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294 THE WILL IN NATURE.
for stimuli, the analogy of which to knowledge is unmis
takable, ceases, but the diversity of reaction of each body
upon divers kinds of action remains ; now, when the matter
is considered, as we are doing, in the descending scale,
this reaction still presents itself, even here, as a substitute
for knowledge. If a body reacts differently, it must have
been acted upon differently and that action must have
roused a different sensation in it, which with all its dull
ness has nevertheless a distant analogy to knowledge.
Thus when water that is shut up finds an outlet of which
it eagerly avails itself, rushing vehemently in that direction,
it certainly does not recognise that outlet any more than the
acid perceives the alkali approaching it which will induce
it to abandon its combination with a metal, or than the
strip of paper perceives
the amber which attracts it after
being rubbed ; yet we cannot help admitting that what
brings about such sudden changes in all these bodies, bears
a certain resemblance to that which takes place within us,
when an unexpected motive presents itself. In former
times I have availed myself of such considerations as these
in order to point out the will in all things ; I now em
ploy them to indicate the sphere to which knowledge
presents itself as belonging, when considered, not as is
usual from the inside, but realistically, from a standpoint
outside itself, as if it were something foreign : that is, when
we gain the objective point of view for it, which is so
extremely important in order to complete the subjective
one. 1 We find that knowledge then presents itself as the
mediator of motives, i.e. of the action of causality upon beings
endowed with intellect in other words, as that which
receives the changes from outside upon which those in the
inside must follow, as that which acts as mediator between
both. Now upon this narrow line hovers the world as
1
Compare
View of the Intellect."
"
"
Die Welt. a. W. u. Y." vol. ii. chap. 22 : Objective