Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-26
IHE BRIGHT SIDE.
THE HAPPY FACULTY OF LOOKING
ON THE BEST SIDE OF LIFE.

Life That Must Be Met and Fail to See
the Pleasant Things Near BY.
Everything has at least good side to
| it. and sooner or later some one will be
able to see il. 1t is a happy fortune to
be able easily to see what is good, though
do not believe in shutting our eyes to
! the evil. ! have friend who never sees
the evil until it overwhelms her. She
| considers al things to be well enough at
least and sc has no foresight to ward off
disaster. This is certainly curious dis
position ano not good one for those
who have tie care of families. What
do mean is that it is capital thing to
see the good that really is in all things.
said to my neighbor. who is deaf in
| one ear, 1T is a pity, my dear: is there
| G0renIedy:' Il don't think there is"
she said, but then there is a great bless
ing in it, for have learned to sleep with
my good cal to the pillow, and so no noise
can disturb me- 1t was curious illus
tration OF how one may use a depriva-
ton and make it real advantage. 1t is
great art 10 find out all the good there
is In life. Emerson says, do not dilate
| on Your private wrongs and personal
ills" But no one ever becomes tedious
by dilating on her privileges and JOYS.
The longer live the more l find that
most of our troubles are imaginary.
There are half a dozen things we have
to learn, and many never do learn them.
One of these is that we have will power
to control vast deal that we sit down
| underneath. Life has no blessing great
er than its antagonislns. Differ as we
may from professional faith curists,
they have great truth il store. and
wish they may have vast influence in
| reconstructIng sentiment. There is no
need CT being al extremist in belief, vet
1t is fact that I'VE have cultivated a
kind of moral ccwardice about our dis
eases. believe they are right that we
are vastly more powerful than we have
supposed ourselves to be.
But l am BROADER believer than they,
for am confiden. we cannot only cry
down and out to half our physical
ais, but to a ia:ge proportion of our
! troubles AMI wl!tt we call our bothers.
| And that is jus: The meaning of life-it
Is a series of DEF .als or of victories over
! small affairs. The habit of making
much of petty evils indicates defeat.
! Many woman is thoroughly whipped
! by her oroinar> household duties, as
many man IS whipped out by weeds
and thlStle5. Sac never can face day
with a smile and strong will She
does her duty is y task and never as Il
| JOY. This hefta our duties down: the
| opposite way lightens them
Life everywhere has Il better 81 ' ~ :.
than we ara alw avs willing to confess Or
able often 10 see. Our choicest gifts and
blessings lie just the other side of our
saddest moments. 1t seems like noun
tain climbing to get view of sunrise,
but we are willing to toll hard to get to
the l-ountain top. 1t pays not only at
the TOP, but all the way up. l have a
| delicious ferH hOrdered glen that every
summer l visi: and do not mind the
bushes thai tear nor the extremely hard
climbing to get in and to get out. All!
the lovely brook at the bottom, and the
pebbly island in that brook, and the old
moss covered beech logs, and the banks
| of Creeping hemlock." 1t pays. Every
| step pays. l come back full of rest, not
| of WEAKNESS, of joys that sparkle and
run like tho brook itself. Last summer
l took with me an enthusiastic lover of
nature into my pet ravine, and she being
a good scientist found i'll an hours search
five sorts of salamanders.
If we live widely and think nobly and
study whaJ the world IS, we find that
| the cheapest and toughest conceals grand
facts that make character and joy for u.s.
The world is ready spread feast for our
senses and intellect. But there are races
that will not eat eggs, and there are
| others that will not use milk So there
| is possibility of not seeing the best
things about US and hearing the finest
| harmonies. The best question one can
| ask of herself is: Are you getting the
| best of the world about you? l have
| heard the rarrowest kind of men preach
| ing on the parable Of the prodigal son,
not knowing that they We're themselves
feeding on husks-the poorest husks of
thought and manhood.
l suppose, in fact, there is good side
to everything, only am not able to see
it on the occasion. The best effect of
studying history is to teach US to look
DacR at events some time after their Oc-
currence, when we are almost surely
struck by the real advantage that comes
out of what at the time seemed totally
evil. There is no QUESTION but that Amer
lean character has been made stronger
by the great fight with and victory over
slavery. There is just as much good &C
cumulating from the fact that intemper-
ance is so ard an OWL to eradicate. Har-
riet Martineau says, THE greatest adj
vantage of long life-at least to those
who know how and wherefore to live
is the opportunity which it gives of see
ing moral experiments worked out, of
being present at the fruiting of social
causes and of thus gaining a kind of
wisdom which in ordinary cases seems
reserved for future life" This is fairly