folios on the State without calling in question the fixed idea of the State itself; as our newspapers are crammed with politics because they are conjured into the fancy that man was created to be a _zoon politicon_,--so also subjects vegetate in subjection, virtuous people in virtue, liberals in humanity, etc., without ever putting to these fixed ideas of theirs the searching knife of criticism. Undislodgeable, like a madman's delusion, those thoughts stand on a firm footing, and he who doubts them--lays hands on the _sacred_! Yes, the "fixed idea," that is the truly sacred! Is it perchance only people possessed by the devil that meet us, or do we as often come upon people _possessed_ in the contrary way,--possessed by "the good," by virtue, morality, the law, or some "principle" or other? Possessions of the devil are not the only ones. God works on us, and the devil does; the former "workings of grace," the latter "workings of the devil." Possessed[30] people are _set_[31] in their opinions. If the word "possession" displeases you, then call it prepossession; yes, since the spirit possesses you, and all "inspirations" come from it, call it--inspiration and enthusiasm. I add that complete enthusiasm--for we cannot stop with the sluggish, half-way kind--is called fanaticism. It is precisely among cultured people that _fanaticism_ is at home; for man is cultured so far as he takes an interest in spiritual things, and interest in spiritual things, when it is alive, is and must be _fanaticism_; it is a fanatical interest in the sacred (_fanum_). Observe our liberals, look into the _Saechsischen Vaterlandsblaetter_, hear what Schlosser says:[32] "Holbach's company constituted a regular plot against the traditional doctrine and the existing system, and its members were as fanatical on behalf of their unbelief as monks and priests, Jesuits and Pietists, Methodists, missionary and Bible societies, commonly are for mechanical worship and orthodoxy."