The Fischer anecdote is pretty entertaining; here is a wikisource transcription from the book (to be taken with the usual grain of salt). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Abroad_with_Mark_Twain_and_Eugene_Field/Mark%27s_Glimpse_of_Schopenhauer On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 11:40 AM Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Alan Gribben in MARK TWAIN'S LIBRARY: A RECONSTRUCTION records a volume by > Schopenhauer ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER -- a translation published in > 1892 that was sold in the 1951 sale of Clemens's library. It is listed as > belonging to Jean and Clara. In addition, Gribben also records that > journalist Henry Fisher also commented on Twain's interest in > Schopenhauer's writings. Whether the volume from the Clemens library has > ever been recovered or examined for marginalia is not documented. > > Barb > > On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 10:08 AM Dave Davis <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > > This one sentence from Arthur Schopenhauer intrigues me: > > > > *Our hesitation before such a colossal thought will perhaps be diminished > > by the recollection... that the ultimate dreamer of the vast life-dream > is > > finally, in a certain sense, but one, namely the Will to Live, and that > the > > multiplicity of appearances follows from the conditioning effects of time > > and space [the morphogenetic field whereby the Will to Live assumes > forms]. > > It is one great dream dreamed by a single Being, but in such a way that > all > > the dream characters dream too. * > > --Arthur Schopenhauer, "Transcendental Speculation on Apparent Design in > > the Fate of the Individual,” " (1851) > > > > (More about that: > > https://harpers.org/2012/02/schopenhauer-causality-and-synchronicity/ ) > > > > It reminds me of the great conclusion of #44, The Mysterious Stranger > > which we all know: > > > > "... "It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no > > universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a > > dream--a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are > > but a thought--a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, > > wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!" > > > > (Actually, the whole of that last, concluding Chapter) > > > > > > I recall that SLC told a correspondent he had never read Nietzsche; but > we > > also know that he could get by, reading German, and was in Germany quite > a > > bit in the 1890's, when such ideas were in the air there. > > > > Any thoughts? Maybe they both got it from Shakespeare. Ideas float > around, > > expression is everything. > > > > DDD > > >