Why does man exist ? : the continuation and conclusion of Whence comes man ? / by Arthur John Bell.

  • Bell, Arthur John.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Why does man exist ? : the continuation and conclusion of Whence comes man ? / by Arthur John Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/450 (page 22)
    At page 308 Scliopeiiliaiier writes :— “ 111 all the grades of its manifestation, from the lowest to the highest, the ‘ will ’ dispenses altogether with a final goal and aim. It alwaya strives, for striving is its sole nature, which no attained goal can jmt an end to. There- fore it is not susceptible of any final satisfaction, but can only lie restrained by hindrances, while in itself it goes on for ever. We see this in the simplest of all natural phenomena, gravity, which does not cease to strive, and 2Jress towards a mathematical centre, to reach which would be the annihilation both of itself and matter, and would not cease, even if the whole nniverse itself were already rolled into one ball. “ A solid tends towards fluidity either by melting or dissolving, for only so will its chemical forces be free ; rigidity is the imiirisonment in which it is field by cold.'’ A solid, as such, has no tendency whatever towards fluidity. A solid will remain a solid unless its component molecules have their cohesity overcome by some adecpiate force. Its rigidity is consequent upon the nintnal attractions of its molecules, not njion cold. He contiunes ; “ The fluid tends towards the gaseous state, into which it passes at once as soon as all })ressnre has been removed from it.” Instead of which, fluid jiasses into the gaseous sfate only by the action of some force—heat, for example—sufficiently powerful to overcome the mutual attractions of its mole- cules. Schopenhauer says above : “ Gravity does not cease to strive, and press towards a mathematical centre.” Gravity being only a non-living force, may indeed ])ress, but it cannot strive,” it cannot “ effort.” Only living and conscious things can strive, can effort. Gravifle action is not the result of any desire, of any volition on the j)art of that which acts. If a bodv be made to fall from a heio-ht, gravity, so long as it meets with no obstacle, causes the