By the same Author.
BALZAC.
A Study.
With a Bibliography of Balzac's
Writings, anda Portrait.
Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.25.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
Publishers,
BOSTON.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF
DISENCHANTMENT
BY
EDGAR EVERTSON SALTUS
In Arkadien geboren sind wir Alle
Schiller
BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street,
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1887
Copyright, 1885,
By EDGAR EVERTSON SALTUS.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| The Genesis of Disenchantment | 1 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| The High Priest of Pessimism | 36 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| The Sphinx's Riddle | 77 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| The Borderlands of Happiness | 124 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| The Great Quietus | 163 |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Is Life an Affliction? | 208 |
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISENCHANTMENT.
CHAPTER I.
THE GENESIS OF DISENCHANTMENT.
The trite and commonplace question of contentment and dissatisfactionis a topic which is not only of every-day interest, but one which inrecent years has so claimed the attention of thinkers, that they havebroadly divided mankind into those who accept life off-hand, as a moreor less pleasing possession, and those who resolutely look the gift inthe mouth and say it is not worth the having.
Viewed simply as systems of thought, the first of these two divisionsis evidently contemporaneous with humanity, while the second will befound to be of purely modern origin; for from the earliest times man,admittedly and with but few exceptions, has been ever accustomed toregard this worl