ABSTRACT
Fidelity is rational only for him who really trusts himself to it, truthfulness only for him who believes the word he utters. Once more, trust, unless another's truthfulness and reliability justify it, floats in the air, is imprudent, frivolous, pernicious. The distrustful man sins against the one who is trustworthy; in him is lacking the feeling for the goodness of an upright disposition, when it is presented to him. By his doubt he belittles the truthful and faithful man. All trust, all faith, is an adventure; it always requires something of moral courage and spiritual strength. It is always accompanied by a certain commitment of the person. The ability to trust is spiritual strength, a moral energy of a unique kind. Blind faith, blind trust, is the supreme endurance-test of moral strength, the true criterion of genuineness in all the deeper dispositional relations of man with man.
