Latest / Logic Library / 00 - Front matter - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner
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- 0:04Publisher's preface, introduction and translator's preface of the nineteen o seven English language publication
- 0:12of The Ego and his Own by Mach Steerner. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 0:18All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to
- 0:24volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Matt Messerschmidt in ann Arbor,
- 0:31Michigan, USA. Publisher's preface of the Ego and his Own by Mach
- 0:38Steerner. For more than twenty years, I have entertained the design of publishing
- 0:49an English translation of De isseiga unzein Eigentum. When I formed this design,
- 0:55the number of English speaking persons who had ever heard of the book was very
- 1:00limited. The memory of mach Steerner had been virtually extinct for an entire generation.
- 1:07But in the last two decades there has been a remarkable revival of interest,
- 1:11both in the book and in its author It began in this country with
- 1:15the discussion in the pages of the anarchist periodical Liberty, in which Steerner's thought
- 1:22was clearly expounded and vigorously championed by doctor James L. Walker, who adopted
- 1:27for this discussion the pseudonym tak Kak. At that time, doctor Walker was
- 1:34the chief editorial writer for the Galveston News. Some years later he became a
- 1:38practicing physician in Mexico, where he died in nineteen o four. A series
- 1:45of essays which he began in an anarchist periodical Egoism, and which he lived
- 1:49to complete, was published after his death in a small volume, The Philosophy
- 1:56of Egoism. It is a very able and convey vincing exposition of Stenner's teachings,
- 2:02and almost the only one that exists in the English language. But the
- 2:07chief instrument in the revival of Schernerism was and is the German poet John Henry
- 2:15Mackay. Very early in his career he met Steerer's name in Langa's History of
- 2:22Materialism, and was moved thereby to read his book. The work made such
- 2:28an impression on him that he resolved to devote a portion of his life to
- 2:31the rediscovery and rehabilitation of the lost and forgotten genius. Through years of toil
- 2:38and correspondence and travel, and triumphing over tremendous obstacles, he carried his task
- 2:46to completion, and his biography of Scheerner appeared in Berlin in eighteen ninety eight.
- 2:53It is a tribute to the thoroughness of mackay's work that since its publication
- 3:00not one important fact about Sterner has been discovered by anybody. During his years
- 3:06of investigation. McKay's advertising for information had created a new interest in Stner,
- 3:12which was enhanced by the sudden fame of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, an
- 3:16author whose intellectual kinship with Steerner has been a subject of some controversy. Da
- 3:23Einsege, previously obtainable only in an expensive form, was included in Philip re
- 3:29Klam's Universal Biblioteque, and this cheap edition has enjoyed a wide and ever increasing
- 3:36circulation during the last dozen years. The book has been translated twice into French,
- 3:43once into Italian, once into Russian, and possibly into other languages.
- 3:49The Scandinavian critic Brondus has written on Steerner. A large and appreciative volume entitled
- 3:55The individualisim Anarchiste maksh Stener, from the pen of Professor Victor Bosch of the
- 4:02University of Renz, has appeared in Paris. Another large and sympathetic volume,
- 4:09mach Steyne, written by doctor Anselm Rust, has been published very recently in
- 4:15Berlin. Doctor Paul Eltzbacher, in his work De Anarchismus, gives a chapter
- 4:21to Steerner, making him one of the seven typical anarchists, beginning with William
- 4:27Godwin and ending with Tolstoy, of whom his book treats. There is hardly
- 4:32a notable magazine or a review on the continent that has not given at least
- 4:38one leading article to the subject of Stener. Upon the initiative of Mackay and
- 4:43with the aid of other admirers, a suitable stone has been placed above the
- 4:46philosopher's previously neglected grave, and a memorial tablet upon the house in Berlin where
- 4:53he died in eighteen fifty six, and this spring another is to be placed
- 4:58upon the house in Byrout where he was born born in eighteen o six.
- 5:01As a result of these various efforts, and though but little has been written
- 5:06about Stanner in the English language, his name is now known to at least
- 5:11thousands in America and England, where formerly it was known only to hundreds.
- 5:18Therefore, conditions are now more favorable for the reception of this volume than they
- 5:23were when I formed the design of publishing it more than twenty years ago.
- 5:30The problem of securing a reasonably good translation, for in the case of a
- 5:33work presenting difficulties so enormous it was idle to hope for an adequate translation,
- 5:40was finally solved by entrusting the task to Stephen T. Byington, a scholar
- 5:45of remarkable attainments, whose specialty is philology, and who is also one of
- 5:49the ablest workers in the propaganda of anarchism. But for further security from error,
- 5:57it was agreed with mister Byington that is translation should have the benefit of
- 6:00revision by doctor Walker, the most thorough American student of Steener, and by
- 6:05Emma Heller Schum and George Schum, who are not only sympathetic with Steener,
- 6:12but familiar with the history of his time, and who enjoy a knowledge of
- 6:15English and German that makes it difficult to decide which is their native tongue.
- 6:21It was also agreed that upon any point of difference between the translator and his
- 6:27revisers, which consultation might fail to solve, the publisher should decide. This
- 6:33method has been followed and in a considerable number of instances it has fallen to
- 6:39me to make a decision. It is not only fair to say, therefore,
- 6:43that the responsibility for special errors and imperfections properly rests on my shoulders,
- 6:48whereas, on the other hand, the credit for whatever general excellence the translation
- 6:54may possess belongs with the same propriety to mister Byington and his coadjuctors. One
- 7:01thing is certain, its defects are due to no lack of loving care and
- 7:05pains. And I think I may add with confidence, while realizing fully how
- 7:12far short of perfection it necessarily falls, that it may safely challenge comparison with
- 7:16the translations that have been made into other languages, in particular im responsible for
- 7:25the admittedly erroneous rendering of the title. The ego and his own is not
- 7:30an exact English equivalent of de issiga unzein eigentum, But then there is no
- 7:38exact English equivalent. Perhaps the nearest is the unique one and his property,
- 7:45but the unique one is not strictly the Einskee for uniqueness connotes not only singleness,
- 7:53but an admirable singleness, whilst Janet's einzig Kite is admirable in his eyes
- 7:58only as such, it being no part of the purpose of his book to
- 8:03distinguish a particular einseig Kite as more excellent than another. Moreover, the unique
- 8:11one in his property has no graces to compel our forgiveness of its slight inaccuracy.
- 8:16It is clumsy and unattractive, and the same objections may be urged with
- 8:20still greater force against all the other renderings that have been suggested, the single
- 8:26one and his property, the only one and his property, the lone one
- 8:33and his property, the unit and his property, and last and least and
- 8:39worst the individual and his prerogative. The ego and his own. On the
- 8:46other hand, if not a precise rendering, is at least an excellent title
- 8:50in itself, excellent by its euphony, its monosyllabic incisiveness, and its telling
- 8:58heinsechekite. Another strong argument in its favor is the emphatic correspondence of the phrase
- 9:05his own with mister Byington's renderings of the kindred words Eigenheit and aigna. Moreover,
- 9:15no reader will be led astray who bears in mind Starna's distinction. I
- 9:18am not an ego along with all other egos, but the sole ego,
- 9:24I am unique. And to help the reader bear this in mind, the
- 9:30various renderings of the word einsege that occur through the volume are often accompanied by
- 9:35footnotes showing that in the German one in the same word does duty for all.
- 9:43If the reader finds the first quarter of this book somewhat forbidding and obscure,
- 9:48he has advised nevertheless not to falter. Close attention will master almost every
- 9:54difficulty, and if he will but give it, he will find abundant reward
- 9:58in what follows. For his guidance, I may specify one defect in the
- 10:03author's style while controverting a view opposite to his own. He seldom distinguishes with
- 10:09sufficient clearness his statement of his own view from his restatement of the attag in
- 10:15his view. As a result, the reader is plunged into deeper and deeper
- 10:20mystification, until something suddenly reveals the cause of his misunderstanding, after which he
- 10:26must go back and read again. I therefore put him on his guard.
- 10:31The other difficulties lie as a rule in the structure of the work. As
- 10:37to these I can hardly do better than translate the following passage from Professor Bosch's
- 10:41book alluded to above, there is nothing more disconcerting than the first approach to
- 10:46this strange work. Stanna does not condescend to inform us as to the architecture
- 10:52of his edifice, or furnish us the slightest guiding threat. The apparent divisions
- 10:58of this book are few and misleading. From the first page to the last,
- 11:03a unique thought circulates, but it divides itself among an infinity of vessels
- 11:09and arteries, in which each runs a blood so rich in ferments that one
- 11:13is tempted to describe them all. There is no progress in the development,
- 11:18and the repetitions are innumerable. The reader, who is not deterred by this
- 11:22oddity, or rather absence of composition, gives proof of genuine intellectual courage.
- 11:31At first, one seems to be confronted with a collection of essays strung together
- 11:35with a throng of aphorisms. But if you read this book several times,
- 11:43if after having penetrated the intimacy of each of its parts, you then traverse
- 11:48it as a whole, Gradually the fragments well themselves together, and steerness thought
- 11:54is revealed in all its unity, in all its force, and in all
- 11:58its depth. A word about the dedication. Butquay's investigations have brought to light
- 12:05that Maria Danhot had nothing whatever in common with Styrna, and was unworthy of
- 12:11the honor conferred upon her. She was now eigne. I therefore reproduced the
- 12:18dedication merely in the interest of historical accuracy. Happy as I am in the
- 12:24appearance of this book, my joy is not unmixed with sorrow. The cheerish
- 12:28project was as dear to the heart of doctor Walker as to mine, and
- 12:33I deeply grieved that he is no longer with us to share our delight in
- 12:37the fruition. Nothing, however, can rob us of the masterly introduction that
- 12:41he wrote for this volume in nineteen o three or perhaps earlier, from which
- 12:46I will not longer keep the reader. This introduction no more than the book
- 12:52itself, shall that ainseke death make his Eigington February nineteen o seven, Benjamin
- 13:03R. Tucker, Publisher, Introduction fifty years sooner or later can make little
- 13:13difference in the case of a book so revolutionary as this. It saw the
- 13:18light when a so called revolutionary movement was preparing in men's minds, which aditation
- 13:24was however, only a disturbance due to desires to participate in government and to
- 13:31govern, and to be governed in a manner different to that which prevails.
- 13:37The revolutionists of eighteen forty eight were bewitched with an idea. They were not
- 13:43at all the masters of ideas. Most of those who since that time have
- 13:48prided themselves upon being revolutionists have been an r likewise, but the bondmen of
- 13:54an idea, that of the different lodgment of authority. The temptation is of
- 14:01course present to attempt an explanation of the central thought of this work, but
- 14:05such an effort appears to be unnecessary to one who has the volume in his
- 14:11hand. The author's care in illustrating his meaning shows that he realized how prone
- 14:16to possessed man is to misunderstand whatever is not molded according to the fashions in
- 14:22thinking. The author's learning was considerable, his command of words and ideas may
- 14:28never be excelled by another, and he judged it needful to develop his argument
- 14:35in manifold ways, so those who enter into the spirit of it will scarcely
- 14:39hope to impress others with the same conclusion in a more summary manner or if
- 14:45one might deem that possible after reading Scherner, still one cannot think that it
- 14:50could be done. So surely the author has made certain work of it,
- 14:54even though he is to wait for his public. But still the reception of
- 15:00the book by its critics amply proves the truth of the saying that one can
- 15:03give another arguments but not understanding. The system makers and the system believers thus
- 15:11far cannot get it out of their heads that any discourse about the nature of
- 15:16an ego must turn upon the common characteristics of egos to make a systematic scheme
- 15:22of what they share as a generality. The critics inquire what kind of man
- 15:28the author is talking about? They repeat the question what does he believe in?
- 15:33They fail to grasp the purport of the recorded answer, I believe in
- 15:39myself, which is attributed to a common soldier long before the time of Stna.
- 15:46They ask, what is the principle of the self conscious egoist? The
- 15:52einzige. To this perplexity, Sterna says, change the question put who instead
- 15:58of what, and an answer can then be given by naming him. This,
- 16:06of course, is too simple for persons governed by ideas, and for
- 16:10purses in quest of new governing ideas they wish to classify the man. Now
- 16:17that in me which you can classify, is not my distinguishing self. Man
- 16:22is the horizon or zero of my existence as an individual. Over that I
- 16:27rise as I can, at least, I am something more than man.
- 16:33In general, pre existing worship of ideas and disrespect for self has made of
- 16:40this ego at the very most as somebody often or an empty vessel to be
- 16:45filled with the grace or the leavings of a tyrannous doctrine. Thus nobody student
- 16:52dispels the morbid subjugation and recognizes each one who knows and feels himself as his
- 16:59own property, to be neither humble nobody, nor be fogged somebody, but
- 17:04henceforth flat footed and level headed mister, this body, who has a character
- 17:11and good pleasure of his own, just as he has a name of his
- 17:15own. The critics who attacked this work, and were answered in the author's
- 17:19minor writings rescued from oblivion by John Henry Mackay, nearly all display the most
- 17:26astonishing triviality and impotent malice. We owe to doctor Edward van Hottmann, the
- 17:34unquestionable service which he rendered by directing attention to this book in his philosophy Des
- 17:40Undevusten, the first edition of which was published in eighteen sixty nine, and
- 17:47other writings. I do not begrudge doctor van Hotman the liberty of criticism which
- 17:52he used, and I think the admirers of Sheerna's teaching must quite appreciate one
- 17:56thing which doctor Hortman did at a much later date, In Dr Eigene of
- 18:03August tenth, eighteen ninety six, there appeared a letter written by him and
- 18:07giving, among other things, certain data from which to judge that when Nietzsche
- 18:14wrote his later essays, Nietzsche was not ignorant of Sterne's book. Von Hartmann
- 18:21wishes that Scherner had gone on and developed his principle. Von Hartmann suggests that
- 18:26you and I are really the same spirit looking out through two pairs of eyes.
- 18:32Then one may reply, I need not concern myself about you, for
- 18:37in myself I have us. And at that rate Von Hartmann is merely accusing
- 18:42himself of inconsistency, For when Stener wrote this book, Von Hartmann's spirit was
- 18:49writing it. And it is just the pity that von Hartmann in his present
- 18:55form does not endorse what he said in the form of Steerner, that Sterner
- 19:00was different from any other man, that his ego is not Fiketa's transcendental generality,
- 19:06but this transitory ego of flesh and blood. It is not as a
- 19:11generality that you and I differ, but as a couple of facts which are
- 19:17not to be reasoned into one. I is some wise Hartman, and thus
- 19:22Hartman is I. But I am not Hartman, and Hartman is not I.
- 19:30Neither am I the eye of Stererner. Only Sterner himself was Steerner's eye.
- 19:37Note how comparatively indifferent it is with Sterner that one is an ego,
- 19:45But how all important it is that one be a self conscious ego, a
- 19:49self conscious, self willed person. Those not self conscious and self willed are
- 19:57constantly acting from self ill interested motives, but clothing these in various garbs.
- 20:04Watch those people closely in the light of Stererner's teachings, and they seem to
- 20:10be hypocrites. They have so many good moral and religious paths of which self
- 20:14interest is at the end and bottom. But they, we may believe,
- 20:18do not know that this is more than a coincidence. In Steno we have
- 20:23the philosophical foundation for political liberty. His interest in the practical development of egoism
- 20:30to the dissolution of the state and the union of free men is clear and
- 20:34pronounced, and harmonizes perfectly with the economic philosophy of Josiah Warren. Allowing for
- 20:44difference of temperament and language, there is a substantial agreement between Stererna and Pruden.
- 20:49Each would be free and seize in every increase of the number of free
- 20:53people and their intelligence on auxiliary force against the oppressor. But on the other
- 21:02hand, will any one for a moment seriously contend that Nietzsche and Prudon march
- 21:07together in general aim and tendency, that they have anything in common except the
- 21:12daring to profane the shrine and sepulchra of superstition. Nietzsche has been much spoken
- 21:21of as disciple of Sterner, and owing to favorable cullings from Nietzsche's writings,
- 21:26it has occurred that one of his books has been supposed to contain more sense
- 21:30than it really does, so long as one has read only the extracts Nietzsche
- 21:37cites scores or hundreds of authors, has he read everything and not read Steerner.
- 21:45But Nietzsche is as unlike Sterner as a tightrope performance is unlike in algebraic
- 21:51equation. Stererner loved liberty for himself and loved to see any and all men
- 21:56and women taking liberty, and he had no lust for power. Democracy was
- 22:03to him sham liberty, egoism the genuine liberty. Nietzsche, on the contrary,
- 22:12pours out his contempt upon democracy because it is not aristocratic. He is
- 22:18predatory, to the point of demanding that those who must succumb to feline rapacity
- 22:23must be taught to submit with resignation. When he speaks of anarchistic dogs scouring
- 22:30the streets of great civilized cities, it is true the context shows that he
- 22:36means the communists, But his worship of Napoleon is bathos of anxiety for the
- 22:42rise of an aristocracy that shall rule Europe for thousands of years. His idea
- 22:48of treating women in the Oriental fashion show that Nietzsche has struck out in a
- 22:55very old path during the apotheosis of tyranny. We individual egoistic anarchists, however,
- 23:03may say to the Nietzsche school, so as not to be misunderstood.
- 23:08We do not ask of the napoleons to have pity, nor of the predatory
- 23:12barons to do justice. They will find it convenient for their own welfare to
- 23:18make terms with men who have learned of Stirner. What a man can be
- 23:22who worships nothing bears allegiance to nothing. To Nietzsche's rodamontade of eagles in baronial
- 23:30form born to prey on industrial lambs, we rather tauntingly oppose the ironical question
- 23:38where are your claws? What if the eagles are found to be plain barn
- 23:45yard fowls, on which more silly fowls have fastened steel spurs to hack the
- 23:52victims, who, however, have the power to disarm the sham eagles between
- 23:56two sons. Stener shows that men make their tyrants as they make their gods,
- 24:03and his purpose is to unmake tyrants. Nietzsche dearly loves a tyrant in
- 24:14style. Stennier's work offers the greatest possible contrast to the puerile, padded phraseology
- 24:19of Nietzsche Zarathustra and its false imagery. Whoever imagined such an unnatural conjuncture as
- 24:26an eagle toting a serpent in friendship, which performance is told of in bare
- 24:33words, but nothing comes of it. In Stener we are treated to an
- 24:37enlivening and earnest discussion addressed to serious minds, and every reader feels that the
- 24:45word is to him for his instruction and benefit, so far as he has
- 24:51mental independence and courage to take it and use it. The startling intrepidity of
- 24:57this book is in with a wholehearted love for all mankind, as evidenced by
- 25:04the fact that the author shows not one iota of prejudice or any idea of
- 25:11division of men into ranks. He would lay aside government, but would establish
- 25:18any regulation deemed convenient, and for this only our convenience is consulted. Thus
- 25:27there will be general liberty only when the disposition toward tyranny is met by intelligent
- 25:33opposition that will no longer submit to such a rule. Beyond this, the
- 25:38manly sympathy and philosophical bent of Steerner are such that rulership appears by contrast of
- 25:45vanity, an infatuation of perverted pride. We know not whether we more admire
- 25:52our author or more love him. Stenior's attitude toward women is not special.
- 26:00She is an individual if she can be not handicapped by anything he says,
- 26:04feels, thinks, or plans. This was more fully exemplified in his life
- 26:11than even in his book. But there is not a line in the book
- 26:15to put or keep women in an inferior position to men. Neither is there
- 26:22anything of caste or aristocracy in the book. Likewise, there is nothing of
- 26:27obscurantism or affected mysticism about it. Everything in it is made as plain as
- 26:34the author could make it. He who does not so is not Steerner's disciple,
- 26:40nor successor, nor co worker. Someone may ask, how does plumbline
- 26:45anarchism train with the unbridled egoism proclaimed by Steerner. The plumb line is not
- 26:52a fetish, but an intellectual conviction, and egoism is a universal fact of
- 27:00animal life. Nothing could seem clearer to my mind than that the reality of
- 27:04egoism must first come into the consciousness of men before we can have the unbiased
- 27:11ininseke in place of the prejudiced biped who lends himself to the support of tyrannies
- 27:17a million times stronger over me than the natural self interest of any individual.
- 27:23When plumbline doctrine is misconceived as duty between unequal minded men. As a religion
- 27:30of humanity. It is indeed the confusion of trying to read without knowing the
- 27:36alphabet, and of putting philanthropy in place of contract. But if the plumbline
- 27:42be scientific, it is or can be, my possession, my property,
- 27:48and I choose it for its use when circumstances admit of its use. I
- 27:55do not feel bound to use it because it is scientific in build my house.
- 28:00But as my will to be intelligent, it is not to be merely
- 28:06wilful. The adoption of the plumb line follows the discarding of incantations. There
- 28:15is no plumb line without the unvarying lead at the end of the line,
- 28:18not a fluttering bird or a clawing cat. On the practical side of egoism
- 28:23versus self surrender, and for a trial of egoism in politics, this may
- 28:29be said. The belief that men not moved by a sense of duty will
- 28:33be unkind or unjust to others is but an indirect confession that those who hold
- 28:41that belief are greatly interested in having others live for them rather than for themselves.
- 28:48But I do not ask or expect so much. I am content if
- 28:53others individually live for themselves and thus cease in so many ways to act in
- 29:00opposition to my living for myself, to our living for ourselves. If Christianity
- 29:07has failed to turn the world from evil, it is not to be dreamed
- 29:11that rationalism of a pious moral stamp will succeed in the same task. Christianity
- 29:19or all philanthropic love is tested in non resistance. It is a dream that
- 29:26example will change the hearts of rulers, tyrants, moms. If the extremest
- 29:33self surrender fails, how can a mixture of Christian love and worldly caution succeed?
- 29:41This at least must be given up. The policy of Christ and Tolstoy
- 29:48can soon be tested. But Tolstoy's belief is not satisfied with a present test
- 29:53and failure. He has the infatuation of one who persists because this ought to
- 30:00be. The egoist who thinks I should like this to be still has the
- 30:07sense to perceive that it is not accomplished by the fact of some believing and
- 30:11submitting. Inasmuch as others are alert to prey upon the unresisting. The pharaohs,
- 30:18we have ever, with us, several passages in this most remarkable book
- 30:26show the author as a man full of sympathy when we reflect upon his deliberately
- 30:33expressed opinions and sentiments, his spurning of the sense of moral obligation as the
- 30:38last form of superstition. May we not be warranted in thinking that the total
- 30:44disappearance of the sentimental supposition of duty liberates a quantity of nervous energy for the
- 30:51purest enjoyment and clarifies the intellect for the more discriminating choice of objects of merit.
- 31:00J. L. Walker Translator's preface. If the style of this book
- 31:12is found unattractive, it will show that I have done my work ill and
- 31:18not represented the author truly. But if it is found odd, I beg
- 31:23that I may not bear all the blame. I have simply tried to reproduce
- 31:30the author's own mixture of colloquialisms and technicalities, and his preference for the precise
- 31:36expression of his thought rather than the word conventionally expected. One especial feature of
- 31:44the style, however, gives the reason why this preface should exist. It
- 31:49is characteristic of Steerner's writing that the thread of thought is carried on largely by
- 31:55the repetition of the same word in a modified form or sense. That connection
- 32:01of ideas which has guided popular instinct in the formation of words, is made
- 32:07to suggest the line of thought which the writer which is to follow. If
- 32:13this echoing of words is missed, the bearing of the statements on each other
- 32:17is in a measure lost. And where the ideas are very new, one
- 32:22cannot afford to throw away any help in following their connection. Therefore, where
- 32:30a useful echo, and there are few useless ones in the book, could
- 32:35not be reproduced in English, I have generally called attention to it in a
- 32:38note. My notes are distinguished from the authors by being enclosed in parentheses.
- 32:45One or two such coincidences of language occurring in words which are prominent throughout the
- 32:52book, should be borne constantly in mind as a sort of care perpetuum.
- 32:58For instance, the identity in the original of the words spirit and mind,
- 33:04and of the phrases supreme being and highest essence. In such cases I have
- 33:10repeated the note where it seemed that such repetition may be absolutely necessary, but
- 33:16have trusted the reader to carry it in his head. Where a failure of
- 33:21his memory would not be ruinous or likely for the same reason, that is,
- 33:28in order not to miss any indication of the drift of the thought,
- 33:31I have followed the original in the very liberal use of italics, and in
- 33:37the occasional eccentric use of a punctuation mark, as I might not have done
- 33:43in translating a work of a different nature. I have set my face as
- 33:47a flint against the temptation to add notes that were not part of the translation.
- 33:54There is no telling how much I might have enlarged the book. If
- 33:58I had put a note at every sense which deserved to have its truth brought
- 34:02out by fuller elucidation, or even at every one which I thought needed correction,
- 34:09it might have been within my province if I had been able to explain
- 34:15all the allusions to contemporary events. But I doubt whether anyone could do that
- 34:20properly without having access to the files of three or four well chosen newspapers of
- 34:25Sheerner's time. The illusions are clear enough without names and dates, to give
- 34:31a vivid picture of certain aspects of German life. Then the tone of some
- 34:37of them is explained by the fact that the book was published under censorship.
- 34:45I have usually preferred for the sake of the connection, to translate biblical quotations
- 34:51somewhat as they stand in the German rather than conform them altogether to the English
- 34:55Bible. I am sometimes quite as near the the original Greek as if I
- 35:01had followed the current translation. Where German books are referred to, the pages
- 35:07cited are those of the German editions, even when, usually because of some
- 35:13illusions in the text, the titles of the books are translated. Stephen T.
- 35:19Byington end of front material next section. The ego and his own by mach Steerer