49 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE NEW OPTIMISM 



By Professor G. T. W. PATRICK 



STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 



WE may distinguish three stages in the development of optimism. 

 There was first the old a priori optimism of St. Augustine and 

 Leibniz. One hears no more of this now. You may prove from the 

 good intentions of the Creator that this world must be the best possible 

 one, but the whole argument rests upon presuppositions that have less 

 weight than formerly. Browning, when he cries, " God's in his heaven, 

 all's right with the world," fails likewise to convince us. We prefer to 

 look about the world and in so doing we have little difficulty in seeing 

 many things that are not right. 



Then, there is a second kind of optimism which follows the opposite 

 method, the inductive, and arrives at the conclusion that the world is 

 good and beautiful and full of happiness. It may not, indeed, be the 

 best possible world, but it is good and fair and perhaps growing better 

 and fairer. This is the natural, buoyant, hopeful attitude of the normal, 

 healthy individual who enjoys his food, his sleep, his work and his 

 play and who delights to say with Euskin, 



There really is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good 

 weather. 



Of this class are the sane and helpful writings of Sir John Lubbock 

 or the exultant songs of Walt Whitman, which refresh us with the 

 optimism of youth, health and springtime. Dickens, likewise, compels 

 us to a bright view of things by his contagious good cheer. Life can 

 not be so very bad as long as there is a tavern near by with a pot of 

 ale and a juicy joint. 



Critics may call this the shallow optimism of the eupeptic man, but 

 it is better and more natural than the dismal croakings of Schopen- 

 hauer or the songs of sorrow of Leopardi or James Thompson. The 

 truth is, however, that this kind of optimism, as well as that first men- 

 tioned, implies a certain blindness to the actual evils and miseries of 

 the world, or, perhaps more often, mere ignorance of them. Our faith 

 in it is rudely shaken by a walk through the hospitals or prisons, the 

 smell of anesthetics, a day's journey with a country doctor, a visit to 

 the slums, a tour of the factories and mines, or a campaign in the 

 regular army. 



But now it can not escape the careful observer that there is at the 

 opening of this century a third kind of optimism appearing, which we 

 may call the new optimism. It might also be called dynamic, or prac- 

 tical, or psychological optimism. It concerns itself with no theoretical 

 questions as to whether this world is the best possible one or not. It 



