A GREAT SURGEON ON HAPPINESS

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 6

A GREAT SURGEON ON HAPPINESS

Sir Alfred 1 Fripp, a famous surgeon and surgeon-in-ordinary to tho King, writes on 'Happiness' in the 'Sunday Express.'

"It is certain that success cannot come to everybody, nor. can everybody keep his health; but happiness is within everybody's grasp, whether he is successful or not; even whether' he is healthy or not," writes Sir Alfred Fripp. "Many of the greatest invalids have been happy and have radiated happiness to others. " Happiness is an art. Like all arts, it requires fostering by practice till it becomes a habit, and any roan or woman may acquire it. "Let me try to formulate a few simple rules:—

1. First of all a very simple thing: Just ho yourself happily. Each of you has a personality—an aura—a temperament. Don't try to copy others. 2. Study the art of beirig kind and considerate and trying to help. Always "remember your next behind," as tho captain of a battleship had posted up to remind the man at tho wheel that tho safety of those following depends upon the courso you steer. There are many gods and' many creeds — And many paths that wind and' wind; But all this old world really needs Is just the art of being kind. 3. Keep yourself simple and young. Keep your ideals, your faith, your romance, your pluck. " Look upon yourself not w twenty, thirty, or forty years old, but as twenty, thirty, or forty springs young. Don't let your sympathy die out, however heavily it may be taxed, nor your enthusiasm, nor your optimism. Behind the unTeet and selfishness, of which the world of to-day exhibits so much, and which has such paralysing results, thero lurks one of the greatest sins—the sin of despair. As the Japanese proverb says: ' It's tho melancholy face gets stung by tho bee.' Laugh and the world laughs with you—for happiness is a gregarious instinct. 4. Don't cross bridges till yon come to them. Remember that, as the old woman said, "Of all tho troubles in

my life three-quarters never happenod."

"It is almost impossible to exaggerate the unimportance of many tilings that happen. When real troubles come look straight into the light and tho 6hadows will all lie behind you. s.'Cultivate the art of suffering fools gladly, and answering them according to their folly. It is extraordinary what a lot of crass ignorance there is to be found in. all classes—and even among people who are awfully nice. 6. Chooso your friends wisely, and then keep them. By your friends you shall bo known. Life is so short. From quiet homes and small beginning, Out to the undiscovered ends, There's little worth tho wear of winning Like laughter and tho love of friends.

"There are few tilings more worth keeping than those friendships of our early days. Around them cluster memories, which hallow them. As you grow older it becomes less easy to mako new friendships that really grip. 7. Therefore, don't quarrel with people. Anger has (been well called "brief madness," and jealousy is the same. It is foolish, and, though common, it is a very expensive luxury. And it is harmful to yourself, for one enemy does you more harm than ten friende can repair. I remember a man saying that his quarrelsomeness cost

him £5,000 a year. "Try rather to see the bone of contention from the other fellow's point of view. His information, his experience, his tastes may all bo so different from yours—why, the poor fellow may even bo in bad health or have a nagging wife or a baby who keeps him awako at night! His training and ideals may be so different from yours. And, after all is said and done, his way may well be good, though different from yours. Wo all see life from a different angle. 8. So cultivate toleration. It takes all sorts to make a world, and we can't live entirely among masterpieces. Likes and dislikes wo must all have, but try to avoid making enemies. No man is wholly bad'—and often to know all is to forgive all! 9. Maintain your independence—as Kipling says: Help me to need no aid of man, That I may help such men as need. 10. Also your sense of humor. There is room, for it in every calling, and there is need for it, and it is a. very great help both to happiness and success. 11. Your sense of proportion, too. This may, perhaps, require some cultivation, for the early periods of life aro apt to be •dominated by the considerations of the heart rather than by those of the head.

"Tho capacity to see and to grasp your opportunities comes under this head. Opportunities come to all—don't let thero be any doubt about that. Of course, thero is good luck and bad! luck, and thero always will be, just as there always will be poverty, crime, and suffering; but in life's work—as in your field games—tho apparent instances of easy success are duo less to luck, which is the superficial observer's explanation, than to that highest art which conceals art.

" Some people expect to be told of their opportunities, awa-kened from their slumbers, an-d pushed into action; others have a flair for spotting any opportunity and acting upon it promptly, and in proportion to its importance. 12. Keep money considerations in their proper place. Money is an essential consideration in the world! to-day, but it should not foe erected above its proper level in the mind of a professional man. We have already seen thero are some things which are above all money—health, happiness, straight dealing are a few. These axe many more, and many quotations which recall them to one's mind, such as ' Money lost, littlo loss; friends lost, much ha; pluck lost, all lost' j or Kipling's ' If,' or Shakespeare's wonderful speech which he puts into the mouth of Polonius. 13. If you have cultivated a sons© of proportion you .will bo temperate in thought and word as wall os in deed; you will he moderate and) tolerant of others who think differently ; you will not be averse from the use of the good things put into this life, but you will recognise "the essential difference between using them and abusing them. One is thinking parliciularly of tobacco cad alcohol and of Kipling's wonderful Jino: ' Don't drink 'cos another man's t&irsty.' 14. Finally, never look back with regret. Old, unhappy, fa.roff things must recur in one's mind sometimes, but don't brood over them—the habit tends to make you a back number. How break such a habit? Well, by cultivating what I call 'switch thoughts,' of a happy and useful nature. Memory has 'been well said to consist in tho art of forgetting. "By all means look back and get all tho benefit you can out of any experience, and admit that you have made a WTong move, and determine never to repeat that mistake j bub regret ia as vain as crying over epilt milk, and if indulged in encourages the adoption of that irritating attitude of mind which is for ever starting its thoughts with those two pernicious words, 'lf only.' " I have kept till tho very end tho weightiest consideration of all—the question of the attitude to bo adoptea towards the tilings beyond our power of vision.

" We all agree that tastes and feelings differ, and there is room for much diversity of opinion. For instance, which do you consider the greatest—your reason, or your will, or your imagination? Weil, your answer will depend partly upon your personal feelings. Which, would you rather have created—a great poem or a great opera; a gxeat cathedral, or a great step in science? Again, it all depends. " There is room in this world for peoplo who hold very different views upon the things that really matter, and there is room fox all the different echoolfl to be both successful and happy; but I don't

think you will find many really happy ones among those who have not been gifted with the power of believing a little further than they can prove. "Religion is a matter too private for such an article as this. I always admire tho way Disraeli kept his secrecy on that great topic. The reply he gave when ono of the ladies who exercised great influence over him, thinking that she had a good opportunity of extracting a declaration upon the vexed question as to which religion he really subscribed to, dared to say : ' Now, do tell me—what is your religion?' was, 'Ah! certainly I will! It is tho greatest of all religions.' " I recall a stanza which expresses this idea of different angles most aptly, and helps us to realise that tho views of others may be very similar to our own, although expressed differently : A fire mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell; A jelly fish and a saurian. And caves where cavemen dwell; Then a sense of law and beauty, A face turned from the clod ; Some, call it evolution, And others call it God."