THE VARIETIES OF OPTIMISM 



versalism would extend its optimism to every 

 sentient thing: &quot;Admitted to that equal sky, his 

 faithful dog shall bear him company.&quot; The 

 broken bird whom Mr. Thomas Hardy has described 

 as crawling away to die, with the &quot;sportsman s&quot; 

 missile in its soft tissues; the albatross shot by 

 the ancient mariner ; the coster s donkey all alike 

 are to be recompensed, and much more than recom 

 pensed. No pang of pain, no distress of mind or 

 soul, ever felt by any sentient thing since the 

 dawn of sentiency, but shall be paid for with &quot;good 

 measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and 

 running over.&quot; This alone can literally be called 

 optimism. The next approach to it is Universal- 

 ism proper, which postulates salvation and com 

 pensation for all men, just and unjust but not 

 for a &quot;missing link,&quot; an ape, a bird, a kitten, or a 

 worm. Whether these doctrines are sensory, emo 

 tional, or rational in origin the reader will consider. 

 Pope, who has already given me one quotation, 

 will serve to illustrate another form of optimism. 

 [One must use the word despite its inaccuracy.] 

 This teaches that all partial evil is universal good : 

 &quot;One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.&quot; This, 

 as Dickens somewhere remarks, involves the as 

 sertion that nothing that ever was, was wrong. 

 Perhaps that is not a very profound criticism ; but, 

 at any rate, here is another variety of optimism 

 well denned. A variant of it, much more poignant 

 and affecting in expression, as well as more philo 

 sophic and intelligible, is to be found in Brown- 



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