were a collective idea or name which does not suffer if one of the
individuals it covers is destroyed.

We should be more likely to appreciate and enjoy the present, if,
in those good days when we are well and strong, we did not fail to
reflect how, in sickness and sorrow, every past hour that was free
from pain and privation seemed in our memory so infinitely to be
envied--as it were, a lost paradise, or some one who was only then
seen to have acted as a friend. But we live through our days of
happiness without noticing them; it is only when evil comes upon us
that we wish them back. A thousand gay and pleasant hours are wasted
in ill-humor; we let them slip by unenjoyed, and sigh for them in vain
when the sky is overcast. Those present moments that are bearable, be
they never so trite and common,--passed by in indifference, or, it may
be, impatiently pushed away,--those are the moments we should honor;
never failing to remember that the ebbing tide is even how hurrying
them into the past, where memory will store them transfigured and
shining with an imperishable light,--in some after-time, and above
all, when our days are evil, to raise the veil and present them as the
object of our fondest regret.

SECTION 6. _Limitations always make for happiness_. We are happy in
proportion as our range of vision, our sphere of work, our points of
contact with the world, are restricted and circumscribed. We are more
likely to feel worried and anxious if these limits are wide; for
it means that our cares, desires and terrors are increased and
intensified. That is why the blind are not so unhappy as we might be
inclined to suppose; otherwise there would not be that gentle and
almost serene expression of peace in their faces.