The Portland daily press., 1886-11-15
PEssIMIsm.
Rev. Or. Dalton's Second Saturday
Lecture.

Dr. Dalton delivered the second lecture i'm
his Saturday course to a good audience. The
lecturer began by saying that all must have
noticed the frequent use within few years
of certain words which formerly were sell
dom heard. Pessimism, Optimism, Social
ism, Communism, and Evolution are exam
pies. TO unfold and examine the systems
which these words indicate will be the pur-
pose Of the present and future lectures.
Pessimism and Optimism are opposed to
each other. They stand for different and
antagonistic views of life The question
is, which is more common or diffused, happi-
ness or misery, good or evil? Is the world
growing better or worse? Is there more rea-
son to hope or despair of human progress?
According to the answer man gives to these
and related questions, he is an optimist or
pessimist. Pessimism takes the dark view
and has several aspects. Individual peSs-
mism complains of personal griefs. "Look
and see all We who pass by, if there is am
sorrow like unto my sorrow" mo one be-
fore was ever afflicted as | have BEEN"
Family pessimism says the same of itself.
National pessimism predicts the speedy de-
cline OF ones country or race, and declares
that it is already on the road to ruin. 9th
ers go so far as to say that the whole human
race, all mankind, are marked for final. il
not speedy extinction by mutual or even
self destruction universal suicide.
Again, pessimism may be regarded as %
Popular, % Poetic, 90 Philosophical "a Re
llgious. PesSlmism is popular whenever and
wherever the belief is widely diffused that
life is not blessing, that the conditions of
existence are too hard for human happiness;
that real satisfaction in life is not attainable;
that the evils of society are increasing and
human misery as consequence. Social pessi-
mism says that the rich are growing richer
and that there Is little or no hope for the
humber classes of society. Ignorance, in
temperance, poverty and crime are rife and
on the increase.
e. Poetic peSsimism. The Office of poe
try is to idealize life and lift us above its
petty cares. Yet nowhere does pessmism
show itself more than in literature, and in
no department of literature more than in poe
try. 1t must be confessed that the leading
namesin the literature of each age and
country are as often pessimistic as optimis-
tic. Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Byron
Swift and De Foe are examples in English
literature, as Voltaire, Montague, Pascal
Rabeais are in the French; ana Leopard
Tasso, Machiavelli and Dante in the Italian
The writings of Homer, Kschy.us, Sophie
Giles, Arlstophanes, Lucretius, Horace, Juve-
nal and Tacltus reveal the same sentiment as
common to the classical writers of antiquity
Take Shakespeare's heroines,- e. g., and
consider the fate of Desdemona, Juliec Cor
della, Ophelia and the rest Also the per-
senal fortunes of Hamlet, the gracious Dun
can, Othelo ct id omne genus. In the old
times we have Iphigenia, Aleestis, Gdipus,
Antlgone and her brother, Prometheus, Aga
memnon, Ajax and host of Others.
OF course there is an explanation of this
drift in dramatic poetry. 1t is of the essence
OF the tragic drama to paint the sorrows, de-
feats and all the dark shadows of life. This
nf YAnn adj
sense Of pity and terror, which can be sue
cessfully appealed to in no other way.
81 philosophical peSSSnlisn The Germans
Schopenhauer and Vonhartmann are the phil
osophers who have formulated this system
IN our day. The system itself is too elabo-
rate anj well wrought to admit of adequate
treatment in the littlo space allowed to it in
popular lecture. Suffice it to say that it is
no trifing matter. Schopenhauer Vonhart-
man and their allies are exceedingly able
ren and writers, and they have influenced
many minds. The system Is atheistic, and
assumes that the world and man are not the
product of an intelligent mind, but evolved
by blind force, which so operates as to make
human happiness q chimera ever pursued
but never attained. The freedom of the will
is an Illusion. All are driven on like galley
slaves to foregone conclusion, an inevitable
and Irresistible destiny. As brain power is
evolved, the sum OF acute misery is increased
and the probable end for the human race is
self-destruction, the only way to escape from
intolerabe suffering
a. Religious peSsiBlisn. According 10
this the world is only wicked and vet grow
ing more wicked. Pure religion will never
prevail among men. They are too depraved
to receive it, and the world is doomed. Only
a few will be saved. Error abounds and in
creases. Truth can hardly get a hearing
and Will never prevail till the present order
is entirely overthrown by the coming in of
new. dispensation and the second descent of
Christ upon earth.
Such is brief outline of the salient fea-
lures of thought and belief known as Pessi-
mism. OF course its advocates have some
thing and even much to say in its behalf, or
it could not have flourished so long or SO
generally
Optimists, however, are firm in opposing
It, and the next lecture will disclose many Of
the facts and considerations which 20 far to
refute the theory of Pessimism.