"
"How could I explain a whole system intelligibly in a few words?"
said Dorfling.
"You could leave out all the proofs and the development, we can read
those presently in your book. You need only just give us the main
ideas of your 'Philosophy of Deliverance.'"
All the guests joined in Schrotter's request, Paul the most eagerly,
for the idea of having to read through that thick, dry book had
frightened him, and now he saw the possibility of knowing its
contents in an agreeable and comfortable way.
Dorfling objected at first, but as his friends insisted he began.
"The phenomenal world, in my opinion, is the foundation of a single
spiritual principle which you can call what you like--strength,
final cause, will, consciousness, God. This eternal principle
separates part of itself from its own being--and this is the soul of
mankind. Every soul perceives clearly that it is a part of an
eternal whole; it feels itself unhappy and uneasy in its fragmentary
existence, and yearns to go back again to the whole from whence it
came. Individual life means removal from that all-embracing whole;
individual death is the complete union of finite parts with the
infinite whole. Thus, although life is a necessity, it is a
continual pain, and ceaseless yearning; death is the freedom from
pain and the fulfillment of that yearning.
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