I found that for people of my circle there were four ways out of the terrible position in which we are
all placed.
The first was that of ignorance. It consists in not knowing, not understanding, that life is an evil and
an absurdity. People of this sort … have not yet understood that question of life…. They see neither
the dragon that awaits them nor the mice gnawing the shrub by which they are hanging, and they lick
the drops of honey. But they lick those drops of honey only for a while: Something will turn their
attention to the dragon and the mice, and there will be an end to their licking. From them I had
nothing to learn—one cannot cease to know what one does know.
The second way out is Epicureanism. It consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making
use meanwhile of the advantages one has, disregarding the dragon and the mice, and licking the honey
in the best way, especially if there is much of it within reach. Solomon expresses this way out thus:
“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to
drink, and to be merry: and that this should accompany him in his labor the days of his life, which
God giveth him under the sun. Therefore eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry
heart…. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity … for this
is thy portion in life and in thy labors which thou takest under the sun…. Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is not work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave, whither thou goest.”
That is the way in which the majority of people of our circle make life possible for themselves.
Their circumstances furnish them with more of welfare than of hardship, and their moral dullness
makes it possible for them to forget that the advantage of their position is accidental, and that not
everyone can have a thousand wives and palaces like Solomon, that for everyone who has a thousand
wives there are a thousand without a wife, and that for each palace there are a thousand people who
have to build it in the sweat of their brows; and that the accident that has today made me a Solomon
may tomorrow make me a Solomon’s slave. The dullness of these people’s imagination enables them
to forget the things that gave Buddha no peace—the inevitability of sickness, old age, and death,
which today or tomorrow will destroy all these pleasures.
So think and feel the majority of people of our day and our manner of life. The fact that some of
these people declare the dullness of their thoughts and imaginations to be a philosophy, which they
call Positive, does not remove them, in my opinion, from the ranks of those who, to avoid seeing the
question, lick the honey. I could not imitate these people; not having their dullness of imagination I
could not artificially produce it in myself. I could not tear my eyes from the mice and the dragon, as
no vital man can after he has once seen them.
The third escape is that of strength and energy. It consists in destroying life, when one has
understood that it is an evil and an absurdity. A few exceptionally strong and consistent people act so.
Having understood the stupidity of the joke that has been played on them, and having understood
that it is better to be dead than to be alive, and that it is best of all not to exist, they act accordingly
and promptly end this stupid joke, since there are means: a rope round one’s neck, water, a knife to
stick into one’s heart, or the trains on the railways; and the number of those of our circle who act in
this way becomes greater and greater, and for the most part they act so at the best time of their life,
when the strength of their mind is in full bloom and few habits degrading to the mind have as yet
been acquired.
I saw that this was the worthiest way of escape and I wished to adopt it.
The fourth way out is that of weakness. It consists in seeing the truth of the situation and yet
clinging to life, knowing in advance that nothing can come of it. People of this kind know that death
is better than life, but not having the strength to act rationally—to end the deception quickly and kill
themselves—they seem to wait for something. This is the escape of weakness, for if I know what is
best and it is within my power, why not yield to what is best? … I found myself in that category.
So people of my class evade the terrible contradiction in four ways. Strain my attention as I would,
I saw no way except those four…
all placed.
The first was that of ignorance. It consists in not knowing, not understanding, that life is an evil and
an absurdity. People of this sort … have not yet understood that question of life…. They see neither
the dragon that awaits them nor the mice gnawing the shrub by which they are hanging, and they lick
the drops of honey. But they lick those drops of honey only for a while: Something will turn their
attention to the dragon and the mice, and there will be an end to their licking. From them I had
nothing to learn—one cannot cease to know what one does know.
The second way out is Epicureanism. It consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making
use meanwhile of the advantages one has, disregarding the dragon and the mice, and licking the honey
in the best way, especially if there is much of it within reach. Solomon expresses this way out thus:
“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to
drink, and to be merry: and that this should accompany him in his labor the days of his life, which
God giveth him under the sun. Therefore eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry
heart…. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity … for this
is thy portion in life and in thy labors which thou takest under the sun…. Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is not work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave, whither thou goest.”
That is the way in which the majority of people of our circle make life possible for themselves.
Their circumstances furnish them with more of welfare than of hardship, and their moral dullness
makes it possible for them to forget that the advantage of their position is accidental, and that not
everyone can have a thousand wives and palaces like Solomon, that for everyone who has a thousand
wives there are a thousand without a wife, and that for each palace there are a thousand people who
have to build it in the sweat of their brows; and that the accident that has today made me a Solomon
may tomorrow make me a Solomon’s slave. The dullness of these people’s imagination enables them
to forget the things that gave Buddha no peace—the inevitability of sickness, old age, and death,
which today or tomorrow will destroy all these pleasures.
So think and feel the majority of people of our day and our manner of life. The fact that some of
these people declare the dullness of their thoughts and imaginations to be a philosophy, which they
call Positive, does not remove them, in my opinion, from the ranks of those who, to avoid seeing the
question, lick the honey. I could not imitate these people; not having their dullness of imagination I
could not artificially produce it in myself. I could not tear my eyes from the mice and the dragon, as
no vital man can after he has once seen them.
The third escape is that of strength and energy. It consists in destroying life, when one has
understood that it is an evil and an absurdity. A few exceptionally strong and consistent people act so.
Having understood the stupidity of the joke that has been played on them, and having understood
that it is better to be dead than to be alive, and that it is best of all not to exist, they act accordingly
and promptly end this stupid joke, since there are means: a rope round one’s neck, water, a knife to
stick into one’s heart, or the trains on the railways; and the number of those of our circle who act in
this way becomes greater and greater, and for the most part they act so at the best time of their life,
when the strength of their mind is in full bloom and few habits degrading to the mind have as yet
been acquired.
I saw that this was the worthiest way of escape and I wished to adopt it.
The fourth way out is that of weakness. It consists in seeing the truth of the situation and yet
clinging to life, knowing in advance that nothing can come of it. People of this kind know that death
is better than life, but not having the strength to act rationally—to end the deception quickly and kill
themselves—they seem to wait for something. This is the escape of weakness, for if I know what is
best and it is within my power, why not yield to what is best? … I found myself in that category.
So people of my class evade the terrible contradiction in four ways. Strain my attention as I would,
I saw no way except those four…
