The Philosophy of Disenchantment
In the tradition of Schopenhauer and the great pessimists, Edgar Saltus asks the question that haunts every thoughtful life: is existence a gift or a deception? He divides humanity into two camps, those who accept life as a pleasing possession and those who look the gift in the mouth and find it wanting. Drawing from ancient Greek philosophers, poets, and dramatists who voiced discontent with existence, Saltus traces the genealogy of doubt through the centuries. He argues that modern thought has arrived at a disturbing conclusion: happiness is not merely elusive but fundamentally illusory, and the wise acknowledge life's inherent suffering rather than chasing phantoms. Written in ornate, muscular prose that owes something to Carlyle and something to the French moralists, this is not a despairing book but a clearsighted one. For any reader who has ever suspected that contentment requires a certain willful blindness, Saltus offers not comfort but honesty.
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“Briefly, then, life, to the pessimist, is a motiveless desire, a constant pain and continued struggle, followed by death, and so on, in secula seculorum, until the planet’s crust crumbles to dust.””
— Edgar Saltus
“But to such a man as Schopenhauer,”
— Edgar Saltus
“As a general rule, nine tenths of happiness may be said to rest on the state of health; when this is perfect, anything and everything may be a source of pleasure; in illness, on the other hand, nothing, no matter what its nature may be, is capable of affording any real enjoyment.””
— Edgar Saltus
“To say that he hated it would be unjust, for, like most sensible people, he held hatred to be an elixir far too precious to be wasted on trivial matters.””
— Edgar Saltus
