The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3) — Schopenhauer — John Shaqi
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)
Schopenhauer · en
In this regard a passage in the romance of “_Guzman de Alfarache_,” by
Mateo Aleman, which has been famous for 250 years, is remarkable: “_No es
necessario, para que uno ame, que pase distancia de tiempo, que siga
discurso, ni haga eleccion, sino que con aquella primera y sola vista,
concurran juntamente cierta correspondencia ó consonancia, ó lo que acá __
solemos vulgarmente decir, una confrontacion de sangre, a que por
particular influxo suelen mover las estrellas._” (For one to love it is
not necessary that much time should pass, that he should set about
reflecting and make a choice; but only that at that first and only glance
a certain correspondence and consonance should be encountered on both
sides, or that which in common life we are wont to call a _sympathy of the
blood_, and to which a special influence of the stars generally impels),
P. ii. lib. iii. c. 5. Accordingly the loss of the loved one, through a
rival, or through death, is also for the passionate lover a pain that
surpasses all others, just because it is of a transcendental kind, since
it affects him not merely as an individual, but attacks him in his
_essentia æterna_, in the life of the species into whose special will and
service he was here called. Hence jealousy is such torment and so grim,
and the surrender of the loved one is the greatest of all sacrifices. A
hero is ashamed of all lamentations except the lamentation of love,
because in this it is not he but the species that laments. In Calderon’s
“Zenobia the Great” there is in the first act a scene between Zenobia and
Decius in which the latter says:
“_Cielos, luego tu me quieres? Perdiera cien mil victorias,
Volviérame_,” &c.
(Heaven! then thou lovest me? For this I would lose a thousand
victories, would turn about, &c.)