."

* * * * *

* * * * *

I hear the voice of the Pessimist.

Pessimism is increasing daily. Any person who takes time to think on the
subject can not fail to see that human misery is increasing. With all
the boasted advantages of civilization, it has failed to bring happiness
into the lives of the people. The more enlightened people become, the
more they will recognize the fact that knowledge does not bring
happiness. Scientific discoveries do not tend to lighten the load of
human misery. Since

"Man's disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world--and all our woe."

sin has gone on increasing, consequently there has been more
unhappiness. People are asking themselves daily, "is life worth living,"
and most persons answer in the negative. Are there any who grasp the
prize for which they have struggled? If there are a few who succeed in
reaching to the height to which they aspire, they find happiness is just
as much beyond their reach as when they first started in their career.
In the middle ages the magicians who created monsters were haunted by
them forever after. We are all haunted by dreams and shadows. The dreams
of happiness and the shadows of disappointments. Looking back upon our
past and taking a retrospective glance at years gone by we find our
lives have been made up not of _great_ events--but of a succession of
disappointments. Each one is haunted by a phantom or ideal which they
are vainly striving to reach but seldom attain. The garden of hope seems
to bear well; we put forth our hands to reach the fruit and we find we
have only the ashes of Dead Hopes.

As Shelly says:

"First our pleasures, die--and then
Our hopes, and then our fears--and when
These are dead, the debt is due
Dust claims dust--and we die too."

It is bitter mockery to say that the man who struggles for daily bread
is happy. He may do his work uncomplainingly, but he cannot be happy. He
gets to be but little better that a machine and does his work
mechanically, perhaps never looking into his own heart, to ask the
question, "Is this a happy life?" Some writer has said that there are
two classes of people, those who are driven to death and those who are
bored to death. There can be no sympathy between the rich and poor.
There is an impassible gulf that can never be crossed. The