When
friends seem careless of you, when poverty encroaches, when suffering
ensues from wrongs others have done, when sickness or any kind of
calamity besets you, and when you are hunted to the verge of gloom,
cling to the ropes which hope suspends about you, and they will surely
pull you back from the abyss. These trials all have their uses.
And, pray, be mindful of the way you look at things. Do not try to
see evil: have on your kind eyes, magnify every dot of goodness. "In
all things throughout the world, the men who, look for the crooked
will see the crooked, and the men who look for the straight will see
the straight." [Footnote: Ruskin.] Try especially to see what is good
in your own lot. If you have not fine carpets, luxurious chairs, fresh
bouquets every morning, remember you can better appreciate a cane-
seated rocker when you are tired, a well-swept floor which has a rug
or two, and a single flower purchased with well-earned money.
As I suggested in the beginning, work is as sure a cure for dejection
as cheerfulness is. Why, I have seen one hour's solid labor eat up
all the blue tribe which had been hatching and hatching by millions.
Sometime will you read from Carlyle's "Past and Present" his chapters
on work, particularly that on "Labor and Reward"? Mr. Carlyle has
written much that is unintelligible to most readers. He has a very
grotesque, volcanic style not good to imitate.
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