animales_) is the manifestation of an act of will. Now, just as little can
the physiological explanation of vegetative life (_functiones naturales
vitales_), however far it may advance, ever invalidate the truth that the
whole animal life which thus develops itself is the manifestation of will.
In general, then, as we have shown above, no etiological explanation can
ever give us more than the necessarily determined position in time and
space of a particular manifestation, its necessary appearance there,
according to a fixed law; but the inner nature of everything that appears
in this way remains wholly inexplicable, and is presupposed by every
etiological explanation, and merely indicated by the names, force, or law
of nature, or, if we are speaking of action, character or will. Thus,
although every particular action, under the presupposition of the definite
character, necessarily follows from the given motive, and although growth,
the process of nourishment, and all the changes of the animal body take
place according to necessarily acting causes (stimuli), yet the whole
series of actions, and consequently every individual act, and also its
condition, the whole body itself which accomplishes it, and therefore also
the process through which and in which it exists, are nothing but the
manifestation of the will, the becoming visible, _the objectification of
the will_. Upon this rests the perfect suitableness of the human and
animal body to the human and animal will in general, resembling, though
far surpassing, the correspondence between an instrument made for a
purpose and the will of the maker, and on this account appearing as
design, _i.e._, the teleological explanation of the body. The parts of the
body must, therefore, completely correspond to the principal desires
through which the will manifests itself; they must be the visible
expression of these desires. Teeth, throat, and bowels are objectified
hunger; the organs of generation are objectified sexual desire; the
grasping hand, the hurrying feet, correspond to the more indirect desires
of the will which they express. As the human form generally corresponds to
the human will generally, so the individual bodily structure corresponds
to the individually modified will, the character of the individual, and
therefore it is throughout and in all its parts characteristic and full of
expression. It is very remarkable that Parmenides already gave expression
to this in the following verses, quoted by Aristotle (Metaph. iii. 5):—
Ὁς γαρ ἑκαστος εχει κρασιν μελεων πολυκαμπτων
Τως νοος ανθρωποισι παρεστηκεν; το γαρ αυτο
Εστιν, ὁπερ φρονεει, μελεων φυσις ανθρωποισι
Και πασιν και παντι; το γαρ πλεον εστι νοημα.
(Ut enim cuique complexio membrorum flexibilium se habet, ita mens
hominibus adest: idem namque est, quod sapit, membrorum natura hominibus,
et omnibus et omni: quod enim plus est, intelligentia est.)(30)