Light On Dark Water

Anthony Daniels on the Psychology of Pessimism

The May issue of The New Criterion contains a typically memorable essay by Anthony Daniels comparing Swift and Johnson, specifically with respect to the deep pessimism about human affairs that they held in common. I laughed at this passage, which describes a psychological pattern with which I am very familiar:

That life is a trial was Swift’s view also. Perhaps the fact that his father died before he was born, leaving his mother very poor, and that his nurse virtually kidnapped him from his mother for three years, without her apparently making any great efforts to recuperate him, lent a certain jaundice to his outlook. Experience early confirmed for him the vanity of human wishes. He wrote, in a famous letter to Lord Bolingbroke:

I remember, when I was a little boy, I felt a great fish at the end of my line which I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropped in, and the disappointment vexes me to this very day, and I believe it was the type of all my future disappointments.

It is no answer that, if he had caught the great fish, he would have been satisfied: for he would have complained that, once landed, it was not as big as he had supposed; or that adults removed it from him as soon as they saw him with it, and he was never allowed to see it again; or that its flesh was far less delicious than he had anticipated, being dry or muddy in flavor; or that the satisfaction of the meal was soon over.

Maclin Horton
, , , ,

6 responses to “Anthony Daniels on the Psychology of Pessimism”

  1. Janet

    If ever there were a hydra-headed monster, it is man’s determination to complicate his existence to the point of misery.
    Well, I can’t read the article because I’m not a subscriber, but I think it’s funny that it mentions the hydra because I was thinking about the hydra in relationship to the Eve Tushnet item that you linked to in the previous thread. I’ve often thought about sin in the way that she discusses–that we start an action that perpetuates and multiplies itself. Of course, I particularly see this effect in the lives of my children and grandchildren. But it occurred to me the other day while this is true, it is also true that our Faith teaches us that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Wherever our sin is wreaking havoc, grace is there to meet it. We think of the evil as a sort of hydra with multiplying heads, but there’s also a more than equal and opposite reaction.
    AMDG

    Reply
  2. Mac

    It occurred to me after I posted this that the link to the article wouldn’t be much use to other people. However, I did make sure that I hadn’t done it wrong, so at least it takes you to a couple of paragraphs or so.
    Daniels is an interesting fellow in a lot of ways. Both Swift and Johnson, as you probably know, were religious in a desperate kind of way, always fighting off doubt and despair, and though Daniels is a non-believer he understands them.
    That’s very true about grace, thank God. If I didn’t believe that I think I’d be a Cathar-type Manichean, believing this life is basically a bad idea.

    Reply
  3. Janet

    Well, Anne Marie, I saw your comment for a minute before it disappeared and you’re welcome.
    AMDG

    Reply
  4. Mac

    I don’t know why that comment of Anne-Marie’s is not appearing. Looking at the comments while logged in to my TP account, I don’t see anything different about it. It’s not marked as spam or anything.

    Reply
  5. Janet

    I commented in the wrong thread (because her comment had disappeared and I didn’t know where it has been) but then it reappeared. I can see it in the Miscellaneous thread now.
    AMDG

    Reply
  6. Mac

    Very strange. I see it too, now, and I swear it wasn’t there when I looked this morning. Some odd TypePad glitch, I suppose.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Instagram / TikTok / X

Designed with WordPress