The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer | Page 7

this world, the domain of death and devil. And in the
question between the affirmation and the denial of the will to live,
Christianity is in the last resort right.
The contrast which the New Testament presents when compared with
the Old, according to the ecclesiastical view of the matter, is just that
existing between my ethical system and the moral philosophy of
Europe. The Old Testament represents man as under the dominion of
Law, in which, however, there is no redemption. The New Testament
declares Law to have failed, frees man from its dominion,[1] and in its
stead preaches the kingdom of grace, to be won by faith, love of
neighbor and entire sacrifice of self. This is the path of redemption
from the evil of the world. The spirit of the New Testament is
undoubtedly asceticism, however your protestants and rationalists may
twist it to suit their purpose. Asceticism is the denial of the will to live;
and the transition from the Old Testament to the New, from the
dominion of Law to that of Faith, from justification by works to
redemption through the Mediator, from the domain of sin and death to
eternal life in Christ, means, when taken in its real sense, the transition
from the merely moral virtues to the denial of the will to live. My
philosophy shows the metaphysical foundation of justice and the love
of mankind, and points to the goal to which these virtues necessarily
lead, if they are practised in perfection. At the same time it is candid in
confessing that a man must turn his back upon the world, and that the
denial of the will to live is the way of redemption. It is therefore really
at one with the spirit of the New Testament, whilst all other systems are
couched in the spirit of the Old; that is to say, theoretically as well as
practically, their result is Judaism--mere despotic theism. In this sense,
then, my doctrine might be called the only true Christian
philosophy--however paradoxical a statement this may seem to people
who take superficial views instead of penetrating to the heart of the
matter.
[Footnote 1: Cf. Romans vii; Galatians ii, iii.]
If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all

doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than
accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary, a sort of a
penal colony, or [Greek: ergastaerion] as the earliest philosopher called
it.[1] Amongst the Christian Fathers, Origen, with praiseworthy
courage, took this view,[2] which is further justified by certain
objective theories of life. I refer, not to my own philosophy alone, but
to the wisdom of all ages, as expressed in Brahmanism and Buddhism,
and in the sayings of Greek philosophers like Empedocles and
Pythagoras; as also by Cicero, in his remark that the wise men of old
used to teach that we come into this world to pay the penalty of crime
committed in another state of existence--a doctrine which formed part
of the initiation into the mysteries.[3] And Vanini--whom his
contemporaries burned, finding that an easier task than to confute
him--puts the same thing in a very forcible way. Man, he says, is so full
of every kind of misery that, were it not repugnant to the Christian
religion, I should venture to affirm that if evil spirits exist at all, they
have posed into human form and are now atoning for their crimes.[4]
And true Christianity--using the word in its right sense--also regards
our existence as the consequence of sin and error.
[Footnote 1: Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. L. iii, c, 3, p. 399.]
[Footnote 2: Augustine de cìvitate Dei., L. xi. c. 23.]
[Footnote 3: Cf. Fragmenta de philosophia.]
[Footnote: 4: De admirandis naturae arcanis; dial L. p. 35.]
If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your
expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable
incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as
anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it
should be, in a world where each of us pays the penalty of existence in
his own peculiar way. Amongst the evils of a penal colony is the
society of those who form it; and if the reader is worthy of better
company, he will need no words from me to remind him of what he has
to put up with at present. If he has a soul above the common, or if he is
a man of genius, he will occasionally feel like some noble prisoner of

state, condemned to work in the galleys with common criminals; and he
will follow his example and try to isolate himself.
In general, however, it