LIBRARY NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13960, 20 July 1907, Page 5

LIBRARY NOTES.

"THE PHILOSOPHY OP DISENCHANT. iIHNT." Among Ihe recent additions io tho Duncdiu -Athemeum library 15 a book by Kdgar tlevertson Saltusentitled "The Philosophy of Disenchantment-." Although first published over 20 years ago, it is probable that very few people in Dunedin have read this work. It may, therefore, fittingly form the subject of a brief notice in "Library Notes;" In the opening- chapter of tho *" book tl,e author gives a brief account of tho ideas and opinions in which pessimism was cradled. As a creed, lie points out, its bjrthplaeo was to ho sought on the -banks 0: tho Ganges, or far back in the flowerlands of Aepaul, "where tire initiate, with every .desire lulled, awaits Nirvana and murmurs only, 'Life is evil.'" Mr Saltus further notes that every creed bad given an unfavourable interpretation to life. "Aside from .tho glorious lessons of Christianity, its teaching, in brief, is that the world is a vale- of tears, that nothing hero can yield any real satisfaction, and that happiness, which is not for mortals, -is solely the reeompens'o of the ransomed soul. To tho Brahmin, while there is always hope of absorption in the universal spirit, life mean- ' while is .a. regrettable accident.' But in Buddhism, which is perhaps tho most naivo and yet the most sublime of all religions, and which through its-very combination of - simplicity and grandeur'appeals to a.larger number of adherents than any other, pessimism ie tho beginning, a s it is the 1 end. .. ; . Life to tho Christian is a probation, to the Brahmin a burden, to the Buddhist a - dream, and to the pessimist'a nightmare." hi tho three succeeding chapters Mr Saltus deals with tho philosophy of Scliopenhauor, whom ho calls " Tho High Priest of Pessimism." Ho has, ho says, attempted to winnow; some of tho liner fibres' of ithoOgbt from the six volumes which form tho com-. pleto edition of Schopenhauer's .works, his aim being to draw in outline the principal features of the pessimistic doctrine, and 111 so doing "to present in the absenoe of complete translations a little of that vigour and colour which lias raised the original to a the prominent position it-holds among the foremost.'works of modern thought."' Mr SaHus devotes but a single chapter to the philosophy of Dr Van Hartraann,who," ho says, "may in mail) respects bo regarded as Schopenhauer's direct descendant." Dr Hartmann, his expositor obperves, is in 110 souse a' misanthrope; " 110 leads_ a quiet and easy life, demonstrating by his own example -that pessimism is not a gospel of desolation." As to his views, Mr .Saltus notes, that while Hartmaun argues " that the .world is tho best' ono possible, 'he has no difficulty in showing that life itself is irrccla'unably miserable. The originality of his system consists in a theory of optimistic evolution as counterbalanced by ii pessimistic analysis of lite, and' also in tho manner in which, with p. ■ glut of curious argument, ho concludes that as the world's nrogressus does not' tend to either universal or even individual happiness, the groat aim of science should be to omanefpate man from tlie lovo' of' life, and.in this wi6c load the world back tochaos." In the final chapter of the book Mr Saltus discusses the question, "Is lifo an affliction?" The conclusion 110 comes to is that, " broadly spoaking, and disregarding its necessary exceptions, lifo may bo said to 'be always valuable to tho_.obtu6e, often valueless t,o the sensitive; while to him who commiserates with all mankind, and sympathises with everything .that is, life never appears -otherwise than as an immense and terrible affliction." With regard to "The Philosophy of Disenchantment," it. must lie said that Mr Saltus has given, a- very interesting exposition of the subject. ' OTHER ACCESSIONS TO THE LIBRARY.

The following is a list of tho other accessions to the library during the past week: Social and Political.. Scicncc.—" Peers or People?" (dealing with tho question of tho reform of tho .House of Lords), by William T. Stead.

■ Philosophy and llebgio.n.—" The Old Faith and the New Theology" (containing the views of a number of Congregational ministers), edited by Charles H. Vines. Fiction—"Blindmnn's Marriage," by Florence Warden; "Bettina," by Eleanor Hoyt Braincrd: "Tho Child of Promise,"■ by>. Notta LvsettMargery Manc6ty," bv Oswald Wildridac; "The Tangled Skein," by Baroness Orczy; "The Privateers," by H. B. Mariott Watson; "The Upstart," by Henry M. IIy<le; "The Vigil," by Harold Bcgbie; and "A Yankee Napoleon," by John F. Maepherson.