Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-09-08
WHAT MAKES MOST FOR HAPPI-


NESS FOR US.
Rest assured that our happiness, our
dignity. and our welfare, here and here
after, depend not on what our ancestors
were thousands of years ago, not on the
construction of our outward frames-nor
even on those high mental gifts of in
tellect, mind. and genius-no, not on any
of these things. wonderful as they are.
and greatly as they contribute to our
happiness, does the real destiny of man
or nations rest; but on our moral nature
itself on what we are, on what we do,
on what we admire. on what we detest,
ON what we love or what we hate-Dean
Stanley.
have long been convinced that wealth
fails to make happiness, and that those
who bring the names of their ancestors
into reproach, thereby bring additional
discredit upon themselves, and that great
mentality is oftentimes connected with
vice and profligacy. So it appears that
none of these things are an open Sc
same to happiness or final success at
the end.
The owner or user thereof must have
something more to bank upon besides a
fortune, money or learning in books.
The real destiny of any home or sec
ton or nation absolutely rests upon the
integrity and good conduct of the inhabi-
tants.
Wealth is a great assistance, a good
name is more to be priced than riches,
and learning opens wide the door to
great enjoyment in history and salts
faction personally, but 1t is alone right
eousness which exalts nation and II is
alone virtue and fair dealing which pre-
serves the individual as well as society.
In China. for many centuries. the peo-
pie were devoted to preserving ancestral
names They became narrow, self-con-
ceited and intolerant. Because they con-
sidered themselves superior to all man.
kind, they built a great wall to shut
out heretics and the baser nations. Liv-
ing to themselves they became dwarfed
in progress and prosperity.
In France the inhabitants banked on
their mental gifts finally abolishing God
from their statute books and giving allie
glance to- what they called reason"
With only a few years of such expert
ence they became cutthroats and plung-
ed France into bloodshed and civil ruin.
Nearly every throne in Europe is now
crumbIing before the march of progress
because their ancestors believed that
'smightl makes right" The English peo-
pie are taking steps to level down class
distinctions in civil government that We're
undreamed of so years ago. Except the
German empire, there is not country in
Europe which is apparently at ease
among its subjects, and the German sit
uation may be resting on the immense
army which can be modified after few
hours of notice.
The Russian empire is one of brute
force. and we are told that every dish
or plate of food must have its faster
one who eats some of 1t before 1t goes
beyond the royal lips or is chewed UP by
royal teeth They live in regal splen
dor, but it is all the same prison life
of dread and anxiety.
He that loves his Maker with clean
pure heart and his neighbor as himself
gives to himself the equipoise which
human destiny must have for security
and happiness. The richest man in the
world cannot be happy unless he re-
spects himself. The son or daughter Of
a president cannot be great unless they
are good as we'll as famous, and the
wisest in books have been known tc
suicide because life became too drears
and miserable to them.
1t is the moral nature that counts IL
the here and hereafter.
1t is what we are that affects ourNhap-
piness or contentment. If we are clean
handed and pure-minded we can't bt
hurt. in the long run. 1 heard lady
say the other day, speaking of a woman
who had money and social standing; =
am glad I'm rot like her. She never has
visitor that she does not criticise as
soon as she gets away. She never lis
fens to the story of another's success
that she hasn't some suspicious or hints
to give us. She never hears a shady
story or a scandal that she does not