Autor: Sertillanges A. D. (Gilbert)

Buch: The Intellectual Life

Titel: The Intellectual Life

Stichwort: Verhältnis: Autor - Leser; Buch als Jungbrunnen (kein Grab)

Kurzinhalt: A book is a cradle, not a tomb. Physically we are born young and we die old; intellectually, because of the heritage of the ages, "we are born old; we must try to die young.

Textausschnitt: 43/7 If it is true that it is only by our work that we acquire ordinary knowledge, it is still more evidently true that we cannot make our contribution of new thought to the world except by our own effort. I should like, when I read, to find some happy suggestion, some starting-point for a fresh train of ideas in my book; but then to lay it down as soon as possible, to shake myself free with a feeling of indebtedness. It is my duty to be myself. What is the good of repeating others? However unimportant I am, I know that God makes none of His spiritual beings without a purpose — He does not make the least natural object without a purpose. I am obeying my Master by setting myself free. I am alive, I am not a mere reflection, and I want to live a fruitful life. Whatever engenders nothing is non-existent; my reading must enable me to engender thought in the likeness, not of the author who inspires me, but of myself! (172; Fs) (notabene)

44/7 That is, I think, the last word on the question of books. A book is a signal, a stimulant, a helper, an initiator—it is not a substitute and it is not a chain. Our thought must be what we ourselves are. When we read, our masters must not be a goal for us, but a starting-point. A book is a cradle, not a tomb. Physically we are born young and we die old; intellectually, because of the heritage of the ages, "we are born old; we must try to die young."1 (172f; Fs) (notabene)

Men of real genius do not want to pinion us, but to make us free. But if they did aim at enslaving us, we should have to resist them, to be on our guard against an invasion of our liberty that would be so much the more destructive as we have not equal resources for the struggle. We must emancipate our soul. The more our thought springs from our inner depths, from what is incommunicable in us, the more it will reflect man, and the more readily will other men recognize themselves in it. Human respect loses touch with humanity, spontaneity gets near to it. Repetition of others' thoughts, whether open or disguised, soon proves wearisome. "If you speak of nothing but what you have read," says Schopenhauer, "no one will read you." (173; Fs) (notabene)

45/7 In fine, let us work with truth for our companion, with God for our companion. Our model is in the creative Thought. Men of genius are but a shadow. To be the shadow of a shadow is a poor thing for one, who, whether small or great, is here on earth a spiritual entity, incomparable, unparalleled, unique.

Man is multiple and each of us is a separate specimen of mankind; God is in all men; let us have the wisdom to honor man and to respect God in ourselves. (173; Fs)