The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion,
A Dialogue, Etc., by Arthur Schopenhauer, Translated by T. Bailey Saunders

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Title: The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion, A Dialogue, Etc.

Author: Arthur Schopenhauer

Release Date: January 25, 2004 [eBook #10833]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER;
RELIGION, A DIALOGUE, ETC.***

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THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

RELIGION: A DIALOGUE, ETC.

TRANSLATED BY T. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A.

CONTENTS.

PREFATORY NOTE

RELIGION: A DIALOGUE

A FEW WORDS ON PANTHEISM

ON BOOKS AND READING

ON PHYSIOGNOMY

PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS

THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM

PREFATORY NOTE

Schopenhauer is one of the few philosophers who can be generally
understood without a commentary. All his theories claim to be drawn
direct from the facts, to be suggested by observation, and to interpret
the world as it is; and whatever view he takes, he is constant in his
appeal to the experience of common life. This characteristic endows his
style with a freshness and vigor which would be difficult to match in
the philosophical writing of any country, and impossible in that of
Germany. If it were asked whether there were any circumstances apart
from heredity, to which he owed his mental habit, the answer might be
found in the abnormal character of his early education, his acquaintance
with the world rather than with books, the extensive travels of his
boyhood, his ardent pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and without
regard to the emoluments and endowments of learning. He was trained in
realities even more than in ideas; and hence he is original, forcible,
clear, an enemy of all philosophic indefiniteness and obscurity; so that
it may well be said of him, in the words of a writer in the _Revue
Contemporaine, ce n'est pas un philosophe comme les autres, c'est un
philosophe qui a vu le monde_.

It is not my purpose, nor would it be possible within the limits of a
p