3
To MAN the WORLD IS TWOFOLD, in accordance
with his twofold attitude.
The attitude of man is twofold, in accordance with
the twofold nature of the primary words which he speaks.
The primary words are not isolated words, but combined
words. 
The one primary word is the combination I—Thou.
The other primary word is the combination I—It; wherein, without a change
in the primary word, one of the words He and She can replace it.
Hence the I of man is also twofold.
For the I of the primary word I—Thou is a different
I from that of the primary word I—it.
PRIMARY WORDS DO NOT SIGNIFY THINGS, but they
intimate relations.
Primary words do not describe something that might
exist independently of them, but being spoken they bring about existence.
Primary words are spoken from the being.
If Thou is said, the I of the combination I—Thou
is said along with it.
If it is said, the I of the combination I—it is said
along with it.
The primary word I—Thou can only be spoken
with the whole being.
The primary word I—It can never be spoken with the
whole being.
4
THERE IS NO I TAKEN IN ITSELF, but only the
I of the primary word I—Thou and the I of the primary word I—It.
When a man says I he refers to one or other of these.
The I to which he refers is present when he says I. Further, when he says
Thou
or it, the I of one of the two primary words is present.
The existence of I and the speaking of I are one and
the same thing.
When a primary word is spoken the speaker enters the
word and takes his stand in it.
THE LIFE OF HUMAN BEINGS is not passed in the
sphere of transitive verbs alone. It does not exist in virtue of activities
alone which have some thing for their object.
I perceive something. I am sensible of something.
I imagine something. I will something. I feel something. I think something.
The life of human beings does not consist of all this and the like alone...
This and the like together establish the realm of
it.
But the realm of Thou has a different basis.
When Thou is spoken, the speaker has no thing
for his object. For where there is a thing there is another thing. Every
It is bounded by others; It exists only through being bounded by others.
But when Thou is spoken, there is no thing. Thou has no bounds.
When Thou is spoken, the speaker has no thing;
he has indeed nothing. But he takes his stand in relation.
9
This is the eternal source of art: a man is faced
by a form which desires to be made through him into a work. This form is
no offspring of his soul, but is an appearance which steps up to it and
demands of it the effective power. The man is concerned with an act of
his being. If he carries it through, if he speaks the primary word out
of his being to the form which appears, then the effective power streams
out, and the work arises.
10
...the primary word can only be spoken with he whole
being...The work does not suffer me, as do the tree and the ma, to turn
aside and relax in the world of It; but it commands. If I do not
serve it right it is broken, or it breaks me.
In bodying forth I disclose. I lead the form across—into
the world of It. The work produced is a thing among things, able
to be experienced and described as a sum of qualities. But from time to
time it can face the receptive beholder in its whole embodied form.
18
In the beginning is relation...
20
this initial and long-continuing relational character
of every essential phenomenon makes it also easier to understand a certain
spiritual element of primitive life... Known a Mana or Orenda, it opens
a way to the Brahman in its primal meaning, and further to the Dyanamis
and Cahris of the Magical Papyri and of the Apostolic Epistles. It has
been characterised as a supersensuous or supernatural power... Mana is
simply the effective force, that which has made the person of the moon
up there in he heavens into a blood-stirring Thou.
21
Mana is a primitive abstraction, probably more primitive
than, say, number, but not any more supernatural than it. The memory as
it is being trained ranges the grand relational events, the elemental emotional
shocks.
...there arises up the other, “unchanging” partner,
“I.”
The “I” emerges as a single element out of the primal
experiences, out of the vital primal words I-affecting-Thou
and Thou-affecting-I...
24
The opposition of the two primary words ... is inherent
in creation.
28
Through the Thou a man becomes I.
...the I... is still seen caught in the web of the relation with
the Thou, as the increasingly distinguishable feature of that which
reaches out to and yet is not hte Thou. But it is continually breaks
through with more power, till a time comes when it bursts its bonds, and
the I confronts itself for a moment, separated as though it were
a Thou; as quickly to take possession of itself and from then on
to enter into relations in consciousness of itself. Only now cant he other
primary word be assembled.
29
...the body maturing into a person was hitherto
distinguished, as bearer of its perceptions and executor of its impulses,
from the world round about. But this distinction was simply a juxtaposition
brought about by its seeing its way in the situation, and not an absolute
severance of I and its object. But now the separated I emerges,
transformed. Shrunk form substance and fullness to a functional point,
to a subject which experiences and uses, I approaches and takes
possession of all It existing “in and for itself,” and forms in
conjunction with it the other primary word.
31
To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his
twofold attitude.
32
...man meets what exists and becomes as what is over
against him, always simply a single being and each thing simply
as being.
33
The world of It is set in the context of
space and time.
The world of Thou is
not set in the context of either of these.
The particular Thou, after the relational
event has run its course, is bound to become an It.
The particular It, by entering the relational
event, may become a Thou.
These are the two basic
privileges of the world of It. They move man to look on the world
of It as the world in which he has to live...which offers him...incitements
and excitements, activity and knowledge. In this chronicle of solid benefits
the moments of the Thou appear as strange lyric and dramatic episodes,
seductive and magical, but tearing us away to dangerous extremes, loosening
the well-tried context, leaving more questions than satisfaction behind
them, shattering security—in short, uncanny moments we can well dispense
with. For since we are bound to leave them and go back into the “world,”
why not remain in it?
34
To utter the sound Thou with the vocal organs
is by no means the same as saying the uncanny primary word...
75
THE EXTENDED LINES OF RELATIONS meet in the
eternal Thou.
Every particular Thou is a glimpse through
to the eternal Thou; by means of every particular Thou the
primary word addresses the eternal Thou. Through this mediation
of the Thou of all beings fulfilment, and non-fulfilment, of relations
comes to them: the inborn Thou is realised in each relation and
consummated in none. It is consummated only in the direct relation with
the Thou that by its nature cannot become It.
MEN HAVE ADDRESSED THEIR ETERNAL Thou
with many names. In singing of Hun who was thus named they always had the
Thou
in mind: the first myths were hymns of praise. Then the names took refuge
in the language of it; men were more and more strongly moved to think of
and to address their eternal Thou as an it. But all God’s names
are hallowed, for in them He is not merely spoken about, but also spoken
to.
Many men wish to reject the word Cod as a legitimate usage, because it is so misused. It is indeed the most heavily laden of all the words used by men. For that very reason it is the most imperishable and most indispensable. What does all mistaken talk about God’s being and works (though there has been, and can be, no other talk about these) matter in comparison with the one truth that all men who have addressed God had...