[p. 261]
|261| is to be found. He must 1. get out of the natural, be free from it; 2. on the other hand, he must be absorbed in his calling, the essential, and therefore 3. not only restrict the satisfaction of the natural to the limits of necessity, but also be capable of sacrificing it to higher duties.
Explanation. The freedom of man from natural drives consists not in his having none and thus not striving to escape his nature, but in his recognising it altogether as something necessary and thereby rational, and accordingly carrying it out with his will. He finds himself constrained in this only insofar as he creates for himself contingent and arbitrary whims and purposes against the universal. The determinate, exact measure in the satisfaction of needs and in the use of the physical and spiritual powers cannot be stated exactly, but everyone can know what is useful or harmful to him. Moderation in the satisfaction of natural drives and in the use of bodily powers is altogether necessary for the sake of health, for this is an essential condition for the use of the spiritual powers in fulfilment of man’s higher vocation. If the body is not maintained in its proper condition, if it is injured in one of its functions, one must make it the purpose of one’s occupation, whereby it becomes something dangerous, something of consequence for spirit. – Furthermore, exceeding the measure in the use of the physical and spiritual powers, whether through too much or too little, has as its consequence dulling and weakness of them.
Finally, moderation is bound up with circumspection. This consists in consciousness of what one does, in that man, in enjoyment or in work, surveys himself through his reflection and is thus not wholly given over to this single state, but remains open to the consideration of other things that may also be necessary. In circumspection one is, together with spirit, at the same time out of one’s state, whether of feeling
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