Essays of Schopenhauer | Page 9

Nibelungen,
with the inscription "In admiration and gratitude." The Philosophical
Faculty of the University of Leipzic offered a prize for an exposition
and criticism of his philosophical system. Two Frenchmen, M. Foucher
de Careil and M. Challemel Lacour, who visited Schopenhauer during
his last days, have given an account of their impressions of the
interview, the latter in an article entitled, "Un Bouddhiste

Contemporain en Allemagne," which appeared in the Revue des Deux
Mondes for March 15th, 1870. M. Foucher de Careil gives a charming
picture of him:--
"Quand je le vis, pour la premi�re fois, en 1859, � la table de
l'h�tel d'Angleterre, � Francfort, c'�tait d�j� un vieillard,
� l'oeil d'un bleu vif et limpide, � la l�vre mince et
l�g�rement sarcastique, autour de laquelle errait un fin sourire, et
dont le vaste front, estomp� de deux touffes de cheveux blancs sur
les c�t�s, relevait d'un cachet de noblesse et de distinction la
physionomie petillante d'esprit et de malice. Les habits, son jabot de
dentelle, sa cravate blanche rappelaient un vieillard de la fin du r�gne
de Louis XV; ses mani�res �taient celles d'un homme de bonne
compagnie. Habituellement r�serv� et d'un naturel craintif
jusqu'� la m�fiance, il ne se livrait qu'avec ses intimes ou les
�trangers de passage � Francfort. Ses mouvements �taient vifs
et devenaient d'une p�tulance extraordinaire dans la conversation; il
fuyait les discussions et les vains combats de paroles, mais c'�tait
pour mieux jouir du charme d'une causerie intime. Il poss�dait et
parlait avec une �gale perfection quatre langues: le fran�ais,
l'anglais, l'allemand, l'italien et passablement l'espagnol. Quand il
causait, la verve du vieillard brodait sur le canevas un peu lourd de
l'allemand ses brilliantes arabesques latines, grecques, fran�aises,
anglaises, italiennes. C'�tait un entrain, une pr�cision et des sailles,
une richesse de citations, une exactitude de d�tails qui faisait couler
les heures; et quelquefois le petit cercle de ses intimes l'�coutait
jusqu'� minuit, sans qu'un moment de fatigue se f�t peint sur ses
traits ou que le feu de son regard se f�t un instant amorti. Sa parole
nette et accentu�e captivait l'auditoire: elle peignait et analysait tout
ensemble; une sensibilit� d�licate en augmentait le feu; elle
�tait exacte et pr�cise sur toutes sortes de sujets."
Schopenhauer died on the 20th September 1860, in his seventy-third
year, peacefully, alone as he had lived, but not without warning. One
day in April, taking his usual brisk walk after dinner, he suffered from
palpitation of the heart, he could scarcely breathe. These symptoms
developed during the next few months, and Dr. Gwinner advised him to

discontinue his cold baths and to breakfast in bed; but Schopenhauer,
notwithstanding his early medical training, was little inclined to follow
medical advice. To Dr. Gwinner, on the evening of the 18th September,
when he expressed a hope that he might be able to go to Italy, he said
that it would be a pity if he died now, as he wished to make several
important additions to his Parerga; he spoke about his works and of the
warm recognition with which they had been welcomed in the most
remote places. Dr. Gwinner had never before found him so eager and
gentle, and left him reluctantly, without, however, the least premonition
that he had seen him for the last time. On the second morning after this
interview Schopenhauer got up as usual, and had his cold bath and
breakfast. His servant had opened the window to let in the morning air
and had then left him. A little later Dr. Gwinner arrived and found him
reclining in a corner of the sofa; his face wore its customary expression;
there was no sign of there having been any struggle with death. There
had been no struggle with death; he had died, as he had hoped he would
die, painlessly, easily.
In preparing the above notice the writer has to acknowledge her
indebtedness to Dr. Gwinner's Life and Professor Wallace's little work
on the same subject, as well as to the few other authorities that have
been available.--THE TRANSLATOR.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Wallace's Life, pp. 95, 96.
[2] Wallace, p. 108.
[3] Haldane and Kemp's The World as Will and Idea.
[4] Wallace, p. 145.

ESSAYS OF SCHOPENHAUER.

ON AUTHORSHIP AND STYLE.
There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the
subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. The first kind
have had thoughts or experiences which seem to them worth
communicating, while the second kind need money and consequently
write for money. They think in order to write, and they may be
recognised by their spinning out their thoughts to the greatest possible
length, and also by the way they work out their thoughts, which are
half-true, perverse, forced, and vacillating; then also by their love of
evasion,