/lit/ - Literature

>Such an intellect will first of all become objective, but it can even go on to become a certain degree metaphysical or at least strive to become so: for the consequence of its objectivity is that nature itself, the totality of things, now comes the intellect's subject-matter and problem. In such an intellect nature first begins to properly perceive itself as something which is and yet could not be or other than it is; whereas in the ordinary, merely normal intellect nature does not clearly perceive itself just as the miller does not hear his own mill or perfumer smell his own shop.
>To the normal intellect nature appears simply as a matter of course: it is caught up in an encompassed by nature. Only in certain more luminous moments will it perceive nature and it is then almost terrified at the sight: but the feeling soon passes.

I remember once when I was trying to sleep I felt this intense sensation of dread. I can only describe it as the realization that we were all collectively being washed away by a giant tidal wave, and there was nothing we could do to change its course. Every action, behavior, emotion, etc., of everyone in the world was controlled by this tidal wave. It took me a while to go to sleep because this feeling shook me up. Eventually it passed, but that memory stayed with me a few days. Anyway I just read the above passages in Schopenhauer's Essays and Aphorisms and it brought me back to this memory.