This may not be the best of all possible worlds, but to say that it
is the worst is mere petulant nonsense. A worn-out voluptuary may find
nothing good under the sun, or a vain and inexperienced youth, who
cannot get the moon he cries for, may vent his irritation in pessimistic
moanings; but there can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable
person that mankind could, would, and in fact do, get on fairly well
with vastly less happiness and far more misery than find their way into
the lives of nine people out of ten. If each and all of us had been
visited by an attack of neuralgia, or of extreme mental depression,
for one hour in every twenty-four--a supposition which many tolerably
vigorous people know, to their cost, is not extravagant--the burden
of life would have been immensely increased without much practical
hindrance to its general course. Men with any manhood in them find life
quite worth living under worse conditions than these.