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SCHOPENHAUER'S METAPHYSICS OF LOVE: Love, Desire & Will to Live - Arthur Schopenhauer (1890) · SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success

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  Metaphysics of Love by Arthur Schopenhauer eighteen ninety from book Essays of Schopenhauer, brought
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  to you by Elite Consulting Group. Metaphysics of Love. We are accustomed to
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  see poets principally occupied with describing the love of the sexes. This, as
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  a rule, is the leading idea of every dramatic work, be it tragic
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  or comic, Romantic or Classic, Indian or European. It in no less
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  degree constitutes the greater part of both lyric and epic poetry, especially if in
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  these we include the host of romances which have been produced every year for centuries
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  in every civilized country in Europe, as regularly as the fruits of the earth.
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  All these works are nothing more than many sided, short or long descriptions
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  of the passion in question. Moreover, the most successful delineations of love,
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  such for example, as Romeo and Juliet, the New Heloese and Werther,
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  have attained a more mortal fame. Rochfukuot says that love may be compared to
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  a ghost, since it is something we talk about but have never seen,
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  and Liechtenberg, in his essay about the Power of Love, disputes and denies
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  its reality and naturalness, but both are in the wrong. For if it
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  were foreign to and contradicted human nature. In other words, if it were
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  merely an imaginary caricature, it would not have been depicted with such zeal by
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  the poets of all ages, or accepted by mankind with an unaltered interest.
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  For anything artistically beautiful cannot exist without truth. Nothing is beautiful but the true.
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  The only true one is lovable. Boil experience, although not that of
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  every day, verifies that that which, as a rule begins only as a
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  strong and yet controllable inclination, may develop, under certain conditions into a passion,
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  the ardor of which surpasses that of every other. It will ignore all
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  considerations, overcome all kinds of obstacles with incredible soares, strength and persistence.
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  A man, in order to have his love gratified, will unhesitatingly risk his
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  life. In fact, if his love is absolutely rejected, he will sacrifice
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  his life into the bargain. The Werthers and jacopo Ortis do not only exist
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  in romances. Europe produces every year at least half a dozen like them,
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  but they perished by unknown deaths. For their sufferings are chronicled by the writer
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  of official registers or by the reporters of newspapers. Indeed, readers of the
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  police news in English and French newspapers will confirm what I have said. Love
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  drives a still greater number of people into the lunatic asylum. There is a
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  case of some sort every year of two lovers committing suicide together because material circumstances
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  happen to be unfavorable to their union. By the way, I cannot understand
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  how it is that such people who are confident of each other's love and expect
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  to find their greatest happiness in the enjoyment of it, do not avoid taking
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  extreme steps and prefers suffering every discomfort to sacrificing with their lives a happiness which
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  is greater than any other they can conceive. As far as lesser phases and
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  passages of love are concerned, all of us have them daily before our eyes,
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  and if we are not old, the most of us in our hearts.
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  After what has been brought to mind, one cannot doubt either the reality
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  or importance of love. Instead, therefore, of wondering why a philosopher for
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  once in a way writes on this subject, which has been constantly the theme
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  of poets. Rather, should one be surprised that love, which always plays
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  such an important role in a man's life, has scarcely ever been considered at
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  all by philosophers, and that it still stands as material for them to make
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  use of. Plato has devoted himself more than any one else to the subject
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  of love, especially in the Symposium and the Fedras. What he has said
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  about it, however, comes within the sphere of myth, fable and raillery,
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  and only applies for the most part to the love of a Greek.
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  The little that Rousseau says in his Discourse on Inequality is neither true nor satisfactory.
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  Kant's disquisition on love in the third part of his Treatise about the feeling
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  of the Beautiful and Sublime, is very superficial. It shows that he has
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  not thoroughly gone into the subject, and therefore it is somewhat untrue. Finally,
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  Plattner's treatment of it in his Anthropology will be found by everyone to be
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  insipid and shallow to amuse the reader. On the other hand, Spinoza's definition
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  deserves to be quoted because of its exuberant naivete. Love is a tickling the
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  concomitant idea of an external cause f four prop. Forty four. It is
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  not my intention to be either influenced or to contradict what has been written by
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  my predecessors. The subject has forced itself upon me objectively, and has of
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  itself become inseparable from my consideration of the world. Moreover, I shall expect
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  least approval from those people who are, for the moment enchained by this passion,
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  and in consequence try to express their exuberant feelings in the most sublime and
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  ethereal images. My view will seem to them too physical, too material.
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  However metaphysical, nay, transcendent, it is fundamentally. First of all,
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  let them take into consideration that the creature whom they are idealizing to day in
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  madrigals and sonnets would have been ignored almost entirely by them if she had been
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  born eighteen years previously. Every kind of love, however ethereal, it may
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  seem to be, springs entirely from the instinct of sex. Indeed, it
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  is absolutely this instinct, only in a more definite, specialized, and perhaps
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  strictly speaking, more individualized form. If bearing this in mind, one considers
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  the important role which love plays in all its phases and degrees, not only
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  in dramas and novels, but also in the real world, where, next
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  to one's love of life, it shows itself as the strongest and most active
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  of all motives. If one considers that it constantly occupied is half the capacities
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  and thoughts of the younger part of humanity, and is the final goal of
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  almost every human effort that it influences. Adversely, the most important affairs,
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  that it hourly disturbs, the most earnest occupations, that it sometimes deranges even
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  the greatest intellects for a time, that it is not afraid of interrupting the
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  transactions of statesmen or the investigations of men of learning, That it knows how
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  to leave its love letters and locks of hair in ministerial portfolios and philosophical manuscripts.
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  That it knows equally well how to plan the most complicated and wicked affairs,
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  to dissolve the most important relations, to break the strongest ties that life,
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  health, riches, rank, and happiness are sometimes sacrificed for its sake.
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  That it makes the otherwise honest perfidious, and a man who has been
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  hitherto faithful a betrayer, and altogether appears as a hostile demon whose object is
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  to overthrow, confuse, and upset everything it comes across. If all this
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  is taken into consideration, one will have reason to ask, why is there
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  all this noise, Why all this crowding, blustering, anguish and want?
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  Why should such a trifle play so important a part and create disturbance and confusion
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  in the well regulated life of mankind. But to the earnest investigator, the
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  spirit of truth gradually unfolds the answer. It is not a trifle one is
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  dealing with. The importance of love is absolutely in keeping with the seriousness and
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  zeal with which it is prosecuted. The ultimate aim of all love affairs,
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  whether they be of a tragic or comic nature, is really more important than
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  all other aims in human life, and therefore is perfectly deserving of that profound
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  seriousness with which it is pursued. As a matter of fact, love determines
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  nothing less than the establishment of the next generation, the existence and nature of
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  the dramedist persona who come on to the scene when we have made our exit,
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  have been determined by some frivolous love affair. As the being the existentia
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  of these future people is conditioned by our instinctive sex. In general, so
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  is the nature the essentia of these same people conditioned by the selection that the
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  individual makes for his satisfaction, that is to say, by love, and
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  is thereby in every respect irrevocably established. This is the key of the problem.
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  In applying it, we shall understand it more fully if we analyze the
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  various degrees of love, from the most fleeting sensation to the most ardent passion.
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  We shall then see that the difference arises from the degree of individualization of
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  the choice. All the love affairs of the present generation, taken altogether,
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  are accordingly the meditation of the composition of the future generation, on which again
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  countless generations depend of mankind. Love is of such high import because it has
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  nothing to do with the weal or woe of the present individual, as every
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  other matter has. It has to secure the existence and special nature of the
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  human race in future times. Hence, the will of the individual appears in
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  a higher aspect as the will of the species, and this it is that
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  gives a pathetic and sublime import to love affairs and makes their raptures and troubles
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  transcendent emotions which poets for centuries have not tired of depicting in a variety of
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  ways. There is no subject that can rouse the same interest as love,
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  since it concerns both the weal and woe of the species, and is related
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  to every other which only concerns the welfare of the individual as body to surface.
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  This is why it is so difficult to make a drama interesting if it
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  possesses no love motive. On the other hand, the subject is never exhausted,
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  although it is constantly being utilized. What manifests itself in the individual consciousness
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  as instinct of sex in general, without being concentrated on any particular individual,
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  is very plainly in itself, in its generalized form, the will to live.
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  On the other hand, that which appears as instinct of sex directed to
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  a certain individual is in itself the will to live as a definitely determined individual.
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  In this case, the instinct of sex very cleverly wears the mask of
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  objective admiration, although in itself it is a subjective necessity and is thereby deceptive.
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  Nature needs these stratagems in order to accomplish her ends. The purpose of
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  every man in love, however objective and sublime his admiration may appear to be,
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  is to beget a being of a definite nature, And that this is
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  so is verified by the fact that it is not mutual love, but possession
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  that is the essential. Without possession, it is no consolation to a man
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  to know that his love is requited. In fact, many a man has
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  shot himself on finding himself in such a position. On the other hand,
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  take a man who is very much in love. If he cannot have his
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  love returned, he is content simply with possession. Compulsory marriages and cases of
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  seduction corroborate this. For a man whose love is not returned frequently far mind's
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  consolation in giving handsome presents to a woman in spite of her dislike, or
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  making other sacrifices so that he may by her favor. The real aim of
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  the whole of love's romance, although the persons concerned are unconscious of, the
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  fact, is that a particular being may come into the world, and the
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  way and manner in which it is accomplished is a secondary consideration. However much
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  those of lofty sentiments, and especially of those in love, may refute the
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  gross realism of my argument, they are nevertheless in the wrong. For is
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  not the aim of definitely determining the individualities of the next generation a much higher
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  and nobler aim than that other, with its exuberant sensations and transcendental soap bubbles.
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  Among all earthly aims, is there one that is either more important or
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  greater. It alone is in keeping with that deep rooted feeling inseparable from passionate
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  love, with that earnestness with which it appears, and the importance which it
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  attaches to the trifles that come within its sphere. It is only in so
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  far as we regard this end as the real one, that the difficulties encountered,
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  the endless troubles and vexations endured in order to attain the object we love,
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  appear to be in keeping with the matter. For it is the future
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  generation, in its entire individual determination, which forces itself into existence through the
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  medium of all this strife and trouble. Indeed, the future generation itself is
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  already stirring in the careful, definite and apparently capricious selection for the satisfaction of
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  the instinct of sex, which we call love. That growing affection of two
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  lovers for each other is in reality the will to live of the new being
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  of which they shall become the parents. Indeed, in the meeting of their
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  yearning glances, the life of a new being is kindled and manifests itself as
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  a well organized individuality of the future. The lovers have a longing to be
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  really united and made one being, and to live as such for the rest
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  of their lives, and this longing is fulfilled in the children born to them,
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  in whom the qualities inherited from both, but combine and united in one
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  being, are perpetuated. Contrarily, if a man and woman mutually persistently and
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  decidedly dislike each other, it indicates that they could only bring into the world
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  a badly organized, discordant, and unhappy being. Therefore, much must be
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  attached to Calderon's words when he calls the horrible samiramis a daughter of the heir,
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  yet introduces her as a daughter of seduction, after which follows the murder
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  of the husband. Finally, it is the will to live, presenting itself
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  in the whole species, which so forcibly and exclusively attracts two individuals of different
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  sects towards each other. This will anticipate in the being of which they shall
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  become, the parents, an objectivation of its nature corresponding to its aims.
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  This individual will inherit the father's will and character, the mother's intellect, and
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  the constitution of both. As a rule, however, an individual takes more
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  after the father in shape and the mother in stature. Responding to the law
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  which applies to the offspring of animals, it is impossible to explain the individuality
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  of each man, which is quite exceptional and peculiar to him alone. And
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  it is just as impossible to explain the passion of two people for each other,
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  for it is equally individual and uncommon in character. Indeed, fundamentally both
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  are one and the same. The former is explicite what the latter was implicite.
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  We must consider as the origin of a new individual and true punctum saliens
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  of its life. The moment when the parents begin to love each other,
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  to fancy each other, as the English appropriately express it, and as has
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  been said in the meeting of their longing glances, originates the first germ of
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  a new being, which, indeed like all germs, is generally crushed out.
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  This new individual is, to a certain extent, a new platonic idea.
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  Now, as all ideas strive with the greatest vehemence to enter the phenomenal
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  sphere, and to do this ardently sees upon the matter which the law of
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  causality distributes among them all, so this particular idea of a human individuality struggles
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  with the greatest eagerness and vehemence for its realization in the phenomenal It is precisely
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  this vehement desire which is the passion of the future parents for one another.
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  Love has countless degrees, and its two extremes may be indicated as Greek afrodity
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  pandemos in Greek Urania. Nevertheless, in essentials, it is the same everywhere,
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  according to the degree. On the other hand, it will be the
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  more powerful the more individualized it is, that is to say, the more
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  the loved individual, by virtue of all her qualities, is exclusively fit to
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  satisfy the lover's desire and needs determined by her own individuality. If we investigate
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  further, we shall understand more clearly what this involves. All amorous feeling immediately
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  and essentially concentrates itself on health, strength and beauty, and consequently on youth.
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  Because the will above all wishes to exhibit the specific character of the human
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  species as the basis of all individuality, the same applies pretty well to everyday
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  courtship Greek afrodity pandemos. With this are bound up more special requirements, which
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  we will consider individually later on, and with which, if there is any
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  prospect of gratification, there is an increase of passion. Intense love, however,
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  springs from a fitness of both individualities for each other, so that the
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  will, that is to say, the father's character and the mother's intellect combined
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  exactly complete. That individual for which the will to live in general, which
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  exhibits itself in the whole species, has a longing, a longing proportionate to
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  this its greatness and therefore surpassing the measure of a mortal heart, its motives
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  being in a like manner beyond the sphere of the individual intellect. This then
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  is the soul of a really great passion. The more perfectly two individuals are
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  fitted for each other in the various respects which we shall con consider further on.
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  The stronger will be their passion for each other. As there are not
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  two individuals exactly alike. A particular kind of woman must perfectly correspond with a
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  particular kind of man, always in view of the child that is to be
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  born. Real passionate love is as rare as the meeting of two people exactly
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  fitted for each other. By the way, it is because there is a
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  possibility of real passionate love in us all that we understand why poets have depicted
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  it in their works. Because the kernel of passionate love turns on the anticipation
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  of the child to be born and its nature. It is quite possible for
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  friendship without any admixture of sexual love to exist between two young, good looking
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  people of different sex if there is perfect fitness of temperament and intellectual capacity.
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  In fact, a certain aversion for each other may exist. Also, the
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  reason of this is that a child begotten by them would physically or mentally have
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  discordant qualities. In short, the child's existence when nature would not be in
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  harmony with the purposes of the will to live as it presents itself in the
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  species. In an opposite case, where there is no fitness of disposition,
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  character, and mental capacity, whereby aversion, nay even enmity for each other
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  exists, it is possible for love to spring up. Love of this kind
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  makes them blind to everything, and if it leads to marriage, it is
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  a very unhappy one. And now let us more thoroughly investigate the matter.
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  Egoism is a quality so deeply rooted in every personality that it is on egotistical
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  ends only that one may safely rely in order to rouse the individual to activity.
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  To be sure, the species has a prior, nearer, and greater
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  claim on the individual than the transient individuality itself. And yet even when the
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  individual makes some sort of conscious sacrifice for the perpetuation and future of the species,
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  the importance of the matter will not be made sufficiently comprehensible to his intellect,
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  which is mainly constituted to regard ind ofvis. Therefore, in nature attains
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  her ends by implanting in the individual a certain illusion by which something which is
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  in reality advantageous to the species alone seems to be advantageous to himself. Consequently,
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  he serves the latter while he imagines he is serving himself. In this
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  process, he is carried away by a mere chimera which floats before him and
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  vanishes again immediately, and as a motive takes the place of reality. This
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  illusion is instinct. In most instances, instinct may be regarded as the sense
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  of the species, which presents to the will whatever is of service to the
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  species. But because the will has here become individual, it must be deceived
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  in such a manner for it to discern by the sense of the individual what
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  the sense of the species has presented to it. In other words, imagine
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  it is pursuing ends concerning the individual, when in reality it is pursuing merely
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  general ends, using the word general in its strictest sense. Outward manifestation of
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  instinct can be best observed in s animals, where the part it plays is
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  most significant. But it is in ourselves alone that we can get to know
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  its internal process, as of everything internal. It is true it is thought
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  that man has scarcely any instinct at all, or at any rate, has
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  only sufficient instinct when he is born to seek and take his mother's breast.
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  But as a matter of fact, man has a very decided, clear and
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  yet complicated instinct, namely for the selection, both earnest and capricious of another
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  individual to satisfy his instinct of sex. The beauty or ugliness of the other
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  individual has nothing whatever to do with this satisfaction in itself, that is,
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  in so far as it is a matter of pleasure based upon a pressing desire
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  of the individual. The regard, however, for this satisfaction, which is
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  so zealously pursued, as well as the careful selection it entails, has obviously
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  nothing to do with the chooser himself, although he fancies that it has.
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  Its real aim is the child to be born, in whom the type of
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  the species is to be preserved in as pure and perfect a form as possible.
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  For instance, different phases of degeneration of the human form are the consequences
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  of a thousand physical accidents and moral delinquencies, and yet the genuine type of
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  the human form is, in all its parts always restored. Further, this
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  is accomplished under the guidance of the sense of beauty, which universally directs the
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  instinct of sex, and without which the satisfaction of the latter would deteriorate to
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  a repulsive necessity. Accordingly, every one in the first place will infinitely prefer
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  and ardently desire those who are most beautiful, in other words, those in
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  whom the character of the species is most purely defined. And in the second
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  every one will desire in the other individual those perfections which he himself lacks,
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  and he will consider imperfections which are the reverse of his own beautiful. This
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  is why little men prefer big women, and fair people like dark and so
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  on. The ecstasy with which a man and is filled that the sight of
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  a beautiful woman, making him imagine that union with her will be the greatest
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  happiness, is simply the sense of the species. The preservation of the type
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  of the species rests on this distinct preference for beauty, and this is why
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  beauty has such power. We will later on more fully state the considerations which
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  this involves. It is really instinct, aiming at what is best in the
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  species, which induces a man to choose a beautiful woman, although the man
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  himself imagines that by so doing he is only seeking to increase his own pleasure.
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  As a matter of fact, we have here an instructive solution of the
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  secret nature of all instinct, which almost always, as in this case,
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  prompts the individual to look after the welfare of the species. The care with
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  which an insect selects a certain flower or fruit, or piece of flesh.
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  Or the way in which the igneument seeks the larva of a strange insect,
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  so that it may lay its eggs in that particular place only, and to
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  secure which it fears neither labor or danger is obvious, is very analogous to
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  the care with which a man chooses a woman of a definite nature individually suited
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  to him. He strives for her with such ardor that he frequently, in
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  order to attain his object, will sacrifice his happiness in life, in spite
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  of all reason, by a foolish marriage, by some love affair which costs
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  him his fortune, honor, and life, even by committing crimes. And
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  all this in accordance with the will of nature, which is everywhere sovereign,
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  so that he may serve the species in the most efficient manner, although he
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  does so at the expense of the individual. Instinct everywhere works as with the
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  conception of an end, and yet it is entirely without one. Nature implants
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  instinct where the acting individual is not capable of understanding the end or would be
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  unwilling to pursue it. Consequently, as a rule, it is only given
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  prominently to animals, and in particular to those of the lowest order, which
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  have the least intelligence. But it is only in such a case as the
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  one we are at present, considering that it is also given to man who
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  naturally is capable of understanding the end, but would not pursue it with the
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  necessary zeal, that is to say, he would not pursue it at the
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  cost of his individual welfare. So that here, as in all cases of
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  instinct, truth takes the form of illusion in order to influence the will.
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  All this, however, on its part, throws light upon the instinct of
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  animals. They too are undoubtedly carried away by a kind of illusion which represents
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  that they are working for their own pleasure, while it is for the species
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  that they are working with such industry in self denial. The bird builds its
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  nest, The insect seeks a suitable place wherein to lay its eggs, or
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  even hunts for prey which it dislikes itself, but which must be placed beside
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  the eggs as food for the future larvae. The bee, the wasp,
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  and the ant apply themselves to their skillful building extremely complex economy. All of
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  them are undoubtedly controlled by an illusion which conceals the service of the species under
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  the mask of an egotistical purpose. This is probably the only way in which
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  to make the inner or subjective process from which spring all manifestations of instinct intelligible
• 25:11
  to us. The outer or objective process, however, shows in animals strongly
• 25:17
  controlled by instinct as insects, for instance, a preponderance of the ganglion,
• 25:22
  a subjective nervous system over the objective or cerebral system, from which it may
• 25:26
  be concluded that they are controlled not so much by objective and proper apprehension as
• 25:32
  by subjective ideas, which excite desire and arise through the influence of the ganglionic
• 25:37
  system upon the brain. Accordingly, they are moved by a certain illusion.
• 25:41
  The great preponderance of brain in man accounts for his having fewer instincts than the
• 25:45
  lower order of animals, and for even these few easily being led astray.
• 25:51
  For instance, the sense of beauty, which instinctively guides a man in his
• 25:55
  selection of a mate, is misguided when it degenerates into the proneness to pederasty.
• 26:00
  Similarly, the blue bottle muscavomatoria, which instinctively ought to place its eggs
• 26:04
  in putrefied flesh, lays them in the blossom of the aram dracunculus, because
• 26:10
  it is misled by the decaying odor of this plant. That an absolutely generic
• 26:15
  instinct is the foundation of all love of sex may be confirmed by a closer
• 26:18
  analysis of the subject, an analysis which can hardly be avoided. In the
• 26:23
  first place. A man in love is, by nature inclined to be in
• 26:27
  constant, while a woman constant. A man's love perceptibly decreases after a certain
• 26:33
  period. Almost every other woman charms him more than the one he already possesses.
• 26:37
  He longs for change, while a woman's love increases from the very moment
• 26:41
  it is returned. This is because nature aims at the preservation of the species,
• 26:47
  and consequently at as great an increase in it as possible. This is
• 26:52
  why a man is always desiring other women, while a woman always clings to
• 26:56
  one man, for nature compels her intuitively and un un consciously to take care
• 27:00
  of the supporter and protector of the future offspring. For this reason, conjugal
• 27:06
  fidelity is artificial with the man, but natural to a woman. Hence,
• 27:10
  a woman's infidelity looked at objectively on account of the consequences, and subjectively on
• 27:15
  account of its unnaturalness, is much more unpardonable than a man's. In order
• 27:21
  to be quite clear and perfectly convinced that the delight we take in the other
• 27:25
  sex, however objective it may seem to be, is nevertheless merely instinct disguised,
• 27:30
  in other words, the sense of the species striving to preserve its type,
• 27:33
  it will be necessary to investigate more closely the considerations which influence us in
• 27:38
  this and go into details, strange as it may seem. For these details
• 27:44
  to figure in a philosophical work. These considerations may be classed in the following
• 27:48
  way, those that immediately concern the type of the species i dst beauty,
• 27:55
  those that concern other physical qualities, and finally those that are merely relative and
• 28:00
  spring from the necessary correction or neutralization of the one sided qualities and abnormities of
• 28:04
  the two individuals by each other. Let us look at these considerations separately.
• 28:11
  The first consideration that influences our choice and feelings is age. The second consideration
• 28:18
  is that of health. A severe illness may alarm us for the time being,
• 28:22
  but an illness of a chronic nature or even Catcheksi frightens us away because
• 28:26
  it would be transmitted. The third consideration is the skeleton, since it is
• 28:30
  the foundation of the type of the species. Next to old age and disease.
• 28:36
  Nothing disgusts us so much as a deformed shape. Even the most beautiful
• 28:40
  face cannot make amends for it. In fact, the ugliest face combined with
• 28:45
  a well grown shape is infinitely preferable. Moreover, we are most keenly sensible
• 28:49
  of every malformation of the skeleton, as for instance, a stunted, short
• 28:55
  legged form and the like, or a limping gait when it is not the
• 28:59
  result of some extraneous accident. While a conspicuously beautiful figure compensates for every defect,
• 29:06
  it delights us further the great importance which is attached to small feet.
• 29:11
  This is because the size of the foot is an essential characteristic of the species.
• 29:15
  For no animal has the tarsus and metatarsis combined so small as man.
• 29:21
  Hence the uprightness of his gait. He is a plantigrade, and Jesus cyric
• 29:26
  has said one. According to the improved translation by Kraus, a woman that
• 29:30
  is well grown and has beautiful feet is like pillars of gold in sockets of
• 29:34
  silver. The teeth, too, are important, because they are essential for
• 29:40
  nourishment and quite peculiarly hereditary. The fourth consideration is a certain plumpness, in
• 29:45
  other words, a superbundance of them vegetative function plasticity. Hence excessive thinness strikingly
• 29:53
  repels us. The last consideration that influences us is a beautiful thing. Here
• 30:00
  two the bone parts are taken into account before everything else, so that almost
• 30:07
  everything depends on a beautiful nose. While a short retrouse one will marrawl.
• 30:11
  A slight upward or downward turn of the nose has often determined the life's happiness
• 30:17
  of a great many maidens, and justly so, for the type of the
• 30:19
  species is at stake. A small mouth by means of small maxilly is very
• 30:26
  essential, as it is the specific characteristic of the human face, as distinguished
• 30:30
  from the muzzle of the brutes. A receding, as it were, A
• 30:34
  cutaway chin is particularly repellent because menum prominulum a prominent chin, is a characteristic
• 30:41
  belonging exclusively to our species. Finally, we come to the consideration of beautiful
• 30:48
  eyes and a beautiful forehead. They depend upon the psychical qualities, and in
• 30:52
  particular the intellectual which are inherited from the mother. The unconscious considerations, which
• 30:59
  on the other hand, influence women in their choice, naturally cannot be so
• 31:03
  accurately specified. In general, we may say the following that the age they
• 31:07
  prefer is from thirty to thirty five. For instance, they prefer men of
• 31:12
  this age to youths, who, in reality possess the highest form of human
• 31:17
  beauty. The reason for this is that they are not guided by taste,
• 31:21
  but by instinct, which recognizes in this particular age the acme of generative power.
• 31:26
  In general, women pay little attention to beauty, that is, to
• 31:30
  beauty of face. They seem to take it upon themselves alone to endow the
• 31:34
  child with beauty. It is chiefly the strength of a man in the courage
• 31:38
  that goes with it that attract them, For both of these promise the generation
• 31:42
  of robust children and at the same time a brave protector for them. Every
• 31:48
  physical defect in a man, any deviation from the type a woman may with
• 31:52
  regard to the child eradicate if she is faultless in these parts herself, or
• 31:56
  excels in a contrary direction. The only exceptions are those qualities which are peculiar
• 32:02
  to the man, and which, in consequence a mother cannot bestow on her
• 32:07
  child. These include the masculine build of the skeleton, breadth of shoulder,
• 32:12
  small hips, straight legs, strength of muscle, courage, beard, and
• 32:15
  so on. And so it happens that a woman frequently loves an ugly man,
• 32:21
  albeit she never loves an unmanly man, because she cannot neutralize his defects.
• 32:27
  The second class of considerations that are the source of love are those depending
• 32:30
  on the psychical qualities. Here we shall find that a woman universally is attracted
• 32:36
  by the qualities of a man's heart or character, both of which are inherited
• 32:39
  from the father. It is mainly firmness of will, determination, and courage,
• 32:45
  and may be honesty and goodness of heart too. That when a woman
• 32:49
  over while, intellectual qualifications exercise no direct or instinctive power over her, for
• 32:54
  the simple reason that these are not inherited from the father. A lack of
• 32:59
  intelligence carries no weight with her. In fact, a superbundance of mental power
• 33:04
  or even genius as abnormities, might have an unfavorable effect, And so we
• 33:09
  frequently find a woman preferring a stupid, ugly, and ill mannered man to
• 33:14
  one who is well educated, intellectual, and agreeable. Hence, people of
• 33:19
  extremely different temperament frequently marry for love. That is to say, he is
• 33:23
  coarse, strong, and narrow minded, while she is very sensitive, refined,
• 33:29
  cultured, and esthetic, and so on. Or he is genial and
• 33:32
  clever and she is a goose. Thus the view of Friday, who likes
• 33:37
  odd forms and spirits under a bronze yoke, it's hard to shoot with a
• 33:42
  joke. The reason for this is that she is not influenced by intellectual considerations,
• 33:47
  but by something entirely different, namely instinct Marriage is not regarded as a
• 33:53
  means for intellectual entertainment, but for the generation of children. It is a
• 33:58
  union of hearts and not of When a woman says that she has fallen in
• 34:02
  love with a man's mind, it is either a vain and ridiculous pretense on
• 34:07
  her part or the exaggeration of a degenerate being. A man, on the
• 34:12
  other hand, is not controlled in instinctive love by the qualities of the woman's
• 34:15
  character. This is why so many a Socrates has found his xantip as.
• 34:20
  For instance, Shakespeare albrechdure Byron, and others. But here we have the
• 34:25
  influence of intellectual qualities, because they are inherited from the mother. Nevertheless,
• 34:30
  their influence is easily overpowered by physical beauty, which concerns more essential points and
• 34:36
  therefore has a more direct effect. By the way. It is for this
• 34:39
  reason that mothers who have either felt or experienced the former influence have their daughters
• 34:45
  taught the fine arts, languages, et cetera, so that they may prove
• 34:47
  more attractive. In this way, they hope, by artificial means, to
• 34:52
  pad the intellect, just as they do their bust and hips, if it
• 34:55
  is necessary to do so. Let it be understood that here we are simply
• 35:00
  speaking of that attraction which is absolutely direct and instinctive, and from which springs
• 35:05
  ray all love. That an intelligent and educated woman esteems intelligence and brains in
• 35:10
  a man, and that a man, after deliberate reasoning, criticizes and considers
• 35:15
  the character of his fiancee are matters which do not concern our present subject.
• 35:21
  Such things influence a rational selection in marriage, but they do not control passionate
• 35:25
  love, which is our matter. Up to the present. I have taken
• 35:29
  into consideration merely the absolute considerations, I dst such considerations as apply to everyone.
• 35:37
  I now come to the relative considerations, which are individual because they aim
• 35:42
  at rectifying the type of the species which is defectively presented, and at correcting
• 35:45
  any deviation from it existing in the person of the chooser himself, and in
• 35:50
  this way lead back to a pure presentation of the type. Hence, each
• 35:53
  man loves what he himself is deficient in the choice that is based on relative
• 35:59
  conscers, that is has in view the constitution of the individual is much more
• 36:05
  certain, decided, and exclusive than the choice that is made after merely absolute
• 36:08
  considerations. Consequently, real passionate love will have its origin as a rule in
• 36:15
  these relative considerations, and it will only be the ordinary phases of love that
• 36:19
  spring from the absolute, so that it is not stereotyped perfectly beautiful women who
• 36:24
  are wont to kindle great passions. Before a truly passionate feeling can exist,
• 36:30
  something is necessary that is perhaps best expressed by a metaphor in chemistry. Namely,
• 36:36
  the two persons must neutralize each other, like acid and alkali to a
• 36:39
  neutral salt. Before this can be done, the following conditions are essential in
• 36:45
  the first place, all sexuality is one sided. This one sidedness is more
• 36:51
  definitely expressed and exists in a higher degree in one person than in another,
• 36:55
  so that it may be better supplemented and neutralized in each individual by one person
• 37:00
  than by another of the opposite sex, because the individual requires a one sided
• 37:05
  is opposite to his own in order to complete the type of humanity in the
• 37:08
  new individual to be generated to the constitution of which everything tends. The following
• 37:15
  is necessary. For this neutralization of which we are speaking. The particular degree
• 37:20
  of his manhood must exactly correspond to the particular degree of her womanhood in order
• 37:24
  to exactly balance the one sidedness of each. Hence, the most manly man
• 37:30
  will desire the most womanly woman, and vice versa, and so each will
• 37:34
  want the individual that exactly corresponds to him in degree of sex. Inasmuch as
• 37:38
  two persons fulfill this necessary relation towards each other, it is instinctively felt by
• 37:44
  them and is the origin, together with the other relative considerations, of the
• 37:49
  higher degrees of love. While therefore two lovers are pathetically talking about the harmony
• 37:54
  of their souls, the kernel of the conversation is, for the most part
• 37:58
  the harmony concerning the other individual and its perfection, which obviously is of much
• 38:02
  more importance than the harmony of their souls, which frequently turns out to be
• 38:07
  a violent discord shortly after marriage. We now come to those other relative considerations,
• 38:14
  which depend on each individual trying to eradicate through the medium of another his
• 38:17
  weaknesses, deficiencies, and deviations from the type, in order that they may
• 38:22
  not be perpetuated in the child that is to be born, or develop into
• 38:25
  absolute abnormities. The weaker a man is in muscular power, the more will
• 38:31
  he desire a woman who is muscular, And the same thing applies to a
• 38:35
  woman. Nevertheless, if a big woman choose a big husband in order perhaps
• 38:42
  to present a better appearance in society, the children, as a rule,
• 38:45
  suffer for her folly. Again, another very decided consideration is complexion. Blonde
• 38:52
  people fancy either absolutely dark complexions or brown, but it is rarely the case
• 38:58
  vice versa. The reason for it is this that fair hair and blue eyes
• 39:02
  are a deviation from the type and almost constitute an abnormity analogous to white mice
• 39:07
  or at any rate, white horses. They are not indigenous to any other
• 39:12
  part of the world, but Europe, not even to the polar regions,
• 39:15
  and are obviously of Scandinavian origin and passant. It is my conviction that a
• 39:21
  white skin is not natural to man, and that by nature he has either
• 39:24
  a black or brown skin, like our forefathers, the Hindus, and that
• 39:29
  the white man was never originally created by nature, and that therefore there is
• 39:34
  no race of white people, much as it is talked about. But every
• 39:37
  white man is a bleached one driven up into the north where he was a
• 39:42
  stranger, and where he existed only like an exotic plant in need of a
• 39:45
  hot house in winter. Man, in the course of centuries became white.
• 39:51
  The Gypsies, an Indian tribe which emigrated only about four centuries ago, show
• 39:55
  the transition of the Hindu's complexion to ours. In law. Therefore, nature
• 40:00
  strives to return to dark hair and brown eyes, because they are the original
• 40:05
  type. Still, a white skin has become second nature, although not to
• 40:09
  such an extent as to make the dark skin of the Hindu repellent to us.
• 40:14
  Finally, every man tries to find the corrective of his own defects and
• 40:17
  aberrations in the particular parts of his body and the more conspicuous the defect is,
• 40:22
  the greater is his determination to correct it. This is why snubnosed persons
• 40:28
  find an aquiline nose or a parrot like face so indescribably pleasing, and the
• 40:32
  same thing applies to every other part of the body. Men of a moderately
• 40:37
  long and attenuated build delight in a stunted and short figure. Considerations of temperament
• 40:43
  also influence a man's choice. Each prefers a temperament the reverse of his own,
• 40:49
  but only in so far as his is a decided one. A man
• 40:52
  who is quite perfect in some respect himself does not. It is true desire
• 40:58
  and love imperfection in this particular respect. Yet he can be more easily reconciled
• 41:01
  to it than another man, because he himself saves the children from being very
• 41:06
  imperfect in this particular. For instance, a man who has a very white
• 41:10
  skin himself will not dislike a yellowish complexion, while a man who has a
• 41:15
  yellowish complexion will consider a dazzlingly white skin divinely beautiful. It is rare for
• 41:21
  a man to fall in love with a positively ugly woman, but when he
• 41:24
  does, it is because exact harmony in the degree of sex exists between them,
• 41:29
  and all her abnormities are precisely the opposite to That is to say,
• 41:34
  the corrective of his love in these circumstances is wont to attain a high degree.
• 41:39
  The profoundly earnest way in which we criticize and narrowly consider every part of
• 41:44
  a woman, while she, on her part considers us, the scrupulously careful
• 41:47
  way we scrutinize a woman who is beginning to please us, the fickleness of
• 41:52
  our choice, the strained attention with which a man watches his fiancee, the
• 41:57
  care he takes not to be deceived in any trait, and the great importance
• 42:00
  he attaches to every more or less essential trait. All this is quite in
• 42:05
  keeping with the importance of the end, for the child that is to be
• 42:08
  born will have to bear a similar trait through its whole life. For instance,
• 42:13
  if a woman stoops but a little, it is possible for her son
• 42:15
  to be inflicted with a hunchback, and so in every other respect we are
• 42:21
  not conscious of all this naturally. On the contrary, each man imagines that
• 42:25
  his choice is made in the interest of his own pleasure, which in reality
• 42:30
  cannot be interested in it at all. His choice, which we must take
• 42:34
  for granted, is in keeping with his own individuality, is made precisely in
• 42:37
  the interest of the species, to maintain the type of which, as pure
• 42:42
  as possible, is the secret task. In this case, the individual unconsciously
• 42:46
  acts in the interest of something higher, that is, the species. This
• 42:52
  is why he attaches so much importance to things to which he might, nay
• 42:55
  would be otherwise indifferent. There is something quite singular in the unconsciously serious and
• 43:01
  critical way two young people of different sects look at each other on meeting for
• 43:05
  the first time, in the scrutinizing and penetrating glances they exchange in the careful
• 43:09
  inspection which their various traits undergo. This scrutiny and analysis represent the meditation of
• 43:15
  the genius of the species on the individual, which may be borne, and
• 43:20
  the combination of its qualities and the greatness of their delight in and longing for
• 43:23
  each other, is determined by this meditation. This longing, although it may
• 43:29
  have become intense, may possibly disappear again if something previously unobserved comes to light,
• 43:36
  and so the genius of the species meditates concerning the coming race in all
• 43:40
  who are yet not too old. It is Cupid's work to fashion this race,
• 43:45
  and he is always busy, always speculating, always meditating. The affairs
• 43:51
  of the individual, in their whole ephemeral totality, are very trivial compared with
• 43:54
  those of this divinity, which concern the species and the coming race. Therefore,
• 43:59
  he is always ready to sacrifice the individual regardlessly. He is related to
• 44:04
  these ephemeral affairs as an immortal being is to a mortal and his interests to
• 44:07
  theirs as infinite to finite conscious. Therefore, of administering affairs of a higher
• 44:14
  order than those that concern merely the weal and woe of the individual, he
• 44:17
  administers them with sublime indifference, amid the tumult of war, the bustle of
• 44:22
  business, or the raging of a plague. Indeed, he pursues them into
• 44:27
  the seclusion of the cloisters. It has been seen that the intensity of love
• 44:30
  grows with its individuation. We have shown that two individuals may be so physically
• 44:36
  constituted that, in order to restore the best possible type of the species,
• 44:40
  the one is the special and perfect complement of the other, which, in
• 44:45
  consequence exclusively desires it. In a case of this kind, passionate love arises,
• 44:51
  and as it is bestowed on one object and one only, that is
• 44:54
  to say, because it appears in the special service of the species, it
• 44:59
  immediately assumes a nobler and sublimer nature. On the other hand, mere sexual
• 45:05
  instinct is base, because without individuation, it is directed to all and strives
• 45:10
  to preserve the species merely as regards quantity, with little regard for quality.
• 45:15
  Intense love concentrated on one individual may develop to such a degree that, unless
• 45:21
  it is gratified, all the good things of this world, and even life
• 45:23
  itself, lose their importance. It then becomes a desire, the intensity of
• 45:29
  which is like none other. Consequently, it will make any kind of sacrifice,
• 45:34
  and should it happen that it cannot be gratified, it may lead to
• 45:37
  madness or even suicide. Besides these unconscious considerations which are the source of passionate
• 45:43
  love, there must be still others which we have not so directly before us.
• 45:49
  Therefore, we must take it for granted that here there is not only
• 45:52
  a fitness of constitution, but also a special fitness between the man's will and
• 45:55
  the woman's intellect, in consequence of which a perfectly deafinite an individual can be
• 46:00
  borne to them alone, whose existence is contemplated by the genius of the species
• 46:05
  for reasons to us impenetrable, since they are the very essence of the thing
• 46:08
  in itself. Or, more strictly speaking, the will to live desires to
• 46:14
  objectivize itself in an individual which is precisely determined and can only be begotten by
• 46:19
  this particular father and this particular mother. This metaphysical yearning of the will in
• 46:23
  itself has immediately as its sphere of action in the circle of human beings,
• 46:29
  the hearts of the future parents, who accordingly are seized with this desire.
• 46:34
  They now fancy that it is for their own sakes. They are longing for
• 46:37
  what at present has purely a metaphysical end, that is to say, for
• 46:40
  what does not come within the range of things that exist in reality. In
• 46:45
  other words, it is the desire of the future individual to enter existence,
• 46:49
  which has first become possible here, a longing which proceeds from the primary source
• 46:53
  of all being, and exhibits itself in the phenomenal world as the intense love
• 46:58
  of the future parents for each other, and has little regard for anything outside
• 47:01
  itself. In fact, love is an illusion like no other. It will
• 47:07
  induce a man to sacrifice everything he possesses in the world in order to obtain
• 47:10
  this woman, who, in reality will satisfy him no more than any other.
• 47:15
  It also ceases to exist when the end, which was in reality metaphysical,
• 47:20
  has been frustrated, perhaps by the woman's barrenness, which, according to
• 47:23
  Hufland, is the result of nineteen accidental defects in the Constitution, just as
• 47:29
  it is frustrated daily in millions of crushed germs in which the same metaphysical life
• 47:34
  principle struggles to exist. There is no other consolation in this than that there
• 47:37
  is an infinity of space, time, and matter, and consequently inexhaustible opportunity
• 47:44
  at the service of the will to live. Although this subject has not been
• 47:49
  treated by Theophrastus Paracelsus, and my entire train of thought is foreign to him,
• 47:54
  yet it must have presented itself to him, if even in a cursory
• 47:58
  way, when he gave utterance to the following remarkable words, written in quite
• 48:01
  a different context and in his usual desultory style. These are those whom God
• 48:07
  joined together as she who is Uriah and David, although from the outside.
• 48:10
  For so the human mind convinced itself this would conflict with a just end legitimate
• 48:16
  marriage, but for the sake of Solomon, who could not have been born
• 48:21
  from any other source than from Bathsheba, the conjoined seat of David, although
• 48:24
  a harlot God joined them together. The yearning of love, the Greek himeros,
• 48:30
  which has been expressed in countless ways and forms by the poets of all
• 48:35
  ages, without their exhausting the subject or even doing it justice. This longing
• 48:39
  which makes us imagine that the possession of a certain woman will bring interminable happiness
• 48:44
  and the loss of her unspeakable pain. This longing and this pain do not
• 48:49
  arise from the needs of an ephemeral individual, but are, on the contrary,
• 48:52
  the sigh of the spirit of the species discerning irreparable means of either gaining
• 48:59
  or losing its ends. It is the species alone that has an interminable existence.
• 49:04
  Hence it is capable of endless desire, endless gratification, and endless pain.
• 49:08
  These, however, are imprisoned in the heart of a mortal no wonder.
• 49:14
  Therefore, if it seems like to burst and can find no expression for
• 49:17
  the announcements of endless joy or endless pain. This it is that forms the
• 49:22
  substance of all erotic poetry, that is sublime in character, which consequently soars
• 49:28
  into transcendent metaphors, surpassing everything earthly. This is the theme of Peatrarch,
• 49:34
  the material for the Saint prose Werthers and jacopo Ortis, who otherwise could be
• 49:38
  neither understood nor explained. This infinite regard is not based on any kind of
• 49:45
  intellectual nor in general, upon any real merits of the beloved one, because
• 49:50
  the lover frequently does not know her well enough, as was the case with
• 49:53
  Peatrarch. It is the spirit of the species alone that can see at a
• 49:58
  glance of what value theF beloved one is to it for its purposes. Moreover,
• 50:04
  great passions, as a rule, originate at first sight. Who Ever
• 50:08
  loved that loved not at first sight Shakespeare, as you like it three five.
• 50:16
  Curiously enough, there is a passage touching upon this in Guzman de Alpharek,
• 50:21
  a well known romance written two hundred fifty years ago by Matteo Aleman.
• 50:25
  For a man to love there is no need for any length of time to
• 50:29
  pass, for him to weigh considerations or make his choice, but only that
• 50:32
  a certain correspondence and consonance is encountered on both sides at the first and only
• 50:37
  glance, or that which is ordinarily called a sympathy of blood, to which
• 50:42
  a peculiar influence of the stars generally impels. Accordingly, the loss of the
• 50:47
  beloved one, through arrival or through death is the greatest pain of all to
• 50:52
  those passionately in love, just because it is of a transcendental nature, since
• 50:57
  it affects him not merely as an individual, but also as sails him in
• 51:00
  his assentia aDNA, in the life of the species in whose special will and
• 51:04
  service he was here called. This is why jealousy is so tormenting and bitter,
• 51:09
  and the giving up of the loved one the greatest of all sacrifices.
• 51:14
  A hero is ashamed of showing any kind of emotion but that which may be
• 51:17
  the outcome of love. The reason for this is that when he is in
• 51:22
  love, it is not he but the species which is grieving. In Calderon's
• 51:25
  Zenobia the Great, there is a scene in the second act between Zenobia and
• 51:30
  Deshs where the latter says heavens, then you love me for this, I
• 51:35
  would sacrifice a thousand victories, et cetera. In this case, honor,
• 51:39
  which has hitherto outweighed every other interest, is driven out of the field directly
• 51:45
  love i e. The interest of the species comes into play and deserns something
• 51:50
  that will be of decided advantage to itself. For the interest of the species,
• 51:53
  compared with that of the mere individual, however important this may be,
• 51:58
  is infinitely more important. Honor, duty, and fidelity succumb to it,
• 52:02
  after they have withstood every other temptation, the menace of death. Even we
• 52:07
  find the same going on in private life. For instance, a man has
• 52:12
  less conscience when in love than in any other circumstances. Conscience is sometimes put
• 52:17
  on one side, even by people who are otherwise honest and straightforward, and
• 52:22
  infidelity recklessly committed. If they are passionately in love i e. When the
• 52:25
  interest of the species has taken possession of them, it would seem, indeed,
• 52:31
  as if they believe themselves conscious of a greater authority than the interests of
• 52:35
  individuals could ever confer. This is simply because they are concerned in the interest
• 52:39
  of the species. Chamford's utterance in this respect is remarkable. When a man
• 52:45
  and a woman have a violent passion for each other, it always seems to
• 52:47
  me that, whatever the obstacles that separate them a husband, parents, et
• 52:52
  cetera, the two lovers belong to each other by nature, that they belong
• 52:57
  to each other by divine right, despite human laws in conventions. From this
• 53:01
  standpoint, the greater part of the Decameron seems a mere mocking and jeering on
• 53:06
  the part of the genius of the species at the rights and interests of the
• 53:08
  individual which it treads underfoot. Inequality of rank and all similar relations are put
• 53:15
  on one side with the same indifference and disregarded by the genius of the species.
• 53:20
  If they thwart the union of two people passionately in love with one another,
• 53:22
  it pursues its ends pertaining to endless generations, scattering human principles and scruples
• 53:29
  abroad like chaff. For the same reason, a man will willingly risk every
• 53:32
  kind of danger and even become courageous, although he may otherwise be fainthearted.
• 53:38
  What a delight we take in watching, either in a play or novel,
• 53:42
  two young lovers fighting for each other, i e. For the interest of
• 53:45
  the species, and their defeat of the old people, who had only in
• 53:50
  view the welfare of the individual. For the struggling of a pair of lovers
• 53:53
  seems to us so much more important, delightful, and consequently justifiable than any
• 54:00
  as the species is more important than the individual. Accordingly, we have as
• 54:05
  the fundamental subject of almost all comedies the genius of the species, with its
• 54:09
  purposes running counter to the personal interests of the individuals presented, and in consequence
• 54:15
  threatening to undermine their happiness. As a rule, it carries out its ends,
• 54:21
  which, in keeping with true poetic justice, satisfies the spectator, because
• 54:25
  the latter feels that the purposes of the species widely surpass those of the individual.
• 54:30
  Hence, he is quite consoled when he finally takes leave of the victorious
• 54:35
  lovers, sharing with them the illusion that they have established their own happiness,
• 54:38
  while in truth they have sacrificed it for the welfare of the species. In
• 54:43
  opposition to the will of the discreete old people. It has been attempted,
• 54:47
  in a few out of the way comedies to reverse this state of things,
• 54:51
  and to affect the happiness of the individuals at the cost of the ends of
• 54:53
  the species. But here the spectator is sensible of the pain inflicted on the
• 54:58
  genius of the species, and does not find consolation in the advantages that are
• 55:02
  assured to the individuals. Two very well known little pieces occur to me as
• 55:07
  examples of this kind Lorraine to sixteen a n s and Lomarriage de Raison.
• 55:14
  In the love affairs that are treated in tragedies, the lovers, as a
• 55:16
  rule perish together. The reason for this is that the purposes of the species
• 55:22
  whose tools the lovers were have been frustrated, as for instance in Romeo and
• 55:27
  Juliet Tancred Don, Carlos Wallenstein, The Bride of Messina, and so on.
• 55:34
  A man in love frequently furnishes comic as well as tragic aspects. For
• 55:37
  being in the possession of the spirit of the species and controlled by it,
• 55:42
  he no longer belongs to himself, and consequently his line of conduct is not
• 55:45
  in keeping with that of the individual. It is fundamentally this that in the
• 55:50
  higher phases of love give such a poetical and sublime color, nay transcendental and
• 55:54
  hyperphysical turn to a man's thoughts, whereby he appears to lose sight of his
• 55:59
  own essential immaterial purpose. He is inspired by the spirit of the species,
• 56:05
  whose affairs are infinitely more important than any which concern mere individuals, in order
• 56:09
  to establish, by special mandate of this spirit, the existence of an indefinitely
• 56:14
  long posterity, with this particular and precisely determined nature, which it can receive
• 56:19
  only from him as father and his loved one as mother, and which moreover,
• 56:22
  as such never comes into existence. While the objectivation of the will to
• 56:27
  live expressly demands this existence, it is the feeling that he is engaged in
• 56:31
  affairs of such transcendent importance that exalts the lover above everything earthly, nay indeed,
• 56:37
  above himself, and gives such a hyperphysical clothing to his physical wishes that
• 56:43
  love becomes even in the life of the most prosaic, a poetical episode,
• 56:46
  and then the affair often assumes a comical aspect. That mandate of the will,
• 56:52
  which objectifies itself in the species, presents itself in the consciousness of the
• 56:57
  lover, under the mask of the anticipation of an infinite happiness which is to
• 57:00
  be found in his union with this particular woman. This allusion to a man
• 57:06
  deeply in love becomes so dazzling, that if it cannot be attained, life
• 57:08
  itself not only loses all charm, but appears to be so joyless, hollow,
• 57:14
  and uninteresting as to make him too disgusted with it to be afraid of
• 57:17
  the terrors of death. This is why he, sometimes, of his own
• 57:21
  free will, cuts his life short. The will of a man of this
• 57:23
  kind has become engulfed in that of the species, or the will of the
• 57:29
  species has obtained so great an ascendency over the will of the individual, that
• 57:32
  if such a man cannot be effective in the manifestation of the first, he
• 57:37
  disdains to be so in the last. The individual in this case is too
• 57:42
  weak a vessel to bear the infinite longing of the will of the species concentrated
• 57:45
  upon a definite object. When this is the case, suicide is the result,
• 57:51
  and sometimes suicide of the two lovers, unless nature to prevent. This
• 57:54
  causes insanity, which then enshrouds with its veil the consciousness of soul, so
• 58:00
  hopeless a condition. The truth of this is confirmed yearly by various cases of
• 58:05
  this description. However, it is not only unrequited love that leads frequently to
• 58:10
  a tragic end. For requited love more frequently leads to unhappiness than to happiness.
• 58:16
  This is because its demands often so severely clash with the personal welfare of
• 58:21
  the lover concerned as to undermine it, since the demands are incompatible with the
• 58:24
  lover's other circumstances and in consequence destroy the plans of life built upon them.
• 58:30
  Further, love frequently runs counter not only to external circumstances, but to the
• 58:36
  individuality itself, for it may fling itself upon a person who, apart from
• 58:39
  the relation of sex, may become hateful, despicable, nay even repulsive.
• 58:45
  As the will of the species, however, is so very much stronger than
• 58:50
  that of the individual, the lover shuts his eyes to all objectionable qualities,
• 58:54
  overlooks everything, ignores all, and unites himself forever to the object of his
• 58:59
  paser. He is so completely blinded by this illusion that as soon as the
• 59:04
  will of the species is accomplished, the illusion vanishes and leaves in its place
• 59:07
  a hateful companion for life. From this it is obvious why we often see
• 59:13
  very intelligent, nay distinguished men married to dragons and she devils, and why
• 59:17
  we cannot understand how it was possible for them to make such a choice.
• 59:22
  Accordingly, the ancients represented a moore as blind. In fact, it is
• 59:28
  possible for a lover to clearly recognize and be bitterly conscious of horrid defects in
• 59:31
  his fiance's disposition and character, defects which promise him a life of misery,
• 59:37
  and yet for him not to be filled with fear. I ask not,
• 59:40
  I care not if guilts in your heart. I know that I love you
• 59:45
  whatever you are. For In truth, he is not acting in his own
• 59:50
  interest, but in that of a third person who has yet to come into
• 59:52
  existence. Albeit he is under the impression that he is acting in his own
• 59:57
  But it is this very acting in someone else's interest, which is everywhere the
• 1:00:00
  stamp of greatness and gives to passionate love the touch of the sublime, making
• 1:00:05
  it a worthy subject for the poet. Finally, a man may both love
• 1:00:09
  and hate his beloved at the same time. Accordingly, Plato compares a man's
• 1:00:15
  love to the love of a wolf for a sheep. We have an instance
• 1:00:19
  of this kind when a passionate lover, in spite of all his exertions and
• 1:00:22
  entreaties, cannot obtain a hearing upon any terms, I love and hate her
• 1:00:29
  Shakespeare c. And B. Three five. When hatred is kindled, a
• 1:00:35
  man will sometimes go so far as to first kill his beloved and then himself.
• 1:00:39
  Examples of this kind are brought before our notice yearly in the newspapers.
• 1:00:45
  Therefore, goodas as truly by all spurned love by the hellish elements. I
• 1:00:52
  wish I knew what was worse that I could curse. It is, in
• 1:00:55
  truth no hyperbole on the part of a lover when he calls his beloved godness,
• 1:01:00
  or the joy of her vanity, which delights in his suffering cruelty.
• 1:01:05
  For he has come under the influence of an impulse which, akin to the
• 1:01:07
  instinct of animals, compels him, in spite of all reason, to unconditionally
• 1:01:13
  pursue his end in discard every other he cannot give it up. There has
• 1:01:17
  not been one, but many a patriarch, failing to have his love requited,
• 1:01:22
  has been obliged to drag through life as if his feet were either fettered
• 1:01:25
  or carried a leaden weight, and give vent to his size in a lonely
• 1:01:29
  forest. Nevertheless, there was only one peatrarch who possessed the true poetic instinct,
• 1:01:34
  so that Gooda's beautiful lines are true of him. And when man falls
• 1:01:37
  silent in his torment, a god gave me to say how I suffer.
• 1:01:43
  As a matter of fact, the genius of the species is at continual warfare
• 1:01:46
  with the guardian genius of individuals. It is its pursuer and enemy. It
• 1:01:52
  is always ready to relentlessly destroy personal happiness in order to carry out its ends.
• 1:01:57
  Indeed, the welfare of whole nations has sometimes been sacrificed to its caprice.
• 1:02:01
  Shakespeare furnishes us with such an example in Henry the sixth, Part three,
• 1:02:07
  Act three, Scenes two and three. This is because the species in
• 1:02:12
  which lies the germ of our being has a nearer and prior claim upon us
• 1:02:15
  than the individual, so that the affairs of the species are more important than
• 1:02:20
  those of the individual. Sensible of this, the ancients personified the genius of
• 1:02:24
  the species in Cupid, notwithstanding his having the form of a child, as
• 1:02:29
  a hostile and cruel god, and therefore one to be decried as a capricious
• 1:02:32
  and despotic demon. And yet Lord of both gods and men, you,
• 1:02:37
  tyrant of gods and men, love murderous darts. Blindness and wings are Cupid's
• 1:02:45
  attributes. The latter signify in constancy, which as a rule comes with the
• 1:02:50
  disillusion following possession. Because, for instance, love is based on an illusion
• 1:02:54
  and represents what is an advantage to the species as an advantage to the individual.
• 1:03:00
  The illusion necessarily vanishes directly the end of the species has been attained.
• 1:03:05
  The spirit of the species, which for the time being has got the individual
• 1:03:08
  into its possession, now frees him again. Deserted by the spirit, he
• 1:03:13
  relapses into his original state of narrowness and want. He is surprised to find
• 1:03:17
  that, after all his lofty, heroic and endless attempts to further his own
• 1:03:22
  pleasure, he has obtained but little, and contrary to his expectation. He
• 1:03:25
  finds that he is no happier than he was before. He discovers that he
• 1:03:30
  has been the dupe of the will of the species. Therefore, as a
• 1:03:35
  rule, a theseus who has been made happy will desert his ariadne. If
• 1:03:38
  Petrarch's passion had been gratified, his song would have become silent from that moment,
• 1:03:44
  as that of the birds. As soon as the eggs are laid.
• 1:03:46
  Let it be said in passing that, however much my metaphysics of love may
• 1:03:51
  displease those in love, the fundamental truth revealed by me would enable them more
• 1:03:55
  effectually than anything else to overcome their passion. If considered of reason in general,
• 1:04:00
  could be of any avail. The words of the comic poet of ancient
• 1:04:04
  times remain good. This thing has neither plan nor method in itself. You
• 1:04:10
  cannot control it by plan. People who marry for love do so in the
• 1:04:14
  interest of the species, and not of the individuals. It is true that
• 1:04:17
  the persons concern imagine they are promoting their own happiness. But their real aim,
• 1:04:23
  which is one they are unconscious of, is to bring forth an individual
• 1:04:27
  which can be begotten by them alone. This purpose having brought them together,
• 1:04:31
  they ought henceforth to try and make the best of things. But it very
• 1:04:35
  frequently happens that two people who have been brought together by this instinctive illusion,
• 1:04:40
  which is the essence of passionate love, are in every other respect temperamentally different.
• 1:04:45
  This becomes apparent when the illusion wears off, as it necessarily must.
• 1:04:50
  Accordingly, people who marry for love are generally unhappy. For such people look
• 1:04:56
  after the welfare of the future generation at the expense of the present queennessy casapooramrez.
• 1:05:02
  How the vivere cone dolores. He who marries for love must live in
• 1:05:05
  grief, says the Spanish proverb. Marriages to convenants, which are generally arranged
• 1:05:12
  by the parents, will turn out the reverse. The considerations in this case
• 1:05:16
  which control them, whatever their nature may be, are at any rate real
• 1:05:20
  and unable to vanish of themselves. A marriage of this kind attends to the
• 1:05:25
  welfare of the present generation to the detriment of the future. It is true,
• 1:05:30
  and yet this remains problematical. A man who marries for money and not
• 1:05:34
  for love lives more in the interest of the individual than in that of the
• 1:05:38
  species, a condition exactly opposed to truth. Therefore, it is unnatural and
• 1:05:43
  rouses a certain feeling of contempt. A girl, who, against the wish
• 1:05:47
  of her parents, refuses to marry a rich man still young, and ignores
• 1:05:51
  all considerations of convenants in order to choose another instinctively to her liking, sacrifices
• 1:05:58
  her individual welfare to this species. But it is for this very reason that
• 1:06:02
  she meets with a certain approval, for she has given preference to what was
• 1:06:06
  more important and acted in the spirit of nature of the species more exactly,
• 1:06:12
  while the parents advised only in the spirit of individual egoism. As the outcome
• 1:06:16
  of all this, it seems that to marry means that either the interest of
• 1:06:19
  the individual or the interest of the species must suffer. As a rule,
• 1:06:25
  one or the other is the case, for it is only by the rarest
• 1:06:28
  and luckiest accident that convenants and passionate love go hand in hand. The wretched
• 1:06:33
  condition of most persons physically, morally, and intellectually may be partly accounted for
• 1:06:39
  by the fact that marriages are not generally the result of pure choice and inclination,
• 1:06:44
  but of all kinds of external considerations and accidental circumstances. However, if
• 1:06:49
  inclination to a certain degree is taken into consideration as well as convenience, this
• 1:06:55
  is, as it were, a compromised with the genius of the species.
• 1:06:59
  As is well known, happy marriages are few and far between, since marriage
• 1:07:02
  is intended to have the welfare of the future generation at heart, and not
• 1:07:06
  the present. However, let me add, for the consolation of the more
• 1:07:11
  tender hearted, that passionate love is sometimes associated with a feeling of quite another
• 1:07:15
  kind, namely real friendship founded on harmony of sentiment. But this, however,
• 1:07:20
  does not exist until the instinct of sex has been extinguished. This friendship
• 1:07:26
  will generally spring from the fact that the physical, moral, and intellectual qualities
• 1:07:30
  which correspond to and supplement each other in two individuals in love in respect of
• 1:07:34
  the child to be born, will also supplement each other in respect of the
• 1:07:39
  individuals themselves as opposite qualities of temperament and intellectual excellence, and thereby establish a
• 1:07:45
  harmony of sentiment. The whole metaphysics of love which has been treated here is
• 1:07:49
  closely related to my metaphysics in general, and the light it throws upon this
• 1:07:54
  may be said to be as follows. We have seen that a man's careful
• 1:07:58
  choice, developing through innumerable degrees to passionate love for the satisfaction of his instinctive
• 1:08:03
  sex, is based upon the fundamental interest he takes in the constitution of the
• 1:08:08
  next generation. This overwhelming interest that he takes verifies two truths which have been
• 1:08:14
  already demonstrated. First, man's immortality, which is perpetuated in the future race
• 1:08:20
  for this interest of so active and zealous a nature which is neither the result
• 1:08:25
  of reflection nor intention springs from the innermost characteristics and tendencies of our being could
• 1:08:30
  not exist so continuously or exercise such great power over man if the latter were
• 1:08:35
  really transitory, and if a race really and totally different to himself succeeded him
• 1:08:40
  merely in point of time. Second, that his real nature is more closely
• 1:08:45
  allied to the species than to the individual. For this interest that he takes
• 1:08:49
  in especial nature of the species, which is the source of all love,
• 1:08:54
  from the most fleeting emotion to the most serious passion, is in reality the
• 1:08:58
  most important affair in each man's life, the successful or unsuccessful issue of which
• 1:09:02
  touches him more nearly than anything else. This is why it has been pre
• 1:09:08
  eminently called the affair of the heart. Everything that merely concerns one's own person
• 1:09:13
  is set aside and sacrificed if the case require it, to this interest,
• 1:09:17
  when it is of a strong and decided nature. Therefore, in this way
• 1:09:21
  man proves that he is more interested in the species than in the individual,
• 1:09:26
  and that he lives more directly in the interest of the species than in that
• 1:09:29
  of the individual. Why then, is a lover so absolutely devoted to every
• 1:09:34
  look and turn of his beloved, and ready to make any kind of sacrifice
• 1:09:38
  for her, because the immortal part of him is yearning for her. It
• 1:09:43
  is only the mortal part of him that longs for everything else. That keen
• 1:09:46
  and even intense longing for a particular woman is accordingly a direct pledge of the
• 1:09:50
  immortality, of the essence of our being and of its perpetuity in the species.
• 1:09:56
  To regard this perpetuity as something unimportant and insifie is an error arising from
• 1:10:00
  the fact that in thinking of the continuity of the species, we only think
• 1:10:04
  of the future existence of being similar to ourselves, but in no respect,
• 1:10:09
  however, identical with us. And again, starting from knowledge directed towards without,
• 1:10:15
  we only grasp the outer form of the species as it presents itself to
• 1:10:18
  us, and do not take into consideration its inner nature. It is precisely
• 1:10:24
  this inner nature that lies at the foundation of our own consciousness, as its
• 1:10:28
  kernel, and therefore is more direct than our consciousness itself, and as thing
• 1:10:31
  in itself exempt from the principium individuationists is in reality identical and the same in
• 1:10:36
  all individuals, whether they exist at the same or at different times. This
• 1:10:43
  then is the will to live. That is to say, it is exactly
• 1:10:46
  that which so intensely desires both life and continuance, and which accordingly remains unharmed
• 1:10:51
  and unaffected by death. Further, its present state cannot be improved, and
• 1:10:58
  while there is life, it is certain of the the unceasing sufferings and death
• 1:11:00
  of the individual. The denial of the will to live is reserved to free
• 1:11:05
  it from this as the means by which the individual will breaks away from the
• 1:11:10
  stem of the species and surrenders that existence. In it we are wanting,
• 1:11:14
  both in ideas and all data as to what it is. After that,
• 1:11:18
  we can only indicate it as something which is free to be, will to
• 1:11:21
  live or not to live. Buddhism distinguishes the latter case by the word nirvana.
• 1:11:28
  It is the point which, as such remains forever impenetrable to all human
• 1:11:31
  knowledge. Looking at the turmoil of life from this standpoint, we find all
• 1:11:36
  occupied with its want and misery, exerting all their strength in order to satisfy
• 1:11:41
  its endless needs, and avert manifold suffering, without however, daring to expect
• 1:11:45
  anything else in return than merely the preservation of this tormented individual existence for a
• 1:11:50
  short span of time. And yet amid all this turmoil, we see a
• 1:11:56
  pair of lovers exchanging longing glances. Yet why so seek timidly and stealthily,
• 1:12:02
  because these lovers are traders, secretly striving to perpetuate all this misery and turmoil
• 1:12:08
  that otherwise would come to a timely end