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diff --git a/31622.txt b/31622.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9274c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/31622.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1315 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Optimism, by Helen Keller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Optimism + An Essay + +Author: Helen Keller + +Release Date: March 13, 2010 [EBook #31622] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OPTIMISM *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Irma Spehar and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + Optimism + + + [Illustration] + + + Optimism + An Essay + By Helen Keller + Author of + "The Story of My Life" + + + [Illustration] + + + New York + T. Y. Crowell and Company + Mdcccciii + + Copyright, 1903, by Helen Keller + + Published November, 1903 + + D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston + + + + +To My Teacher + + + + +Contents + + + Part i + Optimism Within 11 + + + Part ii + Optimism Without 25 + + + Part iii + The Practice of Optimism 53 + + + + +Part i. Optimism Within + +[Illustration] + + + + +Part i + +Optimism Within + + +Could we choose our environment, and were desire in human undertakings +synonymous with endowment, all men would, I suppose, be optimists. +Certainly most of us regard happiness as the proper end of all earthly +enterprise. The will to be happy animates alike the philosopher, the +prince and the chimney-sweep. No matter how dull, or how mean, or how +wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right. + +It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people +cherish, and in what singular places they look for this well-spring of +their life. Many look for it in the hoarding of riches, some in the +pride of power, and others in the achievements of art and literature; +a few seek it in the exploration of their own minds, or in the search +for knowledge. + +Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and +material possession. Could they win some visible goal which they have +set on the horizon, how happy they would be! Lacking this gift or that +circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so +measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a +corner with folded hands and weep. If I am happy in spite of my +deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so +thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life,--if, in short, I am +an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing. +As sinners stand up in meeting and testify to the goodness of God, so +one who is called afflicted may rise up in gladness of conviction and +testify to the goodness of life. + +Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face +of all things. Then love came and set my soul free. Once I knew only +darkness and stillness. Now I know hope and joy. Once I fretted and +beat myself against the wall that shut me in. Now I rejoice in the +consciousness that I can think, act and attain heaven. My life was +without past or future; death, the pessimist would say, "a +consummation devoutly to be wished." But a little word from the +fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and +my heart leaped to the rapture of living. Night fled before the day +of thought, and love and joy and hope came up in a passion of +obedience to knowledge. Can anyone who has escaped such captivity, who +has felt the thrill and glory of freedom, be a pessimist? + +My early experience was thus a leap from bad to good. If I tried, I +could not check the momentum of my first leap out of the dark; to move +breast forward is a habit learned suddenly at that first moment of +release and rush into the light. With the first word I used +intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope. Darkness cannot +shut me in again. I have had a glimpse of the shore, and can now live +by the hope of reaching it. + +So my optimism is no mild and unreasoning satisfaction. A poet once +said I must be happy because I did not see the bare, cold present, but +lived in a beautiful dream. I do live in a beautiful dream; but that +dream is the actual, the present,--not cold, but warm; not bare, but +furnished with a thousand blessings. The very evil which the poet +supposed would be a cruel disillusionment is necessary to the fullest +knowledge of joy. Only by contact with evil could I have learned to +feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love and goodness. + +It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, +because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a +dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference. It is not enough to +say that the twentieth century is the best age in the history of +mankind, and to take refuge from the evils of the world in skyey +dreams of good. How many good men, prosperous and contented, looked +around and saw naught but good, while millions of their fellowmen were +bartered and sold like cattle! No doubt, there were comfortable +optimists who thought Wilberforce a meddlesome fanatic when he was +working with might and main to free the slaves. I distrust the rash +optimism in this country that cries, "Hurrah, we're all right! This is +the greatest nation on earth," when there are grievances that call +loudly for redress. That is false optimism. Optimism that does not +count the cost is like a house builded on sand. A man must understand +evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an +optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith +that is in him. + +I know what evil is. Once or twice I have wrestled with it, and for a +time felt its chilling touch on my life; so I speak with knowledge +when I say that evil is of no consequence, except as a sort of mental +gymnastic. For the very reason that I have come in contact with it, I +am more truly an optimist. I can say with conviction that the struggle +which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us +strong, patient, helpful men and women. It lets us into the soul of +things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it +is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest +on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of +good and a willing effort always to cooeperate with the good, that it +may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the +best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my +life. The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts +into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of +the good. + +Thus my optimism is grounded in two worlds, myself and what is about +me. I demand that the world be good, and lo, it obeys. I proclaim the +world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation +overwhelmingly true. To what is good I open the doors of my being, and +jealously shut them against what is bad. Such is the force of this +beautiful and wilful conviction, it carries itself in the face of all +opposition. I am never discouraged by absence of good. I never can be +argued into hopelessness. Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of +timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the +large mind transcend. + +As my college days draw to a close, I find myself looking forward with +beating heart and bright anticipations to what the future holds of +activity for me. My share in the work of the world may be limited; but +the fact that it is work makes it precious. Nay, the desire and will +to work is optimism itself. + +Two generations ago Carlyle flung forth his gospel of work. To the +dreamers of the Revolution, who built cloud-castles of happiness, and, +when the inevitable winds rent the castles asunder, turned +pessimists--to those ineffectual Endymions, Alastors and Werthers, +this Scots peasant, man of dreams in the hard, practical world, cried +aloud his creed of labor. "Be no longer a Chaos, but a World. Produce! +produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a +product, produce it, in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee; +out with it, then. Up, up! whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it +with thy whole might. Work while it is called To-day; for the Night +cometh wherein no man may work." + +Some have said Carlyle was taking refuge from a hard world by bidding +men grind and toil, eyes to the earth, and so forget their misery. +This is not Carlyle's thought. "Fool!" he cries, "the Ideal is in +thyself; the Impediment is also in thyself. Work out the Ideal in the +poor, miserable Actual; live, think, believe, and be free!" It is +plain what he says, that work, production, brings life out of chaos, +makes the individual a world, an order; and order is optimism. + +I, too, can work, and because I love to labor with my head and my +hands, I am an optimist in spite of all. I used to think I should be +thwarted in my desire to do something useful. But I have found out +that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet +the work open to me is endless. The gladdest laborer in the vineyard +may be a cripple. Even should the others outstrip him, yet the +vineyard ripens in the sun each year, and the full clusters weigh +into his hand. Darwin could work only half an hour at a time; yet in +many diligent half-hours he laid anew the foundations of philosophy. I +long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and +joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. It +is my service to think how I can best fulfil the demands that each day +makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot. Green, +the historian,[1] tells us that the world is moved along, not only by +the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny +pushes of each honest worker; and that thought alone suffices to guide +me in this dark world and wide. I love the good that others do; for +their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the +true and the good will stand sure. + + [1] Life and Letters of John Richard Green. Edited by Leslie Stephen. + +I trust, and nothing that happens disturbs my trust. I recognize the +beneficence of the power which we all worship as supreme--Order, Fate, +the Great Spirit, Nature, God. I recognize this power in the sun that +makes all things grow and keeps life afoot. I make a friend of this +indefinable force, and straightway I feel glad, brave and ready for +any lot Heaven may decree for me. This is my religion of optimism. + + + + +Part ii. Optimism Without + +[Illustration] + + + + +Part ii + +Optimism Without + + +Optimism, then, is a fact within my own heart. But as I look out upon +life, my heart meets no contradiction. The outward world justifies my +inward universe of good. All through the years I have spent in +college, my reading has been a continuous discovery of good. In +literature, philosophy, religion and history I find the mighty +witnesses to my faith. + +Philosophy is the history of a deaf-blind person writ large. From the +talks of Socrates up through Plato, Berkeley and Kant, philosophy +records the efforts of human intelligence to be free of the clogging +material world and fly forth into a universe of pure idea. A +deaf-blind person ought to find special meaning in Plato's Ideal +World. These things which you see and hear and touch are not the +reality of realities, but imperfect manifestations of the Idea, the +Principle, the Spiritual; the Idea is the truth, the rest is delusion. + +If this be so, my brethren who enjoy the fullest use of the senses are +not aware of any reality which may not equally well be in reach of my +mind. Philosophy gives to the mind the prerogative of seeing truth, +and bears us into a realm where I, who am blind, am not different from +you who see. When I learned from Berkeley that your eyes receive an +inverted image of things which your brain unconsciously corrects, I +began to suspect that the eye is not a very reliable instrument after +all, and I felt as one who had been restored to equality with others, +glad, not because the senses avail them so little, but because in +God's eternal world, mind and spirit avail so much. It seemed to me +that philosophy had been written for my special consolation, whereby I +get even with some modern philosophers who apparently think that I was +intended as an experimental case for their special instruction! But in +a little measure my small voice of individual experience does join in +the declaration of philosophy that the good is the only world, and +that world is a world of spirit. It is also a universe where order is +All, where an unbroken logic holds the parts together, where disorder +defines itself as non-existence, where evil, as St. Augustine held, is +delusion, and therefore is not. + +The meaning of philosophy to me is not only in its principles, but +also in the happy isolation of its great expounders. They were seldom +of the world, even when like Plato and Leibnitz they moved in its +courts and drawing-rooms. To the tumult of life they were deaf, and +they were blind to its distraction and perplexing diversities. Sitting +alone, but not in darkness, they learned to find everything in +themselves, and failing to find it even there, they still trusted in +meeting the truth face to face when they should leave the earth behind +and become partakers in the wisdom of God. The great mystics lived +alone, deaf and blind, but dwelling with God. + +I understand how it was possible for Spinoza to find deep and +sustained happiness when he was excommunicated, poor, despised and +suspected alike by Jew and Christian; not that the kind world of men +ever treated me so, but that his isolation from the universe of +sensuous joys is somewhat analogous to mine. He loved the good for its +own sake. Like many great spirits he accepted his place in the world, +and confided himself childlike to a higher power, believing that it +worked through his hands and predominated in his being. He trusted +implicitly, and that is what I do. Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to +me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the +individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but +a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in +earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our +hearts, "the source and centre of all minds, their only point of +rest." + +Thus from philosophy I learn that we see only shadows and know only +in part, and that all things change; but the mind, the unconquerable +mind, compasses all truth, embraces the universe as it is, converts +the shadows to realities and makes tumultuous changes seem but moments +in an eternal silence, or short lines in the infinite theme of +perfection, and the evil but "a halt on the way to good." Though with +my hand I grasp only a small part of the universe, with my spirit I +see the whole, and in my thought I can compass the beneficent laws by +which it is governed. The confidence and trust which these conceptions +inspire teach me to rest safe in my life as in a fate, and protect me +from spectral doubts and fears. Verily, blessed are ye that have not +seen, and yet have believed. + +All the world's great philosophers have been lovers of God and +believers in man's inner goodness. To know the history of philosophy +is to know that the highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the +tribes and the nations, have been optimists. + +The growth of philosophy is the story of man's spiritual life. Outside +lies that great mass of events which we call History. As I look on +this mass, I see it take form and shape itself in the ways of God. The +history of man is an epic of progress. In the world within and the +world without I see a wonderful correspondence, a glorious symbolism +which reveals the human and the divine communing together, the lesson +of philosophy repeated in fact. In all the parts that compose the +history of mankind hides the spirit of good, and gives meaning to the +whole. + +Far back in the twilight of history I see the savage fleeing from the +forces of nature which he has not learned to control, and seeking to +propitiate supernatural beings which are but the creation of his +superstitious fear. With a shift of imagination I see the savage +emancipated, civilized. He no longer worships the grim deities of +ignorance. Through suffering he has learned to build a roof over his +head, to defend his life and his home, and over his state he has +erected a temple in which he worships the joyous gods of light and +song. From suffering he has learned justice; from the struggle with +his fellows he has learned the distinction between right and wrong +which makes him a moral being. He is gifted with the genius of Greece. + +But Greece was not perfect. Her poetical and religious ideals were far +above her practice; therefore she died, that her ideals might survive +to ennoble coming ages. + +Rome, too, left the world a rich inheritance. Through the +vicissitudes of history her laws and ordered government have stood a +majestic object-lesson for the ages. But when the stern, frugal +character of her people ceased to be the bone and sinew of her +civilization, Rome fell. + +Then came the new nations of the North and founded a more permanent +society. The base of Greek and Roman society was the slave, crushed +into the condition of the wretches who "labored, foredone, in the +field and at the workshop, like haltered horses, if blind, so much the +quieter." The base of the new society was the freeman who fought, +tilled, judged and grew from more to more. He wrought a state out of +tribal kinship and fostered an independence and self-reliance which no +oppression could destroy. The story of man's slow ascent from savagery +through barbarism and self-mastery to civilization is the embodiment +of the spirit of optimism. From the first hour of the new nations each +century has seen a better Europe, until the development of the world +demanded America. + +Tolstoi said the other day that America, once the hope of the world, +was in bondage to Mammon. Tolstoi and other Europeans have still much +to learn about this great, free country of ours before they understand +the unique civic struggle which America is undergoing. She is +confronted with the mighty task of assimilating all the foreigners +that are drawn together from every country, and welding them into one +people with one national spirit. We have the right to demand the +forbearance of critics until the United States has demonstrated +whether she can make one people out of all the nations of the earth. +London economists are alarmed at less than five hundred thousand +foreign-born in a population of six million, and discuss earnestly the +danger of too many aliens. But what is their problem in comparison +with that of New York, which counts nearly one million five hundred +thousand foreigners among its three and a half million citizens? Think +of it! Every third person in our American metropolis is an alien. By +these figures alone America's greatness can be measured. + +It is true, America has devoted herself largely to the solution of +material problems--breaking the fields, opening mines, irrigating +deserts, spanning the continent with railroads; but she is doing these +things in a new way, by educating her people, by placing at the +service of every man's need every resource of human skill. She is +transmuting her industrial wealth into the education of her workmen, +so that unskilled people shall have no place in American life, so that +all men shall bring mind and soul to the control of matter. Her +children are not drudges and slaves. The Constitution has declared it, +and the spirit of our institutions has confirmed it. The best the land +can teach them they shall know. They shall learn that there is no +upper class in their country, and no lower, and they shall understand +how it is that God and His world are for everybody. + +America might do all this, and still be selfish, still be a worshipper +of Mammon. But America is the home of charity as well as of commerce. +In the midst of roaring traffic, side by side with noisy factory and +sky-reaching warehouse, one sees the school, the library, the +hospital, the park-works of public benevolence which represent wealth +wrought into ideas that shall endure forever. Behold what America has +already done to alleviate suffering and restore the afflicted to +society--given sight to the fingers of the blind, language to the dumb +lip, and mind to the idiot clay, and tell me if indeed she worships +Mammon only. Who shall measure the sympathy, skill and intelligence +with which she ministers to all who come to her, and lessens the +ever-swelling tide of poverty, misery and degradation which every year +rolls against her gates from all the nations? + +When I reflect on all these facts, I cannot but think that, Tolstoi +and other theorists to the contrary, it is a splendid thing to be an +American. In America the optimist finds abundant reason for confidence +in the present and hope for the future, and this hope, this +confidence, may well extend over all the great nations of the earth. + +If we compare our own time with the past, we find in modern statistics +a solid foundation for a confident and buoyant world-optimism. Beneath +the doubt, the unrest, the materialism, which surround us still glows +and burns at the world's best life a steadfast faith. To hear the +pessimist, one would think civilization had bivouacked in the Middle +Ages, and had not had marching orders since. He does not realize that +the progress of evolution is not an uninterrupted march. + + "Now touching goal, now backward hurl'd, + Toils the indomitable world." + +I have recently read an address by one whose knowledge it would be +presumptuous to challenge.[2] In it I find abundant evidence of +progress. + + [2] Address by the Hon. Carroll D. Wright before the + Unitarian Conference, September, 1903. + +During the past fifty years crime has decreased. True, the records of +to-day contain a longer list of crime. But our statistics are more +complete and accurate than the statistics of times past. Besides, +there are many offences on the list which half a century ago would not +have been thought of as crimes. This shows that the public conscience +is more sensitive than it ever was. + +Our definition of crime has grown stricter, our punishment of it more +lenient and intelligent. The old feeling of revenge has largely +disappeared. It is no longer an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. +The criminal is treated as one who is diseased. He is confined not +merely for punishment, but because he is a menace to society. While he +is under restraint, he is treated with humane care and disciplined so +that his mind shall be cured of its disease, and he shall be restored +to society able to do his part of its work. + +Another sign of awakened and enlightened public conscience is the +effort to provide the working-class with better houses. Did it occur +to any one a hundred years ago to think whether the dwellings of the +poor were sanitary, convenient or sunny? Do not forget that in the +"good old times" cholera and typhus devastated whole counties, and +that pestilence walked abroad in the capitals of Europe. + +Not only have our laboring-classes better houses and better places to +work in; but employers recognize the right of the employed to seek +more than the bare wage of existence. In the darkness and turmoil of +our modern industrial strifes we discern but dimly the principles that +underlie the struggle. The recognition of the right of all men to +life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a spirit of conciliation +such as Burke dreamed of, the willingness on the part of the strong +to make concessions to the weak, the realization that the rights of +the employer are bound up in the rights of the employed--in these the +optimist beholds the signs of our times. + +Another right which the State has recognized as belonging to each man +is the right to an education. In the enlightened parts of Europe and +in America every city, every town, every village, has its school; and +it is no longer a class who have access to knowledge, for to the +children of the poorest laborer the school-door stands open. From the +civilized nations universal education is driving the dull host of +illiteracy. + +Education broadens to include all men, and deepens to reach all +truths. Scholars are no longer confined to Greek, Latin and +mathematics, but they also study science; and science converts the +dreams of the poet, the theory of the mathematician and the fiction of +the economist into ships, hospitals and instruments that enable one +skilled hand to perform the work of a thousand. The student of to-day +is not asked if he has learned his grammar. Is he a mere +grammar-machine, a dry catalogue of scientific facts, or has he +acquired the qualities of manliness? His supreme lesson is to grapple +with great public questions, to keep his mind hospitable to new ideas +and new views of truth, to restore the finer ideals that are lost +sight of in the struggle for wealth and to promote justice between man +and man. He learns that there may be substitutes for human +labor--horse-power and machinery and books; but "there are no +substitutes for common sense, patience, integrity, courage." + +Who can doubt the vastness of the achievements of education when one +considers how different the condition of the blind and the deaf is +from what it was a century ago? They were then objects of +superstitious pity, and shared the lowest beggar's lot. Everybody +looked upon their case as hopeless, and this view plunged them deeper +in despair. The blind themselves laughed in the face of Hauey when he +offered to teach them to read. How pitiable is the cramped sense of +imprisonment in circumstances which teaches men to expect no good and +to treat any attempt to relieve them as the vagary of a disordered +mind! But now, behold the transformation; see how institutions and +industrial establishments for the blind have sprung up as if by magic; +see how many of the deaf have learned not only to read and write, but +to speak; and remember that the faith and patience of Dr. Howe have +borne fruit in the efforts that are being made everywhere to educate +the deaf-blind and equip them for the struggle. Do you wonder that I +am full of hope and lifted up? + +The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and +died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of +courage,--the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and +their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principle of +community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men +think. No loss by flood and lightning, no destruction of cities and +temples by the hostile forces of nature, has deprived man of so many +noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance has destroyed. + +With wonder and sorrow I go back in thought to the ages of +intolerance and bigotry. I see Jesus received with scorn and nailed +on the cross. I see his followers hounded and tortured and burned. I +am present where the finer spirits that revolt from the superstition +of the Middle Ages are accused of impiety and stricken down. I behold +the children of Israel reviled and persecuted unto death by those who +pretend Christianity with the tongue; I see them driven from land to +land, hunted from refuge to refuge, summoned to the felon's place, +exposed to the whip, mocked as they utter amid the pain of martyrdom a +confession of the faith which they have kept with such splendid +constancy. The same bigotry that oppresses the Jews falls tiger-like +upon Christian nonconformists of purest lives and wipes out the +Albigenses and the peaceful Vaudois, "whose bones lie on the mountains +cold." I see the clouds part slowly, and I hear a cry of protest +against the bigot. The restraining hand of tolerance is laid upon the +inquisitor, and the humanist utters a message of peace to the +persecuted. Instead of the cry, "Burn the heretic!" men study the +human soul with sympathy, and there enters into their hearts a new +reverence for that which is unseen. + +The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader +significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or +creed; and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to +say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of +conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness. Ancient +prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before +the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice +men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in +their own beliefs. The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the +next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood +between sincere men of all denominations. The optimist rejoices in the +affectionate sympathy between Catholic heart and Protestant heart +which finds a gratifying expression in the universal respect and warm +admiration for Leo XIII on the part of good men the world over. The +centenary celebrations of the births of Emerson and Channing are +beautiful examples of the tribute which men of all creeds pay to the +memory of a pure soul. + +Thus in my outlook upon our times I find that I am glad to be a +citizen of the world, and as I regard my country, I find that to be an +American is to be an optimist. I know the unhappy and unrighteous +story of what has been done in the Philippines beneath our flag; but I +believe that in the accidents of statecraft the best intelligence of +the people sometimes fails to express itself. I read in the history of +Julius Caesar that during the civil wars there were millions of +peaceful herdsmen and laborers who worked as long as they could, and +fled before the advance of the armies that were led by the few, then +waited until the danger was past, and returned to repair damages with +patient hands. So the people are patient and honest, while their +rulers stumble. I rejoice to see in the world and in this country a +new and better patriotism than that which seeks the life of an enemy. +It is a patriotism higher than that of the battle-field. It moves +thousands to lay down their lives in social service, and every life so +laid down brings us a step nearer the time when corn-fields shall no +more be fields of battle. So when I heard of the cruel fighting in the +Philippines, I did not despair, because I knew that the hearts of our +people were not in that fight, and that sometime the hand of the +destroyer must be stayed. + + + + +Part iii. The Practice of Optimism + +[Illustration] + + + + +Part iii + +The Practice of Optimism + + +The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be +true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards +it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy. One +who believes that the pain in the world outweighs the joy, and +expresses that unhappy conviction, only adds to the pain. Schopenhauer +is an enemy to the race. Even if he earnestly believed that this is +the most wretched of possible worlds, he should not promulgate a +doctrine which robs men of the incentive to fight with circumstance. +If Life gave him ashes for bread, it was his fault. Life is a fair +field, and the right will prosper if we stand by our guns. + +Let pessimism once take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy-turvy, +all vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or +social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation. "Let us +eat, drink and be merry," says the pessimist, "for to-morrow we die." +If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I +should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not +visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should +beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful +solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty +to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any +physical deprivation. + +Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope or goodness cast a shadow +upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were +privileges? The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter; for he knows +his neighbor will be hindered by his failure to keep in line. He will +therefore hold his place fearlessly and remember the duty of silence. +Sufficient unto each heart is its own sorrow. He will take the iron +claws of circumstance in his hand and use them as tools to break away +the obstacles that block his path. He will work as if upon him alone +depended the establishment of heaven on earth. + +We have seen that the world's philosophers--the Sayers of the +Word--were optimists; so also are the men of action and +achievement--the Doers of the Word. Dr. Howe found his way to Laura +Bridgman's soul because he began with the belief that he could reach +it. English jurists had said that the deaf-blind were idiots in the +eyes of the law. Behold what the optimist does. He controverts a hard +legal axiom; he looks behind the dull impassive clay and sees a human +soul in bondage, and quietly, resolutely sets about its deliverance. +His efforts are victorious. He creates intelligence out of idiocy and +proves to the law that the deaf-blind man is a responsible being. + +When Hauey offered to teach the blind to read, he was met by pessimism +that laughed at his folly. Had he not believed that the soul of man is +mightier than the ignorance that fetters it, had he not been an +optimist, he would not have turned the fingers of the blind into new +instruments. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or +sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human +spirit. St. Bernard was so deeply an optimist that he believed two +hundred and fifty enlightened men could illuminate the darkness which +overwhelmed the period of the Crusades; and the light of his faith +broke like a new day upon western Europe. John Bosco, the benefactor +of the poor and the friendless of Italian cities, was another +optimist, another prophet who, perceiving a Divine Idea while it was +yet afar, proclaimed it to his countrymen. Although they laughed at +his vision and called him a madman, yet he worked on patiently, and +with the labor of his hands he maintained a home for little street +waifs. In the fervor of enthusiasm he predicted the wonderful movement +which should result from his work. Even in the days before he had +money or patronage, he drew glowing pictures of the splendid system of +schools and hospitals which should spread from one end of Italy to +the other, and he lived to see the organization of the San Salvador +Society, which was the embodiment of his prophetic optimism. When Dr. +Seguin declared his opinion that the feeble-minded could be taught, +again people laughed, and in their complacent wisdom said he was no +better than an idiot himself. But the noble optimist persevered, and +by and by the reluctant pessimists saw that he whom they ridiculed had +become one of the world's philanthropists. Thus the optimist believes, +attempts, achieves. He stands always in the sunlight. Some day the +wonderful, the inexpressible, arrives and shines upon him, and he is +there to welcome it. His soul meets his own and beats a glad march to +every new discovery, every fresh victory over difficulties, every +addition to human knowledge and happiness. + +We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action +are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been +optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an +audience commensurately wide with his genius, and many optimistic +writers have been read and admired out of all measure to their +talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life. +Dickens, Lamb, Goldsmith, Irving, all the well-beloved and gentle +humorists, were optimists. Swift, the pessimist, has never had as many +readers as his towering genius should command, and indeed, when he +comes down into our century and meets Thackeray, that generous +optimist can hardly do him justice. In spite of the latter-day +notoriety of the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam, we may set it down as a +rule that he who would be heard must be a believer, must have a +fundamental optimism in his philosophy. He may bluster and disagree +and lament as Carlyle and Ruskin do sometimes; but a basic confidence +in the good destiny of life and of the world must underlie his work. + +Shakespeare is the prince of optimists. His tragedies are a revelation +of moral order. In "Lear" and "Hamlet" there is a looking forward to +something better, some one is left at the end of the play to right +wrong, restore society and build the state anew. The later plays, "The +Tempest" and "Cymbeline," show a beautiful, placid optimism which +delights in reconciliations and reunions and which plans for the +triumph of external as well as internal good. + +If Browning were less difficult to read, he would surely be the +dominant poet in this century. I feel the ecstasy with which he +exclaims, "Oh, good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth this autumn +morning!" And how he sets my brain going when he says, because there +is imperfection, there must be perfection; completeness must come of +incompleteness; failure is an evidence of triumph for the fulness of +the days. Yes, discord is, that harmony may be; pain destroys, that +health may renew; perhaps I am deaf and blind that others likewise +afflicted may see and hear with a more perfect sense! From Browning I +learn that there is no lost good, and that makes it easier for me to +go at life, right or wrong, do the best I know, and fear not. My heart +responds proudly to his exhortation to pay gladly life's debt of pain, +darkness and cold. Lift up your burden, it is God's gift, bear it +nobly. + +The man of letters whose voice is to prevail must be an optimist, and +his voice often learns its message from his life. Stevenson's life has +become a tradition only ten years after his death; he has taken his +place among the heroes, the bravest man of letters since Johnson and +Lamb. I remember an hour when I was discouraged and ready to falter. +For days I had been pegging away at a task which refused to get itself +accomplished. In the midst of my perplexity I read an essay of +Stevenson which made me feel as if I had been "outing" in the +sunshine, instead of losing heart over a difficult task. I tried again +with new courage and succeeded almost before I knew it. I have failed +many times since; but I have never felt so disheartened as I did +before that sturdy preacher gave me my lesson in the "fashion of the +smiling face." + +Read Schopenhauer and Omar, and you will grow to find the world as +hollow as they find it. Read Green's history of England, and the world +is peopled with heroes. I never knew why Green's history thrilled me +with the vigor of romance until I read his biography. Then I learned +how his quick imagination transfigured the hard, bare facts of life +into new and living dreams. When he and his wife were too poor to have +a fire, he would sit before the unlit hearth and pretend that it was +ablaze. "Drill your thoughts," he said; "shut out the gloomy and call +in the bright. There is more wisdom in shutting one's eyes than your +copybook philosophers will allow." + +Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every +pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. The consequence of +pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the +individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle +against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains +of joy in the world. In imagination I leave the country which lifts up +the manhood of the poor and I visit India, the underworld of +fatalism--where three hundred million human beings, scarcely men, +submerged in ignorance and misery, precipitate themselves still deeper +into the pit. Why are they thus? Because they have for thousands of +years been the victims of their philosophy, which teaches them that +men are as grass, and the grass fadeth, and there is no more greenness +upon the earth. They sit in the shadow and let the circumstances they +should master grip them, until they cease to be Men, and are made to +dance and salaam like puppets in a play. After a little hour death +comes and hurries them off to the grave, and other puppets with other +"pasteboard passions and desires" take their place, and the show goes +on for centuries. + +Go to India and see what sort of civilization is developed when a +nation lacks faith in progress and bows to the gods of darkness. Under +the influence of Brahminism genius and ambition have been suppressed. +There is no one to befriend the poor or to protect the fatherless and +the widow. The sick lie untended. The blind know not how to see, nor +the deaf to hear, and they are left by the roadside to die. In India +it is a sin to teach the blind and the deaf because their affliction +is regarded as a punishment for offences in a previous state of +existence. If I had been born in the midst of these fatalistic +doctrines, I should still be in darkness, my life a desert-land where +no caravan of thought might pass between my spirit and the world +beyond. + +The Hindoos believe in endurance, but not in resistance; therefore +they have been subdued by strangers. Their history is a repetition of +that of Babylon. A nation from afar came with speed swiftly, and none +stumbled, or slept, or slumbered, but they brought desolation upon the +land, and took the stay and the staff from the people, the whole stay +of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of +war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, and +none delivered them. Woe, indeed, is the heritage of those who walk +sad-thoughted and downcast through this radiant, soul-delighting +earth, blind to its beauty and deaf to its music, and of those who +call evil good, and good evil, and put darkness for light, and light +for darkness. + +What care the weather-bronzed sons of the West, feeding the world +from the plains of Dakota, for the Omars and the Brahmins? They would +say to the Hindoos, "Blot out your philosophy, dead for a thousand +years, look with fresh eyes at Reality and Life, put away your +Brahmins and your crooked gods, and seek diligently for Vishnu the +Preserver." + +Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done +without hope. When our forefathers laid the foundation of the American +commonwealths, what nerved them to their task but a vision of a free +community? Against the cold, inhospitable sky, across the wilderness +white with snow, where lurked the hidden savage, gleamed the bow of +promise, toward which they set their faces with the faith that levels +mountains, fills up valleys, bridges rivers and carries civilization +to the uttermost parts of the earth. Although the pioneers could not +build according to the Hebraic ideal they saw, yet they gave the +pattern of all that is most enduring in our country to-day. They +brought to the wilderness the thinking mind, the printed book, the +deep-rooted desire for self-government and the English common law that +judges alike the king and the subject, the law on which rests the +whole structure of our society. + +It is significant that the foundation of that law is optimistic. In +Latin countries the court proceeds with a pessimistic bias. The +prisoner is held guilty until he is proved innocent. In England and +the United States there is an optimistic presumption that the accused +is innocent until it is no longer possible to deny his guilt. Under +our system, it is said, many criminals are acquitted; but it is surely +better so than that many innocent persons should suffer. The +pessimist cries, "There is no enduring good in man! The tendency of +all things is through perpetual loss to chaos in the end. If there was +ever an idea of good in things evil, it was impotent, and the world +rushes on to ruin." But behold, the law of the two most sober-minded, +practical and law-abiding nations on earth assumes the good in man and +demands a proof of the bad. + +Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. The prophets of the +world have been of good heart, or their standards would have stood +naked in the field without a defender. Tolstoi's strictures lose power +because they are pessimistic. If he had seen clearly the faults of +America, and still believed in her capacity to overcome them, our +people might have felt the stimulation of his censure. But the world +turns its back on a hopeless prophet and listens to Emerson who takes +into account the best qualities of the nation and attacks only the +vices which no one can defend or deny. It listens to the strong man, +Lincoln, who in times of doubt, trouble and need does not falter. He +sees success afar, and by strenuous hope, by hoping against hope, +inspires a nation. Through the night of despair he says, "All is +well," and thousands rest in his confidence. When such a man censures, +and points to a fault, the nation obeys, and his words sink into the +ears of men; but to the lamentations of the habitual Jeremiah the ear +grows dull. + +Our newspapers should remember this. The press is the pulpit of the +modern world, and on the preachers who fill it much depends. If the +protest of the press against unrighteous measures is to avail, then +for ninety-nine days the word of the preacher should be buoyant and of +good cheer, so that on the hundredth day the voice of censure may be +a hundred times strong. This was Lincoln's way. He knew the people; he +believed in them and rested his faith on the justice and wisdom of the +great majority. When in his rough and ready way he said, "You can't +fool all the people all the time," he expressed a great principle, the +doctrine of faith in human nature. + +The prophet is not without honor, save he be a pessimist. The ecstatic +prophecies of Isaiah did far more to restore the exiles of Israel to +their homes than the lamentations of Jeremiah did to deliver them from +the hands of evil-doers. + +Even on Christmas Day do men remember that Christ came as a prophet of +good? His joyous optimism is like water to feverish lips, and has for +its highest expression the eight beatitudes. It is because Christ is +an optimist that for ages he has dominated the Western world. For +nineteen centuries Christendom has gazed into his shining face and +felt that all things work together for good. St. Paul, too, taught the +faith which looks beyond the hardest things into the infinite horizon +of heaven, where all limitations are lost in the light of perfect +understanding. If you are born blind, search the treasures of +darkness. They are more precious than the gold of Ophir. They are love +and goodness and truth and hope, and their price is above rubies and +sapphires. + +Jesus utters and Paul proclaims a message of peace and a message of +reason, a belief in the Idea, not in things, in love, not in conquest. +The optimist is he who sees that men's actions are directed not by +squadrons and armies, but by moral power, that the conquests of +Alexander and Napoleon are less abiding than Newton's and Galileo's +and St. Augustine's silent mastery of the world. Ideas are mightier +than fire and sword. Noiselessly they propagate themselves from land +to land, and mankind goes out and reaps the rich harvest and thanks +God; but the achievements of the warrior are like his canvas city, +"to-day a camp, to-morrow all struck and vanished, a few pit-holes and +heaps of straw." This was the gospel of Jesus two thousand years ago. +Christmas Day is the festival of optimism. + +Although there are still great evils which have not been subdued, and +the optimist is not blind to them, yet he is full of hope. Despondency +has no place in his creed, for he believes in the imperishable +righteousness of God and the dignity of man. History records man's +triumphant ascent. Each halt in his progress has been but a pause +before a mighty leap forward. The time is not out of joint. If indeed +some of the temples we worshipped in have fallen, we have built new +ones on the sacred sites loftier and holier than those which have +crumbled. If we have lost some of the heroic physical qualities of our +ancestors, we have replaced them with a spiritual nobleness that turns +aside wrath and binds up the wounds of the vanquished. All the past +attainments of man are ours; and more, his day-dreams have become our +clear realities. Therein lies our hope and sure faith. + +As I stand in the sunshine of a sincere and earnest optimism, my +imagination "paints yet more glorious triumphs on the cloud-curtain of +the future." Out of the fierce struggle and turmoil of contending +systems and powers I see a brighter spiritual era slowly emerge--an +era in which there shall be no England, no France, no Germany, no +America, no this people or that, but one family, the human race; one +law, peace; one need, harmony; one means, labor; one taskmaster, God. + +If I should try to say anew the creed of the optimist, I should say +something like this: "I believe in God, I believe in man, I believe in +the power of the spirit. I believe it is a sacred duty to encourage +ourselves and others; to hold the tongue from any unhappy word against +God's world, because no man has any right to complain of a universe +which God made good, and which thousands of men have striven to keep +good. I believe we should so act that we may draw nearer and more near +the age when no man shall live at his ease while another suffers." +These are the articles of my faith, and there is yet another on which +all depends--to bear this faith above every tempest which overfloods +it, and to make it a principle in disaster and through affliction. +Optimism is the harmony between man's spirit and the spirit of God +pronouncing His works good. + + +The End + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Optimism, by Helen Keller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OPTIMISM *** + +***** This file should be named 31622.txt or 31622.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/2/31622/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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