AN ANCIENT PESSIMIST.
EVEN in popular phrase life is described as having not only a sunny side, but a shady side as well. These two phases of existence stand related, partly as cause, partly as effect, to the alternating moods of thought and feeling, by which the ordinary consciousness of all men is governed; and philosophy, in giving a reflective interpretation to the facts of existence, tends to represent them in the different phases which they offer to the unreflective consciousness. That tendency of speculation which interprets human existence by its cheerier facts gives rise to systems of Optimism; while that tendency which reads the meaning of life in its tragedies constitutes what is understood by Pessimism. Not only, therefore, may a pessimistic tone of thought be heard throughout general literature in nearly all the ages, but many of the philosophical systems of the past point, more or less explicitly, to pessimistic conclusions; and it is a specially significant fact for us who are now looking back upon our century, as it nears its close, that, whatever may be the verdict in reference to its general literature, its philosophy will long stand conspicuous in history for the clear and calm force with which it has presented Pessimism as the only philosophical system which can satisfy the demands of speculative thought.
This fact has imparted a new interest to a pessimist of the ancient world, Hegesias the Cyrenaic. This old thinker occupies a niche so obscure that he has been passed without notice by many an inquirer, and few have been struck with the significance of his position as apparently the first, and indeed the only, philosopher of ancient times, who can be truly described as having deliberately reasoned out an explicit system of Pessimism. Even Mr. Sully's elaborate monograph on Pessimism,[1]though it traces some indications of a pessimistic tendency in the lit-
- ↑ Pessimism: a History and a Criticism. By James Sully, M.A. London, 1877.
