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Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics

Pradip Debnath
Nabanita Konwar
Stojan Radenović Editors

Metric
Fixed Point
Theory
Applications in Science, Engineering and
Behavioural Sciences
Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics

Editors-in-Chief
Viswanath Ramakrishna, Department of Mathematics, University of Texas, Dallas,
Richardson, TX, USA
Zhonghai Ding, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nevada, Las
Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Editorial Board
Ashis Sengupta, Applied Statistics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, West
Bengal, India
Balasubramaniam Jayaram, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of
Technology Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
P. V. Subrahmanyam, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, India
Ravindra B. Bapat, Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute,
New Delhi, Delhi, India
The Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics is a Scopus-indexed book series. It
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Pradip Debnath · Nabanita Konwar ·
Stojan Radenović
Editors

Metric Fixed Point Theory

Applications in Science, Engineering
and Behavioural Sciences
Editors
Pradip Debnath Nabanita Konwar
Department of Applied Science Department of Mathematics
and Humanities Birjhora Mahavidyalaya
Assam University Bongaigaon, India
Silchar, India

Stojan Radenović
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
University of Belgrade
Belgrade, Serbia

ISSN 2364-6748 ISSN 2364-6756 (electronic)

Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics
ISBN 978-981-16-4895-3 ISBN 978-981-16-4896-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4896-0

Mathematics Subject Classification: 47H10, 54H25, 54E50, 47H11

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Preface

Fixed point theory emerged as an indispensable tool over the last few decades
in nonlinear sciences and engineering including behavioral science, mathematical
economics, physics, etc. To be precise, while formulating an experiment mathemat-
ically, we often have to investigate the solvability of a functional equation in terms
of differential, integral, fractional differential, or matrix equations. Such a solution
is often achieved by finding fixed point of a particular mapping. The three major
approaches in fixed point theory are metric approach, topological approach, and
discrete approach. In this book, we mainly focus on the theory and applications of
metric fixed point theory.
This book is meant for researchers, graduate students, and teachers interested in the
theory of fixed points. Mathematicians, engineers, and behavioral scientists will also
find the book useful. The readers of this book will require minimum pre-requisites of
undergraduate studies in functional analysis and topology. This book has a collection
of chapters authored by several renowned contemporary researchers across the world
in fixed point theory. Here, readers will find several useful tools and techniques to
develop their skills and expertise in fixed point theory. The book contains sufficient
theory and applications of fixed points in several areas. The book presents a survey
of the existing knowledge and also the current state-of-the-art development through
original new contributions from the famous researchers all over the world.
This book consists of total 15 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a detailed review of the
most important basic fixed point theorems in metric spaces, which are essential for
the sequel. In Chap. 2, fixed point theorems related to the infinite system of integral
equations have been studied. Chapter 3 presents the study of common fixed points
in a generalized metric space. Fixed point results and their applications in various
modular metric spaces have been discussed in Chaps. 4–6. Chapter 7 provides a
new insight into parametric metric spaces, whereas variational in equalities and
variational control problems have been studied in Chaps. 8–10. Some optimization
techniques in terms of best proximity points and coincidence best proximity results
have been presented in Chaps. 11 and 12, respectively. Application of fixed points to
the mathematics of fractals has been presented in Chap. 13. A survey on nonexpansive

v
vi Preface

mappings and their extensions in Banach spaces is provided in Chap. 14. Finally, in
Chap. 15, we explore the applications of fixed point theory in behavioral sciences.

Silchar, India Pradip Debnath

Bongaigaon, India Nabanita Konwar
Belgrade, Serbia Stojan Radenović
Contents

Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Binayak S. Choudhury and Nikhilesh Metiya
Study of Fixed Point Theorem and Infinite Systems of Integral
Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Anupam Das and Bipan Hazarika
Common Fixed Point Theorems and Applications in Intuitionistic
Fuzzy Cone Metric Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Nabanita Konwar
Modular Spaces and Fixed Points of Generalized Contractions . . . . . . . . 71
Tayebe Laal Shateri and Ozgur Ege
Fixed-Point Theorems in Generalized Modular Metric Spaces . . . . . . . . . 89
N. Manav
On Some Fixed Point Results in Various Types of Modular Metric
Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Mahpeyker Öztürk and Ekber Girgin
On Parametric (b, θ )-Metric Space and Some Fixed Point
Theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Yumnam Mahendra Singh and Mohammad Saeed Khan
Some Extragradient Methods for Solving Variational Inequalities
Using Bregman Projection and Fixed Point Techniques in Reflexive
Banach Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Lateef Olakunle Jolaoso
Common Solutions to Variational Inequality Problem via Parallel
and Cyclic Hybrid Inertial CQ-Subgradient Extragradient
Algorithms in (HSs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Hasanen A. Hammad and Mamadou Alouma Diallo

vii
viii Contents

On a New Class of Interval-Valued Variational Control Problems . . . . . . 211

Savin Treanţă
Best Proximity Points for Multivalued Mappings Satisfying
Zσ -Proximal Contractions with Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Hüseyin Işık, Amjad Ali, Fahim Uddin, Awais Asif,
and Muhammad Arshad
Coincidence Best Proximity Point Results via w p -Distance
with Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Naeem Saleem
Application of Fixed Point Iterative Methods to Construct Fractals
and Anti-fractals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Sudesh Kumari, Ashish Nandal, and Renu Chugh
Nonexpansive Mappings, Their Extensions, and Generalizations
in Banach Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Rajendra Pant, Rahul Shukla, and Prashant Patel
A Mathematical Model Using Fixed Point Theorem for Two-Choice
Behavior of Rhesus Monkeys in a Noncontingent Environment . . . . . . . . 345
Pradip Debnath
About the Editors

Pradip Debnath is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Department of Applied

Science and Humanities, Assam University, Silchar, India. He received his Ph.D. in
Mathematics from the National Institute of Technology Silchar, India. His research
interests include fixed point theory, nonlinear analysis, fuzzy normed linear spaces,
and fuzzy graphs. He has published over 50 papers in various journals of international
repute and is Reviewer for more than 20 renowned international journals. He has
successfully guided several Ph.D. students in the areas of fixed point theory and fuzzy
normed linear spaces. At present, he is working on a major basic science research
project on fixed point theory funded by the UGC, the Government of India. Having
been an academic gold medalist during his post-graduation studies, Dr. Debnath has
qualified several national-level examinations in mathematics in India.

Nabanita Konwar is Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Birjhora

Mahavidyalaya, Bongaigaon, India. She received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the
North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, Arunachal Pradesh,
India. Her research areas are fixed point theory and fuzzy functional analysis. She
has published over 15 papers in these areas with reputed international journals. She
has qualified several national-level examinations, including GATE and SLET in
mathematics.

Stojan Radenović is former Full Professor at the Department of Mathematics,

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He received his
Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. His research interests
are functional analysis and nonlinear analysis, especially the theory of fixed point in
abstract metric spaces and ordered metric spaces. He has been invited for research
collaborations by several universities, including the University of Paris VII, Paris,
France. He has worked as Editor in reputed journals and is also Referee for several.
He has published more than 140 papers in SCI/SCIE indexed journals and more
than 350 papers in the journals of international repute. At present, Prof. Radenović
has 9730 citations in Google Scholar with h-index 53 and i10-index 202. For four
years, he has been a Thomson-Reuters (Clarivate Analytics) highly cited researcher.
In 2020, he appeared in the list of World’s Top 2% Scientists published by Stanford
University, California.
ix
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric
Spaces

Binayak S. Choudhury and Nikhilesh Metiya

Abstract This chapter is a review work on the development of metric fixed point
theory. It begins with the description of Banach’s Contraction Mapping Principle and
finally contains results established in the recent years as well. The proofs are presented
for every theorem discussed here. Several illustrations are given. The development is
presented separately for functions with and without continuity property. Only results
on metric spaces without any additional structures are considered.

1 Introduction

It is widely held that metric fixed point theory originated in the year 1922 through the
work of S. Banach when he established the famous Contraction Mapping Principle
[2] which has come to be known by his name. It is a versatile domain of mathematics
having implications in several other branches of science, technology and economics
[1, 31, 43]. At present even after a century of its initiation, the subject area remains
vibrant with research activities.
Admittedly, putting together all basic theorems in metric fixed point theory in a
single chapter is an impossible task. One has to be selective on this issue. We do
not mean to undermine those results which are left out of our selection. They can
even be more important than those which are included in this chapter. For instance,

B. S. Choudhury (B)
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur,
Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India
e-mail: [email protected]
N. Metiya
Department of Mathematics, Sovarani Memorial College, Jagatballavpur, Howrah 711408, West
Bengal, India
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 1
P. Debnath et al. (eds.), Metric Fixed Point Theory, Forum for Interdisciplinary
Mathematics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4896-0_1
2 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

Generalized Banach Contraction Conjecture (GBCC) result of Merryfield et al. [26]

is not included in this chapter. There are many important fixed point results which are
deduced in metric spaces having additional structures like partial order, graph, etc.
But here we consider only those results which are relevant to metric spaces without
any additional structures. The only additional property which we consider here is
the completeness property of the metric space. Further, we describe theorems for
mappings with or without continuity assumption.

Definition 1 (Fixed point) Let M be a nonempty set and S : M → M be a mapping.

A fixed point of S is a point ξ ∈ M such that Sξ = ξ , that is, a fixed point of S is a
solution of the functional equation Sz = z, z ∈ M.

A self-mapping may have no fixed point, a unique fixed point and more than one
fixed point. This is illustrated in the following examples.

Example 1 Take R the set of all real numbers equipped with usual metric.
(i) The mapping S : R → R, Sz = z 3 , z ∈ R has three fixed points z = 0, z = 1
and z = −1.
(ii) The mapping S : R → R defined by Sz = −z 3 , z ∈ R has only fixed point
z = 0.
(iii) The mapping S : R → R where Sz = z + sin z, z ∈ R has fixed points z =
nπ, n = 0, ±1, ±2, ....
(iv) The mapping S : R → R defined as Sz = z + 1, z ∈ R has no fixed point.

2 Banach’s Contraction Mapping Principle

The first result we describe is the famous Contraction Mapping Principle.

Definition 2 (Contraction mapping) A mapping S : M → M, where (M, ρ) is a
metric space, is called a Lipschitz mapping if there exists a real number k > 0 such
that ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ k ρ(u, v) holds for all u, v ∈ M. The smallest positive real number
k for which the Lipschitz condition is valid is called the Lipschitz constant of S.
If the Lipschitz constant k lies between 0 and 1, that is, if 0 < k < 1, then the
Lipschitz mapping S is called a contraction mapping.
Obviously, a contraction mapping is continuous.

Example 2 (i) The mapping S : [0, 1) → [0, 1) defined by Sz = 5z is a contrac-

tion mapping.
(ii) The mapping S : R → R defined by Sz = 5z+3
2
is not a contraction mapping.

In 1922, Banach established a fixed point result for a self-map S of a complete

metric space using a contractive condition, which is known as Banach’s contraction
mapping principle.
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 3

Theorem 1 (Banach’s contraction mapping principle [2]) A self-mapping S of a

complete metric space (M, ρ) admits a unique fixed point if for all u, v ∈ M,

ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ k ρ(u, v), where 0 < k < 1. (1)

Proof Suppose ζ, η ∈ M with ζ = η are two fixed points of S. From (1), we have
ρ(ζ, η) = ρ(Sζ, Sη) ≤ k ρ(ζ, η), which is a contradiction. Hence the fixed point of
S, if it exists is unique.
Choose any point z 0 ∈ M. We construct a sequence {z n } in M such that

z n = Sz n−1 = S n z 0 for all n ≥ 1. (2)

For each positive integer n, we have

ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = ρ(Sz n−1 , Sz n )

≤ k ρ(z n−1 , z n )
≤ k 2 ρ(z n−2 , z n−1 )
...
≤ k n ρ(z 0 , z 1 ).

By triangular inequality, we have for n > m,

ρ(z m , z n ) ≤ ρ(z m , z m+1 ) + ρ(z m+1 , z m+2 ) + ... + ρ(z n−1 , z n )

≤ k m ρ(z 0 , z 1 ) + k m+1 ρ(z 0 , z 1 ) + ... + k n−1 ρ(z 0 , z 1 )
≤ k m [1 + k + k 2 + ... + k n−m−1 ] ρ(z 0 , z 1 )
< k m [1 + k + k 2 + ...] ρ(z 0 , z 1 )
km
= ρ(z 0 , z 1 ) → 0, as n → +∞ [since α < 1],
1−k

which implies that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence in M. By the completeness of M, there

exists ξ ∈ M such that z n → ξ , as n → +∞.
Being a contraction mapping, S is continuous. Therefore, we have Sξ =
limn→+∞ Sz n = limn→+∞ z n+1 = ξ . Hence, ξ is a fixed point S. By what we have
already proved, ξ is the unique fixed point of S.

Example 3 Take the complete metric space R equipped with usual metric and the
contraction mapping S : R → R defined as Sz = 2(1 − 5z ). We see that z = 10
7
is
the unique fixed point of S.
4 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

3 Generalizations of Contraction Mapping Principle

In 1969, Boyd and Wong [4] made a very interesting generalization of the Banach’s
contraction mapping principle in complete metric spaces. They replaced the con-
stant k in (1) of Theorem 1 by a function ϕ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) which is upper
semicontinuous from the right (that is, tn ↓ t ≥ 0 ⇒ lim sup ϕ(tn ) ≤ ϕ(t)).
The following result is due to Boyd and Wong [4].
Theorem 2 A self-mapping S of a complete metric space (M, ρ) admits a unique
fixed point if there exists a function ϕ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) which is upper semi-
continuous from the right with 0 ≤ ϕ(t) < t for t > 0 and the following inequality
holds:
ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ ϕ(ρ(u, v)), for all u, v ∈ M. (3)

Proof Let z 0 ∈ M be any arbitrary element. We define a sequence {z n } in M such

that z n = Sz n−1 = S n z 0 , for all n ≥ 1. If zl = zl+1 for some positive integer l, then
zl is a fixed point of S. So we assume that z n = z n+1 , for all n ≥ 0.
Applying (3) and using the property of ϕ, we have

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) = ρ(Sz n , Sz n+1 ) ≤ ϕ(ρ(z n , z n+1 )) < ρ(z n , z n+1 ), for all n ≥ 0.
(4)
Therefore, {ρ(z n , z n+1 )} is a monotonic decreasing sequence which is bounded
below by 0 and hence there exists an δ ≥ 0 for which

lim ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = δ. (5)

n→+∞

From (4), we have

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) ≤ ϕ(ρ(z n , z n+1 )), for all n ≥ 0.

Taking limit supremum as n → +∞ on both sides and using (5) and the properties
of ϕ, we have δ ≤ ϕ(δ) < δ. It is a contradiction unless δ = 0. Hence

lim ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0. (6)

n→+∞

We prove that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence by method of contradiction. If possible,

suppose that {z n } is not a Cauchy sequence. Then we have an > 0 for which there
exist two sequences of positive integers {m(k)} and {n(k)} such that

n(k) > m(k) > k, ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≥ and ρ(z m(k) , z n(k)−1 ) < .

Now,
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 5

≤ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k)−1 ) + ρ(z n(k)−1 , z n(k) )

< + ρ(z n(k)−1 , z n(k) ).

Using (6), we have

lim ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) = . (7)
k→+∞

Again,

ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) + ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) + ρ(z n(k) , z n(k)+1 )
≤ ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) + ϕ(ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )) + ρ(z n(k) , z n(k)+1 ).

Taking limit supremum as n → +∞ on both sides of the inequality and using (6), (7)
and the properties of ϕ, we have ≤ ϕ( ) < . This is a contradiction. Hence {z n }
is a Cauchy sequence. As (M, ρ) is complete, there exists ξ ∈ M such that z n → ξ ,
as n → +∞.
We now show that ξ is a fixed point of S. It follows by the contraction condition
that S is continuous. Therefore, Sξ = limn→+∞ Sz n = limn→+∞ z n+1 = ξ . Hence
ξ is a fixed point S.
Let z be a fixed point of S other than ξ . Then ρ(z, ξ ) > 0. From (3), we have
ρ(z, ξ ) = ρ(Sz, Sξ ) ≤ ϕ(ρ(z, ξ )) < ρ(z, ξ ), which is a contradiction. Hence, ξ is
the unique fixed point of S.
Example 4 Take the metric space M = [0, 1] equipped with usual metric. Define
2
S : M → M as Sz = z − z2 , for z ∈ M. Let ϕ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) be defined
by  2
t − t2 , if 0 ≤ t ≤ 1,
ϕ(t) = t
2
, otherwise.

Boyd and Wong fixed point theorem is applicable and z = 0 is the unique fixed point
of S.
In 1969, Meir and Keeler [25] established that the conclusion of Banach’s theo-
rem holds more generally from the following condition of weakly uniformly strict
contraction:
Given > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that

≤ ρ(x, y) < + δ implies ρ(Sx, Sy) < . (8)

The following result is due to Meir and Keeler [25].

Theorem 3 A self-mapping S of a complete metric space (M, ρ) admits a unique
fixed point if (8) holds.
Proof We first observe that (8) implies that

ρ(Sx, Sy) < ρ(x, y) whenever x = y. (9)

6 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

Suppose that ζ and η are two distinct fixed points of S. Then from (9), we have
ρ(ζ, η) = ρ(Sζ, Sη) < ρ(ζ, η), which is a contradiction. Hence S may have at most
one fixed point.
Let z 0 ∈ M be any arbitrary element. Take the same sequence {z n } in M as in the
proof of Theorem 2. We take z n = z n+1 , for all n ≥ 0. This is because in the case
zl = zl+1 , for some positive integer l, zl is a fixed point of S.
Let cn = ρ(z n , z n+1 ). From (9), we can show that {cn = ρ(z n , z n+1 )} is a
monotonic decreasing sequence of nonnegative real numbers. Then there exists
an ≥ 0 such that cn → , as n → +∞. If possible, suppose that > 0. As
{cn } is decreasing and cn → , as n → +∞, for δ > 0 there exists m such that
≤ cn < + δ for all n ≥ m. Therefore, ≤ cm < + δ. Then from (8) it follows
that cm+1 = ρ(z m+1 , z m+2 ) = ρ(Sz m , Sz m+1 ) < , which is a contradiction. Hence
= 0. Therefore,
lim ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0. (10)
n→+∞

We suppose that {z n } is not a Cauchy sequence. Then there exists 2 > 0 such
that lim sup ρ(z m , z n ) > 2 . By the hypothesis, there exists a δ > 0 such that

≤ ρ(x, y) < + δ implies ρ(Sx, Sy) < . (11)

Formula (11) remains true if we replace δ by δ = min {δ, }. By (10), there exists
a positive integer P for which c P < δ3 . Choose m, n > P so that ρ(z m , z n ) > 2 .
Now for any j ∈ [m, n], we have

δ
| ρ(z m , z j ) − ρ(z m , z j+1 ) |≤ c j < .
3

This implies, since ρ(z m , z m+1 ) < and ρ(z m , z n ) > + δ , that there exists j ∈
[m, n] with
2δ
+ < ρ(z m , z j ) < + δ . (12)
3
However, for all m and j,

ρ(z m , z j ) ≤ ρ(z m , z m+1 ) + ρ(z m+1 , z j+1 ) + ρ(z j+1 , z j ).

From (11) and (12), we have

δ δ
ρ(z m , z j ) ≤ cm + + c j < + + ,
3 3
which contradicts (12). Therefore, {z n } is a Cauchy sequence.
Now (9) implies that S is continuous. As discussed in the proof of Theorem 1, we
conclude that S has a unique fixed point.
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 7

Example 5 ([25]) Let M = [0, 1] ∪ {3, 4, 6, 7, ..., 3n, 3n + 1, ...} be equipped with
Euclidean metric and S : M → M be defined by
⎧
⎨
u
2
, if 0 ≤ u ≤ 1,
S(u) = 0, if u = 3n,
⎩
1 − n+2
1
, if u = 3n + 1.

Here, Theorem 3 is applicable and the unique fixed point of S is u = 0.

It is observed that in Banach’s contraction mapping principle, the contraction

condition is global, that is, the operators satisfy the contraction condition for every
pair of points taken from the metric space. A natural question arises whether the
conclusion of Banach’s theorem is true if the contraction condition is satisfied locally,
that is, for sufficiently close points only. The answer was given in the affirmative in
a paper by Michael Edelstein [14] in 1961.

Definition 3 (Local Contraction [14]) A self-mapping S : M → M, where (M, ρ)

is a metric space, is locally contractive if for every x ∈ M there exist > 0 and
λ ∈ [0, 1), which may depend on x, such that

p, q ∈ S(x, ) = {y : ρ(x, y) < } implies ρ(Sp, Sq) < λ ρ( p, q). (13)

Definition 4 (Uniform Local Contraction [14]) A uniformly locally contractive

mapping on a metric space (M, ρ) is a locally contractive mapping S : M → M
where both and λ do not depend on x.

Definition 5 ([14]) Let (M, ρ) be a metric space such that for every a, b ∈ M
there exists an η-chain, that is, a finite set of points a = x0 , x1 , ..., xn = b (n may
depend on both a and b) satisfying ρ(x j−1 , x j ) < η ( j = 1, 2, ..., n). Then (M, ρ)
is η-chainable.

Theorem 4 (Edelstein [14]) An ( , λ)—uniformly locally contractive mapping S :

M → M on a -chainable complete metric space (M, ρ) has a unique fixed point.

Proof Choose any point z ∈ M. Take the -chain : z = z 0 , z 1 , ..., z n = Sz. By the
triangular property, we have


n
ρ(z, Sz) ≤ ρ(z i−1 , z i ) < n . (14)
1

For pairs of consecutive points of the -chain, condition (13) is satisfied. Hence,
denoting S(S m z) = S m+1 z (m = 1, 2, ...), we have

ρ(Sz i−1 , Sz i ) < λ ρ(z i−1 , z i ) < λ ;

and, by repeated application of the above inequality, we have

8 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

ρ(S m z i−1 , S m z i ) < λ ρ(S m−1 z i−1 , S m−1 z i ) < λm . (15)

Using (14) and (15), we have


n
ρ(S m z, S m+1 z) ≤ ρ(S m z i−1 , S m z i ) < λm n . (16)
i=1

Now, for any two positive integers j, k( j < k), we have


k−1
ρ(S j z, S k z) ≤ ρ(S i z, S i+1 z) < n [λ j + λ j+1 + ... + λk−1 ]
i= j

λj
< n → 0, as j → +∞.
1−λ

It follows that {S i z} is a Cauchy sequence in M. Now, M being complete, there exists

a point ξ ∈ M such that S i z → ξ , as i → +∞.
Now (13) implies that S is continuous. Therefore, we have Sξ = limi→+∞ S(S i z) =
limi→+∞ S i+1 z = ξ . Hence ξ is a fixed point S.
If possible, let ζ (ζ = ξ ) be another fixed point of S. Now ρ(ξ, ζ ) > 0. Let
ξ = z 0 , z 1 , ..., z k = ζ be an -chain. Using (15), we have

ρ(ξ, ζ ) = ρ(Sξ, Sζ ) ≤ ρ(S l ξ, S l ζ )

k
≤ ρ(S l z i−1 , S l z i ) < λl k → 0 as l → +∞,
i=1

which is a contradiction. Hence, ξ = ζ and our proof is completed.

Example 6 Let M = {(u, v) : u = cos θ, v = sin θ, 0 ≤ θ ≤ 23 π } be equipped

with Euclidean metric. Define S : M → M as Sp = ( u2 , v2 ), for p = (u, v) ∈ M.
Theorem 4 is applicable here and p = (0, 0) is the unique fixed point of S.

In 2012, Samet et al. [37] introduced the new concept of α − ψ-contractive type
mapping and established a fixed point theorem for such mappings in complete metric
spaces. The presented theorem therein extends, generalizes and improves the famous
Banach’s contraction mapping principle. We describe here the notions of α − ψ-
contractive and α-admissible mappings.
Let  denote the family of nondecreasing functions ψ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞)
such that +∞ n=1 ψ (t) < +∞ for each t > 0, where ψ is nth iterate of ψ.
n n

Lemma 1 ([37]) If ψ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) be a nondecreasing function satisfy-

ing limn→+∞ ψ n (t) = 0 for each t > 0, then ψ(t) < t for each t > 0.

Definition 6 ([37]) Let S : M → M and α : M × M → [0, +∞) be two mappings.

The mapping T is α-admissible if α(u, v) ≥ 1 =⇒ α(T u, T v) ≥ 1, for u, v ∈ M.
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 9

Example 7 Let M = [0, 1]. Let S : M → M and α : M × M → [0, +∞) be

respectively defined as follows:

sin2 z eu+v , if 0 ≤ u ≤ 1, 0 ≤ v ≤ 18 ,
Sz = , for z ∈ M and α(u, v) =
16 0, otherwise.

Here S is α-admissible.

Definition 7 ([37]) A mapping T : M → M, where (M, d) is a metric space, is

called an α − ψ-contractive mapping if there exist two functions α : M × M →
[0, +∞) and ψ ∈  such that

α(u, v) ρ(T u, T v) ≤ ψ(ρ(u, v)), for all u, v ∈ M.

Remark 1 If α(u, v) = 1 for all u, v ∈ M and ψ(t) = kt for all t ≥ 0 and some
k ∈ [0, 1), the α − ψ-contractive mapping reduces to Banach’s contraction mapping.

Theorem 5 (Samet et al. [37]) Let (M, ρ) be a complete metric space, S : M → M

and α : M × M → [0, +∞). Suppose that (i) S is α-admissible, (ii) there exists
z 0 ∈ M such that α(z 0 , Sz 0 ) ≥ 1, (iii) S is continuous and (iv) there exists ψ ∈ 
such that S is an α − ψ-contractive mapping. Then S admits a fixed point.

Proof Let z 0 ∈ M such that α(z 0 , Sz 0 ) ≥ 1. We construct a sequence {z n } in M

such that
z n+1 = Sz n , for all n ≥ 0. (17)

Then α(z 0 , z 1 ) ≥ 1. As S is α-admissible, we have α(Sz 0 , Sz 1 ) = α(z 1 , z 2 ) ≥ 1.

Again, applying the admissibility assumption, we have α(Sz 1 , Sz 2 ) = α(z 2 , z 3 ) ≥ 1.
Continuing this process, we have

α(z n , z n+1 ) ≥ 1, for all n ≥ 0. (18)

Like in the proof of Theorem 2, we show that the possibility of zl = zl+1 occurring,
for some positive integer l, ensures that zl is a fixed point of S. So we consider the
case z n = z n+1 , for all n ≥ 0.
Applying (iv) with z = z n−1 and y = z n , where n ≥ 1, and using (17) and (18),
we obtain

ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = ρ(Sz n−1 , Sz n ) ≤ α(z n−1 , z n ) ρ(Sz n−1 , Sz n ) ≤ ψ(ρ(z n−1 , z n )).

By repeated the application of the above inequality and a property of ψ, we have

ρ(z n , z n+1 ) ≤ ψ n (ρ(z 0 , z 1 )), for all n ≥ 1.

With the help of the above inequality, we have

10 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

+∞
 +∞

ρ(z n , z n+1 ) ≤ ψ n (ρ(z 0 , z 1 )) < +∞,
n=1 n=1

which implies that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence in M. As M is complete, we get

ξ ∈ M such that limn→+∞ z n = ξ . From the continuity of S, it follows that Sξ =
limn→+∞ Sz n = limn→+∞ z n+1 = ξ . Hence ξ is a fixed point S.

Example 8 ([37]) Take M = R the set of all real numbers endowed with the usual
metric ρ. Let S : M → M be defined as follows:
⎧
⎨ 2z − 23 , if z > 1,
Sz = z
, if 0 ≤ z ≤ 1,
⎩ 2
0, if z < 0.

As ρ(S1, S2) = 2 > 1 = ρ(2, 1), the Banach’s contraction mapping principle can-
not be applied in this case.
Define ψ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) and α : M × M → [0, +∞) as follows:

t 1, if u, v ∈ [0, 1],
ψ(t) = and α(u, v) =
2 0, otherwise.

Here Theorem 5 is applicable and z = 0 is a fixed point of S.

In 1973, Geraghty [17] introduced a class of functions to generalize the Banach’s

contraction mapping principle. Let S be the class of all functions β : [0, +∞) →
[0, 1) satisfying the property: β(tn ) → 1, as tn → 0.
An example of a function in S may be given by β(t) = e−2t for t > 0 and β(0) ∈
[0, 1).
Theorem 6 (Geraghty [17]) A self-mapping S of a complete metric space (M, ρ)
admits a unique fixed point if there exists a function β ∈ S such that

ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ β(ρ(u, v)) ρ(u, v), for all u, v ∈ M. (19)

Proof Suppose that S has two fixed points ζ and η with ζ = η. From (19), we
have ρ(ζ, η) = ρ(Sζ, Sη) ≤ β(ρ(ζ, η)) ρ(ζ, η) < ρ(ζ, η), which is a contradiction.
Hence the fixed point of S, if it exists, is unique.
Let z 0 ∈ M be any arbitrary element. Take the same sequence {z n } in M as in the
proof of Theorem 2. Like in the proof of Theorem 2, we show that the possibility
of zl = zl+1 occurring, for some positive integer l, implies the existence of a fixed
point of S. So we assume that z n = z n+1 , for all n ≥ 0.
First we prove limn→+∞ ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0. Applying (19) and using the property
of β, we have for all n ≥ 0,

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) = ρ(Sz n , Sz n+1 ) ≤ β(ρ(z n , z n+1 )) ρ(z n , z n+1 ) < ρ(z n , z n+1 ). (20)
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 11

Therefore, {ρ(z n , z n+1 )} is a decreasing sequence of nonnegative real numbers. We

get an δ ≥ 0 such that limn→+∞ ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = δ.
Suppose that δ > 0. From (20), we have

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 )

≤ β(ρ(z n , z n+1 )) < 1, for all n ≥ 0.
ρ(z n , z n+1 )

Then

1 ≤ lim β(ρ(z n , z n+1 )) < 1,

n→+∞

which implies that

lim β(ρ(z n , z n+1 )) = 1. (21)
n→+∞

It follows by the property of β that limn→+∞ ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0, which contradicts our
assumption. Hence δ = 0, that is, limn→+∞ ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0.
Next we show that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence. If {z n } is not a Cauchy sequence then
arguing similarly as in the proof of Theorem 2, we get an > 0 for which we can find
two sequences of positive integers {m(k)} and {n(k)} such that limk→+∞ ρ(z m(k) ,
z n(k) ) = .
Now,

ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) ≤ ρ(z m(k)+1 , z m(k) ) + ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) + ρ(z n(k) , z n(k)+1 ).

Again,

ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) + ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) + ρ(z n(k)+1 , z n(k) )

that is,

ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) − ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) − ρ(z n(k)+1 , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ).

From the above inequalities we have that

ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) − ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) − ρ(z n(k)+1 , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 )
≤ ρ(z m(k)+1 , z m(k) ) + ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) + ρ(z n(k) , z n(k)+1 ).

Taking limit as k → +∞ in the above inequality and using the fact limn→+∞
ρ(z n , z n+1 ) = 0 and limk→+∞ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) = , we have

lim ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) = . (22)

k→+∞

Applying (19), we have

12 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) = ρ(Sz m(k) , Sz n(k) ) ≤ β(ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )) ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )
< ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ),

that is,

ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 )

≤ β(ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )) < 1.
ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )

Then

1 ≤ lim β(ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )) < 1,

k→+∞

which implies that

lim β(ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) )) = 1. (23)
k→+∞

It follows by the property of β that limk→+∞ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) = 0, that is, = 0,
which is a contradiction. Hence {z n } is a Cauchy sequence. As (M, ρ) is complete,
there exists an ξ ∈ M such that z n → ξ as n → +∞. Now applying (19), we have

ρ(z n+1 , Sξ ) = ρ(Sz n , Sξ ) ≤ β(ρ(z n , ξ )) ρ(z n , ξ ) < ρ(z n , ξ ).

Taking limit as n → +∞ in the above inequality, we have ρ(ξ, Sξ ) = 0, that is,

ξ = Sξ , that is, ξ is a fixed point of S. From what we have already proved, ξ is the
unique fixed point of S.
Example 9 Take the metric space M = [0, +∞) equipped with usual metric. Let
β(t) = 1+t
1
, for all t ≥ 0. Then β ∈ S. Define S : M → M as
u
, if 0 ≤ u ≤ 1,
Su = 3
1
3
, if u > 1.

Theorem 6 is applicable and here u = 0 is the unique fixed point of S.

The next theorem is a generalized weak contraction mapping theorem due to
Choudhury et al. [9] which was proved in 2013. It is the culmination of a series of
papers generalizing and weakening Banach’s result in a specific way. In metric spaces,
this line of research was originated by Rhoades [34] and was further contributed
through works like [7, 13, 44]. Prior to the work of Rhoades [34], such contractions
were considered in different settings and under different conditions, a description
of which can be found in [18, 19]. Although most of these results including [9]
are worked out in partially ordered metric spaces, we present the theorem here in a
complete metric space without order.
We denote by  the set of all functions ψ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) satisfying
(i ψ ) ψ is continuous and nondecreasing,
(ii ψ ) ψ(t) = 0 if and only if t = 0;
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 13

and by  we denote the set of all functions α : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) such that
(i α ) α is bounded on any bounded interval in [0, +∞),
(ii α ) α is continuous at 0 and α(0) = 0.
Theorem 7 Let S be a self-mapping of a complete metric space (M, ρ). Suppose
that there exist ψ ∈  and ϕ, θ ∈  such that

ψ(x) ≤ ϕ(y) ⇒ x ≤ y, (24)

for any sequence {xn } in [0, +∞) with xn → t > 0,

ψ(t) − lim ϕ(xn ) + lim θ (xn ) > 0, (25)

and
ψ(ρ(Su, Sv)) ≤ ϕ(ρ(u, v)) − θ (ρ(u, v)), for all u, v ∈ M. (26)

Then S has a unique fixed point in M.

Proof Choose an arbitrary element z 0 ∈ M and define a sequence {z n } in M such
that
z n+1 = Sz n , for all n ≥ 0. (27)

Let Rn = ρ(z n+1 , z n ), for all n ≥ 0.

Applying (26), we have

ψ(ρ(z n+2 , z n+1 )) = ψ(ρ(Sz n+1 , Sz n )) ≤ ϕ(ρ(z n+1 , z n )) − θ (ρ(z n+1 , z n )),

that is,
ψ(Rn+1 ) ≤ ϕ(Rn ) − θ (Rn ), (28)

which, in view of the fact that θ ≥ 0, yields ψ(Rn+1 ) ≤ ϕ(Rn ), which by (24) implies
that Rn+1 ≤ Rn , for all positive integers n, that is, the sequence {Rn } is monotonic
decreasing. Then we get an r ≥ 0 such that

Rn = ρ(z n+1 , z n ) → r as n → +∞. (29)

Taking limit supremum on both sides of (28), using (29), the property (i α ) of ϕ and
θ , and the continuity of ψ, we obtain

ψ(r ) ≤ lim ϕ(Rn ) + lim (− θ (Rn )).

Since lim (− θ (Rn )) = − lim θ (Rn ), we obtain

ψ(r ) ≤ lim ϕ(Rn ) − lim θ (Rn ),

that is,
14 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

ψ(r ) − lim ϕ(Rn ) + lim θ (Rn ) ≤ 0,

which by (25) is a contradiction unless r = 0. Therefore,

Rn = ρ(z n+1 , z n ) → 0, as n → +∞. (30)

Next we prove that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence. On the contrary, there exists an

> 0 for which we can find two sequences of positive integers {m(k)} and {n(k)}
such that for all positive integers k,

n(k) > m(k) > k, ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≥ and ρ(z m(k) , z n(k)−1 ) < .

Arguing similarly as in the proof of Theorem 5, we prove that

lim ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) = and lim ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) = . (31)
k→+∞ k→+∞

Applying from (26) and (27), we have

ψ(ρ(z n(k)+1 , z m(k)+1 )) = ψ(ρ(Sz n(k) , Sz m(k) ))

≤ ϕ(ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )) − θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )).

Using (31), the property (i α ) of ϕ and θ , and the continuity of ψ, we obtain

ψ( ) ≤ lim ϕ(ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )) + lim (− θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) ))).

As lim (− θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) ))) = − lim θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )), we get

ψ( ) ≤ lim ϕ(ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )) − lim θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )),

that is,

ψ( ) − lim ϕ(ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )) + lim θ (ρ(z n(k) , z m(k) )) ≤ 0,

which is a contradiction by (25). Therefore, {z n } is a Cauchy sequence in M and

hence there exists ξ ∈ M such that

lim z n+1 = lim Sz n = lim = ξ. (32)

n→+∞ n→+∞ n→+∞

Now, applying (26), we have

ψ(ρ(z n+1 , Sξ )) = ψ(ρ(Sz n , Sξ )) ≤ ϕ(ρ(z n , ξ )) − θ (ρ(z n , ξ )).

Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 15

Taking limit as n → +∞ and using (32), the properties of ψ, ϕ and θ , we obtain

ψ(ρ(ξ, Sξ )) = 0, which implies that ρ(ξ, Sξ ) = 0, that is, ξ = Sξ , that is, ξ is a
fixed point of S.
Suppose that ζ ∈ M (ζ = ξ ) be another fixed point of S. Then ρ(ξ, ζ ) > 0. Now,
we consider a sequence {yn } in M such that yn → ζ as n → +∞. Therefore,

ρ(ξ, yn ) → ρ(ξ, ζ ) > 0, as n → +∞. (33)

By (26), we have

ψ(ρ(ξ, Syn )) = ψ(ρ(Sξ, Syn )) ≤ ϕ(ρ(ξ, yn )) − θ (ρ(ξ, yn )).

Using (33), the property (i α ) of ϕ and θ , and the continuity of ψ, we obtain

ψ(ρ(ξ, ζ )) ≤ lim ϕ(ρ(ξ, yn )) + lim (− θ (ρ(ξ, yn ))),

that is,

ψ(ρ(ξ, ζ )) − lim ϕ(ρ(ξ, yn )) + lim θ (ρ(ξ, yn )) ≤ 0,

which is a contradiction by (25). Therefore, ρ(ξ, ζ ) = 0, that is, ξ = ζ . Hence, T

has a unique fixed point.
Example 10 Let M = [0, 1] and ρ(x, y) = |x − y|, for x, y ∈ M. Let S : M → M
2
be defined by Sx = x − x2 , for all x ∈ M. Let θ, ϕ, ψ : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) be
given, respectively, by the formulas
 
t2 t, if 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, t, if 0 ≤ t ≤ 1,
θ (t) = , ϕ(t) = ψ(t) =
2 0, otherwise, t 2 , otherwise.

Applying Theorem 7, we see that the unique fixed point of S is x = 0.

Remark 2 Considering ψ and ϕ to be the identity mappings and θ (t) = (1 − k)t,
where 0 ≤ k < 1, in Theorem 7 we have Theorem 1.
Pata-type contractions are introduced in a recent paper due to Pata [29] in 2011
in which a fixed point theorem for such contractions was proved by using a new
approach. The result due to Pata [29] appeared to be stronger than Banach’s Con-
traction Mapping Principle, even stronger than the well-known Boyd-Wong fixed
point theorem.
We use the following class of functions for the following result. Let  denote
the family of all functions ψ : [0, 1] → [0, +∞) such that ψ is increasing and
continuous at zero with ψ(0) = 0.
Theorem 8 (Pata [29]) Let Λ ≥ 0, α ≥ 1 and β ∈ [0, α] be some constants and
ψ ∈ . Let (M, d) be a complete metric space and S : M → M be such that for
every ε ∈ [0, 1] and all x, y ∈ M,
16 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya
 β
ρ(Sx, Sy) ≤ (1 − ε)ρ(x, y) + Λεα ψ(ε) 1 + x + y , (34)

where ||x|| = ρ(x, u) and ||y|| = ρ(y, u) for an arbitrary but fixed u ∈ M. Then S
has a unique fixed point in M.

Proof Suppose that S has two fixed points ζ and η with ζ = η. Then ρ(ζ, η) > 0.
Applying (34) with 0 < ε ≤ 1, we have
 β
ρ(ζ, η) = ρ(Sζ, Sη) ≤ (1 − ε) ρ(ζ, η) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||ζ || + ||η|| ,

that is,
 β
ε ρ(ζ, η) ≤ Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||ζ || + ||η|| ,

that is,
 β
ρ(ζ, η) ≤ Λ εα−1 ψ(ε) 1 + ||ζ || + ||η|| .

Taking ε → 0 and using the property of ψ, we have ρ(ζ, η) ≤ 0, which is a contra-

diction. Hence S may have at most one fixed point.
Choosing an arbitrary element z 0 ∈ M, we construct a sequence {z n } in M such
that
z n+1 ∈ Sz n for all n ≥ 0. (35)

Let
cn = ||z n || = ρ(z n , z 0 ), for all n ≥ 0. (36)

Applying (34) with 0 < ε ≤ 1, we get

ρ(z n+2 , z n+1 ) ≤ ρ(Sz n+1 , Sz n )

 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n+1 , z n ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n+1 || + ||z n || .

Since α ≥ 1, taking ε → 0 and using the property of ψ, we have

ρ(z n+2 , z n+1 ) ≤ ρ(z n+1 , z n ) for all n ≥ 0, (37)

that is, the sequence {ρ(z n+1 , z n )} is a decreasing. So

ρ(z n+1 , z n ) ≤ ρ(z 1 , z 0 ) = c1 = ||z 1 ||, for all n ≥ 0, (38)

and also there exists a real number l ≥ 0 such that

Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 17

ρ(z n+1 , z n ) → l as n → +∞. (39)

We claim that {cn } is bounded.

Applying (34) of the theorem, (35), (36), (37) and (38), we have

cn = ρ(z n , z 0 ) ≤ ρ(z n , z n+1 ) + ρ(z n+1 , z 1 ) + ρ(z 1 , z 0 )

= ρ(z n+1 , z n ) + ρ(z n+1 , z 1 ) + c1
≤ ρ(z 1 , z 0 ) + ρ(z n+1 , z 1 ) + c1 = c1 + ρ(z n+1 , z 1 ) + c1
≤ ρ(Sz n , Sz 0 ) + 2c1
 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n , z 0 ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n || + ||z 0 || + 2c1
 β
≤ (1 − ε) cn + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n || + 2c1
 α
≤ (1 − ε) cn + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + cn + 2c1 , since β ≤ α .
 α
≤ (1 − ε) cn + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + cn + c1 + 2c1 , since β ≤ α .

So, we have
 α
cn ≤ (1 − ε) cn + Λ εα ϕ(ε) 1 + cn + c1 + 2c1 . (40)

Now
α c1 α
1 + cn + c1 = (1 + cn )α 1 + ≤ (1 + cn )α (1 + c1 )α . (41)
1 + cn

If possible, suppose that the sequence {cn } is unbounded. Then we have a sub-
sequence {cn k } with cn k → +∞ as k → +∞. Then there exist a natural number N ∗
such that
cn k ≥ 1 + 2c1 for all k ≥ N ∗ . (42)

Now, for all k ≥ N ∗ from (40) and using (41), we have

α 1 α
1 + cn k + c1 = (1 + cn k )α (1 + c1 )α ≤ cnαk (1 + ) (1 + c1 )α ,
cn k

which implies
α
1 + cn k + c1 ≤ cnαk (1 + 1)α (1 + c1 )α = 2α cnαk (1 + c1 )α . (43)

Then for all k ≥ N ∗ , we have from (40) and (43) that

cn k ≤ (1 − ε)cn k + Λ εα ψ(ε) 2α cnαk (1 + c1 )α + 2c1 ,

18 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

that is,

ε cn k ≤ Λ εα ψ(ε) 2α cnαk (1 + c1 )α + 2c1


= Λ 2α (1 + c1 )α εα ψ(ε) cnαk + 2c1 .

Let a = Λ 2α (1 + c1 )α and b = 2c1 . Here a and b are fixed positive real numbers.
So, we have

ε cn k ≤ a εα ψ(ε) cnαk + b.

Choose ε = εk = 1+b
cn k
= 1+2c1
cn k
, where k ≥ N ∗ . Then by (42), 0 < ε ≤ 1. Now we
have

1 ≤ a (1 + b)α ψ(εk ) → 0 as k → +∞,

which is a contradiction. Hence {cn } is bounded.

Applying (34) with ε ∈ (0, 1], we have

ρ(z n+2 , z n+1 ) ≤ ρ(Sz n+1 , Sz n )

 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n+1 , z n ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n+1 || + ||z n || .

Since {cn } is bounded, there exists a real number H > 0 such that cn = ||z n || ≤ H
for all n ≥ 0. Then
 β
ρ(z n+2 , z n+1 ) ≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n+1 , z n ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n+1 || + ||z n ||
 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n+1 , z n ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H .

Taking n → +∞ and using (39), we have

 β
l ≤ (1 − ε) l + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H ,

which implies that

 β
ε l ≤ Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H ,

that is,
 β
l ≤ Λ εα−1 ϕ(ε) 1 + 2H .
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 19

Taking ε → 0 and using the property of ψ, we have l ≤ 0, which implies that l = 0.

So, we get
lim ρ(z n+1 , z n ) = 0. (44)
n→+∞

Next we prove that the sequence {z n } is Cauchy. On the contrary, there exists a
ξ > 0 and two sequences of positive integers {m(k)} and {n(k)} such that for all
positive integers k,

n(k) > m(k) > k, ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≥ ξ and ρ(z m(k) , z n(k)−1 ) < ξ.

Now,

ξ ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k)−1 ) + ρ(z n(k)−1 , z n(k) ),

that is,

ξ ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) < ξ + ρ(z n(k)−1 , z n(k) ).

Using (44), we have

lim ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) = ξ. (45)
k→+∞

Again,

ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) ≤ ρ(z m(k) , z m(k)+1 ) + ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) + ρ(z n(k)+1 , z n(k) )

and

ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) ≤ ρ(z m(k)+1 , z m(k) ) + ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) + ρ(z n(k) , z n(k)+1 ).

Using (44) and (45), we have

lim ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) = ξ. (46)

k→+∞

Applying (34) with ε ∈ (0, 1], we have

ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) ≤ ρ(Sz m(k) , Sz n(k) )

 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z m(k) || + ||z n(k) || .

Since cn = ||z n || ≤ H for all n ≥ 0,

 β
ρ(z m(k)+1 , z n(k)+1 ) ≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z m(k) , z n(k) ) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H .
20 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

Taking limit as k → +∞ and using (45), (46) and the property of ψ, we have
 β
ξ ≤ (1 − ε) ξ + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H ,

which implies that

 β
ε ξ ≤ Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + 2H ,

that is,
 β
ξ ≤ Λ εα−1 ϕ(ε) 1 + 2H .

Taking limit as ε → 0 and using the property of ψ, we have ξ ≤ 0, which is a

contradiction. Therefore, {z n } is a Cauchy sequence in M and hence there exists
y ∈ M such that
z n → y as n → +∞. (47)

Applying (34) with ε ∈ (0, 1], we have

ρ(z n+1 , Sy) ≤ ρ(Sz n , Sy)

 β
≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n , y) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + ||z n || + ||y|| .

Since cn = ||z n || ≤ H for all n ≥ 0. Then

 β
ρ(z n+1 , Sy) ≤ (1 − ε) ρ(z n , y) + Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + H + ||y|| .

Taking n → +∞ and using (44), (47), we get

 β
ρ(y, Sy) ≤ Λ εα ψ(ε) 1 + H + ||y|| .

Taking limit as ε → 0 and using the property of ψ, we have ρ(y, Sy) = 0, that is,
y = Sy, that is, y is a fixed point of S. From what we have already proved, y is the
unique fixed point of S.

Example 11 ([29]) Let M = [1, +∞) and let S : M → M be defined by

√ √
Sz = −2 + z − 2 z + 4 4 z.

It has a unique fixed point z = 1. For any given r > 0 and z ≥ 1, if

√ √ √ √
Q(z, r ) = 2[ z + r − z] − 4[ 4 z + r − 4 z],
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 21

then
|S(z + r ) − S(z)| = r − Q(z, r )

holds for all r and z. On the other hand, for every ε ∈ [0, 1], one can prove that

r2
−εr + ε2 (2z + r )3/2 + Q(z, r ) ≥ Q(z, r ) − ≥ 0.
4(r + 2z)3/2

It follows that

|S(z + r ) − S(z)| = r − Q(z, r ) ≤ (1 − ε)r + ε2 (2z + r )3/2 ,

and the conditions of Theorem 8 are fulfilled.

4 Metric Fixed Point Without Continuity

In 1976, Caristi [5] proved an elegant fixed point theorem on complete metric spaces,
which is a generalization of the Banach’s contraction mapping principle and is equiv-
alent to the Ekeland variational principle [15].

Definition 8 A function ϕ : X → R is said to be lower semicontinuous at x if for

any sequence {xn } ⊂ X , we have

xn → x ∈ X ⇒ ϕ(x) ≤ lim inf ϕ(xn ).

n→+∞

Definition 9 Let (M, ρ) be a metric space. A mapping S : M → M is called a

Caristi mapping if there exists a lower semicontinuous function ϕ : M → R + such
that

ρ(u, Su) ≤ ϕ(u) − ϕ(Su), for all u ∈ M.

Theorem 9 ([24]) Let (M, ρ) be a complete metric space. A mapping S : M → M

admits a fixed point in M if there exists a lower semicontinuous function ϕ : M → R +
such that
ρ(u, Su) ≤ ϕ(u) − ϕ(Su), for all u ∈ M. (48)

Proof From (48) it follows immediately that

ϕ(Su) ≤ ϕ(u), for every u ∈ M. (49)

For u ∈ M, define

Q(u) = {y ∈ M : ρ(u, y) ≤ ϕ(u) − ϕ(y)}.

22 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

Q(u) is nonempty because u ∈ Q(u) and Su ∈ Q(u). Let y ∈ Q(u). Now, we have

ρ(u, Sy) ≤ ρ(u, y) + ρ(y, Sy) ≤ ϕ(u) − ϕ(y) + ϕ(y) − ϕ(Sy),

that is,

ρ(u, Sy) ≤ ϕ(u) − ϕ(Sy). (50)

It follows that Sy ∈ Q(u). Hence, we have that if y ∈ Q(u) then Sy ∈ Q(u).

Define

q(u) = inf {ϕ(y) : y ∈ Q(u)}.

As Q(u) is nonempty for each u ∈ M and the function ϕ is nonnegative, the function
q(u) is well-defined. Then, we have that for any u ∈ M,

0 ≤ q(u) ≤ ϕ(Su) ≤ ϕ(u). (51)

Let u 1 ∈ M be arbitrary. By the definition of q(u 1 ), there exists u 2 ∈ Q(u 1 ) such

that ϕ(u 2 ) < q(u 1 ) + 1. Again, by the definition of q(u 2 ), there exists u 3 ∈ Q(u 2 )
such that ϕ(u 3 ) < q(u 2 ) + 21 . In this way, we define a sequence {u n } in M such that
u n+1 ∈ Q(u n ) with
1
ϕ(u n+1 ) < q(u n ) + , for n ≥ 1. (52)
n

Since u n+1 ∈ Q(u n ), we have

0 ≤ ρ(u n , u n+1 ) ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u n+1 ), (53)

that is,
ϕ(u n+1 ) ≤ ϕ(u n ), for n ≥ 1. (54)

Hence {ϕ(u n )} is a nonincreasing sequence of nonnegative numbers and therefore

there exists r ≥ 0 such that
lim ϕ(u n ) = r. (55)
n→+∞

Therefore, {ϕ(u n )} is a Cauchy sequence. Hence, for every k ∈ N (set of all natural
number), there exists Nk ∈ N such that for every pair of natural numbers m, n with
m ≥ n ≥ Nk , we have
1
0 ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u m ) < . (56)
k
From (51) and (52), we have
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 23

1 1
ϕ(u n+1 ) < q(u n ) + ≤ ϕ(u n ) + .
n n
Taking limit as n → +∞ and using (55), we have

lim q(u n ) = r. (57)

n→+∞

We claim that for m ≥ n ≥ Nk ,

1
ρ(u n , u m ) ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u m ) < . (58)
k
(58) is trivially valid for n = m. Therefore, it is sufficient to show that (58) is true
for m > n. Using triangular inequality, (53) and (56), we have for m > n that

ρ(u n , u m ) ≤ ρ(u n , u n+1 ) + ρ(u n+1 , u n+2 ) + · · · + ρ(u m−1 , u m )

≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u n+1 ) + ϕ(u n+1 ) − ϕ(u n+2 ) + · · · + ϕ(u m−1 ) − ϕ(u m ).

It follows that
1
ρ(u n , u m ) ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u m ) < . (59)
k
Therefore, (58) is true for m ≥ n ≥ Nk . From (58), it follows that {u n } is a Cauchy
sequence and hence by completeness of M, there exists z ∈ M such that

lim ρ(u n , z) = 0. (60)

n→+∞

Hence, for every n ∈ N ,

lim ρ(u n , u m ) = ρ(u n , z).

m→+∞

Using this, (59) and the lower semicontinuity of ϕ,

ρ(u n , z) = lim ρ(u n , u m ) ≤ lim sup [ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(u m )]

m→+∞ m→+∞
≤ ϕ(u n ) − lim inf ϕ(u m )
m→+∞
≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(z).

Therefore,

ρ(u n , z) ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ϕ(z), (61)

which implies that z ∈ Q(u n ) for every n ∈ N . Then we have

24 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

q(u n ) ≤ ϕ(z) ≤ ϕ(u n ) − ρ(u n , z), for every n ∈ N . (62)

Taking limit as n → +∞ in the above inequality and using (55) and (57), we have

ϕ(z) = r. (63)

Since, as proved above, z ∈ Q(u n ) for every n ∈ N , (50) implies that Sz ∈ Q(u n )
for every n ∈ N . Therefore, by (49), we conclude from (63) that

q(u n ) ≤ ϕ(Sz) ≤ ϕ(z) = r. (64)

Letting n → +∞ and using (57), we obtain ϕ(Sz) = ϕ(z). By (48) again,

0 ≤ ρ(z, Sz) ≤ ϕ(z) − ϕ(Sz) = 0.

Hence ρ(z, Sz) = 0, that is, Sz = z. Therefore, S has a fixed point.

Example 12 Take M = [0, 1] endowed with the usual metric ρ. Define S : M → M

as u
, if u = 1,
Su = 2
1, if u = 1.

The conditions of Theorem 9 are satisfied and S has fixed points 0 and 1.

It is easy to see that Caristi’s fixed point theorem is a generalization of the Banach’s
contraction mapping principle by defining ϕ(u) = 1−k 1
ρ(u, Su), where 0 < k < 1
is the Lipschitz constant associated with the contraction S from Banach’s principle.
It has been shown by Kirk in [22] that the validity of Caristi’s fixed point theorem
implies that the corresponding metric space is complete while the Banach’s con-
traction mapping principle does not characterize completeness. The above example
shows that Caristi’s contraction can also be discontinuous.

Suzuki [42] in the year 2008 established a new fixed point theorem which is
a generalization of Theorem 1 and characterizes the metric completeness. Though
there are many generalizations of Theorem 1, the direction of Suzuki is new and
very simple. Suzuki-type contractions form an important class of contractions in the
domain of fixed point theory.

Define a function θ : [0, 1) → ( 21 , 1] as

⎧ √
⎪
⎨ 1, if √0 ≤ r ≤ 2 ;
5−1

θ (r ) = 1−r , if 5−1 ≤ r ≤ √1 ;
⎪ r2 2
⎩ 1 , if √1 ≤ r < 1.2
1+r 2
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 25

Theorem 10 (Suzuki [42]) A self-mapping S of a complete metric space (M, ρ)

admits a unique fixed point if there exists a real number r ∈ [0, 1) such that for all
x, y ∈ M,

θ (r ) ρ(x, Sx) ≤ ρ(x, y) implies ρ(Sx, Sy) ≤ r ρ(x, y). (65)

Proof Since θ (r ) ≤ 1, θ (r ) ρ(x, Sx) ≤ ρ(x, Sx) holds for every x ∈ M. By (65),
we have
ρ(Sx, S 2 x) ≤ r ρ(x, Sx), for all x ∈ M. (66)

Choose any point u ∈ M and construct a sequence {u n } in M such that

u n = S n u for all n ≥ 1. (67)


It follows from (66) that ρ(u n , u n+1 ) ≤ r n ρ(u, Su). Then +1 ∞ρ(u n , u n+1 ) <
+∞, which implies that {u n } is a Cauchy sequence. As M is complete, {u n } converges
to some point z ∈ M. Next, we show

ρ(Sx, z) ≤ rρ(x, z), for all x ∈ M \ {z}. (68)

ρ(x,z)
For x ∈ M \ {z}, there exists a positive integer m such that ρ(u n , z) ≤ 3
, for all
n ≥ m. Then we have for all n ≥ m that

θ (r )ρ(u n , Su n ) ≤ ρ(u n , Su n ) = ρ(u n , u n+1 )

≤ ρ(u n , z) + ρ(u n+1 , z)
2 1
≤ ρ(x, z) = ρ(x, z) − ρ(x, z)
3 3
≤ ρ(x, z) − ρ(u n , z) ≤ ρ(u n , x).

Then it follows by (65) that ρ(u n+1 , Sx) ≤ r ρ(u n , x), for all n ≥ m. Taking n →
+∞, we get ρ(Sx, z) ≤ rρ(x, z). Hence (68) is true. Assume that S n z = z for all
n ∈ N . By (68), we have

ρ(S n+1 z, z) ≤ r n ρ(Sz, z), for all n ∈ N . (69)

We consider the
√
following three cases:
• 0 ≤ r ≤ 5−1 ;
√ 2
• 5−1
2
< r < √12 ;
• √12 ≤ r < 1.
√
If 0 ≤ r ≤ 5−12
, then r 2 + r − 1 ≤ 0 and 2r 2 < 1. If we assume ρ(S 2 z, z) <
ρ(S z, S z), then we have
2 3
26 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

ρ(z, Sz) ≤ ρ(z, S 2 z) + ρ(Sz, S 2 z)

< ρ(S 2 z, S 3 z) + ρ(Sz, S 2 z)
≤ r 2 ρ(z, Sz) + rρ(z, Sz)
≤ ρ(z, Sz),

which is a contradiction. So we have ρ(S 2 z, z) ≥ ρ(S 2 z, S 3 z) ≥ θ (r )ρ(S 2 z, SS 2 z).

By hypothesis and (69), we have

ρ(z, Sz) ≤ ρ(z, S 3 z) + ρ(S 3 z, Sz)

≤ r 2 ρ(z, Sz) + rρ(S 2 z, z)
≤ r 2 ρ(z, Sz) + r 2 ρ(Sz, z) = 2r 2 ρ(z, Sz)
< ρ(z, Sz).
√
It is a contradiction. If 5−1 2
< r < √12 , then 2r 2 < 1. If we assume ρ(S 2 z, z) <
θ (r ) ρ(S 2 z, S 3 z), then we have in view of (66)

ρ(z, Sz) ≤ ρ(z, S 2 z) + ρ(Sz, S 2 z)

< θ (r ) ρ(S 2 z, S 3 z) + ρ(Sz, S 2 z)
≤ θ (r ) r 2 ρ(z, Sz) + rρ(z, Sz) = ρ(z, Sz),

which is a contradiction. Hence ρ(S 2 z, z) ≥ θ (r ) ρ(S 2 z, SS 2 z). As in the previous

case, we can prove

ρ(z, Sz) ≤ 2r 2 ρ(z, Sz) < ρ(z, Sz).

This is a contradiction. Take the case √1

2
≤ r < 1. We note that for x, y ∈ M, either

θ (r ) ρ(x, Sx) ≤ ρ(x, y) or θ (r ) ρ(Sx, S 2 x) ≤ ρ(Sx, y)

holds. Indeed, if

θ (r ) ρ(x, Sx) > ρ(x, y) and θ (r ) ρ(Sx, S 2 x) > ρ(Sx, y),

then we have

ρ(x, Sx) ≤ ρ(x, y) + ρ(Sx, y)

< θ (r ) (ρ(x, Sx) + ρ(Sx, S 2 x))
≤ θ (r ) (ρ(x, Sx) + rρ(x, Sx))
= ρ(x, Sx).

This is a contradiction. Since either

Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 27

θ (r ) ρ(u 2n , u 2n+1 ) ≤ ρ(u 2n , z) or θ (r )ρ(u 2n+1 , u 2n+2 ) ≤ ρ(u 2n+1 , z)

holds for every n ∈ N , either

ρ(u 2n+1 , Sz) ≤ r ρ(u 2n , z) or ρ(u 2n+2 , Sz) ≤ r ρ(u 2n+1 , z)

holds for every n ∈ N . Since {u n } converges to z, the above inequalities imply there
exists a subsequence of {u n } which converges to Sz. This implies Sz = z. This is
a contradiction. Therefore, there exists n ∈ N such that S n z = z. Since {S n z} is a
Cauchy sequence, we obtain Sz = z, that is, z is a fixed point of S. The uniqueness
of a fixed point follows easily from (68).

Example 13 ([42]) Take the metric space M = {(0, 0), (4, 0), (0, 4), (4, 5), (5, 4)}
equipped with metric ρ defined as ρ((x1 , x2 ), (y1 , y2 )) = |x1 − y1 | + |x2 − y2 |. Let
S : M → M be defined by

(x1 , 0), if x1 ≤ x2 ,
S(x1 , x2 ) =
(0, x2 ), if x1 > x2 .

Here, Theorem 10 is applicable and the unique fixed point of S is (0, 0).

All the results described above are generalizations of Banach’s result. In the
next theorem, we deal with a contraction condition which is of a different category
and does not generalize Banach’s contraction. The contraction condition is also
satisfied by discontinuous functions. The result is due to Kannan [20, 21] which
was established in the year 1968.

Definition 10 (Kannan-type mapping [20, 21]) A mapping S : M → M, where

(M, ρ) is a metric space, is called a Kannan-type mapping if there exists 0 < k < 21
such that

ρ(Sx, Sy) ≤ k [ρ(x, Sx) + ρ(y, Sy)], for all x, y ∈ M. (70)

Theorem 11 (Kannan [20, 21]) Let (M, ρ) be a complete metric space and S :
M → M be a Kannan type mapping. Then T admits a unique fixed point.

Proof Let z 0 ∈ M be any arbitrary element. We take the same sequence {z n } in M

as in the proof of Theorem 1. Applying (70), we have

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) = ρ(Sz n , Sz n+1 ) ≤ k [ρ(z n , Sz n ) + ρ(z n+1 , Sz n+1 )]

= k [ρ(z n , z n+1 ) + ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 )], for all n ≥ 0,

which implies that

k
ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) ≤ ρ(z n , z n+1 ), for all n ≥ 0. (71)
1−k
28 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

Now 0 < k < 21 implies that 0 < 2k < 1, that is, 0 < k < 1 − k. Hence 0 < k
1−k
<
1. Let α = 1−k
k
. Then we have from (71) that

ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) ≤ α ρ(z n , z n+1 ), for all n ≥ 0.

Applying similar arguments as in the proof of Theorem 1, we prove that {z n } is a

Cauchy sequence and there exists ξ ∈ M such that z n → ξ , as n → +∞.
Now applying (70), we have

ρ(z n+1 , Sξ ) = ρ(Sz n , Sξ ) ≤ k [ρ(z n , Sz n ) + ρ(ξ, Sξ )]

= k [ρ(z n , z n+1 ) + ρ(ξ, Sξ )], for all n ≥ 0.

Taking the limit as n → +∞, we have

ρ(ξ, Sξ ) ≤ k ρ(ξ, Sξ ), that is, (1 − k) ρ(ξ, Sξ ) ≤ 0.

As (1 − k) > 0, it follows that ρ(ξ, Sξ ) = 0, that is, ξ = Sξ , that is, ξ is a fixed

point of S.
If possible, suppose that ζ be another fixed point of S. Applying (70), we have

ρ(ζ, ξ ) = ρ(Sζ, Sξ ) ≤ k [ρ(ζ, Sζ ) + ρ(ξ, Sξ )] = 0,

which implies that ρ(ζ, ξ ) = 0, that is, ζ = η, which is a contradiction. Hence the
fixed point of S is unique.

Example 14 ([32], p. 262) Take M = [0, 1] endowed with the usual metric. Define
S : M → M as z
, if 0 ≤ z < 1,
Sz = 31
6
, if z = 1.

Theorem 11 is applicable and z = 0 is the unique fixed point of S. It is observed that

S is not continuous on M.

Following the appearance of the results in [20, 21], many persons created contrac-
tive conditions not requiring continuity of the mapping and established fixed point
and common fixed point results for them; see, for example, [6, 35, 36].
There is another reason for which the Kannan-type mappings are considered to be
important. The Banach’s contraction mapping principle does not characterize com-
pleteness. In fact, there are examples of noncomplete spaces where every contraction
has a fixed point [11]. It has been shown in [38, 40] that the necessary existence of
fixed points for Kannan-type mappings implies that the corresponding metric space
is complete. The above are some reasons for which the Kannan-type mappings are
considered important in mathematical analysis. There are several extensions and
generalizations of Kannan-type mappings in various spaces as, for instance, those in
the works noted in [8, 12, 16].
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 29

Fixed point theorem due to Chatterjea [6] which was established in the year 1972
and which is actually a sort of dual of the Kannan fixed point theorem is based on a
condition similar to (70).
Definition 11 (C-contraction [6]) A mapping S : M → M, where (M, ρ) is a met-
ric space, is called a C-contraction if there exists 0 < k < 21 such that

ρ(Sx, Sy) ≤ k [ρ(x, Sy) + ρ(y, Sx)], for all x, y ∈ X. (72)

Theorem 12 (Chatterjea [6]) Let (M, ρ) be a complete metric space and S : M →

M be a C-contraction. Then T admits a unique fixed point.
Proof The proof follows by the same method as in Theorem 11. The details are
omitted.
Example 15 Take M = [0, 1] equipped with usual metric ρ. Define S : M → M
as 
0, if 0 ≤ z < 1,
Sz = 1
6
, if z = 1.

The conditions of Theorem 12 are satisfied and here z = 0 is the unique fixed point
of S. It is observed that S is not continuous on M.
One of the most general contractive conditions was given by Ćirić [10] in 1974
which is known as quasi-contraction.
Definition 12 (Quasi-contraction [10]) A mapping S : M → M, where (M, d) is
a metric space, is called a quasi-contraction if there exists 0 ≤ k < 1 such that, for
all u, v ∈ M,

d(Su, Sv) ≤ k max{d(u, v), d(u, Su), d(v, Sv), d(u, Sv), d(v, Su)}. (73)

Let S be a self-mapping of a metric space M. For A ⊂ M let δ(A) = sup {d(a, b) :

a, b ∈ A} and for each u ∈ M, let

O(u, n) = {u, Su, S 2 u, ..., S n u}, n = 1, 2, ...

O(u, ∞) = {u, Su, S 2 u, ...}.

A space M is said to be S-orbitally complete if and only if every Cauchy sequence

which is contained in O(u, ∞) for some u ∈ M converges in M.
Lemma 2 (Ćirić [10]) Let (M, d) be a metric space, S : M → M be a quasi-
contraction and n be any positive integer. Then for each z ∈ M and for all positive
integers i and j, i, j ∈ {1, 2, ..., n} implies d(S i z, S j z) ≤ kδ[O(z, n)].
Proof Let z ∈ M be arbitrary. Let n be any positive integer and let i and j satisfy
the condition of lemma 2. Then S i−1 z, S i z, S j−1 z, S j z ∈ O(z, n) (where S 0 z = z)
and since S is a quasi-contraction, we have
30 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

d(S i z, S j z) = d(SS i−1 z, SS j−1 z)

≤ k max{d(S i−1 z, S j−1 z), d(S i−1 z, S i z), d(S j−1 z, S j z),
d(S i−1 z, S j z), d(S j−1 z, S i z)}
≤ k δ[O(z, n)],

which proves the lemma.

Remark 3 From this lemma, it follows that if S is quasi-contraction and z ∈ M,
then for every positive integer n there exists a positive integer k ≤ n, such that
d(z, S k z) = δ[O(z, n)].
Lemma 3 (Ćirić [10]) Let (M, d) be a metric space and S : M → M be a quasi-
contraction. Then
1
δ[O(z, ∞)] ≤ d(z, Sz)
1−k

holds for all z ∈ M.

Proof Let z ∈ M be arbitrary. Since δ[O(z, 1)] ≤ δ[O(z, 2)] ≤ ..., we have that
δ[O(z, ∞)] = sup{δ[O(z, n)] : n∈N }. Now it is sufficient to prove that δ[O(z, n)] ≤
1
1−k
d(z, Sz), for all n ∈ N .
Let n be any positive integer. From the remark of the previous lemma, there
exists S k z ∈ O(z, n)] (1 ≤ k ≤ n) such that d(z, S k z) = δ[O(z, n)]. By a triangular
inequality and Lemma 2, we have

d(z, S k z) = d(z, Sz) + d(Sz, S k z) ≤ d(z, Sz) + kδ[O(z, n)]

≤ d(z, Sz) + kd(z, S k z).

Therefore, δ[O(z, n)] = d(z, S k z) ≤ 1

1−k
d(z, Sz). Since n is arbitrary, the proof is
completed.

Now we state the main result.

Theorem 13 (Ćirić [10]) Let S : M → M, where (M, d) is a metric space, be a
quasi-contraction. If M is S-orbitally complete, then S has a unique fixed point in
M.
Proof Let z ∈ M be arbitrary. First, we prove that the sequence {S n z} is a Cauchy
sequence. Let n and m be two positive integers with n < m. By Lemma 2, we have

d(S n z, S m z) = d(SS n−1 z, S m−n+1 S n−1 z) ≤ k δ[O(S n−1 z, m − n + 1)].

Following Remark 3, we get an integer l with 1 ≤ l ≤ m − n + 1 such that

δ[O(S n−1 z, m − n + 1)] = d(S n−1 z, S l S n−1 z).

Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 31

By Lemma 2, we have

d(S n−1 z, S l S n−1 z) = d(SS n−2 z, S l+1 S n−2 z)

≤ k δ[O(S n−2 z, l + 1)]
≤ k δ[O(S n−2 z, m − n + 2)].

Therefore, we have

d(S n z, S m z) ≤ k δ[O(S n−1 z, m − n + 1)] ≤ k 2 δ[O(S n−2 z, m − n + 2)].

Continuing this process, we obtain

d(S n z, S m z) ≤ k δ[O(S n−1 z, m − n + 1)] ≤ k 2 δ[O(S n−2 z, m − n + 2)] ≤ · · · ≤ k n δ[O(z, m)].

Now it follows from Lemma 3 that

kn
d(S n z, S m z) ≤ d(z, Sz) → 0 as n → +∞, (74)
1−k

which implies that {S n z} is a Cauchy sequence. As M is S-orbitally complete, there

exists ξ ∈ M such that S n z → ξ as n → +∞. Now

d(Sξ, S n+1 z) = d(Sξ, SS n z)

≤ k max{d(ξ, S n z), d(ξ, Sξ ), d(S n z, S n+1 z), d(ξ, S n+1 z), d(S n z, Sξ )}.

Taking the limit as n → +∞, we have

d(ξ, Sξ ) ≤ k d(ξ, Sξ ), that is, (1 − k) d(ξ, Sξ ) ≤ 0.

As (1 − k) > 0, it follows that d(ξ, Sξ ) = 0, that is, ξ = Sξ , that is, ξ is a fixed

point of S.
Suppose that ζ ∈ M (ζ = ξ ) be another fixed point of S. As S is a quasi-
contraction, we have

d(ξ, ζ ) = d(Sξ, Sζ )
≤ k max{d(ξ, ζ ), d(ξ, Sξ ), d(ζ, Sζ ), d(ξ, Sζ ), d(ζ, Sξ )}
≤ k max{d(ξ, ζ ), 0, 0, d(ξ, ζ ), d(ζ, ξ )}
≤ k d(ξ, ζ )

which is a contradiction. Therefore, d(ξ, ζ ) = 0, that is, ξ = ζ . Hence fixed point

of S is unique.

Example 16 Take the metric space M = [0, 1] equipped with usual metric. Define
S : M → M as
32 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

0, if 0 ≤ z < 1,
Sz = 1
2
, if z = 1.

Then Theorem 13 is applicable and z = 0 is the unique fixed point of S. It is observed

that S is not continuous on M.

In 1988, Rhoades [33] examined that there exists a large number of discontinuous
contractive mappings which produce a fixed point but do not require the map to be
continuous at the fixed point. Rhoades [33] raised an open question whether there
exists a contractive definition which produces a fixed point but which does not require
the map to be continuous at the fixed point. In 1999, Pant [27] answered the open
question in the affirmative. In 2017, Bisht et al. [3] gave one more solution to the
open question of the existence of contractive definitions which ensure the existence
of a fixed point where the fixed point is not a point of continuity [33].
In the following theorem, the notation Q(u, v) stands for

ρ(u, T v) + ρ(v, T u)
Q(u, v) = max{ρ(u, v), ρ(u, T u), ρ(v, T v), }.
2
Theorem 14 (Bisht et al. [3]) Let (M, ρ) be a complete metric space and S be a self-
mapping on M such that S 2 is continuous. Suppose that (i) ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ φ(Q(u, v)),
where φ : R+ → R+ is such that φ(t) < t for each t > 0; (ii) for a given > 0, there
exists a δ( ) > 0 such that < Q(u, v) < + δ implies ρ(Su, Sv) ≤ . Then there
exists unique z ∈ M such that Sz = z. Moreover, S is discontinuous at z if and only
if lim Q(u, z) = 0.
u→z

Proof Let z 0 ∈ M be any arbitrary element. We define a sequence {z n } in M such

that z n = Sz n−1 = S n z 0 for all n ≥ 1. If zl = zl+1 for some positive integer l, then
zl is a fixed point of S. So we assume z n = z n+1 , for all n ≥ 0. Let cn = ρ(z n , z n+1 ),
for n ≥ 0. By assumption (i)

cn+1 = ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ) = ρ(Sz n , Sz n+1 )

≤ φ(max{ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n , Sz n ), ρ(z n+1 , Sz n+1 ),
ρ(z n , Sz n+1 ) + ρ(z n+1 , Sz n )
})
2
≤ φ(max{ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ),
ρ(z n , z n+2 ) + ρ(z n+1 , z n+1 )
})
2
≤ φ(max{ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 ),
ρ(z n , z n+1 ) + ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 )
})
2
≤ φ(max{ρ(z n , z n+1 ), ρ(z n+1 , z n+2 )})
= φ(max{cn , cn+1 }) < max{cn , cn+1 }.
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 33

Suppose that cn ≤ cn+1 . Then we have from the above inequality that cn+1 < cn+1 ,
which is a contradiction. Hence cn+1 < cn , for all n. Then {cn } tends to a limit c ≥ 0.
If possible, suppose c > 0. Then we have a positive integer k such that n ≥ k
implies
c < cn < c + δ(c). (75)

It follows from assumption (ii) and cn+1 < cn that cn+1 ≤ c, for n ≥ k, which con-
tradicts the above inequality. Thus we have c = 0.
Let us fix > 0. Without loss of generality, we may assume that δ( ) < . Since
cn → 0 as n → +∞, there exists a positive integer k such that cn < 2δ , for all n ≥ k.
We shall use induction to show that for any n ∈ N ,

δ
ρ(z k , z k+n ) < + . (76)
2
The inequality (76) is true for n = 1. Assuming (76) is true for some n, we shall
prove it for n + 1. Now

ρ(z k , z k+n+1 ) ≤ ρ(z k , z k+1 ) + ρ(z k+1 , z k+n+1 ). (77)

It sufficient to show that

ρ(z k+1 , z k+n+1 ) ≤ . (78)

By assumption (i),

ρ(z k+1 , z k+n+1 ) = ρ(Sz k , Sz k+n ) ≤ φ(Q(z k , z k+n )) < Q(z k , z k+n ), (79)

where

Q(z k , z k+n ) = max{ρ(z k , z k+n ), ρ(z k , Sz k ), ρ(z k+n , Sz k+n ),

ρ(z k , Sz k+n ) + ρ(z k+n , Sz k )
}
2
= max{ρ(z k , z k+n ), ρ(z k , z k+1 ), ρ(z k+n , z k+n+1 ),
ρ(z k , z k+n+1 ) + ρ(z k+n , z k+1 )
}.
2

Now, ρ(z k , z k+n ) < + 2δ , ρ(z k , z k+1 ) < 2δ , ρ(z k+n , z k+n+1 ) < 2δ ,
ρ(z k ,z k+n+1 )+ρ(z k+n ,z k+1 )
2
≤ ρ(zk ,zk+n )+ρ(zk+n ,zk+n+12)+ρ(zk+n ,zk )+ρ(zk ,zk+1 ) < + δ. Hence
Q(z k , z k+n ) < + δ. If 0 ≤ Q(z k , z k+n ) ≤ , then by (79), it follows that ρ(z k+1 ,
z k+n+1 ) ≤ , that is, (78) is true. Again, if < Q(z k , z k+n ) < + δ, then by assump-
tion (ii) and (79) we have that ρ(z k+1 , z k+n+1 ) ≤ , that is, (78) is true. There-
fore, ρ(z k+1 , z k+n+1 ) ≤ , that is, (78) is true. Then from (77), we have that
ρ(z k , z k+n+1 ) < + 2δ . Then by the induction method, (76) is true for any n ∈ N .
34 B. S. Choudhury and N. Metiya

This implies that {z n } is a Cauchy sequence. Since M is complete, there exists a point
y ∈ M such that z n → y as n → +∞. Also Sz n → y and S 2 z n → y. By continuity
of S 2 , we have S 2 z n → S 2 y. This implies S 2 y = y.
We claim that Sy = y.
If possible, suppose that y = Sy. Then by (i), we get

ρ(y, Sy) = ρ(S 2 y, Sy) ≤ φ(Q(Sy, y)) < Q(Sy, y)

ρ(Sy, Sy) + ρ(y, S 2 y)
= max {ρ(Sy, y), ρ(Sy, S 2 y), ρ(y, Sy), } = ρ(y, Sy),
2
which is a contradiction. Thus y = Sy, that is, y is a fixed point of S.
Suppose that ζ ∈ M (ζ = y) is another fixed point of S. Then ρ(y, ζ ) > 0. By
(i), we have

ρ(y, ζ ) = ρ(Sy, Sζ ) ≤ φ(Q(y, ζ )) < Q(y, ζ )

ρ(y, Sζ ) + ρ(ζ, Sy)
= max{ρ(y, ζ ), ρ(y, Sy), ρ(ζ, Sζ ), } = ρ(y, ζ ),
2
which is a contradiction. Therefore, ρ(y, ζ ) = 0, that is, y = ζ . Hence, S has a
unique fixed point.

Example 17 ([3]) Take the metric space M = [0, 2] with the metric. Define S :
M → M as 
1, if u ≤ 1,
Su =
0, if u > 1.

The mapping S satisfies assumption (i) with φ(t) = 1 for t > 1 and φ(t) = 2t for
t ≤ 1. Also, S satisfies assumption (ii) with δ( ) = 1 for ≥ 1 and δ( ) = 1 − for
< 1. Hence S satisfies all the assumptions of Theorem 14 and has a unique fixed
point u = 1. Here, lim Q(u, 1) = 0 and S is discontinuous at the fixed point u = 1.
u→1

5 Remark

We have already mentioned that the present chapter is not sufficient for a com-
prehensive description of the topic under consideration. Among important results
which form integral parts of the theory but are not covered here are the follow-
ing. Asymptotic contractions in fixed point theory were introduced by Kirk [23].
Further generalizations of Kirk’s result were done in works like [39, 41]. A very
generalized fixed point theorem unifying many important results was introduced by
Pant [28] which is significantly important. In 2006, Proinov [30] introduced a gen-
eralization of Banach’s contraction mapping principle in a new direction which was
subsequently shown to be even more general than Ćirić’s quasi-contraction [10]. The
review paper of Rhoades [32] is important for comprehending comparisons between
Basic Fixed Point Theorems in Metric Spaces 35

several contractive conditions used in fixed point theory. Although not discussed in
their technical details, the reader is strongly advised to consult these works.
Many of the results described above have initiated new lines of research in fixed
point theory. For instance, the result of Caristi [5] is the origin of a study in fixed
point theory and variational principles which by its vastness and importance is itself
a chapter of mathematics. We do not dwell on these matters within the limited scope
of this chapter. But we must say that without these considerations, the appreciation
of the results presented here is bound to be partial.

References

1. Agarwal, R.P., Meehan, M., O’ Regan, D.: Fixed Point Theory and Applications. Cambridge
University Press (2001)
2. Banach, S.: Sur les oprations dans les ensembles abstraits et leurs applications aux quations
intgrales. Fund Math. 3, 133–181 (1922)
3. Bisht, R.K., Pant, R.P.: A remark on discontinuity at fixed point. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 445,
1239–1242 (2017)
4. Boyd, D.W., Wong, T.S.W.: On nonlinear contractions. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 20, 458–464
(1969)
5. Caristi, J.: Fixed point theorem for mapping satisfying inwardness conditions. Trans. Am.
Math. Soc. 215, 241–251 (1976)
6. Chatterjea, S.K.: Fixed-point theorems. C. R. Acad. Bulgare Sci. 25, 727–730 (1972)
7. Chidume, C.E., Zegeye, H., Aneke, S.J.: Approximation of fixed points of weakly contractive
nonself maps in Banach spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 270(1), 189–199 (2002)
8. Choudhury, B.S., Das, K.: Fixed points of generalised Kannan type mappings in generalised
Menger spaces. Commun. Korean Math. Soc. 24, 529–537 (2009)
9. Choudhury, B.S., Metiya, N., Postolache, M.: A generalized weak contraction principle with
applications to coupled coincidence point problems. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2013, 152 (2013)
10. Ćirić, L.B.: A generalization of Banach’s contraction principle. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 45,
267–273 (1974)
11. Connell, E.H.: Properties of fixed point spaces. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 10, 974–979 (1959)
12. Damjanović, B., Dorić, D.: Multivalued generalizations of the Kannan fixed point theorem.
Filomat 25, 125–131 (2011)
13. Dutta, P.N., Choudhury, B.S.: A generalisation of contraction principle in metric spaces. Fixed
Point Theory Appl. 2008, Article ID 406368 (2008)
14. Edelstein, M.: An extension of Banach’s contraction principle. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 12(1),
7–10 (1961)
15. Ekeland, I.: Nonconvex minimization problems. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 1, 443–474 (1979)
16. Enjouji, Y., Nakanishi, M., Suzuki, T.: A generalization of Kannan’s fixed point theorem. Fixed
Point Theory Appl. 2009, Article ID 192872 (2009)
17. Geraghty, M.A.: On contractive mappings. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 40(2), 604–608 (1973)
18. Jachymski, J.R.: Equivalence of some contractivity properties over metrical structures. Proc.
Am. Math. Soc. 125, 2327–2335 (1997)
19. Jachymski, J.: Equivalent conditions for generalized contractions on (ordered) metric spaces.
Nonlinear Anal. 74(3), 768–774 (2011)
20. Kannan, R.: Some results on fixed points. Bull. Cal. Math. Soc. 60, 71–76 (1968)
21. Kannan, R.: Some results of fixed points-II. Am. Math. Monthly 76, 405–408 (1969)
22. Kirk, W.A.: Caristi’s fixed point theorem and metric convexity. Colloq. Math. 36, 81–86 (1976)
23. Kirk, W.A.: Fixed points of asymptotic contractions. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 277, 645–650 (2003)
Exploring the Variety of Random
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Title: Poems

Author: Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Translator: Ivan Panin

Release date: June 27, 2017 [eBook #54991]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS ***

POEMS
BY
 ALEXANDER PUSHKIN
Translated from the Russian, with Introduction and Notes

BY

IVAN PANIN

BOSTON

CUPPLES AND HURD

94 BOYLSTON STREET

1888

TO
MRS. JOHN L. GARDNER,
WHO WAS THE FIRST TO RECOGNIZE HELPFULLY
WHATEVER MERIT THERE IS IN
THIS BOOK.

CONTENTS
Bibliographical Preface 9

Introduction.
I. Poetic Ideal 15

II. Inner Life 28

III. General Characteristics 38

Autobiographical Poems.

Mon Portrait 59
My Pedigree 61
My Monument 64
My Muse 66
My Demon 67
Regret 69
Reminiscence 70
Elegy 72
Resurrection 73
The Prophet 74

Narrative Poems.

The Outcast 79
The Black Shawl 82
The Roussalka 84
The Cossak 87
The Drowned 90

Poems of Nature.

The Birdlet 97
The Cloud 98
The North Wind 99
Winter Morning 100
Winter Evening 102
The Winter-road 104
Poems of Love.

The Storm-Maid 109

The Bard 110
Spanish Love-Song 111
Love 113
Jealousy 114
In an Album 116
The Awaking 117
Elegy 119
First Love 120
Elegy 121
The Burnt Letter 122
"Sing not, Beauty" 123
Signs 124
A Presentiment 125
"In Vain, Dear Friend" 127
Love's Debt 128
Invocation 130
Elegy 132
Sorrow 133
Despair 134
A Wish 135
Resigned Love 136
Love and Freedom 137
Not at All 138
Inspiring Love 139
The Graces 141

Miscellaneous Poems.

The Birdlet 145

The Nightingale 146
The Floweret 147
The Horse 148
To a Babe 150
The Poet 151
To the Poet 153
The Three Springs 154
The Task 155
Sleeplessness 156
Questionings 157
Consolation 158
Friendship 159
Fame 160
The Angel 161
Home-Sickness 162
Insanity 163
Death-Thoughts 165
Rights 167
The Gypsies 168
The Delibash 169

Notes 171

Preface: Bibliographical.

1. The text I have used for the following translations is that of the
edition of the complete works of Pushkin in ten volumes, 16mo., by
Suvorin, St. Petersburg, 1887. The poems form Volumes III. and IV.
of that edition. Accordingly, I have designated after each heading,
volume, and page where the poem is to be found in the original.
Thus, for example, "My Muse, IV. 1," means that this poem is found
in Volume IV. of the above edition, page 1.
2. I have translated Pushkin literally word for word, line for line. I do
not believe there are as many as five examples of deviation from the
literalness of the text. Once only, I believe, have I transposed two
lines for convenience of translation; the other deviations are (if they
are such) a substitution of an and for a comma in order to make
now and then the reading of a line musical. With these exceptions, I
have sacrified everything to faithfulness of rendering. My object was
to make Pushkin himself, without a prompter, speak to English
readers. To make him thus speak in a foreign tongue was indeed to
place him at a disadvantage; and music and rhythm and harmony
are indeed fine things, but truth is finer still. I wished to present not
what Pushkin would have said, or should have said, if he had written
in English, but what he does say in Russian. That, stripped from all
ornament of his wonderful melody and grace of form, as he is in a
translation, he still, even in the hard English tongue, soothes and
stirs, is in itself a sign that through the individual soul of Pushkin
sings that universal soul whose strains appeal forever to man, in
whatever clime, under whatever sky.
3. I ask, therefore, no forgiveness, no indulgence even, from the
reader for the crudeness and even harshness of the translation,
which, I dare say, will be found in abundance by those who look for
something to blame. Nothing of the kind is necessary. I have done
the only thing there was to be done. Nothing more could be done (I
mean by me, of course), and if critics still demand more, they must
settle it not with me, but with the Lord Almighty, who in his grim, yet
arch way, long before critics appeared on the stage, hath ordained
that it shall be impossible for a thing to be and not to be at the
same time.
4. I have therefore tried neither for measure nor for rhyme. What I
have done was this: I first translated each line word for word, and
then by reading it aloud let mine ear arrange for me the words in
such a way as to make some kind of rhythm. Where this could be
done, I was indeed glad; where this could not be done, I was not
sorry. It is idle to regret the impossible.
5. That the reader, however, may see for himself what he has been
spared by my abstinence from attempting the impossible, I give one
stanza of a metrical translation by the side of the literal rendering:—
LITERAL:
The moment wondrous I remember
Thou before me didst appear,
Like a flashing apparition,
Like a spirit of beauty pure.
METRICAL:[1]

Yes! I remember well our meeting,

When first thou dawnedst on my sight,
Like some fair phantom past me fleeting,
Some nymph of purity and light.
Observe, Pushkin the real does not appear before the reader with a
solemn affirmation, Yes, or No, nor that he remembers it well. He
tells the story in such a way that the reader knows without being
told that he does indeed remember it well! Nor does he weaken the
effect by saying that he remembers the meeting, which is too
extended, but the moment, which is concentrated. And Pushkin's
imagination was moreover too pure to let a fleeting phantom dawn
upon his sight. To have tried for a rendering which necessitated from
its very limitations such falsities, would have been not only to libel
poor Pushkin, but also to give the reader poor poetry besides.
[1] Blackwood's Magazine, lviii. 35, July, 1845.
6. The translation being literal, I have been able to retain even the
punctuation of Pushkin, and especially his dots, of which he makes
such frequent use. They are part of his art; they express by what
they withhold. I call especial attention to these, as Pushkin is as
powerful in what he indicates as in what he shows, in what he
suggests as in what he actually says. The finest example of the
highest poetry of his silence (indicated by his dots) is the poem I
have entitled "Jealousy," to which the reader is particularly
requested to turn with this commentary of mine (p. 114). The poet
is melted with tenderness at the thought of his beloved all alone,
far-off, weeping. The fiendish doubt suddenly overpowers him, that
after all, perhaps his beloved is at that moment not alone, weeping
for him, but in the arms of another:—
Alone ... to lips of none she is yielding
Her shoulders, nor moist lips, nor snow-white fingers.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
None is worthy of her heavenly love.
Is it not so? Thou art alone . . . . Thou

weepest . . . .
And I at peace? . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
But if . . . . . . .
One must be all vibration in order to appreciate the matchless power
of the dots here. The poem here ends. I know not the like of this in
all literature.
7. Wherever I could ascertain the date of a poem, I have placed it at
the end. The reader will thus at a glance find at least one of the
proper relations of the poems to the poet's soul. For this purpose
these two dates should be borne constantly in mind: Pushkin was
born in 1799; he died in 1837.
8. To many of his poems Pushkin has given no name. To such, for
the reader's convenience I have supplied names, but have put them
in brackets, which accordingly are to be taken as indication that the
name they enclose is not Pushkin's. Many of his most beautiful
poems were addressed to individuals, and they appear in the original
as "Lines to ———." The gem of this collection, for instance, to
which I have supplied the title, "Inspiring Love"—inadequate
enough, alas!—appears in the original as "To A. P. Kern." As none of
these poems have any intrinsic bond with the personages addressed,
their very greatness lying in their universality, I have supplied my
own titles to such pieces, giving the original title in a note.
9. It was my original intention to make a life of the poet part of this
volume. But so varied was Pushkin's life, and so instructive withal,
that only an extended account could be of value. What is worth
doing at all is worth doing well. A mere sketch would here, for
various reasons, be worse than useless. Critics, who always know
better what an author ought to do than he himself, must kindly take
this assertion of mine, for the present at least, on trust, and assume
that I, who have done some thinking on the subject, am likely to
know whereof I speak better than those whose only claim to an
opinion is that they have done no thinking on the subject,
resembling in this respect our modest friends, the agnostics, who set
themselves up as the true, knowing solvers of the problems of life,
because, forsooth, they know nothing.... Anyhow, even at the risk of
offending critics, I have decided to misstate myself by not giving the
life of Pushkin rather than to misstate poor Pushkin by giving an
attenuated, vapid thing, which passes under the name of a "Sketch."
The world judges a man by what is known of him, forgetting that
underneath the thin film of the known lies the immeasurable abyss
of the unknown, and that the true explanation of the man is found
not in what is visible of him, but in what is invisible of him. Unless,
therefore, I could present what is known of Pushkin in such a
manner as to suggest the unknown (just as a study of nature should
only help us to trust that what we do not know of God is likewise
good!) I have no business to tell of his life. But to tell of it in such a
way that it shall represent Pushkin, and not misrepresent him, is
possible only in an extended life. Otherwise, I should be telling not
how he was living, but how he was starving, dying; and this is not
an edifying task, either for the writer or for the reader.
10. Such a life is now well-nigh writ, but it is too long to make part
of this volume.
 Introduction: Critical

I. POETIC IDEAL.

1. Pushkin was emphatically a subjective writer. Of intense

sensibility, which is the indispensable condition of creative genius, he
was first of all a feeler with an Æolian attachment. He did not even
have to take the trouble of looking into his heart in order to write.
So full of feeling was his heart that at the slightest vibration it
poured itself out; and so deep was its feeling that what is poured
out is already melted, fused, shaped, and his poems come forth, like
Minerva from Jupiter's head, fully armed. There is a perfection about
them which is self-attesting in its unstudiedness and artlessness; it is
the perfection of the child, touching the hearts of its beholders all
the more tenderly because of its unconsciousness, effortlessness; it
is the perfection which Jesus had in mind when he uttered that
sentence so profound and so little followed because of its very
profundity: "Unless ye be like little children." So calm and poiseful is
Pushkin's poetry that in spite of all his pathos his soul is a work of
architecture,—a piece of frozen music in the highest sense. Even
through his bitterest agony,—and pathos is the one chord which is
never absent from Pushkin's song, as it is ever present in Chopin's
strains, ay, as it ever must be present in any soul that truly lives,—
there runneth a peace, a simplicity which makes the reader exclaim
on reading him: Why, I could have done the self-same thing myself,
—an observation which is made at the sight of Raphael's Madonna,
at the oratory of a Phillips, at the reading of "The Vicar of
Wakefield," at the acting of a Booth. Such art is of the highest, and
is reached only through one road: Spontaneity, complete
abandonment of self. The verse I have to think over I had better not
write. Man is to become only a pipe through which the Spirit shall
flow; and the Spirit shall flow only where the resistance is least. Ope
the door, and the god shall enter! Seek not, pray not! To pray is to
will, and to will is to obstruct. The virtue which Emerson praises so
highly in a pipe—that it is smooth and hollow—is the very virtue
which makes him like Nature, an ever open, yet ever sealed book.
Bring to him your theories, your preconceived notions, and Emerson,
like the great soul of which he is but a voice, becomes unintelligible,
confusing, chaotic. The words are there; the eyes see them. The
dictionary is at hand, but nought avails; of understanding there is
none to be had. But once abandon will, once abandon self, once
abandon opinion (a much harder abandonment this than either!),
and Emerson is made of glass, just as when I abandon my logic,
God becomes transparent enough.... And what is true of Emerson is
true of every great soul.
2. The highest art then is artlessness, unconsciousness. The true
artist is not the conceiver, the designer, the executor, but the tool,
the recorder, the reporter. He writes because write he must, just as
he breathes because breathe he must. And here too, Nature, as
elsewhere, hath indicated the true method. The most vital processes
of life are not the voluntary, the conscious, but the involuntary, the
unconscious. The blood circulates, the heart beats, the lungs fill, the
nerves vibrate; we digest, we fall asleep, we are stirred with love,
with awe, with reverence, without our will; and our highest
aspirations, our sweetest memories, our cheerfullest hopes, and
alas! also our bitterest self-reproaches, come ever like friends at the
feast,—uninvited. You can be happy, blest at will? Believe it not!
Happiness, blessedness willed is not to be had in the market at any
quotation. It is not to be got. It comes. And it comes when least
willed. He is truly rich who has nought left to be deprived of, nought
left to ask for, nought left to will....
3. Pushkin, therefore, was incapable of giving an account of his own
poetry. Pushkin could not have given a theory of a single poem of
his, as Poe has given of his "Raven." Poe's account of the birth of
"The Raven" is indeed most delightful reading. "I told you so," is not
so much the voice of conceit, of "I knew better than thou!" but the
voice of the epicurean in us; it is ever a delight to most of us to
discover after the event that we knew it all before.... Delightful,
then, it is indeed, to read Poe's theory of his own "Raven;" but its
most delightful part is that the theory is a greater fiction than the
poem itself. It is the poem that has created the theory, not the
theory the poem. Neither could Pushkin do what Schiller has done:
give a theory of a drama of his own. The theory of Don Karlos as
developed in Schiller's letters on that play are writ not by Friedrich
Schiller the poet, the darling of the German land, the inspirer of the
youth of all lands, but by Herr von Schiller the professor; by Von
Schiller the Kantian metaphysician; by Von Schiller the critic; by
another Schiller, in short. Pushkin, however, unlike most of us, was
not half a dozen ancestors—God, beast, sage, fool—rolled into one,
each for a time claiming him as his own. Pushkin was essentially a
unit, one voice; he was a lyre, on which a something, not he—God!
—invisibly played.
4. And this he unconsciously to himself expresses in the piece, "My
Muse."
"From mom till night in oak's dumb shadow
To the strange maid's teaching intent I listened;
And with sparing reward me gladdening,
Tossing back her curls from her forehead dear,
From my hands the flute herself she took.
Now filled the wood was with breath divine
And the heart with holy enchantment filled."
Before these lines Byelinsky, the great Russian critic, stands awe-
struck. And well he may; for in the Russian such softness,
smoothness, simplicity, harmony, and above all sincerity, had not
been seen before Pushkin's day. And though in the translation
everything except the thought is lost, I too as I now read it over on
this blessed Sunday morn (and the bell calling men unto the worship
of the great God is still ringing!), I too feel that even before this sun,
shorn of its beams though it be, I am still in hallowed presence. For
the spirit is independent of tongue, independent of form; to the god-
filled soul the leaf is no less beautiful than the flower. Discrimination,
distinction, is only a sign that we are still detached from the whole;
that we are still only half; that we are still not our own selves,—that
we still, in short, miss the blessed ONE. To the god-filled soul the
grain of sand is no less beautiful than the diamond; the spirit breaks
through the crust (and words and forms are, alas, only this!), and
recognizes what is its where'er it finds it, under whate'er disguise.
The botanist prizes the weed as highly as the flower, and with
justice, because he seeks not the gratification of the eye, but of the
spirit. The eye is delighted with variety, the spirit with unity. And the
botanist seeks the unity, the whole, the godful in the plant. And a
fine perception it was,—that of Emerson: that a tree is but a rooted
man, a horse a running man, a fish a floating man, and a bird a
flying man. Logical, practical Supreme Court Justice, with one eye in
the back of his head, declares, indeed, such utterance insane, and
scornfully laughs, "I don't read Emerson; my garls do!"[2]but the
self-same decade brings a Darwin or a Heckel with his comparative
embryos; and at the sight of these, not even a lawyer, be he even
Chief Justice of Supreme Court, can distinguish between snake, fowl,
dog, and man.
[2] Jeremiah Mason.

5. In time, however, Pushkin does become objective to himself, as

any true soul that is obliged to reflect must sooner or later; and God
ever sees to it that the soul be obliged to reflect if there be aught
within. For it is the essence of man's life that the soul struggle; it is
the essence of growth that it push upward; it is the essence of
progress in walking that we fall forward. Life is a battle,—battle with
the powers of darkness; battle with the diseases of doubt, despair,
self-will. And reflection is the symptom that the disease is on the
soul, that the battle is to go on.
6. Pushkin then does become in time objective, and contemplates
himself. Pushkin the man inspects Pushkin the soul, and in the
poem, "My Monument," he gives his own estimate of himself:—
"A monument not hand-made I have for me erected;
The path to it well-trodden, will not overgrow;
Risen higher has it with unbending head
Than the monument of Alexander.
 No! not all of me shall die! my soul in hallowed lyre
Shall my dust survive, and escape destruction—
And famous be I shall, as long as on earth sublunar
One bard at least living shall remain.

"My name will travel over the whole of Russia great

And there pronounce my name shall every living tongue:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And long to the nation I shall be dear."
Observe here the native nobility of the man. There is a heroic
consciousness of his own worth which puts to shame all gabble of
conceit and of self-consciousness being a vice, being immodest.
Here too, Emerson sets fine example in not hesitating to speak of his
own essays on Love and Friendship as "those fine lyric strains,"
needing some balance by coarser tones on Prudence and the like.
This is the same heroic consciousness of one's own worth which
makes a Socrates propose as true reward for his services to the
State, free entertainment at the Prytaneum. This is the same
manliness which in a Napoleon rebukes the genealogy-monger who
makes him descend from Charlemagne, with the remark, "I am my
own pedigree." This, in fine, is the same manliness which made
Jesus declare boldly, "I am the Way, I am the Life, I am the Light,"
regardless of the danger that the "Jerusalem Advertiser" and the
"Zion Nation" might brand him as "deliciously conceited." This
recognition of one's own worth is at bottom the highest reverence
before God; inasmuch as I esteem myself, not because of my body,
which I have in common with the brutes, but because of my spirit,
which I have in common with God; and wise men have ever sung,
on hearing their own merit extolled, Not unto us, not unto us! There
is no merit in the matter; the God is either there or he is not....
7. Pushkin, then, even with this in view, is not so much a conscious
will, as an unconscious voice. He is not so much an individual singer,
as a strain from the music of the spheres; and he is a person, an
original voice, only in so far as he has hitched his wagon to a star. In
his abandonment is his greatness; in his self-destruction, his
strength.
"The bidding of God, O Muse, obey.
Fear not insult, ask not crown:
Praise and blame take with indifference
And dispute not with the fool!"
"And dispute not with the fool!" The prophet never argues; it is for
him only to affirm. Argument is at bottom only a lack of trust in my
own truth. Caesar's wife must be above suspicion: and to bear
misunderstanding in silence,—this is to be great. Hence the noblest
moment in Kepler's life was not when he discovered the planet, but
when he discovered that if God could wait six thousand years for the
understanding by man of one of his starlets, he surely could wait a
few brief years for his recognition by his fellow-men. God is the
great misunderstood, and he—never argues. In living out my truth in
silence, without argument even though misunderstood, I not only
show my faith in it, but prove it by my very strength. If I am
understood, nothing more need be said; if I am not understood,
nothing more can be said. Pushkin, therefore, often weeps, sobs,
groans. He at times even searches, questions, doubts, despairs; but
he never argues. Broad is the back of Pegasus, and strong is his
wing, but neither his back nor his wings shall enable him to float the
rhyming arguer. No sooner does the logician mount the heavenly
steed than its wings droop, and both rider and steed quickly drop
into the limbo of inanity. Melancholy, indeed, is the sight of a dandy
dressed for a party unexpectedly drenched by the shower; sorrowful
is the sight of statesman turned politician before election; and pitiful
is the spectacle of the manufacturing versifier, who grinds out of
himself his daily task of one hundred lines, as the milkman squeezes
out his daily can of milk from the cow. But most pitiful of all,
immeasurably pathetic to me, is the sight of pettifogging logician
forsaking his hair-splitting world, and betaking himself to
somersaulting verse. To much the bard is indeed called, but surely
not to that....
8. To affirm then the bard is called, and what in "My Monument" is
but hinted, becomes clear, emphatic utterance in Pushkin's "Sonnet
to the Poet."
"Poet, not popular applause shalt thou prize!
Of raptured praise shall pass the momentary noise;
The fool's judgment thou shalt hear, and the cold mob's
laughter—
Calm stand, and firm be, and—sober!

"Thou art king: live alone. On the free road

Walk whither draws thee thy spirit free:
Ever the fruits of beloved thoughts ripening,
Never reward for noble deeds demanding.

"In thyself reward seek. Thine own highest court thou art;
Severest judge, thine own works canst measure.
Art thou content, O fastidious craftsman?
Content? Then let the mob scold,
And spit upon the altar, where blazes thy fire.
Thy tripod in childlike playfulness let it shake."
But because the bard is called to affirm, to inspire, to serve, he is
also called to be worn. To become the beautiful image, the marble
must be lopped and cut; the vine to bear sweeter fruit must be
trimmed, and the soul must go through a baptism of fire.... Growth,
progress is thus ever the casting off of an old self, and Scheiden thut
weh. Detachment hurts. A new birth can take place only amid throes
of agony. Hence the following lines of Pushkin on the poet:—
... No sooner the heavenly word
His keen ear hath reached,
Then up trembles the singer's soul
Like an awakened eagle.

"The world's pastimes now weary him

And mortals' gossip now he shuns.
 . . . . . . . . . .
Wild and stem rushes he
Of tumult full and sound
To the shores of desert wave
Into the wildly whispering wood."
9. This is as yet only discernment that the bard must needs suffer;
by-and-by comes also the fulfilment, the recognition of the wisdom
of the sorrow, and with it its joyful acceptance in the poem of "The
Prophet."
"And out he tore my sinful tongue
. . . . . . . . . .
And ope he cut with sword my breast
And out he took my trembling heart
And a coal with gleaming blaze
Into the opened breast he shoved.
Like a corpse I lay in the desert.
And God's Voice unto me called:
Arise, O prophet, and listen, and guide.
Be thou filled with my will
And going over land and sea
Fire with the word the hearts of men!"
"Be thou filled with my will!" His ideal began with abandonment of
self-will; it ended with complete surrender of self-will. When we have
done all the thinking and planning and weighing, and pride ourselves
upon our wisdom, we are not yet wise. One more step remains to be
taken, without which we only may avoid the wrong; with which,
however, we shall surely come upon the right. We must still say,
Teach us, Thou, to merge our will in Thine....

II. INNER LIFE.

10. I have already stated that Pushkin is a subjective writer. The
great feelers must ever be thus, just as the great reasoners must
ever be objective, just as the great lookers can only be objective. For
the eye looks only on the outward thing; the reason looks only upon
the outward effect, the consequence; but the heart looks not only
upon the thing, but upon its reflection upon self,—upon its moral
relation, in short. Hence the subjectivity of a Tolstoy, a Byron, a
Rousseau, a Jean Paul, a Goethe, who does not become objective
until he has ceased to be a feeler, and becomes the comprehender,
the understander, the seer, the poised Goethe. Marcus Aurelius,
Pascal, Amiel, look into their hearts and write; and Carlyle and
Ruskin, even though the former use "Thou" instead of "I," travel
they never so far, still find their old "I" smiling by their side. But the
subjectivity of Pushkin, unlike that of Walt Whitman, is not only not
intrusive, but it is even delight-giving,—for it paints not the Pushkin
that is different from all other men, but the Pushkin that is in
fellowship with all other men; he therefore, in reporting himself,
voices the very experience of his fellows, who, though feeling it
deeply, were yet unable to give it tongue. It is this which makes
Pushkin the poet in its original sense,—the maker, the sayer, the
namer. And herein is his greatness,—in expressing not what is his, in
so far that it is different from what is other men's, but what is his,
because it is other men's likewise. Herein he is what makes him a
man of genius. For what does a genius do?
11. What is it that makes the water, when spouting forth in a smooth
stream from the hose, such a power? What is it that makes the
beauty of the stem and curve of the body of water, as it leaps out of
the fountain? It is the same water which a few yards back we can
see flowing aimless in stream or pond. Yes, but it is the
concentration of the loose elements into harmonious shape, whether
for utility, as in the case of the hose-spout, or for beauty, as in the
case of the fountain. Nought new is added to the mass existing
before. This is precisely the case of genius. He adds nought to what
has gone before him. He merely arranges, formulates. A vast
unorganized mass of intelligence, of aspiration, of feeling, becomes
diffused over mankind. Soon it seeks organization. The poet, the
prophet, the seer, cometh, and lo, he becomes the magnet round
which all spiritual force of the time groups itself in visible shape, in
formulated language.
12. Pushkin, then, is self-centred; but it is the self that is not
Pushkin, but man. His mood is others' mood; and in singing of his
life, he sings of the life of all men. The demon he sings of in the
poem called "My Demon" is not so much his demon alone as also
yours, mine, ours. It is his demon because it is all men's demon.
"A certain evil spirit then
Began in secret me to visit.
Grievous were our meetings,
His smile, and his wonderful glance,
His speeches, these so stinging,
Cold poison poured into my soul.
Providence with slander
Inexhaustible he tempted;
Of Beauty as a dream he spake
And inspiration he despised;
Nor love, nor freedom trusted he,
On life with scorn he looked—
And nought in all nature
To bless he ever wished."
And this demon—"the Spirit of Denial, the Spirit of Doubt"—of which
he sings afterwards so pathetically tormented him long. He began
with "Questionings:"—
"Useless gift, accidental gift,
Life, why art thou given me?
Or, why by fate mysterious
To torture art thou doomed?

"Who with hostile power me

Out has called from the nought?
 Who my soul with passion thrilled,
Who my spirit with doubt has filled?..."
And he continues with "Sleeplessness:"—
"I cannot sleep, I have no light;
Darkness 'bout me, and sleep is slow;
The beat monotonous alone
Near me of the clock is heard
Of the Fates the womanish babble,
Of sleeping night the trembling,
Of life the mice-like running-about,—
Why disturbing me art thou?
What art thou, O tedious whisper?
The reproaches, or the murmur
Of the day by me misspent?
What from me wilt thou have?
Art thou calling or prophesying?
Thee I wish to understand,
Thy tongue obscure I study now."
13. And this demon gives him no rest, even long after he had found
the answer,—that the meaning of Life is in Work. Solve the problem
of life? Live, and you solve it; and to live means to do. But that work
was the solution of the problem of life he indeed discerned but
vaguely. It was with him not yet conscious fulfilment. He had not yet
formulated to himself the gospel he unconsciously obeyed. Hence
the wavering of the "Task:"—
"The longed-for moment here is. Ended is my long-yeared
task.
Why then sadness strange me troubles secretly?
My task done, like needless hireling am I to stand,
My wage in hand, to other task a stranger?
Or my task regret I, of night companion silent mine,
Gold Aurora's friend, the friend of my sacred household
gods?"
14. And for the same reason, when he had ceased to be a roamer
and at last settled down to quiet home-life, the memory of the days
of yore still gives him a pang; and at the sight of the gypsies, whose
free and easy life once occupied his thoughts seriously, not only to
sing of them, but to live with them, only a plaintive note bursts forth
from his soul:—
"Thee I greet, O happy race!
I recognize thy blazes,
I myself at other times
These tents would have followed.

"With the early rays to-morrow

Shall disappear your freedom's trace,
Go you will—but not with you
Longer go shall the bard of you.

"He alas, the changing lodgings,

And the pranks of days of yore
Has forgot for rural comforts
And for the quiet of a home."
15. And this too when these same "rural comforts" he now regrets to
have taken in exchange for his wanderings were the very
circumstances he sighed for when he did lead the free life he now
envies the gypsies for. For this is what he then had been singing:
"Mayhap not long am destined I
In exile peaceful to remain,
Of dear days of yore to sigh
And rustic muse in quiet
With spirit calm to pursue.

"But even far, in a foreign land

In thought forever roam I shall
Around Trimountain mine:
 By meadows, river, by its hills,
By garden, linden, nigh the house."
16. No wonder, therefore, that the demon, having unsettled the
poet's soul with restlessness, should now unsettle his reasoning
powers with regrets. For regret is at bottom a disease, an inability to
perceive that the best way to mend harm once done is not in
lamenting the past, but in struggling for a future; in which future
much of the past could be undone; or if it could not be undone, at
least it could be prevented from contaminating with its corpse the
life of the future. And his regret is bitter enough. In the first of the
two poems, "Regret" and "Reminiscence," the feeling again is as yet
only discernment; but in the second, the poison has already entered
his soul, and accordingly it no longer is a song, but a cry of agony....
At first it is is only—
"But where are ye, O moments tender
Of young my hopes, of heartfelt peace?
The former heat and grace of inspiration?
Come again, O ye, of spring my years!"
But later it becomes—
"Before me memory in silence
Its lengthy roll unfolds,
And with disgust my life I reading
Tremble I and curse it.
Bitterly I moan, and bitterly my tears I shed
But wash away the lines of grief I cannot.
In laziness, in senseless feasts,
In the madness of ruinous license,
In thraldom, poverty, and homeless deserts
My wasted years there I behold...."
17. Regret, in itself a disease, but only of the intellect, soon changes
into a more violent disease: into a disease of the constitution, which
is fear, fear of insanity. In ordinary minds such disease takes the
form of fear for the future, of worry for existence; in extraordinary
minds it takes more ghastly shapes,—distrust of friends, and dread
of the close embrace of what is already stretching forth its claws
after the soul,—insanity.
Hence,—
"God grant I grow not insane:
No, better the stick and beggar's bag;
No, better toil and hunger bear.
. . . . . . . . . .
If crazy once,
A fright thou art like pestilence,
And locked up now shalt thou be.

"To a chain thee, fool, they 'll fasten

And through the gate, a circus beast,
Thee to nettle the people come.

"And at night not hear shall I

Clear the voice of nightingale
Nor the forest's hollow sound,

"But cries alone of companions mine

And the scolding guards of night
And a whizzing, of chains a ringing."
18. That thoughts of death should now be his companions is only to
be expected. But here again his muse plainly sings itself out in both
stages,—the stage of discernment and the stage of fulfilment. In the
first of the two poems, "Elegy" and "Death-Thoughts" he only thinks
of death; in the second he already longs for it.
In the first it is only—
"My wishes I have survived,
My ambition I have outgrown!
Left only is my smart,
The fruit of emptiness of heart.
 "Under the storm of cruel Fate
Faded has my blooming crown!
Sad I live and lonely,
And wait: Is nigh my end?"
But in the second it already becomes—
"Whether I roam along the noisy streets
Whether I enter the peopled temple,
Whether I sit by thoughtless youth,
Haunt my thoughts me everywhere.

"I say, Swiftly go the years by:

However great our number now,
Must all descend the eternal vaults,—
Already struck has some one's hour.
. . . . . . . . . .

"Every year thus, every day

With death my thought I join
Of coming death the day
I seek among them to divine."
19. Pushkin died young; that he would have conquered his demon in
time there is every reason to believe, though the fact that he had
not yet conquered him at the age of thirty-eight must show the
tremendous force of bad blood, and still worse circumstance, which
combined made the demon of Pushkin. But already he shows signs
of having seen the promised land.
In the three poems, "Resurrection," "The Birdlet" (iv. 133), and
"Consolation," the first shows that he conquered his regret-disease;
the second, that he already found in Love some consolation for
sorrow. And the third shows that he already felt his way at least to
some peace, even though it be not yet faith in the future, but only
hope. For hope is not yet knowledge; it only trusts that the future
will be good. Faith knows that the future must be good, because it is
in the hands of God, the Good.
In the first it is—
"Thus my failings vanish too
From my wearied soul
And again within it visions rise
Of my early purer days."
In the second,—
"And now I too have consolation:
Wherefore murmur against my God
When at least to one living being
I could of freedom make a gift?"
And in the last,—
"In the future lives the heart:
Is the present sad indeed?
'T is but a moment, all will pass...."
This is consoling utterance, but not yet of the highest; and the
loftiest spiritual song, the song of the Psalmist, was not given unto
Pushkin to sing.

III. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.

20. I have translated the poems of Pushkin not so much because

they are masterpieces in the literature of Russia, as because I think
the English reading-public has much to learn from him. English
literature is already blessed with masterpieces, which, if readers
would only be content to study them for the sake of what they have
to impart (not amuse with!), would give enough employment as well
as amusement for all the time an ordinary reader can give to
literature. So that merely for the sake of making new beauty