IMMORTALITY:[1] A DIALOGUE.

[Footnote 1: _Translator's Note_.--The word
immortality--_Unsterblichkeit_--does not occur in the original; nor
would it, in its usual application, find a place in Schopenhauer's
vocabulary. The word he uses is _Unzerstörbarkeit--indestructibility_.
But I have preferred _immortality_, because that word is commonly
associated with the subject touched upon in this little debate. If any
critic doubts the wisdom of this preference, let me ask him to try
his hand at a short, concise, and, at the same time, popularly
intelligible rendering of the German original, which runs thus: _Zur
Lehre von der Unzerstörbarkeit unseres wahren Wesens durch den Tod:
Meine dialogische Schlussbelustigung_.]


THRASYMACHOS--PHILALETHES.

_Thrasymachos_. Tell me now, in one word, what shall I be after my
death? And mind you be clear and precise.

_Philalethes_. All and nothing!

_Thrasymachos_. I thought so! I gave you a problem, and you solve it
by a contradiction. That's a very stale trick.

_Philalethes_. Yes, but you raise transcendental questions, and you
expect me to answer them in language that is only made for immanent