THE HAPPY HABIT.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 146, 19 December 1908, Page 3

THE HAPPY HABIT.

CHEERFULNESS WORTH £1000 A YEAR. John Stuart Mill accounted the habit of looking on the bright side of things as* one of the chief blessings of hfe. Doctor,, Johnson declared that it was worth £1000 a year. Now £lUUO a year is not a sum to be despised, bufc the worthy doctor did not •estiihate th© value of cheerfulness too highly. CHEERFULNESS AND CHARACTER. An old tradition says that a cup , of gold is to, be found wherever a „' rainbow touches the: earth; surely cheerfulness turns into gold everyfthing with which it comes in contact. i It is. good physically, for the person her&alf, for it has a valuable stimulative effect on every organ of the body. ' It is certainly of incalculable benefit to those who come. under its influence. Cheerfulness is character, and therefore it can be cultivated like any other virtue. No woman, then, need hopelessly bewail her lack of it, and imagine because she was not "born smiling" there is no possibility of ever possessing a che&rf ul disposition. Doubtless it is easier for some natures to be cheerful than for others, but that is all. Cheerfulness is only another form of courage. It means refusing to yield toovsry impulse and influence. Every woman, in tlvs rough journey of life, runs up against things that are painful, distasteful, and disagreeable; and she can either be mastered by them or she can master them. "When she masters them this is character. f'Theword 'character, " says a modem writer, "comes directly from the Greek, and signifies first the sharp tool with which a seal or die is engraved, and then the inscription or the object which is cut in the seal, or in the die." Our character, then, is the image and superscription which we cut upon our control, in the last analysis wo determine our own character, we ' hold the tools. WHEN THERE IS NO BRIGHT SIDE. The woman who can smile when her "best-laid schemes" gang agley, and, when there is no bright side to some unfortunate .event, will cheerfully polish up the dark side, is a visible beatitude and a living doxology; Dante's ideal of a Christian character was "Fortezzaksd umilitade c largo coro" — energy, humility, and serenity. Certainly no character can, be considered "complete and 7 i

Totmded! off," as the poet Horace would say, without the "largo core" The cheerful woman strives to refrain from troubling trouble "till trouble troubles her." That is more than can be said of most people. "1 have had an awful lot of trouble in my lift*,*' remarked an old man, "though I own half of it never •happened." It reminds one of the time . when things were all sixes aaul sevens at Court, and everyone w:i/> cross and ' put out except the Court fool. THE COURT FOOL. Then he was seen to press his hand against a dvarp boss that protruded from a shield that hung on the wall until the blood came, i "What a fool!" oried theS courtiers, "to push your hand against the only sharp point on the shield. Is not all tho rest of the surface smooth, if you must needs feel it?" "I was only following your example," said the fool. . "There is only point sharp in your fortune, all. tho rest is smooth and. fav6urable, yet, for all this blessed day, my masters, you have been punishing your spirits up "against that sharp point until they are sharp and bleeding! Should a poor fool know better than, to do the same?" , That is a graceful and beautiful tribute Nansen, the Arctic explorer, pays his wife in his dedication of "Farthest North." "To her who; christened tho ship and had the cour-v age to remain." Yes, cheerfulness; is courage. '