CHAPTER IV. 



PESSIMISM. 



IlavTa yeXco? kox TrdvTa /cons kox TrdvTa to fXTjSeVj 

 IlavTa yap i^ dXoyoiv ecrrt ra ytyvofxcva.^ 



§ I. Pessimism has both an emotional and an 

 intellectual aspect, and these may be to a large 

 extent separated in practice. Emotional pessimism 

 consists in the feeling that life is not worth living, 

 or that the world is evil. As this conclusion may 

 be derived from a variety of premisses, the intellect- 

 ual grounds of pessimism are exceedingly various. 

 Almost every philosophic doctrine has been made 

 the intellectual basis of pessimism, but with most of 

 them pessimism has no direct connection. There 

 exists, nevertheless, an intellectual ground from 

 which emotional pessimism most easily and natur- 

 ally results, and as many or all of the other grounds 

 may be reduced to it, it may fairly be called the 

 essence of Pessimism. 



This essential basis of Pessimism is what we 

 have reached in the course of the argument, and 

 shall henceforth consider. It may be most briefly 

 described as the supposition of the fundamental 

 perversity or irrationality of all things. It asserts 

 that the problem of life is inherently insoluble, that 

 the attempt to obtain a harmonious and significant 



^ All is a mockery, and all is dust, and all is naught, 

 For the irrational engenders all that becomes. 



(Glycon. AnthoL Pal. x. 124.) 



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