And here I cannot refrain from a psychological observation. Although I
know very little of Aether's life, I have all the same good reason to
suppose that he was brought up by devoted but severe and very pious
parents and teachers in accordance with that doctrine that makes the
breaking of the will the corner-stone of education and upbringing. But in
this case the attempt to destroy the personality and to break the will did not
succeed. He was much too strong and hardy, too proud and spirited. Instead
of destroying his personality they succeeded only in teaching him to hate
himself. It was against himself that, innocent and noble as he was, he
directed during his whole life the whole wealth of his fancy, the whole of
his thought; and in so far as he let loose upon himself every barbed
criticism, every anger and hate he could command, he was, in spite of all, a
real star and a real martyr. As for others and the world around him he
never ceased in his heroic and earnest endeavor to love them, to be just to
them, to do them no harm, for the love of his neighbor was as deeply in him
as the hatred of himself, and so his whole life was an example that love of
one's neighbor is not possible without love of oneself, and that self-hate is
really the same thing as sheer egoism, and in the long run breeds the same
cruel isolation and despair.