condemned to life and must therefore attempt to live with
as little pain as possible. (Schopenhauer always viewed
happiness as a negative state—an absence of suffering—
and treasured Aristotle`s maxim «Not to pleasure but to
painlessness do the prudent aspire.»)
Accordingly,Parerga and Paralipomena offers
lessons on how to think independently, how to retain
skepticism and rationality, how to avoid soothing
supernatural emollients, how to think well of ourselves,
keep our stakes low, and avoid attaching ourselves to what
can be lost. Even though «everyone must act in life`s great
puppet play and feel the wire which sets us into motion,”
there is, nonetheless, comfort in maintaining the
philosopher`s lofty perspective that, from the aspect of
eternity, nothing really matters—everything passes.
Parerga and Paralipomenaintroduces a new tone.
While it continues to emphasize the tragic and lamentable
suffering of existence, it adds the dimension of
connectivity—that is, through the commonality of our
suffering, we are inexorably connected to one another. In
one remarkable passage the great misanthrope displays a
softer, more indulgent, view of his fellow bipeds.
The really proper address between one man and another
should be, instead of Sir, Monsieur,...my fellow
sufferer.However strange this may sound, it accords
with the facts, puts the other man in the most correct
light, and reminds us of that most necessary thing,
tolerance, patience, forbearance, and love of one`s
neighbor, which everyone needs and each of us
therefore owes to another.
A few sentences later he adds a thought that could
serve well as an opening paragraph in a contemporary
textbook of psychotherapy.
We should treat with indulgence every human folly,
failing, and vice, bearing in mind that what we have
before us are simply our own failings, follies, and vices.
For they are just the failings of mankind to which we
also belong and accordingly we have all the same
failings buried within ourselves. We should not be
indignant with others for these vices simply because
they do not appear in us at the moment.
Parerga and Paralipomenawas a great success,
generating several compilations of selections published
separately under more popular titles(Aphorisms on
Practical Wisdom, Counsels and Maxims, The Wisdom of
Life, Living Thoughts of Schopenhauer, The Art of
Literature, Religion: A Dialogue). Soon Schopenhauer`s
words were on the tongue of the entire educated German
public. Even in neighboring Denmark, Kierkegaard wrote
in his 1854 journal that «all the literary gossips, journalists,
and authorlings have begun to busy themselves with S.»
Praise ultimately appeared in the press. Great Britain,
Arthur`s almost–birthplace, was the first to honor him with
a stunning review of all of his work (titled «Iconoclasm in
German Philosophy») in the prestigiousWestminister
Review. Shortly afterward this review was translated and
widely read in Germany. Similar articles quickly appeared
in France and Italy, and Schopenhauer`s life changed
dramatically.
Curious visitors flocked to the Englisher Hof to eye
the philosopher at lunch. Richard Wagner sent him the
original libretto of theRing of the Nibelungs with a
dedication. Universities began to teach his work, learned
societies issued invitations for membership, eulogistic
letters arrived in the post, his previous books reappeared in
bookstores, townspeople greeted him on his walks, and pet
stores had a run on poodles similar to Schopenhauer`s.
Schopenhauer`s rapture and delight were very
evident. He wrote, «If a cat is stroked it purrs; and just as
inevitably if a man is praised, sweet rapture and delight are
reflected in his face, and expressed the hope» that «the
morning sun of my fame will gild with its first rays the
evening of my life and dispel its gloom.» When the eminent
sculptress Elisabeth Ney visited Frankfurt for four weeks to
do a bust of him, Arthur purred, «She works all day at my
place. When I get home we have coffee together, we sit
together on the sofa, and I feel as if I were married.»
Not since the best years of his life—the two years
spent as a child in Le Havre with the de Blesimaire
family—had Arthur spoken so tenderly and contentedly of
domestic life.
40
_________________________
At the end
of his
life, no
man, if he
be sincere
and in
possession
of his
faculties,
would ever
wish to go
though it
