Note 481 — PART II THE PLAYFUL EXERCISE OF IMPULSES OF THE SECOND OR SOCIONOMIC358 ORDER (continued 2)

In my Einleitung in die Esthetic I have tried to show how the feeling of superiority is gradually supplanted by inner imitation. In the humorous contemplation of inferiority Erdmann’s “maliciousness” need have no place, and we can conceive of a God as laughing in this way. As Keller’s poem has it, “Der Herr, der durch die Wandlung geht, Er lächelt auf dem Wege.”