Of all the homely virtues there is none more to be commended and desired thanThe noblest mind the best contentment hath.—Spenser.patience. This priceless quality of mind puts its possessor into friendly relations with whatever the surrounding conditions may chance to be. There is no irritation, no clash of interests, no lack of organization for performing to the best of one’s ability the duties of the moment, as they present themselves for consideration. Nothing is so conducive to success as to be able, calmly and patiently, to do to the best of one’s ability the tasks that present themselves. "Success in life," says one of our students of the world’sThe man who has begun to live more seriously within, begins to live more simply without.—Phillips Brooks.problems, "depends far more upon the decision of character than upon the possession of what is called genius. The man who is perpetually hesitating as to which of two things he will do, will do neither." On the other hand the man who hastily and impatiently disposes of the problems that confront him also impairs his chances for making the best of life.
To be usefully and hopefully employed is one of the great secrets of happiness.—Smiles.Have you ever experienced the sorry realization of how one petulant or peevish member of a household can destroy the happiness of a breakfast or dinnerEverything in this world depends upon will.—Disraeli.hour? What would otherwise have been a pleasant coming together of kindly congenial spirits is made painful and unprofitable because some one lacked the patience and forbearance to withstand and to surmount some little trial or irritation that should have been promptly dismissed from the mind and the heart, or better still, which never should have been permitted to enter. As has been truly observed, membership in the family involves the recognition thatA man is valued according to his own estimate of himself.—Comtelburo.the normal life of the individual is to be found only in a perfect union with other members; in regard for their rights; in deference to their wishes; and in devotion to that common interest in which each member shares. Each memberAll men wish to have truth on their side; but few to be on the side of truth.—Whately.must live for the sake of the whole family. "Children owe to their parents obedience, and such service as they are able to render," says Dr. DeWitt Hyde. "Parents, on the other hand, owe to children support, training, and an education sufficient to give them a fair start in life.Mightier than all the world, the clasp of one small hand upon the heart.—John Townsend Trowbridge.Brothers and sisters owe to each other mutual helpfulness and protection."
The patient disposition to do the best one can, this day, this hour, this verymoment, counts for much in the building of a life. How perfectly is its whole purpose set forth in Channing’s "Symphony," in which he so beautifully makes known his heart’s desire: "To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony."
The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.—Napoleon.It is this rare sense of poise, this patient regard for our own happiness and that of others, that enables some sweet spirits to come as a balm for all theCharacter must stand behind and back up everything—the sermon, the poem, the picture, the play. None of them is worth a straw without it.—J. G. Holland.bruises that a busy world can put upon us. "There is no joy but calm." Until one has learned to do his work pleasantly and agreeably he has not mastered the most important part of his lesson. "Blessed is the man who finds joy in his work." He will succeed where the complaining, discontented person will bealmost sure to fail. So, let us cultivate thisThe question every morning is not how to do the gainful thing, but how to do the just thing.—John Ruskin.one of the chiefest of our every-day virtues. It will enable us to give to every moment the proper regard for its value and of the possibilities it offers for achievement. It will teach us that during every day, every hour, every moment, there is time for politeness, forResolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.—Matthew Arnold.kindness, for gentleness, for the display of strength and tenderness and high purpose, and for the exercise of that degree of patience that does so much to make life big and broad and beautiful in
THIS BUSY WORLD
It is a very busy world in which we mortals meet,There are so many weary hands, so many tired feet;So many, many tasks are born with every morning’s sun.And though we labor with a will the work seems never done.I hate a thing done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.—Gilpin.And yet for every moment’s task there comes a moment’s time:The burden and the strength to bear are like a perfect rhyme.The heart makes strong the honest hand, the will seeks out the way,Nor must we do to-morrow’s work, nor yesterday’s, to-day.
We scale the mountain’s rugged side, not at one mighty leap,But step by step and breath by breath we climb the lofty steep.What we need most is not so much to realize the ideal as to idealize the real.—F. H. Hedge.Each simple duty comes alone our willing strength to try;One little moment at a time and so the days go by.With strength to lift and heart to hope, we strive from sun to sun,A little here, a little there, and all our tasks are done;There’s time to toil and time to sing and time for us to play,Nor must we do to-morrow’s work, nor yesterday’s, to-day.
From a Photograph, Copyright, 1902, by J. E. Purdy, BostonJULIA WARD HOWE
From a Photograph, Copyright, 1902, by J. E. Purdy, BostonJULIA WARD HOWE
CHAPTER VTHE VALUE OF SUNSHINE
Kind words are worth much and they cost little.—Proverb.Do people like you?
Are your girl playmates and classmates fond of your society? Are they eager to work with you, play with you, go strolling or sit by the fire with you?The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
This one fact we must know; if we are not liked it must be because we are not the possessors of that fine quality known as "likableness." And if those who have had an opportunity to know us and our traits of character do not love andTo do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being.—Lord Avebury.admire us, it is we and not they who are responsible for their state of mind. For as sure as the warm sunshine attracts the flowers, and the fragrant flowers call the attention of the bee to their store of honey, so a fine likable character is certain to gain and to hold the admiration of good friends and true.
Always laugh when you can; it is a cheap medicine. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence.—Byron.The face full of sunshine, the heart full of hope, the lips that are speaking pleasantwords of good cheer and joyous faith in the world, will attract friends about them as certainly as the magnetic pole attracts the needle.
The girl who goes among the people with smiles to offer will find very many ready to receive her gracious gifts, but if she carries with her sighs and frowns,Happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of all health.—Amiel.instead, she will learn that the world wants none of them.
We all love to hear pleasant things. The one who tells us that he thinks it is going to set in for a long rainy spell of weather is of less worth to us than the one who says he thinks that the clouds are going to clear away and that we shall have a beautiful day to-morrow.
The grandsire who tells his young friends that they ought to be glad that the grandest, brightest and best era in the world’s history is just before them, does much more to inspire them than does the one who tells them that theNot in the clamour of the crowded streets, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves are triumph and defeat.—Longfellow.best days of the world were "the good old days of long ago," and that the golden age will never return again. Brooke Herford tells us: "There are some people who ride all through the journey of life with their backs to the horse’s head.
They are always looking into the past. All the worth of things is there. They are forever talking about the good old times, and how different things were whenA man should always keep learning something—"always," as Arnold said, "keep the stream running"—whereas most people let it stagnate about middle life.—Anonymous.they were young. There is no romance in the world now, and no heroism. The very winters and summers are nothing to what they used to be; in fact, life is altogether on a small, commonplace scale. Now that is a miserable sort of thing; it brings a sort of paralyzing chill over the life, and petrifies the natural spring of joy that should ever be leaping up to meet the fresh new mercies thatA smile passes current in every country as a mark of distinction.—Joe Mitchell Chapple.the days keep bringing."
Know then, my young friends, that the best time that ever was is the present time, if you will but use it aright. It is full of romance, of heroism, ofThe thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.—Tennyson.splendid opportunity, of all that goes to constitute experience and to develop character. There never was a time when there were more good things to be done, or when greater rewards awaited the doers of them. The summers are just as long and bright and golden; the roses blossom just as numerously and as sweetly; human hearts are just as warm and kindly,No man ever sunk under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow’s burden is added to the burden of to-day that the burden is more than a man can bear.—George MacDonald.as they have been at any time in the world’shistory. Emerson says: "One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the whole year."
So then as far as the time and the hour are concerned, there is nothing inThough sorrow must come, where is the advantage of rushing to meet it? It will be time enough to grieve when it comes; meanwhile, hope for better things.—Seneca.our surroundings to make us morose or gloomy or dispirited or indifferent regarding the influence we are exerting upon those around us. There is no obvious reason why we should not be joyous and happy at the prospect before us. We should have not only grace enough for our own personal needs, but plenty of it to spare for those not so gladly born as ourselves.
And rich beyond computation is the one who has joyousness to spare. BetterAll my old opinions were only stages on the way to the one I now hold, as itself is only a stage on the way to something else.—R. L. Stevenson.than gold, better than food and raiment and all material things, betimes, is a ray of sunshine from the heart, an uplift of saving humor from a merry tongue. "I have often felt, myself," says Benson, "that the time has come to raise another figure to the hierarchy of Christian graces. Faith, Hope and Charity were sufficient in a more elementary and barbarous age, but, now that the world hasHasten slowly, and, without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.—Boileau.broadened somewhat, I think an addition to the trio is demanded. A man may be faithful, hopeful, and charitable, and yet leave much to be desired. He may be useful, no doubt, with that equipment, but he may also be both tiresome and even absurd. The fourth quality that I should like to see raised to the highest rank among the Christian graces is the Grace of Humor."
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control—these three alone lead life to sovereign power.—Tennyson.Splendidly blest is that household that is so fortunate as to possess at least one member gifted with the grace of good humor. One such person in a home is enough if there cannot be more. Just when all the others are seriouslyIt is curious to what an extent our happiness or unhappiness depends upon the manner in which we view things.—E. C.Burke.confronting what seems to be a most sad and serious condition of affairs how just one word of illuminating good humor can change the whole point of view and send the foreboding proposition glimmering into nothingness. "Do you know, my dear," says Mrs. Holden, "that there is absolutely nothing that will help you to bear the ills of life so well as a good laugh? Laugh all you can and the smallThose who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.—Joubert.imps in blue who love to preempt their quarters in a human heart will scatter away like owls before the music of flutes.
There are few of the minor difficulties and annoyances that will not dissipate at the charge of the nonsense brigade. If the clothes line breaks, if the cat tips over the milk and the dog elopes with the roast, if the children fall into the mud simultaneously with the advent of clean aprons, if the newTruth is tough; it will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.—Oliver Wendell Holmes.girl quits in the middle of housecleaning, and though you search the earth with candles you find none to take her place, if the neighbor you have trusted goes back on you and decides to keep chickens, if the chariot wheels of the uninvited guest draw near when you are out of provender, and the gaping of your empty purse is like the unfilled mouth of a young robin, take courage if you haveGood manners are made up of petty sacrifices.—Emerson.enough sunshine in your heart, to keep the laugh on your lips. Before good nature, half the cares of daily living will fly away like midges before the wind. Try it."
What a world of inspiration and cheerfulness in the motto written by Edward Everett Hale for the Lend-A-Hand Society: "Look up, and not down; look forward, and not back; look out, and not in; and lend a hand." It is the lifting of theThe aids to noble life are all within.—Matthew Arnold.burden from another’s tired shoulderthat does most to lighten the load resting on our own.
No one who truly is conscious of the value of sunshine upon his own natureNothing is difficult; it is only we who are indolent.—B. R.Haydon.and upon the spirits of those with whom he comes into contact will ever, for one minute, permit himself to be taken possession of by
THE "BLUES"
"Blues" are the sorry calms that comeTo make our spirits mope,And steal the breeze of promise fromThe shining sails of hope.
It is a serious thing that we should see the full beauty of our lives only when they are passed or in visions of a possible future. What we most need is to see and feel the beauty and joy of to-day.—Maurice D. Conway.Margaret E. Sangster, who is the kind and gracious foster mother to all the girls of her time and generation, says that "being in bondage to the blues is precisely like being lost in a London fog. The latter is thick and black and obliterates familiar landmarks. A man may be within a few doors of his home, yet grope hopelessly through the murk to find the well-worn threshold. A personLet us enjoy the scenery of the present moment. The landscape around the bend will still be there when our life-train arrives.—Horatio W. Dresser.under the tyranny of the blues is temporarily unable to adjust life to its usual limitations. He or she cannot see an inch beyond the dreadful present. Everything looks dark and forbidding, and despair with an iron
clutch pins its victim down. People think, loosely, that trials that may be weighed and measured and felt and handled are the worst trials to which flesh isIf we cannot get what we like let us try to like what we can get.—Spanish Proverb.heir. But they are mistaken. Hearts are elastic, and real sorrows seldom crush them. Souls have in them a wonderful capacity for recovering after knockdown blows. It is the intangible, the thing that one dreads vaguely, that catches one in the dark, that suggests and intimates a peril that is spiritual rather than mortal; it is the burden that carries dismay and terror to the imagination."
Men continually forget that happiness is a condition of the mind and not a disposition of circumstances.—Lecky.A single member of a household who is given to having "the blues" often darkens a home that would otherwise be bright and sunny. Such an unfortunate person should bear in mind that when a servant is employed the whole householdDelicacy in woman is strength.—Lichtenberg.expects her to be kind, tidy, industrious, moral, gentle, and, above all, good natured in her attitude toward all. Surely the daughter of a household cannot wish to feel that she holds her position by accident of birth, and that if her family were not compelled to keep her they would not.If you would know the political and moral condition of a people, ask as to the condition of its women.—Aime Martin.
Charles Dickens says: "It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable, honest-hearted, duty-doing man flows out into the world." A bright, cheerful, sunshiny daughter in a home can never know how great is her influence for making the little household world holier and happier for all whose lifeWho has not experienced how, on nearer acquaintance, plainness becomes beautified, and beauty loses its charm, according to the quality of the heart and mind.—Fredrika Bremer.interests are centered therein. Hamilton Wright Mabie says: "The day is dark only when the mind is dark; all weathers are pleasant when the heart is at rest." Bliss Carman observes that "happiness, perhaps, comes by the grace of Heaven, but the wearing of a happy countenance, the preserving of a happy mien, is a duty, not a blessing." This thought that it is one’s duty to be happyHer voice was ever soft, gentle and low,—an excellent thing in woman.—Shakespeare.is set forth still more forcibly by Lilian Whiting: "No one has any more right to go about unhappy than he has to go about ill-bred."
The girl with sunshine in her thoughts and sunshine in her eyes will findGentleness, cheerfulness, and urbanity are the Three Graces of manners.—Marguerite de Valois.sunshine everywhere. Wherever she may go her gracious presence will light the way and make her every path more smooth and beautiful. In the home, in the school, amid whatever conditionssurround her, she will shine with the glow of a rose in bloom. She will see the good and the beautiful in the persons whom she meets; while all the charms of nature, as portrayed in field and forest, will be to her a never-ending source of interest and enjoyment. Above all, she will warmly cherish life and look uponTo have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power.—George MacDonald.it as being crowded with priceless opportunities for obtaining happiness for herself and for others. She will be filled with the same exhuberant spirit of joy in the mere fact of her being that Mrs. Holden so happily sets forth: "I love this world. I never walk out in the morning when all its radiant colors are newly washed with dew, or at splendid noon, when, like an untired racer, the sun has flashed around his mid-day course, or at evening, when a fringe of a shadow,A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.—Thoreau.like the lash of a weary eye, droops over mountain and valley and sea, or in the majestic pomp of night when stars swarm together like bees, and the moon clears its way through the golden fields as a sickle through the ripened wheat, that I do not hug myself for very joy that I am yet alive. What matter if I am poor and unsheltered and costumeless?
In truth, how could I feel this gladness now had I not known the bitterness of woe.—Alicia K. Van Buren.Thank God, I am yet alive! People who tire of this world before they are seventy and pretend that they are ready to leave it, are either crazy or stuck as full of bodily ailments as a cushion is of pins. The happy, the warm-blooded, the sunny-natured and the loving cling to life as petals cling to the calyx of aOf all the joys we can bring into our own lives there is none so joyous as that which comes to us as the result of caring for others and brightening sad lives.—E. C.Burke.budding rose. By and by, when the rose is over-ripe, or when the frosts come and the November winds are trumpeting through all the leafless spaces of the woods, will be time to die. It is no time now, while there is a dark space left on earth that love can brighten, while there is a human lot to be alleviated by a smile, or a burden to be lifted with a sympathizing tear."
We all understand that it is not so difficult for us to be bright and smiling and gracious toward everyone when there is naught to disturb the serenity of ourHuman improvement is from within outward.—Froude.thoughts, and when nothing happens to interfere with the fulfillment of our wishes. But when things go "at sixes and sevens," when our dearest purposes are thwarted, when some one is about to gain the place or prize which we covet, when we are forced to stay within doorswhen we very much prefer to go in the fields; then it requires more of character, more of strength, more of the true spirit of sacrifice to wear a smiling face and to maintain a cheerful heart. But instead of fleeing from theCheerfulness and content are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.—Dickens.petty trials that cross our paths we should welcome them as opportunities for testing and strengthening our good purposes. Newcomb tells us: "Disappointment should always be taken as a stimulant, and never viewed as a discouragement." To the sunshiny, philosophical person, trials and difficulties but serve to help him to develop into
THE PRIZE WINNER
Oh, the man who wins the prizeIs the one who bravely tries,As he works his way amid the toil and stress,Through the college of Hard Knocks,So to hew his stumbling-blocks,They will serve as stepping-stones toward success.
The law of true living is toil.—J. R.Miller.Sunshine has ever been deemed by the close students of life as a most essential element in the achievementWe may make the best of life, or we may make the worst of it, and it depends very much upon ourselves whether we extract joy or misery from it.—Smiles.of the highest and fullest success. The optimist sees open paths leading to pleasant and prosperous fields of endeavor where thepessimist can see no way out of the hopeless surroundings amid which he has been thrust by an unkind fate. The disposition to seize upon the opportunitiesEvery optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill.—Helen Keller.lying close at hand and to believe that the here and now is full of sunshine and golden possibilities has carried many a one to success, where others, lacking the illumination born of good cheer and a hope well grounded in a broad and beautiful faith, have sat complainingly by theHe that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.—Benjamin Franklin.way and permitted the golden chances to go by unobserved.
"Born of only ordinary capacity, but of extraordinary persistency," said Professor Maria Mitchell, the distinguished astronomer, in the later years ofIt is great folly not to part with your own faults, which is possible, but to try instead to escape from other people’s faults, which is impossible.—Marcus Aurelius.her life in looking back upon her career. But she added, with a simplicity as rare as it is pleasing: "I did not quite take this in, myself, until I came to mingle with the best girls of our college, and to become aware how rich their mines are and how little they have been worked." At sixteen she left school, and at eighteen accepted the position of librarian of the Nantucket public library. Her duties were light and she had ample opportunity, surrounded as she was by books,Labor is discovered to be the grand conquerer, enriching and building up nations more surely than the proudest battles.—William Ellery Channing.to read and study, while leisure was also left her to pursue by practical observation the science in which she afterward became known. Those who dwell upon the smaller islands, among which must be classed Nantucket, her islandIt is easier to leave the wrong thing unsaid than to unsay it.—George Horace Lorimer.home, learn almost of necessity to study the sea and the sky. The Mitchell family possessed an excellent telescope. From childhood Maria had been accustomed to the use of this instrument, searching out with its aid, the distant sails upon the horizon by day, and viewing the stars by night. Her father possessed a marked taste for astronomy, and carried on an independent series of observations. He taught his daughter all he knew, and what was more to her advancement, she applied herself to the study and made as much independentWork is the inevitable condition of human life, the true source of human welfare.—Tolstoi.advancement as was possible for her to do. It was this cheerful willingness to make the most of her immediate surroundings that proved to be the secret of her world-wide fame in after years when her name was included with those of the other prominent astronomers of the world. At half past ten of the evening of October First, 1847,If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one.—Ruskin.she made the discovery which first brought her name before the public. She was gazing through her glass with her usual quiet intentness when she was suddenly startled to perceive "an unknown comet, nearly vertical above Polaris, about five degrees." At first she could not believe her eyes; then hoping and doubting, scarcely daring to think that she had really made a discovery, she obtained its right ascension and declination. She then told her father, who gaveOne of the grandest things in having rights is that, being your rights, you may give them up.—George MacDonald.the news to the other astronomers and to the world, and her claim to the discovery was duly accepted and ever after stood to her lasting credit. But had she not been interested in her work and competent to seize upon and to make the most of the opportunity that presented itself, she would not have been able to make herself the first of all the beings of our earth to observe and record this strange visitant to our starry realms above us.
Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important in some respects, whether he chooses to be or not.—Hawthorne.It is the faith which the sunshiny spirit has in the "worth whileness" of life and its possibilities that makes him or her who possesses it prepare for the best that is to come. It is because of the "preparedness" achieved by labor that men andwomen are able to seize upon and make the most of the "lucky chance" that may bring them happiness and success.
Expediency is man’s wisdom. Doing right is God’s.—George Meredith.While Thomas A. Edison was yet a youth, the desire to make himself of worth to the world and to be able to do something that would make him a living while he was still fitting himself for better things, he spent the leisure which mostDiamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought.—Victor Hugo.boys would spend in idleness or purposeless pastime in learning the telegrapher’s code. Later on this knowledge gave him work which enabled him to gain experience as a telegraph operator, which in turn led to his invention of the quadruplex telegraph. But the invention was temporarily aI simply declare my determination not to feed on the broth of literature when I can get strong soup.—George Eliot.failure, although later on a great success. Sorely reduced in circumstances, he was one day tramping the streets of New York without a cent.
"I happened one day," he says, "into the office of a ’gold ticker’ company which had about five hundred subscribers.A thousand words leave not the same deep print as does a single deed.—Ibsen.I was standing beside the apparatus when it gave a terrific rip-roar and suddenly stopped. In a few minutes hundreds of messenger boys blocked up the doorway and yelled for some one to fixthe tickers in the office. The man in charge of the place was completely upset; so I stepped up to him and said: ’I think I know what’s the matter.’ I removed a loose contact spring that had fallen between the wheels; the machine went on. The result? I was appointed to take charge of theWoman—the crown of creation.—Herder.service at three hundred dollars a month. When I heard what the salary was I almost fainted." It had been his hopeful, cheerful, expectant attitude toward the future that had ever prompted him to fit himself so well that when the opportunity offered itself he was able to show that he possessed the grasp of things that made him
THE CONQUEROR
There’s a day, there’s an hour, a moment of timeHarmony is the essence of power as well as beauty.—A. E.Winship.When Fate shall be willing to try us;This one test of our worth and our purpose sublime,It will not, it cannot deny us.’Tis our right to demand one true crisis, else howShall we prove by our valor undauntedThat we merit the wreath Fortune lays on the browOf the man who is there when he’s wanted?
And whene’er Opportunity knocks at his doorBe faithful to thyself, and fear no other witness but thy fear.—Shelley.The wise one’s glad greeting is, "Ready!"He has garnered, of knowledge, an adequate store,His purpose is seasoned and steady.With soul and with spirit, with hand and with heart,And with strength that he never has vaunted,He is fashioned and fitted to compass his part,Is the man who is there when he’s wanted.
The world is a stage and our lives are a playTo give heartfelt praise to noble actions is, in some measure, making them our own.—La Rochefoucauld.And the role that is given us in itMay be grand or obscure, yet there comes the great dayWhen we speak its best lines for a minute.And the dream that through all of life’s trials and tears,The soul, like soft music, has haunted,Comes true, and the world gives its smiles and its cheersTo the man who is there when he’s wanted.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
CHAPTER VIA MERRY HEART
Mirth is God’s medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it.—Holmes.Who among us can presume to estimate the value of a merry heart? What a perpetual blessing it is to its possessor and to all who must come into close relationship with the owner of it!
The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud—Elizabeth Barrett Browning.There is nothing more pleasantly "catching" than happiness. The happy person serves to make all about him or her the more happy. What the bright, inspiring sunshine adds to the beauty of the fields, a happy disposition adds to the charm of all the incidents and experiences of one’s daily life.
A gay, serene spirit is the source of all that is noble and good.—Schiller.Do not you, whose eyes are perusing these lines, love to associate with a friend possessing a cheerful disposition? And do you not intuitively refrain from meeting with the unfortunate one whose looks and words are heavy with complainings or whose eyes fail to see the beauty of the world lying all about? AndYour manners will depend very much on what you frequently think on; for the soul is as it were tinged with the color and complexion of thought.—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.if we are given to wise thinking we must reach the conclusion that as we regard these attributes in others, so others must regard them in us.
Nothing is more eloquent than a beautiful face. It is the open sesame to all our hearts. A sunshiny face melts away all opposition and finds the word "Welcome" written over the doorways where the face wearing a hard, unfriendly look sees only the warning, "No Admittance."
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.—Benjamin Franklin.But a smile that is only skin deep is not a true smile, but only a superficial grin. A true smile comes all the way from the heart. It bears its message of good will and friendliness. It is a mute salutation of "good luck and happy days to you!" and it makes whoever receives it better and stronger for the hour.
Be yourself, but make yourself in everything as delightful as you can.—Margaret E. Sangster.The genuine smile is closely related to, and is a part of, that laughter which beams and sparkles in the eye and makes the little, cheerful, smiling lines in the face that are so quickly and easily distinguished from the lines that are the outward sign of an unhappy spirit within.
Many centuries ago that wise andThe tissue of the life to be we weave with colors all our own, and in the field of destiny we reap as we have sown.—Whittier.admirable philosopher, Epictetus, discovered that "happiness is not in strength, or wealth, or power; or all three. It lies in ourselves, in true freedom, in the conquest of every ignoble fear, in perfect self-government, in a power of contentment and peace, and the even flow of life, even in poverty, exile, disease and the very valley of the shadow."
What must of necessity be done you can always find out beyond question how to do.—Ruskin.One of the happiest observers of life and its higher purposes—Anne Gilchrist—says: "I used to think it was great to disregard happiness, to press to a high goal, careless, disdainful of it. But now I see there is nothing so great as to be capable of happiness,—to pluck it out of each moment,The doctrine of love, purity, and right living has, step by step, won its way into the hearts of mankind, and has filled the future with hope and promise.—William McKinley.and, whatever happens, to find that one can ride as gay and buoyant on the angry, menacing, tumultuous waves of life as on those that glide and glitter under a clear sky; that it is not defeat and wretchedness which comes out of the storms of adversity, but strength and calmness."
The strongest incentive for the cultivation of a merry heart is that it is a duty as well as a delight. Sydney Smith has very wisely observed that "mankind is always happier for having beenSince time is not a person we can overtake when he is past, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.—Goethe.happy; so that if you make them happy now, you may make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it."
True happiness has about it no suggestion of selfishness. The genuinely happy person is the one who would have all the world to be happy. "Is there any happiness in the world like the happiness of a disposition made happy by the happiness of others?" asks Faber. "There is no joy to be compared with it. TheEvery wish is a prayer with God.—Elizabeth Barrett Browning.luxuries which wealth can buy, the rewards which ambition can obtain, the pleasures of art and scenery, the abounding sense of health and the exquisite enjoyment of mental creations are nothing to this pure and heavenly happiness, where self is drowned in the blessings of others."
Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.—Claudius.One of the most heavenly attributes of happiness is that it begets more happiness not only in ourselves but in others about us. It has in it an uplift and a strength that enables us to build the stronger to-day against the distress that would beset us to-morrow.
"Health and happiness" are terms that are so often closely linked in our speech and in our literature. One isEvil is wrought by want of thought, as well as want of heart.—Hood.almost a synonym for the other. Perhaps the true significance existing between the two would be more correctly stated were we to reverse the form in which they are usually set forth and say "happiness and health" instead. All observers of human nature and its many complex attributes are convinced that happiness is theOur greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.—Goldsmith.fountain spring of health.
One of our keenest students of life tells us that "small annoyances are the seeds of disease. We cannot afford to entertain them. They are theSo use present pleasures that thou spoilest not future ones.—Seneca.bacteria,—the germs that make serious disturbance in the system, and prepare the way for all derangements. They furnish the mental conditions which are manifested later in the blood, the tissues, and the organs, under various pathological names. Good thoughts are the only germicide. We must kill our resentment and regret, impatience and anxiety. Health will inevitably follow. Every thought that holds us in even the slightest degree to either anticipationA good manner springs from a good heart, and fine manners are the outcome of unselfish kindness.—Margaret E. Sangster.or regret hinders, to some extent, the realization of our present good. It limits freedom. Life is in the present tense. Its significant name is Being."
Whether we are happy or not depends much on our point of view. The disposition to look at everything through kind and beautiful eyes makes all the world more kind and beautiful. If we are gloomy within the whole world appears likewise. Perhaps the two ways of looking at things could not be better set forth than in these clever lines by E. J. Hardy:
"How dismal you look!" said a bucket to his companion, as they wereReading and study are in no sense education, unless they may contribute to this end of making us feel kindly towards all creatures.—Ruskin.going to the well.
"Ah!" replied the other, "I was reflecting on the uselessness of our being filled, for, let us go away never so full, we always come back empty."
"Dear me! how strange to look on it that way!" said the other bucket; "now I enjoy the thought that however empty we come, we always go away full. Only lookAn hour in every day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits would, if properly employed, enable a person of ordinary capacity, to go far toward mastering a science.—Samuel Smiles.at it in that light and you will always be as cheerful as I am."
The difference between the pessimist and the optimist is in their
POINT OF VIEW
Because each rose must have its thorn,The pessimist Fate’s plan opposes;The optimist, more gladly born,Rejoices that the thorns have roses.