H. Adler - Panorama

And so Josef sleeps, there being nothing at the moment to prod him to do anything special, he able to move around as he pleases, no neighbor fighting with him over space, or anyone approaching him to order, “Josef, get up, get a shovel and dig your own grave!” The brothers had not strangled him, so that they could say that an evil animal had eaten him, but instead they had sold him into slavery, though this is only a dream from a bad source of dreams, it is all over, there are no ignoble brothers here who want to throw him into a ditch in the middle of the desert, there being no one who comes, no voice raised, no glance that threatens, no nod of warning, no one in Launceston who wants to control him, just a few rules that are not at all burdensome to follow. Josef is completely alone, no one wants to cut his hair, no one creeps up from behind and hits him on the neck with a gnarled stick, it being wonderful and unbelievable how peacefully everything goes. That’s why it’s good that in front of the dungeon the wreath in honor of the Quaker elder hangs, it guarding against the unexpected outbreak of something awful, though indeed the Conqueror had also tossed wreaths to his dead accomplices without accomplishing anything good, though here it seems to help, since it’s been so many years since Cromwell held his prisoner George Fox in Launceston, memory having accumulated a great deal of time that had come to fruition. For indeed the climate is mild, there being nowhere else that such a soft rain can fall, tiny silver drops descending from breathlike clouds, falling softly and soundlessly, not even bending a single blade of grass.

Now Josef is free, he can pass the time in the castle park in Launceston, though he doesn’t need to invoke his right to do so, he knows that he has permission to enjoy the sweeping view, to rest here, to feel the blessing of sleep, the grace, the freedom, the grace and the freedom that appear to be two names for one thing. Maybe grace is the third principle that mediates between the principles of essence and matter, grace surpassing all else in the world, it being not an earthly but a godly principle, and no way to philosophize about it, since nothing can be known of grace and its freedom, they possessing neither time nor space, though grace and freedom transcend essence and matter, and are not the same as either of them. The nature of grace and freedom is a miracle, which is why there is less grace and freedom in the world than there are miracles. For, indeed, when is the third principle grace and when is it freedom? Josef considers two aspects of the answer, one that is neither human nor worldly, while the other is both human and worldly. That which is not worldly, and therefore beyond life’s realm, conceives of the principle as absolute freedom, which then becomes grace in its resolve to flow forth into life. By the world and by humans this principle is experienced as grace, as it imparts a measure of freedom, though that is not absolute freedom, for it is never more than the measure of grace that has been dispensed. That’s why freedom and the measure of freedom in the world are not definable, for the measure of grace cannot be calculated, though certainly there is no freedom without grace. In this sense life is never completely without or completely filled with grace, since even in such extreme cases life is presumably nothing more, indeed cannot be anything other than, what we conceive it to be. Josef believes that even a minimum amount of grace would be able to almost completely dissolve the contradiction between the two worldly principles of matter and essence. The possible connection of two individual essences would be something more difficult to bring about or would be virtually nullified, for essences could no longer connect with one another through matter, because the latter would likely drown the former, thus ending all confraternity.

The spiritual principle can give rise to grace in life when some kind of freedom exists between essences, though one cannot conjure grace but, at best, invoke it, and there is no guarantee that any prayer will be met with measurable success. Every attempt to control the principle of freedom in the world is an undertaking that attempts to attain the unattainable. That is, of course, impossible, for freedom cannot be demanded, nor is there anything that can give rise to grace, even if perhaps some kinds of behavior are better suited to grace, deigning to make more of an appearance in life than do other behaviors. But such talk is blasphemous and has more to do with merit and good deeds than makes sense, since grace hearkens only to its own freedom and relates only to a pure belief in the good deeds of human beings. Nevertheless, Josef thinks, the essence of the world can assume the existence of an array of fundamentals — or at least has to — as, indeed, it’s not an illusion or a contradiction to think that laws were once formed that require humankind’s adherence to certain customs. When fulfilled in the right spirit they lead to blessing, while violating them leads to nothing but trouble. People should know this, but they forget and don’t want to know. In the history of humankind, hardly any trace of freedom has ever manifested itself without there also being some form of subjugation alongside it.

Josef feels that his thinking is approaching the limits of what is permissible, but he also believes that he is alive only because of an act of grace, and to him it seems that the grace experienced by an individual cannot exist without limitations. Since man is an individual, he cannot experience the grace of another. Therefore the freedom of the individual is always more limited than the grace afforded a community or a people, whereby the freedom that courses through all of its members in unknowable measures is made manifest, while the grace experienced by the individual can indeed have an effect on the world, though it remains undefined. The individual is created in the same way as all of his fellow beings, which is why each person and all people and presumably the entire world are accountable, he being an accessory to everything that happens in the world, in much the same way that he wants to be a part of any of the benefits accrued in the world. Josef thinks a dangerous temptation exists when a person presumes that he enjoys a personal grace or even believes that grace involves some kind of merit, for when this occurs grace immediately retreats from human beings. No one can possess grace, no one has a right to grace. To any claim a human being might raise, grace is always something ancillary, and no being would exist or have the right to exist if treated according to its merits, even if he thinks he has a right to it. Grace has no measure, since it cannot be measured in terms of the freedom that it grants, though it ebbs and flows at the discretion of freedom.

Freedom can dispense grace indiscriminately, it being just as available to the guilty, and is perhaps expended only on the guilty, since before grace there is no one who is not guilty. So there is no need for grace to be kept from anyone who adds a new sin to established sins, though it can withhold itself, as grace is the freedom that exists which no one can do anything about, and therefore cannot possess. Often a person assures that grace will not occur, although he has nothing against it, for he infers demands that have nothing to do with it. This gives rise to the paradox that grace can cause harm, but when it does it is no longer grace, for though grace is indeed salvation, when defined by humans it is no longer grace. But if grace is to give rise to freedom, then grace must remain free, as it can work only in freedom. Thus that which is unfree is part of the sinful, and the realization of the nature of that which is unfree places the world as well as the individual person in a state of sin or guilt, which are two words for the same thing.