Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/149

the sphere of vision which it allows us. The require-
ments, the enjoyments, and even the prejudices of the
class to which we belong, and the relations which we
sustain toward others, exercise an imperceptible do-
minion over our thoughts and feelings, and are so many-
clogs to hinder us from taking our proper place as men
in this world and in the kingdom of God.
  This Mander felt while on the hallig. It seemed to
him as if he had taken off the garb which till now he
had always worn, and when he tried to gird it again
closely about hirn, the old garment seemed intolerable.
He had always expected to find eventually in philosophy,
to which he devoted all his leisure hours, that flood of
sunlight which should give him a full and clear view of
the transitory human and the everlasting divine ; al-
though he was obliged to confess that so far he had
risen no more than the unfledged bird which vainly beats
its wings — that between the search after the fountain
from which all illumination proceeds, and the transfig-
uration in and through the same, there is a great gulf
fixed. Now the question forced itself upon him,
whether it were possible for philosophy entirely to
shake from herself the dust of this lower world, on
which she was striving to reign a queen ? Whether
the most acute thinker must not be influenced, in some
degree, by his time, his nationality, his relations in
life, his hereditary habits and the errors of his prede-
cessors ? Experience seemed to answer the question
in the affirmative. The point, which had been sup-
posed the summit, has proved only the foot of yet an-
other ascent, and philosophy, with her changing sys-
tems, resembles a perpetually molting serpent. Beau-