DEVELOPMENT OF PLEASURE AND PAIN 47 



a negligible quantity at the best, and continually dwindling 

 as we recede from the comparatively endurable conditions 

 of savagery. 



That this is no exaggeration may be seen from the follow 

 ing passages, of which the first is taken from the greatest 

 Italian poet of the nineteenth century, and the other from 

 one of the greatest of his contemporaries among the philoso 

 phers of Germany. 



A feeble, grey old man, half-clad, barefooted, 



Bearing upon his back a crushing load, 



O er hill and dale, sharp stones, deep sand and rocks, 



In wind and rain, in frost and scorching heat, 



Toils breathless ; toils through swamps and over torrents, 



With many a painful fall, bleeding and torn ; 



Nor stays, nor takes repose ; but ever strives 



The sooner to attain that self-same spot, 



Where all his weary round of toil began. 



There, o er the ghastly bounds of space 



He plunges, and forgets the past. 



Such, Maiden Moon, such is the life of man. 1 



It is absurd to suppose that the infinite misery which 

 has its roots in the essential needs of our organism, and 

 fills the whole world, can be without purpose, and merely 

 fortuitous. Each individual case of unhappiness, by itself, 

 might indeed appear to be an exception ; but universal 

 unhappiness is the rule. . . . W e are u ^ e lambs sporting 

 in a meadow, while the butcher is selecting with his eyes, 

 first one, and then another, for slaughter. We are unaware, 

 in our moments of happiness, of the misfortunes which fate 

 may be preparing for us in the immediate future disease, 

 persecution, poverty, mutilation, blindness, madness, &c., 

 &c. 2 



For the other side, we may quote a passage from Plato 

 which recalls the Travra Ka\a Xiav of the first chapter of 

 Genesis : 



This is the beginning of creation and the world, as we 

 shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men : 

 God desired that all things should be good, and nothing bad, 

 as far as this could be accomplished. Wherefore also, find- 



1 Leopardi, Canto d un pastore errante delV Asia. 



8 Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena, ii. 312-13. 



