THE THE PESSIMIST

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 89

THE THE PESSIMIST

By Constance Clyde.

It would teem as if the gentle life should breed the gentle thinker, and the optimist prove a product of rural lanes and country ways It is a curious fact, however, that authors noted for geniality and good-will, with hearts full of love for and .truss* in humanity have been, almost invariably, men of the cities. Not only have they been thrust into city life, but all their interests are in it Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Dr Johnson, Goldsmith, Lamb—these are a few of the city-livers who were also humanity-lovers. Holmes considered the pavement healthier than the country road, while to Dr Johnson, lover of life, to whom the thought of death was a haunting terror, no view was so alluring as that of his own Fleet street. Gentlest of dreamers, most lovable of humanitarians was surely Charles Lamb. One would fancy that his sensitive spirit would have sought comfort in the peace of Nature. Far otherwise, we know, was the case. He was serious as well as humorous when he desired to have the world "well aired" before he rose, and were the optimist writers of the present and the past,' haters cr contemners of the country. Consider now the more pessimistic writers, and we find that almost invariably they lead simple, peaceful lives, or else possess strong leanings towards rural pursuits. Pope loved his garden, ivnd occupied himself childishly enough in constructing grottos and temples therein. All the beauties of his Twickenham retreat, however, could not prevent his believing that Man was mainly a fool and Woman altogether a rake. Byron was another of the many in whom love of Nature and Pessimism were united. " I love not Man the less, but Nature more," he asserts; but there is ample proof that his love of mankind is much darkened by contempt. Even his love poems are tainted with the vice: "Though wom.-sn thou didst not forsake"— and the adored esteemed, not because she is a woman, but in spite of it. Chief among the pessimists, of course, a great representative of others less well known, is the "rural dean," of whom De Quincey wrote that he had " a total incapacity for dealing with the grandeurs of the human spirit," Of him Thackeray (beneath the thinnest veil of cynicism a profound humanitarian) exclaims that for his anti-man fable of the Houyhnhnms this dean, " great as he is, should be hooted." Thus does the humane citizen writer ever condemn his dark-minded brother of the more recluso life. Women in the main lead quieter and more secluded lives than men. This explains the greater pessimism of their writings, the melancholy 'f the older type of woman novelist, the bitterness of those more up to date. A well-known example of this is the case of the Bronte sisters. They could not live the city life. One almost died when obliged to do so. Both gave us the cynic's view of human nature, modified a little by strong Christian beiief, but modified, as it were, against their will. Where did Emily, Charlotte, and even Anno gain their insight into the darkness of human nature? How could simple girls in a lonely parsonage think, etc., etc.? Answer, it is just such lonely girls that do think such things, even as lonely girls are thinking them in Australian back-blocks to-day I Jane Austen is a gentler, yet even more determined pessimist Her coldness towards humane sentiment is evident throughout her books, as, for instance, in 'the speech of the heroine meant to be sympathetic when she heard of heavy fighting 'abroad: "What a good thing one knows none of these people, and need not be sorry for them." No Florence Nightingale for Jane Austen 1 Besides this general lack of lhe humanity sense, there is pessimism of a milder sort concerning family affection, more especially that which is accounted chief, the maternal. It is a curious fact that not once in her gallery of representative feminine characters do we come upon that of a really good mother. It. is an interesting fact, as bearing out this theory, that colonists who lead simpler and more rural lives than do Homolanders supply the Home market with the greater proportion of melancholy and pessimistic writing. " More colonial writers fail from this than from any other cause," said one literary agent. "Do the young authors Down Under never smile'/" asked another. Solitude, or comparative -olitude, as it is in the colonies, may make us dusire more the companionship of individual members of the human race, but it has a curious effect, in producing some pessimism regarding the race in general. We seem to sen through its hollowncss and shams so much more clearly when absent from' it than when present Aloofness from mankind creates the hater of mankind. The hermitage makes the hermit—-not, as is popularly supposed, the other way round. Optimism is" a thing of the cities, and. therefore, almost as a consequence of late development. Our kind and hopeful sayings regarding mankind are comparatively recent in the world's history. Some aver that optimism came in only with Christianity; the first Christian was the first optimist. On the other hand, the maxims that deal with the meanness of mankind and the hollowness of life can all be traced back thousands of years. "All animals know what is good for them except only Man." Thus Pliny the Elder; while from far-back sources comes the saying, "Man is his own chief enemy." "No poorer, feebler thing than Man." "How can we pity those that die and not those that are born?'' So ru n the savings of thousands of years ago. Early' in° the world's history, while it was yet solitude, pessimism was born and ruled. At the very beginning of things Man found himself out._ While life was yet new to him he questioned whether it were worth living, and decided ofttimes in the negative. Pessimism, therefore, is a creature of tho solitude; world-weariness characteristic of those who have never known tho world, and Man-haling of those that know nothing of Man. It is a consoling thought that tho moro we see of mankind tho moro wo lovo it, but the roads to pessimism are moro than one, and even a virtue will sometimes lead us there. Thus Swift began bv denouncing only certain types of humanity tho Kinc-'s favourite, tho pseudo philosopher, and ro forth; but in the last fable ho sweeps all humanity in tho dirt. This is often the way with tho social reformer. He begins by hating Man the Oppressor! He ends by hating Man!