The Washington herald., 1908-01-25
THE OPTIMIST.

/ | suppose to the optimistic soul nothing
could seem much more pessimistie than
/ the consideration Of debt. To be in debt
would seem to be-if anything could be
a justification for hopelessness, for pessi-
mistic thoughts For there is probably
nothing SO damnatory to the soul Of man
as owing money which he is unable TO
pay.
There are people, Of course, who fall
/ into debt out Of their very necessity.
/ These are To be pitied: they are people
1 whom the world has used hardly; who in
the very struggle for life have had to
/ seize upon any rotton branch 10 keep
/ their heads above water. The state Of these
/ people is 10 be coTnmiserated. Cropping
/ for help, they have found it-temporaTily
! but soon the branch will break. and as
/ there is no real help in debt, so their last
condition will be worse than their FIRST
/ Debt is absolutely the destroyer Of hap
1 piness-Of real happiness, The philosophy
of Mr.. Micawber, though eynicaly ex-
/ pressed, was the true philosophy. ] quote
| from memory. Income, one pound: eX-
/ penditure, nineteen shillings and sixpence
/ happiness income, one pound, eXpen-
diture. twenty shillings and siXpence-
/ despair And that is true. and If its
/ truth were realized and lived up 20, this
axiom would be the cause Of wonderful
/ happiness I'm the world
! But debt that is entered into through
! absolute necessity is one thing-fOrtUnate-
/ ly, II happens but seldom, debt that is
L or far.T int. 4g ar.fI.r
matter Il leads as surely as the day
/ is long 10 bitter unhappiness. 10 keen
regret, to humiliation, 10 self-reproach.
| It Is so easy sometimes, to fall into
/ debt. Any man who has friends Is liable
/ 10 fall into the easy snare. for under the
/ banner Of friendship debt does not seem
/ an evil thing II is as Marian said in
/ Lady CareW's verse:
F Oh how ysu wrong our friendship valiant youth.
| With friends there is not such word as debt;
/ Where amIty Is ty'd Rith band Of truth.
/ All benefits are there in common set
And yet this sort OF an argument-the
sort Of an argument with which a man
1 lulls his conscience to sleeps a specious
/ one Debt is like lying; it grows upon
what il feeds. and to show the failacy Of
an arguments in debts favor one has
only 10 recall DR.. Johnson's saying,
Nothing is more easy than TO clear debts
/ by borrowing
/ ANY one. therefore, who wants 10 make
/ the world better by preaching optimistic
and healthy doctrine will warn his fell
| lows against the enormous evil-so easy,
/ as most evils are-Of falling into debt.
AS Henry Ward Beecher said. Debt is
/ an ineXhaustible f0unt Of dishonesty, %
/ or as Bulwer-Lytton put it. even more
| strongly.
Debt is 20 p man what the serpent is 20 the
bird its eya fas-uatss. IT'S breath u0s1ns is clil
crshes both sueW and bone, It's Jaw is the ptiless
/ grave.
/ The man who falls gayly into debt.
I TeCking not whence he IS 20 get out, may
find some consolation IN Martiaps-
YoU say Tou nothing owe and 50 I ssy:
He only owes who something has 70 pay
But that attitude toward life and its
obligation is essentially a false one. and
/ leads down the broad path that ends In
/ despair and misery.
/ Happiness lies all on cautions side, on
+ the side Of Providence, which says. with
/ Benja.lin Franklin:
/ Rather 90 supperless TO bed than risa IN debt
/ For. laboriug under the curse Of debt. a
man must feel that his mind, his heart
/ his sOul-his very being is mOrtgaged
/ And yet. under such conditiOns-suCh is
/ the contrariness Of the human heart
+ there may come that fine despair. that
/ upTea ching discomfort which shall make a
man express the best that is in him. For
the instinct In the human soul is all
toward decenCy and honesty. and for
those things shall man strive so long as
the image Of the God that made him is
I implanted IN his breast.
SO even out Of the evil OF debt may
come the impulse toward better things
and pessimistic as the matter seems when
carelessly considered. a second thought
may show that even this wrong may be
turned 10 right, for, as Froude says
II sou sCe a man happy as the world goes-o1n
tented with himself and Conteutod with what Is
sr1und him-=1ch 8 man may be- and probably is
decent and respectable but the highest Is not iu
bin and the highest viii not come out q him.