Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/808

 PESCHITTO

740

PESSIMISM

later arranged in two volumes, " Briefe aus Hamburg" (1S83), and "Dor Kraeh von Wittenberg" (1889), re- futing the usual calumnies against the Church. His most popular book was "Das Religiose Leben", of which tliirteen largo editions have appeared. During all this period of literary activity, Pesch wa.s tireless as a missioner in Germany. He was often arrested under charge of being a Jesuit. Pesch tauglit the best in Schola.-iticisiii, hut ajipreciated what was good in other systems of ]ihiliispliy. His Latin writings contain the latest results of natural science applied to the illus- tration of truth by scholastic methods.

Milteilungeii aus tier detUschen Proniiz (Roermond), n. 8. 721; Thoelen, Meriologium oder Lebensbitder aus der Geschichte der deidschen Ordensprovinz der Gesellschaft Jesu (Roermond, 1901), 602.

Walter Drum.

Peschitto. See Manuscripts of the Bible; Ver- sions OF THE Bible.

Pescia, Diocese of (Pisciensis), in Tuscany, Italy, on the Rivers Pescia Maggiore and Pescia Min- ore, situated in a fertile plain; its textile industry is

Cathedhal, Pescia Rebuilt in 1693, the campanile in 1306

considerable. The cathedral is very ancient, but was restored by Ferri in 16(i3; it contains beautiful paint- ings by Gabbaini and the mausoleum of Baldassare Turini. Other churches are S. Michele and S. Stefano, anterior to the twelfth century, and S. Francesco, which dates from 1211. The earliest mention of Pescia is of the eighth century; later it belonged to the Republic of l.ucra until the fourteenth centurj', %vhen it was conquered by (he Florentines, who defended it effectively in 1430 against Francesco Sforza. In 1.5.54 Pietro Strozzi, an (!xile from Florence, became master of Pescia, but he was compelled to surrender to Duke Cosimo de' Medici. Pescia is the home of the Am- mannati family, and of the painter Mariano da Pescia. In 1.519 Leo X withdrew it from the jurisdiction of Lucca, rai.sing it to the dignity of a prelacy Tinlliiix; and in 1726 it was made a diocese, suffragan of Pisa. Its first bishop was Bartolonmieo Pucci (1728); among

his successors should be mentioned Francesco Vicenti (1773-1801), who in 1784 founded the seminary. The diocese has 36 parishes, with 70,.504 inhabitants; 5 religicms licmses of men, and 10 of women; 2 educa- tional institutions for male students, and S for girls; and 1 Catholic weekly publication.

U. Benigni.

Pessimism. — I. A Temper of Mind. — In popular language tlic term pessimist is applied to persons who habitually take a niclanclioly view of life, to whom painful experiences appeal with gnat intensity, and who have little corres])(indiiig aiiiireciatiim of pleasur- able ones. Such a temper is partly (lu<' to natural dis- position, and partly to individual cireiniistances. Ac- cording to Caro (after von Hartmann), it is especially prevalent in periods of transition, in which old ways of thought have lost their hold, while the new order has not yet made itself fully known, or has not secured general acceptance for its principles. In such a state of things men's minds are driven in upon themselves; the outward order appears to lack stability and per- manence, and life in general tends consequently to be estimated as hollow and unsatisfactory. Metchnikoff altriliutes the pessimistic temper to a somewhat simi- lar jicriiid in the life history of the individual, viz.: — tliat of the transition froin the enthusiasm of youth to the c:iliiM r and more .settled outlixik of niaturitv. It in:i> lie:idiMittc(l that IkiIIi causes eontril>ute to the low estiii:ite (if life whieli is iniplieil in the common no- tion of the iiessiiiiistie teMi]ieranient. But this tem- jieranient seems to be far from lare at any time, and to en(l uiion causes too complex and obscure for ex- haustive analysis. The poetic minil has very gener- alh enipliasiziil the paiiii'iil aspect of life, though it is seldom wholly imresponsi\-e to it sjileasurable and desir- able side. With Lucretius, however, life is a failure and wholly undesirable; with Sophocles, and still more \\ith /Fschylus, the tragic element in human affairs nearly fibscures their more cheerful aspect: " It is best of all never to have been born"; the frank and unre- flective joy in living and in the contemplation of na- ture, which riuis through the Homeric poems, and is apparent in the work of Hesiod and that of the Greek lyrists, is but seldom found among those who look be- low the surface of things. In proportion as human affairs outgrew the naive simplicity of the early pe- riods of history, the tendency to brood over the per- ])lexities of emerging sjMiitual and social questions n.aturally increased. Hyroii, Slu'lley, Baudelaire and l.<-eonte de Lisle, Heine and Leopardi are the jioets of satiety, disillusion, and despair, as the genius of Goethe and Browning represents the spirit of cheerfulness and hope.

.\t the present moment it would seem that the variety of interests which science and education have brought within the reach of most persons, and the wide possibilities opened up for the future, have done much to discourage pessimistic feelings and to bring about the prevalence of a view of life which is on the whole of an opposite character. We must not, in- deed, expect that the darker aspect of the world will ever be wholly abolished, or that it will ever cease to impress itself with varying degrees of intensity upon different temperaments. But the tendency of the present day is undoubtedly in the direction of that cheerful though not optimistic view of life which George Eliot called Meliorism, or the belief that though a perfect state may be unattainable, yet an indefinitely extended improvement in the conditions of existence may be looked for, and that sufficient satisfaction for human energy and desire may be found in the endeavour to contribute to it.

II. A School of Philosophy. — As a philosophical system, Pessimism may be characterized as one of the