The Art of Literature - Arthur Schopenhauer
ON GENIUS.
No difference of rank, position, or birth, is so great as the gulf
that separates the countless millions who use their head only in the
service of their belly, in other words, look upon it as an instrument
of the will, and those very few and rare persons who have the courage
to say: No! it is too good for that; my head shall be active only in
its own service; it shall try to comprehend the wondrous and varied
spectacle of this world, and then reproduce it in some form, whether
as art or as literature, that may answer to my character as an
individual. These are the truly noble, the real _noblesse_ of the
world. The others are serfs and go with the soil--_glebae adscripti_.
Of course, I am here referring to those who have not only the courage,
but also the call, and therefore the right, to order the head to quit
the service of the will; with a result that proves the sacrifice to
have been worth the making. In the case of those to whom all this can
only partially apply, the gulf is not so wide; but even though their
talent be small, so long as it is real, there will always be a sharp
line of demarcation between them and the millions.[1]
[Footnote 1: The correct scale for adjusting the hierarchy of
intelligences is furnished by the degree in which the mind takes
merely individual or approaches universal views of things. The brute
recognizes only the individual as such: its comprehension does not
extend beyond the limits of the individual. But man reduces the
individual to the general; herein lies the exercise of his reason; and
the higher his intelligence reaches, the nearer do his general ideas
approach the point at which they become universal.]
The works of fine art, poetry and philosophy produced by a nation are
the outcome of the superfluous intellect existing in it.
For him who can understand aright--_cum grano salis_--the relation
between the genius and the normal man may, perhaps, be best expressed
as follows: A genius has a double intellect, one for himself and the
service of his will; the other for the world, of which he becomes the
mirror, in virtue of his purely objective attitude towards it. The
work of art or poetry or philosophy produced by the genius is
simply the result, or quintessence, of this contemplative attitude,
elaborated according to certain technical rules.
The normal man, on the other hand, has only a single intellect, which
may be called _subjective_ by contrast with the _objective_ intellect
of genius. However acute this subjective intellect may be--and it
exists in very various degrees of perfection--it is never on the same
level with the double intellect of genius; just as the open chest
notes of the human voice, however high, are essentially different from
the falsetto notes. These, like the two upper octaves of the flute
and the harmonics of the violin, are produced by the column of air
dividing itself into two vibrating halves, with a node between them;
while the open chest notes of the human voice and the lower octave of
the flute are produced by the undivided column of air vibrating as
a whole. This illustration may help the reader to understand that
specific peculiarity of genius which is unmistakably stamped on the
works, and even on the physiognomy, of him who is gifted with it. At
the same time it is obvious that a double intellect like this must, as
a rule, obstruct the service of the will; and this explains the poor
capacity often shown by genius in the conduct of life. And what
specially characterizes genius is that it has none of that sobriety of
temper which is always to be found in the ordinary simple intellect,
be it acute or dull.
The brain may be likened to a parasite which is nourished as a part of
the human frame without contributing directly to its inner economy;
it is securely housed in the topmost story, and there leads a
self-sufficient and independent life. In the same way it may be said
that a man endowed with great mental gifts leads, apart from the
individual life common to all, a second life, purely of the intellect.
He devotes himself to the constant increase, rectification and
extension, not of mere learning, but of real systematic knowledge
and insight; and remains untouched by the fate that overtakes him
personally, so long as it does not disturb him in his work. It is thus
a life which raises a man and sets him above fate and its changes.
Always thinking, learning, experimenting, practicing his knowledge,
the man soon comes to look upon this second life as the chief mode
of existence, and his merely personal life as something subordinate,
serving only to advance ends higher than itself.
An example of this independent, separate existence is furnished by
Goethe. During the war in the Champagne, and amid all the bustle of
the camp, he made observations for his theory of color; and as soon as
the numberless calamities of that war allowed of his retiring for a
short time to the fortress of Luxembourg, he took up the manuscript of
his _Farbenlehre_. This is an example which we, the salt of the earth,
should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the
pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world
may invade and agitate our personal environment; always remembering
that we are the sons, not of the bondwoman, but of the free. As our
emblem and coat of arms, I propose a tree mightily shaken by the wind,
but still bearing its ruddy fruit on every branch; with the motto _Dum
convellor mitescunt_, or _Conquassata sed ferax._
That purely intellectual life of the individual has its counterpart in
humanity as a whole. For there, too, the real life is the life of the
_will_, both in the empirical and in the transcendental meaning of the
word. The purely intellectual life of humanity lies in its effort to
increase knowledge by means of the sciences, and its desire to perfect
the arts. Both science and art thus advance slowly from one generation
to another, and grow with the centuries, every race as it hurries by
furnishing its contribution. This intellectual life, like some gift
from heaven, hovers over the stir and movement of the world; or it
is, as it were, a sweet-scented air developed out of the ferment
itself--the real life of mankind, dominated by will; and side by side
with the history of nations, the history of philosophy, science and
art takes its innocent and bloodless way.
The difference between the genius and the ordinary man is, no doubt, a
_quantitative_ one, in so far as it is a difference of degree; but I
am tempted to regard it also as _qualitative_, in view of the fact
that ordinary minds, notwithstanding individual variation, have a
certain tendency to think alike. Thus on similar occasions their
thoughts at once all take a similar direction, and run on the same
lines; and this explains why their judgments constantly agree--not,
however, because they are based on truth. To such lengths does this go
that certain fundamental views obtain amongst mankind at all times,
and are always being repeated and brought forward anew, whilst the
great minds of all ages are in open or secret opposition to them.
A genius is a man in whose mind the world is presented as an object
is presented in a mirror, but with a degree more of clearness and a
greater distinction of outline than is attained by ordinary people.
It is from him that humanity may look for most instruction; for the
deepest insight into the most important matters is to be acquired, not
by an observant attention to detail, but by a close study of things as
a whole. And if his mind reaches maturity, the instruction he gives
will be conveyed now in one form, now in another. Thus genius may be
defined as an eminently clear consciousness of things in general, and
therefore, also of that which is opposed to them, namely, one's own
self.
The world looks up to a man thus endowed, and expects to learn
something about life and its real nature. But several highly favorable
circumstances must combine to produce genius, and this is a very rare
event. It happens only now and then, let us say once in a century,
that a man is born whose intellect so perceptibly surpasses the
normal measure as to amount to that second faculty which seems to be
accidental, as it is out of all relation to the will. He may remain
a long time without being recognized or appreciated, stupidity
preventing the one and envy the other. But should this once come to
pass, mankind will crowd round him and his works, in the hope that he
may be able to enlighten some of the darkness of their existence or
inform them about it. His message is, to some extent, a revelation,
and he himself a higher being, even though he may be but little above
the ordinary standard.
Like the ordinary man, the genius is what he is chiefly for himself.
This is essential to his nature: a fact which can neither be avoided
nor altered, he may be for others remains a matter of chance and of
secondary importance. In no case can people receive from his mind
more than a reflection, and then only when he joins with them in the
attempt to get his thought into their heads; where, however, it is
never anything but an exotic plant, stunted and frail.
In order to have original, uncommon, and perhaps even immortal
thoughts, it is enough to estrange oneself so fully from the world of
things for a few moments, that the most ordinary objects and events
appear quite new and unfamiliar. In this way their true nature is
disclosed. What is here demanded cannot, perhaps, be said to be
difficult; it is not in our power at all, but is just the province of
genius.
By itself, genius can produce original thoughts just as little as a
woman by herself can bear children. Outward circumstances must come to
fructify genius, and be, as it were, a father to its progeny.
The mind of genius is among other minds what the carbuncle is among
precious stones: it sends forth light of its own, while the others
reflect only that which they have received. The relation of the
genius to the ordinary mind may also be described as that of
an idio-electrical body to one which merely is a conductor of
electricity.
The mere man of learning, who spends his life in teaching what he
has learned, is not strictly to be called a man of genius; just as
idio-electrical bodies are not conductors. Nay, genius stands to mere
learning as the words to the music in a song. A man of learning is a
man who has learned a great deal; a man of genius, one from whom we
learn something which the genius has learned from nobody. Great minds,
of which there is scarcely one in a hundred millions, are thus the
lighthouses of humanity; and without them mankind would lose itself in
the boundless sea of monstrous error and bewilderment.
And so the simple man of learning, in the strict sense of the
word--the ordinary professor, for instance--looks upon the genius much
as we look upon a hare, which is good to eat after it has been killed
and dressed up. So long as it is alive, it is only good to shoot at.
He who wishes to experience gratitude from his contemporaries, must
adjust his pace to theirs. But great things are never produced in
this way. And he who wants to do great things must direct his gaze
to posterity, and in firm confidence elaborate his work for coming
generations. No doubt, the result may be that he will remain quite
unknown to his contemporaries, and comparable to a man who, compelled
to spend his life upon a lonely island, with great effort sets up a
monument there, to transmit to future sea-farers the knowledge of his
existence. If he thinks it a hard fate, let him console himself with
the reflection that the ordinary man who lives for practical aims
only, often suffers a like fate, without having any compensation to
hope for; inasmuch as he may, under favorable conditions, spend a life
of material production, earning, buying, building, fertilizing,
laying out, founding, establishing, beautifying with daily effort
and unflagging zeal, and all the time think that he is working for
himself; and yet in the end it is his descendants who reap the benefit
of it all, and sometimes not even his descendants. It is the same with
the man of genius; he, too, hopes for his reward and for honor at
least; and at last finds that he has worked for posterity alone. Both,
to be sure, have inherited a great deal from their ancestors.
The compensation I have mentioned as the privilege of genius lies, not
in what it is to others, but in what it is to itself. What man has in
any real sense lived more than he whose moments of thought make their
echoes heard through the tumult of centuries? Perhaps, after all, it
would be the best thing for a genius to attain undisturbed possession
of himself, by spending his life in enjoying the pleasure of his own
thoughts, his own works, and by admitting the world only as the heir
of his ample existence. Then the world would find the mark of his
existence only after his death, as it finds that of the Ichnolith.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Translator's Note._--For an illustration of this feeling
in poetry, Schopenhauer refers the reader to Byron's _Prophecy of
Dante_: introd. to C. 4.]
It is not only in the activity of his highest powers that the genius
surpasses ordinary people. A man who is unusually well-knit, supple
and agile, will perform all his movements with exceptional ease, even
with comfort, because he takes a direct pleasure in an activity for
which he is particularly well-equipped, and therefore often exercises
it without any object. Further, if he is an acrobat or a dancer, not
only does he take leaps which other people cannot execute, but he also
betrays rare elasticity and agility in those easier steps which others
can also perform, and even in ordinary walking. In the same way a man
of superior mind will not only produce thoughts and works which could
never have come from another; it will not be here alone that he will
show his greatness; but as knowledge and thought form a mode of
activity natural and easy to him, he will also delight himself in them
at all times, and so apprehend small matters which are within the
range of other minds, more easily, quickly and correctly than they.
Thus he will take a direct and lively pleasure in every increase of
Knowledge, every problem solved, every witty thought, whether of his
own or another's; and so his mind will have no further aim than to be
constantly active. This will be an inexhaustible spring of delight;
and boredom, that spectre which haunts the ordinary man, can never
come near him.
Then, too, the masterpieces of past and contemporary men of genius
exist in their fullness for him alone. If a great product of genius
is recommended to the ordinary, simple mind, it will take as much
pleasure in it as the victim of gout receives in being invited to a
ball. The one goes for the sake of formality, and the other reads the
book so as not to be in arrear. For La Bruyere was quite right when he
said: _All the wit in the world is lost upon him who has none_. The
whole range of thought of a man of talent, or of a genius, compared
with the thoughts of the common man, is, even when directed to objects
essentially the same, like a brilliant oil-painting, full of life,
compared with a mere outline or a weak sketch in water-color.
All this is part of the reward of genius, and compensates him for a
lonely existence in a world with which he has nothing in common and
no sympathies. But since size is relative, it comes to the same thing
whether I say, Caius was a great man, or Caius has to live amongst
wretchedly small people: for Brobdingnack and Lilliput vary only
in the point from which they start. However great, then, however
admirable or instructive, a long posterity may think the author
of immortal works, during his lifetime he will appear to his
contemporaries small, wretched, and insipid in proportion. This is
what I mean by saying that as there are three hundred degrees from the
base of a tower to the summit, so there are exactly three hundred
from the summit to the base. Great minds thus owe little ones some
indulgence; for it is only in virtue of these little minds that they
themselves are great.
Let us, then, not be surprised if we find men of genius generally
unsociable and repellent. It is not their want of sociability that is
to blame. Their path through the world is like that of a man who goes
for a walk on a bright summer morning. He gazes with delight on the
beauty and freshness of nature, but he has to rely wholly on that for
entertainment; for he can find no society but the peasants as they
bend over the earth and cultivate the soil. It is often the case that
a great mind prefers soliloquy to the dialogue he may have in this
world. If he condescends to it now and then, the hollowness of it may
possibly drive him back to his soliloquy; for in forgetfulness of his
interlocutor, or caring little whether he understands or not, he talks
to him as a child talks to a doll.
Modesty in a great mind would, no doubt, be pleasing to the world;
but, unluckily, it is a _contradictio in adjecto_. It would compel a
genius to give the thoughts and opinions, nay, even the method and
style, of the million preference over his own; to set a higher value
upon them; and, wide apart as they are, to bring his views into
harmony with theirs, or even suppress them altogether, so as to let
the others hold the field. In that case, however, he would either
produce nothing at all, or else his achievements would be just upon a
level with theirs. Great, genuine and extraordinary work can be done
only in so far as its author disregards the method, the thoughts, the
opinions of his contemporaries, and quietly works on, in spite of
their criticism, on his side despising what they praise. No one
becomes great without arrogance of this sort. Should his life and work
fall upon a time which cannot recognize and appreciate him, he is at
any rate true to himself; like some noble traveler forced to pass the
night in a miserable inn; when morning comes, he contentedly goes his
way.
A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it
only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor
with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his
vocation without having to think about other people.
For the brain to be a mere laborer in the service of the belly, is
indeed the common lot of almost all those who do not live on the work
of their hands; and they are far from being discontented with
their lot. But it strikes despair into a man of great mind, whose
brain-power goes beyond the measure necessary for the service of
the will; and he prefers, if need be, to live in the narrowest
circumstances, so long as they afford him the free use of his time for
the development and application of his faculties; in other words, if
they give him the leisure which is invaluable to him.
It is otherwise with ordinary people: for them leisure has no value in
itself, nor is it, indeed, without its dangers, as these people
seem to know. The technical work of our time, which is done to an
unprecedented perfection, has, by increasing and multiplying objects
of luxury, given the favorites of fortune a choice between more
leisure and culture upon the one side, and additional luxury and good
living, but with increased activity, upon the other; and, true to
their character, they choose the latter, and prefer champagne to
freedom. And they are consistent in their choice; for, to them, every
exertion of the mind which does not serve the aims of the will is
folly. Intellectual effort for its own sake, they call eccentricity.
Therefore, persistence in the aims of the will and the belly will be
concentricity; and, to be sure, the will is the centre, the kernel of
the world.
But in general it is very seldom that any such alternative is
presented. For as with money, most men have no superfluity, but only
just enough for their needs, so with intelligence; they possess just
what will suffice for the service of the will, that is, for the
carrying on of their business. Having made their fortune, they are
content to gape or to indulge in sensual pleasures or childish
amusements, cards or dice; or they will talk in the dullest way, or
dress up and make obeisance to one another. And how few are those who
have even a little superfluity of intellectual power! Like the others
they too make themselves a pleasure; but it is a pleasure of the
intellect. Either they will pursue some liberal study which brings
them in nothing, or they will practice some art; and in general, they
will be capable of taking an objective interest in things, so that
it will be possible to converse with them. But with the others it is
better not to enter into any relations at all; for, except when they
tell the results of their own experience or give an account of their
special vocation, or at any rate impart what they have learned from
some one else, their conversation will not be worth listening to; and
if anything is said to them, they will rarely grasp or understand it
aright, and it will in most cases be opposed to their own opinions.
Balthazar Gracian describes them very strikingly as men who are not
men--_hombres che non lo son_. And Giordano Bruno _says_ the same
thing: _What a difference there is in having to do with men compared
with those who are only made in their image and likeness_![1] And how
wonderfully this passage agrees with that remark in the Kurral: _The
common people look like men but I have never seen anything quite like
them_. If the reader will consider the extent to which these ideas
agree in thought and even in expression, and in the wide difference
between them in point of date and nationality, he cannot doubt but
that they are at one with the facts of life. It was certainly not
under the influence of those passages that, about twenty years ago, I
tried to get a snuff-box made, the lid of which should have two fine
chestnuts represented upon it, if possible in mosaic; together with a
leaf which was to show that they were horse-chestnuts. This symbol was
meant to keep the thought constantly before my mind. If anyone wishes
for entertainment, such as will prevent him feeling solitary even when
he is alone, let me recommend the company of dogs, whose moral and
intellectual qualities may almost afford delight and gratification.
[Footnote 1: Opera: ed. Wagner, 1. 224.]
Still, we should always be careful to avoid being unjust. I am often
surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity of my
dog; and I have similar experiences with mankind. Countless times,
in indignation at their incapacity, their total lack of discernment,
their bestiality, I have been forced to echo the old complaint that
folly is the mother and the nurse of the human race:
_Humani generis mater nutrixque profecto
Stultitia est_.
But at other times I have been astounded that from such a race there
could have gone forth so many arts and sciences, abounding in so much
use and beauty, even though it has always been the few that produce
them. Yet these arts and sciences have struck root, established and
perfected themselves: and the race has with persistent fidelity
preserved Homer, Plato, Horace and others for thousands of years, by
copying and treasuring their writings, thus saving them from oblivion,
in spite of all the evils and atrocities that have happened in the
world. Thus the race has proved that it appreciates the value of these
things, and at the same time it can form a correct view of special
achievements or estimate signs of judgment and intelligence. When this
takes place amongst those who belong to the great multitude, it is by
a kind of inspiration. Sometimes a correct opinion will be formed by
the multitude itself; but this is only when the chorus of praise
has grown full and complete. It is then like the sound of untrained
voices; where there are enough of them, it is always harmonious.
Those who emerge from the multitude, those who are called men of
genius, are merely the _lucida intervalla_ of the whole human race.
They achieve that which others could not possibly achieve. Their
originality is so great that not only is their divergence from others
obvious, but their individuality is expressed with such force, that
all the men of genius who have ever existed show, every one of them,
peculiarities of character and mind; so that the gift of his works is
one which he alone of all men could ever have presented to the world.
This is what makes that simile of Ariosto's so true and so justly
celebrated: _Natura lo fece e poi ruppe lo stampo._ After Nature
stamps a man of genius, she breaks the die.
But there is always a limit to human capacity; and no one can be a
great genius without having some decidedly weak side, it may even be,
some intellectual narrowness. In other words, there will foe some
faculty in which he is now and then inferior to men of moderate
endowments. It will be a faculty which, if strong, might have been an
obstacle to the exercise of the qualities in which he excels. What
this weak point is, it will always be hard to define with any accuracy
even in a given case. It may be better expressed indirectly; thus
Plato's weak point is exactly that in which Aristotle is strong, and
_vice versa_; and so, too, Kant is deficient just where Goethe is
great.