The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10) — John Shaqi
The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10)Various
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The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
Then if all duties which are based on right and law, shall cease to be
considered as something special, something great, if their fulfilment
shall be no longer marveled at as a feat of virtue, because these duties
shall have become self-evident and natural, then shall man be illumined
by new and greater duties which shall make him a debtor to life, then
shall he call his wealth and the fulness of his being his debt which he
can pay only in constant creation for man, in ceaseless giving to man!
“Therefore, nobler souls will it: they will to have nothing _gratis_,
least of all life! Whoever is of the _Pöbel_ wills to live _gratis_, but
we others to whom life gave itself—we ever meditate as to what we can
best give in return and, verily, that is a noble saying which says: what
life promises us, that will we keep for life!” In simpler language: Not
to merit a reward, heavenly or earthly, will we give, will we assemble
in ourselves the highest gifts, to lay them down as offerings upon the
altars of men, but we will give to return thanks for all that we have
undeservedly received. Bickering and calculating as to whether we have
had our just dues, haggling over hopes which have not done what they
promised, we will have none of this, but thanks, thanks, that as men we
have gained some material from the saddest life, created joys out of its
pains, wealth and worth out of its weakness and loss. This, this, in
Nietzsche’s immortal words, is _eine Umwertung der Werte_, a
transvaluation of values in the moral life, from which a new moral
culture can issue. In our labors we are ever shadowed by the still,
lurking thought of returns and rewards, we calculate, and calculate ever
in our own favor, that somewhere life has left us in the lurch. Could we
but once reverse this matter: It is not life that is obligated and
indebted to us—we are obligated and indebted to life! In the former way
of counting we always come out with a deficit, with a poverty: in the
later, with a balance, with a wealth: we still have something for which
we gave nothing, did nothing, with which we have done no good!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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