only to follow quietly in a naturally appointed direction. In reality,
life is not only full of separate problems, but being situated (as it
is) between the realm of mere Nature and the spiritual world, must begin
by systematically directing itself aright and ascending from the
semi-spiritual to the truly spiritual construction of life. It is hence
called upon to perform great tasks, which cannot be carried out without
serious efforts and the mobilisation of all our spiritual forces. This
necessarily leads us back to the original sources of strength, and hence
to the individual."

This passage represents well Eucken's main teaching in regard to our
social problems. We shall ever fail in the highest sense if the
spiritual content of life is no more than a _means_ to reach material
ends, however necessary such ends may be. For in such a [p.113] manner
spiritual life--the universally true and valid--is reduced to a lower
plane; it becomes entangled in lower stages, and thus ceases to be a
"light on the hill" illumining the steep upward path. Convictions of a
spiritual nature--the very forces which have moulded society--are absent
from such a system of life which has no more than the day or the hour to
look forward to. Individual and society become the creatures of mere
impulses and passions, stimulated to activity by a "dead-level"
environment. Something of value is gained when even this kind of
environment is a good; but the response is quite as readily given to
that which is injurious, simply because the "universally true and good"
is absent as an inwardness and conviction in the soul.

Without such an inwardness and its content the deeper energy of life is
not touched, and men drift with the tide of the environment. Without the
ideals or syntheses which are, in their very nature, universal and
absolute, progress comes to a standstill, and degeneration soon sets in.