This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: …Magazine. The Optimist. /NE Good Friday, near the Thames-Embankment, I came across a little tattered man preaching the Gospel. He was standing beneath Charing Cross railway bridge, in the middle of the inner roadway. Nobody paid any attention to him. The policeman at the corner had turned his back. The little knot of cabmen treated him with indifference. Yet the man was worth attention. He was not an ordinary rhetorician: he had peeped into books, and could snatch a passage to illumine his rhetoric. ‘Now, what did Mr. R. H. 'Utton say on this point?’ he cried, as I strolled past. ‘What did Mr. 'Utton say in his essay on The Modern Poetry of Doubt? Why, this: Either we are on the eve of a long and uncertain era of spiritual suspense–scepticism qualified by a yearning 'ope–or the way is preparing for a day of clearer and more solid trust than the world has yet known. ’ The little man paused, and fixed me with a shining eye. ‘I’m an optimist, ’ he shouted. ‘Mark me, my friend: the way is preparing for a day of clearer and more solid trust. We’re improving inch by inch. No: mile by mile, sir! And, as we improve, we forgive each other oftener, we bear with each other more, we try to understand the awful thirst and loneliness of the dumb animals. I’d forgive the Jews. Yes: even on Good Friday, my friend. What did Mr. Browning say in his poem called Holy-Cross Day ? The Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet, And again in his border see Israel set. Yes, my friend: I’m an optimist. Holes in my boots, an empty stomach, and a wife who carries on–but I’m an optimist. I’m on Mr. Browning’s side. Why am I an optimist? Because the world’s growing better. I can see it growing better. Look at the Times newspaper with its columns…
