1880 OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM 283 



wrote four years before (see p. 216), he was no 

 pessimist any more than he was a professed optimist. 

 If the vast amount of inevitable suffering precluded 

 the one view, the gratuitous pleasures, so to speak, 

 of life preclude the other. Life properly lived is 

 worth living, and would be even if a malevolent fate 

 had decreed that one should suffer, say, the pangs of 

 toothache two hours out of every twenty-four. So 

 he writes : 



We have had all the chicks (and the husbands of such 

 as are therewith provided) round the Christmas table 

 once more, and a pleasant sight they were, though I say 

 it that shouldn't. Only the grand-daughter left out, the 

 young woman not having reached the age . when change 

 and society are valuable. 



I don't know what you think about anniversaries. 

 I like them, being always minded to drink my cup of life 

 to the bottom, and take my chance of the sweets and 

 bitters. 



The following is to his Edinburgh friend Dr. 

 Skelton, whose appreciation of his frequent com- 

 panionship had found outspoken expression in the 

 pages of The Crookit Meg. 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, N.W., 

 Nov. 14, 1880. 



MY DEAR SKELTON When tbe Crooked Meg reached 

 me I made up my mind that it would be a shame to 

 send the empty acknowledgment which I give (or don't 

 give) for most books that reach me. 



But I am over head and ears in work time utterly 

 wasted in mere knowledge getting and giving and for 

 six weeks not an hour for real edification with a whole- 

 some story. 



