of the blind striving of will was done away with, so that mechanical and
other instincts, as expressions of unconscious will, had to lend their
help in the midst of those that were conscious, with the entrance of
reason that certainty and infallibility of the expressions of will (which
at the other extreme in unorganised nature appeared as strict conformity
to law) is almost entirely lost; instinct disappears altogether;
deliberation, which is supposed to take the place of everything else,
begets (as was shown in the First Book) irresolution and uncertainty; then
error becomes possible, and in many cases obstructs the adequate
objectification of the will in action. For although in the character the
will has already taken its definite and unchangeable bent or direction, in
accordance with which volition, when occasioned by the presence of a
motive, invariably takes place, yet error can falsify its expressions, for
it introduces illusive motives that take the place of the real ones which
they resemble;(37) as, for example, when superstition forces on a man
imaginary motives which impel him to a course of action directly opposed
to the way in which the will would otherwise express itself in the given
circumstances. Agamemnon slays his daughter; a miser dispenses alms, out
of pure egotism, in the hope that he will some day receive an
hundred-fold; and so on.
Thus knowledge generally, rational as well as merely sensuous, proceeds
originally from the will itself, belongs to the inner being of the higher
grades of its objectification as a mere μηχανη, a means of supporting the
individual and the species, just like any organ of the body. Originally
destined for the service of the will for the accomplishment of its aims,
it remains almost throughout entirely subjected to its service: it is so
in all brutes and in almost all men. Yet we shall see in the Third Book
how in certain individual men knowledge can deliver itself from this
bondage, throw off its yoke, and, free from all the aims of will, exist
purely for itself, simply as a clear mirror of the world, which is the
source of art. Finally, in the Fourth Book, we shall see how, if this kind
of knowledge reacts on the will, it can bring about self-surrender,
_i.e._, resignation, which is the final goal, and indeed the inmost nature
of all virtue and holiness, and is deliverance from the world.