The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-14 00:00:00

ARTHUR SCHOTTNTAUER.

Arthur Schopenhaner was born at Dantzic,
February 22d, 1788. To his father, a wealthy
merchant of great practical ability and force of
character, it was his habit to trace the development
of his own marked ethical temperament, as to the
influence of his mother he was led by his theory of
mental organisation to attribute the germ of his
no less striking faculties of intellect. Johanna
Schopenhaner, distinguished for her voluminous
romances, her social genius, her somewhat wild,
not to say Bohemian ideas of life, and powers of
imagination and wit which made a slave of Goethe,
could hardly fail to stamp the mind of her son with
some impress of her peculiar idiosyncrasy. The
atmosphere in which he was reared fostered this
native influence. Precocious in talent, he was early
thrown among a social circle of which the leading
lights were such as the Schlegels, Klopstock, Rei-
marus, the Stals, Goethe, and Wieland, Puckler
Maskau, and, at one especial period, Nelson and
Lady Hamilton. Expelled by the outbreak of the
French Revolution from their own city, the family
started upon a round of travel through Belgium,
Switzerland, France, and Great Britain--an advan-
tage which a youth of such quickness and obser-
vation did not fail to turn to account in the acqui-
sition of modern languages, a lively horror of
popular, insurrections, and an intense love of English
habits and institutions. His father, himself some-
what of an original, recommended to him at this
early period the habitual reading of the Times
newspaper, as the most faithful and living picture
of society and the world at large. And to this
practice he adhered to the day of his death, having
the paper transmitted to him punctually wherever
ne was. At Gottingen he studied side by side
with Bunsen, under the direction of G. E. Schultze,
chiefly in the direction of Plato and Kant. Medi-
cine formed also one of his pursuits. His life was
from the first one of solitude and reserve. In 1811
he repaired to Berlin for the teaching of Fichte, to
which, however, he shortly became inveterately
opposed. The example of his mother ruining her
children by dissipation, added to the rather prosaic
scandals of her connexion with Goethe, is said to
have contributed to that cynicism which he ever
felt, or affected to feel for women. We hear of
him, notwithstanding, enjoying life, both at Venice
and Dresden, after a truly Byronian model—ln
Italia mille e tre. The great work of his life, "Die
Welt als Wille and Vorstellung," was first pub-
lished at Leipzig in 1819. It is strangely in keep-
ing with the cold and cynic element of his character
that on the eve of its appearance he started on a
tour to Rome and Naples, where he passed above
a year, heedless apparently of the fortune of a book
which contained his whole original system of meta-
physics. After a short terra of profess'lrship at
Berlin, he resumed his travels in Italy till the year
1825. Flying in 1831 from the cholera, which
carried off Hegel at Berlin, he finally established
himself at Frankfort, in company with a female
servant and a shock-dog, in comfortable apartments
on the quay of bchone-Aussicht. His life was that
of a classic sage, regulated by maxims of prudence,
comfort, and supreme self-regard, to which end his
means and resources were husbanded with parsimo-
nious care. Without pretending to stoical absti-
nence from the good things of life, his rule was that
of Seneca and M. Aurelius—neurant sequz. His
confident expectation was, by this regime of healthy
physical activitY, to live to a hundred years, but
death surprised him, in the form of a pulmonary
attack, at the immature age of 72. With those who
disliked him—and they were many —Schopenhauer
passed for a morose, selfish, and crusty old bachelor,
. fanatic in his opinions, and dictatorial in laying
down his crotchets. To the few who admired him
and penetrated his reserve, he seemed a creative
and inspired genius, to whose serene, unruffled in-
tellect truth had revealed herself in the final posi-
tive forms of philosophy, science, and art. Amongst
these, M. Foucher de Careil was admitted to an ex-
ceptional degree of intimacy, and has drawn for us
a friendly yet discriminating portrait of the sage.
For the men and books of his country he cherished
an equal contempt. English, and, above all French,
authors attracted his sympathies and filled his lib-
rary. Next to Kant, he used to aver, Helvetius
an Cabanis marked epochs in his life. Rabelais,
rarely read in Germany, was another of his favou-
ritaa. He almost blushed to be a German, taunting
his metaphysical countrymen with looking into the
clouds for what they had always under their feet.
"The word 'idea," he would say, "so clear and
precise to a French or English understanding, sets
a German off in a balloon." His conversation
struck M. de Cariel at their first meeting at a table
d'hote at Frankfort. He was then in the last year
of his life, an old man, with a clear blue eye, thin
sarcastic lips, an immense forehead fringed with
long white tufts on either temple, and an expression
of mingled nobility and malice. His laced frill and
white cravat recalled the image of an elderly gen-
tleman of the time of Louis XV. Like most men
who are constitutionally shy and reserved, he was
most at home, next to a few intimates, in the society
of utter strangers. A brilliant talker, jealous of
contradiction, quick and petulant in tone and ges-
ture, of rich and unerring memory, and measured
while easy precision of phrase, he exhibited much
of the conversational cleverness, as he anticipated
many of the special opinions, of the late Mr. Buckle.
His was the same vast erudition, the bookish know-
ledge, at the same time devoid of pedantry, which
characterised Montaigne. A lover of order and
clearness, obscurantism was with him the unpar-
donable sin. His philosophy, like that of Socrates,
formed one with his life, and his special demon was
humour, that modern analogue of the Socratic
irony. His method of analysis and observation was
the same. At the base of the metaphysical and
moral system of Schopenhaner lay the peculiar idea
of Will. This, he would boast, was his great dis
covery.—Saturday Review.

Stonewall Jackson's Personal Appearance

This redoubtable chieftain was no less a subject
of interest to his enemies than to his friends. In
every Federal account is apparent the intense
anxiety hia presence and movements created.
During the battles a Federal captain, who had been
taken prisoner, was reclining under a tree, when
General Lee and staff rode by. The captain,
struck with the dignified and soldierly appearance
of the General, languidly inquired who he was,
and expressed unfeigned admiration at his fine
figure on horseback. Soon after General Jackson
rode by, and the weary prisoner again proffered
his inquiries. " That's glorious Old Stonewall !"
exclaimed the guard, cheering lustily as his eye
followed the hero. Up sprung the recumbent
prisoner, and, gazing curiously until the General
was out of sight, lay down again, with an expres-
' sion of disappointment, muttering, " Well, he ain't
much for looks anyhow !" The awkward figure of
Jackson upon horseback has been the subject of
frequent merriment. He usually rode in a loose,
shambling attitude, and was very indifferent about
his dress and appearance. On one occasion he
approached a squad of soldiers at dusk, his horse
floundering along the mire, and himself reeling in
the saddle, like a drunken man ; so that one of the
soldiers, not recognising him, shouted, as he passed,
" I say, old fellow, you look as if you knew where
to help yourself to liquor; 1 wish you would hand
me some." . . . On first joining the army of
the Shenandoah, the horse General Jackson rode
was said to be very characteristic of himself, "a
plain beast that went straight ahead and minded its
own business, an excellent quadruped, that was
shot under him ; after which an elegant mare was
presented to the General. This was a nigh-strung,
visionary animal, who cut capers, and threw her
rider, and was soon discarded for a third, a more
controllable creature. But the General never ceased
to regret the loss of his first steed.—" The Hero's
Life," just published by Chapman and Hall.

THE SOUND OF THUNDER is caused by the sepa-
ration of the atmosphere by the electric fluid, and
the excessive rapidity of the separation• force counteracts
what would otherwise be the neutralising effect of the air's
elasticity. Similarly, the smack of a whip is not effected
by the coming together of tho atmosphere, but by its rapid
separation, inasmuch as otherwise a less quick stroke or
the wave of the hand would 000400 U a oeasiderable sound.

At. op
Tillln Ovular

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Sept 12.

The Queen, accompanied by her Royal High-
ness the Princess Helena, drove in the grounds this

morning.
Her Majesty held a Council this afternoon, which
was attended by Earl Granville, the Duke of New-
castle, Viscount Palmerston, and the Right Hon.
Sir George Grey.
At the Council Parliament was ordered to be fur•
ther prorogued from the 14th of October next.
Mr. Arthur Helps attended as Clerk of the
Council.
The lion. H. Elliot was presented to her
Majesty at an audience.
Sir Andrew Buchanan had an audience of her
Majesty.
Earl Granville and Viscount Palmerston bad
audiences of the Queen.

SUNDAY.

The Queen, their Royal Highnesses Prince
Alfred, Princess Helena, Princess Louise, Prince
Arthur, and Prince Leopold, and the Ladies and
Gentlemen in Waiting, attended Divine service
this morning in the private chapel. The Rev. J•
Ellison preached the sermon.
Count Gleichen visited the Queen.

Viscount Palmerston, Earl Granville, Sir George
Grey, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir Andrew Buchanan, and
Mr. Helps, the Clerk of the Council, left the Paddington
terminus by a special train on the Great Western RailwaY
at 20 minutes past 1 o'clock on Saturday afternoon to attend
the Queen at Windsor Castle. The Ministers left Windsor
by a special train at 4 o'clock on their return to town.

This evening, at 6 o'clock, the Queen and Royal
Family will leave Windsor, and proceed by the usual route
to Balmoral, whence the return of the Court to Windsor is
fixed for the Bth of October.

On Thursday afternoon, soon after the arrival of
her Majesty at Windsor Castle, the Queen and royal children
visited Herne's Oak, which had not been removed. Since
the downfall of this venerable relic it has been religiously
guarded by keepers until her Majesty's pleasure should be
known as to its ultimate destination. During the late storm
which passed over Windsor another fine old oak was struck
down by the lightning.—Court Journal.

On Friday her Majesty visited the Mausoleum
at Frogmore, and expressed her satisfaction at the progress
of the works.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will shortly
return front Scotland to Sandringham Hall, his 'toys'
Highness's seat in Norfolk.

King Victor Emmanuel is now hunting the
gazelle in the Valdieri.

The King of the Belgians will g' to Austria ja
the month of November, and will pass the winter in a villa
near Venice.

The Royal Family of Orleans are at present
dispersed in all directions. Prince de Joinville is in Swit-
zerland, and the Duc de Chartres in Mecklenburg, where
he and his bride are on a visit to the Grand Duke. She
Comte de Paris is at Tunbridge Wells, with the venerable
Queen Amelie, and the Duke de Nemours has gone to join
his family in Spain.

The Pope has just presented to the Museum of
the Capitole, the colossal statue of the Empress Faustinat
from the time of the Antonines, recently found at the villa
Massino, which has been acquired by the new railway cow-
pany. This is the statue which is of such extreme elegance
and beauty, and which has, besides that, preserved all the
gilding and colouring, It has now been placed in the
Gladiator-room,
His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman is announced
to lecture at the Hartley Institution, on the 16th instant, at
Southampton.
As if alarmed by Sir Wm. Armstrong's recent
threat as to the exhaustion of England's coal supply, the
Duke of Sutherland is engaged in experimenting near the
river Skiach in searches for albertite, a substance resem-
bling coal.
The magnificent memorial window in honour of
his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort, in St. Mary's
Church, Nottingham, was completed on Saturday last.
PROBARILITIES OF ANOTHER JAPANESE WAR l—'
It is rumoured, and we believe with truth, that the
state of affairs in Japan has determined the Government to
increase the force in China by one regiment, which will be
available for the protection of British subjects in the domi-
nions of the Tycoon. The 31st Regiment was sent home
inconsiderately, just at the moment they were wanted for
this purpose, through a not very enlightened observance of
the letter of his instructions from home by General Brown•
The 31st, we believe, will now be replaced by one of tha
battalions that lately sailed for India. Whichever of them
can be first made available will be sent on to China instead
of landing in India. Either the 2d battalion of the 20th or
the 21st would have this duty allotted to it, as the 2d bat'
talion 19th and the 36th sailed long after, and the 2d bat'
talion 25th were to land at Ceylon to enable the 60th to 61:'
on to New Zealand. Between the change thus rendered
necessary, and the diversion of the 50th from Madras, the
Indian establishment will be left two battalions short of its
proper proportions. Our new system of Indian reliefs ren-
ders any reduction of this kind undesirable, and accordingly
two regiments from England will, in all likelihood, be at
once sent out. The two first on the roster are the 55th, at
Portsmouth, and the 76th, at Aldershott ; and most pro-
bably these two corps will be placed under ordsrs for
Madras within a few days from the present time,-4/04
and Navy Gaaette.

AN INVITING OLD LANDLADY.—" 6 Whu wane
me ?' A stranger, I answered, wanting lodgings
Hech, mon I whu are ye ? let's hae a look at ye l' Well,
was my reply, I'm a man at present somewhat lonely in tb°
world, wanting a home, and a kind old mother who will be
very good to me, and accept a little kindness in return
dare you take me in ? Hech, mon alive I I'm ber just e
puir lonely old body mysen, and know what it is both to
want kindness and gie it : dun ye stay out of neete, and
come home drunk ?' Oh, no I there's not much danger of
that, for I'm there or thereabout a teetotaller : what are
your terms ? Six shillings a week, and find yersen, spa
they're two o'th' nicest rooms i' aw Derbyshire; and aw"
got some o'th' nicest pictures in em, and the best collection
o' minerals yo'n ever seen; an aw'n got the front door
made up to keep awth' beggars and riff-raff out; an th:
finest rose-tree up th' house end y'n ever seen; a good
garden an' the beat milk free th' nicest cow i' aw'th neigh-
bourhood.'"—Spencer.Hall's Days in Derbyshire.
roWughedenoeusdpaary.Aenvgeunsinogn,haisaw
to
s, JOHNNY WHO UPSET THE COACH V,--.We re'
gay
t rues ts
etloi
ws taas t
peastshiantg ot
through
Meikleour House from Dundee, where he had been taking
a prominent part in the formal opening of the Baxier Park,
an accident occurred which might have been attended with
serious consequences. As the noble earl's carriage, contain'
ing himself, the countess, Lady Victoria Russell, and Lord
Amberley, was passing the Cross at Coupar-Angus, about
nine o'clock, one of the wheel horses stepped on the cause-
way and came down heavily, breaking the pole and startling
the other horses. This produced considerable fear and cora-
motion both among the distinguished occupants in the car'
riage, and also among those who witnessed the accident.
A crowd speedily collected, when measures were promptly
adopted to raise the fallen horse and to secure the safety of
the noble earl and family. Mr. Chisholm, letter-carrier,
at once threw open the carriage door and got the occupants
out, who immediately made anxious inquiries as to the ex'
tent of the damage done to the carriage and horses, and espe-
cially as to the safety of the postilion. The noble earl and
family were then conducted to the Perth Arms Inn. (Mr.
Penny's) by Mr. Gardener, inspector of poor, where every
attention was shown to them, Another pole having been
obtained for the carriage, two horses were attaches, when
the distinguished party proceeded on their journey, after
having expressed their thanks for the kindness shown theta
by the people. As they drove off they were loudly cheered
by the crowd. The detention lasted about an hour. Wo ate
happy to be able to state that the noble earl and his farnilY
sustained no bodily injuries, though from the nature of the
accident they must have felt considerably alarmed. The
postilion, who appears to have been slightly hurt, was able
after a little time to resume his duty.—Dundee Adver.-
itser.

T s' s'et iacireeoduntthan 12,000,000 cockchafers have been,
dehr
ayiedabryinthtehaeuctahnotrointiesofaßettplree,miniumS:ittzoerrltanbedi;
destruction has exceeded I,ooof.
DR. HOOK ON " BAD COPy."—The chairman of
the Slaugham harvest home dinner on Friday said
the dean had preached a magnificent sermon to them, and
he (the chaitman) was very sorry he was not now present,
but he was compelled to leave a silent time ago in order to
catch an early train. Before the dean went he asked hint
whether, if they wished it, he would print the sermon.
The answer the dean made was that he should not sal
" No," but should leave it to them, upon which he (the
chairman) at once said " Yes." He told the dean he thought
they could sell 100, and he believed they would print it.
With respect to the copy of the sermon he offered to the
dean to get it written out plain for the printers. The dean
made answer and said that would never do, he would write
it out badly himself. Upon his asking the dean why, ho
explained that if the copy was plain, it would be put into
the hands of the worst compositors, whereas if it vies
written badly the best hands would get it, and the work
would be better done, (Laughter,)-- Etut Astisivp; 11ars.