The Washington herald., 1913-03-21
HAPPINESS DEPENDS
UPON OURSELVES
When We Stop to Pity Ourselves
the Great Dream
Sims.
By FRANCES SCHAFFER.

The other day as woman sat lost in
the brownest kind OF a brown study,
thinking of the strangle tangles in the
world, she was startled by the rather per-
sonal and very comprehensive query:
Are you happy"
OF course she lost no time in declaring
that she was as serene and contented as
il was given to mortals to be. And when
the question was pursued a bit farther
and she was asked if the cup of happiness
was filled quite up to the brinn, she nat
urally insisted that all was well. with not
a cloud on her peaceful horizon.
But. as the inquisitor went on his Curl
Gus way, the woman fell a-thinking
Just what did he mean and what 90
other folks mean when they talk and
dream of happiness?
Do they mean that all their ships must
come a-sailing in and all their hopes must
be fulfilled? No disappointments. no fall
ures, no rude awakenings, no shattered
dreams no friendships broken and ties
dissolved by the remorseless hand OF
death? And must they go through life
happily immune from serious physical ills
and exempt from grinding worries. serene
and comfortable in every way.
Well, if they do, it is not so strange
that the world has looked. and has looked
in vain. for the perfectly happy man.
Not Far Away.
But if they mean-as they ought to
mean-just moderate happiness, then they
need not go so far to find it.
And most of us have come to the con-
Clusion that it more or less depends upon
the kind of philosophers We are. For
life has not a way of running along with
out dealing some hard blows and a great
many bumps and bruises; and when we
stop too long to pity ourselves, too long
TO lament and complain-thats when the
great dream of happiness slips by.
Nature, that makes US pretty sensitive
TO physical ills and to hurts of various
kinds. sometimes bestows the saving
grace of a courageous heart that will
not be subdued.
For there are folk who have their
share of the griefs and the ills that
sooner or later must come to all, but
they make no sign that theirs is an un-
happy lot. Then other troubles come
knocking at their doors, troubles that
skip more fortunate folk, who have only
The usual portion: and still they make
no sign. for they look at the sweetness
left in their lives, and refuse to be. at
least, they refuse 10 appear. unhappy.
Inspire Others.
And they are the ones who inspire, or
who ought to inspire, the rest Of the
world. to take their joys. their sue
resses and their songs along with their
griefs and their sorry failures and count
themselves relatively happy. If nothing
more.
1t takes some time before We are ready
TO believe il, but il is true enough that
If we grow and develop at all as the
years go speeding by, the defeats and
the hard, hard tests must take hand
as well as the pleasanter triumphs. And
we must look at life in its uglier angles
as well as its softer curves. For if We
do not, and If We miss the harder lessons
that are given to some, or il we fail to
make the most and the best of those that
come somehow We seem to be narrowed
down in thought, in sympathy and in
understanding.
And when it comes to a question of
happiness, we must learn TO count II
relative.
Can Answer eyes"
"Are you happy"
Well doubtless you have your troubles
your heartaches and your failures, and
perhaps by the time they are all sifted
out there is not so very much left. that
is not much that is reckoned as making
for happiness. Because work grows
wearisome, worries multiply and the
pleasures that come may not seem to
compensate for the hardships along the
way.
But If you are a good philosopher you
say to yourself when that question comes
pounding home that II there are some
things that are not at all as you would