GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS.
§ 46. _The Systematic Order._
The order of succession in which I have stated the various forms of the
Principle of Sufficient Reason in this treatise, is not systematic; it
has been chosen for the sake of greater clearness, in order first to
present what is better known and least presupposes the rest. In this I
have followed Aristotle's rule: καὶ μαθήσεως οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου, καὶ
τῆς τοῦ πράγματος ἀρχῆς ἐνίοτε ἀρκτέον, ἀλλ' ὅθεν ῥᾷστ' ἂν μάθοι (_et
doctrina non a primo, ac rei principio aliquando inchoanda est, sed
unde quis facilius discat_).[156] But the systematic order in which
the different classes of reasons ought to follow one another is the
following. First of all should come The Principle of Sufficient Reason
of Being; and in this again first its application to Time, as being the
simple schema containing only what is essential in all the other forms
of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, nay, as being the prototype of
all finitude. The Reason of Being in Space having next been stated, the
Law of Causality would then follow; after which would come the Law of
Motives, and last of all the Principle of Sufficient Reason of Knowing;
for the other classes of reasons refer to immediate representations,
whereas this last class refers to representations derived from other
representations.
[156] Aristot. "Metaph." iv. 1. "Sometimes too, learning must
start, not from what is really first and with the actual beginning
of the thing concerned, but from where it is easiest to learn."
[Tr.'s add.]
The truth expressed above, that Time is the simple schema which
merely contains the essential part of all the forms of the Principle
of Sufficient Reason, explains the absolutely perfect clearness
and precision of Arithmetic, a point in which no other science can
compete with it. For all sciences, being throughout combinations of
reasons and consequences, are based upon the Principle of Sufficient
Reason. Now, the series of numbers is the simple and only series of
reasons and consequences of Being in Time; on account of this perfect
simplicity--nothing being omitted, no indefinite relations left--this
series leaves nothing to be desired as regards accuracy, apodeictic
certainty and clearness. All the other sciences yield precedence in
this respect to Arithmetic; even Geometry: because so many relations
arise out of the three dimensions of Space, that a comprehensive
synopsis of them becomes too difficult, not only for pure, but even for
empirical intuition; complicated geometrical problems are therefore
only solved by calculation; that is, Geometry is quick to resolve
itself into Arithmetic. It is not necessary to point out the existence
of sundry elements of obscurity in the other sciences.
§ 47. _Relation in Time between Reason and Consequence._
According to the laws of causality and of motivation, a reason must
precede its consequence in Time. That this is absolutely essential,
I have shown in my chief work, to which I here refer my readers[157]
in order to avoid repeating myself. Therefore, if we only bear
in mind that it is not one thing which is the cause of another
thing, but one state which is the cause of another state, we shall
not allow ourselves to be misled by examples like that given by
Kant,[158] that the stove, which is the cause of the warmth of the
room, is simultaneous with its effect. The state of the stove: that
is, its being warmer than its surrounding medium, must precede the
communication of its surplus caloric to that medium; now, as each layer
of air on becoming warm makes way for a cooler layer rushing in, the
first state, the cause, and consequently also the second, the effect,
are renewed until at last the temperature of stove and room become
equalized. Here therefore we have no permanent cause (the stove) and
permanent effect (the warmth of the room) as simultaneous things, but
a chain of changes; that is, a constant renewing of two states, one of
which is the effect of the other. From this example, however, it is
obvious that even Kant's conception of Causality was far from clear.
[157] See "Die Welt a. W. u. V.," vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 41, 42 of the
2nd edition, and p. 44 of the 3rd.
[158] Kant, "Krit. d. r. Vern.," 1st edition, p. 202; 5th edition,
p. 248 (English translation by M. Müller, p. 177.)
On the other hand, the Principle of Sufficient Reason of Knowing
conveys with it no relation in Time, but merely a relation for our
Reason: here therefore, _before_ and _after_ have no meaning.
In the Principle of Sufficient Reason of Being, so far as it is valid
in Geometry, there is likewise no relation in Time, but only a relation
in Space, of which we might say that all things were co-existent,
if here the words co-existence and succession had any meaning. In
Arithmetic, on the contrary, the Reason of Being is nothing else but
precisely the relation of Time itself.
§ 48. _Reciprocity of Reasons._
Hypothetical judgments may be founded upon the Principle of Sufficient
Reason in each of its significations, as indeed every hypothetical
judgment is ultimately based upon that principle, and here the laws
of hypothetical conclusions always hold good: that is to say, it is
right to infer the existence of the consequence from the existence of
the reason, and the non-existence of the reason from the non-existence
of the consequence; but it is wrong to infer the non-existence of the
consequence from the non-existence of the reason, and the existence of
the reason from the existence of the consequence. Now it is singular
that in Geometry we are nevertheless nearly always able to infer the
existence of the reason from the existence of the consequence, and
the non-existence of the consequence from the non-existence of the
reason. This proceeds, as I have shown in § 37, from the fact that, as
each line determines the position of the rest, it is quite indifferent
which we begin at: that is, which we consider as the reason, and which
as the consequence. We may easily convince ourselves of this by going
through the whole of the geometrical theorems. It is only where we have
to do not only with figures, _i.e._, with the positions of lines, but
with planes independently of figures, that we find it in most cases
impossible to infer the existence of the reason from the existence of
the consequence, or, in other words, to convert the propositions by
making the condition the conditioned. The following theorem gives an
instance of this: Triangles whose lengths and bases are equal, include
equal areas. This cannot be converted as follows: Triangles whose areas
are equal, have likewise equal bases and lengths; for the lengths may
stand in inverse proportion to the bases.
In § 20 it has already been shown, that the law of causality does not
admit of reciprocity, since the effect never can be the cause of its
cause; therefore the conception of reciprocity is, in its right sense,
inadmissible. Reciprocity, according to the Principle of Sufficient
Reason of knowing, would only be possible between equivalent
conceptions, since the spheres of these alone cover each other
mutually. Apart from these, it only gives rise to a vicious circle.
§ 49. _Necessity._
The Principle of Sufficient Reason in all its forms is the sole
principle and the sole support of all necessity. For _necessity_ has
no other true and distinct meaning than that of the infallibility of
the consequence when the reason is posited. Accordingly every necessity
is _conditioned_: absolute, _i.e._, unconditioned, necessity therefore
is a _contradicto in adjecto_. For _to be necessary_ can never mean
anything but to result from a given reason. By defining it as "what
cannot not be," on the other hand, we give a mere verbal definition,
and screen ourselves behind an extremely abstract conception to avoid
giving a definition of the thing. But it is not difficult to drive us
from this refuge by inquiring how the non-existence of anything can
be possible or even conceivable, since all existence is only given
empirically. It then comes out, that it is only possible so far as some
_reason_ or other is posited or present, from which it follows. To
be necessary and to follow from a given reason, are thus convertible
conceptions, and may always, as such, be substituted one for the other.
The conception of an "ABSOLUTELY _necessary Being_" which finds so much
favour with pseudo-philosophers, contains therefore a contradiction:
it annuls by the predicate "_absolute_" (_i.e._, "unconditioned by
anything else") the only determination which makes the "_necessary_"
conceivable. Here again we have an instance of the _improper use of
abstract conceptions_ to play off a metaphysical artifice such as
those I have already pointed out in the conceptions "_immaterial
substance_," "_cause in general_," "_absolute reason_," &c. &c.[159] I
can never insist too much upon all abstract conceptions being checked
by _perception_.
[159] Compare "Die Welt a. W. u. V.," vol. i. p. 551 _et seq._
of the 2nd edition (i. p. 582 _et seq._ of 3rd edition) as to
"immaterial substance," and § 52 of the present work as to "reason
in general." (Editor's note.)
There exists accordingly a _fourfold_ necessity, in conformity with the
_four_ forms of the Principle of Sufficient Reason:--
1^o. _Logical necessity_, according to the principle of sufficient
reason of knowing, in virtue of which, when once we have admitted the
premisses, we must absolutely admit the conclusion.
2^o. _Physical necessity_, according to the law of causality, in
virtue of which, as soon as the cause presents itself, the effect must
infallibly follow.
3^o. _Mathematical necessity_, according to the principle of sufficient
reason of being, in virtue of which, every relation which is stated in
a true geometrical theorem, is as that theorem affirms it to be, and
every correct calculation remains irrefutable.
4^o. _Moral necessity_, in virtue of which, every human being, every
animal even, is _compelled_, as soon as a motive presents itself, to
do that which alone is in accordance with the inborn and immutable
character of the individual. This action now follows its cause
therefore as infallibly as every other effect, though it is less easy
here to predict what that effect will be than in other cases, because
of the difficulty we have in fathoming and completely knowing the
individual empirical character and its allotted sphere of knowledge,
which is indeed a very different thing from ascertaining the chemical
properties of a neutral salt and predicting its reaction. I must repeat
this again and again on account of the dunces and blockheads who, in
defiance of the unanimous authority of so many great thinkers, still
persist in audaciously maintaining the contrary, for the benefit of
their old woman's philosophy. I am not a professor of philosophy,
forsooth, that I need bow to the folly of others.
§ 50. _Series of Reasons and Consequences._
According to the law of causality, the condition is itself always
conditioned, and, moreover, conditioned in the same way; therefore,
there arises a series _in infinitum a parte ante_. It is just the same
with the Reason of Being in Space: each relative space is a figure; it
has its limits, by which it is connected with another relative space,
and which themselves condition the figure of this other, and so on
throughout all dimensions _in infinitum_. But when we examine a single
figure in itself, the series of reasons of being has an end, because
we start from a given relation, just as the series of causes comes to
an end if we stop at pleasure at any particular cause. In Time, the
series of reasons of being has infinite extension both _a parte ante_,
and _a parte post_, since each moment is conditioned by a preceding
one, and necessarily gives rise to the following. Time has therefore
neither beginning nor end. On the other hand, the series of reasons
of knowledge--that is, a series of judgments, each of which gives
logical truth to the other--always ends somewhere, _i.e._, either in
an empirical, a transcendental, or a metalogical truth. If the reason
of the major to which we have been led is an empirical truth, and we
still continue asking _why_, it is no longer a reason of knowledge that
is asked for, but a cause--in other words, the series of reasons of
knowing passes over into the series of reasons of becoming. But if we
do the contrary, that is, if we allow the series of reasons of becoming
to pass over into the series of reasons of knowing, in order to bring
it to an end, this is never brought about by the nature of the thing,
but always by a special purpose: it is therefore a trick, and this
is the sophism known by the name of the Ontological Proof. For when
a cause, at which it seems desirable to stop short in order to make
it the _first_ cause, has been reached by means of the Cosmological
Proof, we find out that the law of causality is not so easily brought
to a standstill, and still persists in asking _why_: so it is simply
set aside and the principle of sufficient reason of knowing, which
from a distance resembles it, is substituted in its stead; and thus a
reason of knowledge is given in the place of the cause which had been
asked for--a reason of knowledge derived from the conception itself
which has to be demonstrated, the reality of which is therefore still
problematical: and this reason, as after all it is one, now has to
figure as a cause. Of course the conception itself has been previously
arranged for this purpose, and reality slightly covered with a few
husks just for decency's sake has been placed within it, so as to give
the delightful surprise of finding it there--as has been shown in
Section 7. On the other hand, if a chain of judgments ultimately rests
upon a principle of transcendental or of metalogical truth, and we
still continue to ask _why_, we receive no answer at all, because the
question has no meaning, _i.e._, it does not know what kind of reason
it is asking for.
For the Principle of Sufficient Reason is the _principle of all
explanation: to explain a thing_ means, to reduce its given existence
or connection to some form or other of the Principle of Sufficient
Reason, in accordance with which form that existence or connection
necessarily is that which it is. The Principle of Sufficient Reason
itself, _i.e._, the connection expressed by it in any of its forms,
cannot therefore be further explained; because there exists no
principle by which to explain the source of all explanation: just as
the eye is unable to see itself, though it sees everything else.
There are of course series of motives, since the resolve to attain
an end becomes the motive for the resolve to use a whole series
of means; still this series invariably ends _à parte priori_ in a
representation belonging to one of our two first classes, in which lies
the motive which originally had the power to set this individual will
in motion. The fact that it was able to do this, is a datum for knowing
the empirical character here given, but it is impossible to answer
the question why that particular motive acts upon that particular
character; because the intelligible character lies outside Time and
never becomes an Object. Therefore the series of motives, as such,
finds its termination in some such final motive and, according to the
nature of its last link, passes into the series of causes, or that of
reasons of knowledge: that is to say, into the former, when that last
link is a real object; into the latter, when it is a mere conception.
§ 51. _Each Science has for its Guiding Thread one of the Forms of the
Principle of Sufficient Reason in preference to the others._
As the question _why_ always demands a sufficient reason, and as
it is the connection of its notions according to the principle of
sufficient reason which distinguishes science from a mere aggregate of
notions, we have called that _why_ the parent of all science (§ 4).
In each science, moreover, we find one of the forms of that principle
predominating over the others as its guiding-thread. Thus in pure
Mathematics the reason of being is the chief guiding-thread (although
the exposition of the proofs proceeds according to the reason of
knowing only); in applied Mathematics the law of causality appears
together with it, but in Physics, Chemistry, Geology, &c., that law
entirely predominates. The principle of sufficient reason in knowing
finds vigorous application throughout all the sciences, for in all
of them the particular is known through the general; but in Botany,
Zoology, Mineralogy, and other classifying sciences, it is the chief
guide and predominates absolutely. The law of motives (_motivation_) is
the chief guide in History, Politics, Pragmatic Psychology, &c. &c.,
when we consider all motives and maxims, whatever they may be, as data
for explaining actions--but when we make those motives and maxims the
object-matter of investigation from the point of view of their value
and origin, the law of motives becomes the guide to Ethics. In my chief
work will be found the highest classification of the sciences according
to this principle.[160]
[160] "Die Welt a. W. u. V.," vol. ii. ch. 12, p. 126 of the 2nd
edition (p. 139 of the 3rd edition).
§ 52. _Two principal Results._
I have endeavoured in this treatise to show that the Principle of
Sufficient Reason is a common expression for four completely different
relations, each of which is founded upon a particular law given _à
priori_ (the principle of sufficient reason being a synthetical _à
priori_ principle). Now, according to the principle of _homogeneity_,
we are compelled to assume that these four laws, discovered according
to the principle of specification, as they agree in being expressed
by one and the same term, must necessarily spring from one and the
same original quality of our whole cognitive faculty as their common
root, which we should accordingly have to look upon as the innermost
germ of all dependence, relativeness, instability and limitation of
the objects of our consciousness--itself limited to Sensibility,
Understanding, Reason, Subject and Object--or of that world, which
the divine Plato repeatedly degrades to the ἀεὶ γιγνόμενον μὲν καὶ
ἀπολλύμενον, ὄντως δὲ οὐδέποτε ὄν (ever arising and perishing, but in
fact never existing), the knowledge of which is merely a δόξα μετ'
αἰσθήσεως ἀλόγου, and which Christendom, with a correct instinct,
calls _temporal_, after that form of our principle (Time) which I have
defined as its simplest schema and the prototype of all limitation.
The general meaning of the Principle of Sufficient Reason may, in the
main, be brought back to this: that every thing existing no matter when
or where, exists _by reason of something else_. Now, the Principle of
Sufficient Reason is nevertheless _à priori_ in all its forms: that
is, it has its root in our intellect, therefore it must not be applied
to the totality of existent things, the Universe, including that
intellect in which it presents itself. For a world like this, which
presents itself in virtue of _à priori_ forms, is just on that account
mere phenomenon; consequently that which holds good with reference
to it as the result of these forms, cannot be applied to the world
itself, _i.e._ to the thing in itself, representing itself in that
world. Therefore we cannot say, "the world and all things in it exist
by reason of something else;" and this proposition is precisely the
Cosmological Proof.
If, by the present treatise, I have succeeded in deducing the result
just expressed, it seems to me that every speculative philosopher
who founds a conclusion upon the Principle of Sufficient Reason or
indeed talks of a reason at all, is bound to specify which kind
of reason he means. One might suppose that wherever there was any
question of a reason, this would be done as a matter of course, and
that all confusion would thus be impossible. Only too often, however,
do we still find either the terms reason and cause confounded in
indiscriminate use; or do we hear basis and what is based, condition
and what is conditioned, _principia_ and _principiata_ talked about in
quite a _general_ way without any nearer determination, perhaps because
there is a secret consciousness that these conceptions are being used
in an unauthorized way. Thus even Kant speaks of the thing in itself
as the _reason_[161] of the phenomenon, and also of a _ground_ of the
_possibility_ of all phenomena,[162] of an _intelligible cause_ of
phenomena, of an _unknown ground_ of the possibility of the sensuous
series in general, of a _transcendental object_[163] as the _ground_ of
all phenomena and of the _reason_ why our sensibility should have this
rather than all other supreme conditions, and so on in several places.
Now all this does not seem to me to tally with those weighty, profound,
nay immortal words of his,[164] "the contingency[165] of things is
itself mere phenomenon, and can lead to no other than the empirical
regressus which determines phenomena."
[161] Or _ground_.
[162] Kant, "Krit. d. r. Vern.," 1st edition, pp. 561, 562, 564; p.
590 of the 5th edition. (Pp. 483 to 486 of the English translation
by M. Müller.)
[163] _Ibid._ p. 540 of 1st edition, and 641 of 5th edition. (P.
466 of English translation.)
[164] _Ibid._ p. 563 of the 1st and 591 of the 5th edition. (P. 485
of English translation.)
[165] Empirical contingency is meant, which, with Kant, signifies
as much as dependence upon other things. As to this, I refer my
readers to my censure in my "Critique of Kantian Philosophy," p.
524 of the 2nd, and p. 552 of the 3rd edition.
That since Kant the conceptions reason and consequence, _principium_
and _principiatum_, &c. &c., have been and still are used in a yet more
indefinite and even quite transcendent sense, everyone must know who is
acquainted with the more recent works on philosophy.
The following is my objection against this promiscuous employment of
the word _ground_ (reason) and, with it, of the Principle of Sufficient
Reason in general; it is likewise the second result, intimately
connected with the first, which the present treatise gives concerning
its subject-matter proper. The four laws of our cognitive faculty, of
which the Principle of Sufficient Reason is the common expression, by
their common character as well as by the fact that all Objects for the
Subject are divided amongst them, proclaim themselves to be posited by
one and the same primary quality and inner peculiarity of our knowing
faculty, which faculty manifests itself as Sensibility, Understanding,
and Reason. Therefore, even if we imagined it to be possible for a new
Fifth Class of Objects to come about, we should in that case likewise
have to assume that the Principle of Sufficient Reason would appear
in this class also under a different form. Notwithstanding all this,
we still have no right to talk of an _absolute reason_ (ground), nor
does a _reason in general_, any more than a _triangle in general_,
exist otherwise than as a conception derived by means of discursive
reflection, nor is this conception, as a representation drawn from
other representations, anything more than a means of thinking several
things in one. Now, just as every triangle must be either acute-angled,
right-angled, or obtuse-angled, and either equilateral, isosceles
or scalene, so also must every reason belong to one or other of the
four possible kinds of reasons I have pointed out. Moreover, since we
have only four well-distinguished Classes of Objects, every reason
must also belong to one or other of these four, and no further Class
being possible, Reason itself is forced to rank it within them; for as
soon as we employ a reason, we presuppose the Four Classes as well as
the faculty of representing (_i.e._ the whole world), and must hold
ourselves within these bounds, never transcending them. Should others,
however, see this in a different light and opine that a _reason in
general_ is anything but a conception, derived from the four kinds of
reasons, which expresses what they all have in common, we might revive
the controversy of the Realists and Nominalists, and then I should side
with the latter.
ON THE WILL IN NATURE.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE CORROBORATIONS RECEIVED BY THE AUTHOR'S PHILOSOPHY
SINCE ITS FIRST APPEARANCE
FROM THE EMPIRICAL SCIENCES.
BY
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER.
_Translated from the Fourth Edition published by_ JULIUS FRAUENSTÄDT.
Τοιαῦτ' ἐμοῦ λόγοισιν ἐξηγουμένου,
Οὐκ ἠξίωσαν οὐδὲ προσβλέψαι τὸ πᾶν·
Ἀλλ' ἐκδιδάσκει πάνθ' ὁ γηράσκων χρόνος.
ÆSCH.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
To my great joy I have lived to revise even this little work, after
a lapse of nineteen years, and that joy is enhanced by the special
importance of this treatise for my philosophy. For, starting from
the purely empirical, from the observations of unbiassed physical
investigators--themselves following the clue of their own special
sciences--I here immediately arrive at the very kernel of my
Metaphysic; I establish its points of contact with the physical
sciences and thus corroborate my fundamental dogma, in a sense, as the
arithmetician proves a sum: for by this I not only confirm it more
closely and specially, but even make it more clearly, easily, and
rightly understood than anywhere else.
The improvements in this new edition are confined almost entirely to
the Additions; for scarcely anything that is worth mentioning in the
First Edition has been left out, while I have inserted many and, in
some cases, important new passages.
But, even in a general sense, it may be looked upon as a good sign,
that a new edition of the present treatise should have been found
necessary; since it shows that there is an interest in serious
philosophy and confirms the fact that the necessity for real progress
in this direction is now more strongly felt than ever. This is based
upon two circumstances. The first is the unparalleled zeal and
activity displayed in every branch of Natural Science which, as this
pursuit is mostly in the hands of people who have learned nothing
else, threatens to lead to a gross, stupid Materialism, the _more
immediately_ offensive side of which is less the moral bestiality
of its ultimate results, than the incredible absurdity of its first
principles; for by it even vital force is denied, and organic Nature is
degraded to a mere chance play of chemical forces.[166] These knights
of the crucible and retort should be made to understand, that the
mere study of Chemistry qualifies a man to become an apothecary, but
not a philosopher. Certain other like-minded investigators of Nature,
too, must be taught, that a man may be an accomplished zoologist and
have the sixty species of monkeys at his fingers' ends, yet on the
whole be an ignoramus to be classed with the vulgar, if he has learnt
nothing else, save perhaps his school-catechism. But in our time this
frequently happens. Men set themselves up for enlighteners of mankind,
who have studied Chemistry, or Physics, or Mineralogy and nothing else
under the sun; to this they add their only knowledge of any other kind,
that is to say, the little they may remember of the doctrines of the
school-catechism, and when they find that these two elements will not
harmonize, they straightway turn scoffers at religion and soon become
shallow and absurd materialists.[167] They may perhaps have heard at
college of the existence of a Plato and an Aristotle, of a Locke, and
especially of a Kant; but as these folk never handled crucibles and
retorts or even stuffed a monkey, they do not esteem them worthy of
further acquaintance. They prefer calmly to toss out of the window the
intellectual labour of two thousand years and treat the public to a
philosophy concocted out of their own rich mental resources, on the
basis of the catechism on the one hand, and on that of crucibles and
retorts or the catalogue of monkeys on the other. They ought to be told
in plain language that they are ignoramuses, who have much to learn
before they can be allowed to have any voice in the matter. Everyone,
in fact, who dogmatizes at random, with the _naïve_ realism of a child
on such arguments as God, the soul, the world's origin, atoms, &c. &c.
&c., as if the Critique of Pure Reason had been written in the moon and
no copy had found its way to our planet--is simply one of the vulgar.
Send him into the servants' hall, where his wisdom will best find a
market.[168]
[166] And this infatuation has reached such a point, that people
seriously imagine themselves to have found the key to the mystery
of the essence and existence of this wonderful and mysterious world
in wretched _chemical affinities_! Compared with this illusion of
our physiological chemists, that of the alchymists who sought after
the philosopher's stone, and only hoped to find out the secret of
making gold, was indeed a mere trifle. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[167] "_Aut catechismus, aut materialismus_," is their watchword.
[Add. to 3rd ed.]
[168] There too he will meet with people who fling about words of
foreign origin, which they have caught up without understanding
them, just as readily as he does himself, when he talks about
"_Idealism_" without knowing what it means, mostly therefore using
the word instead of Spiritualism (which being Realism, is the
opposite to Idealism). Hundreds of examples of this kind besides
other _quid pro quos_ are to be found in books, and critical
periodicals. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
The other circumstance which calls for a real progress in philosophy,
is the steady growth of unbelief in the face of all the hypocritical
dissembling and the outward conformity to the Church. This unbelief
necessarily and unavoidably goes hand in hand with the growing
expansion of empirical and historical knowledge. It threatens to
destroy not only the form, but even the spirit of Christianity (a
spirit which has a much wider reach than Christianity itself), and to
deliver up mankind to _moral_ materialism--a thing even more dangerous
than the chemical materialism already mentioned. And nothing plays
more into the hands of this unbelief, than the Tartuffianism _de
rigueur_ impudently flaunting itself everywhere just now, whose clumsy
disciples, fee in hand, hold forth with such unction and emphasis,
that their voices penetrate even into learned, critical reviews issued
by Academies and Universities, and into physiological as well as
philosophical books, where however, being quite in their wrong place,
they only damage their own cause by rousing indignation.[169] Under
such circumstances as these, it is gratifying to see the public betray
an interest in philosophy.
[169] They ought everywhere to be shown that their belief is not
believed in. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
I have nevertheless one sad piece of news to communicate to our
professors of philosophy. Their Caspar Hauser (according to Dorguth)
whom they had so carefully secreted, so securely walled up for
nearly forty years, that no sound could betray his existence to the
world--their Caspar Hauser--I say, has escaped! He has escaped and is
running about in the world;--some even say he is a prince. In plain
language, the misfortune they feared more than anything has come to
pass after all. In spite of their having done their best to prevent
it for more than a generation by acting with united force, with rare
constancy, secreting and ignoring to a degree that is without example,
my books are beginning and henceforth will continue to be read. _Legor
et legar_: there is no help for it. This is really dreadful and most
inopportune; nay, it is a positive fatality, not to say calamity. Is
this the recompense for all their faithful, snug secrecy; for having
held so firmly and unitedly together? Poor time-servers! What becomes
of Horace's assurance:--
"Est et fideli tuta silentio
Merces,----?"
For verily they have not been deficient in faithful reticence; rather
do they excel in this quality wherever they scent merit. And, after
all, it is no doubt the cleverest artifice; for what no one knows, is
as though it did not exist. Whether the _merces_ will remain quite so
_tuta_, seems rather doubtful--unless we are to take _merces_ in a
_bad_ sense; and for this the support of many a classical authority
might certainly be found. These gentlemen had seen quite rightly that
the only means to be used against my writings, was to secrete them
from the public by maintaining profound silence concerning them, while
they kept up a loud noise at the birth of every misshapen offspring of
professorial philosophy; as the voice of the new-born Zeus was drowned
in days of yore by the clashing of the cymbals of the Corybantes.
But this expedient is now used up; the secret is out--the public
has discovered me. The rage of our professors of philosophy at this
is great, but powerless; for their only effective resource, so long
successfully employed, being exhausted, no snarling can avail any
longer against my influence, and in vain do they now take this, or
that, or the other attitude. They have certainly succeeded, so far as
the generation which was properly speaking contemporaneous with my
philosophy, went to the grave in ignorance of it. But this was a mere
postponement, and Time has kept its word, as it always does.
Now there are two reasons why these gentlemen "in the philosophical
trade"--as they call themselves with incredible _naïveté_--hate my
philosophy. The first of them is, that my writings spoil the taste of
the public for tissues of empty phrases, for accumulations of unmeaning
words piled one upon another, for hollow, superficial, brain-racking
twaddle, for Christian dogmatics under the disguise of the most
wearisome Metaphysics, for systematized Philistinism of the flattest
kind made to represent Ethics and even accompanied by instructions for
card-playing and dancing--in short, they unfit my readers for the whole
method of philosophising _à la vieille femme_, which has scared so
many for ever from the pursuit of philosophy.
The second reason is, that our gentlemen "in the trade" are absolutely
bound in conscience not to let my philosophy pass and are therefore
debarred from using it for the benefit of "the trade;"--and this they
even heartily regret; for my abundance might have been admirably
turned to account for the benefit of their own needy poverty. But even
if it contained the greatest hoards of human wisdom ever unearthed,
my doctrine could never find favour with them either now or in the
future; for it is absolutely wanting in all Speculative Theology and
Rational Psychology, and these, just these, are the very breath of
life to these gentlemen, the _sine qua non_ of their existence. For
they are anxious before all things in heaven and on earth, to hold
their official appointments, and these appointments demand before all
things in heaven and on earth a Speculative Theology and a Rational
Psychology: _extra hæc non datur salus_. Theology there must and shall
be, no matter whence it come; Moses and the Prophets must be made out
to be in the right: this is the highest principle in philosophy; and
there must be Rational Psychology to boot, as is proper. Now there is
nothing of the sort to be found either in Kant's philosophy or in mine.
For, as we all know, the most cogent theological argumentation shivers
to atoms like a glass thrown at a wall, when it is brought into contact
with Kant's Critique of all Speculative Theology, and under his hands
not a shred remains entire of the whole tissue of Rational Psychology!
As to myself, being the bold continuer of Kant's philosophy, I have
entirely done away with all Speculative Theology and all Rational
Psychology, as is only consistent and honest.[170] On the other hand,
the task incumbent upon University Philosophy is at bottom this: to
set forth the chief fundamental truths belonging to the Catechism under
the veil of some very abstract, abstruse and difficult, therefore
painfully wearisome formulas and sentences; wherefore, however
confused, intricate, strange and eccentric the matter may seem at first
sight, these truths invariably reveal themselves as its kernel. This
proceeding may be useful, though to me it is unknown. All I know is,
that philosophy, _i.e._ the search after truth--I mean the truth κατ'
ἐξοχήν, by which the most sublime and important disclosures, more
precious than anything else to the human race, are understood--will
never advance a step, nay, an inch, by means of such manœuvring, by
which its course is on the contrary impeded; therefore I found out long
ago that University philosophy is the enemy of all genuine philosophy.
Now, this being the state of the case, when a really honest philosophy
arises, which seriously has truth for its sole aim, must not these
gentlemen "of the philosophical trade" feel as might stage-knights in
paste-board armour, were a knight suddenly to appear in the midst of
them clad in real armour, who made the stage-floor creak under his
ponderous tread? Such philosophy as this _must_ therefore be bad and
false and consequently places these gentlemen "of the trade" under the
painful obligation of playing the part of him who, in order to appear
what he is not, cannot allow others to pass for what they really are.
Out of all this however there unrolls itself the amusing spectacle we
enjoy, when these gentlemen, now that ignoring has unfortunately come
to an end, after forty years, at last begin to measure me by their
own puny standard and pass judgment upon me from the heights of their
wisdom, as though they were amply qualified to do so by their office;
but they are most amusing of all when they assume airs of superiority
towards me.
[170] For revelation goes for nothing in philosophy; therefore a
philosopher must before all things be an unbeliever. [Add. to 3rd
ed.].
Their abhorrence of Kant, though less openly expressed, is scarcely
less great than their hatred of me; precisely because all speculative
Theology and all Rational Psychology--the bread-winners of these
gentlemen--have been undermined, not to say irrevocably ruined, by him
in the eyes of all serious thinkers. What! Not hate him? him, who has
made their "trade in philosophy" so difficult to them, that they hardly
see how to pull through honourably! So Kant and I are accordingly both
bad, and these gentlemen quite overlook us. For nearly forty years
they have not deigned to cast a glance upon me, and now they look down
condescendingly upon Kant from the heights of their wisdom, smiling in
pity at his errors. This policy is both very wise and very profitable;
since they are thus able to hold forth at their ease volume after
volume upon God and the soul, as if these were personalities with whom
they were intimately acquainted, and to discourse upon the relation in
which the former stands to the world and the latter to the body, just
as if there had never been such a thing as a Critique of Pure Reason.
When once the Critique of Pure Reason is done away with, all will go
on splendidly! Now it is for this end that they have been endeavouring
for many years quietly and gradually to set Kant aside, to make him
obsolete, nay, to turn up their noses at him, and one being encouraged
by the other in this, they are becoming bolder every day.[171] They
have no opposition to fear from their own colleagues, since they
all have the same aims and the same mission and all together form a
numerous _coterie_, the brilliant members of which, _coram populo_, bow
and scrape to each other on all sides. Thus by degrees things have come
to such a point, that the wretchedest compilers of manuals have the
presumption to treat Kant's grand, immortal discoveries as antiquated
errors, nay, calmly to set them aside with the most ludicrous
arrogance and most impudent dicta of their own, which they nevertheless
lay down under the disguise of argumentation, because they know they
may count upon a credulous public, to whom Kant's writings are not
known.[172] And this is what happens to Kant on the part of writers,
whose total incapacity strikes us in every page, not to say every line,
we read of their unmeaning, stupefying verbiage! Were this to go on
much longer, Kant would present the spectacle of the dead lion being
kicked by the donkey. Even in France there is no lack of fellow-workers
inspired by a similar orthodoxy, who are labouring towards the same
end. A certain M. Barthélemy de St. Hilaire, for instance, in a lecture
delivered in the _Académie des Sciences Morales_ in April, 1850, has
presumed to criticize Kant with an air of condescension and to use most
improper language in speaking of him; luckily however in such a way,
that no one could fail to see the underlying purpose.[173]
[171] One always says the other is right, so that the public in its
simplicity at last imagines them really to be right. [Add. to 3rd
ed.]
[172] Here it is especially Ernst Reinhold's "System of
Metaphysics" (3rd edition, 1854) that I have in my eye. In my
"Parerga" I have explained how it comes, that brain-perverting
books like this go through several editions. See "Parerga," vol. i.
p. 171 (2nd edition, vol. i. p. 194).
[173] Nevertheless, by Zeus, all such gentlemen, in France as
well as Germany, should be taught that Philosophy has a different
mission from that of playing into the hands of the clergy. We must
let them clearly see before all things that we have no faith in
their faith--from this follows what we think of them. [Add. to 3rd
ed.]
Now others among our German "traders in philosophy" again try to get
rid of the obnoxious Kant in a different way: instead of attacking his
philosophy point-blank, they rather seek to undermine the foundations
on which it is built. These people however are so utterly forsaken by
all the gods and by all power of judgment, that they attack _à priori_
truths: that is to say, truths as old as the human understanding,
nay, which constitute that understanding itself, and which it is
therefore impossible to contradict without declaring war against that
understanding also. So great however is the courage of these gentlemen.
I am sorry to say I know of three,[174] and I am afraid there are
a good many more at work at this undermining process, who have the
incredible presumption to maintain the _à posteriori_ origin of Space
as a consequence, a mere relation, of the objects _within it_; for they
assert that Space and Time are of empirical origin and attached to
those bodies, so that [according to them] Space first arises through
our perception of the juxtaposition of bodies and Time likewise through
our perception of the succession of changes (_sancta simplicitas!_ as
if the words "collateral" and "successive" would have any sense for us
without the antecedent intuitions of Space and of Time to give them a
meaning); consequently, that if there were no bodies, there would be no
Space, therefore if they disappeared Space also must lapse, and that if
all changes were to stop, Time also would stop.[175]
[174] (_a_) Rosenkranz, "Meine Reform der Hegelschen Philosophie,"
1852, especially p. 41, in a pompous, dictatorial tone: "I have
explicitly said, that Space and Time would not exist if Matter did
not exist. Æther spread out within itself first constitutes real
Space, and the movement of this æther and consequent real genesis
of everything individual and separate, constitutes real Time."
(_b_) L. Noack, "Die Theologie als Religionsphilosophie," 1853, pp.
8, 9. (_c_) V. Reuchlin-Meldegg, Two reviews of Oersted's "Geist in
der Natur" in the Heidelberg Annals, Nov.-Dec., 1850, and May-June,
1854.
[175] Time is the condition of the _possibility_ of succession,
which could neither take place, nor be understood by us and
expressed in words, without Time. And Space is likewise the
condition of the _possibility_ of juxtaposition, and Transcendental
Æsthetic is the proof that these conditions have their seat in the
constitution of our head. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
And such stuff as this is gravely taught fifty years after Kant's
death! The aim of it is, as we know, to undermine Kantian philosophy,
and certainly if these propositions were true, _one_ stroke would
suffice to overthrow it. Fortunately however these assertions are of a
kind which is met by derision rather than by serious refutation. For,
in them, the question is one of heresy, not so much against Kantian
philosophy, as against common sense; and they are not so much an attack
upon any particular philosophical dogma, as upon an _à priori_ truth
which, as such, constitutes human understanding itself, and therefore
must be instantaneously evident to every one who is in his senses,
just as much as that 2 × 2 = 4. Fetch me a peasant from the plough;
make the question intelligible to him; and he will tell you, that
even if all things in Heaven and on Earth were to vanish, Space would
nevertheless remain, and that if all changes in Heaven and on Earth
were to cease, Time would nevertheless flow on. Compared with German
pseudo-philosophers like these, how estimable does a man like the
French physicist Pouillet appear, who, though he never troubles his
head about Metaphysics, is careful to incorporate two long paragraphs,
one on _l'Espace_, the other on _le Temps_, in the first chapter of
his well-known Manual, on which public instruction in France is based,
where he shows that if all Matter were annihilated, Space would still
remain, and that Space is infinite; and that if all changes ceased,
Time would still pursue its course without end. Now here he does not
appeal, as in all other cases, to experience, because in this case
experience is not possible; yet he speaks with apodeictic certainty.
For, as a physicist, professing a science which is absolutely
immanent--_i.e._ limited to the reality that is empirically given--it
never comes into his head to inquire whence he knows all this. It _did_
come into Kant's head, and it was this very problem, clothed by him in
the severe form of an inquiry as to the possibility of synthetical _à
priori_ judgments, that became the starting-point and the corner-stone
of his immortal discoveries, or in other words, of Transcendental
Philosophy which, precisely by answering this question and others
related to it, shows what is the nature of that empirical reality
itself.[176]
[176] In the Scholium to the eighth of the definitions he has
placed at the top of his "Principia," Newton quite rightly
distinguishes _absolute_, that is, _empty_, from relative, or
filled Time, and likewise absolute from relative Space. He says,
p. 11: _Tempus, spatium, locum, motum, ut omnibus notissima, non
definio. Notandum tamen quod_ VULGUS (that is, professors like
those I have been mentioning) _quantitates hasce non aliter quam
ex relatione ad sensibilia concipiat. Et inde oriuntur præjudicia
quædam, quibus tollendis convenit easdem in absolutas et relativas,
veras et apparentes, mathematicas et vulgares distingui._ And again
(p. 12):
I. _Tempus absolutum, verum et mathematicum, in se et natura sua
sine relatione ad externum quodvis, æquabiliter fluit, alioque
nomine dicitur Duratio: relativum, apparens et vulgare est
sensibilis et externa quævis Durationis per motum mensura (seu
accurata seu inæquabilis) quâ vulgus vice veri temporis utitur; ut
Hora, Dies, Mensis, Annus._
II. _Spatiam absolutum, natura sua sine relatione ad externum
quodvis, semper manet similare et immobile: relativum est spatii
hujus mensura seu dimensio quælibet mobilis, quæ a sensibus nostris
per situm suum ad corpora definitur, et a vulgo pro spatio immobili
usurpatur: uti dimensio spatii subterranei, ærei vel coelestis
definita per situm suum ad terram._
But even Newton never dreamt of asking how we know these two
infinite entities, Space and Time; since, as he here impresses on
us, they do not fall within the range of the senses; and how we
know them moreover so intimately, that we are able to indicate
their whole nature and rule down to the minutest detail. [Add. to
3rd ed.]
And seventy years after the Critique of Pure Reason had appeared and
filled the world with its fame, these gentlemen dare to serve up such
gross absurdities, which were done away with long ago, and to return to
former barbarism. If Kant were to come back and see all this mischief,
he would feel like Moses on returning from Mount Sinai, when he found
his people worshipping the golden calf, and dashed the Tables to pieces
in his anger. But if Kant were to take things as tragically as Moses,
I should console him with the words of Jesus Sirach:[177] "He that
telleth a tale to a fool speaketh to one in a slumber; when he hath
told his tale, he will say, 'What is the matter?'" For that diamond
in Kant's crown, Transcendental Æsthetic, never has existed for these
gentlemen--it is tacitly set aside, as _non-avenue_. I wonder what
they think Nature means by producing the rarest of all her works, a
great mind, one among so many hundreds of millions, if the worshipful
company of numskulls are to be able at their pleasure and by their mere
counter-assertion to annul the weightiest doctrines emanating from that
mind, let alone to treat them with disregard and do as if they did not
exist.
[177] Ecclesiasticus xxii. 8.
But this degenerate, barbarous state of philosophy which, in the
present day, emboldens every tyro to hold forth at random upon subjects
that have puzzled the greatest minds, is precisely a consequence still
remaining of the impunity with which--thanks to the connivance of our
professors of philosophy--that audacious scribbler, Hegel, has been
allowed to flood the market with his monstrous vagaries and so to pass
for the greatest of all philosophers for the last thirty years in
Germany. Every one of course now thinks himself entitled to serve up
confidently anything that may happen to come into his sparrow's brain.
Therefore, as I have said, the gentlemen of the 'philosophical trade'
are anxious before all things to obliterate Kant's philosophy, in
order to be able to return to the muddy canal of the old dogmatism
and to talk at random to their heart's content upon the favourite
subjects which are specially recommended to them: just as if nothing
had happened and neither a Kant nor a Critical Philosophy had ever
come into the world.[178] The affected veneration for, and laudation
of, Leibnitz too, which has been showing itself everywhere for some
years, proceed from the same source. They like to place him in a
line with, nay above, Kant, having at times the assurance to call him
the greatest of all German philosophers. Now, compared with Kant,
Leibnitz is a poor rushlight. Kant is a master-mind, to whom mankind
is indebted for the discovery of never-to-be-forgotten truths. One of
his chief merits is precisely, to have delivered us from Leibnitz and
his subtleties: from pre-established harmonies, monads and _identitas
indiscernibilium_. Kant has made philosophy serious and I am keeping it
so. That these gentlemen should think differently is easily explained;
for has not Leibnitz a central Monad and a _Theodicée_ also, with
which to deck it out? Now this is quite to the taste of my gentlemen
'of the philosophical trade.' It does not stand in the way of earning
a honest livelihood; it allows one to subsist; whereas such a thing
as Kant's "Critique of all Speculative Theology," makes one's hair
stand on end. Kant is consequently a wrong-headed man and one to be
set aside. Vivat Leibnitz! Vivat the 'philosophical trade!' Vivat old
woman's philosophy! These gentlemen really imagine that, according to
the standard of their own petty aims, they can obscure what is good,
disparage what is great, and accredit what is false. They may perhaps
succeed in doing so for a time, but certainly not in the long run, nor
with impunity. Notwithstanding all their machinations and spiteful
ignoring of me for forty years, have not even I at last made my way?
During those forty years however I have learnt to appreciate Chamfort's
words: "_En examinant la ligue des sots contre les gens d'esprit, on
croirait voir une conspiration de valets pour écarter les maîtres._"
[178] For Kant has disclosed the dreadful truth, that philosophy
must be quite a different thing from Jewish mythology. [Add. to 3rd
ed.]
We do not care to have much to do with those whom we dislike. One
of the consequences of this antipathy for Kant, therefore, has been
an incredible ignorance of his doctrines. I can scarcely believe my
eyes at times, when I see certain proofs of this ignorance, and must
here support my assertion by a few examples. First let me present a
very singular specimen, though it is now some years old. In Professor
Michelet's "Anthropology and Psychology" (p. 444), he states Kant's
Categorical Imperative in the following words: "thou must, for thou
canst" (_du sollst, denn du kannst_). This cannot be a _lapsus
calami_, for he again states it in the same words in his "History of
the Development of Modern German Philosophy" (p. 38),[179] published
three years later. Letting alone the fact that he appears to have
studied Kantian philosophy in Schiller's epigrams, he has thus turned
the thing upside down, and expressed exactly the opposite of Kant's
argument; evidently without having the slightest inkling of what Kant
meant by that postulate of Freedom on the basis of his Categorical
Imperative. None of Professor Michelet's colleagues, to my knowledge,
have pointed out this mistake, but "_hanc veniam damus, petimusque
vicissim_."--Another more recent instance. The above mentioned
reviewer of Oersted's book (see note 1 (_c_), p. 202), to whose title
the present treatise unfortunately had to stand godfather, comes in
that work on the sentence that "bodies are spaces filled with force"
(_krafterfüllte Räume_). This is new to him; so without the faintest
suspicion that he has to do with a far-famed Kantian dogma, and taking
this for a paradoxical opinion of Oersted's, he attacks it and argues
against it bravely, persistently and repeatedly in both his reviews,
which appeared at an interval of three years from one another, using
arguments like these: "Force cannot fill Space without something
substantial, Matter;" then again three years later: "Force in Space
does not yet constitute any thing. For Force to fill Space, there must
be Substance, Matter. A mere force can never fill. Matter must be there
for it to fill."--Bravo! my cobbler would use just such arguments as
these.[180]--When I see _specimina eruditionis_ of this sort, I begin
to have my misgivings whether I did not do the man injustice by naming
him among those who endeavour to undermine Kant; but in this, to be
sure, I had in view his assertions that "Space is but the relation, the
juxtaposition of things,"[181] and that "Space is a relation in which
things stand, a juxtaposition of things. This juxtaposition ceases
to be a conception as soon as the conception of Matter ceases."[182]
For he might possibly have penned these sentences in sheer innocence,
since he may have known no more of the "Transcendental Æsthetic" than
of the "Metaphysical First Principles of Natural Science;" though
to be sure, this would be rather extraordinary for a professor of
philosophy. Now-a-days however we must not be surprised at anything.
For all knowledge of Critical Philosophy has died out, in spite of its
being the latest true philosophy that has appeared, and a doctrine
withal, that has made a revolution and epoch in human knowledge and
thought. Now therefore, since it has overthrown all previous systems,
and since the knowledge of it has died out, philosophising no longer
proceeds on the basis of any of the doctrines propounded by the great
minds of the past, but becomes a mere random untutored process, having
an ordinary education and the catechism for its foundation. Now that
I have startled them however, our professors may perhaps take to
studying Kant's works again. Still Lichtenberg says: "Past a certain
age, I think it as impossible to learn Kantian Philosophy as to learn
rope-dancing."
[179] Another instance of Michelet's ignorance is to be found in
Schopenhauer's posthumous writings, see "Aus Arthur Schopenhauer's
handschriftlichem Nachlass," Leipzig, A. Brockhaus, 1864, p. 327.
[Editor's note.]
[180] The same reviewer (Von Reuchlin-Meldegg) when be expounds
the doctrines of the philosophers concerning God in the August
number of the Heidelberg Annals (1855), p. 579, says: "In Kant,
God is a thing in itself which cannot be known." In his review of
Frauenstädt's "Letters" in the Heidelberg Annals of May and June
(1855) he says that there is no knowledge _à priori_. [Add. to 3rd
ed.]
[181] C. 1. p. 899.
[182] p. 908.
I should certainly not have condescended to record the sins of these
sinners had not the interests of truth required that I should do so,
in order to show the state of degradation at which German Philosophy
has arrived fifty years after Kant's death in consequence of the
machinations of the gentlemen 'of the trade,' and also to show what
would result, if these puny minds, who know nothing but their own ends,
were to be suffered without hindrance to check the influence of the
great geniuses who have illumined the world. I cannot look on at this
in silence; it is rather a case to which Göthe's exhortation applies:
"Du Kräftiger, sei nicht so still,
Wenn auch sich Andre scheuen:
Wer den Teufel erschrecken will,
Der muss laut schreien."
Dr. Martin Luther thought so also.
Hatred against Kant, hatred against me, hatred against truth, all
however _in majorem Dei gloriam_, is what inspires these worthies
who live on philosophy. Who can be so blind as not to see that
University philosophy is the enemy of all true, serious philosophy,
whose progress it feels bound to withstand? For a philosophy which
deserves the name, is pure service of truth, therefore the most
sublime of all human endeavours; but, as such, it is not adapted for
a trade. Least of all can it have its seat in Universities, where a
theological Faculty predominates and things are irrevocably decided
beforehand ere philosophy comes to them. With Scholasticism, from
which University philosophy descends, it was quite a different thing.
Scholasticism was avowedly the _ancilla theologiæ_, so that here the
name corresponded to the thing. Our University philosophy of to-day,
on the contrary, disclaims the connection, and professes independent
research; yet in reality it is only the _ancilla_ disguised, and
it is intended no less than its predecessor to be the servant of
Theology. Thus genuine, sincerely meant philosophy has an adversary
under the guise of an ally in University philosophy. Therefore I said
long ago, that nothing would be of greater benefit to philosophy than
for it to cease altogether to be taught at Universities; and if at
that time I still admitted the propriety of a brief, quite succinct
course of History of Philosophy accompanying Logic--which undoubtedly
ought to be taught at Universities--I have since withdrawn that hasty
concession in consequence of the following disclosure made to us in
the _Göttingischen Gelehrten Anzeigen_ of the 1st January, 1853, p.
8, by the _Ordinarius loci_ (one who writes History of Philosophy
in thick volumes): "It could not be mistaken that Kant's doctrine
is ordinary Theism, and that it has contributed little or nothing
towards transforming the current views on God and his relation to
the world."--If this is the state of the case, Universities are in
my opinion no longer the right place even for teaching History of
Philosophy. There designs and intentions reign paramount. I had indeed
long ago begun to suspect, that History of Philosophy was taught at our
Universities in the same spirit and with the same _granum salis_ as
Philosophy itself, and it needed but very little to make my suspicions
certainty. Accordingly it is my wish to see both Philosophy and its
History disappear from the lecture-list, because I desire to rescue
them from the tender mercies of our court-councillors.[183] But far be
it from me, to wish to see our professors of philosophy removed from
their thriving business at our Universities. On the contrary, what I
should like would be, to see them promoted three degrees higher in
dignity and raised to the highest faculty, as professors of Theology.
For at the bottom they have really been this for some time already, and
have served quite long enough as volunteers.
[183] _Hofräthe._ A title of honour often given for literary
and scientific merit in Germany, and common among University
professors. [Tr.'s note.]
Meanwhile my honest and kindly advice to the young generation is, not
to waste any time with University philosophy, but to study Kant's works
and my own instead. I promise them that there they will learn something
substantial, that will bring light and order into their brains: so far
at least as they may be capable of receiving them. It is not good to
crowd round a wretched farthing rushlight when brilliant torches are
close by; still less to run after will o' the wisps. Above all, my
truth-seeking young friends, beware of letting our professors tell you
what is contained in the Critique of Pure Reason. Read it yourselves,
and you will find in it something very different from what they deem it
advisable for you to know.--In our time a great deal too much study is
generally devoted to the History of Philosophy; for this study, being
adapted by its very nature to substitute knowledge for reflection, is
just now cultivated downright with a view to making philosophy consist
in its own history. It is not only of doubtful necessity, but even of
questionable profit, to acquire a superficial half-knowledge of the
opinions and systems of all the philosophers who have taught for 2,500
years; yet what more does the most honest history of philosophy give?
A real knowledge of philosophers can only be acquired from their own
works, and not from the distorted image of their doctrines as it is
found in the commonplace head.[184] But it is really urgent that order
should be brought into our heads by some sort of philosophy, and that
we should at the same time learn to look at the world with a really
unbiassed eye. Now no philosophy is so near to us, both as regards time
and language, as that of Kant, and it is at the same time a philosophy,
compared with which all those which went before are superficial. On
this account it is unhesitatingly to be preferred to all others.
[184] "_Potius de rebus ipsis judicare debemus, quam pro magno
habere, de hominibus quid quisque senserit scire_," says St.
Augustine ("_De civ. Dei_," l. 19, c. 3). Under the present mode of
proceeding, however, the philosophical lecture-room becomes a sort
of rag-fair for old worn out, cast-off opinions, which are brought
there every six months to be aired and beaten. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
But I perceive that the news of Caspar Hauser's escape has already
spread among our professors of philosophy; for I see that some of
them have already given vent to their feelings in bitter and venomous
abuse of me in various periodicals, making up by falsehoods for their
deficiency of wit.[185] Nevertheless I do not complain of all this,
because I am rejoiced at the cause and amused by the effect of it, as
illustrative of Göthe's verse:
"Es will der Spitz aus unserm Stall
Uns immerfort begleiten:
Doch seines Bellens lauter Schall
Beweist nur, dass wir reiten."
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER.
FRANKFURT AM MEIN,
_August, 1854_.
[185] I take this opportunity urgently to request that the public
will not believe unconditionally any accounts of what I am supposed
to have said, even when they are given as quotations; but will
first verify the existence of these quotations in my works. In this
way many a falsehood will be detected, which can however only be
stamped as a direct forgery when accompanied by quotation marks
(""). [Add. to 3rd ed.]
EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
Schopenhauer has left an interleaved copy of his work "On the Will
in Nature," as well as of his other writings, and has inserted in it
those Corrections and Additions which he intended to use for the Third
Edition. I have therefore included them in this Third Edition.
The Corrections chiefly concern the style, here and there an expression
being changed, and a word inserted or omitted. The Additions, on the
contrary, concern the _matter_ of the book; they amplify it more or
less considerably, and are tolerably numerous.
The Corrections are incorporated by Schopenhauer with the text; whereas
the Additions are designated by him as "Notes" (_Anmerkungen_) to be
placed at the foot of the pages with the words, "added to the third
edition." They will therefore be found at the places indicated by him
for them, as foot-notes; and thus the reader will be enabled easily to
discern how much has been added in this edition.
As to the value of the present work, Schopenhauer has expressed himself
as follows in the "World as Will and Representation:"
"It would be a great mistake to consider the foreign deliverances with
which I have connected my own exposition there (in the work "On the
Will in Nature") as the real substance and argument of that work which,
though small in size, is weighty in import. They are rather a mere
occasion which I take as my starting-point in order to expound the
fundamental truth of my doctrine more clearly there than has been done
anywhere else, and to apply it all the way down even to the empirical
knowledge of Nature. This I have done most exhaustively and stringently
under the heading "Physical Astronomy," nor can I ever hope to find a
more correct or accurate expression for the kernel of my doctrine than
the one given there."[186]
[186] "Die Welt a. W. u. V.," vol. ii., c. 18, p. 213.
I have nothing to add to testimony thus given by Schopenhauer himself.
JULIUS FRAUENSTÄDT.
Berlin, _March, 1867_.
EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The present Fourth Edition is an identical reprint of the Third:
it therefore contains the same Corrections and Additions which I
had already inserted in the Third Edition from Schopenhauer's own
manuscript.
JULIUS FRAUENSTÄDT.
Berlin, _September, 1877_.
THE WILL IN NATURE.
INTRODUCTION.
I break silence after seventeen years,[187] in order to point out to
the few who, in advance of the age, may have given their attention
to my philosophy, sundry corroborations which have been contributed
to it by unbiassed empiricists, unacquainted with my writings, who,
in pursuing their own road in search of merely empirical knowledge,
discovered at its extreme end what my doctrine has propounded as
the Metaphysical (_das Metaphysische_), from which the explanation
of experience as a whole must come. This circumstance is the more
encouraging, as it confers upon my system a distinction over
all hitherto existing ones; for all the other systems, even the
latest--that of Kant--still leave a wide gap between their results and
experience, and are far from coming down directly to, and into contact
with, experience. By this my Metaphysic proves itself to be the only
one having an extreme point in common with the physical sciences: a
point up to which these sciences come to meet it by their own paths,
so as really to connect themselves and to harmonize with it. Moreover
this is not brought about by twisting and straining the empirical
sciences in order to adapt them to Metaphysic, nor by Metaphysic
having been secretly abstracted from them beforehand and then, _à la_
Schelling, finding _à priori_ what it had learnt _à posteriori_. On the
contrary, both meet at the same point of their own accord, yet without
collusion. My system therefore, far from soaring above all reality and
all experience, descends to the firm ground of actuality, where its
lessons are continued by the Physical Sciences.
[187] So had I written in 1835, when the present treatise was first
composed, having published nothing since 1818, before the close
of which year "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" had appeared.
For a Latin version, which I had added to the third volume of
"_Scriptores ophthalmologici minores_," _edente_ J. Radio, in 1830,
for the benefit of my foreign readers, of my treatise "On Vision
and Colours" (published in 1816), can hardly be said to break the
silence of that pause.
Now the extraneous and empirical corroborations I am about to bring
forward, all concern the kernel and chief point of my doctrine, its
Metaphysic proper. They concern, that is, the paradoxical fundamental
truth,
_that_ what Kant opposed as _thing in itself_ to mere
_phenomenon_--called more decidedly by me _representation_--and
what he held to be absolutely unknowable, that this _thing in
itself_, this substratum of all phenomena, and therefore of
the whole of Nature, is nothing but what we know directly and
intimately and find within ourselves as _the will_;[188]
[188] As will be seen by the following detailed exposition,
Schopenhauer attaches a far wider meaning to the word than is
usually given, and regards the _will_, not merely as _conscious
volition_ enlightened by Reason and determined by motives, but as
the fundamental essence of all that occurs, even where there is no
choice. [Tr.]
_that_ accordingly, this _will_, far from being inseparable from,
and even a mere result of, _knowledge_, differs radically and
entirely from, and is quite independent of, knowledge, which
is secondary and of later origin; and can consequently subsist
and manifest itself without knowledge: a thing which actually
takes place throughout the whole of Nature, from the animal
kingdom downwards;
_that_ this _will_, being the one and only thing in itself,
the sole truly real, primary, metaphysical thing in a world
in which everything else is only phenomenon--_i.e._ mere
representation--gives all things, whatever they may be, the
power to exist and to act;
_that_ accordingly, not only the voluntary actions of animals,
but the organic mechanism, nay even the shape and quality of
their living body, the vegetation of plants and finally, even in
inorganic Nature, crystallization, and in general every primary
force which manifests itself in physical and chemical phenomena,
not excepting Gravity,--that all this, I say, in itself, _i.e._
independently of phenomenon (which only means, independently of
our brain and its representations), is absolutely identical with
the _will_ we find within us and know as intimately as we can
know anything;
_that_ further, the individual manifestations of the will are
set in motion by _motives_ in beings gifted with an intellect,
but no less by _stimuli_ in the organic life of animals and of
plants, and finally in all inorganic Nature, by _causes_ in
the narrowest sense of the word--these distinctions applying
exclusively to phenomena;
_that_, on the other hand, knowledge with its substratum,
the intellect, is a merely secondary phenomenon, differing
completely from the will, only accompanying its higher degrees
of objectification and not essential to it; which, as it depends
upon the manifestations of the will in the animal organism, is
therefore physical, and not, like the will, metaphysical;
_that_ we are never able therefore to infer absence of will from
absence of knowledge; for the will may be pointed out even in
all phenomena of unconscious Nature, whether in plants or in
inorganic bodies; in short,
_that_ the will is not conditioned by knowledge, as has hitherto
been universally assumed, although knowledge _is_ conditioned by
the will.
Now this fundamental truth, which even to-day sounds so like a
paradox, is the part of my doctrine to which, in all its chief points,
the empirical sciences--themselves ever eager to steer clear of all
Metaphysic--have contributed just as many confirmations forcibly
elicited by the irresistible cogency of truth, but which are most
surprising on account of the quarter whence they proceed; and although
they have certainly come to light since the publication of my chief
work, it has been quite independently of it and as the years went on.
Now, that it should be precisely this fundamental doctrine of mine
which has thus met with confirmation, is advantageous in two respects.
First, because it is the main thought upon which my system is founded;
secondly, because it is the only part of my philosophy that admits
of confirmation through sciences which are alien to, and independent
of, it. For although the last seventeen years, during which I have
been constantly occupied with this subject, have, it is true, brought
me many corroborations as to other parts, such as Ethics, Æsthetics,
Dianoiology; still these, by their very nature, pass at once from the
sphere of actuality, whence they arise, to that of philosophy itself:
so they cannot claim to be extraneous evidence, nor can they, as
collected by me, have the same irrefragable, unequivocal cogency as
those concerning _Metaphysics_ proper which are given by its correlate
_Physics_ (in the wide sense of the word which the Ancients gave it).
For, in pursuing its own road, Physics, _i.e._, Natural Science as a
whole, must in all its branches finally come to a point where physical
explanation ceases. Now this is precisely the _Metaphysical_, which
Natural Science only apprehends as the impassable barrier at which it
stops short and henceforth abandons its subject to Metaphysics. Kant
therefore was quite right in saying: "It is evident, that the primary
sources of Nature's agency must absolutely belong to the sphere of
Metaphysics."[189] Physical science is wont to designate this unknown,
inaccessible something, at which its investigations stop short and
which is taken for granted in all its explanations, by such terms as
physical force, vital force, formative principle, &c. &c., which in
fact mean no more than _x, y, z_. Now if nevertheless, in single,
propitious instances, specially acute and observant investigators
succeed in casting as it were a furtive glance behind the curtain
which bounds off the domain of Natural Science, and are able not
only to feel it is a barrier but, in a sense, to obtain a view of
its nature and thus to peep into the metaphysical region beyond; if
moreover, having acquired this privilege, they explicitly designate
the limit thus explored downright as that which is stated to be the
true inner essence and final principle of all things by a system of
Metaphysics unknown to them, which takes its reasons from a totally
different sphere and, in every other respect, recognises all things
merely as phenomena, _i.e._, as representation--then indeed the two
bodies of investigators must feel like two mining engineers driving a
gallery, who, having started from two points far apart and worked for
some time in subterranean darkness, trusting exclusively to compass
and spirit-level, suddenly to their great joy catch the sound of each
other's hammers. For now indeed these investigators know, that the
point so long vainly sought for has at last been reached at which
Metaphysics and Physics meet--they, who were as hard to bring together
as Heaven and Earth--that a reconciliation has been initiated and a
connection found between these two sciences. But the philosophical
system which has witnessed this triumph receives by it the strongest
and most satisfactory proof possible of its own truth and accuracy.
Compared with such a confirmation as this, which may, in fact, be
looked upon as equivalent to proving a sum in arithmetic, the regard or
disregard of a given period of time loses all importance, especially
when we consider what has been the subject of interest meanwhile and
find it to be--the sort of philosophy we have been treated to since
Kant. The eyes of the public are gradually opening to the mystification
by which it has been duped for the last forty years under the name
of philosophy, and this will be more and more the case. The day of
reckoning is at hand, when it will see whether all this endless
scribbling and quibbling since Kant has brought to light a single truth
of any kind. I may thus be dispensed from the obligation of entering
here into subjects so unworthy; the more so, as I can accomplish my
purpose more briefly and agreeably by narrating the following anecdote.
During the carnival, Dante having lost himself in a crowd of masks,
the Duke of Medici ordered him to be sought for. Those commissioned
to look for him, being doubtful whether they would be able to find
him, as he was himself masked, the Duke gave them a question to put to
every mask they might meet who resembled Dante. It was this: "Who knows
what is good?" After receiving several foolish answers, they finally
met with a mask who replied: "He that knows what is bad," by which
Dante was immediately recognised.[190] What is meant by this here
is, that I have seen no reason to be disheartened on account of the
want of sympathy of my contemporaries, since I had at the same time
before my eyes the objects of their sympathy. What those authors were,
posterity will see by their works; what the contemporaries were, will
be seen by the reception they gave to those works. My doctrine lays
no claim whatever to the name "Philosophy of the present time" which
was disputed to the amusing adepts of Hegel's mystification; but it
certainly does claim the title of "Philosophy of time to come:" that
is, of a time when people will no longer content themselves with a
mere jingle of words without meaning, with empty phrases and trivial
parallelisms, but will exact real contents and serious disclosures
from philosophy, while, on the other hand, they will exempt it from
the unjust and preposterous obligation of paraphrasing the national
religion for the time being. "For it is an extremely absurd thing,"
says Kant,[191] "to expect to be enlightened by Reason and yet to
prescribe to her beforehand on which side she must incline."--It is
indeed sad to live in an age so degenerate, that it should be necessary
to appeal to the authority of a great man to attest so obvious a truth.
But it is absurd to expect marvels from a philosophy that is chained
up, and particularly amusing to watch the solemn gravity with which it
sets to work to accomplish great things, when we all know beforehand
"the short meaning of the long speech."[192] However the keen-sighted
assert that under the cloak of philosophy they can mostly detect
theology holding forth for the edification of students thirsting after
truth, and instructing them after its own fashion;--and this again
reminds us forcibly of a certain favourite scene in Faust. Others, who
think that they see still further into the matter, maintain that what
is thus disguised is neither theology nor philosophy, but simply a poor
devil who, while solemnly protesting that he has lofty, sublime truth
for his aim, is in fact only striving to get bread for himself and for
his future young family. This he might no doubt obtain by other means
with less labour and more dignity; meanwhile however for this price he
is ready to do anything he is asked to do, even to deduce _à priori_,
nay, should it come to the worst, to perceive, the 'Devil and his dam,'
by intellectual intuition--and here indeed the exceedingly comical
effect is brought to a climax by the contrast between the sublimity
of the ostensible, and the lowliness of the real, aim. It remains
nevertheless desirable, that the pure, sacred precincts of philosophy
should be cleansed of all such traders, as was the temple of Jerusalem
in former times of the buyers and sellers.--Biding such better times
therefore, may our philosophical public bestow its attention and
interest as it has done hitherto. May it continue as before invariably
naming Fichte as an obligato accompaniment to, and in the same breath
with, Kant--that great mind, produced but once by Nature, which has
illumined its own depth--as if forsooth they were of the same kind; and
this without a single voice being heard to exclaim in protest Ἡρακλῆς
καὶ πίθηκος! May Hegel's philosophy of absolute nonsense--three-fourths
cash and one-fourth crazy fancies--continue to pass for unfathomable
wisdom without anyone suggesting as an appropriate motto for his
writings Shakespeare's words: "Such stuff as madmen tongue and brain
not," or, as an emblematical vignette, the cuttle-fish with its
ink-bag, creating a cloud of darkness around it to prevent people
from seeing what it is, with the device: _mea caligine tutus_.--May
each day bring us, as hitherto, new systems adapted for University
purposes, entirely made up of words and phrases and in a learned
jargon besides, which allows people to talk whole days without saying
anything; and may these delights never be disturbed by the Arabian
proverb: "I hear the clappering of the mill, but I see no flour."--For
all this is in accordance with the age and must have its course. In
all times some such thing occupies the contemporary public more or
less noisily; then it dies off so completely, vanishes so entirely,
without leaving a trace behind, that the next generation no longer
knows what it was. Truth can bide its time, for it has a long life
before it. Whatever is genuine and seriously meant, is always slow to
make its way and certainly attains its end almost miraculously; for on
its first appearance it as a rule meets with a cool, if not ungracious,
reception: and this for exactly the same reason that, when once it is
fully recognised and has passed on to posterity, the immense
majority of men take it on credit, in order to avoid compromising
themselves, whereas the number of genuine appreciators remains nearly
as small as it was at first. These few nevertheless suffice to make
the truth respected, for they are themselves respected. And thus it is
passed from hand to hand through centuries over the heads of the inept
multitude: so hard is the existence of mankind's best inheritance!--On
the other hand, if truth had to crave permission to be true from such
as have quite different aims at heart, its cause might indeed be given
up for lost; for then it might often be dismissed with the witches'
watch-word: "fair is foul, and foul is fair." Luckily however this is
not the case. Truth depends upon no one's favour or disfavour, nor does
it ask anyone's leave: it stands upon its own feet, and has Time for
its ally; its power is irresistible, its life indestructible.
[189] Kant, "Von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte," § 51.
[190] Baltazar Gracian, "_El Criticon_," iii. 90, to whom I leave
the responsibility for the anachronism.
[191] Kant, "Krit. d. r. V." 5th edition, p. 755. (English
translation by M. Müller, p. 640.)
[192] Schiller, "der langen Rede kurzer Sinn." [Tr.]
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY.
In classifying the above-mentioned empirical corroborations of my
doctrine according to the sciences from which they come, while I
take the graduated order of Nature from the highest to the lowest
degree as a guiding-thread to my expositions, I must first mention a
very striking confirmation lately received by my chief dogma in the
physiological and pathological views of Dr. J. D. Brandis, private
physician to the King of Denmark, a veteran in science, whose "Essay on
Vital Force" (1795) had received Reil's hearty commendation. In his two
latest writings: "Experiences in the Application of Cold in Disease"
(Berlin, 1833), and "Nosology and Therapeutics of Cachexiæ" (1834), we
find him in the most emphatic and striking manner stating the primary
source of all vital functions to be an _unconscious will_, from which
he derives all processes in the machinery of the organism, in health
as well as in disease, and which he represents as the _primum mobile_
of life. I must support this by literal quotations from these essays,
since few save medical readers are likely to have them at hand.
In the first of them, p. viii., we find: "The essence of every living
organism consists in the will to maintain its own existence as much
as possible over against the macrocosm;"--p. x.: "Only _one_ living
entity, _one_ will can be in an organ at the same time; therefore
if there is a diseased _will_ in disagreement with the rest of the
body in the organ of the skin, we may hold it in check by applying
cold as long as the generation of warmth, a normal _will_, can be
induced by it." P. 1: "If we are forced to the conviction that there
must be a _determining principle_--a _will_, in every vital action,
by which the development suited to the whole organism is occasioned,
and each metamorphosis of the parts conditioned, in harmony with the
whole individuality, and likewise that there is a something capable
of being determined and developed," &c. &c.--P. 11: "With respect to
individual life, the element which determines, the organic _will_,
if it is to rest satisfied, must be able to attain what it wants
from that which has to be determined. This occurs even when the
vital movements are over-excited, as in inflammation: something new
is formed, the noxious element is expelled; new plastic materials
are meanwhile conveyed through the arteries, more venous blood is
carried off, until the process of inflammation is finished and the
organic _will_ satisfied. It is however possible to excite this
_will_ to such a degree, as to make satisfaction impossible. This
exciting cause (or stimulus) either acts directly upon the particular
organ (poison, contagion) or it affects the whole life; and this
life then begins to make the most strenuous efforts to rid itself
of the noxious element or to modify the disposition of the organic
_will_, and provokes critical vital activity in particular parts
(inflammations) or yields to the unappeased _will_."--P. 12: "The
insatiable _will_ acts destructively upon the organism unless either
(_a_) the whole life, in its efforts to attain unity (tendency to
adapt means to end), produces other activities requiring satisfaction
(_crises et lyses_) which hold that _will_ in check--called decisive
(_crises completæ_) when quite successful; _crises incompletæ_, when
only partially so--or (_b_) some other stimulus (medicine) produces
another _will_ which represses the diseased one. If we place this in
one and the same category with the _will_ of which we have become
conscious through our own representations, and bear in mind that
here there can be no question of more or less distant resemblance, we
gain the conviction that we have grasped the fundamental conception
of the _one_ unlimited, therefore indivisible, life which, according
to its different manifestations in various more or less endowed and
exercised organs, is just as able to make hair grow on the human body
as to combine the most sublime representations. We see that the most
violent passion--unsatisfied _will_--may be checked by more or less
strong excitement," &c. &c.--P. 18: "The determining element--_this
organic will without representation_, this tendency to preserve the
organism as a unity--is induced by outward temperature to modify its
activity now in the same, now in a remoter organ. Every manifestation
of life, however, whether in health or in disease, is a manifestation
of the _organic will: this will determines vegetation:_ in a healthy
condition, in harmony with the unity of the whole; in an unhealthy one
... it is induced _not to will_ in harmony with that unity" ...--P. 23:
"Cold suddenly applied to the skin suppresses its function (chill);
cold drinks check the _organic will_ in the digestive organs and
thereby intensify that of the skin and produce perspiration; just so
with the diseased _organic will_: cold checks cutaneous eruptions," &c.
&c.--P. 33: "Fever is the complete participation of the whole vital
process in a diseased _will_, _i.e._ it is to the entire vital process
what inflammation is to particular organs--the effort of our vitality
to form something definite, in order to content the diseased _will_
and remove the noxious element.--We call this process of formation
_crisis_ or _lysis_ (turning-point or release). The first perception of
the pernicious element which causes the diseased _will_, affects the
individuality just in the same way as a noxious element apprehended by
our senses, before we have brought to clear representation the entire
relation in which it stands to our individuality and the means of
removing it. It creates terror and its consequences, a standstill of
the vital process in the _parenchyma_, especially in the parts directed
towards the outer world; in the skin, and in all the motor muscles
belonging to the entire individuality (outer body): shuddering, chills,
trembling, pains in the limbs, &c. &c. The difference between them
is, that in the latter case the noxious element, either at once or
gradually, becomes clear representation, because it is compared with
the individuality by means of all the senses, so that its relation
to that individuality can be determined, and the means of protection
against it (disregard, flight, warding off, defence, &c.) be brought to
a _conscious will_; whereas, in the former case, we remain unconscious
of that noxious element, and it is life alone (or Nature's curative
power) which is striving to remove the noxious element and thereby
to content the diseased _will_. Nor must this be taken for a simile;
it is, on the contrary, a true description of the manifestation of
life."--P. 58: "We must however always bear in mind, that cold acts
here as a powerful stimulus to check or moderate the diseased _will_
and to rouse in its place a natural _will_, accompanied by general
warmth."--
In almost every page of this book similar expressions are to be found.
In the second of the Essays I have named, Brandis no longer combines
the explanation by the will so universally with each separate analysis,
probably in consideration that this explanation is properly speaking, a
metaphysical one. Nevertheless he maintains it entirely and completely,
giving it even all the more distinct and decided expression, wherever
he states it. Thus, for instance, in § 68 _et seq._ he speaks of an
"_unconscious will_, which cannot be separated from the conscious
one," and is the _primum mobile_ of all life, as well in plants as
in animals; for, in these, it is a desire and aversion manifesting
itself in all the organs which determines all their vital processes,
secretions, &c. &c.--§. 71: "All convulsions prove that the
manifestation of the will can take place without distinct power of
representation."--§. 72: "Everywhere do we meet with a spontaneous,
uncommunicated activity, now determined by the sublimest human free
will, now by animal desire and aversion, now again by simple, more
vegetative requirements; which activity, in order to maintain itself,
calls forth several other kinds of activity in the unity of the
individual."--P. 96: "A creative, spontaneous, uncommunicated activity
shows itself in every vital manifestation." ...--"The third factor in
this individual creation is the _will, the individual's life itself_."
...--"The nerves are the conductors of this individual creation:
by their means form and mixture are varied according to desire and
aversion."--P. 97: "Assimilation of foreign substance ... makes the
blood.... It is not an absorption or an exudation of organic matter;
... on the contrary, here the sole factor of the phenomenon is in all
cases _the creative will_, a life which cannot be brought back to any
sort of imparted movement."--
* * * * *
When I wrote this (1835) I was still _naïf_ enough seriously to believe
that Brandis was unacquainted with my work, or I should not allude
here to his writings; for they would then be merely a repetition,
application and carrying out of my own doctrine on this point, not a
corroboration of it. But I thought I might safely assume that he did
not know me, because he has not mentioned me anywhere and because if
he had known me, literary honesty would have made it his imperative
duty not to remain silent concerning the man from whom he had borrowed
his chief fundamental thought, the more so as he saw that man then
enduring unmerited neglect, by his writings being generally ignored--a
circumstance which might be construed as favourable to fraud. Add
to this, that it lay in Brandis' own interest as a writer, and would
therefore have shown sagacity on his part, to have appealed to me as
an authority. For the fundamental doctrine propounded by him is so
striking and paradoxical, that even his Göttingen reviewer is amazed
and hardly knows what to think of it; yet such a doctrine as this was
left without foundation either through proof or induction, nor did
Dr. Brandis establish its relation to the whole of our knowledge of
Nature: he simply asserted it. I imagined therefore that it was by the
peculiar gift of divination, which enables eminent physicians to see
and do the right thing in cases of illness, that he had been led to
this view, without being able to give a strict and methodical account
of the grounds of this really metaphysical truth, although he must have
seen how greatly it is opposed to the generally received views. Had he,
thought I, been acquainted with my philosophy, which gives far greater
extension to this truth, makes it valid for the whole of Nature and
founds it both by proof and induction in close connection with Kant's
teaching, from which it proceeds as a final result of excogitation--how
gladly must he have availed himself of such confirmation and support,
rather than to stand alone by an unheard-of assertion which was never
further carried out and, with him, never went beyond bare assertion.
Such were the reasons that led me to believe myself entitled to take
for granted Dr. Brandis' ignorance of my book.
Since then however I have become better acquainted with German
scientists and Copenhagen Academicians, to which body Dr. Brandis
belonged, and have gained the conviction that he knew me very well
indeed. I stated my reasons for arriving at this conviction already
in 1844 in the 2nd vol. of "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung,"[193]
so that, as the subject is by no means edifying, it is needless to
repeat them here; I will merely add that I have since been assured on
trustworthy authority that Dr. Brandis not only knew my work but even
possessed it, as it was found among his property after his death.--The
unmerited obscurity to which writers like myself are long condemned,
encourages such people to appropriate their thoughts without so much as
naming them.
[193] Chapter 20, p. 263; p. 295 of the 3rd edition.
Another medical authority has carried this even farther; for, not
content with the thought alone, he has appropriated to himself the
expression of it also. I allude to Professor Anton Rosas of the
University of Vienna, whose entire § 507 in the 1st vol. of his
Textbook of Ophthalmology[194] (1830) is copied word for word from
pp. 14-16 of my treatise "On Vision and Colours" (1816) without any
mention whatever of me, or even the slightest hint that he is using the
words of another. This sufficiently accounts for the care he has taken
not to mention my treatise among the lists of twenty-one writings on
Colours and forty on the Physiology of the Eye, which he gives in §§
542 and 567; a caution which was however all the more advisable, as
he had appropriated to himself a good deal more out of that pamphlet
without mentioning me. All that is referred, for instance, in § 526
to 'them' (_man_), is only applicable to me. His entire § 527 is
copied almost literally from my pp. 59 and 60. The theory which he
introduces without further ceremony in § 535 by the word "evidently":
that is, that yellow is 3/4 and violet 1/4 of the eye's activity,
never was 'evident' to anyone until I made it so; even to this day it
is a truth known to few and acknowledged by fewer still, and much is
yet wanting--for example, that I should be dead and buried--ere it be
possible to call it 'evident' without further ceremony. The matter
will even have to wait till after my death to be seriously sifted,
since a close investigation might easily bring to 'evidence' the real
difference between Newton's theory of colours and my own, which is
simply that his is false, and mine true: a discovery which could not
fail to mortify my contemporaries. Wherefore, according to ancient
custom, all serious examination into the question is wisely postponed
for these few years. Professor Rosas knew no such policy as this and,
as the matter was not alluded to anywhere, thought himself entitled,
like the Danish Academician, to claim it as lawful prey (_de bonne
prise_). Evidently North and South German honesty had not yet come to
a satisfactory understanding.--Moreover the whole contents of §§ 538,
539 and 540 in Professor Rosas' book are taken from my pamphlet, nay
even in great part copied word for word from my § 13. Still once, where
he stands in need of a voucher for a fact, he finds himself obliged to
refer to my treatise: that is, in his § 531; and it is most amusing to
see the way in which he even brings in the numerical fractions used by
me, as a result of my theory, to express all colours. It had probably
occurred to him, that appropriating them quite _sans façon_ might be
a delicate matter, so he says, p. 308: "_If we wished_ to express in
numbers the first-mentioned relation in which colours stand to white,
assuming white to be = 1, the following scale of proportion might _by
the way_ be adopted (as has already been done by Schopenhauer):
yellow = 3/4
orange = 2/3
red = 1/2
green = 1/2
blue = 1/3
violet = 1/4
black = 0"
[194] Rosas, "Handbuch der Augenheilkunde" (1830).
Now I should like to know how anyone could do this _by the way_,
without having first thought out my whole colour-theory, to which
alone these numbers refer, and apart from which they are mere abstract
numbers without meaning; above all, how anyone could do it who, like
Professor Rosas, professes to be a follower of Newton's colour-theory,
with which these numbers are in direct contradiction? Finally, I should
like to know how it came, that during the thousands of years in which
men have thought and written, no one but myself and Professor Rosas
should ever have thought of using just these particular fractions
to denote colours? For the words I have quoted above tell us, that
he would have stated those fractions precisely as he has done, even
had I not chanced to do it 'already' fourteen years before and thus
needlessly anticipated his statement; they also tell us, that all that
is required is '_to wish_,' in order to do so. Now it is precisely in
these numerical fractions that the secret of colours lies: by them
alone can we rightly solve the mystery of their nature and of their
difference from one another.--I should however be heartily glad, were
plagiarism the worst kind of dishonesty that defiled German literature;
there are others far more mischievous, which penetrate more deeply,
and to which plagiarism bears the same proportion as picking pockets
in a mild way to capital crime. I allude to that mean, despicable
spirit, whose loadstar is personal interest, when it ought to be truth,
and in which the voice of intention makes itself heard beneath the
mask of insight. Double-dealing and time-serving are the order of the
day. Tartuffe comedies are performed without _rouge_; nay, Capuchin
sermons are preached in halls consecrated to Science; enlightenment,
that once revered word, has become a term of opprobrium; the greatest
thinkers of the past century, Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, are
slandered--those heroes, ornaments and benefactors of mankind, whose
fame, diffused throughout both hemispheres, can only be increased, if
by anything, by the fact that wherever and whenever obscurantists show
themselves, it is as their bitterest enemies--and with good reason.
Literary _coteries_ and associations are formed to deal out praise
and blame, and spurious merit is then trumpeted forth and extolled,
while sterling merit is slandered or, as Göthe says, "_secreted, by
means of an inviolable silence, in which sort of inquisitorial censure
the Germans have attained great proficiency_."[195] The motives and
considerations however from which all this proceeds, are of too low
a nature for me to care to enumerate them in detail. But what a
difference there is between periodicals such as the "Edinburgh Review,"
in which gentlemen of independent means are induced to write by a
genuine interest in the subjects treated, and which honourably upholds
its noble motto taken from Publius Syrus: _Judex damnnatur cum nocens
absolvitur_, and our mean-spirited, disingenuous, German literary
journals, full of considerations and intentions, that are mostly
compiled for the sake of pay by hired editors, and ought properly to
have for their motto: _Accedas socius laudes, lauderis, ut absens_.[196]
Now, after twenty years, do I understand what Göthe said to me at Berka
in 1814. As I found him reading Madame de Staël's "_De l'Allemagne_," I
remarked in course of conversation that she had given too exaggerated a
description of German honesty and one that might mislead foreigners. He
laughed and said: "Yes, to be sure, they will not secure their baggage
behind and will have it cut off." He then added in a graver tone: "But
one has to know German literature in order to realise the full extent
of German dishonesty."--All well and good! But the most revolting
kind of dishonesty in German literature is that of the time-servers,
who pass themselves off for philosophers, while in reality they are
obscurantists. The word 'time-serving' no more needs explanation than
the thing needs a proof; for anyone who had the face to deny it would
furnish strong evidence in support of my present argument. Kant
taught, that man ought to use his fellow-man only as an end, never as
a means: he did not think it necessary to say, that philosophy ought
only to be dealt with as an end, never as a means. Time-serving may
after all be excused under every garb, the cowl as well as the ermine,
save only the philosopher's cloak (_Tribonion_); for he who has once
assumed this, has sworn allegiance to truth, and from that moment every
other consideration, no matter of what kind, becomes base treachery.
Therefore it was that Socrates did not shun the hemlock, nor Bruno
the stake, while 'for a piece of bread these men will transgress.'
Are they too short-sighted to see posterity close at hand, with the
history of philosophy at its side, recording two lines of bitter
condemnation with unflinching hand and iron pen in its immortal pages?
Or has this no sting for them?--Well to be sure, if it comes to the
worst, '_après moi le déluge_' may be pronounced; but as to '_après
moi le mépris_,' that is a more difficult matter. Therefore I fancy
they will answer that austere judge as follows: "Ah, dear posterity and
history of philosophy! you are quite wrong to take us in earnest; we
are not philosophers at all, Heaven forbid! No, we are only professors
of philosophy, mere servants of the state, mere philosophers in jest.
You might as well drag puppet-knights in pasteboard armour into a real
tournament." Then the judge will most likely see how matters stand,
erase all their names, and confer upon them the _beneficium perpetui
silentii_.
[195] Göthe, "Tag und Jahreshefte," 1812.
[196] This I wrote in 1836. The "Edinburgh Review" has since
however greatly deteriorated, and is no longer its old self. I have
even seen clerical time-serving in its pages, written down to the
level of the mob.
From this digression--to which I had been led away eighteen years ago,
by the cant and time-serving I then witnessed, though they were not
nearly as flourishing then as they are now--I return to that part of my
doctrine which Dr. Brandis has confirmed, though he did not originate
it, in order to add a few explanations with which I shall then connect
some further corroborations it has since received from Physiology.
The three assumptions which are criticised by Kant in his
Transcendental Dialectic under the names of Ideas of Reason, and have
in consequence since been set aside in theoretical philosophy, had
always stood in the way of a deeper insight into Nature, until that
great thinker brought about a complete transformation in philosophy.
That supposed Idea of Reason, the soul: that metaphysical being,
in it whose absolute singleness knowing and willing were knit and
blended together to eternal, inseparable unity, was an impediment
of this sort for the subject-matter of this chapter. As long as it
lasted, no philosophical Physiology was possible: the less so, as
its correlate, real, purely passive Matter, had necessarily also
to be assumed together with it, as the substance of the body.[197]
It was this Idea of Reason, the soul, therefore, that caused the
celebrated chemist and physiologist, George Ernest Stahl, at the
beginning of the last century to miss the discovery of the truth he
so nearly approached and would have quite reached, had he been able
to put that which is alone metaphysical, the bare _will_--as yet
without intellect--in the place of the _anima rationalis_. Under the
influence of this Idea of Reason however, he could not teach anything
but that it is this simple, rational soul which builds itself a body,
all whose inner organic functions it directs and performs, yet has
no knowledge or consciousness of all this, although knowledge is the
fundamental destination and, as it were, the substance, of its being.
There was something absurd in this doctrine which made it utterly
untenable. It was superseded by Haller's Irritability and Sensibility,
which, to be sure, are taken in a purely empirical sense, but, to
make up for this, are also two _qualitates occultæ_, at which all
explanation ceases. The movement of the heart and of the intestines
was now attributed to Irritability. But the _anima rationalis_ still
remained in undiminished honour and dignity as a visitor at the
house of the body.[198]--"Truth lies at the bottom of a well," said
Democritus; and the centuries with a sigh, have repeated his words. But
small wonder, if it gets a rap on the knuckles as soon as it tries to
come out!
[197] As a being existing by itself, a thing in itself. [Add. to
3rd ed.]
[198] In which it is lodged in the garret. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
The fundamental truth of my doctrine, which places that doctrine in
opposition with all others that have ever existed, is the complete
separation between the will and the intellect, which all philosophers
before me had looked upon as inseparable; or rather, I ought to say
that they had regarded the will as conditioned by, nay, mostly even
as a mere function of, the intellect, assumed by them to be the
fundamental substance of our spiritual being. But this separation, this
analysis into two heterogeneous elements, of the _ego_ or _soul_, which
had so long been deemed an indivisible unity, is, for philosophy, what
the analysis of water has been for chemistry, though it may take time
to be acknowledged. With me, that which is eternal and indestructible
in man, therefore, that which constitutes his vital principle, is not
_the soul_, but--if I may use a chemical term--its radical: and this is
_the will_. The so-called soul is already a compound: it is the union
of the will and the intellect (νούς). This intellect is the secondary
element, the _posterius_ of the organism and, as a mere cerebral
function, is conditioned by the organism; whereas the will is what is
primary, the _prius_ of the organism, which is conditioned by it. For
the will is that thing in itself, which only becomes apparent as an
organic body in our representation (that mere function of the brain):
it is only through the forms of knowledge (or cerebral function), that
is, only in our representation--not apart from that representation,
not immediately in our self-consciousness--that our body is given to
each of us as a thing which has extension, limbs and organs. As the
actions of our body are only acts of volition portraying themselves
in representation, so likewise is their substratum, the shape of that
body, in the main the portrait of the will: so that, in all the organic
functions of our body, the will is just as much the _agent_ as in its
external actions. True Physiology, at its highest, shows the spiritual
(the intellectual) in man to be the product of the physical in him,
and no one has done this so thoroughly as Cabanis; but true Metaphysic
teaches us, that the physical in man is itself mere product, or rather
phenomenon, of a spiritual (the will); nay, that Matter itself is
conditioned by representation, in which alone it exists. Perception
and reflection will more and more find their explanation through
the organism; but not the will, by which conversely the organism is
explained, as I shall show in the following chapter. First of all
therefore I place _the will, as thing in itself_ and quite primary;
secondly, its mere visibility, its objectification: _i.e._ the _body_;
thirdly, the _intellect_, as a mere function of one part of that body.
This part is itself the objectified will to know (the will to know
having entered into representation), since the will needs knowledge to
attain its own ends. Now the entire world as representation, together
with the body itself therefore, inasmuch as it is a perceptible object,
nay, Matter in general as existing only in representation,--all this,
I say, is again conditioned by that function; for, duly considered,
we cannot possibly conceive an objective world without a Subject, in
whose consciousness it is present. Thus knowledge and matter (Subject
and Object) exist only relatively one for the other and constitute
_phenomenon_. The whole thing therefore, owing to the radical change
made by me, stands in a different light from that in which it has
hitherto been regarded.
As soon as it is directed outwardly and acts upon a recognised object,
as soon therefore as it has passed through the medium of knowledge,
we all recognise the _will_ at once to be the active principle, and
call it by its right name. Yet it is no less active in those inner
processes which have preceded such outward actions as their conditions:
in those, for instance, which create and maintain organic life and its
substratum; and the circulation of the blood, secretion, digestion,
&c. &c., are its work likewise. But just because the will was only
recognised as the active principle in those cases in which it abandons
the individual whence it proceeds, in order to direct itself towards
the outer world--now presenting itself precisely for this end, as
perception--knowledge has been taken for its essential condition, its
sole element, nay, as the substance of which it consists: and hereby
was perpetrated the greatest ὕστερον πρότερον that has ever been.
But before all things we must learn to distinguish will [_Wille_]
(_voluntas_) from free-will [_Willkühr_] (_arbitrium_)[199] and to
understand that the former can subsist without the latter; this however
presupposes my whole philosophy. The will is called free-will when it
is illumined by knowledge, therefore when the causes which move it are
motives: that is, representations. Objectively speaking this means:
when the influence from outside which causes the act, has a _brain_ for
its mediator. A motive may be defined as an external stimulus, whose
action first of all causes an _image_ to arise in the _brain_, through
the medium of which the will carries out the effect proper--an outward
action of the body. Now, in the human species however, the place of
such an image as this may be taken by a conception drawn from former
images of this kind by dropping their differences, which conception
consequently is no longer perceptible, but merely denoted and fixed
by words. As the action of motives accordingly does not depend upon
contact, they can try their power on the will against each other: in
other words, they permit a certain choice which, in animals, is limited
to the narrow sphere of that which has _perceptible_ existence for
them; whereas, in man, its range comprises the vast extent of all that
is _thinkable_: that is, of his conceptions. Accordingly we designate
as _voluntary_ those movements which are occasioned, not by _causes_
in the narrowest sense of the word, as in inorganic bodies, nor even
by _mere stimuli_, as in plants, but by _motives_.[200] These motives
however presuppose an _intellect_ as _their mediator_, through which
causality here acts, without prejudice to its entire necessity in all
other respects. Physiologically, the difference between stimulus and
motive admits also of the following definition. The stimulus provokes
_immediate_ reaction, which proceeds from the very part on which the
stimulus has acted; whereas the motive is a stimulus that has to go
a roundabout way through the brain, where its action first causes an
image to arise, which then, but not till then, provokes the consequent
reaction, which is now called an act of volition, and _voluntary_.
The distinction between voluntary and involuntary movement does not
therefore concern what is essential and primary--for this is in
both cases the will--but only what is secondary, the rousing of the
will's manifestation: it has to do with the determination whether
_causes_ proper, _stimuli_ or _motives_ (_i.e._ causes having passed
through the medium of knowledge) are the guidance under which that
manifestation takes place. It is in human consciousness,--differing
from that of animals by not only containing perceptible representations
but also abstract conceptions independent of time-distinctions, which
act simultaneously and collaterally, whereby deliberation, _i.e._ a
conflict of motives, becomes possible--it is in human consciousness,
I say, that free-will (_arbitrium_) in its narrowest sense first
makes its appearance; and this I have called elective decision. It
nevertheless merely consists in the _strongest_ motive for a given
individual character overcoming the others and thus determining the
act, just as an impact is overcome by a stronger counter-impact, the
result thus ensuing with precisely the same necessity as the movement
of a stone that has been struck. That all great thinkers in all ages
were decided and at one on this point, is just as certain, as that the
multitude will never understand, never grasp, the important truth,
that the work of our freedom must not be sought in our individual
actions but in our very existence and nature itself. In my prize-essay
on Freedom of the Will, I have shown this as clearly as possible.
The _liberum arbitrium indifferentiæ_ which is assumed to be the
distinctive characteristic of movements proceeding from _the will_,
is accordingly quite inadmissible: for it asserts that effects are
possible without causes.
[199] By this Schopenhauer means the distinction between _the will_
in its widest sense, regarded as the fundamental essence of all
that happens,--even where there is no choice, even where it is
_unconscious_,--and _conscious will_, implying deliberation and
choice, commonly called _free-will_. We must however carefully
guard against confounding this _relative_ free-will, with
_absolute_ free-will (_liberum arbitrium indifferentiæ_), which
Schopenhauer declares to be inadmissible. The sense in which I have
used the expression '_free-will_' throughout this treatise, is that
of _relative_ freedom, _i.e._ power to choose between different
motives, free of all outward restraint (_Willkühr_). (Tr.)
[200] I have shown the difference between _cause_ in its narrowest
sense, _stimulus_, and _motive_, at length in my "Grund-probleme
der Ethik" p. 29 _et seq._
As soon therefore as we have got so far as to distinguish _will_
[_Wille_] from _free-will_ [_Willkühr_], and to consider the latter as
a particular kind or particular phenomenon of the former, we shall find
no difficulty in recognising the will, even in unconscious processes.
Thus the assertion, that all bodily movements, even those which are
purely vegetative and organic, proceed from _the will_, by no means
implies that they are voluntary. For that would mean that they were
occasioned by motives; but motives are representations, and their seat
is the brain: only those parts of our body which communicate with the
brain by means of the nerves, can be put in movement by the brain,
consequently by motives, and this movement alone is what is called
voluntary. The movement of the inner economy of the organism, on the
contrary, is directed, as in plant-life, by _stimuli_; only as, on the
one hand, the complex nature of the animal organism necessitated an
outer sensorium for the apprehension of the outer world and the will's
reaction on that outer world, so, on the other hand, did it necessitate
a _cerebrum abdominale_, the sympathetic nervous system, in order to
direct the will's reaction upon inner stimuli likewise. We may compare
the former to a Home Ministry, the latter to a Foreign Office; but the
will remains the omnipresent Autocrat.
The progress made in Physiology since Haller has placed beyond
doubt, that not only those actions which are consciously performed
(_functiones animales_), but even vital processes that take place
quite unconsciously (_functiones vitales et naturales_), are
directed throughout by the _nervous system_. Likewise that their
only difference, as far as our consciousness of them is concerned,
consists in the former being directed by nerves proceeding from the
brain, the latter by nerves that do not directly communicate with
that chief centre of the nervous system--mainly directed towards the
outside--but with subordinate, minor centres, with the nerve-knots, the
ganglia and their net-work, which preside as it were like vice-gerents
over the various departments of the nervous system, directing those
internal processes that follow upon internal stimuli, just as the
brain directs the external actions that follow upon external motives,
and thus receiving impressions from inside upon which they react
correspondingly, just as the brain receives representations on the
strength of which it forms resolutions; only each of these minor
centres is confined to a narrower sphere of action. Upon this rests
the _vita propria_ of each system, in referring to which Van Helmont
said that each organ has, as it were, its own _ego_. It accounts also
for life continuing in parts which have been cut off the bodies of
insects, reptiles, and other inferior animals, whose brain has no
marked preponderance over the ganglia of single parts; and it likewise
explains how many reptiles are able to live for weeks, nay even months,
after their brain has been removed. Now, if our surest experience
teaches us that _the will_, which is known to us in most immediate
consciousness and in a totally different way from the outer world,
is the real agent in actions attended by consciousness and directed
by the chief centre of the nervous system; how can we help admitting
that those other actions which, proceeding from that nervous system
but obeying the direction of its subordinate centres, keep the vital
processes constantly going, must also be manifestations of _the will_?
Especially as we know perfectly well the cause because of which they
are not, like the others, attended by consciousness: we know, that is
to say, that all consciousness resides in the brain and therefore is
limited to such parts as have nerves which communicate directly with
the brain; and we know also that, even in these, consciousness ceases
when those nerves are severed. By this the difference between all
that is conscious and unconscious and together with it the difference
between all that is voluntary and involuntary in the movements of
the body is perfectly explained, and no reason remains for assuming
two entirely different primary sources of movement: especially as
_principia præter necessitatem non sunt multiplicanda_. All this is
so obvious, that, on impartial reflection from this standpoint, it
seems almost absurd to persist in making the body serve two masters
by deriving its actions from two radically different origins and then
ascribing on the one hand the movements of our arms and legs, of our
eyes, lips, throat, tongue and lungs, of the facial and abdominal
muscles, to the will; while on the other hand the action of the
heart, the movements of the veins, the peristaltic movements of the
intestines, the absorption by the intestinal villi and glands and all
those movements which accompany secretion, are supposed to proceed from
a totally different, ever mysterious principle of which we have no
knowledge, and which is designated by names such as vitality, archeus,
_spiritus animales_, vital energy, instinct, all of which mean no more
than _x_.[201]
[201] It is especially in secretive processes that we cannot avoid
recognising a certain selection of the materials fitted for each
purpose, consequently a _free will_ in the secretive organs, which
must even be assisted by a certain dull sensation, and in virtue of
which each secreting organ only extracts from the same blood that
particular secretion which suits it and no others: for instance,
the liver only absorbs bile from the blood flowing through it,
sending the rest of the blood on, and likewise the salivary glands
and the pancreas only secrete saliva, the kidneys only urine, &c.
&c. We may therefore compare the organs of secretion to different
kinds of cattle grazing on one and the same pasture-land, each of
which only browses upon the one sort of herb which suits its own
particular appetite. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
It is curious and instructive to see the trouble that excellent writer,
Treviranus[202] takes, to find out in the lower animals, such as
_infusoria_ and _zoophyta_, which movements are voluntary, and which
are what he calls automatic or physical, _i.e._ merely vital. He founds
his inquiry upon the assumption that he has to do with two primarily
different sources of movement; whereas in truth they all proceed from
the will, and the whole difference consists in their being occasioned
by stimuli or by motives, _i.e._ in their having a brain for their
medium or not; and the stimulus may again be merely interior or
exterior. In several animals of a higher order--crustaceans and even
fishes--he finds that the voluntary and vital movements, for instance
locomotion and respiration, entirely coincide: a clear proof that their
origin and essence are identical. He says p. 188: "In the family of the
_actinia_, star-fishes, sea-urchins, and _holothuriæ_ (_echinodermata
pedata Cuv._), it is evident that the movement of the fluids depends
upon the will of the animals and that it is a means of locomotion."
Then again p. 288: "The gullet of mammals has at its upper end the
pharynx, which expands and contracts by means of muscles resembling
voluntary muscles in their formation, yet which do not obey the will."
Here we see how the limits of the movements proceeding from the will
and of those assumed to be foreign to it, merge into one another.
_Ibid._, p. 293: "Thus movements having all the appearance of being
voluntary, take place in the stomachs of ruminants. They do not however
always stand in connection with the ruminating process only. Even the
simpler human stomach and that of many animals only allows free passage
to what is digestible through its lower orifice, and rejects what is
indigestible by vomiting."
[202] Treviranus, "Die Erscheinungen und Gesetze des Organischen
Lebens," vol. i. pp. 178-185.
There is moreover special evidence that the movements induced by
stimuli (involuntary movements) proceed from the will just as well as
those occasioned by motives (voluntary movements): for instance, when
the same movement follows now upon a stimulus, now again upon a motive,
as is the case when the pupil of the eye is contracted. This movement,
when caused by increased light, follows upon a stimulus; whereas, when
occasioned by the wish to examine a very small object minutely in
close proximity, it follows upon a motive; because contracting the
pupil enables us to see things distinctly even when quite near to us,
and this distinctness may be increased by our looking through a hole
pierced in a card with a pin; conversely, the pupil is dilated when we
look at distant objects. Surely the same movement of the same organ
is not likely to proceed alternately from two fundamentally different
sources.--E. H. Weber[203] relates that he discovered in himself the
power of dilating and contracting at will the pupil of one of his eyes,
while looking at the same object, so as to make that object appear now
distinct, now indistinct, while the other eye remained closed.--Joh.
Müller[204] also tries to prove that the will acts upon the pupil.
[203] E. H. Weber, "Additamenta ad E. H. Weberi tractatum de motu
iridis." Lipsia, 1823.
[204] Joh. Müller, "Handbuch der Physiologie," p. 764.
The truth that the innermost mainspring of unconsciously performed
vital and vegetative functions is the will, we find moreover confirmed
by the consideration, that even the movement of a limb recognised as
voluntary, is only the ultimate result of a multitude of preceding
changes which have taken place inside that limb and which no more
enter into our consciousness than those organic functions. Yet these
changes are evidently that which was first set in motion by the will,
the movement of the limb being merely their remote consequence;
nevertheless this remains so foreign to our consciousness that
physiologists try to reach it by means of such hypotheses as these:
that the sinews and muscular fibre are contracted by a change in the
cellular tissue wrought by a precipitation of the blood-vapour in
that tissue to serum; but that this change is brought about by the
nerve's action, and this--by _the will_. Thus, even here, it is not
the change which proceeded originally from the will which comes into
consciousness, but only its remote result; and even this, properly
speaking, only through the special perception of the brain in which it
presents itself together with the whole organism. Now by following the
path of experimental research and hypotheses physiologists would never
have arrived at the truth, that the last link in this ascending causal
series is _the will_; it is known to them, on the contrary, in quite a
different way. The solution of the enigma comes to them in a whisper
from outside the investigation, owing to the fortunate circumstance
that the investigator is in this case at the same time himself the
object of the investigation and by this learns the secret of the inward
process, his explanation of which would otherwise, like that of every
other phenomenon, be brought to a standstill by an inscrutable force.
And conversely, if we stood in the same inward relation towards every
natural phenomenon as towards our own organism, the explanation of
every natural phenomenon, as well as of all the properties of every
body, would likewise ultimately be reduced to a will manifesting itself
in them. For the difference does not reside in the thing itself, but
in our relation to the thing. Wherever explanation of the physical
comes to an end, it is met by the metaphysical; and wherever this
last is accessible to immediate knowledge, the result will be, as
here, the will. That even those parts of the body whose movements do
not proceed from the brain, do not follow upon motives, and are not
voluntary, are nevertheless ruled and animated by the will, is also
shown by their participation in all unusually violent movements of
the will, _i.e._ emotions and passions. We see, for instance, the
quickened pulse in joy or alarm, the blush in embarrassment, the
cheek's pallor in terror or in suppressed anger, the tears of sorrow,
the difficult breathing and increased activity of the intestines
in terror, watering of the mouth at the sight of dainties, nausea
occasioned by that of loathsome objects, strongly accelerated
circulation of the blood and even altered quality of bile through
wrath, and of saliva through violent rage: this last even to the
degree, that an excessively irritated dog may communicate hydrophobia
by its bite without being itself affected with rabies, or even then
contracting the disease--and the same is also asserted of cats and of
cocks. The organism is further deeply undermined by lasting grief,
and may be mortally affected by fright as well as by sudden joy. On
the other hand, all those inner processes and changes which only have
to do with the intellect and do not concern the will, however great
may be their importance, remain without influence upon the machinery
of the organism, with the one exception, that mental activity,
prolonged to excess, fatigues and gradually exhausts the brain and
finally undermines the organism. This again confirms the fact that the
intellect is of a secondary character, and merely the organic function
of a single part, a product of life; not the innermost kernel of our
being, not the thing in itself, not metaphysical, incorporeal, eternal,
like the will: the will never tires, never grows old, never learns,
never improves by practice, is in infancy what it is in old age,
eternally one and the same, and its character in each individual is
unchangeable. Being essential moreover, it is likewise immutable, and
therefore exists in animals as it does in us; for it does not, like
the intellect, depend upon the perfection of the organization, but
is in every essential respect in all animals the same thing which we
know so intimately. Accordingly animals have all the feelings which
belong to man: joy, grief, fear, anger, love, hate, desire, envy, &c.
&c. The great difference between man and the brute creation consists
exclusively in the degrees of perfection of the intellect. This however
is leading us too far from our subject, so I refer my readers to my
chief work, vol. ii. chap. 19, _sub._ 2.
After the cogent reasons just given in favour of the primary _agens_
in the inward machinery of the organism being the very same will
which rules the outward actions of the body and only reveals itself
as the will in this passage through consciousness because here it
needs the mediation of outwardly directed knowledge, we shall not be
astonished to find that other physiologists besides Brandis had, by
means of strictly empirical research, also recognised this truth more
or less clearly. Meckel,[205] in his "Archiv für die Physiologie,"
arrives quite empirically and impartially at the conclusion, that
vegetative existence [in animals], the first growth of the embryo,
the assimilation of nourishment and plant-life, ought properly to
be considered as manifestations of the will, nay, that even the
inclination of the magnetic needle seems to be something of the same
kind. "The assumption," he says, "of a certain free will in every
vital movement may perhaps be justified." "Plants appear to seek
light voluntarily," &c. &c. This book is dated 1819 just after the
appearance of my work; and as, to say the least, it is doubtful whether
it had any influence upon him or whether he was even aware of its
existence, I class these utterances among the independent empirical
confirmations of my doctrine. Burdach also,[206] in his great work on
Physiology, arrives by a completely empirical road at the conclusion,
that "self-love is a force belonging to all things indiscriminately."
He points it out, first in animals, then in plants, and lastly in
inanimate bodies. But what is self-love after all, if not the will
to preserve our existence, the will to live? Under the heading
"Comparative Anatomy," I shall quote a passage from the same book,
which confirms my view still more decidedly. That the doctrine, which
teaches that the will is the vital principle, has begun to spread even
to the wider circles of medical science and to meet with a favourable
reception from its younger representatives, I notice with particular
pleasure in the theses sustained by Dr. Von Sigriz on taking his degree
at Munich (August, 1835), which commence as follows: 1. _Sanguis est
determinans formam organismi se evolventis._ 2. _Evolutio organica
determinatur vitæ internæ actione et_ voluntate.
[205] Meckel, "A. f. d. P." vol. 5, pp. 195-198.
[206] Burdach, "Physiologie," vol. i. § 259, p. 388.
Lastly, a very remarkable and unexpected corroboration of this part of
my doctrine has to be mentioned, which has recently been communicated
from ancient Hindoo philosophy by Colebrook. In his exposition of the
philosophical schools of the Hindoos,[207] he quotes the following
as the doctrine of the Nyaga school: "Volition, Yatna, effort or
manifestation of the Will, is a self-determination to act which gives
satisfaction. Desire is its occasion, perception its motive. Two kinds
of perceptible effort of the will are distinguished: that which springs
from desire which seeks the agreeable, and that which springs from
aversion which shuns the repulsive. Another species, which escapes
sensation and perception, but is inferred from analogy of spontaneous
acts, comprises animal functions, having for a cause the vital, unseen
power." Here the words "animal functions" are evidently used, not in
a physiological, but in a popular sense: so that here organic life
is unquestionably derived from the will. We find a similar statement
in Colebrook's Report on the Vedas[208] where he says: "_Asu is
unconscious volition_, which occasions an act necessary to the support
of life, as breathing, &c."
[207] "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Great Britain," 1824,
p. 110.
[208] "Asiatic Researches," vol. 8, p. 426.
Moreover my reduction of vital energy to the will by no means
interferes with the old division of its functions into reproductive
force, irritability and sensibility. This division remains a deep view
of their difference, and gives occasion for interesting observations.
_The faculty of reproduction_, objectified in the cellular tissue
of plants, constitutes the chief characteristic of plants and the
vegetative element in Man. Where we find it predominant to excess
in human beings, we assume them to be phlegmatic, dull, indolent,
obtuse (Bœotians); though this assumption does not always meet with
confirmation. _Irritability_, objectified in the muscular tissue,
constitutes the chief characteristic of Animals and the animal element
in Man. Where it predominates to excess, dexterity, strength, bravery,
that is, fitness for bodily exertion and for war, is usually to be
found (Spartans). Nearly all warm-blooded animals and even insects
far surpass Man in irritability. It is by irritability that animals
are most vividly conscious of their existence; wherefore they exult
in manifesting it. There is even still a trace of that exultation
perceptible in Man, in dancing. _Sensibility_, objectified in the
nerves, is Man's chief characteristic, and constitutes what is properly
human in him. In this no animal can in the remotest degree compare
with Man. Where it predominates to excess, it produces _genius_
(Athenians). Accordingly a man of genius is in a higher degree a _man_.
This explains why some men of genius have been unwilling to recognise
other men, with their monotonous physiognomies and universal stamp of
commonplace mediocrity, as human beings: for in them they did not find
their equals and naturally came to the erroneous conclusion that their
own was the normal standard. Diogenes sought for men with a lantern in
this sense;--in that work of genius, the Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) it
is said:[209] "_One_ man among a thousand have I found, but one woman
among all those have I not found;" and Gracian in his Criticon--perhaps
the grandest and most beautiful allegory ever written--says: "But what
was strangest of all, in the whole country, even in the most populous
cities, they did not meet with a single _man_; on the contrary these
cities were inhabited by lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, foxes, apes,
oxen, asses, pigs,--nowhere was there a man! They only made out after
a time that the few existing human beings, in order to hide themselves
and not to witness what was going on, had retired to those desert
places which ought to have been the dwellings of wild beasts." The
same reason indeed accounts for the peculiar inclination of all men of
genius for solitude, to which they are driven by their difference from
the rest, and for which their own inner wealth qualifies them. For,
with humanity it is as with diamonds, the extraordinarily great ones
alone are fitted to be _solitaires_, while those of ordinary size have
to be set in clusters to produce any effect.
[209] Ecclesiastes, ch. 7, v. 28.
Even the three _Gunas_, or fundamental qualities of the Hindoos,
tally with the three physiological fundamental forces. _Tamas-Guna_,
obtuseness, stupidity, corresponds to reproductive power; _Rajas-Guna_,
passionateness, to irritability; and _Sattwa-Guna_, wisdom and virtue,
to sensibility. When however they add to this, that Tamas-Guna is
the fate of animals, Rajas-Guna the fate of man, and Sattwa-Guna
that of the Gods, this is to be taken in a mythological, rather than
physiological sense.
In Chapter 20th of the 2nd Vol. of my chief work entitled
"Objectification of the Will in the Animal Organism," I have likewise
treated the argument of the present chapter; therefore I advise
my readers to read it after this, as a complement to what is here
given.[210]
[210] In my "Parerga," § 94 of the 2nd vol. (§ 96 in the 2nd
edition) belongs also to the above.
I may observe, that the passages I have quoted from pp. 14 and 15 of my
Essay on Colours, refer to the first edition.
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
Now, from my proposition: that the Will is what Kant calls the "thing
in itself"[211] or the ultimate substratum of every phenomenon, I had
however not only deduced that the will is the agent in all inner,
unconscious functions of the body, but also that the organism itself is
nothing but the will which has entered the region of representation,
the will itself, perceived in the cognitive form of Space. I had
accordingly said that, just as each single momentary act of willing
presents itself at once directly and infallibly in the outer perception
of the body as one of its actions, so also must the collective volition
of each animal, the totality[212] of its efforts, be faithfully
portrayed in its whole body, in the constitution of its organism; and
that the means supplied by its organisation for attaining the aims of
its will must as a whole exactly correspond to those aims--in short,
that the same relation must exist between the whole character of its
volition and the shape and nature of its body, as between each single
act of its will and the single bodily action which carries it out. Even
this too has recently been recognised as a fact, and accordingly been
confirmed _à posteriori_, by thoughtful zootomists and physiologists
from their own point of view and independently of my doctrine: their
judgments on this point make Nature testify even here to the truth of
my theory.
[211] _Ding an sich._
[212] _Inbegriff._
In Pander and d'Alton's admirable illustrated work[213] we find: "Just
as all that is characteristic in the formation of bones springs from
the _character_ of the animals, so does that character, on the other
hand, develop out of their _tendencies and desires_. These _tendencies
and desires_ of animals, which are _so vividly expressed_ in their
whole organisation and of which that organisation only appears to be
the medium, cannot be explained by special primary forces, since we
can only deduce their inner reason from the general life of Nature."
By this last turn the author shows indeed that he has arrived at the
point where, like all other investigators of Nature, he is brought
to a standstill by the metaphysical; but he also shows, that up to
this point beyond which Nature eludes investigation, _tendencies and
desires_ (_i.e._ will) were the utmost thing knowable. The shortest
expression for his last conclusion about animals would be "As they
will, so they are."
[213] Pander and d'Alton, "Ueber die Skelette der Raubthiere,"
1822, p. 7.
The learned and thoughtful Burdach,[214] when treating of the ultimate
reason of the genesis of the embryo in his great work on Physiology,
bears witness no less explicitly to the truth of my view. I must not,
unfortunately, conceal the fact that in a weak moment, misled Heaven
knows by what or how, this otherwise excellent man brings in just here
a few sentences taken from that utterly worthless, tyrannically imposed
pseudo-philosophy, about 'thought' being what is primary (it is just
what is last and most conditioned of all) yet 'no representation'
(that is to say, a wooden iron). Immediately after however, under the
returning influence of his own better self, he proclaims the real truth
(p. 710): "The brain curves itself outwards to the retina, because the
central part of the embryo _desires_ to take in the impressions of
the activity of the world; the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal
develops into the lung, because the organic body _desires_ to enter
into relation with the elementary substances of the universe; organs of
generation spring from the vascular system, because the individual only
lives in the species, and because the life which has commenced in the
individual _desires_ to multiply." This assertion of Burdach's, which
so entirely agrees with my doctrine, reminds me of a passage in the
ancient Mahabharata, which it is really difficult not to regard as a
mythical version of the same truth. It is in the third Canto of "Sundas
and Upasunda" in Bopp's "Ardschuna's Reise zu Indra's Himmel"[215]
(1824); Brahma has just created Tilottama, the fairest of women, who
is walking round the circle of the assembled gods. Shiva conceives
so violent a longing to gaze at her as she turns successively round
the circle, that four faces arise in him according to her different
positions, that is, according to the four cardinal points. This may
account for Shiva being represented with five heads, as Pansh Mukhti
Shiva. Countless eyes arise on every part of Indra's body likewise on
the same occasion.[216] In fact, every organ must be looked upon as the
expression of a universal manifestation of the will, _i.e._ of one made
once for all, of a fixed longing, of an act of volition proceeding,
not from the individual, but from the species. Every animal form
is a longing of the will to live which is roused by circumstances;
for instance, the will is seized with a longing to live on trees, to
hang on their branches, to devour their leaves, without contention
with other animals and without ever touching the ground: this longing
presents itself throughout endless time in the form (or Platonic
Idea) of the sloth. It can hardly walk at all, being only adapted for
climbing; helpless on the ground, it is agile on trees and looks itself
like a moss-clad bough in order to escape the notice of its pursuers.
But now let us consider the matter from a somewhat more methodical and
less poetical point of view.
[214] Burdach, "Physiologie," vol. 2, § 474.
[215] Bopp, "Ardschuna's Reise zu Indra's Himmel, nebst anderen
Episoden des Mahabharata" (Ardshuna's Journey to Indra's Heaven
together with other episodes from the Mahabharata), 1824.
[216] The Matsya Parana attributes a similar origin to Brahma's
four countenances. It relates that, having fallen in love with his
daughter Satarupa, and gazed fixedly at her, she stepped aside to
avoid his eye; he being ashamed, would not follow her movement;
whereupon a new face arose on him directed towards the side where
she was and, on her once more moving, the same thing occurred,
and was repeated, until at last he had four faces. ("Asiatic
Researches," vol. 6, p. 473.) [Add. to 3rd ed.]
The manifest adaptation of each animal for its mode of life and outward
means of subsistence, even down to the smallest detail, together with
the exceeding perfection of its organisation, form abundant material
for teleological contemplation, which has always been a favourite
occupation of the human mind, and which, extended even to inanimate
Nature, has become the argument of the Physico-theological Proof.
The universal fitness for their ends, the obviously intentional
design in all the parts of the organism of the lower animals without
exception, proclaim too distinctly for it ever to have been seriously
questioned, that here no forces of Nature acting by chance and without
plan have been at work, but a will. Now, that a will should act
otherwise than under the guidance of knowledge was inconceivable,
according to empirical science and views. For, up to my time, as
has been shown in the last chapter, _will_ and _intellect_ had been
regarded as absolutely inseparable, nay, the will was looked upon as
a mere operation of the intellect, that presumptive basis of all that
is spiritual. Accordingly wherever the will acted, knowledge must
have been its guide; consequently it must have been its guide here
also. But the mediation of knowledge, which, as such, is exclusively
directed towards the outside, brings with it, that a will acting by
means of it, can only act outwardly, that is, only from _one_ being
upon _another_. Therefore the will, of which unmistakable traces
had been found, was not sought for where these were discovered, but
was removed to the outside, and the animal became the product of a
will foreign to it, guided by knowledge, which must have been very
clear knowledge indeed, nay, the deeply excogitated conception of a
purpose; and this purpose must have preceded the animal's existence,
and, together with the will, whose product the animal is, have
lain outside that animal. According to this, the animal would have
existed in representation before existing in reality. This is the
basis of the train of thought on which the Physico-theological Proof
is founded. But this proof is no mere scholastic sophism, like the
Ontological Proof: nor does it contain an untiring natural opponent
within itself, like the Cosmological Proof, in that very same law of
causality to which it owes its existence. On the contrary, it is, in
reality, for the educated, what the Keraunological Proof[217] is for
the vulgar,[218] and its plausibility is so great, so potent, that the
most eminent and at the same time least prejudiced minds have been
deeply entangled in it. Voltaire, for instance, who, after all sorts of
other doubts, always comes back to it, sees no possibility of getting
over it and even places its evidence almost on a level with that of
a mathematical demonstration. Even Priestley too declares it to be
irrefutable.[219] Hume's reflection and acumen alone stood the test,
even in this case; in his "Dialogues on Natural Religion,"[220] which
are so well worth reading, this true precursor of Kant calls attention
to the fact, that there is no resemblance at all between the works of
Nature and those of an Art which proceeds according to a design. Now
it is precisely where he cuts asunder the _nervus probandi_ of this
extremely insidious proof, as well as that of the two others--in his
Critique of Judgment and in his Critique of Pure Reason--that Kant's
merit shines most brilliantly. A very brief summary of this Kantian
refutation of the Physico-theological Proof may be found in my chief
work.[221] Kant has earned for himself great merit by it; for nothing
stands so much in the way of a correct insight into Nature and into
the essence of things as this view, by which they are looked upon as
having been made according to a preconceived plan. Therefore, if a
Duke of Bridgewater offers a prize of high value for the confirmation
and perpetuation of such fundamental errors, let it be our task,
following in the footsteps of Hume and Kant, to work undauntedly at
their destruction, without any other reward than truth. Truth deserves
respect: not what is opposed to it. Nevertheless here, as elsewhere,
Kant has confined himself to negation; but a negation only takes full
effect when it has been completed by a correct affirmation, this alone
giving entire satisfaction and in itself dislodging and superseding
error, according to the words of Spinoza: _Sicut lux se ipsa et
tenebras manifestat, sic veritas norma sui et falsi est_. First of all
therefore we say: the world is not made with the help of knowledge,
consequently also not from the outside, but from the inside; and next
we endeavour to point out the _punctum saliens_[222] of the world-egg.
The physico-theological thought, that Nature must have been regulated
and fashioned by an intellect, however well it may suit the untutored
mind, is nevertheless fundamentally wrong. For the intellect is only
known to us in animal nature, consequently as an absolutely secondary
and subordinate principle in the world, a product of the latest origin;
it can never therefore have been the condition of the existence of that
world.[223] Now the will on the contrary, being that which fills every
thing and manifests itself immediately in each--thus showing each thing
to be its phenomenon--appears everywhere as that which is primary.
It is just for this reason, that the explanation of all teleological
facts is to be found in the will of the being itself in which they are
observed.
[217] I should like under this name to add a fourth to the three
proofs brought forward by Kant, _i.e._ the proof _a terrore_, which
the ancient saying of Petronius: _primus in orbe Deos fecit timor_,
designates and of which Hume's incomparable "Natural History of
Religion" may be considered as the critique. Understood in this
sense, even the theologist Schleiermacher's attempted proof might
have its truth from the feeling of dependence, though perhaps not
exactly that truth which its originator imagined it to have.
[218] Socrates propounded it already in detail in Xenophon. ("Mem."
i. 4.) [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[219] Priestley, "Disqu. on Matter and Spirit," sect. 16, p. 188.
[220] Part 7, and in other places.
[221] See "Die Welt als W. u. V." vol. i. p. 597. (Vol. i. p. 631
of the 3rd ed.)
[222] The point at which the life-spark is kindled. [Tr.]
[223] Nor can a _mundus intelligibilis_ precede a _mundus
sensibilis_; since it receives its material from the latter alone.
It is not an intellect which has brought forth Nature; it is, on
the contrary, Nature which has brought forth the intellect. [Add.
to 3rd ed.]
Besides, the Physico-theological Proof may be simply invalidated by the
empirical observation, that works produced by animal instinct, such as
the spider's web, the bee's honeycomb and its cells, the white ant's
constructions, &c. &c., are throughout constituted as if they were the
result of an intentional conception, of a wide-reaching providence
and of rational deliberation; whereas they are evidently the work of
a blind impulse, _i.e._ of a will not guided by knowledge. From this
it follows, that the conclusion from such and such a nature to such
and such a mode of coming into being, has not the same certainty as
the conclusion from a consequent to its reason, which is in all cases
a sure one. I have devoted the twenty-seventh chapter of the second
volume of my chief work to a detailed consideration of the mechanical
instincts of animals, which may be used, together with the preceding
one on Teleology, to complete the whole examination of this subject in
the present chapter.
Now, if we enter more closely into the above-mentioned fitness of every
animal's organisation for its mode of life and means of subsistence,
the question that first presents itself is, whether that mode of life
has been adapted to the organisation, or _vice versa_. At first sight,
the former assumption would seem to be the more correct one; since, in
Time, the organisation precedes the mode of life, and the animal is
thought to have adopted the mode of existence for which its structure
was best suited, making the best use of the organs it found within
itself: thus, for instance, we think that the bird flies because it has
wings, and that the ox butts because it has horns; not conversely. This
view is shared by Lucretius, (always an ominous sign for an opinion):
"Nil ideo quoniam natum est in corpore, ut uti
Possemus; sed, quod natum est, id procreat usum."[224]
[224] This is expanded, vol. iv. pp. 825-843.
Only this assumption does not explain how, collectively, the quite
different parts of an animal's organism so exactly correspond to
its way of life; how no organ interferes with another, each rather
assisting the others and none remaining unemployed; also that no
subordinate organ would be better suited to another mode of existence,
while the life which the animal really leads is determined by the
principal organs alone, but, on the contrary, each part of the animal
not only corresponds to every other part, but also to its mode of life:
its claws, for instance, are invariably adapted for seizing the prey
which its teeth are suited to tear and break, and its intestinal canal
to digest: its limbs are constructed to convey it where that prey is
to be found, and no organ ever remains unemployed. The ant-bear, for
instance, is not only armed with long claws on its fore-feet, in order
to break into the nests of the white ant, but also with a prolonged
cylindrical muzzle, in order to penetrate into them, with a small mouth
and a long, threadlike tongue, covered with a glutinous slime, which it
inserts into the white ants' nests and then withdraws covered with the
insects that adhere to it: on the other hand it has no teeth, because
it does not want them. Who can fail to see that the ant-bear's form
stands in the same relation to the white ants, as an act of the will to
its motive? The contradiction between the powerful fore-feet and long,
strong, curved claws of the ant-bear and its complete lack of teeth,
is at the same time so extraordinary, that if the earth ever undergoes
a fresh transformation, the newly arising race of rational beings will
find it an insoluble enigma, if white ants are unknown to them. The
necks of birds, as of quadrupeds, are generally as long as their legs,
to enable them to reach down to the ground where they pick up their
food; but those of aquatic birds are often a good deal longer, because
they have to fetch up their nourishment from under the water while
swimming.[225] Moor-fowl have exceedingly long legs, to enable them to
wade without drowning or wetting their bodies, and a correspondingly
long neck and beak, this last being more or less strong, according to
the things (reptiles, fishes or worms) which have to be crushed; and
the intestines of these animals are invariably adapted likewise to this
end. On the other hand, moor-fowl are provided neither with talons,
like birds of prey, nor with web-feet, like ducks: for the _lex
parsimoniæ naturæ_ admits of no superfluous organ. Now, it is precisely
this very law, added to the circumstance, that no organ required for
its mode of life is ever wanting in any animal, and that all, even the
most heterogeneous, harmonize together and are, as it were, calculated
for a quite specially determined way of life, for the element in which
the prey dwells, for the pursuit, the overcoming, the crushing and
digesting of that prey,--all this, we say, proves, that the animal's
structure has been determined by the mode of life by which the animal
desired to find its sustenance, and not _vice versa_. It also proves,
that the result is exactly the same as if a knowledge of that mode of
life and of its outward conditions had preceded the structure, and as
if therefore each animal had chosen its equipment before it assumed a
body; just as a sportsman before starting chooses his whole equipment,
gun, powder, shot, pouch, hunting-knife and dress, according to the
game he intends chasing. The latter does not take aim at the wild boar
because he happens to have a rifle: he took the rifle with him and not
a fowling-piece, because he intended to hunt the wild boar; and the ox
does not butt because it happens to have horns: it has horns because
it intends to butt. Now, to render this proof complete, we have the
additional circumstance, that in many animals, during the time they
are growing, the effort of the will to which a limb is destined to
minister, manifests itself before the existence of the limb itself,
its employment thus anticipating its existence. Young he-goats, rams,
calves, for instance, butt with their bare polls before they have any
horns; the young boar tries to gore on either side, before its tusks
are fully developed which would respond to the intended effect, while
on the other hand, it neglects to use the smaller teeth it already
has in its mouth and with which it might really bite. Thus its mode
of defending itself does not adapt itself to the existing weapons,
but _vice versa_. This had already been noticed by Galenus[226] and by
Lucretius[227] before him. All these circumstances give us complete
certainty, that the will does not, as a supplementary thing proceeding
from the intellect, employ those instruments which it may happen to
find, or use the parts because just they and no others chance to be
there; but that what is primary and original, is the endeavour to
live in this particular way, to contend in this manner, an endeavour
which manifests itself not only in the employment, but even in the
existence of the weapon: so much so indeed, that the use of the weapon
frequently precedes its existence, thus denoting that it is the weapon
which arises out of the existence of the endeavour, not, conversely,
the desire to use it out of the existence of the weapon. Aristotle
expressed this long ago, when he said, with reference to insects armed
with stings:[228] διὰ τὸ θυμὸν ἔχειν ὅπλον ἔχει (_quia iram habent,
arma habent_), and further on, generally speaking:[229] Τὰ δ' ὄργανα
πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ, ἀλλ' οὐ τὸ ἔργον πρὸς τὰ ὄργανα (_Natura
enim instrumenta ad officium, non officium ad instrumenta accommodat_).
From which it follows, that the structure of each animal is adapted to
its will.
[225] I have seen (Zooplast. Cab. 1860) a humming-bird (_colibri_)
with a beak as long as the whole bird, head and tail included.
This bird must certainly have had to fetch out its food from
a considerable depth, were it only from the calyx of a flower
(Cuvier, "Anat. Comp." vol. iv. p. 374); otherwise it would not
have given itself the luxury, or submitted to the encumbrance, of
such a beak.
[226] Galenus, "De Usu Partium Anim.," i. 1.
[227] Lucretius, v. pp. 1032-1039.
[228] Aristot., "De Part. Animal.," iv. 6: "They have a weapon
because they have passion." [Tr.]
[229] _Ibid._ c. 12: "Nature makes the tools for the work, not the
work for the tools." [Tr.]
This truth forces itself upon thoughtful zoologists and zootomists
with such cogency, that unless their mind is at the same time purified
by a deeper philosophy, it may lead them into strange errors. Now
this actually happened to a very eminent zoologist, the immortal De
Lamarck, who has acquired everlasting fame by his discovery of the
classification of animals in _vertebrata_ and _non-vertebrata_, so
admirable in depth of view. For he quite seriously maintains and tries
to prove[230] at length, that the shape of each animal species, the
weapons peculiar to it, and its organs of every sort destined for
outward use, were by no means present at the origin of that species,
but have on the contrary _come into being_ gradually _in the course
of time_ and through continued generation, in consequence of the
exertions of the animal's will, evoked by the nature of its position
and surroundings, through its own repeated efforts and the habits to
which these gave rise. Aquatic birds and mammalia that swim, he says,
have only become web-footed through stretching their toes asunder in
swimming; moor-fowl acquired their long legs and necks by wading;
horned cattle only gradually acquired horns because as they had no
proper teeth for combating, they fought with their heads, and this
combative propensity in course of time produced horns or antlers; the
snail was originally, like other _mollusca_, without feelers; but out
of the desire to feel the objects lying before it, these gradually
arose; the whole feline species acquired claws only in course of time,
from their desire to tear the flesh of their prey, and the moveable
coverings of those claws, from the necessity of protecting them in
walking without being prevented from using them when they wished; the
giraffe, in the barren, grassless African deserts, being reduced for
its food to the leaves of lofty trees, stretched out its neck and
forelegs until at last it acquired its singular shape, with a height
in front of twenty feet, and thus De Lamarck goes on describing a
multitude of animal species as arising according to the same principle,
in doing which he overlooks the obvious objection which may be made,
that long before the organs necessary for its preservation could have
been produced by means of such endeavours as these through countless
generations, the whole species must have died out from the want of
them. To such a degree may we be blinded by a hypothesis which has once
laid hold of us! Nevertheless in this instance the hypothesis arose
out of a very correct and profound view of Nature: it is an error of
genius, which in spite of all the absurdity it contains, still does
honour to its originator. The true part of it belongs to De Lamarck,
as an investigator of Nature; he saw rightly that the primary element
which has determined the animal's organisation, is the will of that
animal itself. The false part must be laid to the account of the
backward state of Metaphysics in France, where the views of Locke and
of his feeble follower, Condillac, in fact still hold their ground and
therefore bodies are held to be things in themselves, Time and Space
qualities of things in themselves; and where the great doctrine of the
Ideal nature of Space and of Time and of all that is represented in
them, which has been so extremely fertile in its results, has not yet
penetrated. De Lamarck therefore could not conceive his construction
of living beings otherwise than in Time, through succession. Errors of
this sort, as well as the gross, absurd, atomic theory of the French
and the edifying physico-theological considerations of the English,
have been banished for ever from Germany by Kant's profound influence.
So salutary was the effect produced by this great mind, even upon a
nation capable of subsequently forsaking him to run after charlatanism
and empty bombast. But the thought could never enter into De Lamarck's
head, that the animal's will, as a thing in itself, might lie outside
Time, and in this sense be prior to the animal itself. Therefore he
assumes the animal to have first been without any clearly defined
organs, but also without any clearly defined tendencies, and to have
been equipped only with perception. Through this it learns to know the
circumstances in which it has to live and from that knowledge arise
its desires, _i.e._ its will, from which again spring its organs or
definite embodiment; this last indeed with the help of generation and
therefore in boundless Time. If De Lamarck had had the courage to carry
out his theory fully, he ought to have assumed a primary animal[231]
which, to be consistent, must have originally had neither shape nor
organs, and then proceeded to transform itself according to climate
and local conditions into myriads of animal shapes of all sorts, from
the gnat to the elephant.--But this primary animal is in truth the
_will to live_; as such however, it is metaphysical, not physical. Most
certainly the shape and organisation of each animal species has been
determined by its own will according to the circumstances in which
it wished to live; not however as a thing physical in Time, but on
the contrary as a thing metaphysical outside Time. The will did not
proceed from the intellect, nor did the intellect exist, together with
the animal, before the will made its appearance as a mere accident,
a secondary, or rather tertiary, thing. It is on the contrary the
will which is the _prius_, the thing in itself: its phenomenon (mere
representation in the cognitive intellect and its forms of Space and
Time) is the animal, fully equipped with all its organs which represent
the will to live in those particular circumstances. Among these organs
is the intellect also--knowledge itself--which, like the rest of those
organs, is exactly adapted to the mode of life of each animal; whereas,
according to De Lamarck, it is the will which arises out of knowledge.
Behold the countless varieties of animal shapes; how entirely is each
of them the mere image of its volition, the evident expression of the
strivings of the will which constitute its character! Their difference
in shape is only the portrait of their difference in character.
Ferocious animals, destined for combat and rapine, appear armed with
formidable teeth and claws and strong muscles; their sight is adapted
for great distances, especially when they have to mark their prey from
a dizzy height, as is the case with eagles and condors. Timid animals,
whose will it is to seek their safety in flight instead of contest,
present themselves with light, nimble legs and sharp hearing in lieu
of all weapons; a circumstance which has even necessitated a striking
prolongation of the outer ear in the most timid of them all, the hare.
The interior corresponds to the exterior: carnivorous animals have
short intestines; herbivorous animals long ones, suited to a protracted
assimilation. Vigorous respiration and rapid circulation of the blood,
represented by appropriate organs, always accompany great muscular
strength and irritability as their necessary conditions, and nowhere is
contradiction possible. Each particular striving of the will presents
itself in a particular modification of shape. The abode of the prey
therefore has determined the shape of its pursuer: if that prey takes
refuge in regions difficult of access, in remote hiding places, in
night or darkness, the pursuer assumes the form best suited to those
circumstances, and no shape is rejected as too grotesque by the will to
live, in order to attain its ends. The cross-bill (_loxia curvirostra_)
presents itself with this abnormal form of its organ of nutrition,
in order to be able to extract the seeds out of the scales of the
fir-cone. Moor-fowls appear equipped with extra long legs, extra long
necks and extra long beaks, in short, the strangest shapes, in order to
seek out reptiles in their marshes. Then we have the ant-bear with its
body four feet long, its short legs, its strong claws, and its long,
narrow, toothless muzzle provided with a threadlike, glutinous tongue
for the purpose of digging out the white ants from their nests. The
pelican goes fishing with a huge pouch under its beak in which to pack
its fish, when caught. In order to surprise their prey while asleep in
the night, owls fly out provided with enormous pupils which enable them
to see in the dark, and with very soft feathers to make their flight
noiseless and thus permit them to fall unawares upon their sleeping
prey without awakening it by their movements. _Silurus_, _gymnotus_
and _torpedo_ bring a complete electric apparatus into the world with
them, in order to stun their prey before they can reach it; and also
as a defence against _their own_ pursuers. For wherever anything
living breathed, there immediately came another to devour it,[232]
and every animal is in a way designed and calculated throughout, down
to the minutest detail, for the purpose of destroying some other
animal. Ichneumons, for instance, among insects, lay their eggs in
the bodies of certain caterpillars and similar _larvæ_, in which they
bore holes with their stings, in order to ensure nourishment for their
future brood. Now those kinds which feed on _larvæ_ that crawl about
freely, have short stings not more than about one-third of an inch
long, whereas _pimpla manifestator_, which feeds upon _chelostoma
maxillosa_, whose _larvæ_ lie hidden in old trees at great depth and
are not accessible to it, has a sting two inches long; and the sting of
the _ichneumon strobillæ_ which lays its eggs in _larvæ_ dwelling in
fir-cones, is nearly as long. With these stings they penetrate to the
_larva_ in which they bore a hole and deposit one egg, whose product
subsequently devours this _larva_.[233] Just as clearly does the will
to escape their enemies manifest itself in the defensive equipment
of animals that are the objects of pursuit. Hedgehogs and porcupines
raise up a forest of spears; armadillos, scaly ant-eaters and tortoises
appear cased from head to foot in armour which is inaccessible to
tooth, beak or claw; and so it is, on a smaller scale, with the whole
class of _crustacea_. Others again seek protection by deceiving their
pursuers rather than by resisting them physically: thus the sepia has
provided itself with materials for surrounding itself with a dark
cloud on the approach of danger. The sloth is deceptively like its
moss-clad bough, and the frog its leaf; and many insects resemble their
dwelling-places. The negro's louse is black;[234] so, to be sure, is
our flea also; but the latter, in providing itself with an extremely
powerful apparatus for making irregular jumps to a considerable
distance, trusted to these for protection.--We can however make the
anticipation in all these arrangements more intelligible to ourselves
by the same anticipation which shows itself in the mechanical instincts
of animals. Neither the young spider nor the ant-lion know the prey for
which they lay traps, when they do it for the first time. And it is
the same when they are on the defensive. According to Latreille, the
insect _bombex_ kills the _parnope_ with its sting, although it neither
eats it nor is attacked by it, simply because the _parnope_ will lay
its eggs in the _bombex's_ nest, and by doing this will interfere with
the development of its eggs; yet it does not know this. Anticipations
of this kind once more confirm the ideal nature of Time, which indeed
always becomes manifest as soon as the will as thing in itself is
in question. Not only with respect to the points here mentioned, but
to many others besides, the mechanical instincts and physiological
functions of animals serve to explain each other mutually, because the
will without knowledge is the agent in both.
[230] De Lamarck, "Philosophie Zoologique," vol. i. c. 7, and
"Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres," vol. i. Introd.
pp. 180-212.
[231] _Urthier._
[232] Animated by the feeling of this truth, Robert Owen, after
passing in review the numerous and often very large Australian
fossile _marsupialia_--sometimes as big as the rhinoceros--came as
early as 1842 to the conclusion, that a large beast of prey must
have contemporaneously existed. This conclusion was afterwards
confirmed, for in 1846 he received part of the fossile skull of a
beast of prey of the size of the lion, which he named _thylacoleo_,
_i.e._ lion with a pouch, since it is also a marsupial. (See the
"Times" of the 19th of May, 1866, where there is an article on
"Palæontology," with an account of Owen's lecture at the Government
School of Mines.) [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[233] Kirby and Spence, "Introduction to Entomology," vol. i. p.
355. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[234] Blumenbach, "De hum. gen. variet. nat." p. 50. Sömmering, "On
the Negro," p. 8.
As the will has equipped itself with every organ and every weapon,
offensive as well as defensive, so has it likewise provided itself in
every animal shape with an _intellect_, as a means of preservation for
the individual and the species. It was precisely in this account that
the ancients called the intellect the ἡγεμονικόν, _i.e._ the guide and
leader. Accordingly the intellect, being exclusively destined to serve
the will, always exactly corresponds to it. Beasts of prey stood in
greater need of intellect, and in fact have more intelligence, than
herbivorous animals. The elephant certainly forms an exception, and so
does even the horse to a certain extent; but the admirable intelligence
of the elephant was necessary on account of the length of its life
(200 years) and of the scantiness of its progeny, which obliged it
to provide for a longer and surer preservation of the individual:
and this moreover in countries teeming with the most rapacious, the
strongest and the nimblest beasts of prey. The horse too has a longer
life and a scantier progeny than the ruminants, and as it has neither
horns, tusks, trunk, nor indeed any weapon save perhaps its hoofs, it
needed greater intelligence and swiftness in order to elude pursuit.
Monkeys needed their extraordinary intelligence, partly because of the
length of their life, which even in the moderate-sized animal extends
to fifty years; partly also because of their scanty progeny, which is
limited to one at a time, but especially because of their _hands_,
which, to be properly used, required the direction of an understanding.
For monkeys depend upon their hands, not only for their defence by
means of outer weapons such as sticks and stones, but also for their
nourishment, this last necessitating a variety of artificial means
and a social and artificial system of rapine in general, the passing
from hand to hand of stolen fruit, the placing of sentinels, &c. &c.
Add to this, that it is especially in their youth, before they have
attained their full muscular development, that this intelligence is
most prominent. In the _pongo_ or ourang-outang for instance, the brain
plays a far more important part and the understanding is much greater
during its youth than at its maturity, when the muscular powers having
attained full development, they take the place of the proportionately
declining intellect. This holds good of all sorts of monkeys, so that
here therefore the intellect acts for a time vicariously for the yet
undeveloped muscular strength. We find this process discussed at
length in the "Résumé des Observations de Fr. Cuvier sur l'instinct
et l'intelligence des animaux," par Flourens (1841), from which I
have quoted the whole passage referring to this question in the
second volume of my chief work, at the end of the thirty-first
chapter, and this is my only reason for not repeating it here. On
the whole, intelligence gradually increases from the rodents[235] to
the ruminants, from the ruminants to the pachyderms, and from these
again to the beasts of prey and finally to the _quadrumana_, and
anatomy shows a gradual development of the brain in similar order
which corresponds to this result of external observation. (According
to Flourens and Fr. Cuvier.)[236] Among the reptiles, serpents are
the most intelligent, for they may even be trained; this is so,
because they are beasts of prey and propagate more slowly than the
rest--especially the venomous ones. And here also, as with the physical
weapons, we find the will everywhere as the _prius_; its equipment,
the intellect, as the _posterius_. Beasts of prey do not hunt, nor do
foxes thieve, because they have more intelligence; on the contrary,
they have more intelligence, just as they have stronger teeth and claws
too, because they wished to live by hunting and thieving. The fox even
made up at once for his inferiority in muscular power and strength of
teeth by the extraordinary subtility of his understanding. Our thesis
is singularly illustrated by the case of the bird _dodo_ or _dronte_
(_didus ineptus_) on the island of Mauritius, whose species, it is
well known, has died out, and which, as its Latin name denotes, was
exceedingly stupid, and this explains its disappearance; so that here
it seems indeed as if Nature had for once gone too far in her _lex
parsimoniæ_ and thereby in a sense brought forth an abortion in the
species, as she so often does in the individual, which was unable to
subsist, precisely because it was an abortion. If, on this occasion,
anyone were to raise the question as to whether Nature ought not to
have provided insects with at least sufficient intelligence to prevent
them from flying into the flame of a candle, our answer would be: most
certainly; only she did not know that men would make candles and light
them, and _natura nihil agit frustra_. Insect intelligence is therefore
only insufficient where the surroundings are artificial.[237]
[235] That the lowest place should be given to the rodents,
seems however to proceed from _à priori_ rather than from _à
posteriori_ considerations: that is to say, from the circumstance,
that their brain has extremely faint or small convolutions; so
that too much weight may have been given to this point. In sheep
and calves the convolutions are numerous and deep, yet how is
it with their intelligence? The mechanical instincts of the
beaver are again greatly assisted by its understanding, and even
rabbits show remarkable intelligence (see Leroy's beautiful work:
"Lettres Philosophiques sur l'Intelligence des Animaux," lettre 3,
p. 149). Even rats give proof of quite uncommon intelligence, of
which some remarkable instances may be found in the "Quarterly
Review," No. 201, Jan.-March, 1857, in a special article entitled
"Rats."
[236] The most intelligent birds are also birds of prey, wherefore
many of them, especially falcons, are highly susceptible of
training. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[237] That the negroes should have become the special victims of
the slave-trade, is evidently a consequence of the inferiority of
their intelligence compared with that of other human races; though
this by no means justifies the fact. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
Everywhere indeed intelligence depends in the first instance upon the
cerebral system, and this stands in a necessary relation to the rest
of the organism; therefore cold-blooded animals are greatly inferior
to warm-blooded ones, and invertebrate animals to _vertebrata_. But
the organism is precisely nothing but the will become visible, to
which, as that which is absolutely _prius_, everything constantly
refers. The needs and aims of that will give in each phenomenon the
rule for the means to be employed, and these means must harmonize
with one another. Plants have no self-consciousness because they have
no power of locomotion; for of what use would self-consciousness be
to them unless it enabled them to seek what was salutary and flee
what was noxious to them? And conversely, of what use could power of
locomotion be to them, as they have no self-consciousness with which
to guide it. The inseparable duality of Sensibility and Irritability
does not yet appear therefore in the plant; they continue slumbering
in the reproductive force which is their fundament, and in which alone
the will here objectifies itself. The sun-flower, and every other
plant, wills for light; but as yet their movement towards light is not
separate from their apprehension of it, and both coincide with their
growth.--Human understanding, which is so superior to that of all other
beings, and is assisted by Reason (the faculty for non-perceptible
representations, _i.e._ for conceptions; reflection, thinking faculty),
is nevertheless only just proportionate, partly to Man's requirements,
which greatly surpass those of animals and multiply to infinity; partly
to his entire lack of all natural weapons and covering, and to his
relatively weaker muscular strength, which is greatly inferior to that
of monkeys of his own size;[238] lastly also, to the slowness with
which his race multiplies and the length of his childhood and life,
which demand secure preservation of the individual. All these great
requirements had to be satisfied by means of intellectual powers,
which, for this reason, predominate in him. But we find the intellect
secondary and subordinate everywhere, and destined exclusively to serve
the purposes of the will. As a rule too, it always remains true to
its destiny and subservient to the will. How nevertheless, it frees
itself in particular instances from this bondage through an abnormal
preponderance of cerebral life, whereby purely objective cognition
becomes possible which may be enhanced to genius, I have shown at
length in the æsthetic part of my chief work.[239]
[238] As is likewise his capacity for escaping from his pursuers;
for in this respect all the four-footed mammalia surpass him. [Add.
to 3rd ed.]
[239] [See Third Book of the W. a. W. u. V.; later also, in my
"Parerga," vol. ii. §§ 50-57 and § 206. (§§ 51-58, and § 210 of the
2nd edition.)]
Now, after all these reflections upon the precise agreement between
the will and the organisation of each animal, if we inspect a
well-arranged osteological collection from this point of view, it
will certainly seem to us as if we saw one and the same being (De
Lamarck's primary animal, or, more properly, _the will to live_)
changing its shape according to circumstances, and thus producing all
this multiplicity of forms out of the same number and arrangement of
its bones, by prolonging and curtailing, strengthening and weakening
them. This number and arrangement of the bones, which Geoffroy de
St. Hilaire[240] called the anatomical element, continues, as he
has thoroughly shown, in all essential points unchanged: it is a
constant magnitude, something which is absolutely given beforehand,
irrevocably fixed by an unfathomable necessity--an immutability which
I should compare with the permanence of matter in all physical and
chemical changes: but to this I shall soon return. Conjointly with
this immutability of the anatomical element, we have the greatest
susceptibility to modification, the greatest plasticity and flexibility
of these same bones with reference to size, shape and adaptation to
different purposes, all which we see determined by the will with
primary strength and freedom according to the aims prescribed to it by
external circumstances: it makes out of these materials whatever its
necessity for the time being requires. If it desires to climb about
in trees, it catches at the boughs at once with four hands, while it
stretches the _ulva_ and _radius_ to an excessive length and
immediately prolongs the _os coccygis_ to a curly tail, a yard long,
in order to hang by it to the boughs and swing itself from one branch
to another. If, on the other hand, it desires to crawl in the mud
as a crocodile, to swim as a seal, or to burrow as a mole, these
same arm-bones are shortened till they are no longer recognisable;
in the last case the _metacarpus_ and _phalanges_ are enlarged to
disproportionately large shovel-paws, to the prejudice of the other
bones. But if it wishes to fly through the air as a bat, not only
are the _os humeri_, _radius_ and _alnus_ prolonged in an incredible
manner, but the usually small and subordinate _carpus_, _metacarpus_
and _phalanges digitorum_ expand to an immense length, as in St.
Anthony's vision, outmeasuring the length of the animal's body, in
order to spread out the wing-membrane. If, in order to browse upon the
tops of very tall African trees, it has, as a giraffe, placed itself
upon extraordinarily high fore-legs, the same seven _vertebræ_ of
the neck, which never vary as to number and which, in the mole, were
contracted so as to be no longer recognisable, are now prolonged to
such a degree, that here, as everywhere else, the neck acquires the
same length as the fore-legs, in order to enable the head to reach
down to drinking-water. But where, as is the case when it appears
as the elephant, a long neck could not have borne the weight of
the enormous, unwieldy head--a weight increased moreover by tusks a
yard long--the neck remains short, as an exception, and a trunk is
let down as an expedient, to lift up food and draw water from below
and also to reach up to the tops of trees. In accordance with these
transformations, we see in all of them the skull, the receptacle
containing the understanding, at the same time proportionately expand,
develop, curve itself, as the mode of procuring nourishment becomes
more or less difficult and requires more or less intelligence; and the
different degrees of the understanding manifest themselves clearly to
the practised eye in the curves of the skull.
[240] "Principes de Philosophie Zoologique," 1830.
Now, in all this, that _anatomical element_ we have mentioned above as
fixed and invariable, certainly remains in so far an enigma, as it does
not come within the teleological explanation, which only begins after
the assumption of that element; since the intended organ might in many
cases have been rendered equally suitable for its purpose even with a
different number and disposition of bones. It is easy to understand,
for instance, why the human skull should be formed out of eight bones:
that is, to enable them to be drawn together by the fontanels during
birth; but we do not see why a chicken which breaks through its
egg-shell should necessarily have the same number of skull-bones. We
must therefore assume this anatomical element to be based, partly on
the unity and identity of the will to live in general, partly on the
circumstance, that the archetypal forms of animals have proceeded one
from the other,[241] wherefore the fundamental type of the whole race
was preserved. It is this anatomical element which Aristotle means
by his ἀναγκαία φύσις, and the mutability of its shapes according to
different purposes he calls τὴν κατὰ λόγον φύσιν,[242] and explains by
it how the material for upper incisors has been employed for horns in
horned cattle. Quite rightly: since the only ruminants which have no
horns, the camel and the musk-ox, have upper incisors, and these are
wanting in all horned ruminants.
[241] "Parerga," vol. ii. § 91; § 93 of the 2nd edition.
[242] See Aristotle, "De Partibus Animalium," iii. c. 2 _sub
finem_: πῶς δὲ τῆς αναγκαίας φύσεως κ. τ. λ.
No other explanation or assumption enables us nearly as well to
understand either the complete suitableness to purpose and to the
external conditions of existence I have here shown in the skeleton,
or the admirable harmony and fitness of internal mechanism in the
structure of each animal, as the truth I have elsewhere firmly
established: that the body of an animal is precisely nothing but
the _will itself_ of that animal brought to cerebral perception as
representation--through the forms of Space, Time and Causality--in
other words, the mere visibility, objectivity of Will. For, if this
is once pre-supposed, everything in and belonging to that body must
conspire towards the final end: the life of this animal. Nothing
superfluous, nothing deficient, nothing inappropriate, nothing
insufficient or incomplete of its kind, can therefore be found in it;
on the contrary, all that is required must be there, and just in the
proportion needed, never more. For here artist, work and materials are
one and the same. Each organism is therefore a consummate master-piece
of exceeding perfection. Here the will did not first cherish the
intention, first recognise the end and then adapt the means to it and
conquer the material; its willing was rather immediately the aim and
immediately the attainment of that aim; no foreign appliances needing
to be overcome were wanted--willing, doing and attaining were here one
and the same. Thus the organism presents itself as a miracle which
admits of no comparison with any work of human artifice wrought by the
lamplight of knowledge.[243]
[243] The appearance of every animal therefore presents a totality,
a unity, a perfection and a rigidly carried out harmony in all its
parts which is so entirely based upon a single fundamental thought,
that even the strangest animal shape seems to the attentive
observer as if it were the only right, nay, only possible form
of existence, and as if there could be no other than just this
very one. The expression "natural" used to denote that a thing is
a matter of course, and that it cannot be otherwise, is in its
deepest foundation based upon this. Göthe himself was struck by
this unity when contemplating whelks and crabs at Venice, and it
caused him to exclaim: "How delightful, how glorious is a living
thing! how well adapted for its condition; how true, how real!"
("Life," vol. iv. p. 223). No artist therefore, who has not made it
his business to study such forms for years and to penetrate into
their meaning and comprehension, can rightly imitate them. Without
this study his work will seem as if it were pasted together: the
parts no doubt will be there, but the bond which unites them and
gives them cohesion, the spirit, the idea, which is the objectivity
of the primary act of the will presenting itself as this or that
particular species, will be wanting. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
Our admiration for the consummate perfection and fitness for their ends
in all the works of Nature, is at the bottom based upon our viewing
them in the same light as we do our own works. In these, in the first
place, the will to do the work and the work are two different things;
then again two other things lie between these two: firstly, the medium
of representation, which, taken by itself, is foreign to the will,
through which the will must pass before it realizes itself here; and
secondly the material foreign to the will here at work, on which a
form foreign to it has to be forced, which it resists, because the
material already belongs to another will, that is to say, to its own
nature, its _forma substantialis_, the (Platonic) idea, expressed by
it: therefore this material has first to be overcome, and however
deeply the artificial form may have penetrated, will always continue
inwardly resisting. It is quite a different thing with Nature's works,
which are not, like our own, indirect, but on the contrary, direct
manifestations of the will. Here the will acts in its primordial
nature, that is, unconsciously. No mediating representation here
separates the will and the work: they are one. And even the material
is one with them: for matter is the mere visibility of the will.
Therefore here we find Matter completely permeated by Form; or, better
still, they are of quite the same origin, only existing mutually one
for the other; and in so far they are one. That we separate them in
works of Nature as well as in works of Art, is a mere abstraction.
Pure Matter, absolutely without Form or quality, which we think as the
material of a product of Nature, is merely an _ens rationis_ and cannot
enter into any experience: whereas the material of a work of Art is
empirical Matter, consequently already has a Form. The [distinctive]
character of Nature's products is the identity of form and substance;
that of products of Art the diversity of these two.[244] It is because
Matter is the mere visibility of Form in Nature's products, that,
even empirically, we see Form appear as a mere production of Matter,
bursting forth from its inside in crystallisation, in vegetable and
animal _generatio æquivoca_, which last cannot be doubted, at any rate
in the _epizoa_.[245]--For this reason we may even assume that nowhere,
either on any planet or satellite, will Matter come to a state of
endless repose, but rather that its inherent forces (_i.e._ the will,
whose mere visibility it is) will always put an end again to the repose
which has commenced, always awaking again from their sleep, to resume
their activity as mechanical, physical, chemical, organic forces; since
at all times they only wait for the opportunity to do so.
[244] It is a great truth which Bruno expresses ("De Immenso et
Innumerabili," 8, 10): "_Ars tractat materiam alienam: natura
materiam propriam. Ars circa materiam est; natura interior
materiæ._" He treats this subject much more fully, "Della Causa,"
Dial. 3, p. 252 _et seqq._ Page 255 he declares the _forma
substantialis_ to be the form of every product of Nature, which is
the same as the _soul_. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[245] Thus the saying of the Schoolmen is verified: "_Materia
appetit formam._" See "Die Welt a. W. u. V." 3rd edition, vol. ii.
p. 352. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
But if we want to understand Nature's proceeding, we must not try to
do it by comparing her works with our own. The real essence of every
animal form, is an act of the will outside representation, consequently
outside its forms of Space and Time also; which act, just on that
account, knows neither sequence nor juxtaposition, but has, on the
contrary, the most indivisible unity. But when our cerebral perception
comprehends that form, and still more when its inside is dissected
by the anatomical knife, then that which originally and in itself
was foreign to knowledge and its laws, is brought under the light of
knowledge; but then also, it has to present itself in conformity with
the laws and forms of knowledge. The original unity and indivisibility
of that act of the will, of that truly metaphysical being, then appears
divided into parts lying side by side and functions following one
upon another, which all nevertheless present themselves as connected
together in closest relationship one to another for mutual help and
support, as means and ends one to the other. The understanding, in
thus apprehending these things, now perceives the original unity
re-establishing itself out of a multiplicity which its own form of
knowledge had first brought about, and involuntarily taking for
granted that its own way of perceiving this is the way in which this
animal form comes into being, it is now struck with admiration for the
profound wisdom with which those parts are arranged, those functions
combined. This is the meaning of Kant's great doctrine, that Teleology
is brought into Nature by our own understanding, which accordingly
wonders at a miracle of its own creation.[246] If I may use a trivial
simile to elucidate so sublime a matter, this astonishment very
much resembles that of our understanding when it discovers that all
multiples of 9, when their single figures are added together, give
as their product either the number 9 or one whose single figures
again make 9; yet it is that very understanding itself which has
prepared for itself this surprise in the decimal system. According to
the Physico-theological argument, the actual existence of the world
has been preceded by its existence in an intellect: if the world is
designed for an end, it must have existed as representation before it
came into being. Now I say, on the contrary, in Kant's sense: if the
world is to be representation, it must present itself as designed for
an end; and this only takes place in an intellect.
[246] Compare "Die Welt a. W. u. V." 3rd edition, vol. II. p. 375.
[Add. to 3rd ed.]
It undoubtedly follows from my doctrine, that every being is its own
work. Nature, which is incapable of falsehood and is as _naïve_ as
genius, asserts the same thing downright; since each being merely
kindles the spark of life at another exactly similar being, and then
makes itself before our eyes, taking the materials for this from
outside, form and movement from its own self: this process we call
growth and development. Thus, even empirically, each being stands
before us as its own work. But Nature's language is not understood
because it is too simple.
PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS.
The corroborations I am now about to bring forward of the phenomenon of
the will in plants, proceed chiefly from French sources, from a nation
whose tendencies are decidedly empirical and which is reluctant to go
a step beyond what is immediately given. The informant moreover is
Cuvier, whose rigid adherence to the purely empirical gave rise to the
famous dispute between him and Geoffroy de St. Hilaire. So we must not
be astonished if the language we meet with here is less decided than in
the preceding German corroborations and if we find each concession made
with cautious reserve.
In his "Histoire des Progrès des Sciences Naturelles depuis 1789
jusqu'á ce jour,"[247] Cuvier says: "Plants have certain apparently
spontaneous movements, which they show under certain circumstances
and which at times so closely resemble those of animals, that a sort
of feeling and _will_ might almost be attributed to plants on this
account, especially by those who think they can perceive something of
the same kind in the movements of the _inward_ parts of animals. Thus
the tops of trees always have a vertical tendency, excepting when they
incline towards the light. Their roots seek out good earth and moisture
and, in order to attain these, deviate from the straight course. Yet
these different tendencies cannot be explained by the influence of
external causes, unless we also assume the existence of an inner
natural disposition, susceptible of being roused, which differs from
the mere mechanical force in inorganic bodies.... Decandolle made some
remarkable experiments that proved to him the existence of a sort of
habit in plants which may be overcome by artificial light, but only
after a certain time. Plants that had been shut up in a cellar which
was continually lit by lamps, did not on this account leave off closing
in the evening and opening again in the morning for several days. And
there are other habits besides which plants are able to adopt and
to abandon. Flowers that habitually close in wet weather, finish by
remaining open if the wet weather lasts too long. When M. Desfontaines
took a sensitive plant with him in his carriage, the jolting movement
at first caused it to contract, but at last it expanded again as when
in complete repose. Therefore even in these cases, light, moisture,
&c., &c., only act in virtue of an inner disposition, which may be
neutralized or modified by the continuation of that very activity
itself; and the vital energy of plants, like that of animals, is
subject to fatigue and exhaustion. The _hedysarum gyrans_ is singularly
characterized by the movements of its leaves which continue day and
night without needing any sort of stimulus. Surely, if any phenomenon
can cause illusion and remind us of the voluntary movements of animals,
it is this. Broussonet, Silvestre, Cels and Halle have fully described
it, and have shown that the plant's action depends entirely upon its
own healthy condition."
[247] Vol. i. p. 245. 1826.
Again, in the third volume of the same work, p. 166 (1828), Cuvier
says: "M. Dutrochet adds some physiological considerations to which
his own experiments had led him, and which in his opinion prove that
the movements of plants are _spontaneous_, _i.e._ that they depend
upon an inner principle which immediately receives the influence of
outer agencies. As he is however reluctant to admit that plants have
feeling, he makes use of the word '_nervimotilité_.'"--Here I must
observe, that when we come to examine it closely, what we think to
ourselves in the conception of _spontaneity_, is in the end always
the same thing as manifestation of will, with which spontaneity would
therefore be simply synonymous. The only difference between them
consists in the conception of spontaneity being derived from outer
perception, while that of manifestation of will is drawn from our own
consciousness.--I find a remarkable instance of the impetuous violence
of this spontaneity, even in plants, in the following communication
contained in the "Cheltenham Examiner:"[248] "Last Thursday four
enormous mushrooms performed a heroic feat of a new kind, in one of
our most crowded streets, by lifting up a huge block of stone in their
strenuous effort to make their way into the visible world."
[248] Repeated in the "Times" of June 2nd, 1841.
In the "Mém. de l'Acad. d. Sciences de l'année" (1821), Cuvier
says[249]:--"For centuries botanists have been searching for the reason
why in a seed which is germinating the root invariably grows downwards,
while the stalk as invariably grows upwards, no matter what be the
position in which the seed is placed. M. Dutrochet put some seeds into
holes bored in the bottom of a vessel filled with damp mould, which he
hung up to a beam in his room. Now, in this case, the stem might have
been expected to grow downwards. Not at all: the roots found their
way to the air below, and the stems were prolonged so as to traverse
the damp mould until they reached its upper surface. According to M.
Dutrochet, the direction in which plants grow, is determined by an
inner principle and not at all by the attraction of the bodies towards
which they direct themselves. A mistletoe seed that was fastened to
the point of a perfectly moveable needle fixed on a peg, with a small
plank placed near it, was induced to germinate. It soon began to send
out shoots towards the plank, which it reached in five days without
having communicated the slightest movement to the needle. The stems
of onions and leeks with their bulbs, deposited in dark places, grow
upwards, although more slowly than in light ones; they grow upwards
even if placed in water: a fact which suffices to prove that neither
light nor moisture determines the direction of their growth."--Still C.
H. Schultz asserts[250] that he made seeds germinate in a dark box with
holes bored in the bottom, and succeeded in inducing the plants to grow
upside down, by means of a mirror fastened to the box, which reflected
the sunlight.
[249] Vol. v. p. 171. Paris, 1826.
[250] C. H. Schultz, "Sur la Circulation dans les Plantes," a
prize-essay, 1839.
In the "Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles" (article _Animal_) we
find: "If, on the one hand, animals show avidity in their search after
nourishment as well as power of discrimination in the selection of
it, roots of plants may, on the other hand, be observed to direct
themselves towards the side where the soil contains most nourishment,
nay, even to seek out the smallest crevices in rocks which may contain
any food. If we twist a bough so as to make the upper surface of its
leaves the under one, these leaves even will twist their stems in order
to regain the position best suited for the exercise of their functions
(_i.e._ so as to have the smooth side uppermost). Is it quite certain
that this takes place unconsciously?"
F. J. Meyen has devoted a chapter, entitled "Of the movements and
sensations of plants," to a full investigation of the subject now
before us. In this he says[251]: "Not unfrequently potatoes, stored
in deep, dark cellars, may be observed towards summer to shoot
forth stems which invariably grow in the direction of the chinks
through which the light comes into the cellar, and to continue thus
growing until they at last reach the aperture which receives the
light directly. In such cases potato-stalks have been known to reach
a length of twenty feet; whereas under ordinary circumstances, even
such as are most favourable to the growth of the potato, the stalk is
seldom longer than from three to four feet. It is interesting to watch
closely the course taken by a potato-stalk thus growing in darkness, in
its endeavours to reach the light. It tries to do so by the shortest
road, but not being firm enough to grow straight across through the
air without support, it lets itself drop on to the floor, and thus
creeps along the ground till it reaches the nearest wall, up which
it then climbs." Even this botanist too is led by his facts to the
following assertion (p. 576): "On observing the freedom of movement
of _oscillatoria_ and other inferior plants, we may perhaps have no
alternative but to attribute a species of _will_ to these beings."
[251] F. J. Meyen, "Neues System der Pflanzenphysiologe" (1839),
vol. iii. p. 585.
Creepers bear distinct evidence as to manifestation of will in plants;
for, when they find no support near enough for their tendrils to cling
to, they invariably direct their growth towards the shadiest place,
or even towards a piece of dark-coloured paper, wherever it may be
placed; whereas they avoid glass, on account of its glitter. In the
"Philosophical Transactions" of 1812, Th. Andrew Knight relates some
very pleasing experiments on this subject (especially with _ampelopsis
quinquefolia_,)[252] although he strives hard to explain the matter
mechanically, and will not admit that it is a manifestation of will. I
appeal to his experiments, not to the conclusions he draws from them.
A good test might be, to plant several free creepers in a circle
round a tree-trunk and to observe whether they all crept towards the
trunk centripetally. On the 6th Nov. 1843, Dutrochet read a treatise
on this subject in the "Acad. de Sciences" called "Sur les Mouvements
Révolutifs spontanés chez les Végétaux," which, notwithstanding its
great length, is well worth reading, and is published among the
"Comptes rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences" for Nov. 1843.
The result is, that in _pisum sativum_ (green pea), in _bryonia alba_
(wild bryony) and in _cucumis sativus_ (cucumber) the stems of those
leaves which bear the tendrils, describe a very slow circular movement
in the air, the time in which they complete an ellipsis varying from
one to three hours according to temperature. By this movement they seek
at random for solid bodies round which, when found, they twine their
tendrils; these then support the plant, it being unable to stand by
itself without help. That is, they do the same thing as the eyeless
caterpillar, which when seeking a leaf describes circles in the air
with the upper part of its body. Dutrochet contributes a good deal of
information too concerning other movements in plants in this treatise:
for instance, that _stylidium graminifolium_ in New Holland, has a
column in the middle of its _corolla_ which bears the anthers and
_stigma_ and alternately folds up and unfolds again. What Treviranus
adduces is to the same effect:[253] "In _parnassia palustris_ and
in _ruta graveolens_, the stamina incline one after the other, in
_saxifraga tridactylites_ in pairs, towards the stigma, and erect
themselves again in the same order."--Shortly before however, we read
in Treviranus with reference to this subject: "Of all apparently
voluntary movements of plants, the direction of their boughs and of the
upper surface of their leaves towards the light and towards moist heat,
and the twining movements of creepers round their supports, are the
most universal. In this last phenomenon especially there is something
which resembles animal movements. While growing, creepers, it is true,
if left to themselves, describe circles with their tips and by this
means reach an object near at hand. But it is no merely mechanical
cause that induces them to adapt their growth to the form of the object
they have thus reached. The _cuscuta_ does not twine round every kind
of support: for instance, limbs of animals, dead vegetable matter,
metals and inorganic substances are not used for this purpose, but only
living plants, and not even all kinds--not mosses, for instance--only
those from which it can extract nourishment by its _papillæ_; and these
attract it from a considerable distance."[254] The following special
observation, communicated to the "Farmer's Magazine," and reproduced by
the "Times" (13th July 1848) under the title "Vegetable Instinct," is
however still more to the point: "If a basin of water be placed within
six inches of a young pumpkin-stalk, or of a stem of the large garden
pea, no matter on what side, the stalk will approach the basin during
the night and it will be found next morning with one of its leaves
floating on the water. This experiment may be renewed every night till
the plant begins to fructify.--Even if its position be changed every
day, a stick fixed upright within six inches of a young convolvulus
is sure to be found by the plant. If, after having wound itself for a
certain distance round the stick, it is unwound and wound round again
in the opposite direction, it will return to its original position or
lose its life in the endeavour to do so. Nevertheless, if two such
plants grow close to one another without having any stick near enough
for them to cling to it, one of them will change the direction of its
winding and they will twine round each other. Duhamel placed some
Italian beans in a cylinder filled with moist earth; after a little
while they began to germinate and naturally sent their _plumula_
upwards in the direction of the light and their _radicula_ downwards
into the mould. After a few days the cylinder was turned round to the
extent of a quarter of its circumference and the same process was
repeated until it had been turned completely round. The beans were
then removed from the earth, when it was found that both _plumula_ and
_radicula_ had twisted at each turn that had been given, in order to
adapt themselves to it, the one endeavouring to rise perpendicularly,
the other to descend, so that they had formed a complete spiral.
Yet, notwithstanding this natural tendency to descend, when the soil
below is too dry, roots will grow upwards in order to reach any moist
substance which may be lying higher than themselves."
[252] These have been translated for the "Bibliothèque Britannique,
Section des Sciences et Arts," vol. lii.
[253] Treviranus, "Die Erscheinungen und Gesetze des Organischen
Lebens" (Phenomena and Laws of Organic Life), vol. i. p. 173.
[254] Brandis, "On Life and Polarity," 1836, p. 88, says: "The
roots of rock-plants seek nourishing mould in the most delicate
crevices of rocks. These roots cling to a nourishing bone in dense
clusters. I saw a root whose growth was intercepted by the sole of
an old shoe: it divided itself into as many fibres as the shoe-sole
had holes--those by which it had been stitched together--but as
soon as these fibres had overcome the obstruction and grown through
the holes, they united again to a common stem." And p. 87: "If
Sprengel's observations are confirmed, even mediate relations are
perceived (by plants) in order to obtain this end (fructification):
that is to say, the anthers of the _nigella_ bend down in order to
put the pollen on the bees' backs, and the pistils bend in like
manner to receive it from the bees." [Add. to 3rd ed.]
In Froriep's "Memoranda" for 1833 (No. 832) there is a short article
upon the locomotivity of plants: in poor soil, where good mould lies
near at hand, many plants will send out a shoot into the good mould;
after a time the original plant then withers, but the offshoot prospers
and itself becomes the plant. By means of this process, a plant has
been known to climb down from a wall.
In the same periodical (1835, No. 981) is to be found a communication
from Professor Daubeny, of Oxford (taken from the "Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal," April-July, 1835), in which he shows with
certainty, by means of new and very careful experiments, that roots of
plants have, at any rate to a certain degree, the power to make choice
from those substances in the soil which present themselves to their
surface.[255]
[255] In this connection I may mention an analysis of an entirely
different kind, given by the French Academician Babinet in an
article in which he treats of the seasons on the planets. It is
contained in the No. of the 15th January, 1856, of the "Revue
des Deux Mondes," and I will give the chief substance of it
here in translation. The object of it is to refer to its direct
cause the well-known fact, that cereals only thrive in temperate
climates. "If grain did not necessarily perish in winter, if it
were perennial, it would not bear ears, and there would be no
harvest. In the hotter portions of Africa, Asia and America,
where no winter kills the grain, these plants grow like grass
with us: they multiply by means of shoots, remain always green,
and neither form ears nor run to seed. In cold climates, on the
contrary, the organism of these plants seems by some inconceivable
miracle to feel, as it were by anticipation, the necessity of
passing through the seed-phase in order to escape dying off in the
winter season" (_L'organisme de la plante_, par un inconcevable
miracle, _semble préssentir la nécessité de passer par l'état
de graine, pour ne pas périr complètement pendant la saison
rigoureuse_). In a similar way, districts which have a "droughty
season,"--that is to say a season in which all plants are parched
up with drought--"tropical countries, for instance Jamaica,
produce grain; because there the plant, moved by the same organic
presentiment (_par le même_ pressentiment organique), in order
to multiply, hastens to bear seed at the approach of the season
in which it would have to dry up." In the fact which this author
describes as an inconceivable miracle, we recognise a manifestation
of the plant's will in increased potency, since here it appears as
the will of the species, and makes preparations for the future in a
similar way to animal instinct, without being guided by knowledge
of that future in doing so. Here we see plants in warmer climates
dispensing with a complicated process to which a cold climate alone
had obliged them. In similar instances animals do precisely the
same thing, especially bees. Leroy in his admirable work "Lettres
Philosophiques sur l'Intelligence des Animaux" (3rd letter, p.
231) relates, that some bees which had been taken to South America
continued at first to gather honey as usual and to build their
cells just as when they were at home; but that when they gradually
became aware that plants blossom there all the year round, they
left off working. The animal world supplies a fact analogous to the
above mentioned change in the mode of multiplying in cereals. This
is the abnormal mode of propagation for which the _aphides_ have
long been noted. The female _aphide_, as is well known, propagates
for 10-12 generations without any pairing with the male, and by a
variety of the ovoviviparous process. This goes on all summer; but
in autumn the males appear, impregnation takes place, and eggs are
laid as winter quarters for the whole species, since it is only in
this shape that it is able to outlive the winter. (Add. to 3rd ed.)
Finally I will not omit to observe, that even so early an authority as
Plato[256] had attributed desires, ἐπιθυμίας, _i.e._ _will_, to plants.
In my chief work,[257] however, I have entered into the doctrines of
the Ancients on this point, and the chapter there which treats of this
subject may on the whole serve to complete the present one.
[256] Plat. "Tim." p. 403. Bip.
[257] "Die Welt a. W. u. V." vol. ii. chap. 23.
The reluctance and reserve with which we see the authors here quoted
make up their minds to acknowledge the will, which nevertheless
undoubtedly manifests itself in plants, comes from their being still
hampered by the old opinion, that consciousness is a requisite
and condition of the will: now it is evident that plants have no
consciousness. The thought never entered into the heads of these
naturalists, that the will might be the _prius_ and therefore
independent of the intellect, with which, as the _posterius_,
consciousness first makes its appearance. As for knowledge or
representation, plants have something merely analogous to it, a mere
substitute for it; whereas they really have the will itself quite
directly: for, as the thing in itself, it is the substratum of their
phenomenal being as well as of every other. Taking a realistic view,
starting accordingly from the objective, the matter might even be
stated as follows: That which lives and moves in plant-nature and
in the animal organism, when it has gradually enhanced itself in
the scale of beings sufficiently for the light of knowledge to fall
directly upon it, presents itself in this newly arising consciousness
as _will_, and is here more immediately, consequently better, known
than anywhere else. This knowledge therefore must supply the key for
the comprehension of all that is lower in the scale. For in this
knowledge the thing in itself is no longer veiled by any other form
than that of the most immediate apprehension. It is this immediate
apprehension of one's own volition which has been called the inner
sense. In itself the will is without apprehension, and remains so in
the inorganic and vegetable kingdoms. Just as the world would remain
in darkness, in spite of the sun, if there were no bodies to reflect
its light; or as the mere vibration of a string can never become a
sound without air or even without some sort of sounding-board: so
likewise does the will first become conscious of itself when knowledge
is added to it. Knowledge is, as it were, the sounding-board of the
will, and consciousness the tone it produces. This becoming conscious
of itself on the part of the will, was attributed to a supposed
inner sense, because it is the first and most direct knowledge we
have. The various emotions of our own will can alone be the object
of this inner sense; for the process of representation itself cannot
over again be perceived, but, at the very utmost, only be once more
brought to consciousness in rational reflection, that second power
of representing: that is, _in abstracto_. Therefore also, simple
representation (intuition) is to thinking proper--that is, to knowing
by means of abstract conceptions--what willing in itself is to becoming
aware of that willing, _i.e._ to consciousness. For this reason,
a perfectly clear and distinct consciousness, not only of our own
existence but also of the existence of others, only arises with the
advent of Reason (the faculty for conceptions), which raises Man as far
above the brute, as the merely intuitive faculty of representation
raises the brute above the plant. Now beings which, like plants, have
no faculty for representation, are called unconscious, and we conceive
this condition as only slightly differing from non-existence; since the
only existence such beings have, is in the consciousness of others,
as the representation of those others. They are nevertheless not
wanting in what is primary in existence, the will, but only in what is
secondary; still, what is primary--and this is after all the existence
of the thing in itself--appears to us, without that secondary element,
to pass over into nullity. We are unable directly and clearly to
distinguish unconscious existence from non-existence, although we have
our own experience of it in deep sleep.
Bearing in mind, according to the contents of the last chapter, that
the faculty of knowing, like every other organ, has only arisen for the
purpose of self-preservation, and that it therefore stands in a precise
relation, admitting of countless gradations, to the requirements of
each animal species; we shall understand that plants, having so very
much fewer requirements than animals, no longer need any knowledge at
all. On this account precisely, as I have often said, knowledge is the
true characteristic which denotes the limits of animality, because of
the movement induced by motives which it conditions. Where animal life
ceases, there knowledge proper, with whose essence our own experience
has made us familiar, disappears; and henceforth analogy is our only
way of making that which mediates between the influence of the outer
world and the movements of beings intelligible to us. The will, on the
other hand, which we have recognised as being the basis and kernel
of every existing thing, remains one and the same at all times and
in all places. Now, in the lower degree occupied by plant-life and
by the vegetative life of animal organisms, it is the _stimulus_
which takes the place of knowledge as a means of determining the
individual manifestations of this omnipresent will and as a mediator
between the outer world and the changes of such a being; finally, in
inorganic Nature, it is _physical agency in general_; and when, as
here, observation takes place from a higher to a lower degree, both
stimulus and physical agency present themselves as substitutes for
knowledge, therefore as mere analogues to it. Plants cannot properly
be said to perceive light and the sun; yet we see them sensitive in
various ways to the presence or absence of both. We see them incline
and turn towards the light; and though this movement no doubt generally
coincides with their growth, just as the moon's rotation on its axis
coincides with its movement round the earth, it nevertheless exists,
as well as that of the moon, and the direction of that growth is
determined and systematically modified by light, just as an action
is determined by a motive, and as the direction of the growth of
creeping and clinging plants is determined by the shape and position
of the supports they may chance to find. Thus because plants on the
whole, still have wants, though not such wants as demand the luxury
of a sensorium and an intellect, something analogous has to take the
place of these, in order to enable the will to lay hold of, if not to
seek out, the satisfactions which offer themselves to it. Now, this
analogous substitute is susceptibility for stimuli, and I would express
the difference between knowledge and this susceptibility as follows:
in knowledge, the motive which presents itself as representation and
the act of volition which follows from it, _remain distinctly separate
one from the other_, this separation moreover being the more distinct,
the greater the perfection of the intellect;--whereas, in mere
susceptibility for stimuli, the feeling of the stimulus can no longer
be distinguished from the volition it occasions, and they coalesce. In
inorganic nature finally, even susceptibility for stimuli, the analogy
of which to knowledge is unmistakable, ceases, but the diversity of
reaction of each body upon divers kinds of action remains; now, when
the matter is considered, as we are doing, in the descending scale,
this reaction still presents itself, even here, as a substitute for
knowledge. If a body reacts differently, it must have been acted upon
differently and that action must have roused a different sensation in
it, which with all its dullness has nevertheless a distant analogy
to knowledge. Thus when water that is shut up finds an outlet of
which it eagerly avails itself, rushing vehemently in that direction,
it certainly does not recognise that outlet any more than the acid
perceives the alkali approaching it which will induce it to abandon
its combination with a metal, or than the strip of paper perceives
the amber which attracts it after being rubbed; yet we cannot help
admitting that what brings about such sudden changes in all these
bodies, bears a certain resemblance to that which takes place within
us, when an unexpected motive presents itself. In former times I have
availed myself of such considerations as these in order to point out
the will in all things; I now employ them to indicate the sphere to
which knowledge presents itself as belonging, when considered, not as
is usual from the inside, but realistically, from a standpoint outside
itself, as if it were something foreign: that is, when we gain the
objective point of view for it, which is so extremely important in
order to complete the subjective one.[258] We find that knowledge then
presents itself as the _mediator of motives_, _i.e._ of the action of
causality upon beings endowed with intellect--in other words, as that
which receives the changes from outside upon which those in the inside
must follow, as that which acts as mediator between both. Now upon this
narrow line hovers _the world as representation_--that is to say, the
whole corporeal world, stretched out in Space and Time, which _as such_
can never exist anywhere but in the brain any more than dreams, which,
as long as they last, exist in the same way. What the intellect does
for animals and for man, as the mediator of motives, susceptibility for
stimuli does for plants, and susceptibility for every sort of cause
for inorganic bodies: and strictly speaking, all this differs merely
in degree. For, exclusively as a consequence of this susceptibility to
outward impressions having enhanced itself in animals proportionately
to their requirements till it has reached the point where a nervous
system and a brain become necessary, does consciousness arise as a
function of that brain, and in it the objective world, whose forms
(Time, Space, Causality) are the way in which that function is
performed. Therefore we find the intellect originally laid out entirely
with a view to subjectivity, destined merely to serve the purposes of
the will, consequently as something quite secondary and subordinate;
nay, in a sense, as something which appears only _per accidens_; as a
condition of the action of mere motives, instead of stimuli, which has
become necessary in the higher degree of animal existence. The image of
the world in Space and Time, which thus arises, is only the map[259]
on which the motives present themselves as ends. It also conditions
the spacial and causal connection in which the objects perceived stand
to one another; nevertheless it is only the mediating link between the
motive and the act of volition. Now, to take such an image as this of
the world, arising in this manner, accidentally, in the intellect,
_i.e._ in the cerebral function of animal beings, through the means to
their ends being represented and the path of these ephemera on their
planet being thus illumined--to take this image, we say, this mere
cerebral phenomenon, for the true, ultimate essence of things (thing
in itself), to take the concatenation of its parts for the absolute
order of the Universe (relations between things in themselves), and to
assume all this to exist even independently of the brain, would indeed
be a leap! Here in fact, an assumption such as this must appear to us
as the height of rashness and presumption; yet it is the foundation
upon which all the systems of pre-Kantian _dogmatism_ have been built
up; for it is tacitly pre-supposed in all their Ontology, Cosmology and
Theology, as well as in the _æternæ veritates_ to which they appeal.
But that leap had always been made tacitly and unconsciously, and it
is precisely Kant's immortal achievement, to have brought it to our
consciousness.
[258] Compare "Die Welt a. W. u. V." vol. ii. chap. 22: "Objective
View of the Intellect."
[259] _Plan._
By our present realistic way of considering the matter therefore,
we unexpectedly gain the _objective stand-point_ for Kant's great
discoveries; and, by the road of empirico-physiological contemplation,
we arrive at the point whence his transcendental-critical view starts.
For Kant's view takes the subjective for its standpoint and considers
consciousness as given. But from consciousness itself and its law
and order, given _à priori_, that view arrives at the conclusion,
that all which appears in that consciousness can be nothing more than
mere phenomenon. From our realistic, exterior standpoint, on the
contrary, which assumes the _objective_--all that exists in Nature--to
be absolutely given, we see what the intellect is, as to its aim and
origin, and to which class of phenomena it belongs, and we recognise
(so far _à priori_) that it _must_ be limited to mere phenomena. We see
too, that what presents itself in the intellect can at all times only
be conditioned--chiefly _subjectively_--that is, can, together with
the order of the nexus of its parts, only be a _mundus phenomenon_,
which is likewise subjectively conditioned; but that it can never be
a knowledge of things as they may be in themselves, or as they may be
connected in themselves. For, in the nexus of Nature, we have found
the faculty of knowing as a conditioned faculty, whose assertions,
precisely on that account, cannot claim unconditioned validity. To
anyone who has studied and understood the Critique of Pure Reason--to
which our standpoint is essentially foreign--it must nevertheless still
appear as if Nature had intended the intellect for a puzzle-glass
to mislead us and were playing at hide-and-seek with us. But by our
realistic objective road, _i.e._ by starting from the objective world
as given, we have now come to the very same result at which Kant had
arrived by the idealistic, subjective road, _i.e._ by examining the
intellect itself and the way in which it constitutes consciousness.
We now see that the world as representation hovers on the narrow line
between the external cause (motive) and the effect evoked (act of
the will), in beings having knowledge (animals), in which beings for
the first time there occurs a distinct separation between motive and
voluntary act. _Ita res accendent lumina rebus._ It is only when it is
reached by two quite opposite roads, that the great result attained by
Kant is distinctly seen; and when light is thus thrown upon it from
both sides, his whole meaning becomes clear. Our objective standpoint
is realistic and therefore conditioned, so far as, in taking for
granted the existence of beings in Nature, it abstracts from the fact
that their objective existence postulates an intellect, which contains
them as its representation; but Kant's subjective and idealistic
standpoint is likewise conditioned, inasmuch as he starts from the
intelligence, which itself, however, presupposes Nature, in consequence
of whose development as far as animal life that intelligence is for
the first time enabled to make its appearance.--Keeping steadily to
this realistic, objective standpoint of ours, we may also define Kant's
theory as follows: After Locke, in order to know things in themselves,
had abstracted the share of sensuous functions--called by him secondary
qualities--from things as they appear, Kant with infinitely greater
depth deducted from them the incomparably larger share of the cerebral
function, which includes precisely what Locke calls primary qualities.
But all I have done here has been to show why all this must necessarily
be as it is, by indicating the place occupied by the intellect in the
nexus of Nature, when we start realistically from the objective as
given, but, in doing so, take the only thing of which we are quite
directly conscious, the _will_--that true ποῦ στῶ of Metaphysics--for
our support, as being what is primarily real, everything else being
merely its phenomenon. What now follows serves to complete this.
I have mentioned already, that where knowledge takes place, the motive
which appears as representation and the act of volition resulting
from it, remain _the more clearly separated one from the other_, the
more perfect the intellect; that is, the higher we ascend in the
scale of beings. This calls for fuller explanation. As long as the
will's activity is roused by stimuli alone, and no representation as
yet takes place--that is, in plants--there is no separation at all
between the receiving of impressions and the being determined by them.
In the lowest order of animal intelligence, such as we find it in
_radiaria_, _acalepha_, _acephala_, &c., the difference is still small;
a feeling of hunger, a watchfulness roused by this, an apprehending
and snapping at their prey, still constitute the whole content of
their consciousness; nevertheless this is the first twilight of the
dawning world as representation, the background of which--that is
to say, everything excepting the motive which acts each time--still
remains shrouded in impenetrable darkness. Here moreover the organs
of the senses are correspondingly imperfect and incomplete, having
exceedingly few data for perception to bring to an understanding yet
in embryo. Nevertheless wherever there is sensibility, it is always
accompanied by understanding, _i.e._ with the faculty for referring
effects experienced to external causes; without this, sensibility
would be superfluous and a mere source of aimless suffering. The
higher we ascend in the scale of animals, the greater number and
perfection of the senses we find, till at last we have all five; these
are found in a small number of invertebrate animals, but they only
become universal in the _vertebrata_. The brain and its function, the
understanding, develop proportionately, and the object now gradually
presents itself more and more distinctly and completely and even
already in connection with other objects; because the service of the
will requires apprehension of the mutual relations of objects. By this
the world of representation acquires some extent and background. Still
that apprehension never goes beyond what is required for the will's
service: the apprehending and the being roused to reaction by what is
apprehended, are not clearly held asunder: the object is only perceived
in as much as it is a motive. Even the more sagacious animals only
see in objects what concerns themselves, what has reference to their
will or, at the utmost, what may have reference to it in future: of
this last we have an instance in cats, who take pains to acquire an
accurate knowledge of localities, and in foxes, who endeavour to find
hiding-places for their future prey. But they are insensible towards
everything else; no animal has perhaps ever yet seen the starry sky: my
dog started in terror when for the first time he accidentally caught
sight of the sun. A first faint sign of a disinterested perception of
their surroundings may at times be observed in the most intelligent
animals, especially when they have been trained by taming. Dogs go
so far as to stare at things; we may often see them sit down at the
window and attentively watch all that passes. Monkeys look about them
at times, as if trying to make up their mind about their surroundings.
It is in Man that the separation between motive and action, between
representation and will, first becomes quite distinct. But this
does not immediately put an end to the subservience of the intellect
to the will. Ordinary human beings after all only comprehend quite
clearly that which, in some way or other, refers directly or indirectly
to their own selves (has an interest for them); with respect to
everything else, their understanding continues to be unconquerably
inert; the rest therefore remains in the back-ground and does not come
into consciousness under the radiant light of complete distinctness.
Philosophical astonishment and artistic emotion occasioned by the
contemplation of phenomena, remain eternally foreign to them, whatever
they may do; for at the bottom, everything appears to them to be a
matter of course. Complete liberation and separation of the intellect
from the will and its bondage is the prerogative of genius, as I
have fully shown in the æsthetic part of my chief work. Genius is
objectivity. The pure objectivity and distinctness with which things
present themselves in intuitive perception--that fundamental and most
substantial source of knowledge--actually stands every moment in
inverse proportion to the interest which the will has in those things;
and knowing without willing is the condition, not to say the essence,
of all gifts of æsthetic intelligence. Why does an ordinary artist
produce so bad a painting of yonder landscape, notwithstanding all
the pains he has taken? Because he sees it so. And why does he see
so little beauty in it? Because his intellect has not freed itself
sufficiently from his will. The degrees of this separation give rise
to great intellectual distinctions between men; for the more knowledge
has freed itself from the will, the purer, consequently the more
objective and correct, it is; just as that fruit is best, which has no
after-taste of the soil on which it has grown.
This relation, as important as it is interesting, deserves surely to
be made still clearer by a retrospective view of the whole scale
of beings, and by recalling the gradual transition from absolute
subjectivity to the highest degrees of objectivity in the intellect.
Inorganic Nature namely, is absolutely subjective, no trace whatever of
consciousness of an outer world being found in it. Stones, boulders,
ice-blocks, even when they fall upon one another, or knock or rub
against one another, have no consciousness of each other and of an
outer world. Still even these are susceptible to external influence,
which causes their position and movement to change and may therefore
be considered as a first step towards consciousness. Now, although
plants also have no consciousness of the outer world, and although the
mere analogue of a consciousness which exists in them must, on the
contrary, be conceived as a dull self-enjoyment; yet we see that they
all seek light, and that many of them turn their flowers or leaves
daily towards the sun, while creepers find their way to supports
with which they are not in contact; and finally we see individual
kinds of plants show even a sort of irritability. Unquestionably
therefore, there is a connection and relation between their movements
and surroundings, even those with which they are not in immediate
contact; and this connection we must accordingly recognise as a
faint analogue to perception. With animal life first appears decided
perception--that is, consciousness of other things, as opposed to
that clear consciousness of ourselves to which that consciousness of
other things first gives rise. This constitutes precisely the true
character of animal-nature, as opposed to plant-nature. In the lowest
animals, consciousness of the outer world is very limited and dim: each
increasing degree of understanding extends it and makes it clearer,
and this gradual increase of the understanding again adapts itself
to the gradually increasing requirements of the animal, and thus the
process continues through the whole long ascending scale of the animal
series up to Man, in whom consciousness of the outer world reaches
its acme, and in whom the world accordingly presents itself more
distinctly and completely than in any other being. Still, even here,
there are innumerable degrees in the clearness of consciousness,
from the dullest blockhead to genius. Even in normal heads there
still remains a considerable tinge of subjectivity in their objective
perception of external objects, knowledge still bearing throughout
the character of existing merely for the ends of the will. The more
eminent the head, the less prominent is this character, and the more
purely objective does the representation of the outer world become;
till in genius finally it attains completely objectivity, by which the
Platonic ideas detach themselves from the individual things, because
the mind which comprehends them enhances itself to the pure subject
of knowledge. Now, as perception is the basis of all knowledge, all
thinking and all insight must be influenced by this fundamental
difference in the quality of it, from which arises that complete
difference between the ordinary and the superior mind in their whole
way of viewing things, which may be noticed on all occasions. From this
also proceeds the dull gravity, nearly resembling that of animals,
which characterizes common-place heads whose knowledge is acquired
solely for the benefit of the will, as opposed to the constant play
of exuberant intellect which brightens the consciousness of the
superior mind. The consideration of the two extremes in the great
scale which we have here exhibited, seems to have given rise to the
German hyperbolical expression "_Block_" (_Klotz_), as applied to human
beings, and to the English "blockhead."
But another different consequence of the clear separation of the will
from the intellect--therefore of the motive from the action,--which
first appears in the human race, is the deceptive illusion of freedom
in our individual actions. Where, as in inorganic nature, causes,
or, as in the vegetable kingdom, stimuli, call forth the effect,
the causal connection is so simple, that there is not even the
slightest semblance of freedom. But already in animal life, where
that which till then had manifested itself as cause or as stimulus,
now appears as a _motive_--and a new world, that of representation,
consequently presents itself, and cause and effect lie in different
spheres--the causal connection between both, and with it the necessity,
are less evident than they were in plants and in inorganic Nature.
Nevertheless they are still unmistakable in animals, whose merely
intuitive representation stands midway between organic functions
induced by stimuli and the deliberate acts of Man. The animal's actions
infallibly follow as soon as the perceptible motive is present,
unless counter-acted by some equally perceptible counter-motive or by
training; yet here representation is already distinct from the act of
volition and comes separately into consciousness. But in Man--whose
representation has enhanced itself even to abstract conception and
who now derives motives and counter-motives for his actions from a
whole invisible thought-world which he carries about with him in his
brain and which makes him independent of presence and of perceptible
surroundings--this connection no longer exists at all for observation
from outside, and even for inward observation it is only knowable
through abstract and mature reflection. For these abstract motives,
when observed from outside, give an impress of deliberation to all
his movements, by which they acquire a semblance of independence
that manifestly distinguishes them from those of animals, yet which
after all only bears evidence to the fact, that Man is actuated by a
class of representations in which animals do not share. Then again,
in self-consciousness, the act of volition is known to us in the
most immediate way, but the motive in most cases very indirectly,
being often even intentionally veiled, out of consideration for
our self-knowledge. This process therefore, in coincidence with the
consciousness of that true freedom which belongs to the will, as thing
in itself outside phenomenon, produces the deceptive illusion that
even the single act of volition is unconditioned and free: that is,
without a reason; whereas, when the character is given and the motive
recognised, every act of volition really follows with the same strict
necessity as the changes of which mechanics teach us the laws, and, to
use Kant's words, were character and motive exactly known, might be
calculated with precisely the same certainty as an eclipse of the moon;
or again, to place a very heterogeneous authority by the side of Kant,
as Dante says, who is older than Buridan:--
"Intra duo cibi distanti e moventi
D'un modo, prima si morria di fame
Che liber' uomo l'un recasse a' denti."
_Paradiso_, iv. 1.[260]
[260]
Between two kinds of food, both equally
Remote and tempting, first a man might die
Of hunger, ere he one could freely chuse. (_Cary's Tr._)
PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY.
No part of my doctrine could I have less hoped to see corroborated
by empirical science than that, in which the fundamental truth, that
Kant's thing in itself (_Ding an sich_) is the Will, is applied by me
even to inorganic Nature, and in which I show the active principle in
all fundamental forces of Nature to be absolutely identical with what
is known to us within ourselves as the Will.--It has therefore been
particularly gratifying to me to have found that an eminent empiricist,
yielding to the force of truth, had gone so far as to express this
paradox in the exposition of his scientific doctrine. I allude to Sir
John Herschel and to his "Treatise on Astronomy," the first edition of
which appeared in 1833, and a second enlarged one in 1849, under the
title "Outlines of Astronomy." Herschel,--who, as an astronomer, was
acquainted with gravity, not only in the one-sided and really coarse
part which it acts on earth, but also in the nobler one performed by it
in universal Space, where the celestial bodies play with each other,
betray mutual inclination, exchange as it were amorous glances, yet
never allow themselves to come into rude contact, and thus continue
dancing their dignified minuet to the music of the spheres, while
they keep at a respectful distance from one another--when he comes to
the statement of the law of gravitation in the seventh chapter,[261]
expresses himself as follows:--
[261] Herschel, "Treatise on Astronomy," chap. 7, § 371 of the
1st edition, 1833.
"All bodies with which we are acquainted, when raised into the air
and quietly abandoned, descend to the earth's surface in lines
perpendicular to it. They are therefore urged thereto by a force or
effort, the direct or indirect result of a consciousness and a will
existing somewhere, though beyond our power to trace, which force we
term _gravity_."[262]
[262] Even Copernicus had said the same thing long before
"_Equidem existimo Gravitatem non aliud esse quam appetentiam
quandam naturalem, partibus inditam a divina providentia
opificis universorum, ut in unitatem integritatemque suam se
conferant, in formam Globi coeuntes. Quam affectionem credibile
est etiam Soli, Lunæ cæterisque errantium fulgoribus, inesse,
ut ejus efficacia, in ea qua se repraesentant rotunditate
permaneant; quæ nihilominus multis modis suos efficiunt
circuitus_" ("Nicol. Copernici revol." Lib. I, Cap. IX. Compare
"Exposition des Découvertes de M. le Chevalier Newton par M.
Maclaurin; traduit de l'Anglois par M. Lavirotte," Paris, 1749,
p. 45). Herschel evidently saw, that if we hesitate to explain
gravity, as Descartes did, by an impulse from outside, we are
absolutely driven to admit a will inherent in bodies, _Non datur
tertium_. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
The writer who reviewed Herschel's book in the October number of the
"Edinburgh Review" of 1833, anxious, as a true Englishman, before
all things to prevent the Mosaic record[263] from being imperilled,
takes great umbrage at this passage, rightly observing that it cannot
refer to the will of God Almighty, who has called Matter and all its
properties into being; he utterly refuses to recognise the validity of
the proposition itself, and denies that it follows consistently from
the preceding § upon which Herschel wishes to found it. My opinion
is, that it undoubtedly would logically follow from that § (because
the contents of a conception are determined by its origin), but that
the antecedent itself is false. It asserts namely, that the origin
of the conception of causality is experience, more especially such
experience as we ourselves make in acting by means of our own efforts
upon bodies belonging to the outer world. It is only in countries like
England, where the light of Kantian philosophy has not yet begun to
dawn, that the conception of causality can be thought of as originating
in experience (professors of philosophy who pooh-pooh Kant's doctrines
and think me beneath their notice being left out of the question);
least of all can it be thought of by those who are acquainted with my
proof of the _à priority_ of that conception, which differs completely
from Kant's proof and rests upon the fact, that knowledge of causality
must necessarily precede all perception of the outer world itself as
its condition; since perception is only brought about through the
_transition_--effected by the understanding--from the sensation in
the organ of sense to its _cause_, which cause now presents itself
as an _object_ in Space, itself likewise an _à priori_ intuition.
Now, as the perception of objects must be anterior to our conscious
action upon them, the experience of that conscious action cannot be
the origin of the conception of causality; for, before I can act upon
things, they must first have acted upon me as motives. I have entered
fully into all that has to do with this in my chief work,[264] and
in the second edition of my treatise on the Principle of Sufficient
Reason, § 21,[265] where the assumption adopted by Herschel finds
special refutation; it is therefore useless to enter into it once more
here. But it would be even quite possible to refute this assumption
empirically, since it would necessarily follow from it, that a man
who came into the world without arms or legs, could never attain any
knowledge of causality or perception of the outer world. Now Nature has
effectually disproved this by a case, of which I have reproduced the
account from its original source in the above-mentioned chapter of my
chief work, p. 40.[266]--In this assertion of Herschel's therefore, we
have another instance of a right conclusion drawn from wrong premisses.
Now this always happens when we have obtained immediate insight into
a truth by a right _aperçu_ but are at a loss to find out and clearly
define our reasons for knowing it, owing to our inability to bring them
to clear consciousness. For, in all original insight, conviction exists
before proof: the proof being invariably excogitated afterwards.
[263] Which he has more at heart than all the wisdom and truth
in the world. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[264] See "Die Welt a. W, u. V." vol. ii. ch. 4, pp. 38-42 (3rd
edition, pp. 41-46).
[265] P. 74 (3rd edition, p. 79), p. 92 of the translation in
the present volume.
[266] 3rd edition, p. 44.
The immediate manifestation of gravity is more evident in each part of
liquid, than of solid, matter, owing to the perfect freedom of motion
of the parts among each other. In order therefore to penetrate into
this _aperçu_, which is the true source of Herschel's assertion, let
us look attentively at a torrent dashing headlong over rocks and ask
ourselves whether so determined an impetus, so boisterous a vehemence,
can arise without an exertion of strength, and whether an exertion
of strength is conceivable without will. And so it is precisely in
every case in which we become aware of anything moving spontaneously,
of any primary, uncommunicated force: we are constrained to think
its innermost essence as will.--This much at any rate is certain,
that Herschel, like all the empiricists in so many different branches
of science whose evidence I have quoted above, had arrived here at
the limit where nothing more is left behind the Physical but the
Metaphysical; that this had brought him to a standstill, and that he,
as well as the rest of them, was unable to find anything beyond that
limit, but the _will_.
Herschel moreover, like most of these empiricists, is here still
hampered by the opinion that will is inseparable from consciousness.
As I have expatiated enough above upon this fallacy, and its correction
through my doctrine, it is needless for me to enter into it here again.
The attempt has repeatedly been made, since the beginning of this
century, to ascribe _vitality_ to the inorganic world. Quite wrongly:
for living and inorganic are convertible conceptions, and with death
the organic ceases to be organic. But no limit in the whole of Nature
is so sharply drawn as the line which separates the organic from the
inorganic: that is to say, the line between the region in which Form is
the essential and permanent, Matter the accidental and changing,--and
the region in which this relation is entirely reversed. This is no
vacillating boundary like that perhaps between animals and plants,
between solid and liquid, between gas and steam: to endeavour to
destroy it therefore, is intentionally to bring confusion into our
ideas. On the other hand, I am the first who has asserted that a
_will_ must be attributed to all that is lifeless and inorganic. For,
with me, the will is not, as has hitherto been assumed, an accident
of cognition and therefore of life: but life itself is manifestation
of will. Knowledge, on the contrary, is really an accident of life,
and life of Matter. But Matter itself is only the perceptibility of
the phenomena of the will. Therefore we are compelled to recognise
_volition_ in every effort or tendency which proceeds from the nature
of a material body, and properly speaking constitutes that nature, or
manifests itself as phenomenon by means of that nature; and there can
consequently be no Matter without manifestation of will. The lowest
and on that account most universal manifestation of will is _gravity_,
wherefore it has been called a primary and essential property of Matter.
The usual view of Nature assumes _two_ fundamentally different
principles of motion, therefore it supposes that the movement of a
body may have _two different origins_: _i.e._, that it proceeds either
from the inside, in which case it is attributed to the _will_; or from
the outside, and then it is occasioned by _causes_. This principle
is generally taken for granted as a matter of course and only
occasionally brought explicitly into prominence; nevertheless, in order
to make the case quite certain, I will point out a few passages from
the earliest to the latest authors in which it is specially stated.
In Phædrus,[267] Plato makes the distinction between that which moves
spontaneously from inside (_soul_) and that which receives movement
only from outside (_body_)--τὸ ὑφ' ἑαυτοῦ κινούμενον καὶ τό, ᾧ ἔξωθεν
τὸ κινεῖσθαι.[268]--Aristotle establishes the principle in precisely
the same way: ἅπαν τὸ φερόμενον ἢ ὑφ' ἑαυτοῦ κινεῖται, ἢ ὐπ' ἄλλου
(_quidquid fertur a se movetur, aut ab alio_).[269] He returns to the
subject in the next Book, chap. 4 and 5, and connects it with some
explanatory details which lead him into considerable perplexity, on
account precisely of the fallacy of the antithesis.[270]--In more
recent times again J. J. Rousseau brings forward the same antithesis
with great _naïveté_ and candour in his famous "Profession de foi
du vicaire Savoyard:"[271] "_J'aperçois dans les corps deux sortes
de mouvement, savoir: mouvement communiqué et mouvement spontané ou
volontaire: dans le premier la cause motrice est étrangère au corps
mû; et dans le second elle est en lui-même._"--But even in our time
and in the stilted, puffed-up style which is peculiar to it, Burdach
holds forth as follows:[272] "The cause that determines a movement
lies either inside or outside of that which moves. Matter is external
existence; it has powers of motion, but it only brings them into play
under certain spacial conditions and external oppositions: the soul
alone is an ever active and internal thing, and only those bodies which
have souls find within themselves inducement to move, and move of their
own free will, independently of outer mechanical circumstances."
[267] Plato, "Phæd." p. 319 Bip.
[268] "That which is moved by itself and that which is moved
from outside." [Tr.] And we find the same distinction again in
the 10th Book "De Legibus," p. 85. [After him Cicero repeats it
in the two last chapters of his "Somnium Scipionis." Add. to 3rd
ed.]
[269] "All that is moved, is moved either by itself or by
something else." [Tr.] Aristotle, "Phys." vii. 2.
[270] Maclaurin, too, in his account of Newton's discoveries, p.
102, lays down this principle as his starting-point. [Add. to
3rd ed.]
[271] Émile, iv. p. 27. Bip.
[272] Burdach, "Physiologie," vol. iv. p. 323.
Now here however I must say, as Abélard once did: _si omnes patres
sic, at ego non sic_: for, in opposition to this principle, however
great may be its antiquity and universality, my doctrine maintains,
that there are _not_ two origins of movement differing fundamentally
from one another; that movement does _not_ proceed either from inside,
when it is ascribed to the will, or from outside, when it is brought
about by causes; but that both things are inseparable and take place
simultaneously with every movement made by a body. For movement which
is admitted to arise from the _will_, always presupposes a _cause_
also: this cause, in beings that have knowledge, is a _motive_; but
without it, even in these beings, movement is impossible. On the other
hand, the movement of a body which is admitted to have been brought
about by an outward _cause_, is nevertheless in itself a manifestation
of the _will_ of that body which has only been evoked by that cause.
Accordingly there is only one, uniform, universal and exceptionless
principle of all movement, whose inner condition is _will_ and whose
outer occasion is _cause_, which latter may also take the form of a
_stimulus_ or of a _motive_, according to the nature of the thing moved.
All that is known to us of things in a merely empirical or _à
posteriori_, way, is in itself _will_; whereas, so far as they can be
determined _à priori_, things belong exclusively to _representation_,
to mere phenomenon. Natural phenomena therefore become proportionately
less easy to comprehend, the more distinctly the will manifests itself
in them, _i.e._ the higher they stand on the scale of beings; whereas,
they become more and more comprehensible the smaller the amount of
their empirical content, because they remain more and more within the
sphere of mere representation, the forms of which, known to us _à
priori_, are the principle of comprehensibility. Accordingly, it is
only so long as we limit ourselves to this sphere--that is to say,
only when we have before us mere representation, mere form without
empirical content--that our comprehension is complete and thorough:
that is, in the _à priori_ sciences, Arithmetic, Geometry, Phoronomy
and Logic. Here everything is in the highest degree comprehensible;
our insight is quite clear and satisfactory: it leaves nothing to be
desired, since we are even unable to conceive that anything could be
otherwise than it is. This comes from our having here exclusively to
do with the forms of our own intellect. Thus the more we are able to
comprehend in a relation, the more it consists of mere phenomenon and
the less it has to do with the thing in itself. Applied Mathematics,
Mechanics, Hydraulics, &c. &c., deal with the lowest degrees of
objectification of the will, in which the largest part still remains
within the sphere of mere representation; nevertheless even here
there is already an empirical element which stands in the way of
entire comprehension, which makes the transparency less complete, and
in which the inexplicable shows itself. For the same reason, only
few departments of Physics and of Chemistry continue to admit of a
mathematical treatment; whereas higher up in the scale of beings
this has to be entirely done away with, precisely because of the
preponderance of content over form in these phenomena. This content is
will, the _à posteriori_, the thing in itself, the free, the causeless.
Under the heading "Physiology of Plants," I have shown how--in beings
that live and have knowledge--motive and act of will, representation
and volition, separate and detach themselves more and more distinctly
one from the other, the higher we ascend in the scale of beings. Now,
in inorganic Nature also, the cause separates itself from the effect in
just the same proportion, and the purely empirical--which is precisely
phenomenon of the will--detaches itself more and more prominently;
but, just with this, comprehensibility diminishes. This point merits
fuller investigation, and I request my readers to give their whole and
undivided attention to what I am about to say, as it is calculated to
place the leading thought of my doctrine in the strongest possible
light, both as to comprehensibility and cogency. But this is all I can
do; for it is beyond my power to induce my contemporaries to prefer
thoughts to verbiage; I can only console myself for not being the man
of the age.
On the lowest step of the scale of Nature, cause and effect are quite
homogeneous and quite equivalent. Here therefore we have perfect
comprehension of the causal connection: for instance, the cause of the
movement of one ball propelled by impact, is the movement of another,
which loses just as much movement as the first one receives. Here
causality is in the highest degree intelligible. What notwithstanding
still remains mysterious, is restricted to the possibility of the
passage of movement--of a thing incorporeal--from one body to another.
The receptivity of bodies in this mode is so slight, that the effect
to be produced has to pass over completely from its cause. The same
holds good of all purely mechanical influences; and if they are not
all just as instantaneously understood, it is either because they
are hidden from us by accessory circumstances, or because we are
confused by the complicated connection of many causes and effects.
In itself, mechanical causality is everywhere equally, that is, in
the highest degree, comprehensible; because cause and effect do not
differ here as to _quality_, and because where they differ as to
_quantity_, as in the lever, mere Space and Time relations suffice to
make the thing clear. But as soon as weights come also into play, a
second mysterious element supervenes, _gravity_: and, where elastic
bodies are concerned, _elasticity_ also.--Things change as soon as we
begin to ascend in the scale of phenomena. Heat, considered as cause,
and expansion, liquefaction, volatilization or crystallization, as
effects, are not homogeneous; therefore their causal connection is
not intelligible. The comprehensibility of causality has diminished:
what a lower degree of heat caused to liquefy, a higher degree makes
evaporate: that which crystallizes with less heat, melts when the
heat is augmented. Warmth softens wax and hardens clay; light whitens
wax and blackens chloride of silver. And, to go still further, when
two salts are seen to decompose each other mutually and to form two
new ones, elective affinity presents itself to us as an impenetrable
mystery, and the properties of the two new bodies are not a combination
of the properties of their separate elements. Nevertheless we are still
able to follow the process and to indicate the elements out of which
the new bodies are formed; we can even separate what has been united
and restore the original quantities. Thus noticeable heterogeneousness
and incommensurability between cause and effect have here made their
appearance: causality has become more mysterious. And this becomes
still more apparent when we compare the effects of electricity or of
the Voltaic pile with their causes, _i.e._ with the friction of glass,
or the piling and oxidation of the plates. Here all similarity between
cause and effect at once vanishes; causality becomes shrouded in a
thick veil, which men like Davy, Faraday and Ampère have strenuously
endeavoured to lift. The only thing now discernible through that
veil, are the laws ruling its mode of action, which may be brought
into a schema such as + E - E, communication, distribution, shock,
ignition, analysis, charging, isolation, discharging, electric current,
&c. &c., to this schema we are able to reduce and even to direct the
effect; but of the process itself we know nothing: that remains an
_x_. Here therefore cause and effect are completely heterogeneous,
their connection is unintelligible, and we see bodies show great
susceptibility to causal influences, the nature of which remains a
secret for us. Moreover in proportion as we mount higher in the scale,
the effect seems to contain more, the cause less. When we reach organic
Nature therefore, in which the phenomenon of life presents itself,
this is the case in a far higher degree still. If, as is done in
China, we fill a pit with decaying wood, cover it with leaves from the
same tree as the wood, and pour a solution of sulphur repeatedly over
it, an abundant crop of edible mushrooms will spring up. A world of
rapidly moving _infusoria_ will arise from a little hay well watered.
What a difference lies here between effect and cause! How much more
does the former seem to contain than the latter! When we compare the
seed, sometimes centuries, nay even thousands of years old, with the
tree, or the soil with the specifically and strikingly different
juices of innumerable plants--some healthy, some poisonous, some again
nutritious--which spring from the same earth, upon which the same
sun shines and the same rain falls, all resemblance ceases, and with
it all comprehensibility for us. For here causality already appears
in increased potency: that is, as stimulus and as susceptibility for
stimulus. The schema of cause and effect alone has remained; we know
that this is cause, that effect; but we know nothing whatever of the
nature and disposition of causality. Between cause and effect there
is not only no qualitative resemblance, but no quantitative relation:
the relatively greater importance of the effect as compared with its
cause increases more and more; the effect of the stimulus too does
not augment in proportion with the enhancement of that stimulus; in
fact just the contrary often takes place. Finally, when we come to the
sphere of beings which have knowledge, there is no longer any sort of
resemblance or relation between the action performed and the object
which, as representation, evokes it. Animals, however, as they are
restricted to _perceptible_ representations, still need the _presence_
of the object acting as a motive, which action is then immediate and
infallible (if we leave training, _i.e._ habit enforced by fear, out
of the question). For animals are unable to carry about with them
conceptions that might render them independent of present impressions,
enable them to reflect, and qualify them for deliberate action. Man
can do this. Therefore when at last we come to rational beings, the
motive is even no longer a present, perceptible, actually existing,
real thing, but a mere conception having its present existence only
in the brain of the person who acts, but which is extracted from
many multifarious perceptions, from the experience of former years,
or has been handed down in words. Here the separation between cause
and effect is so wide, the effect has grown so much stronger as
compared with the cause, that the vulgar mind no longer perceives the
existence of a cause at all, and the acts of the will appear to it to
be unconditioned, causeless: that is to say, free. This is just why,
when we reflect upon them from outside, the movements of our own body
present themselves as if they took place without cause, or to speak
more properly, by a miracle. Experience and reflection alone teach
us that these movements, like all others, are only possible as the
effects of causes, here called motives, and that, on this ascending
scale, it is only as to material reality that the cause has failed
to keep pace with the effect; whereas it has kept pace with it as to
dynamical reality, energy.--At this degree of the scale therefore--the
highest in Nature--causality has become less intelligible to us than
ever. Nothing but the bare schema, taken in a quite general sense,
now remains, and the ripest reflection is needed to recognise its
applicability and the necessity that schema brings with it everywhere.
In the Grotto of Pausilippo, darkness continues to augment as we
advance towards the interior; but when once we have passed the middle,
day-light again appears at the other end and shows us the way; so also
in this case: just at the point where the outwardly directed light
of the understanding with its form of causality, gradually yielding
to increasing darkness, had been reduced to a feeble, flickering
glimmer, behold! we are met by a totally different light proceeding
from quite another quarter, from our own inner self, through the
chance circumstance, that we, the judges, happen here to be the
very objects that are to be judged. The growing difficulty of the
comprehension of the causal nexus, at first so clear, had now become
so great for perception and for the understanding--the agent in
it--that, in animal actions, the very existence of that nexus seemed
almost doubtful and those actions appeared to be a sort of miracle.
But, just at this point, the observer receives from his own inner self
the direct information that the agent in them is the will--that very
will, which he knows better and more intimately than anything that
external perception can ever supply. This knowledge alone must be the
philosopher's key to an insight into the heart of all those processes
in unconscious Nature, concerning which causal explanation--although,
here, to be sure, more satisfactory than in the processes last
considered, and the clearer, the farther those processes were removed
from these--nevertheless had still left an unknown _x_, and could never
quite illumine the inside of the process, even in a body propelled
by impact or attracted by gravity. This _x_ had continued expanding
till finally, on the highest degrees of the scale, it had wholly
repelled causal explanation. But then, just when the power of causal
explanation had been reduced to a minimum, that _x_ revealed itself as
_the will_--reminding us of Mephistopheles when, yielding to Faust's
learned exorcisms, he steps forth out of the huge grown poodle whose
kernel he was. In consequence of the considerations I have here set
forth at length, we can surely hardly avoid recognising _the identity
of this x_, even on the lowest degrees of the scale, where it was but
faintly perceptible; then higher up, where it extended its obscurity
more and more; and finally on the highest degrees, where it cast a
shadow upon all things--till, at the very top, it reveals itself to
our consciousness in our own phenomenal being, as _the will_. The
two primarily different sources of our knowledge, that is to say the
inward and the outward source, have to be connected together at this
point by reflection. It is quite exclusively out of this connection
that our comprehension of Nature, and of our own selves arises; but
then the inner side of Nature is disclosed to our intellect, which
by itself alone can never reach further than to the mere outside;
and the mystery which philosophy has so long tried to solve, lies
open before us. For then indeed we clearly see what the Real and the
Ideal (the thing in itself and the phenomenon) properly are; and this
settles the principal question which has engaged the attention of
philosophers since Descartes: that is to say, the question as to the
relation between these two, whose complete diversity Kant had shown
most thoroughly and with unexampled depth, yet whose absolute identity
was immediately afterwards proclaimed by humbugs on the credit of
intellectual intuition. But if we decline to avail ourselves of this
insight, which is really the one strait gate to truth, we can never
acquire comprehension of the intrinsic essence of Nature, to which
absolutely no other road leads; for then indeed we fall into an
irremovable error. Then, as I have already said, we maintain the view,
that motion has two radically different primary principles with a solid
partition-wall between them: _i.e._ movement by means of causes, and
movement by means of the will. The first of these must then remain for
ever incomprehensible as to its innermost essence, because, after all
its explanations, there is still left that unknown _x_ which contains
the more, the higher the object under consideration stands in the scale
of beings; while the second, movement by the will, presents itself
as entirely disconnected from the principle of causality; as without
reason; as freedom in individual actions: in other words, as completely
opposed to Nature and utterly unexplainable. On the other hand, if the
above-mentioned union of our external and internal knowledge has once
been accomplished at the point where both meet, we then recognise two
identities in spite of all accidental differences. That is to say,
we recognise the identity of causality with itself on every degree
of the scale of beings, and the identity of the _x_, which at first
was unknown (_i.e._ of physical forces and vital phenomena), with the
will which is within us. We recognise, I say, firstly the essential
identity of causality under the various forms it is forced to assume
on the different degrees of the scale, as it may manifest itself, now
as a mechanical, chemical, or physical cause, now as a stimulus, and
again as a perceptible or an abstract motive: we know it to be one and
the same, not only when a propelling body loses as much movement as
it imparts by impact, but also when in the combats of thought against
thought, the victorious one, as the more powerful motive, sets Man
in motion, a motion which follows with no less necessity than that
of the ball which is struck. Where we ourselves are the things set
in motion, where therefore the kernel of the process is well and
intimately known to us, instead of allowing ourselves to be dazzled
and confused by this light and thereby losing sight of the causal
connection as it lies before us everywhere else in the whole of Nature;
instead of shutting out this insight for ever, we now apply the new
knowledge we have acquired from within as a key to the knowledge of
things outside us, and then we recognise the second identity, that
of our will with the hitherto mysterious _x_ that remains over after
all causal explanation as an insoluble residue. Consequently we then
say: even in cases in which the effect is brought about by the most
palpable cause, the mysterious _x_ in the process, the real innermost
core of it, the true agent, the _in-itself_ of all phenomena--which,
after all, is only given us as representation and according to the
forms and laws of representation--is essentially one and the same with
what is known to us immediately and intimately as _the will_ in the
actions of our own body, which body is likewise given us as intuition
and representation.--This is (say what you will) the basis of true
philosophy, and if the present age does not see this, many following
ages will. _Tempo è galant' uomo!_ (_se nessun altro_).--Thus, just
as, on the one hand, the essence of causality, which appears most
clearly only on the lowest degree of the objectification of the will,
is recognised by us again at every ascending step, even at the highest;
so also, on the other hand, is the essence of the will recognised by us
at every descending step in that ladder, even at the lowest, although
this knowledge is only immediately acquired at the very highest. The
old error asserts, that where there is will, there is no causality; and
that where there is causality, there is no will. But we say: everywhere
where there is causality, there is will; and no will acts without
causality. The _punctum controversiæ_ therefore, is, whether will and
causality can and must subsist together in one and the same process at
the same time. What makes the knowledge, that this is indeed the case,
so difficult, is the circumstance, that we know causality and will in
two fundamentally different ways: causality entirely from outside,
quite indirectly, quite through the understanding; will entirely from
inside, quite directly; and that accordingly the clearer the knowledge
of the one in each given instance, the less clear is the knowledge
of the other. Therefore we recognise the essence of the will least
readily, where causality is most intelligible; and, where the will is
most unmistakably evident, causality becomes so obscured, that the
vulgar mind could venture to deny its existence altogether.--Now,
as Kant has taught us, causality is nothing but the form of the
understanding itself, knowable _à priori_: that is, the essence of
_representation_, as such, which is one side of the world; the other
side is _will_: which is the thing in itself. That relative increase
and decrease of clearness in inverse proportion of causality and of the
will, that mutual advancing and receding of both, depends consequently
upon the fact, that the more a thing is given us as mere phenomenon,
_i.e._ as representation, the more clearly does the _à priori_ form of
representation, _i.e._ causality, manifest itself: this is the case
in inanimate Nature; conversely, the more immediate our knowledge of
the will, the more does the form of representation recede into the
background: this is the case with ourselves. That is: the nearer one
side of the world approaches to us, the more do we lose sight of the
other.
LINGUISTIC.
All that I have to record under this head is an observation of my
own, made within the last few years, which seems hitherto to have
escaped notice. Yet, that it is worthy of consideration, is attested by
Seneca's utterance:[273] _Mira in quibusdam rebus verborum proprietas
est, et consuetudo sermonis antiqui quædam efficacissimis notis
signat._ Lichtenberg too says: "If one thinks much oneself, one finds
a good deal of wisdom deposited in language. It is hardly likely that
we have laid it all there ourselves, but rather that a great deal of
wisdom really lies there."
[273] Seneca, "Epist." 81.
In many, perhaps in all, languages, the action even of those bodies
which are without intellect, nay of inanimate bodies, is expressed by
the words _to will_, so that the existence of a will in these bodies is
thus taken for granted; but they are never credited with a faculty for
knowing, representing, perceiving or thinking: I know of no expression
which conveys this.
Seneca, when speaking of lightning shot down from heaven, says:[274]
"_In his, ignibus accidit, quod arboribus: quarum cacumina, si tenera
sunt, ita deorsum trahi possunt, ut etiam terram attingant; sed
quum permiseris, in locum suum exsilient. Itaque non est quod eum
spectes cujusque rei habitum, qui illi non_ ex voluntate _est. Si
ignem permittis ire quo velit, cœlum repetet._" In a more general
sense Pliny says: _nec quærenda in ulla parte naturæ ratio, sed
voluntas_.[275] Nor do we find Greek less fertile in instances.
Aristotle, when explaining gravity, says: μικρὸν μὲν μόριον τῆς γῆς,
ἐὰν μετεωρισθὲν ἀφεθῇ, φέρεται, καὶ μένειν οὐκ ἐθέλει (_parva quædam
terræ pars, si elevata dimittitur, neque vult manere_).[276] And:
Δεῖ δὲ ἕκαστον λέγειν τοιοῦτον εἶναι, ὃ φύσει +βούλεται+ εἶναι,
καὶ ὃ ὑπάρχει, ἀλλὰ μὴ ὃ βίᾳ καὶ παρὰ φύσιν (_unumquodque autem tale
dicere oportet, quale naturâ suâ esse vult, et quod est; sed non id
quod violentiâ et præter naturam est_).[277] Of great and more than
merely linguistic importance is what Aristotle says in his "Ethica
magna,"[278] where not only animals, but inanimate beings (fire
striving upwards and earth downwards) are explicitly in question,
and he asserts that they may be obliged to do something contrary to
their nature or their will: παρὰ φύσιν τι, ἢ παρ' ἃ +βούλονται+
ποιεῖν,--and therefore rightly places παρ' ἃ βούλονται as a
paraphrase of παρὰ φύσιν.--Anacreon, in his 29th Ode, εἰς Βάθυλλον,
in ordering the portrait of his lady-love, says of her hair: Ἕλικας
δ' ἐλευθέρους μοι πλοκάμων, ἄτακτα συνθείς, ἄφες, ὡς +θέλωσι+,
κεῖσθαι (_capillorum cirros incomposite jungens, sine utut volunt
jacere_).[279] In German, Bürger says: "_hinab_ will _der Bach, nicht
hinan_" (the brook _will_ go downwards not upwards). In daily life
we constantly hear: "the water boils, it _will_ run over,"--"the
glass _will_ break,"--"the ladder _will_ not stand;"--"_le feu ne_
veut _pas brûler_."--"_la corde, une fois tordue_, veut _toujours se
retordre_."--In English, the verb '_to will_' is even the auxiliary
of the future of all the other verbs, thus expressing the notion,
that there lies a will at the bottom of every action. In English
moreover, the endeavours of all inanimate and unconscious things, are
expressly designated by the word _want_, which denotes every sort of
human desire or endeavour: "the water _wants_ to get out,"--"the steam
_wants_ to find an issue."--In Italian too we have "vuol _piovere_;"
"_quest' orologio non_ vuol _andare_."--The conception of willing
is besides so deeply rooted in this last language, that it seems to
indicate everything that is requisite or necessary: "_ci_ vuol _un
contrappeso_;" "_ci_ vuol _pazienza_."
[274] _Ibid._ "Quæst. nat." ii. 24.
[275] Plin. "Hist. nat." 37, 15.
[276] Aristot. "De Cœlo." ii. c. 13, "If a small particle of earth
is lifted and let loose, it is carried away and will not rest."
[Tr.'s add.]
[277] _Ibid._ c. 14, "But each thing ought to be named as it wills
to be and really is according to its nature, not as it is by force
and contrary to its nature." [Tr.'s add.]
[278] Arist. "Eth. Mag." i. c. 14.
[279] "Let the freely curling locks fall unarranged as they _will_
[_like_]." [Tr.'s add.]
A very striking instance of this is to be found even in Chinese--a
language which differs fundamentally from all those belonging to the
Sanskrit family--it is in the commentary to the Y-King,[280] accurately
rendered by Peter Regis as follows: "_Yang, seu materia cœlestis_, vult
_rursus ingredi, vel_ (_ut verbis doctoris Tsching-tse utar_) vult
_rursus esse in superiore loco; scilicet illius naturæ ratio ita fert,
seu innata lex_."
[280] "Y-King," ed. J. Mohl, vol. i. p. 341.
The following passage from Liebig[281] has decidedly much more than
a linguistic signification, for it expresses an intimate feeling and
comprehension of the way in which a chemical process takes place.
"Aldehyd arises, which with the same _avidity_ as sulphurous acid,
combines directly with oxygen to form acetic acid."--And again:[282]
"Aldehyd, which absorbs oxygen from the air with _great avidity_." As
Liebig uses this expression twice in speaking of the same phenomenon,
it can hardly be by chance, but rather because it was the only adequate
expression for the thing.[283] That most immediate stamp of our
thoughts, language, shows us therefore, that every inward impulse must
necessarily be conceived as volition; but it by no means ascribes
knowledge to things as well. The agreement on this point between all
languages, perhaps without a single exception, proves that here we have
to do with no mere figure of speech, but that the verbal expression is
determined by a deeply-rooted feeling of the inner nature of things.
[281] Liebig, "Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agrikultur," p.
394.
[282] _Ibid._ "Die Chemie in Anwendung auf Physiologie."
[283] French chemists likewise say: "_Il est évident que les
métaux ne sont pas tous également_ avides _d'oxygène_." ... "_La
difficulté de la réduction devait correspondre nécessairement à
une_ avidité _fort grande du métal pour l'oxygène_."--(See Paul de
Rémusat, "La Chimie à l'Exposition." "L'Aluminium," "Revue des Deux
Mondes," 1855, p. 649).
Vaninus ("De Amirandis Naturæ Arcanis," p. 170) had said:
"_Argentum vivum etiam in aqua conglobatur, quemadmodum et in
plumbi scobe etiam: at a scobe non refugit_ (this is directed
against an opinion expressed by Cardanus) _imo ex ea quantum
potest colligit: quod nequit (scil. colligere), ut censeo_,
invitum _relinquit_: natura enim et sua appetit, et vorat." This
is evidently more than a form of words. He here quite decidedly
attributes a will to quicksilver. And thus it will invariably be
found that where, in physical and chemical processes, there is
a reference to elementary forces of Nature and to the primary
qualities of bodies which cannot be further deduced, these are
always expressed by words which belong to the will and its
manifestations. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND MAGIC.
In 1818, when my chief work first appeared, Animal Magnetism had only
begun to struggle into existence. But, as to its explanation--although,
to be sure, some light had been thrown upon the passive side of it,
that is, upon what goes on within the patient, by the contrast between
the cerebral and the ganglionic systems, to which Reil had drawn
attention, having been taken for the principle of explanation--the
active side, the agent proper by means of which the magnetiser evokes
all these phenomena, was still completely shrouded in darkness. People
groped about among all sorts of material principles of explanation,
such as Mesmer's all-permeating ether, or the exhalations from the
magnetiser's skin, assumed by Stieglitz to be the cause, &c. &c. At
the utmost a nerve-spirit had been recognised and, after all, this was
but a word for an unknown thing. The truth had scarcely begun to dawn
upon a few persons, whom practice had more deeply initiated. But I was
still far from hoping for any direct corroboration of my doctrine from
Magnetism.
_Dies diem docet_ however, and the great teacher, experience, has since
brought to light an important fact concerning this deep-reaching agent
which, proceeding from the magnetiser, produces effects apparently so
contrary to the regular course of Nature that the long lasting doubt
as to their existence, the stiff-necked incredulity, the condemnation
of a Committee of which Lavoisier and Franklin were members, in short,
the whole opposition that Magnetism encountered both in its first and
second period (with the sole exception of the coarse, unintelligent
condemnation without inquiry, which till very lately, prevailed in
England) is quite excusable. The fact I allude to is, that this agent
is nothing but the _will_ of the magnetiser. To-day not a doubt
exists on this point, I believe, among those who combine practice
with insight; therefore I think it superfluous to quote the numerous
assertions of magnetisers in corroboration of it.[284] Time has thus
not only verified Puységur's watchword and that of the older French
magnetisers: "_Veuillez et croyez!_" _i.e._ "Will with belief!" but
this very watchword has even developed into a correct insight of the
process itself.[285] From Kieser's "Tellurismus," still probably the
most thorough and detailed text book of Animal Magnetism we have, it
clearly results, that no act of Magnetism can take effect without the
will; on the other hand the bare will, without any outward action,
is able to produce every magnetic effect. Manipulation seems to be
only a means of fixing, and so to say incorporating, the will and
its direction. In this sense Kieser says: "Inasmuch as the human
hand--being the organ by which Man's outward activity is most visibly
expressed--is the efficient organ in magnetising, manipulation arises."
De Lausanne, a French magnetiser, pronounces himself with still
greater precision on this point in the Fourth Book of his "Annales du
Magnétisme Animal" (1814-1816), where he says: "_L'action du magnétisme
dépend de la seule volonté, il est vrai; mais l'homme ayant une forme_
extérieure et sensible, _tout ce qui est à son usage, tout ce qui doit
agir sur lui, doit nécéssairement en avoir une, et pour que la volonté
agisse, il faut qu'elle employe un mode d'action._" As, according to
my doctrine, the organism is but the mere phenomenon, the visibility,
the objectivity of the will; nay, as it is properly speaking only
the will itself, viewed as representation in the brain: so also does
the outward act of manipulation coincide with the inward act of the
will. But where magnetic effects are produced without manipulation,
they take place as it were artificially, in a roundabout way, the
imagination taking the place of the outer act and even occasionally
that of personal presence: wherefore it is much more difficult and
succeeds less frequently. Kieser accordingly alleges that the word
"Sleep!" or "You must!" said aloud, has a more powerful effect upon a
somnambulist than the mere inward willing of the magnetiser.--On the
other hand manipulation, and in general outward action, is really
an infallible means of fixing the magnetiser's will and promoting
its activity; precisely because outward acts are quite impossible
apart from all will, the body and its organs being nothing but the
visibility of the will itself. This explains the fact, that magnetisers
at times magnetise without any conscious effort of volition and
almost without thinking, and yet produce the desired effect. On the
whole, it is not the consciousness of volition, reflection upon
it, that acts magnetically, but pure volition itself, as detached
as possible from all representation. In Kieser's directions to
magnetisers therefore,[286] we find all thinking and reflecting upon
their respective doing and suffering, all conversation between them,
forbidden both to physician and patient; also all outward impressions
which arouse representations, the presence of strangers, and even
daylight. He advises that everything should proceed as unconsciously as
possible, as is likewise recommended in charm-cures. The true reason
of all this is, that here the will operates in its primariness, as
thing in itself; and this demands the exclusion, as far as possible,
of representation, as a different sphere, as secondary to the will.
Facts to prove that the real agent in magnetising is the will and each
outward act only its vehicle, may be found in all the more recent and
more trustworthy writings upon Magnetism, and it would be needless
prolixity to repeat them here. Nevertheless I will quote _one_ case,
not as being especially striking, but as furnished by a remarkable
person and having a peculiar interest as his testimony. Jean Paul says
in a letter:[287] "Twice in a large company I have made Frau von K.
nearly go to sleep by merely looking at her with a _firm will_, no
one else knowing anything about it, and before that, I had brought on
palpitation of the heart and pallor to such a degree that Dr. S. had to
be summoned to her assistance."[288] Nowadays too, merely laying and
keeping hold of the patient's hands while fixing the eye steadily upon
him, is frequently substituted with complete success for the customary
manipulation; precisely because even this outward act is suited to fix
the will in a determined direction. But this immediate power which the
will can exercise over other persons, is brought to light best of all
by the admirable experiments made, even in public, by M. Dupotet and
his pupils in Paris, in which a stranger is guided and determined at
pleasure by the magnetiser's mere will, aided by a few gestures, and
is even forced into the most extraordinary contortions. An apparently
quite honestly written pamphlet, entitled "First glance into the
wonder-world of Magnetism," by Karl Scholl (1853), contains a brief
account of this.
[284] I only mention _one_ work which has recently appeared, the
explicit object of which is to show that the magnetiser's will is
the real agent: "Qu'est ce que le Magnétisme?" par E. Gromier.
(Lyon, 1850.)
[285] Puységur himself says in the year 1784: "_Lorsque vous avez
magnétisé le malade, votre but était de l'endormir, et vous y avez
réussi par le seul acte de votre volonté; c'est de même par un
autre acte de volonté que vous le réveillez._" (Puységur, "Magnét.
Anim." 2me édit. 1820, "Catéchisme Magnétique," p. 150-171.) [Add.
to 3rd ed.]
[286] Kieser, "Tellur." vol. i. p. 400, _et seqq._
[287] See "Wahrheit aus Jean Paul's Leben," vol. viii. p. 120.
[288] I had the good fortune in the year 1854 myself to witness
some extraordinary feats of this kind, performed here by Signor
Regazzoni from Bergamo, in which the immediate, _i.e._ magical,
power of his will over other persons was unmistakeable, and of
which no one, excepting perhaps those to whom Nature has denied all
capacity for apprehending pathological conditions, could doubt the
genuineness. There are nevertheless such persons: they ought to
become lawyers, clergymen, merchants or soldiers, but in heaven's
name not doctors; for the result would be homicidal, diagnosis
being the principal thing in medicine.--Regazzoni was able at
will to throw the somnambulist who was under his influence into
a state of complete catalepsy, nay, he could make her fall down
backwards, when he stood behind her and she was walking before
him, by his mere will, without any gestures. He could paralyze
her, give her _tetanos_, with the dilated pupils, the complete
insensibility, and in short, all the unmistakeable symptoms of
complete catalepsy. He made one of the lady spectators first play
the piano; then standing fifteen paces behind her, he so completely
paralyzed her by his will and gestures, that she was unable to
continue playing. He next placed her against a column and charmed
her to the spot, so that she was unable to move in spite of the
strongest efforts.--_According to my own observation_, nearly
all his feats are to be explained by his _isolating the brain
from the spinal marrow_, either completely, in which case the
sensible and motor nerves become paralyzed, and total catalepsy
ensues; or partially, by the paralysis only affecting the _motor_
nerves while sensibility remains--in other words, the head keeps
its consciousness, while the body is apparently lifeless. This
is precisely the effect of strychnine: it paralyzes the motor
nerves only, even to complete _tetanos_, which induces death by
_asphyxia_; but it leaves the sensible nerves, and with them
consciousness, intact. Regazzoni does this same thing by the
magic influence of his will. The moment at which this isolation
takes place is distinctly visible in a peculiar trembling of the
patient. I recommend a small French publication entitled "Antoine
Regazzoni de Bergame à Francfort sur Mein," by L. A. V. Dubourg
(Frankfurt, Nov. 1854, 31 pages in 8vo.) on Regazzoni's feats and
the unmistakeably genuine character they bear for everyone who is
not entirely devoid of all sense for organic Nature.
In the "Journal du Magnétisme," edit. Dupotet, of the 15th August,
1856, in criticizing a treatise: "De la Catalepsie, mémoire
couronné," 1856, in 4to, the reviewer, Morin, says: "La plupart
des caractères qui distinguent la catalepsie, peuvent être obtenus
artificiellement et sans danger sur les sujets magnétiques, et c'est
même là une des expériences les plus ordinaires des séances
magnétiques." [Add. to 3rd ed.]
In the "Communications concerning the somnambulist, Auguste K. in
Dresden" (1843), we find the truth in question confirmed in another way
by what the somnambulist herself says, p. 53: "I was half asleep and
my brother wished to play a piece he knew. As I did not like it, I
requested him not to play it; nevertheless he tried to do so and then,
by means of my firm will that he should not, I succeeded in making him
unable to remember the piece, in spite of all his endeavours."--The
thing is however brought to a climax when this immediate power of the
will is extended even to inanimate bodies. However incredible this may
appear, we have nevertheless two accounts of it coming from entirely
different quarters. In the book just mentioned,[289] it is related
and testified by witnesses, that Auguste K. caused the needle of the
compass to deviate at one time 7° and at another 4°, this experiment
moreover being repeated four times. She did this moreover without
any use of her hands, through her mere will, by looking steadily at
it.--The Parisian somnambulist, Prudence Bernard, again in a public
_séance_ in London, at which Mr. Brewster, the physicist's son and two
other gentlemen from among the spectators acted as jurors, made the
compass needle deviate and follow her movements by simply turning her
head round.[290]
[289] "Mittheilungen über die Somnambüle, Auguste K., in Dresden."
1845, pp. 115, 116, and 318.
[290] See extract from the English periodical "Britannia," in
"Galignani's Messenger," of the 23rd October, 1851.
Now, if we thus see the will--stated by me to be the thing in itself,
the only real thing in all existence, the kernel of Nature--accomplish
through the human individual, in Animal Magnetism and even beyond
it, things which cannot be explained according to the causal nexus,
_i.e._ in the regular course of Nature; if we find it in a sense even
annulling Nature's laws and actually performing _actio in distans_,
consequently manifesting a supernatural, that is, metaphysical,
mastery over Nature--what corroboration better founded on fact could I
desire for my doctrine? Was not even Count Szapary, a magnetiser who
certainly did not know my philosophy, led by the results of his own
experience, after writing the title of his book: "A word about Animal
Magnetism, soul-bodies and vital essence,"[291] to add the following
remarkable explanatory words: "or physical proofs that the current
of Animal Magnetism is the element, and _the will the principle of
all spiritual and corporeal life_?"[292]--According to this, Animal
Magnetism presents itself directly as _practical Metaphysic_, which
was the term used by Bacon of Verulam[293] to define Magic in his
classification of the sciences: it is empirical or experimental
Metaphysic.--Further, because the will manifests itself in Animal
Magnetism downright as the thing in itself, we see the _principium
individuationis_ (Space and Time), which belongs to mere phenomenon, at
once annulled: its limits which separate individuals from one another,
are destroyed; Space no longer separates magnetiser and somnambulist;
community of thoughts and of motions of the will appears; the state of
_clairvoyance_ overleaps the relations belonging to mere phenomenon
and conditioned by Time and Space, such as proximity and distance, the
present and the future.
[291] Szapary, "Ein Wort über Animalischen Magnetismus,
Seelenkörper and Lebensessenz" (1840).
[292] "Oder physische Beweise, dass der Animalisch-magnetische
Strom das Element, and _der Wille das Princip alles geistigen und
Körperlichen Lebens sei_."
[293] Bacon, "Instaur. Magna," L. III.
In consequence of these facts, notwithstanding many reasons and
prejudices to the contrary, the opinion has gradually gained ground,
nay almost raised itself to certainty, that Animal Magnetism and its
phenomena are identical with part of the Magic of former times, of
that ill-famed occult art, of whose reality not only the Christian
ages by which it was so cruelly persecuted, but all, not excepting
even savage, nations on the whole of the earth, have been equally
convinced throughout all ages. The Twelve Tables of the Romans,[294]
the Books of Moses, and even Plato's Eleventh Book on Laws, already
made its practice punishable by death, and Apuleius' beautiful
speech[295] before the court of justice, when defending himself against
the charge of practising magic by which his life was menaced, proves
how seriously this matter was taken even in the most enlightened Roman
period, under the Antonines; since he merely tries to clear himself
personally from the charge in question, but by no means contests the
possibility of witchcraft and even enters into a host of absurd details
such as are wont to figure in all the mediæval trials for witchcraft.
The eighteenth century makes an exception as regards this belief in
Magic, and this is mainly because Balthasar Becker, Thomasius and some
others, with the good intention of putting an end once for all to the
cruel trials for witchcraft, declared all magic to be impossible.
Favoured by the philosophy of the age, this opinion soon gained the
upper hand, although only among the learned and educated classes. The
common people have never ceased to believe in witchcraft, even in
England; though here the educated classes contrive to unite a degrading
religious bigotry with the firm incredulity of a Saint Thomas (or
of a Thomasius) as to all facts transcending the laws of impact and
counter-impact, acids and alkalis, and refuse to lend an ear to their
great countryman, when he tells them that 'there are more things in
heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.' One branch
of Magic is still notoriously preserved and practised among the lower
orders, being tolerated on account of its beneficent purpose. This
is _curing by charms_ (_sympathetische Kuren_, as they are called in
German), the reality of which can hardly be doubted. Charming away
warts, is one of the commonest forms of this practice, and of this
Bacon of Verulam, cautious and empirical though he was, attests the
efficacy from personal experience.[296] The charming away of erisypelas
in the face by a spell, is another instance, and so often succeeds,
that it is easy to convince oneself of its existence. Fever too is
often successfully combated by spells, &c. &c.[297]--That, in all
this, the real agents are not the meaningless words and ceremonies,
but that it is the will of the operator which acts, as in Animal
Magnetism, needs no further explanation after what has been said
above. For such as are still unacquainted with charm-cures, instances
may be found in Kieser.[298]--These two facts therefore, Animal
Magnetism and Charm-curing, bear empirical evidence to the possibility
of magical, as opposed to physical, influence, which possibility had
been so peremptorily rejected by the past century; since it refused to
recognise as possible any other than physical influences brought about
in the way of the intelligible nexus of causality.
[294] Plin. hist. nat. L. 30, c. 3. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[295] Apuleius, "Oratio de Magia," p. 104. Bip.
[296] Bacon, "Silva Silvarum," § 997.
[297] In the "Times" of June the 12th, 1855, we find, p. 10, the
following:--
"A Horse-charmer.
"On the voyage to England the ship 'Simla' experienced some
heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay, in which the horses suffered
severely, and some, including a charger of General Scarlett, became
unmanageable. A valuable mare was so very bad, that a pistol was
got ready to shoot her and to end her misery; when a Russian
officer recommended a Cossak prisoner to be sent for, as he was
a 'juggler' and could, by charms, cure any malady in a horse. He
was sent for, and immediately said he could cure it at once. He
was closely watched, but the only thing they could observe him do
was to take his sash off and tie a knot in it three several times.
However the mare, in a few minutes, got on her feet and began to
eat heartily, and rapidly recovered." [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[298] Kieser, "Archiv, für den thierischen Magnetismus," vol.
v. heft 3, p. 106; vol. viii. heft 3, p. 145; vol. ix. heft 2,
p. 172; and vol. ix. heft 1, p. 128; Dr. Most's book likewise:
"Über Sympathetische Mittel und Kuren," 1842, may be used as an
introduction to this matter. (And even Pliny indicates a number of
charm-cures in the 28th Book, chaps. 6 to 17. [Add. to 3rd ed.])
It is a fortunate circumstance, that the rectification of this view
in our time should have come from medical science; because it ensures
us at the same time against the danger of the pendulum of opinion
receiving too strong an impulse in the contrary direction, and thus
carrying us back to the superstition of ruder ages. Besides, as I
have said, Animal Magnetism and Charm-curing only save the reality
of a part of Magic, which included a good deal more, a considerable
portion of which must, for the present at least, remain under the old
sentence of condemnation or be left in uncertainty; whereas another
portion will at any rate have to be conceived as possible, through
its analogy to Animal Magnetism. For Animal Magnetism and Charm-cures
are but salutary influences exercised for curative purposes, like
those recorded in the "History of Magic" as practised by the so-called
(Spanish) _Saludadores_,[299] who nevertheless were also condemned
by the Church; whereas Magic was far oftener practised with an evil
intent. Nevertheless, to judge by analogy, it is more than probable,
that the same inherent force which, by acting directly upon another
individuality, can exercise a salutary influence, will be at least as
powerful to exercise a prejudicial and pernicious one. If therefore
there was reality in any part of ancient Magic beyond what may be
referred to Animal Magnetism and curing by charms, it must assuredly
have been in that which is called _maleficium_ and _fascinatio_, the
very thing that gave rise to most of the trials for witchcraft. In
Most's book, too, already mentioned,[300] a few facts are related which
must undoubtedly be ascribed to _maleficium_; in Kieser,[301] also
we find instances of diseases which had been transmitted, especially
to dogs, who died of them. In Plutarch[302] we find that _fascinatio_
was already known to Democritus, who tried to explain it as a fact.
Now admitting these stories to be true, they give us the key to the
crime of witchcraft, the zealous persecution of which would therefore
not have been quite without reason. For even if in most cases it may
have been founded upon error and abuse, we are still not authorized
to look upon our forefathers as having been so utterly benighted,
as to persecute with the utmost vigour and cruelty for so many ages
an absolutely impossible crime. From this point of view moreover,
we can also understand that the common people should still even to
the present day persist in attributing certain cases of illness to
a _maleficium_, and are not to be dissuaded from this conviction.
Now if we are thus induced by the progress of the age to modify the
extreme view adopted by the last century concerning the absolute
nullity of this ill-famed art--at any rate with respect to some part
of it--still nowhere is caution more necessary than here, in order to
fish out from the chaos of fraud, falsehood and absurdity contained
in the writings of Agrippa von Nettesheim, Wierus, Bodinus, Delrio,
Bindsfeldt, &c. &c., the few isolated truths that may lie in them. For,
frequent though they may be throughout the world, nowhere have lies
and deceit freer play than where Nature's laws are avowedly set aside,
nay declared invalid. Here therefore we find the wildest fictions, the
strangest freaks of the imagination worked up into an edifice, lofty
as the skies, on the narrow foundation of the slight particle of truth
there may have been in Magic, and in consequence of this, the most
sanguinary atrocities perpetrated age after age. In contemplating such
things, the psychological reflection on the unlimited capability of
the human intellect for accepting the most incredible absurdities and
the readiness of the human heart to set its seal to them by cruelty,
prevails over every other.
[299] Delrio. "Disqu. Mag." L. III. P. 2, q. 4. 4, s. 7--and
Bodinus, "Mag. Dæmon," iii. 2.
[300] See note 2, p. 334, especially pp. 40, 41, and Nos. 89, 91,
and 97 of Most's book.
[301] Kieser, "Archiv. f. t. M." See the account of Bende Bensen's
illness, vol. ix. to vol. xii.
[302] Plutarch, "Symposiacæ quæstionis," qu. v. 7. 6.
Yet the modification which has taken place of late in the views of
German _savants_ respecting magic, is not due exclusively to Animal
Magnetism. The deep foundations of it had already been laid by the
change in philosophy wrought by Kant, which makes German culture
differ fundamentally from that of the rest of Europe, with respect
to philosophy as well as to other branches of knowledge.--For a man
to be able to smile beforehand at all occult sympathies, let alone
magical influences, he must find the world very, nay completely,
intelligible. But this is only possible if he looks at it with the
utterly superficial glance which puts away from it all suspicion that
we human beings are immersed in a sea of riddles and mysteries and
have no exhaustive knowledge or understanding either of things or of
ourselves in any direct way. Nearly all great men have been of the
opposite frame of mind and therefore, whatever age or nation they
belonged to, have always betrayed a slight tinge of superstition. If
our natural mode of knowing were one that handed over to us things
in themselves immediately and consequently gave us the absolutely
true relations and connections of things, we might then, no doubt,
be justified in rejecting _à priori_, therefore unconditionally, all
prescience of future events, all apparitions of absent, of dying,
let alone of deceased persons, and all magical influence. But if all
that we know is, as Kant teaches, mere phenomenon, the forms and laws
of which do not extend to things in themselves, it must be obviously
premature to reject all foreknowledge, all apparitions and all magic;
since that rejection is based upon laws, whose _à priori_ character
precisely restricts them to phenomena; whereas things in themselves,
to which even our own inner self must belong, remain untouched by
them. But it is quite possible for these very things in themselves
to have relations with us from which the above-mentioned occurrences
may have arisen, concerning which accordingly we have to wait for the
decision _à posteriori_, and must not forestall it. That the English
and French should persist in denying _à priori_ all such occurrences,
comes at the bottom from the influence of Locke's philosophy, under
which these nations still stand as to all essential points, and by
which we are taught that, after merely subtracting sensation, we know
things in themselves. According to this view therefore, the laws of the
material world are held to be ultimate, and no other influence than
_influxus physicus_ is admitted. Consequently these nations believe,
it is true, in a physical, but not in a metaphysical, science, and
therefore reject all other than so-called "Natural Magic:" a term
which contains the same _contradictio in adjecto_ as "Supernatural
Physics," but is nevertheless constantly used quite seriously, while
the latter was used but once, and then in joke, by Lichtenberg. On the
other hand, the common people, with their universal readiness to give
credit to supernatural influences, express by it in their own way the
conviction, that all things which we perceive and comprehend are mere
phenomena, not things in themselves; although, with them, conviction is
only felt. I quote the following passage from Kant's "Grundlegung zur
Metaphysik der Sitten," as a proof that this is not saying too much:
"There is an observation requiring no great subtlety of reflection,
which we may on the contrary suppose the most ordinary understanding
capable of making, albeit in its own way and by an obscure distinction
of the faculty of judgment, which it calls feeling. It is this: that
all our involuntary representations (such as those of the senses) give
us no further knowledge of objects than as they affect us, whereby we
are left in ignorance as to what those objects may be in themselves;
that, as far as this sort of representation is concerned therefore, we
are still only able by this means to attain knowledge of phenomena, but
never of _things in themselves_, even by dint of the utmost clearness
and the most strenuous attention the understanding is able to give to
this point. When once this distinction is made, however, it stands to
reason, that the existence of something else behind these phenomena,
something which is not phenomenon, _i.e._ the thing in itself, has
still to be admitted and assumed."[303]
[303] Kant, "First Principles of Ethical Metaphysic," 3rd edition,
p. 105.
When we read D. Tiedemann's "History of Magic,"[304] we are astonished
at the persistency with which mankind have clung to the thought of
Magic in all places and at all times, notwithstanding frequent failure;
and we come to the conclusion, that this thought must, to say the
least, be deeply rooted in human nature, if not in things in general,
and cannot be a mere arbitrary creation of the fancy. Although Magic
is differently defined by the various authors who have treated of it,
the fundamental thought which predominates in all its definitions is
nevertheless unmistakeable. For the opinion, that there must be another
quite different way of producing changes in the world besides the
regular one through the causal nexus between bodies, and one moreover
which is not founded at all upon that nexus, has found favour in all
ages and countries. Therefore also the means belonging to this second
way appeared absurd, when they were viewed in the same light as the
first; since the cause applied was obviously not suited to the effect
intended and a causal nexus between them was impossible. But here it
was assumed, that apart from the outer connection between the phenomena
of this world on which the _nexus physicus_ is founded, there must
exist another besides, passing through the very essence in itself of
all things: a subterranean connection as it were, by means of which
immediate action was possible from _one_ point of the phenomenon on to
every other point, through a _nexus metaphysicus_;
[304] D. Tiedemann, "Disputatio de quæstione, quæ fuerit artum
magicarum origo." Marb. 1787. A prize-essay written for the
Göttingen Society.
_that_ accordingly, it must be possible to act upon things from inside,
instead of from outside, as is usual;
_that_ it must be possible for phenomenon to act upon phenomenon
by means of that being in itself, which is one and the same in all
phenomena;
_that_, just as we act causally as _natura naturata_, we might probably
be able to act also as _natura naturans_, and momentarily to enable the
microcosm to play the part of the macrocosm;
_that_, however firm the partition walls of individuation and
separation might be, they might nevertheless occasionally permit a
communication to take place as it were behind the scenes, or like a
secret game under the table; and
_that_, just as a neutralisation of individual isolation takes place
in somnambulistic _clairvoyance_, so likewise might a neutralisation
of the will in the individual be possible. Such a thought as this
cannot have arisen empirically, nor can it have been confirmation
through experience that has preserved it throughout all ages and in
all countries: for in the majority of cases experience must result
downright unfavourably to it. I opine therefore, that the origin of
this thought, which has universally held its ground with the whole of
mankind and, in spite of so much conflicting experience, in defiance
of common sense, has never been eradicated, must be sought at great
depth: namely in the inward feeling of the omnipotence of the will in
itself--of that will, which constitutes at once the inner essence of
Man and of the whole of Nature--and in the assumption connected with
it that, somehow or other, this omnipotence might possibly for once
make itself felt, even when proceeding from the individual. People
were unable to investigate and distinguish the difference between the
capabilities of the will as thing in itself and the same will in its
individual manifestation; but they assumed without further ado, that
under certain circumstances, the will might be enabled to break through
the barriers of individuation. For the above-mentioned feeling rebelled
obstinately against the knowledge forced upon it by experience, that
"Der Gott der mir im Busen wohnt,
Kann tief mein Innerstes erregen,
Der über allen meinen Kräften thront,
Er kann nach Aussen nichts bewegen."
According to the fundamental thought just expounded, we find that the
physical medium used in all attempts at magic, never was regarded in
any other light than in that of a vehicle for a thing metaphysical;
otherwise it could evidently stand in no relation whatever to the
effect contemplated. These media consisted in cabalistic words,
symbolical actions, traced figures, wax images, &c. &c. We see too
that, according to the original feeling, what this vehicle conveyed,
was in the last resort always an act of _volition_ that had been
connected with it. The very natural inducement to do this, was the
observation, that every moment men became aware of a completely
unaccountable, that is, evidently metaphysical, agency of the will,
in the movements of their own bodies. Might not this agency, they
thought, be extended to other bodies also? To find out a way to annul
the isolation in which the will finds itself in each individual, and to
extend the immediate sphere of the will's action beyond the organism of
the person willing, was the aim of Magic.
A great deal was nevertheless still wanting ere this fundamental
thought, from which Magic seems properly to have sprung, could pass
over at once into distinct consciousness and be recognised _in
abstracto_, and ere Magic could at once understand itself. Only a few
thoughtful and learned writers of former ages--as I mean soon to prove
by quotations--express the distinct thought, that it is in _the will_
itself that the magic power lies, and that the strange signs and acts
together with the senseless words that accompanied them, which passed
for the means of exorcising and the connecting link with demons, are
in fact merely vehicles and means for fixing _the will_, by which the
act of volition, which is to act magically, ceases to be mere wish
and becomes deed, or, to use the language of Paracelsus, "receives a
_corpus_," and the individual will in a sense distinctly proclaims that
it is now acting as general will, as will in itself. For in every act
of Magic--charm-cure or whatever else it may be--the outward action
(the connecting link) is exactly what the passes are in magnetising:
_i.e._ not what is really essential, but the mere vehicle, that by
which the will, the only real agent, is directed and fixed in the
material world and enters into reality. As a rule therefore, it is
indispensable.--From the rest of the writers of those times we gather
that, in conformity with that fundamental thought of Magic, their only
aim was to obtain absolute, arbitrary power over Nature. But they were
unable to elevate themselves to the thought that this power must be
a _direct_ one; they conceived it, on the contrary, absolutely as an
_indirect_ one. For all religions in all countries had placed Nature
under the dominion of gods and of demons. Now, it was the magician's
endeavour to subject these gods and demons to his will, to induce, nay,
to force them to serve him; and he attributed all that he succeeded
in achieving to their agency, just as Mesmer attributed the success
of his Magnetism to the magnetic rods he held in his hands, instead
of to his will which was the real agent. It was in this sense that
all polytheistic nations took the matter, and even Plotinus,[305] but
more especially Iamblichus, understood Magic: that is, as _Theurgy_,
an expression which Porphyry was the first to use. That divine
aristocracy, Pantheism, was favourable to this interpretation, since
it distributed the dominion over the different forces of Nature among
as many gods and demons--mostly mere personifications of natural
forces--and the magician, by persuasion or by force, subjected now
one, now the other of these divinities to his power and made them do
his bidding. But in a Divine Monarchy, where all Nature obeys a single
ruler, the thought of contracting a private alliance with the Almighty,
let alone of exercising sovereignty over him, would have been too
audacious. Therefore where Judaism, Christianity or Islam prevailed,
the omnipotence of the one God stood in the way of this interpretation
of Magic: an omnipotence which the magician could not venture to
attack. He had no alternative therefore, but to take refuge with the
Devil, and with this rebellious spirit--perhaps even direct descendant
of Ahriman--to whom some power over Nature was still attributed, he now
entered into a compact, by which he ensured to himself his assistance.
This was "necromancy" (the 'black art'). Its antithesis, 'white Magic,'
was opposed to it by the circumstance that, in it, the magician did
not make friends with the Devil, but rather solicited the permission,
not to say co-operation, of the Almighty himself, to intercede with
the angels; oftener still, he invoked devils by pronouncing the rarer
Hebrew names and titles of the One God, such as Adon-Ai, &c. &c., and
compelled them to obey him, without promising them anything in return
for their services, in a hell-compulsion[306] (_Höllenzwang_).--But
all these mere interpretations and outward trappings of the thing were
received so entirely as its essence and as objective processes, that
writers like Bodinus, Delrio, Bindsfeldt, &c., whose knowledge of
magic was second-hand and not derived from personal experience, all
assert the essential characteristic of Magic to be, that it does not
act either through forces of Nature or in a natural way, but through
the assistance of the Devil. This view was, and long remained, current
everywhere, locally modified according to the religions which prevailed
in different countries. The laws against sorcery and the trials for
witchcraft were based upon it; likewise, wherever the possibility of
Magic was contested, the attacks were generally directed against this
opinion. An objective view, such as this, was an inevitable consequence
of the decided Realism which prevailed throughout ancient and mediæval
Europe and which Descartes was the first to disturb. Till then, Man
had not learnt to direct the light of speculative thought towards the
mysterious depths of his own inner self, but, on the contrary, had
sought everything outside himself. Above all the thought of making the
will he found within him rule over Nature, was so bold, that people
would have been alarmed by it: therefore it was made to rule over
fictitious beings, supposed by the prevailing superstition to have
command over Nature, in order through them to obtain at least indirect
mastery over Nature. Every sort of god or demon moreover, is always
a hypostasis, by which believers of all sects and colours bring to
their own comprehension the _Metaphysical_, that which lies _behind_
Nature, that which gives her existence and consistence and consequently
rules over her. Thus, when it is said, that Magic acts by the help of
demons, the meaning which lies at the bottom of this thought still
is, that it is an agency which is not physically, but _metaphysically_
exercised: that it is not a natural, but a supernatural, agency. Now
if, in the small amount of fact which speaks in favour of the reality
of Magic: that is, in Animal Magnetism and charm-cures, we still do
not recognise anything but an immediate action of the will which here
manifests its direct power outside, instead of inside, the individual;
if moreover, as I am about to show and to substantiate by decisive,
unequivocal citations, those who are more deeply initiated into
ancient Magic, derive all its effects from the magician's will alone:
this is surely strong empirical evidence in support of my doctrine,
that the Metaphysical in general, that which alone exists apart from
representation, the _thing in itself_ of the universe--is nothing but
what is known to us within ourselves as _the will_.
[305] Here and there, Plotinus betrays a more correct knowledge,
for instance, "Enn." ii. lib. iii. c. 7; "Enn." iv. lib. iii. c.
12, et lib. ix. c. 3.
[306] Delrio, "Disq. mag." L. ii. qu. 2. Agrippa a Nettesheym, "De
Vanit. Scient." c. 45.
Now, if the direct power which may occasionally be exercised over
Nature by the will, was conceived by those magicians as a merely
indirect one, acquired by the help of demons, this still could not
prevent its efficiency wherever and whenever it may have taken place.
For, precisely because, in things of this kind, the will acts in
itself, in its primariness, therefore apart from representation,
its efficiency cannot be frustrated by erroneous conceptions of the
intellect; on the contrary, the distance here is a wide one between
theory and practice: the errors of the former do not stand in the way
of the latter, nor does a correct theory qualify for practice. Mesmer,
in the beginning, attributed his agency to the magnetic rods he held
in his hands and later on explained the wonders of Animal Magnetism by
a materialistic theory of a subtle, all-permeating fluid; nevertheless
he produced wonderfully powerful effects. I once myself knew the
proprietor of an estate, whose peasants were wont by tradition to have
their feverish attacks dispelled by a spell of their master's. Now,
although he believed he had convinced himself of the impossibility of
all such things, yet he continued good-naturedly to comply with their
wish as usual, and indeed often succeeded in relieving them. This
success he ascribed to his peasants' firm belief, forgetting that a
similar faith ought also to bring success to the medical treatment
which is so often applied with complete inefficacy to believing
patients.
Now, if Theurgy and Demonomagic, as described above, were but the mere
interpretation and outward trappings of the thing, the mere husk, at
which the majority were content to stop short: there were nevertheless
some, who went below the surface and quite recognised that the agent
in influences supposed to proceed from magic, was absolutely nothing
but _the will_. We must not however look for such deeper observers as
these among the discountenancers and antagonists of Magic, and the
majority of the writers on this subject belong precisely to these:
they derived their knowledge exclusively from Courts of Justice and
from the examination of witnesses, so that they merely describe the
outside of the matter; and, if at any time they chanced, through
confessions, to gain an insight into the inner processes they took
good care not to betray that knowledge, lest, by doing so, they
should contribute to diffuse the terrible vice of sorcery. To this
class belong Bodinus, Delrio, Bindsfeldt, and others. For information
as to the real nature of the thing, we must on the contrary go to
philosophers and investigators of Nature, who wrote in those times of
prevailing superstition. Now, from what they say, it clearly follows,
that the real agent in Magic, just as in Animal Magnetism, is nothing
but _the will_. Here I must quote some passages in support of this
assertion.[307] Theophrastus Paracelsus especially disclosed perhaps
more concerning the inner nature of Magic than any other writer, and
does not even hesitate to give a minute description of the processes
used in it.[308]--He says:[309] "To be observed concerning wax images:
if I bear malice in my will against anyone, that malice must be carried
out by some medium or _corpus_. Thus it is possible for my spirit to
stab or wound another person without help from my body in using a
sword, merely by my _fervent desire_. Therefore it is also possible
for me to convey my opponent's spirit into the image by my _will_ and
then to deform or paralyze it at pleasure.--You must know, that the
influence of the _will_ is a great point in medicine. For if a man hate
another and begrudge him anything good, it is possible that if he curse
him, that curse may take effect.--This occurs also with animals and
more easily than with men; for the spirit of man has far greater power
of resistance than that of animals."
[307] Roger Bacon already in the thirteenth century said: ...
"_Quod si ulterius aliqua anima maligna cogitat fertiter de
infectione alterius atque ardenter desideret et certitudinaliter
intendat, atque vehementer consideret se posse nocere, non est
dubium quin natura obediet cogitationibus animæ_." (See Rogeri
Bacon, "Opus Majus," Londini, 1733, p. 252.)
[308] Theophrastus Paracelsus, Strassburg edition in two folio
vols., vol. i, pp. 91, 353, et seqq. and p. 789; vol. ii. pp. 362,
496.
[309] Vol. i. p. 19.
And p. 375: "It follows from this, that one image has magic power over
another, not by virtue of the characters or anything of that kind
impressed on the virgin wax; but the imagination overcomes its own
constellation, so as to become a means for fulfilling the will of its
heaven, _i.e._ of its man."
p. 334: "All the imagining of man comes from his heart. The heart is
the sun of the microcosm. And all the imagining of man passes from the
small sun of the microcosm into the sun of the great Universe, into the
heart of the macrocosm. Thus the _imaginatio_ of the microcosm is a
seed which becomes material," &c.
p. 364: "It suffices for you to know what rigorous imagination does,
which is the beginning of all magical works."
p. 789: "Even my thought therefore is a looking at a mark. Now I
must not turn my eye with my hands in this or that direction; but my
imagination turns it as I wish. And this is also to be understood of
walking: I desire, I propose to myself, therefore my body moves, and
the firmer my thoughts, the more sure it is that I shall run. Thus
_imaginatio_ alone is an impulse for my running."
p. 837: "_Imaginatio_ used against me may be employed with such rigour,
that I may be killed by the _imaginatio_ of another person."
Vol. ii. p. 274: "Imagination comes from longing and desire: envy,
hatred, proceed from longing, for they do not arise unless you long for
them. As soon as you wish, the act of the imagination follows. This
longing must be quick, ardent, lively, as that of a pregnant woman,
&c. &c.--A general curse is commonly verified. Why? It comes from the
heart, and the seed lies and is born in that coming from the heart.
Thus parents' curses also come from the heart. The curse of the poor is
likewise _imaginatio_. The prisoner's curse, also mere _imaginatio_,
comes from the heart.... Thus too, when one man wishes to stab or
paralyze, &c., another by means of his _imaginatio_, he must first
attract the thing and instrument to himself and then he can impress
it (with his wish): for whatever enters into it, may also go out of
it again by the medium of thought as well as by that of the hands....
In such imagining, women outdo men ... for they are more ardent in
revenge."
p. 298: "_Magica_ is a great occult wisdom; just as Reason is a great,
open folly.... No armour avails against sorcery, for it wounds the
inner man, the vital spirit.... Some magicians make an image in the
shape of a man they intend [to harm], knock a nail into the sole of
its foot, and the man is invisibly struck with lameness, until the nail
is removed."
p. 307: "We ought to know, that we may convey the spirit of any man
into an image, solely by faith and by our strong imagination.--No
incantation is needed, and the ceremonies, drawing of circles,
fumigations, seals, &c. &c. are mere humbug to mislead.--_Homunculi_
and images are made, &c. &c. ... by which all the operations, powers and
will of man are carried out.... The human heart is indeed so great a
thing, that no one can express it: as God is eternal and imperishable,
so also is the heart of man. If we men thoroughly recognised our heart,
nothing would be impossible for us on earth.... Perfect imagination,
coming from the stars (_astris_) arises from the heart."
p. 513: "_Imaginatio_ is confirmed and rendered perfect by the belief
that it really takes place: for every doubt injures the effect. Faith
must confirm the imagination, for faith decides the will.... But
just the fact that man does not always perfectly imagine, perfectly
_believe_, causes acts to be called uncertain, which nevertheless may
certainly and quite well exist." A passage from Campanella's book,
"De sensu rerum et magia," may serve to elucidate this last sentence.
_Efficiunt alii ne homo possi futuere, si tantum credat: non enim
potest facere quod non credit posse facere_ (l. iv. c. 18).
Agrippa von Nettesheim[310] speaks in the same sense. "_Non minus
subjicitur corpus alieno animo, quam alieno corpori_;" and:[311]
"_Quidquid dictat animus fortissime odientis habet efficaciam nocendi
et destruendi; similiter in ceteris, quæ affectat animus fortissimo
desiderio. Omnia enim quæ tunc agit et dictat ex characteribus,
figuris, verbis, gestibus et ejusmodi, omnia sunt adjuvantia appetitum
animæ et acquirunt mirabiles quasdam virtutes, tum ab anima laborantis
in illa hora, quando ipsum appetitus ejusmodi maxime invadit, tum ab
influxa cœlesti animum tunc taliter movente."[312]--"Inest hominum
animis virtus quædam immutandi et ligandi res et homines ad id quod
desiderat, et omnes res obediunt illi, quando fertur in magnum excessum
alicujus passionis, vel virtutis, in tantum, ut superet eos, quos
ligat. Radix ejusmodi ligationis ipsa est affectio animæ vehemens et
exterminata."_
[310] "De occulta philosophia," lib. 1, c. 66.
[311] _Ibid._ c. 67.
[312] "De occulta philosophia," lib. 1, cc. 66, 67 et 68.
And likewise Jul. Cæs. Vanninus, "De admir. naturæ arcan." L. iv.
dial. 5, § 435: "_Vehementem imaginationem, cui spiritus et sanguis
obediunt, rem mente conceptam realiter efficere, non solum intra, sed
et extra_."[313]
[313] _Ibid_. p. 440: _Addunt Avicennæ dictum_: "_Ad validam
alicujus imaginationem cadit camelus_." _Ibid._ p. 478,
speaking of charms: _fascinatio ne quis cum muliere coeat_,
he says: _Equidem in Germania complures allocutus sum vulgari
cognomento Necromantistas, qui ingenue confessi sunt, se firme
satis credere, meras fabulas esse opiniones, quæ de dæmonibus
vulgo circumferuntur, aliquid tamen ipsos operari, vel vi
herbarum commovendo phantasiam, vel vi imaginationis et fidei
vehementissimæ, quam ipsorum nugacissimis confictis excantationibus
adhibent ignaræ mulieres, quibus persuadent, recitatis magna
cum devotione aliquibus preculis, statim effici fascinum, quare
credulæ ex intimo cordis effundunt excantationes, atque ita,
non vi verborum, neque caracterum, ut ipsæ existimant, sed
spiritibus[314], fascini inferendi percupidis exsufflatis proximos
effascinant. Hinc fit, ut ipsi Necromantici, in causa propria, vel
aliena, si soli sint operarii, nihil unquam mirabile præstiterint:
carent enim fide, quæ cuncta operatur_. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[314] Schopenhauer has added to _spiritibus_ in parenthesis
(_sc. vitalibus et animalibus_).
Just so Joh. Bapt. Van Helmont, who takes great pains to explain away
as much as possible of the Devil's influence, in order to attribute it
to the will. I quote a few passages from the voluminous collection of
his works, _Ortus Medicinæ_:
_Recepta injecta_. § 12. _Quum hostis naturæ_ (_diabolus_) _ipsam
applicationem complere ex se nequeat, suscitat ideam fortis desiderii
et odii in saga, ut, mutuatis istis mentalibus et liberis mediis,
transferat suum velle per quod quodque afficere intendit.[315]
Quorsum imprimis etiam execrationes, cum idea desiderii et terroris,
odiosissimis suis scrofis præscribit._--§ 13. _Quippe desiderium
istud, ut est passio imaginantis, ita quoque creat ideam, non quidem
inanem, sed executivam atque incantamenti motivam._--§ 19. _prout jam
demonstravi, quod vis incantamenti potissima pendeat ab idea naturali
sagæ._
[315]
"Der Teufel hat sie's zwar gelehrt;
Allein der Teufel kann's nicht machen."--Faust.
[Add. to 3rd ed.]
_+De injectis materialibus.+_ § 15. _Saga, per ens naturale,
imaginative format ideam liberam, naturalem et nocuam.... Sagæ
operantur virtute naturali.... Homo etiam dimittit medium aliud
executivum, emanativum et mandativum ad incantandum hominem; quod
medium est Idea fortis desiderii. Est nempe desiderio inseparabile
ferri circa optata._
_+De sympatheticis mediis.+_ § 2. _Ideæ scilicet desiderii,
per modum influentiarum cœlestium, jaciuntur in proprium objectum,
utcunque localiter remotum. Diriguntur nempe a desiderio objectum sibi
specificante._
_+De magnetica vulnerum curatione.+_ § 76. _Igitur in sanguine
est quædam potestas exstatica, quæ, si quando ardenti desiderio excita
fuerit, etiam ad absens aliquod objectum, exterioris hominis spiritu
deducenda sit: ea autem potestas in exteriori homine latet, velut in
potentia; nec ducitur ad actum, nisi excitetur, accensa imaginatione
ferventi desiderio, vel arte aliqua pari._--§ 98. _Anima, prorsum
spiritus, nequaquam posset spiritum vitalem (corporeum equidem), multo
minus carnem et ossa movere aut concitare, nisi vis illi quæpiam
naturalis, magica tamen et spiritualis, ex anima in spiritum et corpus
descenderet. Cedo, quo pacto obediret spiritus corporeus jussui animæ,
nisi jussus spiritum, et deinceps corpus movendo foret? At extemplo
contra hanc magicam motricem objicies, istam esse intra concretum sibi,
suumque hospitium naturale, idcirco hanc etsi magam vocitemus, tantum
erit nominis detorsio et abusus, siquidem vera et superstitiosa magica
non ex anima basin desumit; cum eadem hæc nil quidquam valeat, extra
corpus suum movere, alterare aut ciere. Respondeo, vim et magicam
illam naturalem animæ, quæ extra se agat, virtute imaginis Dei, latere
jam obscuram in homine, velut obdormire (post prævaricationem),
excitationisque indigam: quæ eadem, utut somnolenta, ac velut ebria,
alioqui sit in nobis quotidie: sufficit tamen ad obeunda munia in
corpore suo: dormit itaque scientia et potestas magica, et solo nutu
actrix in homine._--§ 102. _Satan itaque vim magicam hanc excitat
(secus dormientem et scientia exterioris hominis impeditam) in suis
mancipiis, et inservit eadem illis, ensis vice in manu potentis, id est
sagæ. Nec aliud prorsus Satan ad homicidium affert, præter excitationem
dictæ potestatis somnolentæ._--§ 106. _Saga in stabulo absente occidit
equum: virtus quædam naturalis a spiritu sagæ, et non a Satana,
derivatur, quæ opprimat vel strangulet spiritum vitalem equi._--§
139. _Spiritus voco magnetismi patronos, non qui ex cœlo demittuntur,
multoque minus de infernalibus sermo est; sed de iis, qui fiunt in ipso
homine, sicut ex silice ignis; ex voluntate hominis nempe aliquantillum
spiritus vitalis influentis desumitur, et id ipsum assumit idealem
entitatem, tanquam formam ad complementum. Qua nacta perfectione,
spiritus mediam sortem inter corpora et non corpora assumit. Mittitur
autem eo, quo voluntas ipsum dirigit; idealis igitur entitas ...
nullis stringitur locorum, temporum aut dimensionum imperiis, ea
nec dæmon est, nec ejus ullus effectus; sed spiritualis quædam est
actio illius, nobis plane naturalis et vernacula._--§ 168. _Ingens
mysterium propalare hactenus distuli, ostendere videlicet, ad manum in
homine sitam esse energiam, qua, solo nutu et phantasia sua, queat
agere extra se et imprimere virtutem aliquam, influentiam deinceps
perseverantem, et agentem in objectum longissime absens._
P. Pomponatius also says: _Sic contigit, tales esse homines, qui
habeant ejusmodi vires in potentia, et per vim imaginativam et
desiderativam cum actu operantur, tales virtus exit ad actum, et
afficit sanguinem et spiritum, quæ per evaporationem petunt ad extra et
producunt tales effectus_.[316]
[316] De incantationibus. Opera Basil. 1567, p. 44.
Jane Leade, an English mystic visionary of Cromwell's time and pupil
of Pordage, has given us some very curious disclosures of this kind.
She is led to Magic in a very singular way. For, as the doctrine of
their becoming one with the God of their religion is a fundamental
characteristic of all Mystics, so is it with Jane Leade also. Now,
with her however, the human will has its share in the omnipotence
of the Divine will as a consequence of the two having become one,
and accordingly acquires magic power. What other magicians therefore
believe to be due to a compact with the Devil, she attributes to her
becoming one with her God. Her Magic is therefore in the highest sense
'white Magic.' Besides, this alters nothing as to the practice and
results. She is reserved and mysterious, as people had to be in those
times; still it is easy to see that the thing is not a mere theoretical
corollary, but that it has sprung from knowledge and experience
obtained in another way.
It is in her "Revelation of Revelations"[317] that we find the chief
passage; but the following one, which is rather an abridgment than a
literal quotation and is contained in Horst's "Zauberbibliothek,"[318]
comes from the same book: "Magic power enables its possessor to
rule over and to renew the creation--_i.e._ the animal, vegetable
and mineral kingdoms--so that, were _many_ to co-operate in _one_
magical power, Nature might be created anew as a paradise.... How is
this magic power to be acquired? By renascence through faith: that
is, by our _will_ harmonizing with the divine _will_. For faith
subjects the world to us, inasmuch as our own _will_, when it is in
harmony with the divine _will_, results, as St. Paul tells us, in
making everything submit to and obey us." Thus far Horst.--p. 131 of
the "Revelation, &c.," Jane Leade shows that it was by the force of
his will that Christ worked miracles, as, for instance, when he said
to the leper: "I _will_; be thou clean." Sometimes however he left it
to the will of those who, he saw, believed in him, saying to them:
"'What _will_ ye that I shall do unto you?' in which cases no less
was done for them than they had desired in their will that the Lord
should do. These words of our Saviour's are well deserving of notice,
since the _highest Magia lies in the will_, so far as it is in union
with the will of the Almighty: when these two wheels fit into each
other, becoming in a sense _one_, they are, &c."--Again, p. 132, she
says: "For what could resist that which is united with the will of
God? The power of such a will is so great, that it always achieves its
end. It is no _naked will_ deprived of its clothing, or power; on the
contrary, it brings with it an irresistible omnipotence, which enables
it to uproot, to plant, to put to death and to bring to life, to bind
and to loose, to heal and to injure, which power will be collected
and concentrated in its entirety in the royal, free-born will. Of
this power we shall attain knowledge, when we shall have been made
one with the Holy Ghost. or when we shall be united in one spirit and
being."--Again, p. 133: "We must quench or drown altogether the many
multifarious wills which arise out of the mixed essence of souls, and
they must lose themselves in the abysmal depth from which there will
then arise and present itself the _virgin will_, which was never the
slave of anything belonging to degenerate man; on the contrary, it
stands in connection with the Almighty Power, quite free and pure, and
will infallibly produce fruits and results quite similar to those of
the divine will ... wherefrom the burning oil of the Holy Ghost flows
up in Magic, as it emits its fiery sparks."
[317] German translation, Amsterdam, 1695, pp. 126 to 151,
especially the pages headed "the power of calm will."
[318] Horst, "Zauberbibliothek" (Library of Magic), vol. i. p. 325.
Jacob Böhme too[319] speaks of Magic precisely in the sense here
described. Among other things he says: "Magic is the mother of the
essence of all beings: for it creates itself and is understood in
_desire_.... True Magic is not a being, but the _desiring spirit_ of
the being.--In fine: Magic is action in the _will's spirit_."
[319] J. Böhme, "Erklärung von sechs Punkten," under Punkt v.
In corroboration, or at any rate in explanation, of the above view
of the will as the real agent in magic, a curious and interesting
anecdote, related by Campanella, from Avicenna, may here find its
place.[320] "_Mulieres quædam condixerunt, ut irent animi gratia in
viridarium. Una earum non ivit. Ceteræ colludentes arangium acceperunt
et perforabant eum stilis acutis, dicentes: ita perforamus mulierem
talem, quæ nobiscum venire detrectavit, et, projecto arangio intra
fontem, abierunt. Postmodum mulierem illam dolentem invenerunt, quod
se transfigi quasi clavis acutis sentiret, ab ea hora, qua arangium
ceteræ; perforarunt: et cruciata est valde donec arangii clavos
extraxerunt imprecantes bona et salutem._"
[320] Campanella, "De sensu rerum et magia," l. iv. c. 18.
Krusenstern[321] gives a very curious and minute description of
maleficent sorcery as practised, it is said successfully, by the
priests of the savage tribes on the island of Nukahiva, the procedure
in which is exactly similar to that of our cures by charms.--This fact
is especially remarkable on account of the identity of the thing,
notwithstanding the distance from all European tradition. With it ought
to be compared Bende Bendsen's account of a headache he caused in
another person by sorcery, through the medium of some of that person's
hair which had been cut off. He concludes with the following words:
"As far as I can learn, what is called witchcraft consists simply
in preparing and applying noxious magnetic charms combined with a
_maleficent influence of the will_: this is the detestable league with
Satan."[322]
[321] Krusenstern's words are: "A universal belief in witchcraft,
which is held to be very important by all islanders, seems to me to
be connected with their religion; for they assert that the priests
alone possess magic power, although some of the common people
also, it is said, profess to have the secret, probably in order to
make themselves feared, and to exact presents. This sorcery, which
they call _Kaha_, consists in inflicting a lingering death upon
those to whom they bear a grudge, twenty days being however fixed
as the term for this. They go to work as follows. Whoever wishes
to practise revenge by means of sorcery, seeks to procure either
saliva or urine or excrements of his enemy in some way or other.
These he mixes with a powder, lays the compound in a bag which is
woven in a special manner, and buries it. The most important secret
is in the art of weaving the bag in the right way and of preparing
the powder. As soon as it is buried, the effects show themselves
in the person who is the object of this witchcraft. He sickens,
becomes daily weaker, loses at last all his strength, and in twenty
days is sure to die. If, on the other hand, he attempts to divert
his enemy's revenge from himself by offering up a pig, or making
some other valuable present in order to save his life, he may yet
be saved, even on the nineteenth day, and no sooner is the bag
unburied, than the attacks of illness cease. He recovers gradually,
and after a few days is quite restored to health."--"Reise um die
Welt." Ed. in 12mo, 1812, Part i., p. 249 _et seq._ [Add. to 3rd
ed.]
[322] Kieser, "Archiv für thierischen Magnetismus," vol. ix. s. i.
in the note, pp. 128-132.
The agreement of all these writers, not only among themselves, but with
the convictions to which Animal Magnetism has led in latter years, and
finally even with what might be concluded from my speculative doctrine
on this point, is surely a most remarkable phenomenon. This much
is at any rate certain, that at the bottom of all the experiments,
successful or unsuccessful, which have ever been made in Magic, there
lies an anticipation of my Metaphysic. For in them is expressed the
consciousness, that the causal law only connects phenomena, while the
inner nature of things remains independent of it; and also, that if any
_direct_ influence on Nature be possible from within, it can only take
place through the _will_ itself. But even if Magic were to be ranked
as practical Metaphysic, according to Bacon's classification, it is
certain that no other theoretical Metaphysic would stand in the right
relation to it but mine, by which the world is resolved into Will and
Representation.
The zealous cruelty with which Magic has always been persecuted by the
Church and to which the papal _malleus maleficarum_ bears terrible
evidence, seems not to have for its sole basis the criminal purposes
often associated with the practice of Magic or the part assumed to
be played by the Devil, but rather to proceed partly from a vague
foreboding and fear lest Magic should trace back its original power to
its true source; whereas the Church has assigned to it a place outside
Nature.[323] The detestation shown by the cautious clergy of England
towards Animal Magnetism [324] tends to confirm this supposition, and
also the active zeal with which they oppose table-turning, which at any
rate is harmless, yet which, for the same reason, has been violently
assailed by the anathemas of the French, and even of the German,
clergy.[325]
[323] They scent something of the
"Nos habitat, non tartara sed nec sidera cœli:
Spiritus in nobis qui viget, illa facit."
(Not in the heavens it lives, nor yet in hell;
The spirit that does it all, doth in us dwell.)
Compare Johann Beaumont, "Historisch-Physiologisch-und
Theologischer Tractat von Geistern, Erscheinungen, Hexereyen und
andern Zauber-Händeln, Halle im Magdeburgischen, 1721," p. 281.
[Add. to 3rd ed.]
[324] Compare Parerga, vol. i. p. 257 (2nd ed. vol. i. p. 286).
[325] On the 4th of August, 1856, the Roman Inquisition issued
a circular to all the bishops, in which it called upon them in
the name of the Church to use their utmost influence against the
practice of Animal Magnetism. The reasons for this are given with
striking want of lucidity and great vagueness, and even here and
there are not unmixed with falsehood; and it is easy to see that
the Church is reluctant to own the real reason. This circular is
published in the "Turin Journal" of December, 1856, and again in
the French "Univers," and reprinted from this in the "Journal des
Débats" of January 3rd, 1857. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
SINOLOGY.
Nothing perhaps points more directly to a high degree of civilization
in China than the almost incredible density of its population, now
rated, according to Gützlaff, at 367 millions of inhabitants.[326]
For whether we compare countries or ages, we find on the whole that
civilization keeps pace with population.
[326] According to a Chinese official Report on the census, printed
in Pekin, and found by the English in the Chinese Governor's palace
on entering Canton, China had 396 millions of inhabitants in 1852,
and allowing for a constant increase, may now have 400 millions.
("Moniteur de la Flotte," end of May, 1857.)
The Reports of the Russian Clerical Mission in Pekin give the
returns of 1842 as 414,687,000.
According to the tables published by the Russian Embassy at Pekin,
the population, in 1849, amounted to 415 millions. ("Post-Zeitung,"
1858.) [Add. to 3rd ed.]
The pertinacious zeal with which the Jesuit missionaries of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries strove to inculcate their own
relatively new doctrines into the minds of this very ancient nation,
and their futile endeavours to discover early traces of their own
faith in that country, left them no time for a profound study of
the belief which prevails there. Therefore Europe has only lately
obtained some slight knowledge of the religious state of the Chinese.
We now know, that is to say, that in China there exists first of all
a worship of Nature, which is universally professed, and dates from
the earliest times, even, it is alleged, from before the discovery of
fire, wherefore animals were sacrificed raw. The sacrifices offered
up publicly at certain seasons or after great events by the Chinese
Emperor and the chief dignitaries of the Empire, belong to this
worship. These sacrifices are dedicated first and foremost to the
blue sky and to the earth--to the blue sky in the winter solstice, to
the earth in the summer solstice--and, after these, to every possible
power of Nature: the sea, mountains, rivers, winds, thunder, rain,
fire, &c. &c. A genius presides over each of these, and each genius has
several temples. On the other hand, each genius presiding over every
single province, town, village, or street, nay over family funerals
and even sometimes over a merchant's warehouse, has also temples;
only, in the two last cases they are destined exclusively for private
worship. But public worship is besides offered up to former illustrious
Emperors, founders of dynasties and to heroes, _i.e._ to all such as
have benefited (Chinese) mankind by word or deed. Even these have
their temples: Confucius alone having no less than 1,650 dedicated to
him. This therefore accounts for the great number of small temples
found throughout the Empire. With this hero-worship too, is associated
the private worship offered up by every respectable family on the
tombs of their ancestors.--Now besides this worship of Nature and of
heroes, which is universal, there are three other prevailing religious
doctrines in China, more with a dogmatical intent. First among these is
the doctrine of Taossee, founded by Laotse, an older contemporary of
Confucius. This is the doctrine of Reason, as the inner order of the
Universe or inherent principle of all things, of the great One, the
sublime Gable-Beam (Taiki) which supports all the Rafters, yet is above
them (properly the all-pervading Soul of the World) and of Tao, _i.e._
the _Way_, namely to salvation: that is, to redemption from the world
and its misery. We have an exposition of this doctrine taken from the
fountain-head in Stanislas Julien's translation (1842) of Laotse's
Taoteking, in which we find that the Tao-doctrine completely harmonizes
with Buddhism both in meaning and in spirit. This sect however seems
to have fallen very much into the background, and its teachers to be
now looked down upon.--Secondly, we find the wisdom of Confucius,
which has special attractions for Chinese _savants_ and statesmen.
Judging from translations, it is a rambling, commonplace, predominantly
political, moral philosophy, without any metaphysical support, which
has something peculiarly insipid and tiresome about it.--Finally, there
exists for the bulk of the nation Buddha's sublime doctrine full of
love. The name, or rather title, of Buddha in China is _Fo_ or _Fhu_,
whilst in Tartary the "Victoriously-Perfect" is more frequently called
by his family-name, _Shakia-Muni_, and also _Burkhan-Bakshi_; in
Birma and Ceylon, he is generally called _Gótama_ or _Tagátata_, but
his original name was Prince _Siddharta_.[327] This religion which,
on account of its intrinsic excellence and truth, as well as of the
great number of its followers, may be considered as ranking highest
among all religions on earth, prevails throughout the greater part of
Asia, and according to the latest investigator, Spence Hardy, numbers
369 millions of believers: that is, far more than any other.--These
three religions, the most widely diffused of which, Buddhism, subsists
without any protection whatever from the State, by its own power
alone--a circumstance which speaks greatly in its favour--are far from
being hostile to one another, and exist quietly side by side, nay,
harmonize even to a certain extent, perhaps by reciprocal influence,
so that the sentence: "The three doctrines are only one", has become
proverbial. The Emperor, as such, professes all three; still many of
the Emperors, even up to the most recent times, have been especially
devoted to Buddhism. This is shown by their profound respect for the
Dalaï-Lama, nay, even for the Teshoo-Lama, to whom they unhesitatingly
yield precedence.--These three religions are neither monotheistic nor
polytheistic, nor are they even pantheistic--Buddhism, at any rate, is
not; since Buddha did not look upon a world sunk in sin and suffering,
whose tenants, all subject to death, only subsist for a short time by
devouring each other, as a manifestation of God. Moreover the word
Pantheism, properly speaking, contains a contradiction; for it denotes
a self-destroying conception, and has therefore never been understood
otherwise than as a polite term of expression by those who know what
seriousness means. It accordingly never entered into the heads of the
clever, acute philosophers of the eighteenth century, not to take
Spinoza for an Atheist, on account of his having called the world Deus;
on the contrary, this discovery was reserved for the sham philosophers
of our own times, who know nothing but words: they even pique
themselves on the achievement and accordingly talk about Acomism, the
wags! But I would humbly suggest leaving their meanings to words--in
short, calling the world, the world; and gods gods.
[327] For the benefit of those who wish to acquire a fuller
knowledge of Buddhism, I here note down those works belonging
to its literature, and written in European languages, which I
can really recommend, for I possess them and know them well;
the omission of a few others, for instance of Hodgson's and A.
Rémusat's books, is intentional.
1. "Dsanglun, or the Sage and the Fool," in Tibetan and German,
by I. J. Schmidt, Petersburg, 1843, 2 vols. in 4to, contains in
the preface to vol. i. (_i.e._ the Tibetan volume), from pp. xxxi
to xxxviii, a very brief, but excellent, sketch of the whole
doctrine, admirably calculated for a first introduction to the
knowledge of it: the whole book even, as a part of the Kandshur
(canonical books), may be recommended.--2. In the Memoranda of
the Academy of St. Petersburg are to be found several lectures by
the same excellent author (I. J. Schmidt), which were delivered
in German in that Academy in 1829-1832. As they are of very great
value for the knowledge of this religion, it is to be hoped that
they will be collected and published all together in Germany.--3.
By the same writer: "Forschungen über die Tibeter und Mongolen."
Petersb. 1829, in 4to. (Investigations concerning the Tibetans
and Mongols).--4. By the same writer: "Über die Verwandtschaft
der gnostisch-theosophischen Lehren mit dem Buddhaismus," 1828.
(On the relation between the Gnostic-Theosophic Doctrines and
Buddhism.)--5. By the same: "Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen,"
Petersb. 1829, in 4to. (History of the Eastern Mongols.) [This
is very instructive, especially the explanations and appendix,
which give long extracts from writings on Religion, in which many
passages clearly show the deep meaning and breathe the genuine
spirit of Buddhism.--Add. to 3rd ed.]--6. Two treatises by
Schiefner in German, in the "Mélanges Asiatiques tirés du Bulletin
Historico-Philol. de l'Acad. d. St. Pétersburg," Tome 1, 1851.--7.
"Samuel Turner's journey to the Court of the Teshoo-Lama" (at the
end), 1801.--8. Bochinger, "La Vie ascétique chez les Indous et les
Bouddhistes," Strasbourg, 1831.--9. In the 7th vol. of the "Journal
Asiatique," 1825, an extremely beautiful biography of Buddha by
Deshauterayes.--10. Bournouf, "Introd, à l'Hist, d. Bouddhisme,"
vol. i. in 4to, 1844.--11. "Rgya Tsher Rolpa," traduit du Tibétain,
par Foucaux, 1848, in 4to. This is the "Lalita Vistara," _i.e._
life of Buddha, the gospel of the Buddhists.--12. "Foe Koue Ki,
relation des royaumes Bouddhiques," traduit du Chinois par Abel
Rémusat, 1836, in 4to.--13. "Description du Tubet," traduit du
Chinois en Russe par Bitchourin, et du Russe en Français par
Klaproth, 1831.--14. Klaproth, "Fragments Bouddhiques," printed
separately from the "Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Mars, 1831.--15.
Spiegel, "De officiis sacerdotum Buddhicorum," Palice et Latine,
1841.--16. The same author's "Anecdota Palica," 1845.--[17.
"Dhammapadam," palice edidet et latine vertit Fausböll, Hovniæ,
1855.--Add. to 3rd ed.]--18. Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. Buchanan,
"On the Religion of the Burmas," and vol. xx. (Calcutta, 1839),
Part 2, contains three important articles by Csoma Körösi,
including Analyses of the Books of the Kandshur.--19. Sangermano,
"The Burmese Empire," Rome, 1833.--20. Turnour, "The Mahawanzo,"
Ceylon, 1836.--21. Upham, "The Mahavansi, Raja Ratnacari et
Rajavali," 3 vols. 1833.--22. _ejusd._ "Doctrine of Buddhism,"
1839, fol.--23. Spence Hardy, "Eastern Monachism," 1850.--24.
_ejusd._ "Manual of Buddhism," 1853. The two last books, written
after a twenty years' stay in Ceylon and from oral information
supplied by the priests there, have given me a deeper insight
into the essence of the Buddhist dogma than any other work. They
deserve to be translated into German, but without abridgement, for
otherwise the best part might be left out.--[25. C. F. Köppen, "Die
Religion des Buddha," 1857, a complete compendium of Buddhism,
compiled not only with great erudition and serious industry but
also with intelligence and insight from all the other works I have
mentioned above and from many more besides, which contains all that
is essential on the subject.--26. "The Life of Buddha," from the
Chinese of Palladji, in the "Archiv für wissenschaftliche Kunde von
Russland," edited by Erman, vol. xv. Heft 1, 1856.--Add. to 3rd ed.]
In their endeavours to acquire knowledge of the state of Religion in
China, Europeans began as usual, and as the Greeks and Romans under
similar circumstances had done, by first searching for points of
contact with their own belief. Now as, in their own way of thinking,
the conceptions of Religion and of Theism were almost identified, or
at any rate had grown together so closely, that they could only be
separated with great difficulty; as moreover, till a more accurate
knowledge of Asia had reached Europe, the very erroneous opinion
had been disseminated--for the purpose of argument _e consensu
gentium_--that all nations on earth worship a single, or at any rate a
highest, God, Creator of the Universe:[328] when they found themselves
in a country where temples, priests and monasteries abounded, they
started from the firm assumption that Theism would also be found
there, though in some very unusual form. On seeing these expectations
disappointed however, and on finding that the very conceptions of such
things, let alone the words to express them, were unknown, it was but
natural, considering the spirit in which their inquiries were made,
that their first reports of these religions should refer rather to
what they did not, than to what they did, contain. Besides, for many
reasons, it can be no easy task for European heads to enter fully into
the sense of these faiths. In the first place, they are brought up
in Optimism, whereas in Asia, existence itself is looked upon as an
evil and the world as a scene of misery, where it were better not to
find oneself. Another reason is to be found in the decided Idealism
which is essential to Buddhism and to Hindooism: a view only known
in Europe as a paradox hardly worth a serious thought, advanced by
certain eccentric philosophers; whereas in Asia it is even embodied
in popular belief. For in Hindoostan it prevails universally as the
doctrine of _Maja_, and in Thibet, the chief seat of the Buddhist
Church, it is taught in an extremely popular way, a religious comedy
being performed on occasions of special solemnity, in which the
Dalaï-Lama is represented arguing with the Arch-fiend. The former
defends Idealism, the latter Realism, and among other things the Devil
says: "What is perceived through the five sources of all knowledge (the
senses), is no deception, and what you teach is not true." After a long
argumentation the matter is decided by a throw of the dice: the Realist
(the Devil) loses, and is dismissed amid general jeering.[329] Keeping
this fundamental difference in the whole way of thinking steadily in
view, we shall find it not only excusable, but even natural, that
in their investigation of the Asiatic religions Europeans should at
first have stopped short at the negative stand-point; though, properly
speaking, it has nothing to do with the matter. We therefore find a
great deal referring to this negative stand-point which in no way
advances our positive knowledge; it all however amounts to this: that
Monotheism--an exclusively Jewish doctrine, to be sure--is alien to
Buddhists and in general to the Chinese. For instance, in the "Lettres
Édifiantes"[330] we find: "The Buddhists, whose views on the migration
of souls are universally adopted, are accused of Atheism." In the
"Asiatic Researches" (vol. vi. p. 255) we find: "The religion of the
Birmans (Buddhism) shows them to be a nation far advanced beyond
the barbarism of a wild state and greatly influenced by religious
opinions, but which nevertheless has no knowledge of a Supreme Being,
Creator and Preserver of the world. Yet the system of morality
recommended in their fables is perhaps as good as any other taught
by the religious doctrines which prevail among mankind."--And again, p.
258: "The followers of Gótama (_i.e._ of Buddha) are strictly speaking
Atheists."--_Ibid._, p. 258: "Gótama's sect consider the belief in a
divine Being, Creator of the world, to be highly impious."--_Ibid._,
p. 268, Buchanan relates, that Atuli, the Zarado or High-Priest
of the Buddhists at Ava, in an article upon his religion which he
presented to a Catholic bishop, "counted the doctrine, that there is
a Being who has created the world and all things in it and is alone
worthy of adoration, among the six damnable heresies." Sangermano
relates precisely the same thing,[331] and closes the list of the six
grave heresies with the words: "The last of these impostors taught,
that there is a Supreme Being, the Creator of the world and of all
things in it, and that he alone is worthy of adoration." Colebrooke
too says:[332] "The sects of Jaina, and Buddha are really atheistic,
for they acknowledge no Creator of the world, nor any Supreme ruling
Providence."--I. J. Schmidt[333] likewise says: "The system of Buddhism
knows no eternal, uncreated, single, divine Being, having existed
before all Time, who has created all that is visible and invisible.
This idea is quite foreign to Buddhism and there is not the slightest
trace of it anywhere in Buddhistic books."--We find the learned
sinologist Morrison too[334] not less desirous to discover traces
of a God in the Chinese dogmas and ready to put the most favourable
construction upon everything which seems to point in that direction;
yet he is finally obliged to own that nothing of the kind can be
clearly discovered. Where he explains the words _Thung_ and _Tsing_,
_i.e._ repose and movement, as that on which Chinese cosmogony is
based, he renews this inquiry and concludes it with the words: "It
is perhaps impossible to acquit this system of the accusation of
Atheism."--And even recently Upham[335] says: "Buddhism presents to us
a world without a moral ruler, guide or creator." The German sinologist
Neumann too, says in his treatise[336] mentioned further on: "In
China, where neither Mahometans nor Christians found a Chinese word
to express the theological conception of the Deity.... The words God,
soul, spirit, as independent of Matter and ruling it arbitrarily, are
utterly unknown in the Chinese language.... This range of ideas has
become so completely one with the language itself, that the first verse
of the book of Genesis cannot without considerable circumlocution be
translated into genuine Chinese."--It was this very thing that led Sir
George Staunton to publish a book in 1848 entitled: "An Inquiry into
the proper mode of rendering the word God in translating the Sacred
Scriptures into the Chinese language."[337]
[328] This is equivalent to imputing to the Chinese the thought,
that all princes on earth are tributary to their Emperor. [Add. to
3rd ed.]
[329] "Description du Tubet," traduite du Chinois en Russe par
Bitchourin, et du Russe en Français par Klaproth, Paris, 1831,
p. 65. Also in the "Asiatic Journal" new series, vol. i. p. 15.
[Köppen, "Die Lamaische Hierarchie," p. 315.--Add. to 3rd ed.]
[330] "Lettres édifiantes," édit. de 1819, vol. viii. p. 46.
[331] "Description of the Burman Empire," Rome. 1833. p. 81.
[332] Colebrooke, "Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society," vol.
i.; "Essay on the Philosophy of the Hindoos," published also among
his "Miscellaneous Essays," p. 236.
[333] "Investigations concerning the Tibetans and Mongols," p. 180.
[334] Morrison, "Chinese Dictionary," Macao, 1815, and following
years, vol. i. p. 217.
[335] Upham, "History and Doctrine of Buddhism," London, 1829, p.
102.
[336] Neumann, "Die Natur-und Religions-Philosophie der Chinesen,
nach den Werken des Tehu-hi," pp. 10, 11.
[337] The following account given by an American sea-captain, who
had come to Japan, is very amusing from the _naïveté_ with which
he assumes that mankind consists exclusively of Jews. For the
"Times" of the 18th October, 1854, relates that an American ship,
under command of Captain Burr, had arrived in Jeddo Bay, and gives
his account of the favourable reception he met with there, at the
end of which we find: "He likewise asserts the Japanese to be a
nation of Atheists, denying the existence of a God and selecting
as an object of worship either the spiritual Emperor at Meaco, or
any other Japanese. He was told by the interpreters that formerly
their religion was similar to that of China, but that the belief
in a supreme Being has latterly been entirely discarded--(this is
a mistake)--and he professed to be much shocked at Deejunoskee (a
slightly Americanised Japanese), declaring his belief in the Deity."
[Add. to 3rd ed.]
My intention in giving the above quotations and explanations, is merely
to prepare the way for the extremely remarkable passage, which it is
the object of the present chapter to communicate, and to render that
passage more intelligible to the reader by first making him realize the
standpoint from which these investigations were made, and thus throwing
light upon the relation between them and their subject. For Europeans,
when investigating this matter in China in the way and in the spirit
described, always inquiring for the supreme principle of all things,
the power that rules the world, &c. &c., had often been referred to
that which is designated by the word Tien (Engl. T'hëen). Now, the
more usual meaning of this word is "Heaven," as Morrison also says in
his dictionary; still it is a well-known thing that Tien is used in
a figurative sense also, and then has a metaphysical signification.
In the "Lettres Édifiantes"[338] we find the following explanation:
"_Hing-tien_ is the material, visible heaven; _Chin-tien_ the spiritual
and invisible heaven." Sonnerat too,[339] in his travels in East-India
and China, says: "When the Jesuits disputed with the rest of the
missionaries as to the meaning of the word Tien, whether it was Heaven
or God, the Chinese looked upon these foreigners as restless folk and
drove them away to Macao." It was at any rate through this word that
Europeans could first hope to find the track of that Analogy of Chinese
Metaphysic with their own faith, which had been so persistently sought
for; and it was doubtless owing to investigations of this kind that
the results we find communicated in an Essay entitled "Chinese Theory
of the Creation" were attained.[340] As to _Choo-foo-tze_, called also
_Choo-hi_, who is mentioned in it, I observe that he lived in the
twelfth century according to our chronology, and that he is the most
celebrated of all the Chinese men of learning; because he has collected
together all the wisdom of his predecessors and reduced it to a system.
His work is in our days the basis of all Chinese instruction, and his
authority of the greatest weight. In the passage I allude to, we find:
"The word _Teen_, would seem to denote 'the highest among the great'
or 'above all what is great on earth:' but in practice its vagueness
of signification is beyond all comparison greater, than that of the
term _Heaven_ in European languages.... Choo-foo-tze tells us that
'to affirm, that heaven has a _man_ (_i.e._ a sapient being) there to
judge and determine crimes, should not by any means be said; nor, on
the other hand, must it be affirmed, that there is nothing at all to
exercise a supreme control over these things.'
[338] Édition de, 1819, vol. xi. p. 461.
[339] Book iv. ch. i.
[340] To be found in the "Asiatic Journal," vol. xxii. anno 1826,
pp. 41 and 42.
"The same author being asked about the _heart of heaven_, whether it
was intelligent or not, answered: it must not be said that the mind of
nature is unintelligent, but it does not resemble the cogitations of
man....
"According to one of their authorities, _Teen_ is call'd ruler or
sovereign (Choo), from the idea of the supreme control, and another
expresses himself thus: Had heaven (Teen) no designing mind, then
it must happen, that the cow might bring forth a horse, and on the
peach-tree be produced the blossom of the pear.' On the other hand it
is said, that _the mind of Heaven is deducible from what is the Will of
mankind_!"
The agreement between this last sentence and my doctrine is so striking
and so astonishing, that if this passage had not been printed full
eight years after my own work had appeared, I should no doubt have
been accused of having taken my fundamental thought from it. For there
are three well-known modes of repelling the attack of new thoughts:
firstly, by ignoring them, secondly by denying them, and lastly by
asserting that they are not new, but were known long before. But
the fact that my fundamental thought was formed quite independently
of this Chinese authority, is firmly established by the reasons I
have given; for I may hope to be believed when I affirm, that I am
unacquainted with the Chinese language and consequently unable to
derive thoughts for my own use from original Chinese sources unknown
to others. On further investigation I have elicited the fact, that the
passage I have quoted, was most probably, nay almost certainly, taken
from Morrison's "Chinese Dictionary," where it may be found under the
sign _Tëen:_ only I have no opportunity of verifying it.[341]--In an
article by Neumann[342] there are some passages which have evidently
a common source with those here quoted from the "Asiatic Journal."
But they are written with the vagueness of expression which is so
frequent in Germany, and excludes clear comprehension. Besides, this
translator of Choo-hi evidently did not himself quite understand the
original; though by this no blame need be implied, when we consider
the enormous difficulty of the Chinese language for Europeans, and
the insufficiency of the means for studying it. Meanwhile it does not
give us the enlightenment desired. We must therefore console ourselves
with the hope, that as a freer intercourse with China has now been
established, some Englishman may one day give us more minute and
thorough information concerning the above-mentioned dogma, of which we
have hitherto received such deplorably imperfect accounts.
[341] A note of Schopenhauer's referring to this says:--"According
to letters from Doss" (a friend of S.'s), "dated 26th February and
8th June, 1857, the passages I have here quoted are to be found
in Morrison's Chinese Dictionary, Macao, 1815, vol. i. p. 576,
under 天 Tëen, although in a slightly different order, in nearly
the same words. The important passage at the end alone differs
and is as follows: 'Heaven makes the mind of mankind its mind: in
most ancient discussions respecting Heaven, its mind, or will,
was _divined_ (it stands thus, and not _derived_) from what was
the will of mankind.'--Neumann translated this passage for Doss,
independently of Morrison's rendering, and the end was: 'Through
the heart of the people Heaven is usually revealed.'" [_Editor's
Note._]
[342] Neumann, "Die Natur-und Religions-Philosophie der Chinesen,
nach dem Werke des Tschu-hi," an article in Illgen's "Periodical
for Historical Theology," vol. vii. 1837, from pp. 60 to 63.
REFERENCE TO ETHICS.
For reasons I have stated in the beginning, confirmations of the rest
of my doctrine are excluded from my present task. Still, in concluding,
I may perhaps be allowed to make a general reference to Ethics.
From time immemorial, all nations have acknowledged that the world
has a moral, as well as a physical, import. Everywhere nevertheless
the matter was only brought to an indistinct consciousness, which, in
seeking for its adequate expression, has clothed itself in various
images and myths. These are the different Religions. Philosophers, on
their side, have at all times endeavoured to attain clear comprehension
of the thing and, notwithstanding their differences in other respects,
all, excepting the strictly materialistic, philosophical systems,
agree in this one point: that what is most important, nay, alone
essential, in our whole existence, that on which everything depends,
the real meaning, pivot or point (_sit venia verbo_) of it, lies in the
morality of human actions. But as to the sense of this, as to the ways
and means, as to the possibility of the thing, they all again quite
disagree, and find themselves before an abyss of obscurity. Thus it
follows, that it is easy to preach, but difficult to found, morality.
It is just because that point is determined by our conscience, that it
becomes the touchstone of all systems; since we demand, and rightly
demand, that Metaphysic should give support to Ethics: and now arises
the difficult problem to show that, contrary to all experience, the
physical order of things depends upon a moral one, and to find out
a connection between the force which, by acting according to eternal
laws of Nature, gives the world stability, and the morality which has
its seat in the human breast. This is therefore the rock on which the
best thinkers have foundered. Spinoza occasionally tacks a moral theory
on to his Pantheistic Fatalism by means of sophisms, but more often
leaves morality terribly in the lurch. Kant, when theoretical Reason
is exhausted, sends his Categorical Imperative, laboriously worked out
of mere conceptions,[343] on the stage, as _deus ex machina_, with an
absolute _ought_. But the mistake he made by it only became quite clear
when Fichte, who always took outbidding for outdoing, had spun it out
with Christian Wolfian prolixity and wearisomeness to a complete system
of _moral fatalism_ in his "System of Moral Doctrine," and subsequently
presented it more briefly in his last pamphlet.[344]
[343] See my prize-essay "On the Fundament of Morality," § 6.
[344] "Die Wissenschaftslehre in allgemeinen Umrisse" (The Doctrine
of Science in a general outline), 18, 10.
Now, from this point of view, a system which places the reality of all
existence and the root of the whole of Nature in _the Will_, and in
this will places the root of the world, must undeniably carry with it,
to say the least, a strong prejudice in its favour. For, by a direct
and simple way, it reaches, nay, already holds in its hand before
coming to Ethics, what other systems try to reach by roundabout, ever
dubious by-paths. Nor indeed can any other road ever lead to this
but the insight, that the active and impulsive force in Nature which
presents this perceptible world to our intellect, is identical with
the will within us. The only Metaphysic which really and immediately
supports Ethics, is that one which is itself primarily ethical and
constituted out of the material of Ethics. Therefore I had a far
greater right to call my Metaphysic "Ethics," than Spinoza, with
whom the word sounds almost like irony, and whose "Ethics" might be
said to bear the name like _lucus a non lucendo_; since it is only by
means of sophistry that he has been able to tack his morality on to
a system, from which it would never logically proceed. In general,
moreover, he disavows it downright with revolting assurance.[345] On
the whole, I can confidently assert, that there has never yet been a
philosophical system so entirely cut out of one piece, so completely
without any joins or patches, as mine. As I have said in my preface,
it is the unfolding of a single thought, by which the ancient ἁπλοῦς
ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ[346] is again confirmed. Then we must still
take into consideration here, that freedom and responsibility--those
pillars on which all morality rests--can certainly be asserted in
words without the assumption of the aseity[347] of the will; but that
it is absolutely impossible to think them without it. Whoever wishes
to dispute this, must first invalidate the axiom, stated long ago
by the Schoolmen: _operari sequitur esse_ (_i.e._ the acts of each
being follow from the nature of that being), or we must demonstrate
the fallacy of the inference to be drawn from it: _unde esse, inde
operari_. Responsibility has for its condition freedom; but freedom
has for its condition primariness. For I _will_ according to what I
_am_; therefore I must _be_ according to what I _will_. Aseity of the
will is therefore the first condition of any Ethics based on serious
thought, and Spinoza is right when he says: _Ea res libera dicetur,
quæ ex sola suæ naturæ necessitate_ existit, _et a se sola ad agendum
determinatur_.[348] Dependence, as to existence and nature, united
with freedom as to action, is a contradiction. Were Prometheus to
call the creatures of his making to account for their actions, they
would be quite justified in answering: "We could only act according
to our being: for actions arise from nature. If our actions were
bad, the fault lay in our nature: this is thine own work; punish
thyself."[349] And it is just the same with the imperishableness
of our true being in death; for this cannot be seriously thought
without the aseity of that being, and can even hardly be conceived
without a fundamental separation of the will from the intellect. This
last point is peculiar to my philosophy; but Aristotle had already
proved the first thoroughly, by showing at length how that alone can
be imperishable which has not arisen, and that the two conceptions
condition each other:[350] Ταῦτα ἀλλήλοις ἀκολουθεῖ, καὶ τό τε
ἀγένητον ἄφθαρτον, καὶ τὸ ἄφθαρτον ἀγένητον.... τὸ γὰρ γενητὸν καὶ τὸ
φθαρτὸν ἀκολουθοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις.--εἰ γενητόν τι, φθαρτὸν ἀνάγκη[351]
(_hæc mutuo se sequuntur, atque ingenerabile est incorruptibile, et
incorruptibile ingenerabile.... generabile enim et corruptibile mutuo
se sequuntur.--si generabile est, et corruptibile esse necesse est_).
All those among the ancient philosophers who taught an immortality of
the soul, understood it in this way; nor did it enter into the head of
any of them to assign infinite permanence to a being _having arisen_ in
any way. We have evidence of the embarrassment to which the contrary
assumption leads, in the ecclesiastical controversy between the
advocates of Pre-existence, Creation and Traduction.
[345] For instance, "Eth." iv. prop. 37, Schol. 2.
[346] The language of truth is simple. [Tr.'s add.]
[347] Self-existence; self-dependence.
[348] "Eth." i. def. 7. [Tr.]
[349] Compare "Parerga," i. p. 115, _et seqq._ (p. 133 of 2nd ed.).
[350] Aristot. "De Cœlo," i. 12.
[351] "These two go together, the uncreated is imperishable,
and the imperishable is uncreated.... For the created and the
perishable go together.... If a thing is created it is necessarily
perishable." [Tr.]
The Optimism moreover of all philosophical systems is a point
closely allied to Ethics which must never fail in any of them, as in
duty bound: for the world likes to hear that it is commendable and
excellent, and philosophers like to please the world. With me it is
different: I have seen what pleases the world, and therefore shall
not swerve a step from the path of truth in order to please it. Thus
in this point also my system varies from all the others and stands by
itself. But when all the others have completed their demonstrations to
the song of the best of worlds, quite at the last, at the background
of the system, like a tardy avenger of the monster, like a spirit from
the tomb, like the statue in Don Juan, there comes the question as to
the origin of evil, of the monstrous, nameless evil, of the awful,
heartrending misery in the world:--and here they are speechless, or can
only find words, empty, sonorous words, with which to settle this heavy
reckoning. On the other hand, a system, in whose basis already the
existence of evil is interwoven with the existence of the world, need
not fear that apparition any more than a vaccinated child need fear the
smallpox. Now this is the case when freedom is placed in the _esse_
instead of in the _operari_ and sin, evil and the world then proceed
from that _esse_.--Moreover it is fair to let me, as a serious man,
only speak of things which I really know and only make use of words
to which I attach a quite definite meaning; since this alone can be
communicated with security to others, and Vauvenargues is quite right
in saying: "_la clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes_." Therefore if
I use the words 'Will, Will to live,' this is no mere _ens rationis_,
no hypostasis set up by me, nor is it a term of vague, uncertain
meaning; on the contrary, I refer him, who asks what it is, to his own
inner self, where he will find it entire, nay, in colossal dimensions,
as a true _ens realissimum_. I have accordingly not explained the
world out of the unknown, but rather out of that which is better known
than anything, and known to us moreover in quite a different way from
all the rest. As to the paradoxical character finally, with which the
ascetic results of my Ethics have been reproached, these results had
given umbrage even to Jean Paul, otherwise so favourably disposed
towards me, and had induced Herr Rätze also (not knowing that the only
course to be adopted against me was silence) to write a book against me
in 1820, with the best intentions. They have since become the standing
rock of offence in my philosophy; but I beg my readers to take into
consideration, that it is only in this north-western portion of the
ancient continent, and even here only in Protestant countries, that the
term paradoxical can be applied to such things; whereas throughout the
whole of vast Asia--everywhere indeed, where the detestable doctrine
of Islam has not prevailed over the ancient and profound Religions of
mankind by dint of fire and sword--they would rather have to fear the
reproach of being commonplace. I console myself therefore with the
thought that, when referred to the Upanishads of the Sacred Vedas,
my Ethics are quite orthodox,[352] and that even with primitive,
genuine Christianity they stand in no contradiction. As to all other
accusations of heresy, I am well armoured and my breast is fortified
with triple steel.
[352] I refer those who may wish to be briefly, yet thoroughly,
informed on this point, to the late Pasteur Bochinger's work:
"La vie contemplative, ascétique et monastique chez les peuples
Bouddhistes," Strasbourg, 1831.
CONCLUSION.
The undoubtedly striking confirmations recorded in this treatise, which
have been contributed to my doctrine by the Empirical Sciences since
its first appearance, but independently of it, will unquestionably
have been followed by many more: for how small is the portion which
the individual can find time, opportunity and patience to become
acquainted with, of the branch of literature dedicated to Natural
Science which is so actively cultivated in all languages! Even what
I have here mentioned however, inspires me with confidence that the
time for my philosophy is ripening; and it is with heartfelt joy that
I see the Empirical Sciences gradually come forward in the course
of time, as witnesses above suspicion, to testify to the truth of a
doctrine, concerning which a politic, inviolable silence has been
maintained for seventeen years by our "philosophers by profession"
(some of them give themselves this characteristic name, nay even that
of "philosophers by trade"); so that it had been left to Jean Paul,
who was ignorant of their tactics, to draw attention to it. For it
may have appeared to them a delicate matter to praise it, and, on
due consideration, they may have thought it not altogether safe to
blame it either, and may have judged it unnecessary besides to show
the public, as belonging neither to the profession nor to the trade,
that it is quite possible to philosophize very seriously without being
either unintelligible or wearisome. Why compromise themselves therefore
with it, since no one betrays himself by silence and the favourite
secretive method was ready at hand, the approved specific against
merit; this much was besides soon agreed upon: that, considering the
circumstances of the times, my philosophy did not possess the right
qualifications for being taught professionally. Now the true, ultimate
aim of all philosophy, with them, is to be taught professionally,--so
much and so truly is it so, that were Truth to come down stark naked
from lofty Olympus, but were what she brought with her not found to
correspond to the requirements called for by the circumstances of the
times, or to the purposes of their mighty superiors, these gentlemen
"of the profession and trade" would verily waste no time with the
indecent nymph, but would hasten to bow her out again to her Olympus,
then place three fingers on their lips and return quietly to their
compendia. For assuredly he who makes love to this nude beauty, to this
fascinating syren, to this portionless bride, will have to forego the
good fortune of becoming a Government and University professor. He may
even congratulate himself if he becomes a garret-philosopher. On the
other hand, his audience will consist, not of hungry undergraduates
anxious to turn their learning to account, but rather of those rare,
select thinkers, thinly sprinkled among the countless multitude, who
arise from time to time, almost as a freak of Nature. And a grateful
posterity is beckoning from afar. But they can have no idea of the
beauty and loveliness of Truth, of the delight there is in pursuing
her track, of the rapture in possessing her, who can imagine that
anyone who has once looked her in the face can ever desert, deny, or
distort her for the sake of the venal approval, of the offices, of the
money or the titles of such people. Better to grind spectacle-glasses
like Spinoza or draw water like Cleanthes. Henceforth they may take
whatever course they like: Truth will not change her nature to
accommodate "the trade." Serious philosophy has now really outgrown
Universities, where Science stands under State-guardianship. It may
however some day perhaps come to be counted among the occult sciences;
while the spurious kind, that _ancilla theologiæ_ in Universities, that
inferior counterfeit of Scholasticism, for which the highest criterion
of philosophical truth lies in the country catechism, will make our
Lecture-halls doubly re-echo.--"You, that way: we, this way."--[353]
[353] Shakespeare, "Love's Labour's Lost."
CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,
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TRANSCRIBER'S CORRECTIONS
page original text correction
xxvii,
169, κατ' ἐζοχήν κατ' ἐξοχήν
199
040 for it is a mere phantasm. for it is a mere phantasm."
087 Il y a une de mes expérences Il y a une de mes expériences
088 Νοῦς ὁρῆ καὶ νοῦς Νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς
090 the object of invesgation the object of investigation
121 between the Underderstanding between the Understanding
140 No huy peor sordo No hay peor sordo
146 Nay, the impossibity of Nay, the impossibility of
158 εἶναί φησι μεταζύ, εἶναί φησι μεταξύ,
220 footnote anchor missing [190]
256 of imparted movement. of imparted movement."
259 black = 0 black = 0"
233 footnote anchor missing [196]
235 in a purely empircial sense, in a purely empirical sense,
246 the blush in embarassment, the blush in embarrassment,
271 Letters Philosophiques sur Lettres Philosophiques sur
286 In _parnassia palustris_ "In _parnassia palustris_
289 in the winter season in the winter season"
289 préssentir la necessité préssentir la nécessité
302 innummerable degrees innumerable degrees
308 inseparable from conciousness inseparable from consciousness
315 susceptibity to causal susceptibility to causal
324 seu innata lex. seu innata lex."
328 effect upon a somnabulist effect upon a somnambulist
354 with the divine will." with the divine will.
366 which prevail among mankind. which prevail among mankind."
395 his belief in the Deity. his belief in the Deity."
396 and invisible heaven. and invisible heaven."
372 confirmamations of the rest confirmations of the rest