New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1897-10-27
DIR. HILLS ON PESSIMISM.
A Remarkable Lecture on the Want Of
Happiness in the World Today.

- OAA1AA1NAO xJCOOu4O vi OuO " 0AV VI
Happiness in the World Today.
DR.. Hills Of Chicago is a great preach.
er. He is broad-minded and libe,a al.
His sermons, or lectures rather, deal with
vital questions Of the day, not with the
cold and unsatisfying creeds of the pest.
Recently he discoursed on the tendency
towards pessimism IL modern literature
and the evil effects thereof upon man
kind. He said
Cynics are reviving the ancient thought
that life's best gift is the gift Of suicide.
Materialistic students are endeavoring to
reduce this earthly palace to the dimen-
slons of a hut, urging that life's tears
outnumber it's smiles, that sorrows out
weigh joys, that the reasons for dying
are more numerous than the reasons for
living. . .@
Bitter discomfort mutters in our work
shops and factories, and languid signs
of WEAKNESS are heard in our parlors
and palaces. Man was made for happi-
ness; joy, mirth, and good cheer are
primary requisites to his work; the earth
Is garden of bounty and beauty. and
yet with Paul Des Jardines let us con-
fess that Eat no time has man beer more
miserably sad than at the present era"
One barrier that has helped to hold
back the happiness that ought to sweep
over our land like an advancing flood is
found in modern literature. Mans men,
tai mood must needs reflect the books
and philosophy he reads. If former gen.
erations were happy in their garrets, it
was because their favorite authors were
optimists, who saw life's good indeed,
yet also saw that evil in its heart was
also good. The great authors from
Homer and Paul down to Shakespeare
have been the children of exultant joy
as we'll as genius; all were large natured,
sweet, wholesome, healthy, happy.
All the giants are optimists because
they are conscious of enormous reserves,
and are equal to any emergency; but
weakness is pessimistic, because it rec
ognizes its scant resources. Indeed, pes.
simism may be defined as mediocrity
confessing itself unequal to its task and
exalting its confession into the dignity
of cult and creed. Sublimity and awe
may come by looking up to some Mount
Blanc, or looking down into some dread
full abyss.
Unable to hold the readers attention
by making "Jude the Obscure" aspire
and climb from soul height to height,
Thomas Hardy tries to secure the read
er's attention by hurting Jude down into
the abyss of SIN and passion, until, bruised
and bleeding, he passes out of life in a
fury of hatred and disgust. If Shakes
peare loved the rose, Hardy's favorite
flower is the toadstool, his favorite color
black, his favorite bird the vulture, his
favorite place of recreation the grave
yard. Even as powerful a book as Hall
Gaines unfortunately named ''The Chris
tian," instead of "a Christian" rings
false, and has a black mark of misery
lying across each page instead of the
white bars of sunshine and happiness.
Game depicts the bishop as self-seeker;
his statesman is wire-pulling politician;
his rich young man is human spider,
hungrily spinning web for the beauti-
full butterfly that fits about; and even
his social refolmer tolls with a fevered
and insane love of his kind.
Our daily papers, finding out what
the public want and will buy, exhibit
the same pessim1stic tendency. For
weeks and months Chicago has. been
rising up and lying down upon scan
dial consisting of an alleged murder,
soap vat, a wagon load of potash, and a
choice assortment of old bones from
the stock yards. All this, too, during
the days when the pageantry CT autumn
has never been more splendid, and when
the printing press offers mans library
score of new volumes, rich with unwont-
ed wisdom as to social progress and hap
plness. .:."s
Speaking for the colleges, distin-
guished educator has just said that to-
day the favorite philosophy Of our stu
dents is that of Schopenhauer. Now to
Arthur Schopenhauel God gave those
gifts named great personal beauty,
high order Of talent, wealth, and leisure,
that made it unnecessary ever to strike
a blow for his daily bread; gave all the
advantages Of travel and education, and