ABSTRACT
Ecclesiastes is the picture of the philosophic mind, of the average mind, for ever halting between two opinions, the goodness and the badness of life. Changing mood and circumstance, even shifting states of health, make a man a pessimist one moment, and an optimist another. Apart from Ecclesiastes—nay, together with it—Holy Writ is essentially optimistic; it is the hopeful man’s Bible. All seeming evil, says Scripture, is overruled for good. All religion is essentially optimistic, as all the Bible is, though some religions are more optimistic than others. The religionist accepts the Law, sings with the Psalmists, predicts with the Prophets. For optimism is not the ignoring of evil, but the courageous determination to look it steadily in the face and to quell it with the very courage. Thus the pessimist stands self-condemned; he denies that there is a soul of good in things evil, and therefore desists from seeking it.
