wisdom of life

Chapter 5 Man's Self
A man's own self can bring him more happiness than the property he owns or the appearance he gives to others-this we have roughly realized.What a person is, that is to say, what he has, is the most important thing, because a person's own personality is always with him, and everything he experiences is stained with his personality.Whatever he goes through, he feels first of all himself.This applies to the pleasures that people derive from material things, and even more so to the enjoyment of spiritual pleasures.Therefore, the English phrase to enj oy one's self (enjoy yourself) is a rather vivid expression.For example, people say: "He enjoys himself in Paris" instead of "He enjoys himself in Paris".If a man's own personality is rather base, all pleasures are as spoiled, as when a man's costly wine is poured into a mouth bitter with bile.Therefore, apart from serious misfortunes, the things that happen to people in life, whether good or bad, are of far less importance than the way people feel about them; And strength is more important.What a man is, what he has, in short, his personality and his worth, are the only ones directly related to his happiness.Everything else works only indirectly, and these effects are therefore negligible.But the role played by individuality can never be eliminated.Therefore, the most difficult to get rid of is the jealousy of others' own merits; so this kind of jealousy will be very carefully and discreetly concealed.Furthermore, only the composition of sense consciousness is permanent, and human personality is continuously functioning every moment; in comparison, everything else is always only temporary and occasional. function, and they are all subject to constant changes.Therefore, Aristotle said: "What we can rely on is only our nature, not money." Because of this, we can grit our teeth and bear disasters that come purely from the outside, but are caused by ourselves. Our unhappiness is harder to bear; for luck sometimes improves, but our constitution never changes.Therefore, it is the good qualities belonging to the human subject that play the first and key role in human happiness. These include noble character, good intellect, pleasant temperament and good health-in a word, "a healthy body increases the quality of life." to a healthy mind” (Juvenalian).So we should pay more attention to maintaining and improving this kind of benefits, instead of just thinking about possessing those extraneous properties and honors.

Among the above-mentioned good qualities of the subject, nothing brings us happiness more directly than the relaxed and pleasant senses.For the benefits of this wonderful quality are immediate, and a happy man has a reason for his being happy, and this is the reason: he is a happy man.This pleasant disposition in a man can take the place of all other inner qualities, but no other good can take the place of it.A person may be young, handsome, rich, and highly respected, but to judge whether that person is happy, we must ask ourselves: Is this person light-hearted?If he is in a happy mood, it does not matter to him whether he is young or old, straight or stooped, rich or poor: he is happy anyway.When I was young, I once opened an old book, and what I saw was this sentence: "Whoever laughs often is happy; whoever cries often is miserable." This is a very common sentence. I have said it, but I have never been able to forget it, because it contains a simple truth, although the cliché is a bit exaggerated.Therefore, when a pleasant mood comes, we should open the door to welcome it, because its arrival is never out of season.But we tend not to do that: we often accept pleasurable feelings hesitantly—we want to see if our happiness and contentment are warranted first.Or, we fear that, in the midst of serious calculations and serious labors, joy will disturb us.In fact, whether this approach is really beneficial is still unknown.In contrast, being happy directly benefits us.It is the cash of happiness, and everything else is just a check for happiness.A happy mood directly gives people happiness at the moment when people feel happy.Therefore, it is an incomparable gift to our existence, because the reality of our existence is embodied in the present moment-it is inseparable from the endless past and future.From this we can see that the acquisition and promotion of pleasant moods should be the first place in our pursuits.It is true that nothing increases happiness more than health; but what contributes least to it is a surplus of money.The lower working class, especially those living in the countryside, often show happy and satisfied expressions, while the rich and noble people usually feel annoyed.Therefore, we should focus on obtaining and maintaining physical health - a happy mood is the flower that grows from a healthy body.As we all know, the means of maintaining physical health are nothing more than avoiding all indulgent behaviors, unpleasant and violent emotional turmoil, and prolonged mental fatigue; doing rapid physical exercise outdoors for at least two hours a day; frequent cold baths , Diet in moderation.A person cannot stay healthy if he does not engage in a certain amount of physical activity every day.If all life activity programs are to be kept in normal operation, then whether the whole body where the life activity programs are located or as a part of this whole, all need to be exercised.Therefore, Aristotle was right when he said: "Life is in motion, and the essence of life is in motion." The interior of the body tissue is in constant and rapid motion; , beating tirelessly; every time the heart beats 28 times, all the blood in the body is sent along the large and small blood vessels of the body, and the lungs pump air continuously, like a steam engine; the large intestine is like a worm. Peristalsis is perpetual; glands are always absorbing and excreting; with every pulse and breath, the brain itself performs a double movement.Thus, if a person does not exercise outwardly—many people lead a life of stillness and lack of movement—the external stillness of their bodies will form a startling and pernicious dissonance with the inner movement.The constant internal movement of the body requires the cooperation and support of some kind of external movement.The aforementioned incongruity between the inside and outside of the body is similar to an emotion that boils inside of us but has to fight to keep it from showing up outside of us.Even trees must be moved by the wind to flourish. "The greater the speed of each movement, the more it is a movement"—this phrase expressed in the most succinct Latin, "Omnis motus guo celerior, eo magis motus"—this rule can apply here.Our happiness depends on our pleasant emotions, which in turn depend on our physical health.All this will become clear when we compare the different impressions of our senses which external circumstances and events make on us when we are healthy and strong, and when sickness befalls us and makes us distressed and anxious. .The things that make us happy or sad are not those objective and real things, but our understanding and grasp of these things.This is what Epictetus [1] said, "It is not objective things that disturb people, but people's opinions on objective things."Nine out of ten of our happiness depends on our health.As long as we maintain health, everything becomes a source of happiness; but without health, all external benefits—whatever they may be—have no meaning, even those belonging to the human subject, such as spiritual The advantages of thought, emotion, temperament, etc., will still be greatly discounted due to illness.In view of this, it is not without reason that people, when they meet each other, first inquire about each other's state of health, and wish each other good health, for health is indeed the first and foremost thing for a person's happiness.From this we can draw the conclusion that the greatest folly is to sacrifice one's health for such things as money, promotion, knowledge, fame, and even for carnal lust and other momentary pleasures.We should put health first.

Though health greatly enhances our cheerfulness--which is of the first importance to our happiness--it is not entirely dependent on health; for melancholic dispositions and depressions develop even in perfectly healthy persons Mood.Here, the most fundamental reason undoubtedly lies in the constitution of man's most original and therefore unchangeable organism; The ratio of normal to varying degrees.Extraordinary sensory abilities can lead to emotional imbalances, periodic blissful euphoria, or lingering melancholy.The condition of genius is the possession of superhuman nervous powers—that is, supernormal sensory faculties.So Aristotle is quite right that all eminent and superior men are melancholy: "All those who excel in philosophy, politics, poetry, or any other art, seem melancholy" .Cicero must have meant the same passage when he stated the oft-quoted statement: "All men of genius, said Aristotle, are melancholy." An examination of the innate basic emotions--which vary from person to person--is described very beautifully by Shakespeare:

Nature made strange people,
Some people are always squinting and laughing loudly,

Like seeing a Scottish bagpiper's parrot;
There are also some people with gloomy faces and toothless smiles,
Though Nestor swore the joke was worth laughing at.

--"The Merchant of Venice"

Plato used words like "gloomy" and "pleasant" to describe these two different emotions, and these differences arise because different people have very different capacities for pleasant and unpleasant impressions.So what brings one man almost to despair, makes another laugh with delight.Generally speaking, the weaker a person's ability to accept pleasant impressions, the stronger his ability to accept unpleasant impressions, and vice versa.The same thing can have two possible outcomes, good or bad. "Depressed" people will feel sad and irritable because of "bad" results, and they will not be happy about good results. "Happy" people will not be sad and troubled by unfortunate results, but will be deeply happy about the good results of things.For the "depressed" type, although they have achieved nine out of ten goals, they still will not be happy for the achieved goals, but only annoyed and angry because of the failure of one goal.Pleasant people, on the contrary, take comfort and pleasure from the success of their goals.However, just as it is not easy to find outright bad things without an iota of goodness, so people of the "depressed" type, i.e. sullen and neurotic, though on the whole suffer more than carefree, happy people. More misfortunes and sufferings are imaginary, but less real misfortunes and sufferings because of them, because they see everything as a dark mass, always think the worst of things, and therefore prepare precautions .In this way, they will make fewer miscalculations and stumbles than those who always give things a happy color and a bright future.But if a person who is naturally discontented and irritable is afflicted with diseases of the nervous system or of the digestive organs, the situation can eventually develop into a distaste for life due to persistent misfortune, and from this a suicidal tendency develops.For this reason the slightest inconvenience and annoyance can lead to suicide.Indeed, when things get worst, even this inconvenience and annoyance are unnecessary, and a person will decide to commit suicide purely from a persistent morose mood.Such a person commits suicide with cool deliberation and iron determination.It often happens that a patient, though under the watchful eyes of others, is on the alert to take advantage of every opportunity of not being watched, eager to seize the relief from pain which is now so desirable and most natural to him. Means - the whole process without hesitation, retreat and inner struggle.A thorough discussion of suicide can be found in Esquirol [2]'s "Mental Illness".But beyond that, at some point even the healthiest and perhaps the happiest of people contemplates suicide.That is when the pain is so great, or the imminent misfortune is so inevitable, that it overwhelms the fear of death.The difference lies only in the magnitude of the incentive necessary for suicide, which is inversely proportional to the discontent of the person.The greater the dissatisfaction, the smaller the incentives needed to commit suicide, and in the end, the incentives can be reduced to zero.In contrast, the stronger the pleasurable emotion, and the better the state of health for maintaining it, the greater must be the incentive to commit suicide.Therefore, the causes of suicide vary in size, but the two extremes are: the inherent melancholy and dissatisfaction has been morbidly aggravated; the nature is healthy and happy, but it is caused by objective reasons.

Health is partly related to beauty, and while beauty, a subjective benefit, does not directly bring us happiness—it does so indirectly, by impressing others—beauty is nonetheless of paramount importance , even for men.Good looks are the unfurled testimonials that win us hearts from the start.So these verses of Homer especially apply to what I'm saying here:
The divine gifts of the gods are not to be despised,
These gifts can only be bestowed by the gods.

No one can get them all they want.

—— "The Iliad"

A little inspection of life shows that pain and boredom are the two sworn enemies of human happiness, and to this I may add that whenever we are happy, we are nearer to one of the enemies mentioned above. another enemy, and vice versa.Therefore, our life is indeed a swing between the two, stronger or weaker.This is because the relationship between pain and boredom is a double-opposite relationship.One is external and belongs to the object; the other is internal and belongs to the subject.The external opposite relationship is actually that the hardships and scarcity of life produce pain, while abundance and stability produce boredom.Thus we see the lower working classes engaged in a perpetual struggle against want—that is, misery—while the wealthy upper classes waged a protracted and almost desperate struggle against boredom.The internal or subjective antagonism between pain and boredom is based on the fact that a person's ability to feel pain is inversely proportional to his ability to feel boredom, which is determined by the size of a person's mental capacity. determined.In other words, a person's mental retardation is generally closely related to sensory dullness and lack of excitement. Therefore, mentally retarded people feel less pain and demands of various intensities.But the consequence of mental dullness is an inner emptiness.This emptiness is branded on the faces of countless people.Moreover, people's incessant and intense preoccupation with everything going on in the external world—even the most insignificant things—reveals this inner emptiness.The real root of boredom is the inner emptiness of a person, who are constantly seeking external stimulation, trying to use something to activate their mental and emotional activity.For proof of the veritable starvation of the choices they make, one need only look at how meager and monotonous the pastimes these people indulged were, with social conversations of the same nature, and so many door-to-door People standing and looking out of windows.It is from this inner emptiness that they seek all sorts of society, entertainment, and luxuries; and these things lead many into excess, and end in misery.Nothing can save us from this pain than to have inner abundance—that is, an abundance of spiritual thought.Because the more superior and significant a person's spiritual and ideological wealth is, the less room there is for boredom.The thoughts in these people's heads are lively, surging, and constantly renewed; they play with and grope for many phenomena in the inner world and the outer world; Few moments of relaxation protect the superior mind from the assaults of boredom.But sharp intellect is immediately presupposed by keen senses and based on strong wills, that is, strong impulses and passions.These qualities combine to heighten the intensity of the emotions and create a hypersensitivity to mental and even physical pain.Feel extremely impatient with anything unsatisfactory, even minor harassment.All these qualities greatly intensify the various representations of things in the mind, including the contrary.These images are animated by the powerful imagination of the mind.What I say here is more applicable to people of all kinds of spiritual and thinking abilities, from the dullest minds to the greatest intellectual geniuses.It can be seen from this that, no matter in terms of object or subject, if a person is closer to one end of life pain, then he is farther away from the other end of life pain.Accordingly, it is the nature of each individual to direct himself to adjust the object as much as possible to the subject, and thus to be better prepared to avoid the more sensitive, painful side of himself.A spiritually rich person will first seek a state of no pain and no worries, pursue tranquility and leisure, that is, strive to live a quiet, simple and as far as possible free from harassment life.Therefore, as soon as a so-called man is acquainted, he chooses to live in seclusion; if he has deep and lofty thoughts, he even chooses to be alone.Because the richer a person has himself, the less he needs things outside of himself, and the less important others are to him.Therefore, a person with excellent spiritual thoughts will cause him to dislike interacting with others.Indeed, living in a bustling world would be worthwhile if the quantity of social interactions was a substitute for quality.But it is a pity that a hundred fools gathered together still cannot produce a wise person.In contrast, the man at the other extreme of misery, as soon as want and need loosen his hold a little and give him a chance to breathe, he desperately seeks entertainment and crowds, and makes all his troubles easy.He did this for no other purpose than to escape from himself.Because when alone, everyone can only seek from themselves, and this person's own possession will be fully exposed.Thus a fool laden with his poor self - this inescapable burden - and groans.However, people with superior spiritual and ideological endowments make the lifeless environment lively and full of vitality with their thoughts.So what Seneca [3] said is true: "The fool suffers from boredom."Likewise, Jesus said: "The life of a fool is worse than death." Thus, we can find that, roughly speaking, a person's enthusiasm for human society is directly proportional to his mediocrity of intellect and poverty of thought.In this world, people either choose to be alone or to be vulgar, and there is no other choice.

Human brain consciousness is a parasite of human body, it resides in human body, and people's hard-earned leisure is for people to freely enjoy the fun brought by consciousness and individuality.Leisure, therefore, is the quintessence of life, and apart from this, man's whole life is nothing but toil and toil.But what does leisure bring to most people?If it's not sensual enjoyment and nonsense, it's boring and muddled.The way people spend their leisure shows how little it is to them.Their leisure is what Ariosto [4] called "the boredom of the ignorant".Ordinary people are only concerned with how to pass the time, but people with a little talent think about how to use it.The reason why narrow-minded people are susceptible to boredom is that their intellect is the pure service and instrument of their will.If the motivation to induce desire does not appear for a while, then the desire will rest and the intellect will also take a holiday, because these people's intellect is similar to the will, and they will not act spontaneously.In this way all the forces in man become terribly static, which is boredom.In order to cope with boredom, people find some trivial, small, random and temporary motives for the will, in order to stimulate the will and activate the intelligence in this way-because the task of the intelligence is to understand and grasp the motives.But such motives are to those real and natural motives what paper money is to silver dollars, for the value of the former is arbitrary; such as games, playing cards, etc., belong to the former class of motives.These games were invented for the above purpose.Without these games, the unthinking will help pass the time by tapping on whatever is on hand.For such people, cigars are also a welcome surrogate for thought.Therefore, in various countries, playing cards has become the main entertainment for socializing and parties.It reflects the value of such social gatherings and declares the bankruptcy of ideas.Since people have no ideas to exchange with each other, they exchange cards and try to win each other's money.Poor man!But I don't want to unjustly suppress the idea that we can justify playing card games as an exercise in later life in the world—so long as we learn by playing them how to play dexterously. To use the given situation (the hand of the game), which is left to chance and cannot be changed, so that we get as much as we can; A happy look.However, because of this, playing cards will also be offensive.The characteristic of this game is that people use all cunning and skill to win other people's property by any means.This habit of experiencing and acquiring in the game will take root and spread in people's real life.Thus, men have come to behave in the same manner in their dealings with men, thinking that they may take advantage of every advantage at their disposal, so long as the law allows it.Examples of this abound in everyday life.Leisure, as I have already said, is the flower, or rather the fruit, of every human being's being.Only leisure enables people to grasp and dominate themselves, and those who have some value in themselves can be called happy.But for most men, leisure makes only a useless fellow, idle and bored, his own being a burden to him.Therefore, we should rejoice: "Dear brothers, we are not the children of rough laborers, we are free people" [5].

Further, just as a country that needs little or no imports is the luckiest country.In the same way, a man is the luckiest man if he is so rich and rich within himself that he does not need to seek entertainment outside himself.For imports cost the country dearly, are dependent on others, and are at the same time dangerous and troublesome.In the end, these items can only be poor substitutes for our homegrown products, because anyway, we shouldn't expect too much from others, or from ourselves.There is only so much that other people can do to us.In the final analysis, everyone is alone and independent, the most important thing is what kind of person he is.So Goethe's comment ("Poetry and Truth") applies here: No matter what goes through, everyone ultimately has to return to himself.Or, as Oliver Goldsmith [6] puts it:

No matter where you are,

We can only find or obtain happiness within ourselves.

—— "Traveler"

Therefore, everyone should give full play to their ability and strive to be the best.The more a person can do this, the more he can find a source of pleasure in himself, and the happier he will be.Aristotle was absolutely right: happiness belongs to those who can enjoy themselves.This is because the external sources of happiness and pleasure are by their very nature extremely uncertain, transient and subject to chance.Therefore, even in favorable circumstances, these external sources can easily come to an end.Indeed, this is inevitable so long as these external sources are not under our control.Nearly all these external sources are necessarily dried up in old age, for love, jesting, a taste for travel, a taste for horses, and energy for society leave us; even our Friends and relatives are also taken away from us one by one by death.At this moment, a person's self-possession is more important than ever, because our self-possession can last the longest.However, at any age, a person's own possession is the true and only lasting source of happiness.Our world is barren, full of want and misery, and for those who escape it, boredom awaits around every corner.Besides, meanness and malice generally rule in this world, and the loudest the voices of fools shout, the more weight their words carry.Fate is cruel, and human beings are pitiful.Living in such a world, a person with a rich inner life is like having a bright, warm and cheerful Christmas cottage in the midst of snow and ice on a winter moon night.Therefore, being able to have a superior and rich personality, especially a profound spiritual thought, is undoubtedly the greatest luck on this earth, although the development result of fate may not be brilliant.Therefore, when the only 19-year-old Queen Christine of Sweden commented on Descartes-she only learned about this man who had lived alone in the Netherlands for 7 years through a paper by Descartes[20] and some oral sources- — Said a word full of wisdom: Mr. Descartes is the happiest of all of us; in my opinion, his life is enviable ("The Life of Descartes", by Baye).Of course, as in the case of Descartes, external circumstances must allow us to dominate ourselves and derive pleasure from them.Therefore, the Bible "Ecclesiastes" has said: "Wisdom plus a legacy is good. Wisdom helps a person enjoy the sunshine." He will be careful to ensure that the inner source of his happiness is unblocked.But the conditions for this are independence and leisure.Such a person, therefore, would gladly trade frugality and moderation for both.And all the more so if they are not as dependent, as others are, on external sources of happiness.Expectations of position, money, the approval and favor of the world, etc., therefore, will not at all lead such a man astray into sacrificing himself to men's humble ends or base tastes.Given the chance, he would have done as Horace suggested in his letter to Messners.To sacrifice some or all of one's inner peace, leisure, and independence for the sake of outer glory, position, title, and fame—that is utter folly.Goethe did just that.But my Patronus was definitely directing me in the opposite direction.

The truth we are discussing here, that happiness comes from within man, is exemplified by the insight of Aristotle ("Ethics").He said: Every happiness is based on the premise that people engage in some kind of activity, or use a certain ability of people; without this premise, there is no way to talk about happiness. Happiness consists in the unfettered use of human excellence—as Stobias described the Peripatetic Ethics."Happiness is developing, applying our skills, and achieving desired results," says Stobias, noting that he uses the ancient Greek word for every activity that requires the exercise of skill and attainment.Nature endows man with strength and power for the original purpose of enabling him to combat the lack that surrounds him.Once this struggle ceases, the power that is no longer useful becomes a burden to man.Therefore, one must spend these powers and abilities at leisure, that is, use them without any purpose.Because if you don't do this, you will immediately fall into another pain in life - boredom.Therefore, princes and the very rich are especially tormented by boredom.Lucretius [8] leaves us with this description of their suffering.We have the opportunity to see similar examples every day in every major city today:
Often he left the great palace, and hurried out into the open air—for he was bored inside—until he came back abruptly, feeling that he was not much better out of it.Or, he gallops to a country estate, as if his estate were on fire and he had to hurry to save it.But no sooner had he crossed the threshold of the country estate than he would yawn in boredom, or simply fall asleep.He will try his best to forget himself until he wants to return to the city.

These gentlemen had a great deal of muscular strength and reproductive capacity when they were young.But as the years go by, only the faculty of thought survives.If our thinking ability itself is lacking, or if our thinking ability has not been exercised as it should be, or if we lack opportunities for our thinking ability to be exerted, then the tragic situation we will encounter is really shocking. people sympathize.Will is the only force that cannot be exhausted, and it raises its head when stimulated by passion.Will, for example, can be aroused by high stakes, a really low-brow crime.Generally speaking, everyone who has nothing to do will choose a pastime that can make use of his specialty, such as playing chess, playing cards, hunting, painting, horse racing, playing skittles; or studying articles, music, poetry, etc. philosophy.We can explore the roots of all the external manifestations of human abilities, that is, go deep into the three basic physiological abilities of human beings, so as to have a thorough understanding of this subject.We also need to examine the purposeless exertion and activities of these three abilities-their exertion and activities constitute the sources of the three types of human happiness.Everyone will have a kind of happiness that suits him, which depends on which kind of ability he has prominently.The first category is pleasure for the body's metabolic capacity: this includes eating, drinking, digesting, resting and sleeping.In some countries such pleasures are sanctioned, and such activities even become national pastime.The second category is the pleasures of muscular power: these include walking, jumping, fencing, riding, dancing, hunting, and physical games of all kinds; even fighting and war.The third category is the pleasures of the faculties of the senses: these include observing, thinking, feeling, reading, meditating, writing, learning, inventing, playing music, and thinking about philosophy.Much can be said about the degree, value, and duration of these various pleasures, and the reader is free to add.But we should be clear: the greater the fun we feel (this is based on the use and development of our abilities) and the happiness (this is composed of the continuous repetition of fun), the higher the ability and power as the premise.And no one will deny that in this respect the faculties of feeling are superior to the other two fundamental physical powers of man—the apparent superiority of man over animals in the senses is his superiority over animals, and man's The other two basic physiological abilities also exist in animals, even far better than humans.Sensation is subordinate to man's cognitive faculty; therefore, superior sensibility enables us to enjoy cognitive, so-called spiritual pleasures.The more eminent and evident the faculty of feeling, the more pleasure we enjoy in it. [9] The only way to make a common man eager to pay attention to something is to stimulate his will, and thereby arouse his personal interest in this thing.But the excitement that is intended to last is not pure and free of impurities, but is closely related to pain.The game of cards, popular in high society, was one such device designed to stimulate the will.It is true that it can arouse superficial interest, but it also brings people only temporary and slight pain instead of permanent and serious pain.Because of this, we can only see card games as tickling teases for the will. 【10】In contrast, people with superior psychic abilities are able to devote themselves most enthusiastically to cognitive activities, without any intentional element mixed in them.In fact, it is a last resort for them to devote themselves so eagerly.Pain is foreign to the domain in which they are fully devoted.We may say that they were in a place where the gods lived at ease.The life of the masses, therefore, leads the masses to dullness, because their thoughts and desires are directed toward those little things which preserve their personal comfort, and because of this their lives lead to miseries of every kind.So, as soon as they stop working on these goals, and have to go back to relying on their own inner self, unbearable boredom overtakes them.At this time, only the crazy flames of lust can activate the dull and lifeless lives of sentient beings.But mentally endowed people lead lives that are rich in thought, alive and meaningful; things of worth and interest attract their interest and occupy their minds.Thus the source of the noblest pleasures lies within themselves.The external things which excite them are the works of Nature and the affairs of men which they observe, and the multitude and variety of works of genius in all ages and places.Only such people can really fully enjoy these masterpieces, because only they can fully understand and feel them.Therefore, those outstanding figures in history are really living for them, and the former is actually asking for help from these people.Others are just casual spectators who only partially understand what's going on here.Of course, gifted people have one more need than ordinary people, and that is the need to learn, observe, research, meditate and practice.This, then, is the need for leisure.But, as Voltaire rightly said, "There is no true happiness where there is a real need."Therefore, having such needs is the condition for these people to be able to obtain happiness that others do not have.And to others, despite all the beauties of nature, the arts, and the masterpieces of thought that surround them, these things are fundamentally to them what prostitutes are to the aged and infirm. people.A man endowed with thought therefore lives an intellectual life besides his personal life, the latter gradually becoming his sole aim, and the former only as a means to his own end.But for mortal beings, only a shallow, empty, trouble-filled existence is considered the goal of life.The spiritual life is primarily concerned with the spiritual life.As their insight and understanding of things continue to deepen and grow, their lives gain a kind of overall unity; the realm of spiritual life steadily improves and becomes complete and perfect, just like a piece of art that gradually becomes perfect .Compared with this spiritual life, the practical life whose goal is purely the pursuit of one's own comfort--a life that adds length rather than depth.This reality, as I have already said, is an end to the masses, but a means to the spiritually superior.

Our real life becomes boring and dull when not driven by lust; when it is driven by passion, it can quickly become miserable.Only those who are blessed with an exceptional intellectual endowment, therefore, have more intellect than they want.Only such a person can enjoy a spiritual life free from pain while living a practical life.They are immersed in this kind of spiritual life with all their body and mind, and they never tire of it.The mere possession of leisure, in which the intellect does not serve the will, is not sufficient for a spiritual life.In order to be able to enjoy a spiritual life, one must possess some capacity for real abundance.Only with this abundant capacity can one be qualified to engage in purely spiritual activities that do not serve the will.In contrast, "leisure without spiritual thought is death, it is like burying a person alive" (Seneca).According to the different degrees of spiritual and thinking ability of each person, corresponding to the real life, there are countless levels of intellectual life: from the mere collection and description of insects, birds, minerals, coins, etc., all the way to the creation of the most outstanding literature. and philosophical works.A similar spiritual life saves us from bad society, and from many dangers, misfortunes, losses, and indulgences, which are so hard to avoid if people only pursue happiness in real life.So, for example, my philosophy has saved me a lot of money, although it hasn't brought me much money.

However, ordinary people place their hopes on external things, hope to obtain happiness in life from property, status, wife, children, friends, and social groups; he places his life's happiness on these.So when he loses these things, or is disillusioned with them, his happiness vanishes with them.To make this situation clear, we can say this: The man's center of gravity is outside himself.Because of this, ordinary people's desires and thoughts are constantly changing.If his ability allowed him to do so, he would change his pattern, buy a country house or a thoroughbred horse;In short, he wants to enjoy the most luxurious enjoyment, because he can only find satisfaction from the outside, just like a seriously ill person, hoping to regain his health and strength through soup and medicine.In fact, a person's own vitality is the source of physical strength and health.We don't immediately discuss people who are at the other extreme of the correspondence. Let's first look at those people whose spiritual and ideological strength is not so obvious, but they are beyond the ordinary people.We can see that when there is no external source of happiness, or when those external channels of happiness can no longer satisfy them, such people will learn and practice a fine art, or other learning of natural sciences.For example, study botany, mineralogy, physics, astronomy, history, etc., and get entertainment and fun from it.With such persons we can say that their center of gravity is partly within themselves.However, there is still a considerable distance between these people's hobby of art and that kind of spontaneous artistic creativity; and because pure natural scientific knowledge only stays in the relationship between the surface phenomena of things, these One cannot fully devote oneself to them, one is completely occupied by them, and thus one's whole existence is so closely entangled with these things that one loses interest in anything else.Only those of the highest spiritual endowment, what we call "genius," enter into such a state, because only these bring into their subjects the essence of being and of things completely and absolutely.After this, they try their best to express their profound insights in a way that suits their personality, whether through art or philosophy.Therefore, for this kind of people, it has become an urgent need not to be disturbed by the outside world so that they can be busy with their own thoughts and works.Solitude is what they want most, and leisure is the ultimate gift.All other benefits are superfluous--if there are other benefits at all, they usually become a kind of burden.Only such people can we say: their center of gravity is in themselves.From this we may explain why such rare persons, even with the best of temperament, do not show in friends, family, and community that strong interest in solidarity that everyone else has.They have their own inner being, so they can take comfort in losing everything else.Hence, there is a quality of loneliness in them; especially when others have never really fully satisfied them.They are thus unable to see others as their own kind.Indeed, when the differences between each other are everywhere, they gradually get used to living in the crowd as different people.When addressing a crowd, they have in mind the third-person "they," not the No. 1 "us."

From this point of view, the luckiest are those who have received an extraordinary bounty of spiritual gifts from nature.Indeed, what belongs to the subject is closer to us than what belongs to the object; if the objective thing is to play any role, no matter what its role is, it will always be first through the subject.Therefore, objective things are only secondary.These beautiful verses bear witness:

True wealth can only be the inner wealth of the soul;
Something else caused more annoyance than good.

——Lucian [11] language
A man of inner abundance really wants nothing more from the outer world than the gift of this negative quality—leisure.He needs leisure to cultivate and develop his spiritual faculties and to enjoy his inner wealth.All he asks is to be himself, every day, every moment of his life.When a person is destined to leave his spiritual imprint on the entire human race, then there is only one kind of happiness or misfortune for this person-that is, to be able to perfectly discover, cultivate and develop one's talents, and to be able to complete oneself. masterpiece.Otherwise, it would be his misfortune if he were prevented from doing so.Other than that other things are irrelevant to him.Thus we see that the great minds of all ages regard leisure as the most precious thing; for leisure is of equal value to every man as he is to himself. "Happiness seems to be equal to leisure," Aristotle said.Diogenes tells us: "Socrates valued leisure above all else." In line with these statements, Aristotle called the life of philosophical inquiry the happiest life.What he said in "Politics" is also relevant to our discussion; he said: "It is true happiness to be able to cultivate and develop a person's outstanding talents, whatever they may be, without hindrance." Goethe The same is said in "William Meister": "Whoever is born with a certain talent and is destined to develop it, then he will find the best life in the development of this talent." But The possession of leisure is foreign and rare not only to man's usual lot, but also to his usual nature, for man's natural lot is that he must spend his time obtaining what he and his family need to live.Man is the son of want, he is not a man free to develop his intellect.Leisure, therefore, quickly became a burden to the general public.Indeed, if one does not fill the time with various fanciful and false goals, with various games and hobbies, in the end leisure will turn into pain.For the same reason, leisure can also be dangerous for people, for it is quite true that it is difficult to be quiet when one has nothing to do.But, on the other hand, it is also abnormal, that is, unnatural, for a man to have intelligence beyond his normal equipment.If there ever were such a gifted man, leisure would be necessary to his happiness--though it would be a burden and a nuisance to others.For lack of leisure, such a man is as unhappy as Pegasus in a wooden yoke.But if the two above-mentioned peculiarities happen to be combined--to have leisure is an external peculiarity, and to have supernatural endowments is an internal abnormality--it is a man's great fortune.For in this way the blessed man can now lead a higher life, that is to say, a life freed from the two opposing sources of suffering in life: want and boredom.In other words, he no longer has to worry about living, nor is he unable to bear leisure (leisure is free existence).These two pains of life, scarcity and boredom, only by their mutual cancellation and neutralization, enable ordinary people to escape their troubles.

However, on the other hand, we have to take into account that a person with excellent endowments is greatly intensified for all kinds of pain due to the supernormal nervous activity of the brain.In addition, his violent temperament-which is the precondition of his possessing these gifts-and closely connected with it, a sharper and more complete perception of objects and images, all these make the emotions excited more intense.Generally speaking, these feelings and emotions always cause such a person more pain than pleasure.The last point is that great gifts of spiritual thought alienate those who possess them from other people and their pursuits.For the richer he has in himself, the less he can find in others.The variety and variety of the public's delights seemed dull and shallow to him.The ubiquitous law of equilibrium and complementarity of things may also be at work here.Indeed, it is often said, and with plausible reason, that the most narrow-minded and narrow-minded are the happiest at bottom, though no one envies their good fortune.I don’t want to make readers preconceived and give a clear statement on this issue, especially Sophocles [13] himself expressed two contradictory opinions on this issue:

or

Intellect is central to a person's happiness.

There is no life that is more lighthearted and pleasant than a simple mind.

In the Bible "Old Testament", the sayings of the sages are equally confusing:
A fool's life is worse than death.

The more intelligent you are, the more trouble you have.

Here, I have to mention such a group of people: they have no spiritual and ideological requirements because they only have the conventional and limited intellectual allocation. Steers".The name comes from a German collegiate vocabulary.Later, the name took on a deeper meaning, although it remained similar to the original; "Philistine" meant the exact opposite of "Children of the Muses," that is, "born by a goddess of art." Abandoned people".Indeed, looking at it from a higher perspective, I should define Philistines as all those who are always sternly concerned with a reality that is not reality.However, such a transcendental definition does not fit well with the public's perspective-and the perspective I adopt in this book is the public's perspective-so such a definition may not be thoroughly understood by every reader.In contrast, the first definition of the name is easier to explain, and it also details the characteristics and roots of the Philistines.Therefore, a Philistine is a person without spiritual needs."No real pleasure without real need" follows from the principles I have mentioned: First, the Philistines have no spiritual pleasures in themselves.His being is not driven by any strong desire for knowledge, for the search for truth, nor for the enjoyment of true beauty—the enjoyment of which is closely related to the search for knowledge, for truth.But if fashion or authority imposes pleasures of this kind on them, they dismiss them as quickly as they do compulsory drudgery.For such a person, real happiness can only be sensual pleasure.Oysters and champagne are the pinnacle of their existence.Their purpose in life is to obtain for themselves all that can bring them physical ease and comfort.If these things keep them busy, then they are happy indeed!For if these good things are supplied to them in abundance from the first, they will inevitably sink into boredom, and to combat boredom they will do everything they can: dances, societies, theatres, card games, Gambling, drinking, travelling, horses, women, etc.But all these are not enough to drive away boredom, because spiritual happiness is impossible without spiritual needs.Therefore, the Philistines have a singular characteristic, that is, they all have a dull, dry animal-like seriousness and serious expression.Nothing entertains them, excites them, excites their interest.The sensual pleasure quickly evaporates.Social gatherings of the same Philistines quickly become tedious, and card games become tiresome by the end.In any case, such a person is ultimately left with vanity.They enjoy the pleasures of vanity in different ways, that is, they try to gain the respect of others by being superior in wealth or social position, or in power and influence.Or, at least they can follow those who possess the above abilities, so as to bask in the afterglow reflected by these people.From the nature of these Philistines we mentioned, the second point can be drawn: for others, since Philistines have no spiritual needs, but only physical needs, so, in their interactions with others, In life, you will seek those who can meet your physical needs, rather than spiritual needs.Therefore, among the many requirements they place on others, the least important thing is that others must have a certain amount of thinking.When he sees other people with outstanding minds, it will only arouse disgust and even hatred among Philistines.For they have a hideous sense of inferiority, and a dull, secret jealousy which they carefully try to conceal, even from themselves.But then this jealousy sometimes turns into a kind of private bitterness and anger.It never occurs to them, therefore, to give due reverence and homage to great spiritual thought; they reserve it only for those who possess position, wealth, power, influence, because these things are in their eyes real Superior stuff.It has become their desire to be in the limelight in these areas.All this stems from the fact that they are people without spiritual needs.

The great pain of the Philistines is that nothing of the ideal kind gives them pleasure.They are constantly in need of reality in order to escape boredom.But as the things of reality are soon exhausted, when they do so, instead of providing pleasure, they are tiresome;The ideal, by comparison, is inexhaustible; they are neither evil nor harmful in themselves.

In all these discussions of what personal qualities, what endowments, bring happiness to man, I am concerned mainly with man's physical and intellectual qualities, and as to the manner in which his moral qualities directly bring about happiness— — This issue I have already discussed in my award-winning paper on the foundations of morality [14].Therefore, I recommend readers to read that paper.

注释
[1] Epictetus (approximately 50-approximately 138): one of the main representatives of the late Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosopher. - translator

[2] Esquirol (1772-1840): An early French psychiatrist. - translator

[3] Seneca (about 4-65 BC): Ancient Roman philosopher and orator. - translator

[4] Ariosto (1474-1533): An Italian poet famous for his epic poem "Roland the Crazy". - translator

[5] From the "Galatians" in the Bible. - translator

【6】Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): An outstanding novelist, poet and dramatist in the middle of the 18th century in England. - translator

[7] Descartes (1596-1650): French mathematician, physicist, biologist and philosopher. - translator

[8] Lucretius (about 99-50 BC): Latin poet and philosopher. - translator

【9】Nature is constantly evolving.Nature is first the mechanical and chemical activity of the inorganic kingdom, then the vegetable kingdom, with its numbed narcissism, and then the animal kingdom.In animals, intellect and consciousness are dimly opened.The development of nature starts from a low level and gradually moves to a higher level.At last she takes the final and greatest step, and thus attains the level of a human being.The intellect possessed by man is the product of the culmination of the development of nature; nature has at last fulfilled her purpose of creation.Human intelligence is the most difficult and most perfect work that nature can produce.Despite this, there are many obvious step differences in intelligence between people, and only a very small number of people can have the highest intelligence.Therefore, in a narrow and strict sense, the highest intelligence possessed by very few people is the most difficult and highest-grade work created by nature; at the same time, it is also the most rare and most valuable thing in this world.A person with such a high intelligence possesses the clearest consciousness in his mind.The world was clearly and perfectly reflected in his consciousness.Therefore, such blessed people also have the most noble and valuable things in the world, and they also have the source of happiness.Compared with their happiness, other pleasures are simply insignificant.Such a person demands nothing but leisure from the external world.With free time, they can take good care of and wipe their treasures and enjoy their possession without being disturbed by the outside world.All other pleasures which do not belong to the intellectual side of the mind are inferior, and cause only volitional activity, that is, lead men into hopes, desires, fears, and strife.In whatever direction the will moves, it does not withdraw without pain.Besides, as a rule, as the will has achieved its purpose, our disappointment also follows.But along with the intellectual joy of appreciating thought, we experience only a clearer truth.In the realm of the mind's intellect, the activity of knowing, not pain, reigns here.To appreciate the joy of intellectual intelligence, one must possess intelligence oneself.Moreover, the degree of happiness that a person obtains in this aspect is also determined according to his intelligence, because "the spiritual wisdom in the world is almost equal to zero for a person without spiritual wisdom" (La Bruyère, 1645- 1696, French moralist who wrote satires, wrote "On Character".--Translator).A definite inconvenience of superior mental thought, however, is that a man's ability to feel pain also increases with his wisdom; superlative.

【10】Fundamentally, mediocrity is due to the fact that in the human consciousness, the will completely overwhelms the cognition, so that it has reached such a degree that the cognition completely serves the will.When the will no longer needs the service of the cognitive faculty, that is, when there are no causes, greater or lesser, the cognitive faculty ceases to function altogether, and the human mind becomes blank.But will which lacks knowledge is the most common condition which leads to a state of mediocrity.In a state of mediocrity, only the sensory organs of man and the feeble understanding required to process sense-data remain active.The mediocre man therefore receives all impressions at every moment omnidirectionally, that is to say, he sees and hears everything that happens around him, and even the faintest sound and the most insignificant event immediately attracts his attention. , as in the case of animals.This mediocrity is external to a man; it can be seen on his face and the whole exterior of his body.In general, the more vulgar, selfish, and downright mean-spirited the desire to completely occupy a person's consciousness, the more repulsive the person's physical appearance will come across.

[11] Lucian (about 120-180): Greek rhetorician and satirist in the 2nd century. - translator

【12】Pegasus: In Greek mythology, a winged horse with springs gushes out from the places where its feet step, and poets can drink for inspiration. - translator

[13] Sophocles (496-406 BC): One of the three major tragedies of ancient Greece. - translator

[14] Refers to "On the Foundations of Morals" (1840).For the translation, see my translation of "Schopenhauer on Morality and Freedom", Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2006 edition. - translator

(End of this chapter)