submission; between a large and harmonious conception of life, and
one that is stubborn and narrow. "Is that all?" the unhappy would
cry. "But we too have within us, then, the elements of this
happiness." Surely you have them within you! There lives not a man
but has them, those only excepted upon whom great physical calamity
has fallen. But speak not lightly of this happiness. There is no
other. He is the happiest man who best understands his happiness;
for he is of all men most fully aware that it is only the lofty
idea, the untiring, courageous, human idea, that separates gladness
from sorrow. Of this idea it is helpful to speak, and as often as
may be; not with the view of imposing our own idea upon others, but
in order that they who may listen shall, little by little, conceive
the desire to possess an idea of their own. For in no two men is it
the same. The one that you cherish may well bring no comfort to me;
nor shall all your eloquence touch the hidden springs of my life.
Needs must I acquire my own, in myself, by myself; but you
unconsciously make this the easier for me, by telling of the idea
that is yours. It may happen that I shall find solace in that which
brings sorrow to you, and that which to you speaks of gladness may
be fraught with affliction for me. But no matter; into my grief will
enter all that you saw of beauty and comfort, and into my joy there
will pass all that was great in your sadness, if indeed my joy be on
the same plane as your sadness. It behoves us, the first thing of
all, to prepare in our soul a place of some loftiness, where this
idea may be lodged; as the priests of ancient religions laid the
mountain peak bare, and cleared it of thorn and of root for the fire
to descend from heaven. There may come to us any day, from the
depths of the planet Mars, the infallible formula of happiness,
conveyed in the final truth as to the aim and the government of the
universe. Such a formula could only bring change or advancement unto