Philosophical Letters of Frederich Schiller by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
page 38 of 79 (48%)
page 38 of 79 (48%)
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sleep, digestion; in many passive ones, such as we are accustomed to call
mental, as in memory, the perception of color, sound--a purely automatic action of the body, which it pursues simply by following out its own laws, independent of the soul's direction or interference. PHYSICAL CONNECTION. THE ANIMAL NATURE STRENGTHENS THE ACTION OF THE SPIRIT. S 2.--Organism of the Operations of the Soul--of its Maintenance and Support--of Generation. All those conditions which we accept as requisite to the perfection of man in the moral and material world may be included in one fundamental sentence: The perfection of man consists in his ability to exercise his powers in the observation of the plan of the world; and since between the measure of the power and the end towards which it works there must exist the completest harmony, perfection will consist in the highest possible activity of his powers, and, at the same time, in their mutual subordination. But the action of the human soul is--from a necessity which I do not understand--bound fast to the action of matter. The changes in the world of matter must be modified and, so to speak, refined by a peculiar class of secondary powers--I mean the senses--before they can produce in me any corresponding ideas; while, on the other hand, a fresh set of organic powers, the agents of voluntary movements must come into play between the inner spirit and the outward world in order to make the changes of the former tell upon the latter; thus must the operations |
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