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.
stract conceptions, but in deeds and conduct.
Therefore, in order to understand fully what we philosophicaUy express M denial of tEe will to live, one must come to know examples * of ' it in experience and actualTdileT Certainly they are not ' to be met with in daily experiencej Ifam ommct practara iam diffi^ia quam rara sunt, Spinoza admirably says^ Therefore, unless by a specially hajjpy fate we are made eye-witnesses, we have to con^ tent ourselves witF descrrptibirs 'orth'elive^ of such men.
India^ literature, as we see from the Fittle that ^’e as yet know through translations, is .very , rich in descrijn tions of_th^ lives of saints, penitents, Samanas or ascetics, Sanny&^sis or mendicants, and whatever else they n^ be called.
Even the well-hnown “ Mythologie des lndou37 par Mad. de Polier,” though by no means to be commended in every respect, contains many excellent examples of this kind (especially in ch. 1 3, vol. ii.) Among Christians also there is no lack of examples which afford us the illustrations we desire.
See the biographies, for the most part badly written, of those persons who are sometimes called saintly souls, sometimes pietists, quietists, devout enthusiasts, and so forth.
Collections of such biographies have been made at various times, such as Tersteegen’s " Leben heiliger Seelen,” Reiz’s " Geschichte der Wiedergeborennen,” in our own day, a collection by Kanne, which, with much that is baJ, yet contains some good, and especially the “ Leben der Beata Sturmin. To this category very properly belongs the life of St Francis of A^isi, that true personificAtion of the Agcetic, jtM.proiStype of all mendicant friars.,.
His life, described by his hunger contemporary, St Bonaventura, also famous as a scholastic, has recently been republished. “ Vita S. Francisci a S. Bonaventura concinnata” (Soest, 1847), though shortly before a painstaking and detailed biograpliy, making use of all sources of information, appeared in France, " Histoire de S. Francois d’ Assise, par Chavin de Malian ” (184s). As an Oriental parallel of these monastic writings we have the very valuable work of Spence Har^, “ Ea,stern Monachistn; an A^'unt'bf the Dr3er of Mendicants founded by Gotama Buclha ” (1850). ItSiows us the same thing in another dress.
We also see what a matter of indifference it is whether it proceeds from a theistical or an atheistical religion. !^t as a special and exceedinglj full example and practical illustration of the conceptions I have established, 1 can thoroughly recommepd tha - Aijtobiograplry of Madame de jauion.
To become acquainted with this great and beautiful 6oul, the very thought of whom always fills me with reverence, and to do justice to the excellence of her disposition while making allowance for the superstition of her reason, must be just as delightful to every man of the better sort as with vulgar thinkers, i.e., the majority, that book will always stand in bad repute.
For it is the case with regard to everything, that ^ach man can only prize that which to a certain extent is analogous to him and for which he, has at least a slight inclination. This holds good of ethical concerns as well as of intellectual.
We might to a certain extent regard the well-known French biography of Spinoza as a case in point, if we used as a key to it that noble introtroduction to his very insufficient essay, “De Emendatione Intellectus,” a passage which I can also recommend as the moat effectual means I know of stilling the storm ol the p^sions. .
Finally, even the great Goethe, Greek as he is, did not think it below his dlghfty to show us this most beautiful side of humanity in the magic~£arfror3f poetic art, for he represented the life df 'FrauIeln Klettenberg in an ide^iJiaâd foiia. ift„hi&.“.,GQ»fessious of a Beautiful Soul,” and later, in his own biography, gave u8_,.alaa..a.ulJb^istorical account of it Besides this, lie twice told the story oT the life of St. Philippo Neri.
The history of the world will, and indeed must, keep silence about the men whoso conduct is the best and only adequate illustration of this important point of our investigation
p. 498
THE WORLD AS WILL.
BK. IT.
for the material of the history of the world is quite different, and indeed opposed to this. It is not the denial of the will to live, but its assertion and its manifestation in innumerable individuals in which its conflict with itself at the highest grade of its objectification appears with perfect distinctness, and brings before our eyes, now the ascendancy of the individual through prudence, now the might of the many through their mass, now the might of chance personified as fate, always the vanity and emptiness of the whole effort We, however, do not follow here the course of phenomena in time, but, as philosophers, we seek to investigate the ethical significance of action, and take this as the only criterion of what for us is significant and important Thus we will not be withheld by any fear of thejoonstant numerfcai superiority of vulgarity and dulimss from acknowledging that the greatest, most important, and most significant phenomenon that the world can show is not the conqueror of the world, but the subduer of it ; ie nothing ¥ut the quiet, unobseryBcrT]fe~^TXjmS'\^ has attaint to the knowledge in consequence of which he“ surrenders and denies that will to live which fil^ everything and strives ^nd strains.ii^^ all,. and which firat gains freedom here in him alone, so that his conduct bScome^ the exac^ opposite of that of other men. In this respect, therefore, for the philosopher, these accoun^ts of the lives ofTioIyT^elf-denying men, badly as they are generally written, ancT m5e3[~as~tKey ^e^“wT£H~ superstition and non8ense,~are7d>ecause of the significance of the material, immeasurably more instructive and important than~even~Plutarch and Livy.
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