New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-10
PESSsIM1SM.
A VALUABLE BOOK.

v. NJ. A., u. ID.
preface. svo. PIP. ATT. ID. Appleton & Co.
For the general reader, English or American, DR.
Eully's treatise is probably the most convenient
and comprehensive extalit 1t combines, as the
title indicates, history with criticism 1t is marked
by the philosophic spirit, keen insight and
candor which invites confidence. The reason for
putting forward new edition Of this book rs
sufficiently shown in the preface. English ana
American thinkers have not at all commonly
recognized the extent TO which modern con'ineh'i'
thought has been and still is Affected py pes'i-
msm 1t has indeed been the fashion 10 aSsui'e
that pessimism has had its day, ana thab IL 10 no
longer q serious factor anywhere but 'nis' do
Or Sullv conclusively demonstrates is mistake,
md i. somewbat serions one. especially for Ameri-
rams who have constantly TO reckon WIN Ihe
Influences which are imported with the steady
rream of European immigration, and who can
not afford 70 ignore PHILOSOPHERS which in their
reaction upon the uneducated and the half-edu-
sate0 tend 10 engender all manner OF mlschlcVouS
and even dangerous experiments with the social
srstnn The fact is that while the naturally
optimistic Ahglo-Saxon temperament has hloherto
been little impressed by German, French ana
Italian pessimism, and while American ana Eng
lsh philosophers have found a sufficient answer
TO these systems in the potentiaities OF Progress
the continental mind has at no time hcid 'he
defence to be sufficient. and has been more anu
more disturbed by the arguments of the pesSimlsts
Not that pesslmism has been having all Jus
swn way. even in Germany, where most it flour
kles IL has found many antagonists there anu
mon many lines. The increase of discussion, too'
bos NJ late stimulated Engl'"h thought, as is
thow1, In the translations Of Schopenhauers ana
Hartmanns works, and by the appearance In
general literature of occasional faint reflections
Of the boiler and more uncompromisins German
tonc Such books Us Mr.. Mallocks is Lille
Worth Living?" cannot be regarded in the light
of serious discussion, any more THAN Sir John
Iubbocl's The Pleasures of Life" can be con-
idered as in any way an adequate statement OF
pptimist, or an adequate refutation OF pesslmlst
views John Stuart Mills Three Essays on
Religion may be said to have presented the
outlines Of modern pessimism more clearly ana
radically than any English book since pub
lished and as to the case for optimism, we are
not aware that any Englishman has better summed
IL m than the author of the volume before us
II is however significant of the essentially un-
scientific character of most of the antlpeSsl-
mistic literature in English that DR.. Sully fnds
IL necessary to give considerable space to an
explanation of his inevitable exclusion OF the
strictly theological lines of discussion. On THIS
continent such an explanation would not he called
for and if offered it would be thought almost
rrotesoue Yet in book intended for general
reading in either of the Englishspeaking coun-
tries it is Indispensable which serves to show that
the people of these countries however advanced
they may be in some things, are distinctly behind
hand in others
Pessimism has of course existed from very
hsrly period and there is no ground for supposing
that It will ever cease to exist inasmuch as the
problems upon which it rests are In many In
stances insoluble by finite reason The existence
of Evil for example, is a crux against which all
human thought has been shattered, down to the
present day Whole libraries have been written
about 1t without securing the least increase or
knowledge, the smallest approach to certitude.
The facts of experience again are terribly untrus-
worthy supports TO the optmist. Nature, red
In tooth and claw with rvin" affords him no
help. The progress of civilization furnishes proofs
of many evils ameliorated, no doubt; but them as
pessimist has objected, not few of these dimin-
ishcd evils were originally created by civilization
The Darwinian hypothesis hos not strengthened
optimism. Natural selection and the survival
of the ittest however interpreted, do not conduce
70 cheerful conception of the worlds purpose.
They SEEM from certain points of view, TO elimi-
nate what to most people is the vital cOnsdera-
ton, namely, personal significance. Nature
$50 careful of the type she seems, so careless OF
the single life appears to have in her arrange
nents no provision for individual claims TO protec-
ton or pcrpetuation. Civilization, too, has in
very few respects If at ALL lessened the ferocity
of the struggle for existence. Pessimism peces
sarly impeaches civilization, and when its gloomy
suggestions are filtered through the Opaque minds
of masses whose external conditions certainly ore
not cheering, 1t cannot be wondered at that the
concrete results of such teaching are wild Social
ist and Anarchist speculations and projections
Schopenhauer, after devotng lifetime to the
study Of the subject, could find no other solution
than the voluntary suicide Of the entire human
race nor could he guarantee that even that radi
cal resort would be the end of everything. Hart
mann, proceeding in part on different lines, ha:
been no more successful in finding a remedy fol
the evil of existence The old authorities upor
which optimism rested formerly are being rejected
and their credentials rudely challenged. From
purely rational point of view, the spread of pes
simisn consequently might be thought so unavoid
able that reaction against it was past hoping for
But in truth, even if Schopenhauer right Inf
philosophy would be self-destructive. For If tn
world is will and idea if VIII imposes upon mai
as a necessity the desire 70 I'VE, that imposition
involves the dominance of the complex feeling
and tendencies which result in optimism. Tn
persistence of the desire to live, however, is TAM
experience confirms this closely associated with
desire TO improve surroundings sand with thi
strong and possibly quite selfish prepossessiol
often goes another. not obviously selfish desire
namely, TO elevate spiritually both ourselves ant
our neighbors Now, no matter how induced o
whence originating, these three human tendencie
are in themselves sufficient TO insure the perpetua
predominance of optimism in this world an
though pessimism be as ineradicable evil,
pan no more prevail than the latter.
But though it is possible to make this clear t
cultivated understandings, the difficulty is that S
many understandings are not cultivated. Their
was nothing in the teachings of Voltaire, Didero
Rousseau and the encyclopedias TO justify I'll
excuses of the Revolution yet the second spran
bv direct descent from the first The Arcadia
the New Liberalism proved the ante-chamber to I'll
Reign of Terror and however strange the pit
nomenon, it was not the first time it had occurred