The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp

T?he life of every individual, if we survey it as a whole and in general, and only lay stress upon itsjnqVt significant features, is really alw^ a tragedy, but gone through i£F detail, it has the character of a comedy. For the deeds and vexations of the day, the restless irritation of {he moment, the desires..and fears of the week, ffie nusEaps of ^yeiy_. h^our, are^ all through ^ance, which is everTent upon .some jest, .scenes of a comedy. But £Ke never-satisfied wishes, the frustrated effo^, the hopes unmercifully crushed by fate, the unfortunate “errors of tfie “^\61e life, with increasiug JufferiiJg and death at the

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THE WORLD AS WILL

BK. IV,

end, are always a tragedy. Thus, as if fate would add derision to the miseixloF^ur e^tence, our fife jnust contain all €Ee woes of tragedy, and yet we cannot, even assert the dignity of tragic characters, hut in the broad detail of Kfe ihiist iheylthhly be the foolish characters ^ a come^.

"But however much great and small trials may fill human life, they are not able to conceal its msufi^iency £b satisfy the spirh ; they cannot hide the emptiness and superficiali^ of_ existence, nor exclude ennui, which is always” ready to fill up every pause that care may allow. Hence ii^anses that the human mind, not content with the car^, anxieties, and occupations which the actual world lays upon it, creates for itself an imaginary world also in the form of a thousand different superstitions, then finds all manner of employment with this, and v^^s tune and strength upon it, as soon as the real world is willing to grant it the rest which it is quite incapable of ei^dying. This is accordingly most markedly the case with nations for which life is made easy by the congenial nature of the climate and the soil, most of all with the Hindus, tten with the Greeks, the Eomans^and later with the Italians, the Spaniards, &c.__ Demons, gods, and saints”man creates in his own image; and to them he musrnEKenTunceasmgly bring offerings, prayers, temple decofatidhs, vows and their fulfilment, pi^rimages, salutaHonspornaments for their images, &c. Their service mingles eye^wkere with the real, and, indeed, obscures it. Every event of life is regarded as the work of these beings; the intercourse "witlTtEem occupies Ealf the time of iifC constantly sustains hope, and hjTSKe charm of illusion often becomes more Interesting than intercourse

^th real beings. ~ IF iirffie~ex'pressibn and symptom of the actual n^ of m^kmd, partly for help and support, partly for occupation and diversion ; and if it ®S~worEs~ln^rect”op^daiHon~td~^^^ heed, bg'- accidents and dangers arise valuable time

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imd strength, instead of being directed to warding them <^, ^e useieiisTy "wasted on_prayera ”ah3^ol^in^;”^rt serves the second enct all ' theTBelter liy Oils inia^aiy converse with a visionary spirit world; ai^ tEST i^&e by no means contemptible gain of all superstitions.