If we but make up our minds to it, we can be cheerful under any circumstances, no matter how adverse and discouraging they may appear for the time being. And by how much we do this, by so much we increase our own and the happiness of those around us. Charles Lamb used to say that “a laugh is worth a thousand groans in any state of the market.” Dr. Johnson maintained that the habit of looking on the bright side of everything was “better than a salary of one thousand pounds a year.” Cheerfulness and diligence, says Samuel Smiley, are the life and soul of success, as well as of happiness; perhaps the very highest pleasure in life consists in clear, brisk, conscience-working. Bishop Hall wrote: “For every bad there might be a worse; and when one breaks his leg, let him be thankful that it was not his neck.” There are few, if any, persons who find things just as they would like to have them. Annoyances, vexations, and trials are incident to the life of every one. We may allow them constantly to fret and irritate us, souring our dispositions, and making us unhappy generally; or we can rise above them, and be cheerful in spite of them. It should be the aim of all to cultivate a habit of cheerfulness; to look upon the virtues and not the faults of those around them; to refrain from brooding over the past, and study how the future may be bright and cheery. We should keep depression and low spirits at a distance, and not permit ourselves to indulge in melancholy moods or repinings because matters are not so and so. As cheerfulness is essential to happiness, so regular habits and plenty of sleep are essential to cheerfulness. We can not violate physical laws with impunity. There is such an intimate relation existing between the body and mind, that the former can not be out of gear without disarranging the latter.—Australasian Good Health.