The New Optimism
The
New Optimism
By
H. de Vere Stacpoole
London: John Lane, The
Bodley Head. New York:
John Lane Company
Toronto: Bell & Cockburn
MCMXIV
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY JOHN LANE COMPANY
PUBLISHERS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK, U. S. A.
The New Optimism
PART I
ON THE BEACH
I WAS standing by the sea-wall,watching the green water foaminground the stakes of the breakwater,when my companion, acharming and elegant woman,turned to me:
“What is there in water thatfascinates one?” she asked.
“Do you feel the fascination?”
“Yes.”
“Do you not know why you feelit?”
“No.”
“Shall I tell you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you were once a swimmingreptile.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, there is nothing to thankme for, though the fact is the mostglorious in the universe.”
“The fact that I was once areptile?”
“Precisely.”
She pondered on this for a moment,and then:
“I don’t see where the glorycomes in,” said she.
“Nevertheless, it is there, for thefact is the master key to the meaningof the universe, the one lightthat shines in a world of darkness,and the one sure hope in a world ofdoubt.”
“The fact that I was once areptile?”
“And I—yes. I would not givewhat the webbing between my fingerstells me for all the promises ofall the religions of all the countrieson earth.”
“Ancestral pride is evidently notyour strong point.”
“I don’t know about that; butup to a year ago mental darknesswas my portion. I had noreligion.”
“And have you any now?”
“No, but I have a certainty.”
“Of what?”
“Of the fact that the world hasa meaning and life an aim. Shallwe sit down on this seat and talkfor a while, if I am not boring you?—andmay I light a cigarette?”
“You are not boring me—yet.And if you can prove what yousay, I shall not mind even if youbore me. But I must tell you,first of all, that, to me, the worldseems absolutely without a meaningand life without an aim. Imean, of course, the general life ofthe world, which implies, as far asI can see, general suffering. If sufferingdid people good, then I couldunderstand that we were placedhere to grow and develop; butsuffering and poverty, as far as Ican see, only stunt and twist andspoil everything they touch.”
“Precisely.”
“Then, if you admit that, youmust admit that the meaning andaim of the world is far from beingglorious.”
“Never. That is what I wish todisprove.”
“Then disprove it.”
“TELL me,” I said. “Why isit that an ordinary humanbeing placed before a flower seesonly a flower and nothing of thewonder that is in it?”
“Because flowers are so common.”
“More than that—because aflower is of