The Best Way to be Happy.
NEVER sit down and brood over trouble of any kind. If you are vexed with yourself or the world, this is not the way to obtain satisfaction. Find yourself employment that will keep the mind active, and, depend upon it, this will force out unwelcome thoughts. Who are the poor? Are they the industrious? Those who labor, provided their gains are small, have generally a feeling of independence with that little, akin to the rich man's treasures. Who are the unhappy? Are they not those who are inactive, and sit still and tell us, if fortune had thrown this and that in their way, that they should have been far happier? It seems to me that there is a great defect in the conduct of the unfortunate. If we are deprived of ordinary resources, instead of looking around and substituting other things, are we not prone to sit down and mourn what we have lost? This deadens the energies, kills the activities of our natures, and makes us useless drones, when we should be working bees. Besides this, indolence sets fancy at work, and presently we imagine ourselves to be in a condition that we are unfit to work. We get the habit of observing the changes of the wind, we feel our pulse, look at our tongues, and in a short time become regular dyspeptics. Industry, then, preserves health, as well as happiness.