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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



confidence with which we hold that 

 science is the power which trans- 

 forms impressions of sense into 

 conclusions of reason, which alone 

 throws light on the constitution of 

 the world in which we live, and 

 which confers upon all human efi'ort 

 its highest possible efficiency. Know- 

 ing this, we know that the so-called 

 " bankruptcy of science " is a contra- 

 diction in terms, the flippant inven- 

 tion of those with whom the wish is 

 father to the thought. In a word, all 

 is well; for whether the time be seed- 

 time or harvest, whether the field, as 

 we see it, be lying fallow or carrying 

 a bounteous crop, science, the one 

 abiding power and principle of fer- 

 tility, is present with mankind, and 

 its promise will not fail. 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. 



In the October num-ber of the In- 

 ternational Journal of Ethics Prof. 

 William James, of Harvard, comes 

 forward with his contribution to the 

 much-discussed question, " Is Life 

 Worth Living ? " The conclusion, a 

 sufficiently simple one, at which 

 Prof. James arrives, is that life may 

 be made worth living ; but he only 

 arrives at this very true conclusion 

 after a considerable amount of labo- 

 rious and, in our opinion, not wholly 

 sound argumentation. It may be 

 worth while, therefore, to go over 

 the ground so far as it can be done 

 within our narrow limits and see 

 what view can reasonably be taken 

 of the whole subject. 



We are told by the writer men- 

 tioned that there are two recogniza- 

 ble soui'ces of pessimism or, in other 

 words, of the feeling that life is not 

 worth living sensualism and over- 

 study, particularly of an abstract 

 kind. It seems to us that a statement 

 of this kind irresistibly suggests the 

 corollary that pessimism, with its 

 sickening dou.bts as to the value of 



life, may be avoided by avoiding its 

 causes. Then, if so, why discuss it 

 as if it were a substantive system of 

 philosophy ? It either is or is not a 

 pathological condition : if it is, let 

 us seek to remove it ; if it is not, then 

 it is all right. '' It is a remarkable 

 fact," says Prof. James at a later 

 point in his article, " that sufferings 

 and hardships do not, as a rule, abate 

 the love of life ; they seem, on the 

 contrary, usually to give it a keener 

 zest. The sovereign source of melan- 

 choly is repletion." Very true again ; 

 but what is the lesson ? Simply that 

 we should not abandon ourselves to 

 repletion, and that in the interest of 

 our children we should not satiate 

 them with enjoyments. But else- 

 where (page 7) the professor tells us 

 that "pessimism is essentially a reli- 

 gious disease," consisting, in the form 

 at least in which it attacks over-re- 

 flective minds, " in nothing but a re- 

 ligious demand to which there comes 

 no normal religious reply." This, of 

 course, sounds very philosoijhical ; 

 but it does not seem to be quite in 

 agreement with the proposition so 

 distinctly laid down, that pessimism 

 may spring either from sensualism 

 or from overstudy " grubbing," as 

 the writer expresses it, "in the ab- 

 stract root of things." Supposing he 

 who has been so "grubbing" stops 

 doing it, or stops doing it in excess, 

 and, by proper attention to hygiene, 

 gets himself into capital physical and 

 mental condition, what then becomes 

 of the religious disease ? Will it not 

 vanish with its cause ? 



We fail to see, however, why pes- 

 simism should be considered as a re- 

 ligious disease in the case of the over- 

 studious man and not i n that of the 

 over-sensual ? By different routes 

 both have arrived at the same goal 

 exhaustion ; and it is hard to see why 

 the pessimism of the one should have 

 a more religious character than that 

 of the other. Each has been bi*ought 



