The Philosophy of Despair | Page 2

wane;
How oft hereafter rising look for us
Through this
same garden - and for one in vain!
And when like her, O Sáki, you shall pass
Among the guests,
star-scattered on the grass,
And in your blissful errand reach the spot

Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

* * *
And, again, in another poem from Carmen Silva's Roumanian
folk-songs:
Hopeless.
Into the mist I gazed, and fear came on me, 
Then said the mist: "I
weep for the lost sun."
We sat beneath our tent; Then he that hath no hope drew near us there,
And sat him down by us. We asked him: "Hast thou seen the plains, the
mountains?" And he made answer: "I have seen them all." And then his
cloak he showed us, and his shirt, Torn was the shirt, there, close above
the heart, Pierced was the breast, there, close above the heart - The
heart was gone. And yet he trembled not, the while we looked, And
sought the heart, the heart that was not there. He let us look. And he
that had no hope Smiled, that we grew so pale, and sang us songs. Then
we did envy him, that he could sing Without a heart to suffer what he
sang. And when he went, he cast his cloak about him, And those that
met him, they could never guess How that his shirt was torn about the
heart, And that his breast was pierced above the heart, And that the
heart was gone.
I gazed into the mist, and fear came on me,
Then said the mist: "I
weep for the lost sun."
This poem of Omar and of Fitzgerald is perhaps our best expression of
the sadness and the grandeur of insoluble problems. It is the sweetness
of philosophical sorrow which has no kinship with misery or distress.
In the strains of the saddest music the soul finds the keenest delight.
The same sweet, sorrowful pleasure is felt in the play of the mind about
the riddles which it cannot solve.
In the presence of the infinite problem of life, the voice of Science is
dumb, for Science is the coördinate and corrected expression of human
experience, and human experience must stop with the limitations of
human life. Man was not present "When the foundations of the Earth

were laid," and beyond the certainty that they were laid in wisdom and
power, man can say little about them. Man finds in the economy of
nature "no trace of a beginning; no prospect of an end!" He may feel
sure, with Hutton, that "time is as long as space is wide." But he cannot
conceive of space as actually without limit, nor can he imagine any
limiting conditions. He cannot think of a period before time began, nor
of a state in which time shall be no more. The mind fails before the idea
of time's eternal continuity. So time becomes to man merely the
sequence of the earthly events in which he and his ancestors have taken
part. Even thus limited it is sadly immortal, while man's stay on the
earth is but of "few days and full of trouble." "Oh, but the long, long
while this world shall last!" or as the grim humorist puts it, "we shall be
a long time dead."
Though the meaning of time, space, existence lies beyond our reach,
yet some sort of solution of the infinite problem the human heart
demands. We find in life a power for action, limited though this power
may be. Life is action, and action is impossible if devoid of motive or
hope.
It is my purpose here to indicate some part of the answer of Science to
the Philosophy of Despair. Direct reply Science has none. We cannot
argue against a singer or a poet. The poet sings of what he feels, but
Science speaks only of what we know. We feel infinity, but we cannot
know it, for to the highest human wisdom the ultimate truths of the
universe are no nearer than to the child. Science knows no ultimate
truths. These are beyond the reach of man, and all that man knows must
be stated in terms of his experience. But as to human experience and
conduct, Science has a word to say.
Therefore Science can speak of the causes and results of Pessimism. It
can touch the practical side of the riddle of life by asking certain
questions, the answers to which lie within the province of human
experience. Among these are the following:
Why is there a "Philosophy of Despair?"
Can Despair be wrought into healthful life?

In what part of the Universe are you and what are you doing?
Personal despair or discouragement may rise from failure of strength or
failure of plans. This is