Don’t be foolish and get sour when things don’t just come your way—­
Don’t you be a pampered baby and declare, “Now I won’t play!”
Just go grinning on and bear it;
Have you heartache?  Millions share it,
If you earn a crown, you’ll wear it—­
Keep sweet.

Don’t go handing out your troubles to your busy fellow-men—­
If you whine around they’ll try to keep from meeting you again;
Don’t declare the world’s “agin” you,
Don’t let pessimism win you,
Prove there’s lots of good stuff in you—­
Keep sweet.

If your dearest hopes seem blighted and despair looms into view,
Set your jaw and whisper grimly, “Though they’re false, yet I’ll be true.” 
Never let your heart grow bitter;
With your lips to Hope’s transmitter,
Hear Love’s songbirds bravely twitter,
“Keep sweet.”

Bless your heart, this world’s a good one, and will always help a man;
Hate, misanthropy, and malice have no place in Nature’s plan. 
Help your brother there who’s sighing. 
Keep his flag of courage flying;
Help him try—­’twill keep you trying—­
Keep sweet.

Strickland W. Gillilan.

MORALITY

We can’t always, even when accomplishing, have the ardor of accomplishment; we can only hold to the purpose formed in more inspired hours.  After a work is finished, even though it be a good work which our final judgment will approve, we are likely to be oppressed for a time by the anxieties we have passed through; the comfort of effort has left us, and we recall our dreams, our intentions, beside which our actual achievement seems small.  In such moments we should remember that just after the delivery of the Gettysburg Address Lincoln believed it an utter failure.  Yet the address was a masterpiece of commemorative oratory.

  We cannot kindle when we will
    The fire which in the heart resides;
  The spirit bloweth and is still,
  In mystery our soul abides. 
    But tasks in hours of insight will’d
    Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d

  With aching hands and bleeding feet
  We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
  We bear the burden and the heat
  Of the long day and wish ’twere done. 
    Not till the hours of light return,
    All we have built do we discern.

Matthew Arnold

A HYMN TO HAPPINESS

A man who owed Artemus Ward two hundred dollars fell into such hard circumstances that Artemus offered to knock off half the debt.  “I won’t let you outdo me in generosity,” said the man; “I’ll knock off the other half.”  Similarly, when we resolve to live down our causes of gloom, fate comes to our aid and removes most of them altogether.

  Let us smile along together,
  Be the weather
    What it may. 
  Through the waste and wealth of hours,
  Plucking flowers
    By the way. 
  Fragrance from the meadows blowing,
  Naught of heat or hatred knowing,
  Kindness seeking, kindness sowing,
    Not to-morrow, but to-day.