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280 THE WILL IN NATURE.
miracle of its own creation. 1
If I may use a trivial simile
to elucidate so sublime a matter, this astonishment very
much resembles that of our understanding when it discovers
that all multiples of 9, when their single figures are added
together, give as their product
either the number 9 or one
whose single figures again make 9 ; yet it is that very
understanding itself which has prepared for itself this sur
prise in the decimal system. According to the Physicotheological
argument, the actual existence of the world has
been preceded by its existence in an intellect : if the world
is designed for an end, it must have existed as representa
tion before it came into being. Now I say, on the con
trary, in Kant s sense : if the world is to be representation,
it must present itself as designed for an end; and this
only takes place in an intellect.
It undoubtedly follows from my doctrine, that every
being is its own work. Nature, which is incapable of false
hood and is as native as genius, asserts the same thing down
right ;
since each being merely kindles the spark of life at
another exactly similar being, and then makes itself before
our eyes, taking the materials for this from outside, form
and movement from its own self: this process we call
growth and development. Thus, even empirically, each
being
stands before us as its own work. But Nature s
language is not understood because it is too simple.
1
Compare
[Add. to 3rd edj
" Die Welt a. W. u. V." 3rd edition, vol. II. p. 375.