On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature · Arthur Schopenhauer
LINGUISTIC.
All that I have to record under this head is an observation of my own, made within the last few years, which seems hitherto to have escaped notice. Yet, that it is worthy of consideration, is attested by Seneca's utterance:[273] _Mira in quibusdam rebus verborum proprietas est, et consuetudo sermonis antiqui quædam efficacissimis notis signat._ Lichtenberg too says: "If one thinks much oneself, one finds a good deal of wisdom deposited in language. It is hardly likely that we have laid it all there ourselves, but rather that a great deal of wisdom really lies there." [273] Seneca, "Epist." 81. In many, perhaps in all, languages, the action even of those bodies which are without intellect, nay of inanimate bodies, is expressed by the words _to will_, so that the existence of a will in these bodies is thus taken for granted; but they are never credited with a faculty for knowing, representing, perceiving or thinking: I know of no expression which conveys this. Seneca, when speaking of lightning shot down from heaven, says:[274] "_In his, ignibus accidit, quod arboribus: quarum cacumina, si tenera sunt, ita deorsum trahi possunt, ut etiam terram attingant; sed quum permiseris, in locum suum exsilient. Itaque non est quod eum spectes cujusque rei habitum, qui illi non_ ex voluntate _est. Si ignem permittis ire quo velit, cœlum repetet._" In a more general sense Pliny says: _nec quærenda in ulla parte naturæ ratio, sed voluntas_.[275] Nor do we find Greek less fertile in instances.
Aristotle, when explaining gravity, says: μικρὸν μὲν μόριον τῆς γῆς, ἐὰν μετεωρισθὲν ἀφεθῇ, φέρεται, καὶ μένειν οὐκ ἐθέλει (_parva quædam terræ pars, si elevata dimittitur, neque vult manere_).[276] And: Δεῖ δὲ ἕκαστον λέγειν τοιοῦτον εἶναι, ὃ φύσει +βούλεται+ εἶναι, καὶ ὃ ὑπάρχει, ἀλλὰ μὴ ὃ βίᾳ καὶ παρὰ φύσιν (_unumquodque autem tale dicere oportet, quale naturâ suâ esse vult, et quod est; sed non id quod violentiâ et præter naturam est_).[277] Of great and more than merely linguistic importance is what Aristotle says in his "Ethica magna,"[278] where not only animals, but inanimate beings (fire striving upwards and earth downwards) are explicitly in question, and he asserts that they may be obliged to do something contrary to their nature or their will: παρὰ φύσιν τι, ἢ παρ' ἃ +βούλονται+ ποιεῖν,--and therefore rightly places παρ' ἃ βούλονται as a paraphrase of παρὰ φύσιν.--Anacreon, in his 29th Ode, εἰς Βάθυλλον, in ordering the portrait of his lady-love, says of her hair: Ἕλικας δ' ἐλευθέρους μοι πλοκάμων, ἄτακτα συνθείς, ἄφες, ὡς +θέλωσι+, κεῖσθαι (_capillorum cirros incomposite jungens, sine utut volunt jacere_).[279] In German, Bürger says: "_hinab_ will _der Bach, nicht hinan_" (the brook _will_ go downwards not upwards).
In daily life we constantly hear: "the water boils, it _will_ run over,"--"the glass _will_ break,"--"the ladder _will_ not stand;"--"_le feu ne_ veut _pas brûler_."--"_la corde, une fois tordue_, veut _toujours se retordre_."--In English, the verb '_to will_' is even the auxiliary of the future of all the other verbs, thus expressing the notion, that there lies a will at the bottom of every action. In English moreover, the endeavours of all inanimate and unconscious things, are expressly designated by the word _want_, which denotes every sort of human desire or endeavour: "the water _wants_ to get out,"--"the steam _wants_ to find an issue."--In Italian too we have "vuol _piovere_;" "_quest' orologio non_ vuol _andare_."--The conception of willing is besides so deeply rooted in this last language, that it seems to indicate everything that is requisite or necessary: "_ci_ vuol _un contrappeso_;" "_ci_ vuol _pazienza_." [274] _Ibid._ "Quæst. nat." ii. 24. [275] Plin. "Hist. nat." 37, 15. [276] Aristot. "De Cœlo." ii. c. 13, "If a small particle of earth is lifted and let loose, it is carried away and will not rest." [Tr.'s add.] [277] _Ibid._ c. 14, "But each thing ought to be named as it wills to be and really is according to its nature, not as it is by force and contrary to its nature." [Tr.'s add.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.