The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19
ONES OWN COMPANY.
The Person Who Can Always Enjoy
1t Must De Happy.
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
The lonelist man on this planet is al
ways sure of seeing enough of one kind of
messmate, bedmate and companion all
the day, he is the last one to bid himself
goodnight and the first TO say good-morn-
ing. What a marvelously amiable and
agreeable fellow, then ought he to be to
himself, not to grow tedious. He could
not begin to stand a thous@dth part as
much of anybody else's company as he
has to of his own, but<'wearied to death
with the other fellows monotonous yarns,
would fire him out the front door in
jlffy. mot at home, slrr' can lie the
obsequious lackey to the unwelcome caller
on his lord and master. But who can say
mot at homer to himself. None of
that nonsense, I'm always at homer is
the grinning varlet's reply.
1t is all well enough, then, to talk about
the Importance of living in peace with
other people but the grand practical quNes-
ton of life is how to live on an agreeable
footing with ones self. A man can afford
TO quarrel with his neighbors, say, hart
the time, and still worry through; but he
can not afford to quarrel with himself,
morning, noon and night. By hook or by
crook, must he manage to enjoy his own
company, for rid of his own company he
can never get. And, moreover, he must
lay IL down as law that never will it prove
possible to enjoy his own company any
further than his own company is enjoya-
BILE. Himself in the dumps he will find no
more companlonable than any other man
in the dumps.
The one thing, then, to aim a. Is how to
give ones self as abiding a good time as
win make one pleasant mate to live with.
This may sound like a rather epicurean
philosophy; but it is not. 1t is as good
Stole or Christian as it is epicurean In
deed, the Stolcs seem largely to have de-
voted their moral and metaphysical ener-
giles TO teaching how a man could enjoy
his own company even under toothache;
while the early Christian eXempliied how
he could sing in a rapturous sense of lib
erty behind dungeon bars. Each had his
special way of enjoying his own company,
and the sole good of philosophy and reli-
gion Hes in showing a man how he can
contrive to have a like satisfactory time.
A bad time can be had without any help
from philosophy and religion.
Now, here is this messmate, this bed
mate, we have eternally with US. We all
know what stupid, complaining, irritat-
ing or surly fellow he can be and how dis
agreeable he can make it for himself and
for us. When he sulks, we sulk; when he
snaps, we snap. We can't so much as kick
him out of bed without In the same act
kicking ourselves out Absolutely some
thing must be done with him.
What shall it be? Think nothing about
him; absorb yourself in external objects,
and so ignore his very eXistence!' prescribe
some wiseacres. Yes; the external objects
are all important-the mountain view, the
charming girl, the eloquent speaker-but
inoDortopt for what2 SuralU not to dQaden
self, but only to raise him to tenfold pow
err and so bring out all the capacities of
admiring delight that are stored away in
him.
You are in the Dresden gallery, say, and
standing before Raphaers "Sistine Madon-
ma" Who is it that is drinking in such
draughts of joy? 1t is yourself. Straight
way you love such self as that, you in
him and he in you; you can enjoy his COM
pany to the top of your bent. Again, you
are listening to some enchanting talker.
But who is listening? Whole intellect is it
that is quicl1ened, whose imagination kim
died. whose emotion set aglow? 1t is your
own. Ignore that kind of a self? You revel
in it. 1t Is the multiplication of selves like
these that constitutes all the joy of exist
euce. They are the veritable substance
and reality of all such joy.
|, Try, on the other hand to imagine two
ecstatic young lovers breathing out their
solutely bent on ignoring his OF her per-
sonal share in the feeling, till there shall
he no feeling left in existence on either
side, and then call such a travesty "a
contamination devoutly to be wished" AS
well look for conscious sentiment in two
audiphones side by side, their cranks and
cylinders mechanically gibberng to one
another the balcony scene in Romeo and
Juliet. Neither Romeo audiphone nor
Juliet audphone could command pas
sion enough TO kill itself all for love, and
not even Shakespeare could melt an aud
fence with the tenderness of such a pair
of lovers.
Now, by a wise and benefcent arrange
ment of things, it is ordained that no one
can possibly know anything about the
contents of his self-aiways excepting
those of his empty, lstless and dscon-
tented se.f-except through mitral contact
with stimulation, external objects and
personalities. Set the self, however. en-
ergetically to work on congenial objects.
and soon will II be revealed that there are
fifty different kinds of self each one de-
lightful fellow, whose company can be
highly enjoyed. There, for example is
the agreeable self, taking keen Pleasure
in making himself entertaining to others:
and the practical SELF taking genuine in
terest in his business or farming, and the