I'm reading Schopenhauer's essay 'Über die Weiber', in which the following appears:
Mit den Mädchen hat es die Natur auf Das, was man, im dramaturgischen Sinne, einen Knalleffekt nennt, abgesehen, indem sie dieselben, auf wenige Jahre, mit überreichlicher Schönheit, Reiz und Fülle ausstattet, auf Kosten ihrer ganzen übrigen Lebenszeit, damit sie nämlich, während jener Jahre, der Phantasie eines Mannes sich in dem Maße bemächtigen könnten, daß er hingerissen wird, die Sorge für sie auf Zeit Lebens, in irgend einer Form, ehrlich zu übernehmen;
I translated it - as literally as possible - as follows:
With the girls nature foresaw what one, in a dramatic sense, calls a "striking effect", in which it[nature] furnishes the aforementioned, during their younger years, with overabundant beauty, charm and fullness, at the cost of the rest of their entire life, so that they can seize the phantasy of a man during those years, to such an extent as to induce him, in some way, into honestly taking [the responsibility to care for] them upon himself, for a lifetime;
Then comes the part I'm not understanding very well, and having problem to translate, which is this entire sentence:
zu welchem Schritte ihn zu vermögen, die bloße vernünftige Überlegung keine hinlänglich sichere Bürgschaft zu geben schien.
I can't seem to get or am doubtful about the entire sentence, especially on:
- zu welchem Schritte ihn zu vermögen - I only understood it as "to such a point as for him to be able to", but, does it make sense this way?
Especially, here, the reason I called for in the question's title:
- zu geben schien, I'm clueless about what this means, as 'schien' seems to be the past tense of 'scheinen', rendering a meaningless sentence if translated literally.
As a conclusion, I'm sorry for my literal translation, but that's the best I can do with my skills at the moment, and thanks for the patience.
