KEEPING THE BRIGHT SIDE OUT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 33

KEEPING THE BRIGHT SIDE OUT.

THE DOMESTIC VIEW.

There is in this apparently simple performance an art •worthy the study of the cleverest of mortals, for it has more to do with domestic happiness than intellect or money. There is, as everybody knows, a bright and a dark side to everyday life, and some people —Heaven preserve us— have the knack of presenting the dark side. Just wherever they happen to be is the worst place on earth at that moment — just whatever is is worst— and they worry themselves and all around them with a continual fretfulness which spreads itself like a dark cloud over the domestic horizon, shutting out all the sunlight from the scene, and, as a consequence, all feel depressed and despondent. There must be a little brightness in everything ; and oh ! happy, happy, happy, he or she who can turn it outward I The radiance lights up the home— the radiance of one sunshiny heart. We have all seen it again and yet again. The cheerful " Never mind, you did the best you could ; better luck next time," rolls off many a thick pall of mist through which the sun of hope bursts. One gloomy spirit will dampen a whole household, pressing like a heavy weight upon hearts that are naturally brave and would be light, and many alifehas given way beneath the continual pressure. Many a man has lost energy and purpose through the continual fretfulness and gloominess of his wife. So much depends upon little things ; more, lam sure, than many people realise, or they would not so disregard them. In many cases a wife little thinks that the peevish words and discontented face of the morning followed her husband all through the day, and weighed him down where he should have been lifted up, and the husband who left home sullenly did not consider that he had cast a gloom over his wife's whole day, making her worries more worrying, and robbing any pleasure she might have had of its charm. Oh, keep the bright side out ; life is so short that one could weep to see how sad some make it by a continual reverting to the troubles of life. There is always some brightness, something to be thankful for even in the darkest hours. In Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus " the Chelsea sage takes the stand that, if wo are shot— as we deservo to be hanged— we ought to be very thankful. If we could only keep this consoling consideration before our eyes we could not fail to derive benefit from the thought that whatever happens to us might have been something worse.