118 THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESPAIR. 



the inherited nature and the acquired ideal. The 

 burden of Adam's sin. The new Calvinism. 



Knowledge. Our impotence to know. The math- 

 ematical and speculative faculties mere by-products ; 

 no guarantee of their competence to reach the heart of 

 reality. We assist the senses with instruments, but 

 wherewith shall we assist the reason, when it falls 

 short ? Faculties suited to rude practical uses have 

 no warrant of success in probing the nature of things. 

 Can we etch with a crowbar, or shear silk with a 

 ploughshare ? The islet on the dark sea. The new 

 scepticism. 



Happiness. The origin of desire. Function versus 

 feeling. Nature's bribery. Is the satisfaction of de- 

 sire the path to happiness ? Schopenhauer's argument. 

 Man the sport of Nature. Goaded and stung by de- 

 sires across the stage of life. Ennui. Thirst and 

 surfeit. No net gain along the main track. Our 

 throats but choked with dust. The ascetic remedy. 

 The quenching of desire. Release from wishing. 

 Apatheia. Nirvana. The new asceticism. 



Decay. Why not a leap from the summit ? 

 Browning's " Cleon." Knowledge grows while the 

 power to enjoy declines. Building a tower that settles 

 under our feet. The impermanence of acquisitions. 

 The crumbling of personality into dotage and second 

 childhood. The fire dies to smouldering coals. The 

 bright river loses itself in sand. 



Death. Why Azrael, the black angel, is stationed 

 at the exit of life. The warder selected by the struggle 

 for existence. The fear of death and the will to live. 



