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Optimism, An Essay · Optimism, An Essay

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Optimism by Helen Keller, Part one Optimism within Could we choose our environment and
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were a desire in human undertaking synonymous with endowment, all men would, I
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suppose, be optimists. Certainly most of us regard happiness as the proper end
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of all earthly enterprise. The will to be happy animates alike the philosopher the
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prince in the chimney sweep. No matter how dull, or how mean,
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or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
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It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people cherish, and
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in what singular places they look for this well spring of their life. Many
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look for it in the hoarding of riches, some in the pride of power,
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and others in the achievements of art and literature. If you seek it
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in the exploration of their own minds or in the search for knowledge, Most
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people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and of material possession. Could
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they win some visible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy
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they would be Lacking this gift or that circumstance. They would be miserable.
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If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see,
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have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep. If
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I am happy in spite of my deprivations, If my happiness is so deep
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that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life,
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If in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed
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of optimism is worth hearing. As sinners stand up in meeting and testify to
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the goodness of God, so one who is called afflick did may rise up
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in gladness of conviction and testify to the goodness of life. Once I knew
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a depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all
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things, then love came and set my soul free. Once I knew only
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darkness and stillness, Now I know hope and joy. Once I fretted and
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beat myself against the wall that shut me in, Now I rejoice in the
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consciousness that I can think, act, and attain heaven. My life was
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without past or future death. The pessimist would say, a consummation devoutly to
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be wished. But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my
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hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.
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Night fled before the day of thought, and love and joy and hope
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came up in a passion of obedience to knowledge. Can anyone who has escaped
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such captivity, who has felt the thrill and glory of freedom, be a
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pessimist? My early experience was thus a leap from bad to good. If
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I tried, I could not check the momentum of my first leap out of
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the dark to move breast forward as a habit learned suddenly at that first moment
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of release, and rush into the light. With the first word I used
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intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope. Darkness cannot
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shut me in again. I have had a glimpse of the shore, and
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can now live by the hope of reaching it. So my optimism is no
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mild and unreasoning satisfaction. A poet once said, I must be happy because
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I did not see the bare, cold present, but lived in a beautiful
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dream. I do live in a beautiful dream, but that dream is the
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actual, the present, not cold but warm, not bare but furnished with
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a thousand blessings. The very evil which the poets supposed would be a cruel
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disillusionment is necessary to the fullest knowledge of joy. Only by contact with evil
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could I have learned to feel, by contrast, the beauty of truth and
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love and goodness. It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore
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the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is
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a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference. It is not enough to say that
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the twentieth century is the best age in the history of mankind, and to
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take refuge from the evils of the world in sky ye dreams of good.
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How many good men, prosperous and contented looked around a and saw nought but
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good, while millions of their fellow men were bartered and sold like cattle.
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No doubt if there were comfortable optimists who thought Wilberforce a meddlesome fanatic when he
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was working with might and main to free the slaves. I distrust the rash
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optimism in this country that cries, Hurrah, We're all right, this is
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the greatest nation on earth. When there are grievances that call loudly for redress.
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That is false optimism. Optimism that does not count. The cost is
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like a house builded on sand. A man must understand evil and be acquainted
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with sorrow before he can right himself an optimist and expect others to believe that
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he has reason for the faith that is in him. I know what evil
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is. Once or twice I have wrestled with it, and for a time
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felt its chilling touch on my life. So I speak knowledge when I say
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that evil is of no consequence except as a sort of mental gymnastic. For
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the very reason that I have come in contact with it, I am more
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truly an optimist. I can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates
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is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful
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men and women. It lets us into the soul of things, and teaches
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us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of
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the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the
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absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good,
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and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good that it may prevail.
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I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in
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everything and every one, and make that best a part of my life.
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The world is sown with good. But unless I turn my glad thoughts into
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practical living until my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good.
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Thus my optimism is grounded in two worlds, myself and what is about
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me. I demand that the world be good, and lo it obeys.
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I proclaim the world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation overwhelmingly
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true. To what is good. I open the doors of my being and
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jealously shut them against what is bad. Such is the force of this beautiful
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and wilful conviction. It carries itself in the face of all opposition. I
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am never discouraged by absence of good. I never can be argued into hopelessness.
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Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast
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heart will conquer and the large mind transcend. As my college days draw to
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a close, I find myself looking forward with beating heart and bright anticipation to
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what the future holds of activity for me. My share in the work of
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the world may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it
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precious. Nay, the desire and will to work is optimism itself. Two
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generations ago, a Carlyle flung forth his gospel of work to the dreamers of
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the Revolution, who built cloud castles of happiness, And when the inevitable winds
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rent the castles asunder, turned pessimists to those ineffectual endymions, alisters and worthers.
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This Scots peasant man of dreams in the hard practical world cried aloud,
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his creed of laborer be no longer a chaos, but a world produce.
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Produce, Were it but the pitifulest, infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce
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it. In God's name tis the utmost thou hast in thee out with it.
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Then up up whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
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whole might work, while it is called today for the night cometh, wherein
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no man may work. Some have said Carlile was taking refuge from a hard
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world by bidding men grind and toil, eyes to the earth, and so
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forget their misery. This is not Carlyle's thought, fool, He cries,
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The ideal is in thyself. The impediment is also in thyself. Work out
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the ideal in the poor miserable, actual, live, think, believe,
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and be free. It is plain what he says that work production brings life
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out of chaos, makes the individual a world an order, and order is
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optimism. I too can work, and because I love to labor with my
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head and my hands, I am an optimist. In spite of all I
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used to think I should be thwarted in my desire to do something useful.
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But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself
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useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless. The gladdest
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laborer in the vineyard may be a cripple, even should the others outstrip him,
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Yet the vineyard ripens in the sun each year, and the full clusters
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way into his hand. Darwin could work only half an hour at a time,
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yet in many diligent half hours he laid anew the foundations of philosophy.
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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief
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duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.
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It is my service to think how I can best fulfill the demands that each
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day make upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot.
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Green the historian tells us that the world is moving along not only by
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the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny
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pushes of each honest worker, and that thought alone suffices to guide me in
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this dark world and wide. I love the good that others do, for
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their activity is an assurance that, whether I can help or not, the
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true and the good will stand sure. I trust, and nothing that happens
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disturbs my trust. I recognize the beneficence of the power which we all worship
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as supreme order Fate, the great Spirit Nature God. I recognize this power
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in the sun that makes all things grow and keeps life afoot. I make
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a friend of this indefinable force and straightway. I feel glad, brave,
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and ready for any lot Heaven may decree for me. This is my religion
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of optimism, and of part one optimism within part two. Optimism. Without
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optimism then is a fact within my own heart. But as I look out
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upon life, my heart meets no contradiction. The outward world justifies my inward
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universe of good. All through the years I have spent in college, my
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reading has been a continuous discovery of good. In literature, philosophy, religion,
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and history, I find the mighty witnesses to my faith. Philosophy is
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the history of a deaf blind person, writ large from the talks of Socrates,
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through Plato, Berkeley, and Kant. Philosophy records the efforts of human
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intelligence to be free of the clogging material world and fly forth into a universe
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of pure idea. A deaf blind person ought to find special meaning in Plato's
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ideal world. These things which you can see and hear and touch are not
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the reality of realities, but imperfect manifestations of the idea, the principle,
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the spiritual. The idea is the truth the rest distillusion. If this be
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so, my brethren, who enjoy the fullest use of the senses, are
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not aware of any reality which may not equally well be in reach of my
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mind. Philosophy gives to the mind the prerogative of seeing truth and bears us
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into a realm where I, who am blind, am not different from you
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who see. When I learned from Berkeley that your eyes receive an inverted image
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of things which your brain unconsciously corrects, I began to suspect that the eye
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is not a very reliable instrument after all, And I felt as one who
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had been restored to equality with others, glad not because the senses avail them
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so little, but because in God's eternal world, mind and spirit avail so
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much. It seemed to me that philosophy had been written for my special consolation.
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Whereby I get even with some modern philosophers who apparently think that I was
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intended as an experimental case for their special instruction. But in a little measure,
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my small voice of individual experience does join in the declaration of philosophy that
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the good is the only world, and that world is a world of spirit.
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It is also a universe where order is all, where an unbroken logic
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holds the parts together, where a disorder defines itself as nonexistence. Evil,
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as Saint Augustine held, is delusion and therefore is not. The meaning of
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philosophy to me is not only in its principles, but also in the happy
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isolation of its great expounders. They were seldom of the world, even when,
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like Plato Enlibnitz, they moved in its courts and drawing rooms to the
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two modes of life. They were deaf, and they were blind to its
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distraction and perplexing diversities. Sitting alone but not in darkness, they learned to
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find everything in themselves, and failing to find it even there, they still
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trusted in meeting the truth face to face. When they should leave the earth
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behind and become partakers in the wisdom of God. The great mystics lived alone,
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deaf and blind, but dwelling with God. I understand how it was
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possible for Spinoza to find deep and sustained happiness when he was excommunicated, poor,
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despised, and suspected alike by jew and Christian. Not that the kind
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world of men ever treated me so, but that his isolation from the universe
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of sensuous joy is somewhat analogous to mine. He loved the good for its
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own sake. Like many great spirits, He accepted his place in the world
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and confided himself childlike to a higher power, believing that it worked through his
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hands and predominated in his being. He trusted implicitly, and that is what
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I do. Deep solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from
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this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual, not a remote,
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unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every
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one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea, and
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sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts, the
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source and center of all minds, their only point of rest. Thus from
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philosophy I learn that we see only shadows and know only in part, and
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that all things change. But the mind, the uncongruable mind, compasses all
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truth, embraces the universe as it is, converts the shadows to realities,
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and makes tumultuous changes seem but moments in an eternal silence, or short lines
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in the infinite theme of perfection, and the evil but a halt on the
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way to good. Though with my hand I grasp only a small part of
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the universe, with my spirit I see the whole, and in my thought
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I can compass the beneficent laws by which it is governed. The confidence and
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trust which these conceptions inspire teach me to rest safe in my life as in
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a fate, and protect me from spectral doubts and fears. Verily blessed are
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ye that have not seen and yet have believed. All the world's great philosophers
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have been lovers of God and believers in man's inner goodness. To know the
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history of philosophy is to know that the highest thinkers of the ages, the
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seers of the tribes, and the nations, have been optimists. The growth
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of philosophy is the story of man's spiritual life. Outside lies that great,
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massive events which we call history. As I look on this mass, I
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see it take form and shape itself in the ways of God. The history
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of man is an epoch of progress in the world within and the world without.
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I see a wonderful correspondence, a glorious symbolism, which reveals the human
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and the divine communing together. The lesson of philosophy, repeated in fact,
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in all the parts that compose the history of mankind, hides the spirit of
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good and gives meaning to the whole. Far back in the twilight of history,
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I see the savage fleeing from the forces of nature which he has not
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learned to control, and seeking to propitiate supernatural beings which are but the creation
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of his superstitious fear. With a shift of imagination, I see the savage
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emancipated, civilized. He no longer worships the grim deities of ignorance. Through
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suffering, he has learned to build a roof over his head to defend his
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life and his home, and over his state. He has erected a temple
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in which he worships the joyous gods of light and song. From suffering,
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he has learned justice from the struggle with his fellows. He has learned the
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distinction between right and wrong, which makes him a moral being. He is
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gifted with the genius of Greece. But Greece was not perfect. Her poetical
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and religious ideals were far above her practice. Therefore she died that her ideals
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might survive to ennoble coming ages. Rome too left the world a rich inheritance.
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Through the vicissitudes of history, her laws and ordered government have stood a
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majestic object lesson for the ages. But when the stern, frugal character of
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her people ceased to be the bone and sinew of her civilization, Rome fell.
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Then came the new nations of the North and found it a more permanent
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society. The base of Greek and Roman society was the slave, crushed into
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the condition of the wretches who quote labored foredone in the field and at the
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workshop like haltered horses, if blind so much. The quieter end quote the
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base of the new society was the freeman who fought, tilled, judged,
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and grew from more to more. He wrought a state out of a tribal
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kinship and fostered an independence and self reliance which no oppression could destroy. The
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story of man's slow ascent from savagery, through barbarism and self mastery to civilization
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is the embodiment of the spirit of optimism. From the first hour of the
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New Nations, each century has seen a better Europe until the development of the
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world demanded America. Tolstoy said the other day that America, once the hope
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of the world, was in bondage to Mammon. Tolstoy and other Europeans have
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still much to learn about this great free country of ours before they understand the
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unique civic struggle which America is undergoing. She is confronted with the mighty task
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of assimilating all the foreigners that are drawn together from every country and welding them
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into one people with one national spirit. We have the right to demand the
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forbearance of critics until the United States has demonstrated whether she can make one people
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out of all the nations of the earth. London economists are alarmed at less
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than five hundred thousand foreign born in a population of six million, and discuss
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earnestly the danger of too many aliens. But what is their problem in comparison
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with that of New York, which counts nearly one million, five hundred thousand
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foreigners among its three and a half million citizens. Think of it, Every
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third person in our American metropolis is an alien. By these figures alone,
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America's greatness can be measured. It is true, America has devoted herself largely
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to the solution of material problems, breaking the fields, opening minds, irrigating
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death wizards, spanning the continent with railroads. But she is doing these things
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in a new way by educating her people, by placing at the service of
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every man's need every resource of human skill. She is transmuting her industrial wealth
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into the education of her workmen, so that unskilled people shall have no place
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in American life, so that all men shall bring mind and soul to the
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control of matter. Her children are not drudges and slaves. The Constitution has
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declared it, and the spirit of our institutions has confirmed it the best the
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land can teach them. They shall know. They shall learn that there is
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no upper class in their country and no lower, and they shall understand how
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it is that God and his world are for everybody. America might do all
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this and still be selfish, still be a worshiper of Memon. But America
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is the home of charity as well as of commerce. In the midst of
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roaring traffic, side by side with noisy factory and sky reaching warehouse, one
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sees the school, the library, the hospital, the park, works of
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public benevolence, which represent wealth wrought into ideas that shall endure forever. Behold
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what America has already done to alleviate suffering and restore the afflicted. To society.
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Given sight to the fingers of the blind, language to the dumb lip,
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and mind to the idiot Clay. And tell me if indeed she worships
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Mammon. Only, who shall measure the sympathy, skill, and intelligence with
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which she ministers to all who come to her, and lessens the ever swelling
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tide of poverty, misery, and degradation which every year rolls against her gates
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from all the nations. When I reflect on all these facts, I cannot
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but think that Tolstoy and other theorists to the contrary, it is a splendid
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thing to be an American. In America, the optimist finds abundant reason for
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confidence in the present and hope for the future. And this hope, this
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confidence, may well extend over all the great nations of the Earth. If
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we compare our own time with the past, we find in modern statistics a
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solid foundation for a confident and buoyant world. Optimism Beneath the doubt, the
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unrest, the materialism which surround us still glows and burns at the world's best
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life, a steadfast faith. To hear, the pessimist, one would think
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civilization had bivouecked in the Middle Ages and had not had marching orders, since
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he does not realize that the progress of evolution is not an uninterrupted march.
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Quotation, now touching goal, now backward, hurl toils the indomitable world.
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I have recently read an address by one whose knowledge it would be presumptuous to
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challenge footnote addressed by Honorable Carol D. Wright before the Unitarian Conference, September
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nineteen o three, and footnote in it I find abundant evidence of progress.
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During the past fifty years, crime has decreased. True, the records today
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contain a longer list of crime, but our statistics are more complete and accurate
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than the statistics of times past. Besides, there are many offenses on the
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list which half a century ago would not have been thought of as crime.
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This shows that the public conscience is more sensitive than it ever was. Our
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definition of crime has grown stricter, our punishment of it more lenient and intelligent.
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The old feeling of revenge has largely disapp appeared. It is no longer
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an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The criminal is
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treated as one who is diseased. He is confined not merely for punishment,
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but because he is a menace to society. While he is under restraint,
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he is treated with humane care and disciplined, so that his mind shall be
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cured of its disease, and he shall be restored to society, able to
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do his part of its work. Another sign of awakened and enlightened public conscience
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is the effort to provide the working class with better houses. Did it occur
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to any one a hundred years ago to think whether the dwellings are the poor
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or sanitary, convenient are sunny. Do not forget that in the good old
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times, cholera and typhus devastated whole counties, and that pestilence walked abroad in
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the capitals of Europe. Not only have our laboring classes better houses and better
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places to work in, but employers recognize the right of the employed to seek
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more than the bare wage of existence. In the darkness and turmoil of our
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modern industrial strifes, we discern but dimly, the principles that underlie the struggle,
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the recognition of the right of all men to life, liberty, and
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the pursuit of happiness, a spirit of conciliation, such as Burke dreamed of,
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the willingness on the part of the strong to make concessions to the weak,
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the realization that the rights of the employer are bound up in the rights
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of the employed. In these the optimist beholds the signs of our times.
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Another right, which the state has recognized as belonging to each man is the
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right to an education. In the enlightened parts of Europe and in America,
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every city, every town, every village has its school, and it is
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no longer a class who have access to knowledge. For to the children of
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the poorest laborer, the school door stands open. From the civilized nations,
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universal education is driving out the dull host of literacy. Education broadens to include
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all men and deepens to reach all truths. Scholars are no longer confined to
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Greek, Latin, and mathematics, but they also study science, and science
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converts the dreams of the poet, the theory of the mathematician, and the
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fiction of the economists into ships, hospitals, and instruments that enable one skilled
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hand to perform the work of a thousand. The student of today is not
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asked if he has learned his grammar, Is he a mere grammar machine,
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a dry catalog of scientific facts, or has he acquired the qualities of manliness?
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His supreme lesson is to grapple with great public questions, to keep his
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mind hospitable to new ideas and new views of truth, to restore the finer
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ideals that are lost sight of in the struggle for wealth, and to promote
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justice between man and man. He learns that there may be substitutes for human
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labor, horsepower and machinery and books, but there are no substitutes for common
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sense, patience, integrity, and courage. Who can doubt the vastness of
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the achievements of education when one considers how different the condition of the blind and
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the deaf is from what it was a century ago. They were then objects
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of superstitious pity and shared the lowest beggars lot. Everybody looked upon their case
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as hopeless, and this view plunged them deeper in despair. The blind themselves
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laughed in the face of how We when he offered to teach them to read.
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How pitiable is the cramped sense of imprisonment in circumstances, which teaches men
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to expect no good and to treat any attempt to relieve them as the vagary
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of a disordered mind. But now behold the transformation. See how institutions and
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industrial establishments for the blind have sprung up as if by magic. See how
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many of the deaf have learned not only to read and write, but to
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speak. And remember that the faith and patience of Doctor Howe have borne fruit
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in the efforts that are being made everywhere to educate the deaf blind and equip
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them for the struggle. Do you wonder that I am full of hope and
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lifted up. The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought
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and died for their faith, but it took ages to teach them the other
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kind of courage, the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their
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rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principle of community. It is the
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spirit which conserves the best that all men think. No loss by flood and
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lightening, no destruction of cities and temples by the hostile forces of nature,
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has deprived men of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance
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has destroyed. With wonder and sorrow, I go back in thought to the
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ages of intolerance and bigotry. I see Jesus received with scorn and nailed on
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the cross. I see his followers hounded and tortured and burned. I am
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present where the finer spirits that revolt from the superstition of the Middle Ages are
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accused of impiety and stricken down. I behold the children of Israel, reviled
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and persecuted unto death by those who pretend Christianity with the tongue. I see
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them driven from land to land, hunted from refuge to refuge, summoned to
32:49
the felon's place, exposed to the whip, mocked as they utter amid the
32:52
pain of martyrdom, a confession of the faith which they have kept with such
32:58
splendid constancy. The same bigotry that oppresses the Jews falls tigre like upon Christian
33:05
nonconformists of purest lives, and wipes out the Albagenses and the peaceful vaudoir whose
33:12
bones lie on the mountains cold. I see the clouds part slowly, and
33:19
I hear a cry of protest against the bigot The restraining hand of tolerance is
33:23
laid upon the inquisitor, and the humanist utters a message of peace to the
33:29
persecuted instead of the cry burn. The heretic men study the human soul with
33:35
sympathy, and there enters into their hearts a new reverence for that which is
33:39
unseen. The idea of brotherhood re dawns upon the world with a broader significance
33:45
than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed, and thinkers of
33:52
great soul like lessing challenge the world to say which is more god like?
33:58
The hatred and tooth and male grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and
34:04
mutual helpfulness. Ancient prejudice of man against his brother man wavers and retreats before
34:10
the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms
34:16
or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs.
34:22
The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has
34:27
given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations. The
34:34
Optimist rejoices in the affectionate sympathy between Catholic heart and Protestant heart, which finds
34:40
a gratifying expression in the universal respect and warm admiration for Leo the thirteenth on
34:46
the part of good men the world over. The centenary celebrations of the births
34:52
of Emerson and Channing are beautiful examples of the tribute which men of all creeds
34:59
pay to the memory of a pure soul. Thus, in my outlook upon
35:04
our times, I find that I am glad to be a citizen of the
35:07
world. And as I regard my country, I find that to be an
35:12
American is to be an Optimist. I know the unhappy and unrighteous story of
35:17
what has been done in the Philippines beneath our flag. But I believe that
35:22
in the accidents of state craft, the best intelligence of the people sometimes fails
35:27
to express itself. I read in the history of Julius Caesar that during the
35:31
Civil Wars there were millions of peaceful herdsmen and laborers who worked as long as
35:37
they could, and fled before the advance of the armies that were led by
35:42
the few. Then waited until the danger was passed, and returned to repair
35:45
damages with patient hands. So the people are patient and honest, while their
35:52
rulers stumble. I rejoiced to see in the world and in this country,
35:58
a new and better patriotism than that which seeks the life of an enemy.
36:02
It is a patriotism higher than that of the battlefield. It moves thousands to
36:07
lay down their lives in social service, and every life so laid down brings
36:13
us a step nearer the time when cornfields shall no more be fields of battle.
36:19
So when I heard of the cruel fighting in the Philippines, I did
36:22
not despair, because I knew that the hearts of our people were not in
36:27
that fight, and that sometime the hand of the destroyer must be stayed.
36:32
End of Part two, optimism without part three the practice of optimism. The
36:42
test of all beliefs is in their practical effect in life. If it be
36:45
true that optimism compels the world forward and pessimism retards it, then it is
36:52
dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy. One who believes that the pain in the
36:58
world outweighs the joy and expresses that unhappy conviction only adds to the pain.
37:05
Schopenhauer is an enemy to the race, even if he earnestly believed that this
37:09
is the most wretched of possible worlds. He should not promulgate a doctrine which
37:14
robs men of the incentive to fight with circumstance. If life gave him ashes
37:20
for bread, it was his fault. Life is a fair field, and
37:24
the right world prosper. If we stand by our guns. Let pessimism once
37:30
take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy turvy, all vanity
37:35
and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or social disorder except
37:40
in forgetfulness and annihilation. Let us eat, drink, and be merry,
37:45
says the pessimist. For tomorrow we die. If I regarded my life from
37:51
the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should
37:55
seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes, and the
37:59
music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day,
38:04
and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a
38:08
prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself
38:15
and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical
38:19
deprivation. Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope and goodness cast a shadow
38:25
upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were privileges.
38:30
The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter, for he knows his neighbor will
38:36
be hindered by his failure to keep in line. He will therefore hold his
38:40
place fearlessly and remember the duty of silence sufficient unto each heart is its own
38:47
sorrow. He will take the iron claws of circumstance in his hand and use
38:53
them as tools to break away the obstacles that block his path. He will
38:59
work as if upon him alone depended the establishment of heaven on earth we have
39:05
seen that the world's philosophers, the sayers of the word, were optimists.
39:09
So also are the man of action and achievement, the doers of the word.
39:15
Doctor Howe found his way to Laura Bridgeman's soul because he began with the
39:21
belief that he could reach it. English jurists had said that the deaf blind
39:27
were idiots in the eyes of the law. Behold what the optimist does.
39:31
He controverts a hard legal axiom. He looks behind the dull, impassive clay
39:37
and sees a human soul in bondage, and quietly resolutely sets about its deliverance.
39:45
His efforts are victorious. He creates intelligence out of idiocy and proves to
39:51
the law that the deaf blind man is a responsible being. When Howie offered
39:57
to teach the blind to read, he was met by pessimism that laughed at
40:01
his folly. Had he not believed that the soul of man is mightier than
40:06
the ignorance that fetters it, had he not been an optimist, he would
40:09
not have turned the fingers of the blind into new instruments. No pessimist ever
40:15
discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land or opened
40:22
a new heaven to the human spirit. Saint Bernard was so deeply an optimist
40:28
that he believed two hundred and fifty enlightened men could illuminate the darkness which overwhelmed
40:32
the period of the Crusades, and the light of his faith broke like a
40:37
new day upon Western Europe. John Bosco, the Benefactor of the poor and
40:43
the friendless of Italian cities, was another Optimist, another prophet who, perceiving
40:49
a divine idea while it was yet afar, proclaimed it to his countrymen.
40:54
Although they laughed at his vision and called him a madman. Yet he were
41:00
worked on patiently, and with the labor of his hands, he maintained a
41:04
home for little street waifs. In the fervor of enthusiasm, he predicted the
41:08
wonderful movement which should result from his work. Even in the days before he
41:14
had money or patronage. He drew glowing pictures of the splendid system of schools
41:20
and hospitals which should spread from one end of Italy to the other. And
41:24
he lived to see the organization of the San Salvador Society, which was the
41:30
embodiment of his prophetic optimism. When doctor Sagan declared his opinion that the feeble
41:37
minded could be taught again, people laughed, and, in their complaisant wisdom,
41:43
said he was no better than an idiot himself. But the noble optimist
41:47
persevered, and by and by the reluctant pessimists saw that he whom they ridiculed,
41:54
had become one of the world's philanthropists. Thus the optimist believed, attempts,
42:00
achieves. He stands always in the sunlight. Some day the wonderful,
42:07
the inexpressible arrives and shines upon him, and he is there to welcome it.
42:13
His soul meets his own and beats a glad march to every new discovery,
42:17
every fresh victory over difficulties, every addition to human knowledge and happiness.
42:25
We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists.
42:30
So too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their
42:35
books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with
42:40
his genius, and many optimistic writers have been read and admired out of all
42:45
measure to their talents, simply because they wrote of the sunlit side of life.
42:52
Dickens, Lamb Goldsmith, Irving all the well beloved and gentle humorists were
42:59
uptimists. Swift the pessimist has never had as many readers as his towering genius
43:06
should command. And indeed, when he comes down into our century and meets
43:10
Thackeray, that generous optimist can hardly do him justice. In spite of the
43:16
latter day notoriety of the rubaiyat of O mark i Am, we may set
43:22
it down as a rule that he who would be heard must be a believer,
43:25
must have a fundamental optimism in his philosophy. He may bluster and disagree
43:31
and lament, as Carlyle and Ruskin do sometimes, but a basic confidence in
43:37
the good destiny of life and of the world must underlie his work. Shakespeare
43:45
is the prince of optimists. His tragedies are a revelation of moral order.
43:51
In Lear and Hamlet, there is a looking forward to something better. Someone
43:55
is left at the end of the play to right wrong, restore society,
44:00
and build the state anew. The later plays, The Tempest and Cymbeline show
44:06
a beautiful, placid optimism which delights in reconciliations and reunions, and which plans
44:13
for the triumph of external as well as internal good. If Browning were less
44:19
difficult to read, he would surely be the dominant poet of this century.
44:24
I feel the ecstasy with which he exclaims, Oh good, gigantic smile of
44:29
the brown old earth this autumn morning, and how he sets my brain going
44:36
when he says, because there is imperfection, there must be perfection. Completeness
44:40
must come of incompleteness, failure is an evidence of triumph for the fullness of
44:46
the days. Yes, discord is that harmony may be, pain destroys,
44:52
that health may renew. Perhaps I am deaf and blind that others likewise afflicted
44:59
may and hear with a more perfect sense. From Browning, I learned that
45:04
there is no lost good, and that makes it easier for me to go
45:07
at life right or wrong, do the best I know, and fear not.
45:13
My heart responds proudly to his exhortation to pay gladly life's debt of pain,
45:19
darkness, and cold. Lift up your burdens. It is God's gift,
45:23
Bear it nobly. The man of letters whose voice is to prevail must
45:30
be an optimist, and his voice often learns its message from his life.
45:36
Stephenson's life has become a tradition. Only ten years after his death, he
45:40
has taken his place among the heroes, the bravest man of letters since Johnson
45:45
and Lamb. I remember an hour when I was discouraged and ready to falter.
45:52
For days, I had been pegging away at a task which refused to
45:57
get itself accomplished. In the midst of my perplexity, I read an essay
46:01
of Stephenson which made me feel as if I had been outing in the sunshine
46:07
instead of losing heart over a difficult task. I tried again with new courage,
46:14
and succeeded almost before I knew it. I have failed many times since,
46:17
but I have never felt so disheartened as I did before that sturdy preacher
46:22
gave me my lesson in the fashion of the smiling face. Read Schopenhauer and
46:30
Omar, and you will grow to find the world as hollow as they find
46:34
it. Read Green's History of England, and the world is peopled with heroes.
46:39
I never knew why Green's history thrilled me with the vigor of romance until
46:45
I read his biography. Then I learned how his quick imagination transfigured the hard,
46:51
bare facts of life into new and living dreams. When he and his
46:55
wife were too poor to have a fire, he would sit before the unline
47:00
at hearth and pretend that it was ablaze. Drill your thoughts, he said,
47:06
shut out the gloomy and call in the bright. There is more wisdom
47:09
in shutting one's eyes than your copybook philosophers will allow. Every optimist moves along
47:17
with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a
47:22
standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same
47:29
as in the life of an individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men
47:35
to struggle against poverty, ignorance, and crime, and dries up all the
47:39
fountains of joy in the world. In imagination, I leave the country which
47:45
lifts up the manhood of the poor, and I visit India, the underworld
47:50
of fatalism, where three hundred million human beings, scarcely men submerged in ignorance
47:57
and misery, precipitate themselves still deeper into the pit. Why are they thus
48:05
because they have for thousands of years been the victims of their philosophy, which
48:08
teaches them that men are as grass, and the grass fadeth, and there
48:14
is no more greenness upon the earth. They sit in the shadow and let
48:19
the circumstances they should master grip them until they cease to be men, and
48:23
are made to dance and salaam like puppets in a play. After a little
48:30
hour, death comes and hurries them off to the grave, and other puppets
48:34
with other pasteboard passions and desires take their place, and the show goes on
48:38
for centuries. Go to India and see what sort of civilization is developed.
48:45
When a nation lacks faith in progress and bows to the gods of darkness.
48:52
Under the influence of Brahmanism, genius and ambition have been suppressed. There is
48:57
no one to befriend the poor, or to protect the fatherless and the widow.
49:01
The sick lie untended. The blind know not how to see, nor
49:07
the deaf to hear, and they are left by the roadside to die.
49:12
In India, it is a sin to teach the blind and the deaf,
49:15
because their affliction is regarded as a punishment for offenses in a previous state of
49:21
existence. If I had been born in the midst of these fatalistic doctrines.
49:25
I should still be in the darkness my life, a desert land, where
49:30
no caravan of thought might pass between my spirit and the world beyond. The
49:37
Hindus believe in endurance, but not in resistance. Therefore they have been subdued
49:42
by strangers. Their history is a repetition of that of Babylon, a nation
49:49
from Afar came with speeds swiftly, and none stumbled or slept or slumbered.
49:54
But they brought desolation upon the land, and took the stay and the staff
50:00
from the people, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water.
50:05
That mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet,
50:09
and the prudent and the ancient, and none deliver them. Woe.
50:15
Indeed, is the heritage of those who walk sad, thoughted, and downcast
50:21
through this radiant soul, delighting earth, blind to its beauty and death to
50:25
its music. And of those who call evil good and good evil, and
50:30
put darkness for light and light for darkness. What care the weather bronzed sons
50:37
of the West feeding the world from the plains of Dakota. For the Omars
50:42
and the Brahmins, They would say to the Hindus, blot out your philosophy
50:46
dead for a thousand years, look with fresh eyes at reality and life.
50:52
Put away your Brahmins and your crooked gods, and seek diligently for Vishnu.
50:57
The preserver. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be
51:02
done without hope. When our forefathers laid the foundation of the American Commonwealth,
51:08
went nerved them to their task. But a vision of a free community against
51:14
the cold, inhospitable sky across the wilderness, white with snow, where alurk
51:20
to the hidden savage, gleamed the bow of promise toward which they set their
51:24
faces with the faith that levels mountains, fills up valleys, bridges rivers,
51:30
and carries civilization to the uttermost parts of the earth. Although the pioneers could
51:36
not build according to the Hebraic ideal they saw, yet they gave the pattern
51:40
of all that is most enduring in our country today. They brought to the
51:45
wilderness the thinking mind, the printed book, the deep rooted desire for self
51:51
government, and the English common law that judges alike the king and the subject,
51:57
the law on which rests the whole structure of our society. It is
52:01
significant that the foundation of that law is optimistic. In Latin countries, the
52:08
court proceeds with a pessimistic bias. The prisoner is held guilty until he is
52:15
proved innocent. In England and the United States, there is an optimistic presumption
52:21
that the accused is innocent until it is no longer possible to deny his guilt.
52:25
Under our system, it is said many criminals are acquitted, but it
52:30
is surely better so than that many innocent persons should suffer. The pessimist cries,
52:37
there is no enduring good in man. The tendency of all things is
52:42
through perpetual loss to chaos. In the end, if there was ever an
52:46
idea of good in things evil, it was impotent, and the world rushes
52:52
on to ruin. But behold, the law of the two most sober minded,
52:59
practical, and law abiding nations on earth assumes the good in man and
53:04
demands a proof of the bad. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
53:10
The profits of the world have been of good heart, or their standards
53:15
would have stood naked in the field without a defender. Tolstoy's strictures lose power
53:22
because they are pessimistic. If he had seen clearly the faults of America and
53:27
still believed in her capacity to overcome them, our people might have felt the
53:31
stimulation of his censure. But the world turns its back on a hopeless prophet
53:37
and listens to Emerson, who takes into account the best qualities of the nation
53:44
and attacks only the vices which no one can defend or deny. It listens
53:49
to the strong man Lincoln, who, in times of doubt, trouble,
53:52
and need, does not falter. He sees success afar, and by s
54:00
out hope, by hoping against hope, inspires a nation through the night of
54:06
despair. He says all is well, and thousands rest in his confidence.
54:12
When such a man censures and points to a fault, the nation obeys,
54:16
and his words sink into the ears of men. But to the lamentations of
54:21
the habitual Jeremiah, the ear grows dull. Our newspapers should remember this.
54:29
The press is the pulpit of the modern world, and on the preachers who
54:32
feel it. Much depends. If the protest of the press against unrighteous measures
54:37
is to avail, then for ninety nine days the word of the preacher should
54:43
be bullyant and of good cheer, so that on the hundredth day the voice
54:46
of censure may be a hundred times strong. This was Lincoln's way. He
54:52
knew the people, he believed in them, and rested his faith on the
54:57
justice and wisdom of the great majority. When in his rough and ready way
55:01
he said, you can't fool all the people all the time, he expressed
55:07
a great principle, the doctrine of faith in human nature. The prophet is
55:13
not without honor, save he be a pessimist. The astatic prophecies of Isaiah
55:19
did far more to restore the exiles of Israel to their homes than the lamentations
55:24
of Jeremiah did to deliver them from the hands of evildoers. Even on Christmas
55:30
Day, do men remember that Christ came as a prophet of good. His
55:35
joyous optimism is like water to feverish lips, and has for its highest expression
55:39
the Eight Beatitudes. It is because Christ is an optimist that for ages he
55:45
has dominated the Western world for nineteen centuries. Christendom has gazed into his shining
55:52
face and felt that all things work together for good. Saint Paul too taught
55:58
the faith which looks beyond the hardest things, into the infinite horizon of heaven,
56:04
where all limitations are lost in the light of perfect understanding. If you
56:08
are born blind, search the treasures of darkness. They are more precious than
56:14
the gold of of fear. They are love and goodness, and truth and
56:20
hope, and their price is above rubies and sapphires. Jesus utters and Paul
56:27
proclaims a message of peace and a message of reason, a belief in the
56:31
idea, not in things, in love, not in conquest. The optimist
56:37
is he who sees that men's actions are directed not by squadrons and armies,
56:43
but by moral power, that the conquests of Alexander and Napoleon are less abiding
56:50
than Newton's, and Galileos and Saint Augustine's silent mastery of the world. Ideas
56:58
are mightier than five and sword, nor is lesslie. They propagate themselves from
57:04
land to land, and mankind goes out and reaps the rich harvest, and
57:09
thanks God. But the achievements of the warrior are like his canvas city today,
57:15
a camp tomorrow, all struck and vanished, a few pit holes and
57:21
heaps of straw. This was the gospel of Jesus two thousand years ago.
57:25
Christmas Day is the festival of optimism. Although there are still great evils which
57:34
have not been subdued, and the optimist is not blind to them. Yet
57:37
he is full of hope. Despondency has no place in his creed, for
57:43
he believes in the imperishable righteousness of God and the dignity of man. History
57:50
records man's triumphant descent. Each halt in his progress has been but a pause
57:55
before a mighty leap forward. The time is not a joint. If indeed
58:00
some of the temples we worshiped in have fallen, we have built new ones
58:06
on the sacred sites, loftier and holier than those which have crumbled. If
58:10
we have lost some of the heroic physical qualities of our ancestors, we have
58:15
replaced them with the spiritual nobleness that turns aside wrath and binds up the wounds
58:22
of the vanquished. All the past attainments of man are ours, and more
58:28
his day dreams have become our clear realities. Therein lies our hope and sure
58:34
faith. As I stand in the sunshine of a sincere and earnest optimism,
58:39
my imagination paints yet more glorious triumphs on the cloud curtain of the future.
58:46
Out of the fierce struggle and turmoil of contending systems and powers, I see
58:52
a brighter spiritual era slowly emerge, an era in which there shall be no
58:58
England, no friends, no Germany, no America. Know this people or
59:04
that, but one family, the human race, one law, peace,
59:08
one need, harmony, one means labor, one taskmaster God. If I
59:17
should try to say anew the creed of the optimist, I should say something
59:22
like this. I believe in God, I believe in Man. I believe
59:25
in the power of the spirit. I believe it is a sacred duty to
59:30
encourage ourselves and others to hold the tongue from any unhappy word against God's world,
59:37
because no man has any right to complain of a universe which God made
59:42
good, and which thousands of men have striven to keep good. I believe
59:46
we should so act that we may draw nearer and more near the age when
59:52
no man shall live at his ease while another suffers. These are the articles
59:57
of my faith, and there is yet another on which all depends. To
1:00:01
bear this faith above every tempest which overfloods it, and to make it a
1:00:07
principle in disaster and through affliction. Optimism is the harmony between man's spirit and
1:00:15
the spirit of God, pronouncing his works good. End of Optimism, an
1:00:23
essay by Helen Keller,