regarded. The advent of Christianity, with its categorical assertion of future happiness for the good, to a large extent did away with pessimism in the true sense. In Leibnitz we find a philosophic or religious optimism, which saw in the universe the perfect work of a God who from all possibilities selected the best. Kant, though pessimistic as regards the actual man, is optimistic regarding his moral capacity. To Hegel similarly the world, though evil at any moment, progresses by conflict and suffering towards the good.
Passing over the Italian Leopardi we may notice two leading modern pessimists, Schopenhauer and von Hartmann. Schopenhauer emphasizes the pessimistic side of Hegel’s thought. The universe is merely blind Will, not thought; this Will is irrational, purposeless and therefore unhappy. The world being a picture of the Will is therefore similarly unhappy. Desire is a state of unhappiness, and the satisfaction of desire is therefore merely the removal of pain. Von Hartmann’s doctrine of the Unconscious is in many respects similar to Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the Will. The Unconscious which combines Will and Reason is, however, primarily Will. The workings of this Will are irrational primarily, but, as in its evolution it becomes more rationalized and understands the whole meaning of the Weltschmerz, it ultimately reaches the point at which the desire for existence is gone. This choice of final nothingness differs from that of Schopenhauer in being collective and not individual. The pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartmann does not, however, exclude a certain ultimate mysticism, which bears some analogy to that of Buddhism.
Pessimism is naturally connected with materialist, optimism with idealist, views of life. The theories of the modern evolutionist school, however, have introduced into materialistic theory a new optimistic note in doctrines such as that of the survival of the fittest. Such doctrines regard the progress of humanity as on the whole tending to the greater perfection, and are markedly optimistic in contrast with earlier theories that progressive differentiation is synonymous with progressive decay. Similarly the cynical contempt which Nietzsche shows for morality and the conventional virtues is counterbalanced by the theory of the Übermensch, the highest type of manhood which by struggle has escaped from the ordinary weaknesses of normal humanity.
See James Sully, Pessimism: A History and a Criticism (1877); Caro, Le Pessimisme au xixᵉ siècle (1878); Saltus, The Anatomy of Negation (1886); Tulloch, Modern Theories on Philosophy and Religion (1884); William James, The Will to Believe; Dühring, Der Werth des Lebens (1865); Meyer, Weltelend und Weltschmerz (1872); E. Pfleiderer, Der moderne Pessimismus (1875); Agnes Taubert (Hartmann), Der Pessimismus und seine Gegner (1873); Gass, Optimismus und Pessimismus (1876); Rehmke, Die Philos. des Weltschmerzes (1876); Huber, Der Pessimismus (1876); von Golther, Der moderne P. (1878); Paulsen, Schopenhauer, Hamlet, Mephistopheles (1900); Kowalewski, Studien zur Psychologie des P. (1904).
PESSINUS (Πεσσινούς, Πεσινούς), an ancient city of Galatia in Asia Minor, situated on the lowest southern slope of Mt
Dindymus, on the left bank of the river Sangarius, not far from
its source The ruins, discovered by Texier, lie round the village
of Bala-Hissar, 8 or 9 m. S.E. of Sivri-Hissar. They include
a theatre in partial preservation, but they have been mostly
carried off to Sivri-Hissar, which is largely built out of them.
Originally a Phrygian city, probably on the Persian “Royal
Road,” it became the capital of the Gallic tribe Tolistobogii
and the chief commercial city of the district. It contained the
most famous sanctuary of the mother of the gods (Cybele), who
here went by the name of Agdistis, and was associated with
the god Attis, as elsewhere with Sabazius, &c. Her priests
were also princes, who bore rule not only in the city (the coinage
of which, beginning about 100 B.C., was for long issued by them)
but also in the country round, deriving a large revenue from
the temple estates; but in the time of Strabo (A.D. 19–20) their
privileges were much diminished. The high-priest always bore
the god’s name Attis In the crisis of the second Punic War
(205 B.C.), when the Romans lost faith in the efficacy of their
own religion to save the state, the Senate, in compliance with
an oracle in the Sibylline books to the effect that the foreign
foe could be driven from Italy if the Idaean Mother (Cybele)
were brought from Pessinus to Rome, sent ambassadors to
the town, who obtained the sacred stone which was the symbol
of the goddess and brought it to Rome, where the worship of
Cybele was established. But the goddess continued to be
worshipped in her old home; her priests, the Galli, went out to
welcome Manlius on his march in 189 B.C., which shows that the
town was not yet in the hands of the Tolistobogii. Soon after
this a splendid new temple of the goddess was built by the
Pergamenian kings. Some time before 164 B.C. Pessinus fell
into the power of the Gauls, and the membership of the priestly
college was then equally divided between the Gauls and the
old priestly families. Like Ancyra and Tavium, Pessinus was
Romanized first and Hellenized afterwards. Only about A.D. 165
did Hellenic ways and modes of thought begin to be
assumed; before that we find a deep substratum of Celtic feeling
and ways, on which Roman elements had been superimposed
without filtering through a Hellenic medium. Christianity was
introduced late; it cannot be traced before the 4th century.
When Galatia was divided into two provinces (A.D. 386–395)
Pessinus was made the capital of Galatia Secunda or Salutaris,
and it became a metropolitan bishopric. After the 16th century
it disappears from history, being supplanted, from the beginning
of the period of Saracen invasion, by the impregnable
fortress Justinianopolis (Sivri-Hissar), which became the capital
and the residence of the bishop, thenceforward called “archbishop
of Pessinus or of Justinianopolis.” (J. G. C. A.)
PESTALOZZI, JOHANN HEINRICH (1746–1827), Swiss
educational reformer, was born at Zürich on the 12th of January
1746. His father died when he was young, and he was brought
up by his mother. At the university of Zürich he was associated
with Lavater and the party of reform. His earliest years were
spent in schemes for improving the condition of the people.
The death of his friend Bluntschli turned him however from
politics, and induced him to devote himself to education. He
married at twenty-three and bought a piece of waste land at
Neuhof in Aargau, where he attempted the cultivation of madder.
Pestalozzi knew nothing of business, and the plan failed. Before
this he had opened his farm-house as a school; but in
1780 he had to give this up also. His first book published at
this time was The Evening Hours of a Hermit (1780), a series
of aphorisms and reflections. This was followed by his masterpiece,
Leonard and Gertrude (1781), an account of the gradual
reformation, first of a household, and then of a whole village, by
the efforts of a good and devoted woman. It was read with
avidity in Germany, and the name of Pestalozzi was rescued from
obscurity. The French invasion of Switzerland in 1798 brought
into relief his truly heroic character. A number of children
were left in Canton Unterwalden on the shores of the Lake of
Lucerne, without parents, home, food or shelter. Pestalozzi
collected a number of them into a deserted convent, and spent
his energies in reclaiming them. During the winter he personally
tended them with the utmost devotion, but in June 1799 the
building was required by the French for a hospital, and his charges
were dispersed. In 1801 Pestalozzi gave an exposition of his
ideas on education in the book How Gertrude teaches her Children.
His method is to proceed from the easier to the more difficult.
To begin with observation, to pass from observation to consciousness,
from consciousness to speech. Then come measuring,
drawing, writing, numbers, and so reckoning. In 1799 he had
been enabled to establish a school at Burgdorf, where he remained
till 1804. In 1802, he went as deputy to Paris, and did his
best to interest Napoleon in a scheme of national education;
but the great conqueror said that he could not trouble himself
about the alphabet. In 1805 he removed to Yverdun on the
Lake of Neuchâtel, and for twenty years worked steadily at
his task. He was visited by all who took interest in education—Talleyrand,
Capo d’Istria, and Mme de Staël. He was praised
by Wilhelm von Humboldt and by Fichte. His pupils
included Ramsauer, Delbrück, Blochmann, Carl Ritter, Fröbel
and Zeller. About 1815 dissensions broke out among the
teachers of the school, and Pestalozzi’s last ten years were
