The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-02-07

lldu6 happy. "A SlAp0uuy uIuLu VI d
penny whistle will suffice to do so. 1t
is true, indeed that little boy beat
ing his tiny drum or blowing his un-
melodious whistle is not the best me-
dunn in the world for conducting to
the happiness of those who are COM
PEELED to listen, but to the little boy
himself what a wealth of pleasure in
every beat of the drum and every
blow of the whistle, and what pow
erty of cost! So that happiness does
not depend, either, upon the price that
is paid; the child it costs but little,
and yet it comes or something very
like it; the middle-aged and the old
often pay large sums one way or an
other and as often pay them in vain.
We, who are no longer children, would
do we'll to limit our aspirations and
bound our wishes and, child-like, be
content with little, for, after all,
MAN wants but little here below, nor
wants that little long"
A large portion of our unhappiness
would appear to spring from our ex-
pecting too much, and it sometimes
happens that the more we expect, the
less we are disposed to give. There
| is not always a direct proportion be-
tween consideration for ourselves and
consideration for others, and unfor-
| tunately it is too true that the latter
! is not always a necessary consequence
of the former. This selfish considera-
ton is largely due to our putting too
| high a value on ourselves. The world
does not always take us at our own
valuation, it prefers to have its own,
and the more we endeavor to make
them both agree by lessening our
own, the less we shall expect and the
more we shall probably get.
Whenever a man gets gift he does
not expect, he is at least less unhappy
than he would be if he did not get it,
or got less than he expected. Veneer
able a. Kempis, wisest of philoso-
pliers, was never more wise than when
he said: ever choose rather to
have less than more" Pagan philos'
ophy will smile at the advice, yet
what has it offered, or what can it
offer instead, that will go as far to
solve the problem of happiness? II
Pagan philosophy could give man pow
er to create his own circumstances
there might be some reason for its in
credulous smile, but such feat is I'M
possible to any system of philosophy
Pagan or otherwise. Napoleon used
to boast that he could create circum
stances to suit himself, but the his
tory of Waterloo would indicate the
boast to have been an idle one. MOI
will it suffice to reply that the Ma
poleon of Waterloo was not the Ma
poleon of Marengo; for the counter
reply is evident, that if Wellington
had been at Marengo the necessity fol
a Waterloo might never have arisen.
There is no use in our seeking fol
what we cannot attain, and it is equal
Nv useless for us to indulge between
our lot and that of our neighbor such
a. contrast the advantage of which al
ways falls to him: we wonder why he
is not happy, and we reflect that il
our circumstances were only like his
then we should ask no more from life
True, perhaps, he has blessings denlet
to US, but alas! we forget that in the
long chain of happy circumstances
that encircles our neighbours life, there
is wanting one link, on the presence
or absence of which depends happi
ness or misery. Perhaps that particu
lar link may be entangled in our chain
and then our neighbours complaint Il
that we have the one thing-the onl!
thing required for his PARADISE" The
pecuniary or intellectual value of tina
link may not be very great; for the
schoolboy a pocketful of marbles ma!
produce as much happiness as thu
rare edition does for the scholar; ant
though the scientists happy cup will