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.
and put BB out of humour ; but experience also teaches that if a great misfortune, at the mere thought of which we shuddered, actiiaTIjn[)efall8 us, as soon as we have overcome the first pain of it, our dispositimi remains for the most part unchanged ; and, conversely, that after the attainment of some happiness we^ have long ^esiredT^ do not leeF ourselves on the wliole an~d~"pdfrnariehtTy~^^^ much better off and agreeably situated than before.
Only the moment at which these ch'anges''decur'"affect3 us with unusual strength, as deep sorrow or exulting joy, out both soon pass away, for they are based upon illu- «on. For "they do" not spring from the immediately present pleasure or pain, but only from the opening up of a new future which is anticipated in them.
Only by borrowing from the jFuture could pain or pleasure be TiMghteheT slT abnormally, and consequently not endurihglyr Tt' would follow, from the hypothesis advanced, "thdt a large part of the feeling of suffering and of wellbeing would be subjective and determined a priori, as is the case with knowing ; and we may add the following remarks as evidence in favour of it.
Human cheerfulness or dejection are manifestly not deprmined™^^ exteinar"ljScuinstances, such as wealth and position, for we"see at least as many glad faces among the poor m among the rich. "Further, the motives which induce suicide are so very different, that we can assign no motive that is so great as to bring it about, even with great probability, in every character, and few that would be so small that the like of them had never caused it.
Now although the degree of our serenity or sadness is not at all times the same, yet, in consequence of this view, we shall not attriBute it to the change ~'6f outward circumstances, but to that of the inner condition, the physical™ state. For when' an actual, though only temporary, mcrease of our serenity, even to" the”(Steht""oF " joyfuK®^ ■'Mksr'''pKcC”it'’“usuS[Iy appears withouFI^^ external occaSoinT^Triir true that
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we often see our pain arise only from some definite external relation, and are visibly oppressed and saddened by this only. Then we believe that if only this were taken away, the greatest contentment would necessarily ensue. But this is illusToh. The measure of our_pain and ora happiness is on the whole, according to our hypothesis, subjectively determined for each point of time, and the moSvenfor' ^3nes3~~is related to that, just a3_a blister which draws to a head all the bad humours otherwise distributed is related to the body. The pain which is^at that^ period of time essential to our naturej^"ahd' therefore cannot be shaken off, would, wi^out the definite exterhaT cause'of ' bra'sjp^i-fog, "be divided at a hundred ^ints, and appear in the form ofa hundrecOittle annoyances and cares about things which we now entirely~ovralook, hecause"bur capacity for pain is ali-eadjTfilTeT'By that chief evil wKfch has concentrated ~^in a point ''aII“The suffering "otherwise raspersed. This corresponds also fo the observation that, if a great and pressing care is lifted from our breast by ite fortunate issue, another inmediately takes ite place, the whole material of which was already there before, yet could not come into cons^dusness as care because there was no capacity left for it, and therefore this materlaT oP crae remalned^m^stinct and unobserved in a cloudy form on the farthest horizon of consciousness. But nowjihat there is room, this prewired material at once comes forward and occupies the throne of Ae reigning^ care of the day (irpvTavevovcra). And if it is very much lighter in its matter than the material of the care which has vanished, it knows how to blow itself out so as apparently to equal itlh Wze, and thus, as the chief Sje“b£ the day,~cbnip1[etely fills the throne.
ExjcessiA^e j[^ suffering always occur in
the same person, for they condition each other recirao^ cally, and are also in common conditioned by great activity of the mind. Both are produced, as we have just seen, not by what is really present, but by the anticipation ofp. 411 heart We rather seek constantly for an external particular cause, as it were, a pretext for the min which never leaves us, just as the free man makes himself an idol, in order to have a master. For we unweariedly strive from wish to wish ; and although every satisfaction, however much it promised, when attemed mli "to~saSs]^ usTX^ for the most part comes presently to be an error of which we are asliamed, yet we do not see that we draw water with the sieve of the Danaides, but ever hasten to new d^Ires.
“ Sed^ dum ahest quod avemus^ id exsupcrare videtur
Cwtera ; post aliudy quum contigit illudy avemus ;
Et sitis cequa tenet vitai semper hianics,*' — LUCR. iii. 1095,
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