The one thing that today prevents terrestrial human beings from being happy is thus exclusively the fact that they still have not learnt that happiness exists absolutely only in the form of living for the benefit of their neighbour, their surroundings or their fellow beings. They still live in that attitude of consciousness inherited from the animal kingdom of "putting oneself first" and they practice this doctrine with every means at their disposal, thereby plunging themselves into misery and suffering. One can in fact be of benefit to oneself only by being of benefit to one's neighbour.
      It is true that in the regions of the animal kingdom or its central sphere, animals have no other option or way of life than precisely this one in which they are of benefit to themselves. It is demanded by their natural instinct for self-preservation. But for terrestrial human beings this way of life is no longer a condition vital to life. They have their highly developed intelligence or ability to think. Their ability to reason has increased their ability to think, with the result they are able to practice a completely different and far more perfect way of living. Unlike animals they are not forced to mainly live on their instinct, but can, with their awake, clear day-consciousness, empathise with the behaviour of those around them, with their natural and inevitable demands. By not understanding these demands on oneself as something that is justifiable, one will perceive them as being unjustifiable. This gives rise to the saying: "putting oneself first". Whereas for animals this form of life is absolutely the most perfect, for thinking or intellectual human beings it is the chain with which they totally bind themselves to the most miserable form of fate it is possible to experience. In the case of animals, there exists, apart from the urge to copulate or mating principle, nothing other than the principle of might. Here it is merely a question of might being right. It is therefore exclusively a question of in one way or another being the strongest. If this is not possible in a purely physical or bodily way, then it can be in a purely mental way, which in turn means, in the case of camouflage, deceiving those in one's surroundings who are stronger, so that one can get the better of them using cunning. And because these forces in animals are like a habitual consciousness ruling everything and as they as yet have no ability to work their way using thought or reflection to a different form of existence, this form of life for animals can thus be nothing other than the very highest virtue. And the only form of freedom animals are able to experience is thus exclusively what they are able to guarantee for themselves through their superiority in might either in the bodily sense or in the area of deception. But because there exists a constant battle to maintain territorial supremacy and this is an indispensable vital condition for animals, they are thus absolutely imprisoned or bound by this battle. They are not free beings. They have to be constantly on the hunt with the result that they live in a permanent fight with their surroundings. But an enforced permanent fight can be nothing other than a mental and physical bond, in fact a kind of psychic handcuffs. It is the combating of this physical and psychic imprisonment that transforms the animal into a human being.