From Character Building
Thought-Power:
CHAPTER 1
WHICH WAY
IS LIFE LEANING?
"The optimist fell ten
stories and at each window bar He shouted to his friends 'All
right so far.”
WAS
he, as one is now and then inclined to think, a silly-pated fool, or
was there some basis for the feeling which inspired his utterance? In
other words, are those to whom life seems so bright, buoyant, even
and interesting, in distinction from those to whom it seems so dark
and complex and uncertain, to be described by this same, or by some
kindred term?
Then,
there are those who have exchanged fears and forebodings, gloom, and
at least apparent despair, with their many times attendant bodily
ailments, for peace and health and strength and newness of power. In
other words they have come into a newness of life that is, to speak
mildly, most interesting, and in some cases quite miraculous both to
themselves and to their friends and acquaintances.
Is
it pure imagination? Then is imagination rather a good thing to have?
Especially as in such vast numbers of cases these things last. It is
true moreover of people of not anyone peculiar trend of mind and
thought and life, but of people of all descriptions and all types and
so-called stations in life. Is it merely a difference of temperament
that life seems so gloomy and uncertain and get-no-where to some, and
so buoyant and certain and straight-to-the-mark like, to others? If
so, is there somehow or somewhere a power to change or alter
temperament?
A
part of what we might term the optimist's philosophy is-If you can
mend a situation mend it; if you can't mend it, forget it. Is it good
philosophy or is it foolishness?
To
me the term optimist marks the man or the woman of energy and common
sense, in distinction from the one of either supine inactivity or
that will allow himself or herself to get, as we say, all
"balled-up," when in reality there is no occasion for it.
Moreover if this one was a silly-pated fool, then was Browning also
when he wrote:
"One who never turned his
back, but marched breast forward. N ever doubted clouds would break.
Never dreamed, though right
were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are
baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake."
Was
Samuel Johnson? when he said: "The habit of looking at the
bright side of things is worth more than a thousand a year." Was
Lowell? when he said: "Let us be of good cheer, remembering that
the misfortunes hardest to bear are those that never come." Or
again, is G. K. Chesterton? when he says:
"The optimist is a
better reformer than the pessimist: and the man who believes life to
be excellent is the one who alters it most." Or, looking at the
matter in a really serious manner, has the optimist something that
the other fellow hasn't?
Personally
I believe in the
absolute reign of law, and
in nothing, perhaps, more fully than in the law of cause
and effect, the same
as I believe that all life is from within out, and as is the inner,
therefore, so always and necessarily is the outer.
A
few days ago, a friend who sees much of all phases of life, and whose
daily work many times takes him among those whose lives and whose
hardships and sufferings, both mental and physical, would cause
ordinarily the stoutest heart that witnesses them to grow downcast
and skeptical, said: "It's a good thing, after all, for one to
have a little philosophy in his life; there are times when it stands
him in right good hand."
Where
is there a philosophy of real value that the average individual can
get hold of-a philosophy that will give results-a philosophy that as
we say, will make good? Judging from all the philosophical and
religious systems in the world, it would seem that every man and
woman could have no want whatever along this line. Or, are they so
complex, or are they so mixed with other things that so obscure their
real working and vitalising portions, that we average mortals don't
know just how to get hold of them?
Undoubtedly
many of them are sadly in need of some simplifying process, or some
process that will extract the really vital portions from the great
mass of verbiage that enshrouds them, or from the great mass of
extraneous matter that has crept in, practically to engulf them.
The
skilled machinist is, I believe, continually on the alert to simplify
the splendid specimen of modern machinery, by the elimination of
every possible part that is not absolutely essential to its
performing its real functions. To me whatever in philosophy, in
religion, or in any code of life principles has use,-can be applied
and used in the everyday problems of our common work-a-day life, is
of value, and whatever hasn't, is not only valueless, but is,
moreover, a positive detriment, in that it tends to keep from us the
real vital laws and forces that, as we say, do the work. To me, if we
consider terms not too technically, philosophy and religion are very
similar and, in a sense, the same. They have also a very similar
characteristic when we endeavour to apply to them both this great
principle of use.
I
was reading only yesterday a portion of a very able sermon on the
Sunday editorial page of one of our great dailies, in which the
writer made a very strong plea for the value of allegiance to Truth,
and the value of allegiance to Religion. Nowhere, however, was there
a word said in regard to just what was meant by "truth" or
what was meant by "religion." I dare say the sermon was of
as little real practical value to ninety-nine out of every hundred
readers as it was to me.
We
read now and then that one of the great secrets of life is
"Adjustment." Again, that the secret of life is "Harmony."
Granting this, is there some great truth, some great central truth,
so to speak, that we can adjust ourselves-our daily lives-to? Some
great central truth that we can square our lives by? Said one of the
world's greatest teachers: "Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free." Is there some understandable, some
universal truth or principle that all can accept, and that all lives
can be squared by?
I
believe most profoundly that the optimist has something that the
other fellow hasn't. If it is a common sense, get-somewhere and
more-than-a-day optimism, I believe that its possessor has found
primarily two great facts. The one is that there is a Science of
Thought. The other is what might be termed the fact of the Divinity
of Human Life-the element of Divinity with insights and powers that
are greater than the ordinary human.
