The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp
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The translator’s English as printed (R. B. Haldane & J. Kemp). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
“ Wbat lias never anywhere coiue to pass, That alone never grows old."
p. 319
Indeed I must attribute greater value to biographies, and especially to autobiographies, in relation to the knowledge of the nature of man, than to history proper, at least as it is commonly handled. Partly because in the former the data can be collected more accurately and completely than in the latter ; partly, because in history proper, it is not so much men as nations and heroes that aci^ and the IfidmcTuali’^o do appear, seem so surroun(le3~wi^i sucli pomp and circumstance, clothed in the stiff robes oT state, or heavy, inflexible armour, that It is really hard tlirougfi^airthis to recognise _the human moments' On the other hand, the life of ^e individual when described~mth truth, in a narrow sphereJ’sEows the conduct^qf ^ men in all its forms and subtilties, the excellence, the virtue, and even holiness of a few, the perymiit^meahnes9,'ahd Tcha^^ of most, the dissolute profligacy qf_ some. Besides, in the only aspect we are considering here, that of the inner significance of the phenomenal, it is quite the same whether the objects with which the action is concerned, are, relatively considered, trifling or important, farm-houses or kingdoms : for all these things in themselves are without significance, and obtain it only in so far as the will is moved by them. The motive has significance only through its relation to the will, while the relation which it has as a thing to other things like itseli', does not concern us hera As a circle of one inch in diameter, j,nd a circle of forty million miles in diameter, have precisely the same geometrical properties, so are the events and the history of'~a"vTn'agr~and a kingdqrn essentially the same^ and we may study and learn to kuow_jnankin(r as well in the one as in the other. It is also a nnstake to suppose that autobiographies are full of deceit and dissimulation. On the contrary, lying (though always possible) is perhaps more difficult there than elsewhere. Dissimulation is easiest in mere conversation; indeed, though it may sound paradoxical, it is really more
3*0
THE WORLD IDEA.
BK. III.
difficult even in a letter. For in the case of a letter the writer is alone, and looks into himself, and not out on Ihe world, so that what is strange and distant does not easily approach him ; and he has not the test of the impression made upon another before his eyes. But the receiver of the letter peruses it quietly in a mood unknown to the writer, reads it repeatedly and at different' times, and thus easily finds out the concealed intention.
We also get to know an author as a man most easily from his books, because all these circumstances act here still more strongly and permanently. And in an autobiography it is so difficult to dissimulate, that perhaps there does not exist a single one that is not, as a whole, more true, than any history that ever was written.
The man who writes his own life surveys it as a whole, the particular becomes small, the near becomes distant, the distant becomes near again, the motives that influenced him shrink ; he seats himself at the confessional, and has done so of his own free will ; the spirit of lying does not so easily take hold of him here, for there is also in every man an inclination to truth which has first to be overcome whenever he lies, and which here has taken up a specially strong position.
The relation between biography and the history of nations may be made clear for perception by means of the following comparison : History shows us mankind as a view from a high mountain shows us nature ; we see much at a time, wide stretches, great masses, but nothing is distinct nor recognisable in all the details of its own peculiar nature.
On the other hand, the representation of the life of the individual shows us the man, as we see nature if we go about among her trees, plants, rocks, and waters. But in landscape-painting, in which the artist lets us look at nature with his eyes, the knowledge of the Ideas, and the condition of pure will-less knowing, which is demanded by these, is made much easier for us ; and, in the same way, poetry is far superior both to
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