CYCLE THIRTY-ONE

1. Although we concur with Schopenhauer that the world is 'Will and Representation' (or Intellect, Idea, etc.), it should be apparent from the above entries that there is also a lot more to it than Schopenhauer's philosophy would allow, including, not least, the absolute will of soul and the absolute mind of spirit, both of which, while having some bearing on the world, tower above it in contrary directions, as befitting their noumenal status in relation to diabolic and divine alternatives.

2. Yet even if we limit the term 'world' to that which primarily appertains, in quasi-religious fashion, to the World, viz. the feminine realm of nature, the fact remains that the World is less a combination of 'Will' (or sensations) and 'Representation' (or ideas) than a context of sensational will alone, with 'Representation' appertaining to what we have termed the purgatorial Overworld, viz. the masculine realm of civilization, or intellect.

3. Hence the World is both more and less, depending on our definition of it, than a realm of 'Will and Representation'. It is a realm in which both will and mind are locked in a metaphysical struggle for either phenomenal or noumenal control, with relative and absolute implications depending on the type of will or mind in the ascendancy at any given time. Either will eclipses mind in heathen innocence, or mind banishes will to the nether regions, seemingly, of a Christian Hell. Thus did relative mind triumph over relative will, only to be eclipsed, in due historical course, by the absolute will which lies in wait behind it, like the Devil behind man, or the sun behind the moon. Now the World awaits salvation from its relative will in the absolute mind of God.