Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/402

 THE WILL IN NATURE.

cow might bring forth a horse, and on the peach-tree be produced the blossom of the pear.' On the other hand it is said, that the mind of Heaven is deducible from what is the Will of mankind! "

The agreement between this last sentence and my doctrine is so striking and so astonishing, that if this passage had not been printed full eight years after my own work had appeared, I should no doubt have been accused of having taken my fundamental thought from it. For there are three well-known modes of repelling the attack of new thoughts: firstly, by ignoring them, secondly by denying them, and lastly by asserting that they are not new, but were known long before. But the fact that my fundamental thought was formed quite independently of this Chinese authority, is firmly established by the reasons I have given; for I may hope to be believed when I affirm, that I am unacquainted with the Chinese language and consequently unable to derive thoughts for my own use from original Chinese sources unknown to others. On further investigation I have elicited the fact, that the passage I have quoted, was most probably, nay almost certainly, taken from Morrison's Chinese Dictionary, where it may be found under the sign Teen: only I have no opportunity of verifying it. In an article by Neumann 2

1 A note of Schopenhauer's referring to this says: " According to letters from [Adam von] Doss" (a friend of S.'s), "dated 26th February and 8th June, 1857, the passages I have here quoted are to be found in Morrison's Chinese Dictionary, Macao, 1815, vol. i. p. 576, under Teen, although in a slightly different order, in nearly the same words. The important passage at the end alone differs and is as follows: 'Heaven makes the mind of mankind its mind: in most ancient discussions respecting Heaven, its mind, or will, was divined (it stands thus, and not derived) from what was the will of mankind.' Neumann translated this passage for Doss, independently of Morrison's rendering, and the end was: 'Through the heart of the people Heaven is usually revealed.' " [Editor s Note.]

2 Neumann, Die Natur-und Religions-Philosophie der Chinesen nach  dem Werke des Tschu–hsi, an article in [Christian Friedrich] Illgen's Periodical for Historical Theology, [Zeitschrift für historische Theologie], vol. vii. 1837, from pp. 60 to 63.

SINOLOGY.