The Malady of the Century eBook

Max Nordau
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The Malady of the Century.

The Malady of the Century eBook

Max Nordau
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The Malady of the Century.

“Why?  It would be foolish to add another book to the millions of books already written.  All that one can say about it is soon said.  Anything really new is written once in a thousand years, all the rest is repetition, dilution, compilation.  If everyone who writes on a subject were to read first everything which has been written on that subject, he would very soon throw his pen out of the window.”

“I must again differ from you,” said Dorfling.  “I think it is best, that we so seldom know all that has been thought and written on a subject.  It is best that we write new books without wearying to read the millions of others.  I grant that most books are only repetitions of earlier ones.  But it is unconscious repetition, and it is exactly that which gives it a wonderfully new meaning.  It proves unity of mind, identity of science.  Thousands of men daily discover gunpowder.  Many of them laugh, because gunpowder was first discovered two hundred years ago.  I do not laugh.  I see in it the manifestation of the eternal unity of phenomenal principle.  So many men could not arrive at the same thought if they were not fragments of a whole; now you know why I have written a book, and also, why I have not put my individual name on the title-page.”

From the next room they heard a woman laugh in a wild, excited way, glasses chinked together, and a man’s voice was just distinguished in conversation.  Barinskoi pricked up his ears and winked at Paul; the others paid no attention.

“Do not misunderstand me,” said Wilhelm, answering Dorfling’s last remark.  I do not mean to say that your book is superfluous.  You had every right to it, having made it the object of your life.”

“Not the object of my life,” interrupted Dorfling.  “The only object I have in life is death, which I call deliverance.”

“Very good; I will say then, when you conceived it your duty to write it.”

“‘Duty’ yes, I will allow that word to pass.  Let us rather say impulse, or instinct.  If one has a perception one also feels an impulse, which one calls a feeling of duty to share it with others.”

Wilhelm smiled.

“You believe even in perception.  That proves above all what you mean by your duty.  I know, to my regret, that I have no perceptions to share with others, and the duty of my life is only toward my own moral education and greatest possible perfection.”

“That is not enough,” Paul broke in, “this self-culture in one’s own study does no one any good.  For that reason I do not mind if I appear unphilosophical.  One has duties toward one’s fellowmen.  One must be useful to the State, as a good citizen.  One must make money, to add to the national wealth.”

“Bravo, Herr Haber,” said Mayboom gravely.  “You speak like a town-crier,” and after a short pause he added, “That is a great compliment from me.”

“We express the same meaning in different forms,” answered “Wilhelm, “How can you add to the national wealth?  By making yourself a rich man.  And I try to be useful to the community by educating myself in the greatest possible morality, and the highest ideal of a citizen.  No one can work outside of himself when every individual strives to be good and true, then the whole people will be good and noble.”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Malady of the Century from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.