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For we have rejected a truth, and, in the case before us, a truth without the recognition of which not a single sound step in our political life can be taken.
The only course that remains open to us, therefore, is to set aside the untrue and perverted form of the statement, and to bring its true essence into distinct relief.
The public opinion of the present day is inclined, as I have said, to declare the whole statement to be utterly untrue, and mere declamation on the part of Rousseau and the French Revolution. But even if it were possible to adopt the course of rejection in the case of Rousseau and the French Revolution, it is quite impossible to do so in the case of one of the greatest of German philosophers, the centenary of whose birth-day will be celebrated in this town next month: I allude to the philosopher Fichte, one of the greatest thinkers of all nations and times.
Even Fichte declares expressly in so many words, that the higher the rank the greater the moral deterioration, that—these are his very words—"Wickedness increases in proportion to the elevation of rank."
But Fichte did not develope the ultimate ground of this statement. He adduces, as the ground of this corruption, the selfishnsss and egoism of the upper classes. But then the question must immediately arise, whether selfishness does not also prevail in the lower classes, or why it should prevail less in these. Nay it must at first sight appear to be an extraordinary paradox to assert that less selfishness should prevail in the lower classes than in the higher who have a considerable advantage
