The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-01-06
SWEET CONTENT.
TIE ONLY SURE Road TO
HAPPINESS.
Be Content and be Blessed.
BY LADY COOK (NEE TENNESSEE C.
CLAFLIN.)

| CLAFLlN.J
Man Is probably the only living
creature who suffers from discomfort. t.
Like other animals, he undergoes hnl.-
ger and thirst, cold and heat, sexual
and social desires, but unlike them,
when his natural wants and passions
arc satisfied he is still more or less up-
! happy. IF he is rich he desires to 6e
richer; it great, to he greater IT wise
TO be wiser. His capacity for acquisi-
ton is lmitless He :dds field 10
field, gold to gold, fact to fact, and
privilege to privilege, and is as greed.
of power at the end Of life as at the
beginning. Pride and ambition are
his constant stimulants, and urge him
to renewed efforts. Nor is it desirable
that these task masters should be al
together absent. Otherwise his inher-
ent lazlness would reduce him to de-
privat,on, ignorance, and crime CT
an absolute content would condemn
him to vegetate meanly and passlvely
on the margin of want. Man would
not be superior to the brutes were 1t
cot for these much abused qualities.
They sharpen his intelligence, aud
give spur to his best faculties. They
may conduce to good or evil, may
mould Marcus Antonlnus, or a Nero,
Brutus, or Catallne, and make any
Of us useful citizens or public pests, ac-
corulng to the method and measure Of
their working. They may even be
private vices and still give rise to pub
lie benefits.
Nevertheless, individually, pride and
ambition are only salutary IN the ut
most moderation. When they cease
to be wholesome stimuli they become
poisonous, and may effect a whole peo-
pie as with plague. Such was '1a
grande pensee" of the French under
the first Napoleon, which deluged Eu-
rope with blood. "La grande nation"
as they called themselves, believed
that its destiny was to subjugate the
world. 1t tried, ana eventually found
that destiny had decleed otherwise.
France was subjugated instead. And
this is the fate of all who yield to ex-
cesses.
"Contentment," says Cogan, express
es the acquiescence OF the mind in the
portion of good we possess" But no
one can be truly content without &
sufficlency.. Even philosopher de-
fined happiness as "having enough to
eat," which, although not strictly cor
rect, is true in this sense, that no one
who starves can be happy. 1t is all
very fine for the sleek and we'll fed to
tell those who are pinched by poverty
that they should be content with tha,
state Of life into which it has pleased
GOD to place them. But men will be
no more converted by such teaching
than we're the cabbages when st. An
thony preached to them. And it is
right that this should satisfy no one,
and which requires extlrpatlon as
much as any physical pestilence. 1t
arises, like every other disorder, from
past disregard for natural laws, and its
evils are Natures warning protests
against the immortality and impru-
dence of mankind which have produc-
ed it. To be content with it argues
imbeciIity. One might as we'll profess
to,be pleased with the small pox. Con-
tent is not the same as resignation.
The latter denotes submissive uyleld-
ing, melancholy and passive obe-
dience to the force of circumstances
Religion incuIcates it as the acknowl-
edgement of the right of a superior
power to afflict, and to which all good
Christians should meekly bow, wheth-
er the chastisement be deserved or
|
lingly kiss the rod. The instructive
impulses which urge man to self-pro-
lection, call upon him to resist every
thing which he deems hurtful. And
the reason so many are discontcnted is
because they fail to understand what
that state should be, and thus blindly
8 elk for a false one. For the true con-
sis;s neither of poverty nor riches,
neither of rank nor honour, nor any
other external influence. 1t lies with
in ourselves and goes with US wherev-
er we may go. It enables us to rise
superior to all adversely and to despise
all temptation, for it Is based upon a
sure foundatlon-a serene and lmper-
turbable equanimity.
Perhaps no one has written more
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