SCHOPEXEA UER IN A NUTSHELL. 



377 



reality of human consciousness. We recognize 

 the identity of our own being with the essence of 

 all beings, and the great mystery of the world 

 seems a total mystery no more. The accession 

 to our store of philosophic knowledge accruing 

 from Schopenhauer's discovery seems to me to 

 be incalculable. To lay open its source and im- 

 port to the reader will now be my task. 



All things, Schopenhauer says, we observe and 

 observe only through the medium of time, space, 

 and causality, with one single exception — our- 

 selves. It is true that our body, in so far as it 

 lives and acts, and that which makes our body 

 live and act, our will, are objects of our own per- 

 ception in the ordinary sense. But apart from 

 this perception, we are conscious of a vital prin- 

 ciple in ourselves absolutely identical with the 

 essence of our own being, and quite independent 

 of and beyond our ordinary means of observation. 

 This vital principle of the human organism is 

 called will ; it is ever present to our mind, is 

 perceived or rather felt by us independently of 

 time, space, or causality ; it is indeed the imma- 

 nent essence of our life, the " Ding an sick " of 

 our being. 1 This recognition of our own being 

 by dint of self-intuition, Schopenhauer justly calls 

 the only possible metaphysical or philosophic 

 knowledge in the proper sense of the word. With 

 every change or motion of this will, he proceeds 

 to show, a corresponding change in our body is 

 indissolubly connected. Every movement of our 

 hand, every beat of our pulse, are the effect of the 

 action of our will, independently of our own con- 

 sciousness of such action. Our body itself, with 

 its nerves and fibres, its blood and its brain, is 

 indeed nothing but this will become conscious, 

 and observing itself through the principium indi- 

 vidualionis. 



With the aid of this knowledge of our being, 

 we now look at the world around us to find that 

 the macrocosm of the universe is only the repeti- 

 tion on a gigantic scale of our own tangible iden- 

 tity. We perceive an infinity of outward forms, 

 organic and inorganic ; plants, and birds, and 

 beasts, and men, all fashioned after the manner 

 of our own body, or at least submitting to the 

 same laws of material existence. The essence or 

 noumenon of our own body we know to be will ; 

 what, then, can be the one substratum of the uni- 



1 It is perhaps hardly necessary to remind the reader 

 of the vital difference between will and volition. Voli- 

 tion is the temporary action of the will in accordance with 

 a particular motive brought to bear upon it. It is, there- 

 fore, subject to time and causality, a phenomenon in short, 

 while will is the noumenon or essence. 



verse but the same will in its various stages of 

 consciousness and individuation ? There is only 

 the alternative between the acceptance of this 

 reality and the theory of absolute egoism, which, 

 as Schopenhauer observes, cannot be metaphys- 

 ically disproved, but has never been seriously 

 started out of a mad-house. Will, then, will one 

 and universal, eternal and unchangeable in es- 

 sence, although multiform in its temporal appear- 

 ances, is the key-note of the harmony of the 

 spheres, the essence of which all the wonders of 

 the world, from the colossal immovability of a 

 granite rock to the subtile texture of the human 

 brain, are only signs and forms. 



Let the reader pause here for a moment to 

 realize the deep metaphysical import of this dis- 

 covery. It establishes the long-sought-for unity 

 of the world, it fills up the chasm formerly divid- 

 ing mental and material forces, and at the same 

 time it enables us, from the safe retreat of our 

 own existence, to glance fearlessly at the enor- 

 mous heaving and struggling of the universe in 

 which we are no more entire strangers. It must 

 not be thought that this ideal unity can be de- 

 duced from any previous system, or that Schopen- 

 hauer has only changed the name of universal 

 force or law into will. Of force or law we know 

 nothing, of will everything; we are will. Besides, 

 why introduce a difference of term where identity 

 of essence is all-important ? And how are we to 

 know where force ends and will begins ? Organ- 

 ism or consciousness are no criteria in the mat- 

 ter, as will be seen presently. Spinoza says of a 

 falling stone, that if it were conscious it would 

 ascribe its movement to spontaneous action. 

 Schopenhauer adds that the stone in thinking so 

 would be right. For the law of gravity to which 

 it obeys, and the motive which points out to hu- 

 man will the object of its desire, are convertible 

 terms. 



But I am anticipating. Natura nonfacit sal- 

 tus was one of Schopenhauer's favorite maxims. 

 To come from the stone to the individual action 

 of human will, we must pass through the innu- 

 merable gradations of inorganic, organic, and ani- 

 mal life. All these Schopenhauer regards as the 

 various stages of the " objectivation " — sit venia 

 verbo — of the will. The history of the world is 

 but the history of the struggle of will for con- 

 sciousness and individuality. To attain this it 

 fashions itself into a thousand forms, all tending 

 toward the same goal, and all reckless of the ex- 

 istence of the lower types, of which they them- 

 selves are further developments. Stone and 

 plant, animal and man, are the landmarks of this 



