Chapter VI

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[8] Avatāra (ava-tṛī to descend), descent of a deity from heaven; _e.g._, the ten incarnations of Vishṇu. _V_. Monier Williams' _Sanskrit Dictionary_.--(_Translator_.)

[9] Sannyāsin (one who lays down, or resigns), an ascetic; a religious mendicant, or Brāhman of the fourth order. _V._ Monier Williams' _Sanskrit Dictionary_.--(_Translator_.)

[10] _V_. Apuleius: _Apologia sive De Magia Liber_ (Lipsiae, Teubner, 1900: page 41, chap, xxxi): _Pythagoram ... memoriae prodiderunt, cum animaduertisset proxime Metapontum in litore Italiae suae, quam subsiciuam Graeciam fecerat, a quibusdam piscatoribus euerriculum trahi, fortunam iactus eius emisse et pretio dato iussisse, ilico piscis eos qui capti tenebantur solui retibus et reddi profundo._--(_Translator_.)

[11] In Vol. II. of my _Parerga_, § 177, I have shown that its origin can be traced to the Old Testament.

[12] How seriously the matter is being taken up may be seen from the following case which is quite recent. I quote from the _Birmingham Journal_ of December, 1839. "Arrest of a company of eighty-four abettors of dog-fights.--It had come to the knowledge of the Society of Animals' Friends that the Square in Fox Street, Birmingham, was yesterday to be the scene of a dog-fight. Measures were accordingly taken to secure the assistance of the police, and a strong detachment of constables was sent to the spot. At the right moment all the persons present were arrested. These precious conspirators were then handcuffed together in pairs, and the whole party was made fast by a long rope passing between each couple. In this fashion they were marched off to the Police Station, where mayor and magistrate were sitting in readiness for them. The two ringleaders were condemned to pay, each, a fine of £1, and 8s. _6d_. costs; in default, to undergo 14 days' hard labour." The coxcombs whose habit is never to miss noble sport of this sort, must have looked somewhat crestfallen in the midst of the procession. But the _Times_ of April 6, 1855, p. 6, supplies a still more striking instance from the present day; and here we find the paper itself assuming judicial functions, and imposing the right punishment. It recounts the case of a very wealthy Scotch baronet's daughter. The matter had been brought before the law, and the evidence showed that the girl had used a cudgel and knife on her horse with the greatest cruelty; for which she was ordered to pay a fine of £5. But for one in her position such a sum means nothing, and she would practically have got off scot-free, had not the _Times_ intervened to inflict on her a proper correction, such as she would really feel. It twice mentions the young lady's name in full, printing it in large type, and concludes as follows: "We cannot help saying that a few months' imprisonment with the addition of an occasional whipping administered in private, but by the most muscular woman in Hampshire, would have been a much more suitable penalty for Miss M. N. A wretched being of this sort has forfeited all the consideration and the privileges that attach to her sex; we cannot regard her any longer as a woman." These newspaper paragraphs I would especially recommend to the notice of the associations now formed in Germany against cruelty to animals; for they show what lines should be adopted, in order to reach some solid result. At the same time I desire to express my cordial appreciation of the praiseworthy zeal shown by Herrn Hofrath Perner, of Munich, who has entirely devoted himself to this branch of well-doing, and succeeded in arousing interest in it all over the country. [It should be observed that the first portion of this note belongs to the earliest edition of the work, published September, 1840; the latter part was written for the second edition, which appeared in August, 1860. This explains why Schopenhauer says that the first instance, dated 1839, is "quite recent," and that the second, dated 1855, is taken "from the present day."--(_Translator_.)

[13] There is another principle which Hobbes did not perceive at all. It was implanted in man in order to soften, in certain circumstances, the fierceness of his self-love, and it moderates the ardour, which he feels for his own well-being, by producing a certain _innate aversion to the sight of a fellow-creature's suffering_. In attributing to man _the only natural virtue,_ which even the most advanced scepticism has been forced to recognise, I stand, assuredly, in no fear of any contradiction. I allude to _compassion_, etc.

[14] Mandeville was right in thinking that with all their systems of morality, men would never have been anything but monsters, if nature had not given them _compassion_ to support their reason; but he failed to see that _from this one quality spring all the social virtues_, which he was unwilling to credit mankind with. In reality, what is generosity, clemency, humanity, if not _compassion_, applied to the weak, to the guilty, or to the human race, as a whole? Even benevolence and friendship, if we look at the matter rightly, are seen to result from a constant compassion, directed upon a particular object; for to desire that some one should not suffer is nothing else than to desire that he should be happy.... The more closely _the living spectator identifies himself with the living sufferer,_ the more active does pity become.

[15] It is, then, quite certain that compassion is a natural feeling, which checking, as it does, the love of self in each individual, helps by a reciprocal process to preserve the whole race. This it is, which in the state of nature, takes the place of laws, customs, and virtues, with the added advantage that no one will be tempted to disobey its gentle voice; this it is, which will restrain every able-bodied savage, provided he hope to find his own livelihood elsewhere, from robbing a weak child, or depriving an infirm old man of the subsistence won by hard toil; this it is, which inspires all men, not indeed with that sublime maxim of reasoned justice: "Do to others as you would they should do unto you;" but with another rule of natural goodness, no doubt less perfect, but perhaps more useful, namely: "Do what is good for yourself with the least possible harm to others." In a word, it is _in this natural feeling rather than in subtle arguments_ that we must look for the reason of the repugnance with which every one is accustomed to view bad conduct, quite independently of the principles laid down by education.

[16] In fact, how is it that we let ourselves be moved to pity, if not by getting out of our own consciousness, and _becoming identified with the living sufferer; by leaving_, so to say, _our own being, and entering into his?_ We do not suffer, except as we suppose he suffers; _it is not in us, it is in him_, that we suffer ... offer a young man objects, on which the expansive force of his heart can act; objects such as may enlarge his nature, and incline it to go out to _other beings_, in whom he may everywhere _find himself again_. Keep carefully away those things which narrow his view, and make him self-centred, and which tighten the strings of the _human ego_. (_Tendent le ressort_ (stretch the spring) _du moi humain: i.e._, stimulate the _egoistic tendency_.)--(_Translator_.)

[17] _Journal Asiatique_, Vol. ix., p. 62. Cf. Meng-Tseu (otherwise called Mencius), edited by Stanislas Julien, 1824, Bk. I, § 45; also Meng-Tseu in the _Livres Sacrés de l'Orient_, by Panthier p. 281.

_V. Dictionnaire Français--Latin--Chinois_, par Paul Perny (Didot Frères, Paris, 1869); where the five cardinal virtues (image) are transliterated] ou châng. _V_. also: _A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language_; by S. Wells Williams, LL.B. (Shanghai: 1874); where Sin (Sin), _i.e._, humanity, love of one's neighbour, is written Sin'.--(_Translator._)

[18] The Athenians have an altar in their Agora to Compassion; for this deity, they believe, is of all the gods the most helpful in human life, and its vicissitudes. They are the only Greeks who have instituted this cultus.--(_Translator_.)

[19] _V_. Lucian, _Timon_, chap. 42 (_Ausgewählte Schriften des Lucian_, edit. Julius Sommerbrodt; Weidmann, Berlin, 1872, p. 75): _ϕίλος δὲ ἣ ξένος ἣ ἑταῑρος ἣ Έλέον βωμός ὔθλος πολύς_. _V_. also Apollodorus (edit. J. Bekker); 2, 8, 1. 3, 7, 1. Dem. (edit. Reisk.), 57. Scholiast on Soph. _Œd. Col._,258.--(_Translator_.)

[20] A temple must not be despoiled of its altar, nor human nature of compassion. _V_. Joannis Stobaei _Anthologium,_ edit. Curtius Wachsmuth et Otto Hense; Weidmann, Berlin, 1894; Vol. III., p. 20, Nr. 52.--(_Translator_.)

[21] The chief of virtues is said to be Compassion. The _Paṅća-tantra_ is a well-known collection of moral stories and fables in five (_paṅćan_) books or chapters (_tantra_), from which the author of the _Hitopadeśa_ drew a large portion of his materials. _V_. Monier Williams' _Sanskrit Dictionary_.--(_Translator_.)

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