THE NEW OPTIMISM 495 



increased consumption of alcoholic drinks, adulteration of food, senti- 

 mentalism towards condemned criminals, yellow journals, comic sup- 

 plements, and all the rest, not to speak of the wresting of lands from 

 weak nations by strong ones, as in the case of France and Morocco, 

 Italy and Turkey, England and the Transvaal, and the United States 

 and Spain. 



That these evils exist no optimist may deny, but that they offer any 

 evidence that the present times are degenerate may be very seriously 

 doubted. It may be doubted whether the young men of the olden times 

 were any braver or had any broader shoulders, or that the girls were 

 more modest or more virtuous. It may be doubted whether the chil- 

 dren were of old any sounder or more robust. As regards each and all 

 of the other indictments of the present times, it may well be doubted 

 whether there has been any deterioration, on the whole ; but rather it is 

 probable that the farther back we go ; the more weakness and deformity 

 we shall find ; the more graft, the more miscarriage of justice, the more 

 dishonesty, the more drunkenness, the more wresting of lands from 

 weak nations by strong ones. 



The mere picturing of the evils of the present points to progress, 

 for in times past not only were these evils present, but their presence 

 was not much noticed. The more rare becomes crime the greater its 

 interest for the headlines of our dailies. The muck rakers, if they had 

 lived a few centuries ago, would have needed no rake to bring evils to 

 the surface. No one, of course, would maintain that there has been a 

 uniform progress or a constant decrease of evils, nor that all the sins 

 of the present were found in the past, but on the whole the world has 

 been getting better age by age and, sometimes, as at present, pretty fast. 



But, it may be said, all this only proves that the world is getting 

 better, not that it is intrinsically good. It might still be thoroughly 

 bad and pessimism triumphant. With James Thompson we might 

 still say : 



Speak not of comfort where no comfort is, 



Speak not at all: can words make foul things fair? 



Our life's a cheat, our death a black abyss. 

 Hush, and be mute, envisaging despair. 



As regards this question of the absolute goodness or evil of the 

 world, the new optimism, as has already been intimated, does not greatly 

 concern itself with it. It is rather disposed to see the good that there 

 is and put shoulder to wheel and help it on. If, however, one were con- 

 cerned with this question, it could no doubt be shown on sound psycho- 

 logical and biological principles that there must be a large balance of 

 pleasure over pain wherever life forces are triumphant. But the sum- 

 mum bonum is not pleasure nor happiness, but, rather, abundance of 

 life. Life is the key to the problem. So long as there is growth, move- 

 ment, struggle, onward rush, conquest or noble defeat, there is little 



