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370 THE WILL IN NATURE.
cow might bring forth a horse, and on the peach-tree be
produced the blossom of the pear/ On the other hand it
is said, that the mind of Heaven is deducible from what is
"
the Will of mankind !
The agreement between this last sentence and my doc
trine is so striking and so astonishing, that if this passage
had not been printed full eight years after my own work
had appeared, I should no doubt have been accused of
having taken my fundamental thought from it. For there
are three well-known modes of repelling the attack of new
thoughts : firstly, by ignoring them, secondly by denying
them, and lastly by asserting that they are not new, but
were known long before. But the fact that my funda
mental thought was formed quite independently of this
Chinese authority, is firmly established by the reasons I
have given ;
for I may hope to be believed when I affirm,
that I am unacquainted with the Chinese language and
consequently unable to derive thoughts for my own use
from original Chinese sources unknown to others. On
further investigation I have elicited the fact, that the
passage I have quoted, was most probably, nay almost
certainly, taken from Morrison s
"
Chinese Dictionary,"
where it may be found under the sign Teen : only I have
no opportunity of it. verifying In an article by Neumann 2
1 A note of Schopenhauer s referring to this says :
"
According
to letters from Doss" (a friend of S. s), "dated 26th February and
8th June, 1857, the passages I have here quoted are to be found in
Morrison s Chinese Dictionary, Macao, 1815, vol. i. p. 576, under ^C
Teen, although in a slightly different order, in nearly the same words.
The important passage at the end alone differs and is as follows:
Heaven makes the mind of mankind its mind: in most ancient dis
cussions respecting Heaven, its mind, or will, was divined (it stands
thus, and not derived) from what was the will of mankind. Neumann
translated this passage for Doss, independently of Morrison s rendering,
and the end was : Through the heart of the people Heaven is usually
"
revealed. [Editor s Note.]
3
Neumann, "Die Natur-und Religions-Philosophic der Chinten,