I And Thou

always arises, the revealing by two people of the Thou
to one another. Out of this a marriage is built up by
the Thou that is neither of the Ps. This is the meta-
physical and metapsychical factor of love to which
feelings of love are mere accompaniments. He who
wishes to give new life to marriage from another source
is not essentially different from him who wishes to abolish
it. Both clearly show that they no longer know the
vital factor. And indeed, if in all the much discussed
erotic philosophy of the age we were to leave out of
account everything that involves experience in relation
to the I, that is, every situation in which the one is not
present to the other, given present status by it, but merely
enjoys itself in the other—what then would be left 3
True public and true personal life are two forms of
connexion. In that they come into being and endure, •
feelings (the changing content) and institutions, (the
constant form) are necessary; but put together they
do not create human life : tm> is done by the third, the*
central presence of the Thou, or rather, more truly stated,
by the central Thou that has been received in the present.
*
The primary word I-It is not of evil—as matter
is not of evil. It is of evil—as matter is, which presumes
to have the quality-of present being. If a man lets
it have the mastery, the continually growing world
of It overruns him and robs him of the reality of
bis own I, till the incubus over him and the ghost
within him whisper -to one another the confession of
their non-salvation.