Essays of Schopenhauer | Page 4

the spring of 1803, then, he accompanied his parents to London,
where, after spending some time in sight-seeing, he was placed in the

school of Mr. Lancaster at Wimbledon. Here he remained for three
months, from July to September, laying the foundation of his
knowledge of the English language, while his parents proceeded to
Scotland. English formality, and what he conceived to be English
hypocrisy, did not contrast favourably with his earlier and gayer
experiences in France, and made an extremely unfavourable impression
upon his mind; which found expression in letters to his friends and to
his mother.
On returning to Hamburg after this extended excursion abroad,
Schopenhauer was placed in the office of a Hamburg senator called
Jenisch, but he was as little inclined as ever to follow a commercial
career, and secretly shirked his work so that he might pursue his studies.
A little later a somewhat unexplainable calamity occurred. When
Dantzic ceased to be a free city, and Heinrich Schopenhauer at a
considerable cost and monetary sacrifice transferred his business to
Hamburg, the event caused him much bitterness of spirit. At Hamburg
his business seems to have undergone fluctuations. Whether these
further affected his spirit is not sufficiently established, but it is certain,
however, that he developed peculiarities of manner, and that his temper
became more violent. At any rate, one day in April 1805 it was found
that he had either fallen or thrown himself into the canal from an upper
storey of a granary; it was generally concluded that it was a case of
suicide.
Schopenhauer was seventeen at the time of this catastrophe, by which
he was naturally greatly affected. Although by the death of his father
the influence which impelled him to a commercial career was removed,
his veneration for the dead man remained with him through life, and on
one occasion found expression in a curious tribute to his memory in a
dedication (which was not, however, printed) to the second edition of
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. "That I could make use of and
cultivate in a right direction the powers which nature gave me," he
concludes, "that I could follow my natural impulse and think and work
for countless others without the help of any one; for that I thank thee,
my father, thank thy activity, thy cleverness, thy thrift and care for the
future. Therefore I praise thee, my noble father. And every one who

from my work derives any pleasure, consolation, or instruction shall
hear thy name and know that if Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer had not
been the man he was, Arthur Schopenhauer would have been a hundred
times ruined."
The year succeeding her husband's death, Johanna Schopenhauer
removed with her daughter to Weimar, after having attended to the
settlement of her husband's affairs, which left her in possession of a
considerable income. At Weimar she devoted herself to the pursuit of
literature, and held twice a week a sort of salon, which was attended by
Goethe, the two Schlegels, Wieland, Heinrich Meyer, Grimm, and
other literary persons of note. Her son meanwhile continued for another
year at the "dead timber of the desk," when his mother, acting under the
advice of her friend Fernow, consented, to his great joy, to his
following his literary bent.
During the next few years we find Schopenhauer devoting himself
assiduously to acquiring the equipment for a learned career; at first at
the Gymnasium at Gotha, where he penned some satirical verses on one
of the masters, which brought him into some trouble. He removed in
consequence to Weimar, where he pursued his classical studies under
the direction of Franz Passow, at whose house he lodged. Unhappily,
during his sojourn at Weimar his relations with his mother became
strained. One feels that there is a sort of autobiographical interest in his
essay on women, that his view was largely influenced by his relations
with his mother, just as one feels that his particular argument in his
essay on education is largely influenced by the course of his own
training.
On his coming of age Schopenhauer was entitled to a share of the
paternal estate, a share which yielded him a yearly income of about
�150. He now entered himself at the University of G�ttingen
(October 1809), enrolling himself as a student of medicine, and
devoting himself to the study of the natural sciences, mineralogy,
anatomy, mathematics, and history; later, he included logic, physiology,
and ethnography. He had always been passionately devoted to music
and found relaxation in learning to play the flute and guitar. His studies

at this time did not preoccupy him to the extent of isolation; he mixed
freely with his fellows, and reckoned amongst his friends or
acquaintances, F.W. Kreise, Bunsen, and Ernst Schulze. During one
vacation he went on an