this clear, and to make what has been said still clearer, it is necessary first of all to scrutinize more keenly the essence of original life, or freedom.
101. Freedom, taken in the sense of indecisive hesitation between several courses equally possible, is not life, but only the forecourt and portal to real life. At some time or other there must be an end of this hesitation and an advance to decision and action; and only then does life begin.
Now, at first sight, and when viewed directly, every decision of the will appears as something primary, and in no wise as something secondary, or as the effect of a primary thing which is its cause. It appears to be something existing simply by itself, and existing just as it is. This meaning we wish to establish as the sole possible sensible meaning of the word freedom. But, with regard to the inner content of such a decision of the will, there are two cases possible, viz., on the one hand, there appears in it only appearance, separated from essence and without essence entering into its appearance in any way; on the other hand, essence enters in appearance into this appearance of a decision of the will. In this connection it must be remarked at once that essence can become apparent only in a decision of the will, and in nothing else whatever, although, on the other hand, there may be decisions of the will in which essence does not manifest itself at all, but only mere appearance. We proceed to discuss the latter case first.
102. By its separation from, and its opposition to, essence, as well as by the fact that it is itself capable of appearing and presenting itself, mere appearance simply as such is unalterably determined, and it is, therefore, inevitably just what it is and turns out to be. Hence, if any given decision of the will is, as we assume, in its
