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

' the begetter and that only the phenomenon, to the principiu mindividuationis. With that assertion beyond our own body and extending to the production of a new body, sufierihg place. As thing-in-itself, the wiU of ofjihe b^oIiSa*are not different,, for not the thing-in-itself, is subordinate introduce by the completest capability of knowledge, has for this time been shown to be fruitless. Here lies the profound reason of the shame connected with the process ^T^nemtion. This view is mYtEiSIlY~ex^esse(l in the do^STof Christian theology that we are ^ partakers in Adj^'s first transgression (which is clearly just the satisfaction of sexual passion), and tbrough it are”"guilty of suffemig and ^featli. tn this theology goes heyond the consideration of things according to the principle of sufficient reason, and recognises the Idea of man, the unity of which is re-established out of its dispersion into innumerable individuals through the bond of generation which holds them all together. Accordingly it regards every individual as on one side identical with Adam, the representative of the assertion of life, and, so far, as subject to sin (original sin), suffering, and death ; .on the other side, the knowledge of the Idea of man enables it to regard every individual as identical with the saviour, the representative of the denial of the will to live, and, so far as a partaker of his sacrifice of himself, saved through his merits, and delivered from the bands of sin and death, i.e., the world (Kom. v. 12-2 1).

Another mythical exposition of our view of sexusd pleasure as the assertion of the will to live beyond the individual life, as an attainment to life which is brought about for the first time by this means, or as it were a renewed assignment of life, is the Cmek myth of Proserpine, who might return from the lower world so lon^^M Se”pi3f”nof '^pd'tts'frm^"'^ subject to it altogether through eating the pomegrana^ This meaning appears very" clwirl^ in' Ooeffi^s Incomparable pre3entatioh"3riE3 myllii”^'e(2ffly when^ as soon as she haFHstod ihe pomegmiate, the invisible chorus™^ t£e* Fates— — — "

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“ Thou art ours !

Fasting shouldest thou return :

A.nd tlie bite of the apple makes thee ours ! ”

It is worth noticing that Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iii. c. 15) illustrates the matter with the same image and the same expression : Ol fiev evvovj(U7avT€<i eauTOi/5 ttTTO TToaij? dfiapria^:. Sia rrjv ^aaiKeiav, twv ovpavav, fiaKaptot ovrot eiaip, 61 rov ko(T/xou vr)<TT€Vom€^. (Qui S6 castrarunt ah omni peccato propter regnum ccelorum, ii mnt heati, a mundo jejunavies).

The sexual impulse also proves itself the decided and str^gest assertidn~oTTife~^jpffie~^hT'"{FarTonm^^ state of nature, as to the brutes, it is the final end, the hi^^t goal of life. Self -maintenance is his SraiFeffort, aSid lis soon as he has made provision for that, he only strives after the propagation of the species : as a merely natural being he can attempt no more. Nature also, the inner being of which is the will to live itself, impels with all her power both man and the brute towards propagation. Then it has attained its end with the individual, and is quite indifferent to its death, for, as the will to live, it cares only for the preservation of the species, the individual is nothing to it Because the will to live expresses iteelf most stronglj in the sexual impure, the inner b^g of nature^ the old poets and pliilospjjhersrrjSesiod, and Parmenides — said very significantly that Eros is the first, the creator, the principle from which all things proceed. (Cf. Arist Metaph., i 4.) Pherecydes said : Ek eparra fiera^e^Tjadai top Aia, peXKopra ^fiiovpyeip {Jovem, cum mundum fahricare vellet, in cupidinem sese transfornmsse). Proclus ad Plat. Tim., 1. iii A complete treatment of this subject we have recently received from G. F. Schcemann, “ JDe Cupidine Cosmogonico,” 1852. The Mâya of the^Hindus,^ wh^^^ work and web is the whole world of illusion, is also symbolised by love.

'“TTEe genital organs areTSj more than any other external member of the body, subject merely to the will, and

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THE WORLD AS WILL.

BK. IV.