14

Optimism

Not long ago I read the following gloomy bit of pessimism from the pen
of a man bright enough to know better than to add to the mental malaria
of the world. He said:

Life is a hopeless battle in which we are foredoomed to defeat. And
the prize for which we strive "to have and to hold" -- what is it? A
thing that is neither enjoyed while had, nor missed when lost. So
worthless it is, so unsatisfying, so inadequate to purpose, so false to
hope and at its best so brief, that for consolation and compensation we
set up fantastic faiths of an aftertime in a better world from which no
confirming whisper has ever reached us out of the void. Heaven is a
prophecy uttered by the lips of despair, but Hell is an inference from
history.