[p. 231]
|231| fortune. On the one hand this welfare stands in the power of his will, on the other hand it depends on external circumstances and other human beings. Morality has the human being also according to his particular existence, or according to his welfare, as its object, and demands not only that the human being be left in his abstract freedom, but also that his welfare be furthered. – Well-being, as the adequacy of the external to our inner, we also call pleasure. Felicity is not merely a single pleasure, but a lasting condition, partly of actual pleasure itself, partly also of the circumstances and means through which one always has the possibility, if one wishes, of procuring pleasure for oneself. The latter is thus the pleasure of representation. In felicity, however, as in pleasure, there lies the concept of fortune, that it is contingent whether the external circumstances are adequate to the inner determinations of the drives. Blessedness, on the other hand, consists in this, that there is no fortune in it, i.e. that in it the adequacy of external existence to inner longing is not contingent. Blessedness can be said only of God, in whom willing and accomplishing of his absolute power are the same. For the human being, however, the agreement of the external with his inner is limited and contingent. He is therein dependent.
§ 24
The moral will, with regard to the disposition, is imperfect. It is a will that has the goal of perfection, but 1. it is driven to the attainment of the same also by the incentive of sensuousness and individuality, 2. it does not have the means in its power and is therefore limited in bringing about the welfare of others. In religion, on the other hand, one considers the divine being, the consummation of the will according to its two sides, namely according to the perfection of disposition, which no longer has alien incentives in it, and then according to the perfection of power to attain the holy purposes.
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