PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 687 



than a reflex ray of itself? If, again, our hearts, though so poor and 

 insensible, can yet break in salt sorrow over the confused helpless 

 misery of the masses, is the prayer that bursts involuntarily from them 

 not in accord witli the heart of God himself? Is it a foolish and false 

 impulse which Nature stirs in the heart of the mother when she rec- 

 ognizes a quite infinite value in the poor helpless chick newly-born to 

 her ? When Jesus Christ appeared as a symbol of love and mercy in 

 this world, preaching the prodigal son, and proclaiming the God of 

 this world to be a God of righteousness and comj^assion, could the 

 hearts of his hearers remain insensible to the manifestation and the 

 sermon ? Have not the words been caught up as the truest gospel of 

 the highest God ? And in Jesus Christ, who felt an unspeakable in- 

 terest even in the outcasts of society, and whose attitude toward the 

 morally wrecked man, in whom desires and appetites had devoured 

 all the handsome capital and prospects and possibilities in life, was 

 not the side sniff of cold disdain, but condemnation into everlasting 

 fire or an infinite yearning of compassion in this appearance of Jesus 

 Christ on earth have not men been constrained worshipfully to recog- 

 nize the truest incarnation of God ? Religion which sinks in us all 

 personal regards, which would bring us into immediate communion 

 with the Supreme, is ever a consciousness of inexhaustible resources 

 is more than a counterpoise for all the ills of life, and all the black 

 facts which history can adduce is a power which can dwarf all his- 

 tory, all the hitherto actual, into the insignificance of a mere prelude, 

 and not an essential act in the drama of life itself. 



Meanwhile, over and above this general reflection, which, if needed, 

 can always serve as our last impregnable resource, it is possible to 

 predicate particularly some of the advantages, and even the absolute 

 necessity, of the confusion and misery everywhere attaching to reality. 



This confused world of good and evil is the right arena and train- 

 ing-school for battle, enterprise, patience for all the active and in- 

 deed also all the passive virtues. The baseness, stupidity, folly, 

 injustice, suffering, and wreck, this world everywhere presents, are 

 always a splendid challenge to strengtli, diligence, endurance, faith, 

 wisdom to all sublime and manly qualities. Sloth, indolence, sweet 

 dreaminess, and credulity, have a hard time of it here meet every day 

 with the shrewdest rubs and tosses till they are either forced into 

 wakefulness or gored into death. A long-living and prosperous nation 

 must plough the soil, must sail the sea, must live much out-of-doors, 

 must ever be prepared to defend its own against the whole surround- 

 ing world. And the artist or man of letters must ^ot ensconce him- 

 self too much in his cozy study, but lay himself open to the shock of 

 opposition and the misconstruction of his fellows, must not shrink 

 from the experience of unkindly facts to try his nerve and test his 

 digestion. Only to the man -who lives industriously, moderately, 

 honestly, truthfidly, and piously, does God vouchsafe higher dis- 



