The Washington herald., 1908-04-07
THE OPTIMIST.


The other night clever entertainer
sang a song before a Washington audi.
enee-a song based on that little word
II. which, carrying us back through
the years of lost opportunity, leads US
forward in thought to the land of might
haye-been."
In some ways 'if'' is one Of the saddest
words in the English language. There
Is not one of us, but looking back may
see that if we had onIy-what is #?
The word We might have spoken and did
not; the deed we might have done and
stayed our hands; the unklndness we
might have avoided and yet did not re-
frain-hours will come to the best of us
when. thinking On these things. we shall
find ourselves crying: "Ah, if"
Where Is the one who hath not had
Some anguish-trial, long gone by.
steal, srecler-libe. all dark and sad
On busy thought. till the fuIl eys
And aching breast betTayd too well
The past still held undying spell
And YET sad as it is to think Of al
that might have been. if-optimism will
help US 10 find in the very mistakes OF
the past, strength that shall help us tc
live the future more nobly and usefully
and, it follows. happily.
Young, in his Night Thoughts" caught
the right value Of retrospectlon:
Tis greatly wise 70 talk with our past hours.
And ask them what report they've borne to heaven
And h9W they might have borne more welcome news
Then answers form what men experience call:
rrFltz nd Ha- bet. t.
When we turn away in our thoughts
from what might have been except for
that fatal If we must turn inevitably
to that quality Of hope which Is God-im-
planted In our breasts; which bids loOk
toward the time to come. and ignore
what is depressing and doubtful in the
time that was. In short, through right
thinking about this little word 'ff'' We
come 70 hope. that stimulus TO high en-
deayor and to honest work As Lew
Wallace said in Ben Hur:'
Hope deals with the future: now and the past
are bat servants that wait on her with impulse aue
suggestive circumstances. The wopder IS
not thst tAings 50 purely imaginative a. the result.
she points Us 70 can make US 50 happy bur that We
can receive them a. so real They must be a
gorgeous FopIaes under the influence Of which. nm
-1 -i-'i+1.hi eAfA NhiNie dIil gold. reason lies
down the while and is not
Retrospection is only good for a man
when he INDUCES IN il optimistically
Otherwise it is depressing. killing ambi-
tion' blighting to the best impulses that
the human soul may know.
II IS not good for man 10 dwell long in
that hitherWhere Of the lie he has lived
he should obey the injunction Of that
sunny poet Of Indiana. James WhitcomE
Riley. and come
out Of the hltberwhere into the Yon-
Where al The friends Of yozIr youth are gone
Nhefc the old sch0Jlm8te that laughed with ycu
VII langh again as he used % do.
hunnlng 20 meet sou. with such q face
IS lights Ike a moon the Wandrous place
Were 6od Is living and glad % live
Since He IS the Master and may foTg7e
out n the hitheTEhere into the Yoni
star the hopes We are leaning or
lou, Divine, With Y0lu meTciful eyes
Looking down from the far-suay skies
smile upon as and reach and take
Our woTD souls home for the Old homes sske-
And 50. amen-for orr all seems gone
Out Of the hitherwLere into the Yon.