550 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



and country in which Fichte lived, this view gave 

 to the German element in European history a wide, 

 almost a cosmopolitan, meaning and destiny. It 

 generates, what Fichte calls, a patriotism of a higher 

 order, more generous and large - hearted than the 

 ordinary civic love for existing laws and constitution. 

 The latter might in ordinary times be sufficient, but 

 in times of great danger such as Fichte himself wit- 

 nessed, " one has to decide under conditions which 

 have no precedent, and we feel then the need of an 

 internal life which has its source within itself." ^ 



Though Fichte intended his Tract to be a specimen 

 of a treatise on political science, which he proposed 

 to publish, it had really no practical influence at 

 the time. His influence became important and even 

 phenomenal only when, in addition to the legal and 

 the economic problems of practical politics, he devoted 

 himself to the exposition of the cultural and educa- 

 tional functions of the State. But, as has been 

 recognised by recent historians, Fichte's economic 

 tract of 1800 contains really the true socialistic 

 principle in contradistinction to the mistaken socialism 

 which has become a popular cry in modern times. 

 Both the genuine and the spurious socialism aim at 

 a remedy of existing social evils, notably at an eleva- 

 tion and education of the masses and a juster dis- 

 tribution of happiness. But whilst the popular socialism 

 of the day only too frequently considers happiness to 

 mean enjoyment, the principle of Fichte's socialism is 



^ See 'Collected Works,' vo'. I Nation,' p. 386. 

 vii., 'Reden an die deutsche 



