The Ego and his Own by Max Stirner (most read books txt) 📕

consulted. Thus there

will be general liberty only when the disposition toward tyranny is met by

intelligent opposition that will no longer submit to such a rule. Beyond this

the manly sympathy and philosophical bent of Stirner are such that rulership

appears by contrast a vanity, an infatuation of perverted pride. We know not

whether we more admire our author or more love him.

Stirner's attitude toward woman is not special. She is an individual if she

can be, not handicapped by anything he says, feels, thinks, or plans. This was

more fully exemplified in his life than even in this book; but there is not a

line in the book to put or keep woman in an inferior position to man, neither

is there anything of caste or aristocracy in the book. Likewise there is

nothing of obscurantism or affected mysticism about it. Everything in it is

made as plain as the author could make it. He who does not so is not Stirner's

disciple nor successor nor co-worker. Some one may ask: How does plumb-line

Anarchism train with the unbridled egoism proclaimed by Stirner? The

plumb-line is not a fetish, but an intellectual conviction, and egoism is a

universal fact of animal life. Nothing could seem clearer to my mind than that

the reality of egoism must first come into the consciousness of men, before we

can have the unbiased Einzige in place of the prejudiced biped who lends

himself to the support of tyrannies a million times stronger over me than the

natural self-interest of any individual. When plumb-line doctrine is

misconceived as duty between unequal-minded men, -- as a religion of humanity,

-- it is indeed the confusion of trying to read without knowing the alphabet

and of putting philanthropy in place of contract. But, if the plumb-line be

scientific, it is or can be my possession, my property, and I choose it for

its use -- when circumstances admit of its use. I do not feel bound to use it

because it is scientific, in building my house; but, as my will, to be

intelligent, is not to be merely wilful, the adoption of the plumb-line

follows the discarding of incantations. There is no plumb-line without the

unvarying lead at the end of the line; not a fluttering bird or a clawing cat.

On the practical side of the question of egoism versus self-surrender and for

a trial of egoism in politics, this may be said: the belief that men not moved

by a sense of duty will be unkind or unjust to others is but an indirect

confession that those who hold that belief are greatly interested in having

others live for them rather than for themselves. But I do not ask or expect so

much.

I am content if others individually live for themselves, and thus cease in so

many ways to act in opposition to my living for myself, -- to our living for

ourselves.

If Christianity has failed to turn the world from evil, it is not to be

dreamed that rationalism of a pious moral stamp will succeed in the same task.

Christianity, or all philanthropic love, is tested in non-resistance. It is a

dream that example will change the hearts of rulers, tyrants, mobs. If the

extremest self-surrender fails, how can a mixture of Christian love and

worldly caution succeed? This at least must be given up. The policy of Christ

and Tolstoi can soon be tested, but Tolstoi's belief is not satisfied with a

present test and failure. He has the infatuation of one who persists because

this ought to be. The egoist who thinks "I should like this to be" still has

the sense to perceive that it is not accomplished by the fact of some

believing and submitting, inasmuch as others are alert to prey upon the

unresisting. The Pharaohs we have ever with us.

Several passages in this most remarkable book show the author as a man full of

sympathy. When we reflect upon his deliberately expressed opinions and

sentiments, -- his spurning of the sense of moral obligation as the last form

of superstition, -- may we not be warranted in thinking that the total

disappearance of the sentimental supposition of duty liberates a quantity of

nervous energy for the purest generosity and clarifies the intellect for the

more discriminating choice of objects of merit?

J. L. WALKER.

---- * ----

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

If the style of this book is found unattractive, it will show that I have done

my work ill and not represented the author truly; but, if it is found odd, I

beg that I may not bear all the blame. I have simply tried to reproduce the

author's own mixture of colloquialisms and technicalities, and his preference

for the precise expression of his thought rather than the word conventionally

expected.

One especial feature of the style, however, gives the reason why this preface

should exist. It is characteristic of Stirner's writing that the thread of

thought is carried on largely by the repetition of the same word in a modified

form or sense. That connection of ideas which has guided popular instinct in

the formation of words is made to suggest the line of thought which the writer

wishes to follow. If this echoing of words is missed, the bearing of the

statements on each other is in a measure lost; and, where the ideas are very

new, one cannot afford to throw away any help in following their connection.

Therefore, where a useful echo (and then are few useless ones in the book)

could not be reproduced in English, I have generally called attention to it in

a note. My notes are distinguished from the author's by being enclosed in

parentheses.

One or two of such coincidences of language, occurring in words which are

prominent throughout the book, should be borne constantly in mind as a sort of

Keri perpetuum; for instance, the identity in the original of the words

"spirit" and "mind," and of the phrases "supreme being" and "highest essence."

In such cases I have repeated the note where it seemed that such repetition

might be absolutely necessary, but have trusted the reader to carry it in his

head where a failure of his memory would not be ruinous or likely.

For the same reason--that is, in order not to miss any indication of the drift

of the thought -- I have followed the original in the very liberal use of

italics, and in the occasional eccentric use of a punctuation mark, as I might

not have done in translating a work of a different nature.

I have set my face as a flint against the temptation to add notes that were

not part of the translation. There is no telling how much I might have

enlarged the book if I had put a note at every sentence which deserved to have

its truth brought out by fuller elucidation -- or even at every one which I

thought needed correction. It might have been within my province, if I had

been able, to explain all the allusions to contemporary events, but I doubt

whether any one could do that properly without having access to the files of

three or four well-chosen German newspapers of Stirner's time. The allusions

are clear enough, without names and dates, to give a vivid picture of certain

aspects of German life then. The tone of some of them is explained by the fact

that the book was published under censorship.

I have usually preferred, for the sake of the connection, to translate

Biblical quotations somewhat as they stand in the German, rather than conform

them altogether to the English Bible. I am sometimes quite as near the

original Greek as if I had followed the current translation.

Where German books are referred to, the pages cited are those of the German

editions even when (usually because of some allusions in the text) the titles

of the books are translated.

Steven T. Byington

---- * ----

THE EGO AND HIS OWN

All Things Are Nothing To Me(1)

What is not supposed to be my concern!(2) First and foremost, the Good

Cause,(3) then God's cause, the cause of mankind, of truth, of freedom, of

humanity, of justice; further, the cause of my people, my prince, my

fatherland; finally, even the cause of Mind, and a thousand other causes. Only

my cause is never to be my concern. "Shame on the egoist who thinks only of

himself!"

Let us look and see, then, how they manage their concerns -- they for whose

cause we are to labor, devote ourselves, and grow enthusiastic.

You have much profound information to give about God, and have for thousands

of years "searched the depths of the Godhead," and looked into its heart, so

that you can doubtless tell us how God himself attends to "God's cause," which

we are called to serve. And you do not conceal the Lord's doings, either. Now,

what is his cause? Has he, as is demanded of us, made an alien cause, the

cause of truth or love, his own? You are shocked by this misunderstanding, and

you instruct us that God's cause is indeed the cause of truth and love, but

that this cause cannot be called alien to him, because God is himself truth

and love; you are shocked by the assumption that God could be like us poor

worms in furthering an alien cause as his own. "Should God take up the cause

of truth if he were not himself truth?" He cares only for his cause, but,

because he is all in all, therefore all is his cause! But we, we are not all

in all, and our cause is altogether little and contemptible; therefore we must

"serve a higher cause." -- Now it is clear, God cares only for what is his,

busies himself only with himself, thinks only of himself, and has only himself

before his eyes; woe to all that is not well-pleasing to him. He serves no

higher person, and satisfies only himself. His cause is -- a purely egoistic

cause.

How is it with mankind, whose cause we are to make our own? Is its cause that

of another, and does mankind serve a higher cause? No, mankind looks only at

itself, mankind will promote the interests of mankind only, mankind is its own

cause. That it may develop, it causes nations and individuals to wear

themselves out in its service, and, when they have accomplished what mankind

needs, it throws them on the dung-heap of history in gratitude. Is not

mankind's cause -- a purely egoistic cause?

I have no need to take up each thing that wants to throw its cause on us and

show that it is occupied only with itself, not with us, only with its good,

not with ours. Look at the rest for yourselves. Do truth, freedom, humanity,

justice, desire anything else than that you grow enthusiastic and serve them?

They all have an admirable time of it when they receive zealous homage. Just

observe the nation that is defended by devoted patriots. The patriots fall in

bloody