CHAPTER XXIX 



HUMAN ORGANIZATION IN RELATION TO ENVIR- 

 ONMENT 



The problem of human Hfe has been the riddle of the mill- 

 ennia. One of the great biblical writers answers his own ques- 

 tion, "AVhat is your life," by replying: "It is even as a vapor 

 that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." 

 There is poetry and perhaps also some sound science in the 

 reply. The despairing Schopenhauer says: "Everything in 

 life indicates that earthly happiness is destined to be frus- 

 trated or to be recognized as an illusion. The conditions of 

 this lie deep in the nature of things. Accordingly the life 

 of most of us proves sad and short. The comparatively happy 

 are usually only apparently so, or are, like long-lived persons, 

 rare exceptions — left as a bait for the rest. Life proves a 

 continued deception, in great as well as small matters. If it 

 makes a promise it does not keep it, unless to show that the 

 coveted object was little desirable. Thus sometimes hope, 

 sometimes the fulfillment of hope, deludes us. If it gave, it 

 was but to take away. 



"The fascination of distance presents a paradise vanishing 

 like an optic delusion when we have allowed ourselves to be 

 enticed thither. Happiness accordingly lies always in the 

 future or in the past; and the present is to be compared to 

 a small dark cloud which the wind drives over a sunny plain. 

 Before it and behind it all is bright, it alone casts a shadow. 

 The present is therefore forever unsatisfactory; the future 

 uncertain; the past irrecoverable. Life with its hourly, daily, 

 weekly, and yearly small, greater, and great adversities, with 

 its disappointed hojoes and mishaps foiling all calculations, 

 bears so plainly the character of something we should become 

 disgusted with, that it is difficult to comprehend how any one 



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