abstract concepts for ideas of perception, and adopts them
as the guide of action.

The many-sided view of life which man, as distinguished from the lower
animals, possesses through reason, makes him stand to them as the
captain, equipped with chart, compass and quadrant, and with a knowledge
of navigation of the ocean, stands to the ignorant sailors under his
command.

Man lives two lives. Besides his life in the concrete is his life in the
abstract. In the former he struggles, suffers, and dies as do the mere
animal creatures. But in the abstract he quietly reflects on the plan of
the universe as does a captain of a ship on the chart. He becomes in
this abstract life of calm reasoning a deliberate observer of those
elements which previously moved and agitated his emotions. Withdrawing
into this serene contemplation he is like an actor who has played a part
on the stage and then withdraws and as one of the audience quietly looks
on at other actors energetically performing.

The result of this double life is that human serenity which furnishes so
vivid a contrast to the lack of reason in the brutes. Reason has won to
a wonderful extent the mastery over the animal nature. The climacteric
stage of the mere exercise of reason is displayed in Stoicism, an
ethical system which aims primarily not at virtue but at happiness,
although this theory inculcates that happiness can be attained only
through "ataraxia" (inward quietness or peace of mind), while this can
only be gained by virtue. In other words, Zeno, the founder of the Stoic
theory, sought to lift man up above the reach of pain and misery. But
this use of pure reason involves a painful paradox, seeing that for an
ultimate way of escape Stoicism is constrained to prescribe suicide.
When compared with the Stoic, how different appear the holy conquerors
of the world in Christianity, that sublime form of life which presents
to us a picture wherein we see blended perfect virtue and supreme
suffering.

_II.--The World as Will_

We are compelled to further inquiry, because we cannot be satisfied with
knowing that we have ideas, and that these are associated with certain
laws, the general expression of which is the principle of sufficient
reason. We wish to know the significance of our ideas. We ask whether
this world is nothing more than a mere idea, not worthy of our notice if
it is to pass by us like an empty dream or an airy vision, or whether it
is something more