tresspassing on the province of another's egotism. 
 
 I thus leave each one the liberty, that I would have myself ; 
 and as those single liberties come to an understanding upon a 
 moral basis with each other, a moral, a human condition is 
 originated. I, for instance, can not feel myself happy in loving 
 a woman, who does not love me ; I can have no man for my 
 friend, who at the same time would be my servant ; I can not 
 wish to exert power over my fellow beings, if they do not vo- 
 luntarily transfer this power to me for common ends ; I can not 
 feel myself happy in affluence, whilst seeing my equally entitled 
 fellow beings in misery ; I can not rejoice in my freedom, when 
 I behold my fellow Man in slavery. I must see them likewise 
 happy, likewise free and if it were merely on account of my 
 own person. My egotism will so have it, must so 
 have it. Or is Reason with its demands not to be considered 
 as belonging to Man, not to the person, not to egotism ? Shall 
 only my stomach have wants and not my reason ? That 
 egotism may become reasonable, is the sole 
 question and the sole aim. If the egotism of all men were so 
 refined and educated, that they could only be satisfied by justice 
 towards all, would there yet be railing at egotism ? Napoleon's 
 egotism urged him to enslave men ; Robespierre's egotism urged 
 him to liberate them ; Christ's egotism urged him to "love" 
 them. It depends always only on the kind and the purpose of 
 the egotism, namely, wether it pursues an aim, that is merely 
 to the good of itself, or wether it pursues an aim, that is to the 
 good of all. In as much as my egotism requires, that I should 
 be free and happy, it also requires, that all other human beings 
 should be free and happy. You thus perceive that my egotism 
 and my love of Man are vastly different from that theological 
 love and that rude egotism, which so well know how to recon- 
 cile to themselves the subjection, the subordination and sacrifice 
 of millions of strange egotisms, millions of strange lives, that 
 are homogenous and equally entitled to them. A man of your 
 kind could quite easely be the emperor of Russia or a similar 
 
SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 27 
 
 friend of mankind ; a man of my kind as the emperor of Russia 
 would have to be the first to rebel against himself. 
 
 You fear, that with belief the basis of conscience 
 would fall together. I maintain, that true conscience will then 
 erst appear. Reconsider that which has just been said. What 
 do you understand by conscience ? Your conscience is 
 imagination and fear; my conscience is rea- 
 son and honor. The more free and irresponsible Man is 
 placed upon his own feet, the more faithfully and proudly will 
 he himself guard the responsibility, which reason and honor have 
 impressed on him. Therefore is that man doubly unworthy of 
 freedom, who perceives in it the atmosphere of frivolity. Free- 
 dom is not only disenchainment, it is also humanization, and 
 there is no free man, who were capable of being rude or vile. 
 Yes even the frivolous also escape not the condemnation of con- 
 science ; for reason can not annihilate its own effects. By con- 
 science I mean the sensation of contradiction, in which Man 
 comes with himself as soon as he sins against reason and human 
 dignity, or against the common rights of Man. This contradic- 
 tion disturbs and annoys the reasonable and morally trained 
 person, like a chemically heterogenous infusion agitates a fluid, 
 and the propensities and necessities of his nature urge him to 
 expulse the contradiction. As feeling struggles against pain, 
 so reason struggles against irrationality. It must struggle 
 against it. This, reasonable Man would even perceive, though 
 the contradiction between reason and unreasonableness did not 
 repeat itself in the social misrelations, in which a transgression 
 of reason and right place Man to his fellow Man — a misrela- 
 tion, that will erst then exert its whole power of retribution, 
 when the infringers of right and the infringed can no longer be 
 brought by lies and belief in authority, to smother the laws of 
 Nature. With your conscience the greatest crimes against 
 mankind may be glossed over, if I but succeed in passing on 
 them a sentence of your dogmatic wish-wash as legitimation. 
 But purely human conscience, the control of which is held by 
 free, never silent reason, glosses over nothing, nothing at all, 
 that comes within its province. You must straightway date 
 your religious conscience from the "devil", instead of from "God", 
 if you reflect upon the shameless acts and inhumanities of every 
 kind, which it has not only suffered to be committed, but even 
 sanctioned and still daily sanctions. Pure, human cons- 
 cience has, as long as the world stands, never 
 yet approved of an inhumanity, and its only "sin" has from all 
 time consisted in its abandoning and casting off the basis of your 
 sinful theological conscience. 
 
 Narrowmindedness sometimes gives rise to the apprehension, 
 that when the people no longer believe in a theological world 
 and in immortality, they will ravish their lives in beastliness and 
 
SIX LETTEKS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 Jet go the reins of the rudest egotism. I will say nothing there- 
 of, how rude it is to generally refer Man with his morality not to 
 reason, but to fear ; but I leave you to reflect on the folly of 
 the presupposition that a people, no longer believing in those 
 things, will be the same people, that is now feared. The total 
 stripping off of such a belief is not consummated in a day. But 
 wherever it takes place, there it is necessarily connected with a 
 transformation of the whole manner of conception and with an 
 education, that holds distant all fear of bestiality gaining ground. 
 The populace never will, of this one may be assured, grow wild 
 through unbelief, just because it is no longer populace, when it 
 once really abandons belief. This, the pious guards of morality 
 had better consider, apart from the fact, that even in the worst 
 case an atheistical populace would be capable of no greater vices 
 and crimes, than the most religious daily present to our eyes. 
 
 You further fear, that with the belief in "God" &c, "higher 
 contemplation", "higher aims", "higher development" will be 
 lost unto Man. I maintain, that through the doing away of 
 "belief" he will erst become possessed of them. Ask yourself, 
 if your belief has been able to conceive of anything higher than 
 that, which in S t a t e, in S c i e n c e, and Art the mind of Man 
 has brought to light ? In what do the praised high contempla- 
 tions in the province of your belief consist ? What is the * sub- 
 stance of the same ? Tell me I pray ! The highest, at which 
 you arrive, besides your carnival-like, tasteless and senseless 
 hocus-pocus of ceremonies, is the misty conception of a being, 
 to whom you ascribe the highest degree of human qualities, and 
 of which you hope, that it may lead you further than your 
 belief, namely, to knowledge in wisdom. But I tell you, 
 even presupposing the existence of a "God", that you will once 
 not have the slightest right, much less a reasonable ground for 
 that hope, since youforcibly suppress cognition 
 in orderto once — attainit. Why do you not rather 
 abandon belief and begin at once to recognize, as 
 far as it is possible for you to do ? How do you come to the 
 absurd division and the conclusion, that we must "here" dispense 
 with cognition in order to be fitted for it "there" ? If your 
 religion promise contemplation of "God", why do you not at 
 once enter upon this contemplation ? It will be proven, that 
 in the "contemplation of God" nothing can be lain but 
 the cognition of the world ; and this cognition it is, of which 
 you want to know nothing. You adhere to the theological 
 principle, that in life one must endeavor to be a blockhead in 
 order to become a wiseacre after death. Such a belief would be 
 thought very strange, if it were not known, that just the wise- 
 acres support it in order to have at their disposal the requisite 
 number of blockheads. These are, indeed, pretty "higher con- 
 templations", by which from the onset all other contemplations 
 
SIX L ETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN, 
 
 29 
 
 are imprisoned. But I hold other views of the way of human 
 development. I know, that Man is only of account during Life, 
 that nothing exists but the world, that consequently Man can 
 have no other aim as well as no other subject of cognition, than 
 again the world and life in this world, and that nothing can 
 afford higher contemplation, than again the world. 
 
 But Science is the stream, upon which the recognizing 
 mind of Man is borne through this world ; the State is the 
 ground, upon which men stamp the general consciousness of 
 their position and secure the general conditions of their exist- 
 ence ; Art is the province for the infinite creative power of the 
 spirit of beauty. What more do you yet wish for, worthy man ? 
 What can you yet wish for, after having totally cultivated and 
 exhausted these three provinces ? Look around and ask your- 
 self, if there is not a worthy field presented to you for mental 
 labor ? 
 
 And now look not only to the past, look also to the future ! 
 Inquire into the history of human inventions, discoveries and 
 general progress, in short, the spiritual development of the hu- 
 man race in all directions and provinces, and discern, that after 
 these preparatory labors and acquisitions an infinite succession 
 of progressions may still be seen in advance as the elevating 
 task of the human mind ; that there are no boundaries set to 
 the development of the spirit of Man, and that upon each as- 
 cended hill of Knowledge, a higher and fairer hill presents itself 
 to view ! But keep two things in sight. First do not at once 
 demand a complete, perfect knowledge, for herewith you demand 
 simply a state of death, something impossible, that alone should 
 cause you to doubt in a "perfect " and "allknowing God" ; 
 secondly estimate duely the visible and tangible world, beyond 
 which you would assume a mysterious spirit or specter-world. 
 Consider how much yet remains in the tangible world for Man 
 to think and to do. Lose yourself for instance in the myriads 
 of stars, that move in the infinite space of the world ; imagine 
 that an acquaintance with these stars, yes, perhaps an intelli- 
 gible communication with the inhabitants of the same, is yet re- 
 served for Man ; in short, let your phantasie roam wherever you 
 wish. 
 
 The projects, that have arisen, of navigating the air, have 
 been ridiculed. I hold this ridicule to be very shortsighted. 
 I can very well imagine, that when mankind have erst more 
 filled out the sphere of knowledge, presented to them by the 
 earth, they will by the help of new inventions, which always 
 keep pace with other knowledge, look more closely on the world 
 around them, to which they likewise have their indirect claim. 
 "Nil mortalibus arduum". That America was discovered, that 
 with a thimble full of powder one may, at a thousand paces, 
 have the life of a human being in power, that a louse may be 
 
30 
 
 SIX LETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 magnified to the size of an elephant, that water-steam would 
 take the place of a racehorse, that by means of an iron wire, 
 thoughts may be sent with the swiftness of lightning thousands 
 of miles through the world, that the weight of the sun may be 
 computed &c. — who in times past would have deemed this 
 possible ? Now we find it so natural, that we can scarcely 
 comprehend the former disbelief. But it suits the turn of cer- 
 tain persons, to always preach humility and impotence of mind ; 
 and those, who would fain once let the earth stand still, would 
 much to well like to have our reason also brought to a stillstand. 
 
 In viewing the progress, that human cognition has already 
 made, you need not fear in any respect, that its sphere is too 
 narrow and that, to a due expansion of the same, belief in 
 superworldly or superhuman help is requisite. 1 That which you 
 recognize or conceive as yet recognizable, let suffice you a s 
 belonging to the world, and quit the childish artifice 
 of underlaying all you observe with a particular impulse, or a 
 particular support, instead of a life and a law of Nature (as 
 also the unworthy weakness of forming a world of belief, because 
 there is still a world of Problems). 
 
 That childishness, which can not see lightning without con- 
 ceiving a spirit-hand, that sped the flash, and not hear thunder, 
 without imputing it to the wrathful voice of "God", and not 
 behold the setting of the sun, without seeing in its rays the 
 coquetry of a "creator with the "adoration" of his human 
 childern — that childishness, that can take nothing for itself 
 and in its true substance and natural combination, but must 
 assume back of all a spectre-like or theatrical mystery, has with 
 time become too stale, that it should be made a retreat for the 
 lofty views of "God-belief. Fear is the mother of your "God", 
 and want of reflection the father of your fear. Do you seek a 
 godly mystery in the roast, that you eat ? Do you perchance 
 think, that in it is revealed a bit of wisdom, goodness &c. of the 
 creator, that sinks into your stomach ? Daily usage and tan- 
 gible familiarity has delivered you from the veneration of a theo- 
 logical roast, or ham ; ii has become something quite natural 
 and explicable, although at the bottom, it has the same claim 
 to "higher contemplation" as every other object of nature. 
 Well then, there is nothing standing opposed to your becoming 
 more or less familiar with lightning, with thunder, with the 
 sun and the whole world in a similar manner as with the roast. 
 If there erst exist the familiarity, the knowledge, if there but 
 exist the presentiment of knowledge, to which there is just no 
 limits set, then will theology also vanish, as the removal of 
 theology but opens the way to that knowledge. The abol- 
 ishment of theology is the entrance of Man 
 as proprietor into the infinite world, wherein 
 he has hitherto been but an antechamber-slave. Herewith the 
 
SIX L ETTERS TO A PIOUS MAN. 
 
 31 
 
 path of the spiritual conquering of the world, of "higher con- 
 templation", is opened, but not, as you opine, cut off. Not the 
 deeper Man is lowered, but the higher he is exalted, the higher 
 he stands. This truth is comprehended by the dullest school- 
 boy, but not by the most learned theologian. 
 
 Pious man, give me your hand, and let us traverse the im- 
 mensurability of Nature. Behold the lightning, it darts harm- 
 less upon the clod, which by means of an iron rod we have 
 appointed its grave ; listen to the thunder, it is the music of 
 Nature, and tends to terrify none but childern ; hark to the 
 storm, it vainly roars around our ship, that flies through the 
 heaving billows, and dare only proffer us its wings ; look at the 
 sun, it is our torch and must be it, it could not be otherwise, 
 and were we to light its flame ourselves, it could not nearer 
 belong to us than now, when Nature ignites its flame ; penetrate 
 the hosts of stars, they but await the hour, when a new in- 
 vention shall openly expose them to our eyes. Wherever you 
 look, Man is at home. All Nature is his property as far 
 as he conquers her, and to his conquests no limits are set. And 
 though, in an thousandfold manner, he yet be hemmed by the 
 power of the elements, nevertheless the infinite capacity dwells 
 in him to overcome them, and the more he progresses in his devel- 
 opment, the more Nature goes at his hand, because she is a whole ; 
 and with mankind are at once developed heaven and earth till 
 unto the highest milky : ways and down to the deepest mountain 
 ravines. But where the rude power of the elements still masters 
 Man, where the ocean yet engulphs him and pestilence tears him 
 away : shall he there humble himself before an imaginary mas- 
 ter, that oppresses him in the form of the ocean billow and the 
 plag-boil ? No and never ! He submits, as also must the most 
 pious in spite of his belief, to the unavoidable laws of Nature ; 
 as a part of this Nature he consciously fulfils his destiny, and 
 what can thereby happen him worse than — to die? 
 
 Pious man, learn to live, and you will know how to die. Learn 
 to become master of your position, and you will know how to 
 remain master of it. Learn truely to be Man, and you will be 
 "God". And if in the law of the development of the world 
 should stand written, what your belief prophecies, and what 
 science deduces, that the earth will once be hurled to fragments, 
 still therein lies no ground for Man to lose his selfconsciousness 
 as part and his bearing as Lord of the world. As individual 
 man lays down in a grave of the earth, so may all mankind to- 
 gether with the earth plunge in a grave of the world. They 
 only thus furnish the material for a higher continuation of the 
 world-life. And of this, Man should be afraid ? 
 
 Si fr actus illabiturorbis, impavidum 
 feriunt ruinael 
 
piWI|P mgmtn 
 
 r\ A r nfYV 
 
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