Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-03-13
HOW TO BE HAPPY.

Mental Condition To he Nuriured and
Fostered by Every Body.
Within certain limits happiness Is
subject to the will, and to be happy is,
therefore, duty.
OF course, there are mental tempar-
aments to which the sadder aspects of
life are first to present themselves, as
there are temperaments which array
the world in rose colors. 1t is not to
be expected that the bilious man and
the confirmed dyspeptic will overflow
with the high spirits of the bon-vivant.
But it is within the power of the will
amid the greatest sorrows to draw
upon a reserve fund of happiness-if
one has such reserve fund-and thus
at once moderate sorrows and give
them an ennobling character.
In what, then. consists the reserve
fund, and what is it's source? It must
evidently he of a different quality from
that happiness which is an affair of
temperament. Being held apart and
in reserve, it can not be affected by
the ups and downs, the haps and mis-
haps of life. As1
1t consists primarily in the faith that
amid all the shows of the world there
is some in-resident power that makes
for good.
This faith is not one of those beliefs
which are determined by evidence or
logical demonstration. 1t is an affirma-
ton of the will.
The case stands thus: Either there is
such power that makes for good-call
it by what name YOU will or leave it
nameless-either there is such power
or the world is a ruin, or disorganized
mass, it's law and beauty an illusion,
and your own personality an unsub-
stantial nothing.
Now, there is no valid argument,
metaphysical, theological or scientific,
tives may be proved. There is not and
can not be. You may search for it
through all the ages-in vain
The faith in it is an exercise of the
will. 1t is involved in that primary
assertion of the will am;'' it is
y
in the substantially of the world.
Being an exercise of the will this
faith may be weak Or strong; it may be
| obscured; it may be ostensibly rejected,
though, so long as reason pres 5rves t
sanity, it can not be worked out of the
mind. 1t is there, and we constantly
recur to it as the starting point of all
thought and action, however much
we may seek to evade it or deny it.
1t is this faith, we say, that consti-
tutes that reserve fund of happiness
from which one may draw in all the
ills of life. That the fund may be full
to overlooking is then the great desid-
eratum. How is the fund to be in
Creasedp
By recurrence to its source-the will.
We must will 10 be happy. Happiness
is life, force. creativity. [ am--if
these words do not mean happiness, a
| happiness overriding all the changes
and emil <~htening the shadows of the
world, then they mean nothing, are
but hollow reverberations.
Happiness is thus a cult. a kind of
worship, condition to be nurtured,
| fostered, encouraged, developed.
Will to be happy. The exercise is
appropriate to all seasons, but is es-
| peciclly appropriate to that holiday
| season which we have just passed,
when, by common consent it is the
special business of men, women-and
children of course-to be happy.
We help one another in willing by
all willing the same thing. Hence the
use of holidays-we conspire together
to be happy, and we thus strengthen
and enlarge our life for all good ends.
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