Il8 £SSAVS IN PHILOSOPHY 



temperament and circumstance. For pessimism does 

 nothing actively to promote what traditional ethics 

 would brand as immorality ; it merely leaves the 

 so-called morality or immorality to be dealt with by 

 the fate inherent in existence. The interaction of 

 both is the compound force that drives the universe 

 surely to the desired dissolution. 



Moreover, the negative or indirect method of pes- 

 simist ethics gives rise to problems of history, of 

 politics, of religion ; for one theory of these matters, 

 put in practice, may promote the final catastrophe 

 more surely and swiftly than another. Thus pes- 

 simism has its Philosophy of History, in which his- 

 tory appears as the evolution of the Three Stages of 

 Illusion mentioned above. The great scene of the 

 first stage was the pagan world, typical in which 

 was the Hellenic joy in sensuous life, and the 

 Roman glory in conquest and organisation. The 

 scene of the second is Christendom, so far as it is 

 untouched by decay of its essential dogmas. The 

 scene of the third is the modern world of "enlighten- 

 ment," of "advanced" thinking, of political and eco- 

 nomic reorganisation in the interest of "the good 

 time coming." Following this is the surely predes- 

 tined disillusion that is to lead to the final dissolu- 

 tion. 



Pessimism has also its Philosophy of Politics. Its 

 ideal polity is a "strong government," based on the 



