Letter to the Reader 481

Statistical summaries are of no use to an imaginatively con- VI

447
structing psychologist, but then he does not need such an im-
mense conflux of people, either.
569 0nce again, imaginatively constructing, I have laid out

an issue for the religious: the forgiveness of sin. To place im-

mediacy and the forgiveness of sins together in an immediate
relationship can certainly occur to many people; probably
they are also able to talk about it-why not? Indeed, probably
they are also able to induce others to believe that they them-
selves have experienced something similar and existed in this
way; probably they are even able to induce many to want to
do the same and to want to think they have done the same-
why not! The only difficulty here is that it is an impossibility.
But when it is a matter of the physiology of walking, one does
not have so much free play, and if someone were to claim that
he walked on one arm or even that everyone walked in this
manner, he would soon be discovered to be a tattle carrier
[Rygter], but a cattle driver [Regter] in the world of spirit is
more free and easy.
An immediate relationship between immediacy and the for-
giveness of sin means that sin is something particular, and this
particular the forgiveness of sin then takes away. But this is
not forgiveness of sin. Thus a child does not know what for-
giveness of sin is, for the child, after all, considers himself to

instructive, the same thing happens to h1m as to the one who committed su-
ICide--no one pays any attention to him.) ..... Liest man aber in Paris die am-
tlichen Berichte uber die geschehenen Selbstmorde ..... wie so viele aus Liebesnoth
sich todten, so viele aus Armuth, so viele wegen ung/iicklichen Spiels, so viele aus
Ehrgeiz,-so lernt man Selbstmorde als Krankheiten ansehen [If one reads the of-
ficial announcements about suicides occurrmg in Paris ..... how so many
kill themselves because of the torments oflove, so many because of poverty,
so many because of unlucky gambling, so many because ofamb1tion]-then
one learns to regard smc1de as ailments (indeed, according to the above als
heilsamen Krankheiten [as healing aliments]), die wie Sterbfolle durch Schlagjlusz
oder Schwindsucht in einem gleichbleibenden Verhiiltnisse jiihrlich wiederkehren [that
as an invanable condition return annually like deadly diseases through strokes
or consumption]! And having learned this, one has become a philanthropist,
a pious person who does not mock God or presumably even rebel against his
w1se order. For p1ety dwells in Paris and Borne 1s a spiritual counselor!
 482 Stages on Life's Way

be basically a fine child. If only that thing had not happened

yesterday, and forgiveness removes it and the child is a fine
child. But if sin is supposed to be radical (a discovery owed to
repentance, which always precedes the forgiveness), this
VI means precisely that immediacy is regarded as something that
448
is not valid, but if it is to be considered thus, then it must be
presumed to have been canceled.
But how does one manage to exist by virtue of such an idea,
somewhat more concretely understood, for to rattle some-
thing off is not difficult? -I am well aware that speculators
and prophetic seers who scan the future of all humankind will
regard me at best as a normal-school graduate perhaps capable
of writing a catechetical commentary on a textbook for the
public schools. Be that as it may-after all, that is always
something. If only the normal-school graduates will not in
turn exclude me from their society because they know ever so
much more, and finally, ifl were satisfied with being a pupil,
just so the enlightened normal-school graduate, the world-
historically concerned parish clerk, would not say: That is
really a stupid boy-he asks such foolish questions. That is of
little concern to me; my sole thought is some day to dare in
conversation to come closer to that Greek wise man whom I
admire, that Greek wise man who laid down his life for what
he had understood and once again would joyfully have risked
his life in order to understand more, since he considered being
in error the most terrible thing of all. And I am sure that Soc-
rates would say: Surely, what you are asking about is a diffi-
cult matter, and it has always amazed me that so many could
believe that they understood a teaching such as that; but it has
amazed me even more that some people have even understood
much more. The latter I would certainly like to engage in con-
versation, and although as a rule I have not made a practice of
personally paying for banquets and musicians, I still would
have clubbed together with such people in order to be initiated
into their exalted, not merely suprahuman but also supradi-
vine wisdom. For Gorgias and Polos and Thrasybolus 570 and
others, who in my day had booths in the marketplace in Ath-
ens, were still only suprahuman wise men, like the gods, but
 Letter to the Reader 483
these men, who speed past the gods and for this reason cer-
tainly accept not only money but also adoration, from these
men one must be able to learn a great deal.
The difficulty with the forgiveness of sins, if it is not to be
decided on paper or be decided by declarations of a living
word, moved now in joy, now in tears, is to become so trans-
parent to oneself that one knows that one does not exist at any VI
449
point by virtue of immediacy, yes, so that one has become
another person, for otherwise forgiveness of sin is my point
of view: the unity of the comic and the tragic.
But since immediacy is indeed something simple but also
something highly compounded, with this one difficulty (of
being annulled), together with the other, which is just like it
(that immediacy is even canceled as sin), the signal is given for
the di.fficileste fmost difficult J questions, all of which are in-
cluded in the one: how an immediacy comes again (or
whether the cancellation of immediacy for the existing person
means that he does not exist [er til] at all*), how such an im-

• Although one reads hundreds of times: Immediacy IS annulled-one

never sees a single statement about how a person manages to exist in th1s
manner. One m1ght conclude from this that the writers are poking fun at one
and themselves privately ex1st by VIrtue ofimmed1acy571 and in addition make
their hvmg by writing books about Its being annulled. Perhaps the system is
not even very difficult to understand, but what makes the appropnat10n very
d1fficult is that all the middle terms have been skipped over-about how the
individual suddenly becomes a metaphysical I-I, to what extent it is feasible,
to what extent permiSSible, to what extent all the ethical has not been set
aside, to what extent the system's eternal truth, as presupposition (with re-
spect to the existential, psychological, ethical, and relig10us) does not have a
necessary little lie, for want of another mtroduct10n, and to what extent the
system's heavenly text m explanation does not offer rather shabby notes as
well as an ambiguous traditiOn that exempts the miuates from thinking any-
thing decisive even about what is most declSlve. An Immediate genius can be-
come a poet, artist, mathematician, etc., but a thmkmg person must, after all,
know his relationship to the human existence lest he, despite all the German
[tydske] books, become a monstrosity [ Utydske] (with the help of the pure
bemg, wh1ch is an unthmg). He must mdeed know how far it 1s ethically and
religiously defensible to close himself up metaphysically, to be unwillmg to
respect the cla1m life has-not upon h1s many blissfully transporting
thoughts, not upon h1s fancied 1-1, but upon h1s human you, whether life calls
h1m to pleasure and happmess and enjoyment or to terror and tremblmg, be-
 484 Stages on Life's Way

VI
450
mediacy is different from an earlier one, what is lost and what
is gained, what the first immediacy can do that the second one
does not dare, what the first immediacy loves that the second
does not dare, what certainty the first immediacy has that the
second does not have, what is its joy that the second does not
have, etc., for it is a very prolix matter. In another sense it is
easily exhausted if one does not have the Socratic horror of
being in error but has the modern foolhardiness to think that
if one merely says it then one is that-just as in the fairy tale
one becomes a bird by saying certain words. 573
Although ordinarily I am not inclined to wish and am far
from wanting to believe that I would be aided by the fulfilled
wish, I nevertheless wish that a Socratically scrupulous man
would have such an existing character come into existence be-
fore our eyes so that by hearing him we could see him. By no
means do I think that if I read such a narrative one hundred
times I would advance one single step if I, suffering, did not
personally arrive at the same position. Praised be the righteous
rule that in the world of spirit gives everyone his due and does
not let someone in mortal danger and with utmost effort ac-
quire in misery what someone else thoughtlessly and stupidly
dozes into.
But the issue itself, the idea of forgiveness of sins, is extra-
neous to the task the imaginary construction has assigned it-
self, for Quidam is only a demonic figure oriented to the re-
ligious, and the issue is beyond both my understanding and
my capacities. I shall not shirk it by saying that this is not the
place, as if it were the place and perhaps the time and the space
on paper that I lacked, since on the contrary I rather much

VI cause thoughtlessly to remain unaware of that is just as dubwus. And 1fhe is

449
able thoughtlessly to disregard this, 572 then try something With that kind of a
thmker: place him in Greece-and he will be laughed to scorn in that chosen
land, so fortunate in Its beautiful location, so fortunate in its nch language, so
fortunate in its unparalleled art, so fortunate m the happy temperament of its
people, so fortunate in its beautiful girls, but first and last so fortunate m Its
thinkers, who sought and struggled to understand themselves and themselves
in existence before they tned to explam all existence.
 Letter to the Reader 485

believe that once I had understood it myself I would surely

find the place and time and the space for exposition.

A Concluding Word

My dear reader-but to whom am I speaking? Perhaps no one

at all is left. Probably the same thing has happened to me in
reverse as happened to that noble king whom a sorrowful
message taught to hurry, whose precipitous ride to his dying VI
451
beloved has been made unforgettable by the unforgettable
ballad574 in its celebration of the hundred young men who ac-
companied him from Skanderborg, the fifteen who rode with
him over Randb0l Heath, but when he crossed the bridge at
Ribe the noble lord was alone. The same, in reverse, to be
sure, and for opposite reasons, happened to me, who, capti-
vated by one idea, did not move from the spot-all have rid-
den away from me. In the beginning, no doubt, the favorably
disposed reader reined in his swift steed and thought I was
riding a pacer, but when I did not move from the spot, the
horse (that is, the reader) or, if you please, the rider, became
impatient, and I was left behind alone: a nonequestrian or a
Sunday rider whom everybody outrides.
Inasmuch as there is nothing at all to hasten after, I have
forever and a day for myself and can talk with myself about
myself undisturbed and without inconveniencing anyone. In
my view, the religious person is the wise. But the person who
fancies himself to be that without being that is a fool, but the
person who sees one side of the religious is a sophist. Of these
sophists I am one, and even ifl were capable of devouring the
others I would still not become fatter-which is not inexpli-
cable as in the case of the lean cows in Egypt, 575 for with re-
spect to the religious the sophists are not fat cows but skinny
herring. I look at the religious position from all sides, and to
that extent I continually have one more side than the sophist,
who sees only one side, but what makes me a sophist is that I
do not become a religious person. The very least one in the
sphere of religiousness is infinitely greater than the greatest
sophist. 576 The gods have alleviated my pain over this by