102 PESSIMISM. 



And so the Ideal of perfect adaptation, harmony 

 or happiness Is not one which has any appHcation to 

 the world in which we live ; the dream of its realiz- 

 ation is forbidden by the constitution of things. It 

 was not then a false instinct that prompted men to 

 postpone the attainment of happiness to a heaven 

 beyond their ken In another world ; for assuredly it 

 is an illusion In this world of ours. 



And what may be inferred from this ? What but 

 this, that the attempt to judge life by the standard 

 of happiness is to judge It by a conception which is 

 inapplicable and unmeaning, by a standard which is 

 false and futile ? What but this, that in aiming at 

 happiness we are deliberately striving after the 

 impossible, and that it would be strange Indeed if 

 the vanity of our aim did not reveal itself In the 

 failure of our efforts ? 



§ 5. But it will not perhaps suffice to assert 

 generally the Impossibility of adaptation to environ- 

 ment under the given conditions of sensible existence, 

 and the fact will at all events become more obvious, 

 if we consider the question more in detail. We 

 shall find that adaptation to environment is intrin- 

 sically Impossible from Avhatever side we approach 

 the question, no matter whether we consider the 

 physical, social, or psychological environment, the 

 case of the individual or of the race. 



The individual cannot adapt himself to his physical 

 environment, because in the end the strength of life 

 must be exhausted in the effort to keep up with the 

 changes the revolving seasons bring, because in the 

 end waste must exceed repair, and the vain struggle 

 of life be solved in death, that the unstable com- 

 pounds of his bodily frame may be dissociated into 

 stabler forms of lifeless matter. If the performance 



