The outer world seems to have risen to overwhelm him, and the reason of
it lies in this same great cause of undue attention to outward
prosperity.
In the pursuit of wealth, men have aggregated themselves into towns and
cities, whose area is measured by square miles, and their population by
hundreds of thousands or millions; the mind meanwhile, instead of
increasing in proportion to the demands thus made upon it, has rather
diminished in power. Added to this, each man finds his own private
affairs in the same state. The social barrier of birth is either gone or
fast departing, and each man recognizes wealth as the only way to power;
but the concentrated attention of men and nations in this direction has
so complicated its pursuit that he must give his whole mind and heart to
this alone, if he would hope to succeed in it, or even comprehend it.
While these two worlds, the objective and the thinking subjective, have
thus grown so enormously out of proportion, the world has found a remedy
again in division of labor. The different relations, which are the
unalienable obligations of every man, have been parcelled out among all,
and each takes but one as his vocation, leaving all the rest to the
vicarious performance of others. Politicians care for the state,
teachers for the children, charitable societies for each man's neighbor,
and preachers fulfil his duty to God.
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