This pre-ontological document becomes especially significant not only in that 'care' is here seen as that to which human Dasein belongs 'for its lifetime', but also because this priority of 'care' emerges in connection with the familiar way of taking man as compounded of body (earth) and spirit. "Cura prima finxit": in care this entity has the 'source' of its Being. "Cura teneat, quamdiu vixerit"; the entity is not released from this source but is held fast, dominated by it through and through as long as this entity 'is in the world'. 'Being-in-the-world' has the stamp of 'care', which accords with its Being. It gets the name "homo" not in consideration of its Being but in relation to that of which it consists (humus). The decision as to wherein the 'primordial' Being of this creature is to be seen, is left to Saturn, 'Time'.vi Thus the pre-ontological characterization of man's [199] essence expressed in this fable, has brought to view in advance the kind of Being which dominates his temporal sojourn in the world, and does so through and through.
The history of the signification of the ontical concept of 'care' permits us to see still further basic structures ofDasein. Burdach vu calls attention to a double meaning of the term 'cura' according to which it signifies not only 'anxious exertion' but also 'carefulness' and 'devotedness' ["Sorgfalt", "Hingabe"]. Thus Seneca writes in his last epistle (Ep. 124): 'Among the four existent Natures (trees, beasts, man, and God), the latter two, which alone are endowed with reason, are distinguished in that God is immortal while man is mortal. Now when it comes to these, the good of the one, namely God, is fulfilled by his Nature; but that of the other, man, is fulfilled by care (cura): "unius bonum natura perjicit, dei scilicet, alterius cura, hominis."
Man's perfectio—his transformation into that which he can be in Being-free for his ownmost possibilities (projection)—is 'accomplished' by 'care'. But with equal primordiality 'care' determines what is basically specific in this entity, according to which it has been surrendered to the world of its concern (thrownness). In the 'double meaning' of 'care', what we have in view is a single basic state in its essentially twofold structure of thrown projection.
As compared with this ontical interpretation, the existential-ontological Interpretation is not, let us say, merely an ontical generalization which is theoretical in character. That would just mean that ontically all man's ways of behaving are 'full of care' and are guided by his 'devotedness' to