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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
and carries the lantern in his hand. But when we posit the will as the thing in itself, we deny existence to every thing else; hence, will, on Schopenhauer's own theory, must itself perform the function of lighting its own path. Moreover, if will can be educated, that is, controlled by knowledge, there must be a latent capacity for education in its own nature, since we cannot educate stones by packing them together in one case with works on knowledge, say, the Encyclopædia Britannica. Hence, will, when looked at as the thing in itself, can be nothing other than consciousness which alone can be the repository of knowledge. Will, when looked at as force, is the rhythm of life, in different words, the energy of functioning, of the thing in itself, i.e., consciousness. The truth is that Schopenhauer allowed himself to be misled by his wrong nomenclature, and, in the confusion which resulted from it, forgot the sound conclusion which he had already arrived at. In his 'Essay on the Fourfold Root of Sufficient Reason' he had already held (p. 169) :
“Now the identity of the willing with the knowing Subject, in virtue of which the word 'I' includes and designates both, is the nodus of the Universe, and therefore is inexplicable. For we can only comprehend relations between Objects; but two Objects never can be one, excepting as parts of a whole. Here, where the Subject is in question, the rules by which we know Objects are no longer applicable, and actual identity of the knower with what is known as willing that is, of Subject and Object-is immediately given. Now, whoever has clearly realized the utter impossibility of explaining this identity, will surely concur with me in calling it the miracle, in the highest degree."
Reflection shows that even feelings are not unconscious states of existence, though they are invariably free from the companionship of intellect, and at times also tend to make it cloudy.
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