78 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii 



it was six-and-tweuty centuries ago, there is no 

 ground for wonder if it presents indications of a 

 tendency to move along the old lines to the same 

 results. 



We are more than sufficiently familiar with 

 modern pessimism, at least as a speculation ; for I 

 cannot call to mind that any of its present votaries 

 have sealed their faith by assuming the rags and 

 the bowl of the mendicant Bhikku, or the cloak 

 and the wallet of the Cynic. The obstacles placed 

 in the way of sturdy vagrancy by an unphiloso- 

 phical police have, perhaps, proved too formidable 

 for philosophical consistency. We also know 

 modern speculative optimism, with its perfectibility 

 of the species, reign of peace, and lion and lamb 

 transformation scenes ; but one does not hear so 

 much of it as one did forty years ago ; indeed, I 

 imagine it is to be met with more commonly at 

 the tables of the healthy and wealthy, than in the 

 congregations of the wise. The majority of us, I 

 apprehend, profess neither pessimism nor optimism. 

 We hold that the world is neither so good, nor so 

 bad, as it conceivably might be ; and, as most of 

 us have reason, now and again, to discover that it 

 can be. Those who have lailed to experience the 

 joys that make life worth living are, probably, in 

 as small a minority as those who have never 

 known the griefs that rob existence of its savour 

 and turn its richest fruits into mere dust and 

 ashes. 



