THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



gladly repay him with the results of the work 

 which a second or a third can perform much 

 better. So, in this great association of human 

 culture we see faculties unfold themselves, a di- 

 vision of labor according to talent is introduced 

 which becomes a great source of concentration 

 of strength, increase of total activity, and of 

 boundless progress. It is necessary to refer 

 only to art, which without this regulation of 

 things could never have appeared. Immediate- 

 ly there appears on this neutral field, where the 

 wild struggle for existence is checked for a defi- 

 nite limited tract, a refinement of feeling, a 

 softening of customs, that in the end is of the 

 highest significance to the whole of the higher 

 form of conflict. This ideal when fulfilled (even 

 in the narrowest circles) makes itself felt as a 

 decided energy. It develops also on the ethical 

 side. In place of the old antagonism of lord 

 and slave, enters the higher comprehensive idea 

 of free surrender to a greater whole. On the 

 completion of this ethical process rests the pos- 

 sibility of the highest culture, the pure unsel- 

 fish joy in the object of investigation, of art, 

 of philosophy, and a comprehension concerning 

 our relation to the Whole. 



Gently the medusa draws itself over the vari- 

 colored animal meadow. How far we appear to 

 have wandered in our thoughts. Yet we have 

 only gone up to the apex of the life which has 

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