The Washington herald., 1907-09-12
THE OPTIMIST.


Your true optimist. seeking to make
the best of ali his days. Will come to see
that the best thing about living is life
itself and is not merely to be accepted
as a matter OF course. but is to be lived
every minute OF it. AS Alexander Smith
said: If we were to live here always,
with no other care than how to feed.
clOthe. and house ourselves, life would be
a very sorry business" Too often do we
think OF life simply as a lane. more or
less long. more or less hard and dusty,
leading from the unknown, straight and
wearily 10 the grave; and the one cure
for such melancholy and pessimism is TO
regard each day Of life as another
glorious opportunity for battle for the
right; a chance TO work, to laugh, to
play. to love-a chance 10 express our
selves and to express that divinity which
God hath planted in our souls and which
even the most wicked man cannot en-
tirely ignore.
Much Of our mistaken aspect of life Is
due 20 the melancholy poets who have,
as Stevenson said. regarded life as d
mere bags end" a cul-de-sac from
which there is no escape but into the
comfortable tomb Why should we 90
with Shakespeare where he cries:
'Tis but an hour ago sincs it was nine:
And after one hour more twill be eleven:
And 80, from hour 70 hour, VIC ripe and Tipe;
And then from hour 70 hour, rot and rot;
And thereby hangs tale
or when, as In Macbeth" he declares
that
LIES but walking shadow: poor player.
That struts and frcts his hour upon the stage
And then is heard 10 more; It is a tale
Told by an IDIOT. full Of sound and fury.
Sisnifying nothing
It is plain that these views do not in
very truth express life, and what #
means. else why the joys and sorr0ws,
hopes and fears, ambitions and strivings,
the desires 10 attain good things? To
live is not merely to breathe. it is 10 act
and II we need help to fine optimism IN
living We should regard life as a part
nership in which God shares and should
recognize that the duty lays heavy upon
Us Of not shirking our part Of the work.
Reject that lie, lake every other blessing,
Derives its value from lis use alone:
Not for itself but for a nohler end.
tn Eternal gave H. and that end Is virtue.
To live, then, means very much more
than merely 20 rise IN the morning, spend
waking hours aimlessly or idly. and so
70 bed again.
It's but tent where takes his one days rest.
Says Omar. the Tentfnaker and the old
Persian's easy philosophy has often been
sob 60 L. q l. .
rather q workshop In which we are thrust
70 serve our time? Think OF life in that
aspect and who is there dare idly to lay
down his tools and meet the end with
empty hands with nothing accomplished?
Well did Young call them Night
Thoughts" when he wrote:
Why an this toll FOR triumphs Of an hourG
What tho We wade in wealth OF scar IN fame?
Earths highest station ends In Here he lies
And dust TO dust" concludes her n0blest song.
That is sheer pesslmism Of the worst
kind-for the poet knew better. Are we
merely TO regard life as a means 10 our
own happiness? Have We no higher I'M
pulse than merely 10 acquire so much.
eat so much, laugh so much. love so
much2 These things are well, for they
are part OF life. but they are not the end
and aim OF that travel down the dusty
road whose ending is the grave. Along
that road we have a chance TO leave
monuments Long after we have reached
the end some CHEEKY word that we let fall
by the way may go ON making glad the
hearts Of men adown the ages That
work We did yesterday and which to-mor-
row we may not enjoy does that. too.
go into the tomb with US? Does not II
endure? King solomon Is dead. his dust
and David's scattered 10 the winds. but
are not the songs they sung immortal,
and shall they not, so long as the world
lasts. make fine and glorious the lives Of
other men?
No; life is not to be walled over, but TO
be lived It IS not profitable 20 waste
thoughts about its brevity; better far to
buckle down to work. make the most Of
what We yet may spend"
50 live that when thy summons c0mes % Join
The iunumerabe caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
his chsmbcr in the silent halls o. death
Thou 60 not like the quarry slave az night
Scourged TO bis dungeon but sustained and s00thed
BY an unfa1ering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one that wraps the drapery Of his couch
About him. and ies down 10 pleasant dreams.