Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-05-21
"wE ARE SAVED BY HoFE.Y
Optimism Serves Its Master Well N
Many a Close ace.


1t pays. as a rule. 10 look on the bright
side of things The statement, we are
saved by hope" is good sense, as we'll
as good preaching. Optimism may be-
come an abstract theory and follow afar
off nj times, yet, like the dwarf Prudence
in "Faery Queen" it will he found 10
serve its master well in many close
place Still. the sunniest creed ever
framed will not keep the shady side for
ever out of sight, and ii ought not
Strongly as we may believe in sunshine,
we 10 not deny the existence OF shadow.
In fact. the TWO 20 together; where one
is the other must he. We believe III
health, and that right heartily. hut it
is not argued, therefore. that nobody is
sick. or ever was or ever will he. Even
IT, Is some now urge. sickness Is only
in the mind, il is sickness none the less
The butterfly that lives but a day and
never eats bite of food, that bathes
its gaudy wings in earthly Sunshine but
once. and then lies down to die. has Il
part in Gods great world. And so with
those blithesOmc souls who, while they
lightly sing from day 10 day. insist on
being blind to the woes of suffering
world; they have Il place, and no doubt
they fill it well, but | question whether
they are the people we need in great
numbers just now.
The human mind is queer creation.
Did you ever spend two hours on GRO
quet ground just before bedtime on Il
summer evening? Closing the eyes TO
sleep, you could still hear the stroke Of
mallets and see the striped balls 20 oil
ing here and there as distinctly as
though the game was still in progress.
Did you ever ponder long and patiently
over Il problem in mathematics? When
the book was laid aside, you could sec
plus, minus and therefore. with figures
intrrmiXed, equation after equation. de
monstratiou on demonstration, stretching
away toward intinity. Did you ever, in
the long ago, bother your mind over
Latin c0njugations till your mind was in
Whirl. and when You quit the task
'quls quae quid," ''Sumus cstis sunt."
and a hundred other forms. would line
up and 90 ingling by in ceaselcSs jargon.
TIL you wished the language had died
with the race that used itI Well. this is
the way men become hopelessly pessi-
mlsts or useless optimists. Not ny study
ing Latin and algebra. though | suspect
that these former studies have Il tendcn-
cN toward the former. but by gazing so
long aud intently and SO exclusively az
one condition Of things that the mind
loses lis normal balance and responds to
but one class of impressions.
Men lean the way they look and look
the way they lean, so that to keep from
getting lopSided, one Of TWO courses must
be- taken; the looking must lie limited or
the leaning controlled. And there is
possible tragedy in either direction. The
man who attempts to look broadly at
everything is apt to tlattcn out and get
thin accordingly. He is apt to know lit
Tie ana care less about the real conditions
around him. lie is apt to persuade him
self that everything is all right or hope
lcsSly wrong, or soon will be, and then
wash his hands of the whole matter and
lie down in peace to dozc his life away
:. :. Lappin in The Pilgrim.