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Full text of "I And Thou"

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I bear within me the sense of Self, that cannot
be included in the world. The world bears within
itself the sense of being, that cannot be* included
in the image. This sense of being, however, is
not a "will" that can be thought, but simply the
total status of the world as world, just as the
sense of Self is not a "knowing subject" but
simply the total status of the 1 as I. Here no further
" reduction " is possible ; he who does not honour the
last unities frustrates their apprehensible but not
comprehensible sense.
The beginning and the extinction of the world are
not in me;   but they are also not outside me;   they
cannot be said to be at all, they are a continuous happen-
ing, connected with and dependent on me, my life, my
decision, my work, and my service.   But they do depend
not on whether I " affirm " or " deny " the world in
my soul, but on how I cause my attitude of soul to the
world to grow to life, to life that acts upon the world,
to real life—and in real life the ways of very different
attitudes of soul may intersect.    But he who merely
"experiences5* his   attitude, merely consummates   it
in the soul, however thoughtfully, is without the world—
and  all  the  tricks, .arts, ecstasies, enthusiasms, and
mysteries that are in him do not even ripple the skin of
the world.   So long as a man is set free only in his Self he
can do the world neither weal nor woe;   he does not
concern the world.   Only he who believes in the world
is given power to enter into dealings with it, and if he
gives himself to this he cannot remain godless.   If only
we love the real world, that will not let itself be extin-
guished,  really in   its horror,  if   only   we   venture
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