ON PRACTICAT, OPTIMISM. 1S 
5. We must start with a clear view of what we mean by the 
antithetical terms Optimism and Pessimism. It is patent 
that for minds of lmited capacity there can be no ali- 
embracing view of the universe. No finite beings can 
determine what is absolutely best, or absolutely worst. Such 
knowledge can only belong to an Omniscient, Hternal, Self- 
existent Being. But man can reason from phenomena to 
laws. He can trace tendencies and characterise them ; and 
from accumulated experiences and observations he can arrive 
at large conclusions which have for him a most important 
practical value. Thus, in estimating the worth of the world 
and of human life, he discerns both a malefic and a felicific 
tendency at work; and, accordingly as he considers the 
former or the latter to preponderate, does he become 
“pessimist ” or “optimist” in his speculations. Optimism 
is the theory that good is normal, and evil abnormal, and that 
the whole course of things make for good. Pessimism is the 
theory that evil is the normal condition of existence; that 
good is temporary, evanescent, illusive, and that Non-being is 
preferable to Being. | 
These two theories correspond to two sets of phenomena 
which come under the ratiocinative and reflective observation 
of men. Optimism is, logically, antecedent to Pessimism. 
It is more natural to think that things tend to good than to 
think that they tend to evil. It is more natural to be hope- 
ful than to be otherwise, and the saying has become pro- 
verbial that “hope springs eternal in the human breast.” 
Yet in human life and history this hopefulness is continually 
dashed with bitter antagonistic experiences, and the question 
again and again recurs—in one and another shape, but sub- 
stantially identical—Is life worth living ? 
4. The Pessimistic philosophy represented in Schopen- 
hauer and Hartmann is a reflection of the general unrest and 
disappointment of our age. It is, as has been often remarked, 
a reaction from the somewhat inconsiderate optimism of the 
last century. One reviewer, speaking of Schopenhauer, 
attributes the rise of much pessimistic literature to the 
“morbid disappointment which followed the French Revolu- 
subject. The principal ones are Sully’s Pessimism ; Dr. Gass’s Optimismus 
und Pessimismus ; Caro’s Pessimisme au XLX¢ Sitcle ; and Ribot’s Philo- 
sophie de Schopenhauer. I may also mention Leibnitz’s Theodicée in Janet's 
Extracts ; Flint’s Theism, and Anti-Theistic Theories ; Wright’s Book of 
Koheleth; Hartmann’s Die Selbstzersetzung des Christenthums und die 
Religion der Zukunft. I have also recently perused J. H. Clapperton’s 
Scientific Melrorism. 
