316 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
The point of view of the intellectual movement 
known as Pessimism may be here briefly discussed. 
“To see all things as they really are,” to do away 
with all delusions, is the avowed purpose of pessimism. 
To the extent that it would bring men 
from dreams to realities, from supersti- 
tion to science, it has served a high pur- 
pose. It doubtless represents a great intellectual ad- 
vance over the crude optimistic theories which it was 
intended to supersede. In the light of pessimism the 
present moment is but a shadow passing across the face 
of eternity. Human power and glory and happiness 
are but transitory illusions. Pain and sorrow, which lie 
behind these at all times, are the only realities in life, for 
whenever the mind comes in contact with reality, pain 
is the inevitable product. Under the search light of 
pessimism, taints and defects are visible everywhere in 
the human body and soul, and in the equally human 
state. As everything we know is petty and ineffective 
and bad, it is as bad as it can be, and this world is the 
worst world possible. To us, impotent to know, impo- 
tent to do, and impotent to enjoy, the present moment 
has nothing to offer, and there is no other. If the 
Creator be all-wise, he can not be all-good, else some 
kinder fate would be reserved for man. 
From the standpoint of evolution, on the other hand, 
“every meanest day is the conflux of two eternities.” 
Every object in Nature, every event 
in human life, represents the meeting 
points of world forces, that have welled 
upward since the beginning of time. We are to know 
things as they really are, for the sake of knowing what 
they may become, and the forces of which they are the 
product. While pessimism concerns itself with things, 
evolution deals with forces, the unchanging realities by 
The philosophy 
of pessimism. 
The philosophy 
of evolution. 
