The Washington herald., 1908-05-07
THE OPTIMIST.

The drear days OF springs struggles
to be free from the shaekles Of winter
are upon Us. the melancholy days" as
some one phrased it; aptly enough, too,
for these days OF bleak attempts at rain
when the weather seems 10 go about
everything half-heartedly, neither rain
ing nor cold much. but just enough Of
everything to be disagreeable, a man
may be excused If he gets melancholy
ht upon him.
Victor Hugo said once that "Melan-
choly IS the pleasure OF being sad, and
If there is any pleasure in melancholy.
sure we deserve It these days. There
must be a peculiar sort Of pleasure in
melancholy, else mankind would not SO
often succumh to It. And, after all. it
may be as well that sometimes we take
ease from being boisterously happy and
cheerful and look at the thing as opti-
mistically as Rogers did when he wrote:
Go. you may call It madness, folly
You shall not chase my gloom away
There's such a charm in melancholy
l would not. If l could. be gay.
To give way to a ct Of melancholy Is.
in sort, just stepping out of the beaten.
given path of life for a time. We know
II is our bounden duty to be cheerful and
20 be happy and to make others so; we
know, too, that we are not likely 10 gain
much by allowing the black dog care 10
sit upon our shoulders, and yet We feel
ike William Cullen Bryant did when he
said:
] would not always reason. The straight path
Wearies Us With its neFer-TaTyiBg lines.
And We grow melancholy.
There must be something good IN mel
ancholy, We, as optimlsts must believe
that, because the optimist should be able
10 find good Ia everything But beyond
the optimistic reason there is the fact
that so many poets have chosen IL as q
theme. John Keats went so far as 10
indite an ode to il. You remember
But when the melancholy 81 shall fall
Sudden from heaFen like a weeping cloud.
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy s0uUH on morning rose
Or on the rainbow Of the salt sand-Ways,
Or on the wealth Of globed pennies;
DF II thy mistress some Tich anger shows,
Imrrison her soft hand. and let her rave.
And feed deep. deep upon her peerless eyes.
Which seems a fairly good recipe for the
cure OF melancholy If one have, and a
the same time q more than justihablc
cause for letting melancholy have hel
sway for awhile.
I don't think that any man should q
about seeking causes for melancholy
even II the guerdon be a gaze into thos,
/ peerless eyes, for there are causes
enough and TO spare without doing a.
/ Shakespeare says suck melancholy GU
/ Of g song" but If it does come withou
I our seeking. and If there be not peer
/ less eyes" TO cure US, the cure may b.
/ found most surely IN busyness, in hare
/ work, in employment Of the body in sucl
+ wise that the mind. which is the seat o
I melancholy will not have time to bottle
/ with its imagined ills
And II is not bad 10 remember tha
/ after touch Of melancholy the world /
/ bound 20 seem brighter and more beauti
! ful, as after sickness the health whicl
We now take so much as a matter o
! course, seems Ike a gift from heaven
! II We can think thus, we may come Z
see, with Keats. that melancholy
dwells with Beauty-Beauty that must die;
And Jos. whose hand IS ever al his lips
1 Bidding Gdieu and aching pleasure nigh
| Tuning 20 poison while the bee-m0uth sips;
Aye in the very temple Of Delight
! Yelled Melancholy has her s0TTan shrne.
/ Though seen Of none save him whose strenuol
tongue
/ Can burst joys grasp against his aAlate fine;
His soul shah taste the sadness q her might,
Ard he among her cloudy trophies hung.