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    The Philosophy of Despair
    The Philosophy of Despair
    The Philosophy of Despair
    Ebook47 pages35 minutes

    The Philosophy of Despair

    By David Starr Jordan

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    The Philosophy of Despair

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      Book preview

      The Philosophy of Despair - David Starr Jordan

      Project Gutenberg's The Philosophy of Despair, by David Starr Jordan

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Philosophy of Despair

      Author: David Starr Jordan

      Posting Date: September 4, 2009 [EBook #4754]

      Release Date: December, 2003

      First Posted: March 12, 2002

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESPAIR ***

      Produced by David A. Schwan. HTML version by Al Haines.

      The Philosophy of Despair

      by

      David Starr Jordan

      To

      John Maxson Stillman

      In Token of Good Cheer

      A darkening sky and a whitening sea,

      And the wind in the palm trees tall;

      Soon or late comes a call for me,

      Down from the mountain or up from the sea,

      Then let me lie where I fall.

      And a friend may write—for friends there be,

      On a stone from the gray sea wall,

      "Jungle and town and reef and sea—

      I loved God's Earth and His Earth loved me,

      Taken for all in all."

      Today is your day and mine, the only day we have, the day in which we play our part. What our part may signify in the great whole, we may not understand, but we are here to play it, and now is our time. This we know, it is a part of action, not of whining. It is a part of love, not cynicism. It is for us to express love in terms of human helpfulness. This we know, for we have learned from sad experience that any other course of life leads toward decay and waste.

      The Philosophy of Despair

      The Bubbles of Sáki.

      From Fitzgerald's exquisite version of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, I take the following quatrains which may serve as a text for what I have to say:

      So when the angel of the darker Drink

      At last shall find you by the river-brink,

      And offering you his cup, invite your Soul

      Forth to your lips to quaff, you shall not shrink.

      Why, if the soul can fling the Dust aside,

      And naked on the air of Heaven ride,

      Wert not a shame—wert not a shame for him

      In this clay carcase crippled to abide?

      'Tis but a tent where takes his one-day's rest

      A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;

      The Sultan rises, and the dark Ferrásh

      Strikes, and prepares it for another guest.

      And fear not lest Existence, closing your

      Account, and mine, shall know the like no more;

      The Eternal Sáki from that bowl hath pour'd

      Millions of bubbles like us, and will pour.

      When you and I behind the veil are past,

      Oh, but the long, long while the world shall last,

      Which of our coming and departure heeds

      As the Sev'n Seas shall heed a pebble-cast.

      A moment's halt—a

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