not to count upon success; or, to put it another way, we are to think
of the real success as lying in the dauntless renewal of the effort
rather than in the show of outward result. "To have often resisted
the diabolic, and at the end to be still resisting it, is for the poor
human soldier to have done right well. To ask to see some fruit of
our endeavor is but a transcendental way of serving for reward." This
is not pessimism, it is the first step toward a sound and invulnerable
optimism. We must recognize once for all that this world is not the
world of our dreams, and cease to be so pathetically surprised and
hurt when it falls short of them. Were we to be rebellious at life
for not being built after the pattern of our ideals there would be
no limit to our faultfinding. We may, indeed, long in our idle hours
with Omar "To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, shatter it
to bits-and then Remould it nearer to the heart's desire!" But in our
daily life a braver and saner attitude befits us; for it is not in
such an ideal world but in the actual world that we have to live. Evils
there are in it and will yet be-why we cannot tell and need not know;
the only alternative we have is to take them cheerfully or gloomily,
to rebel or to accept the situation. Our duty then is clear. To face
the events of life as they come to us, without discouragement or dismay,
to laugh at them a little and learn to carry on our lives through them
with steadfast heart and smiling face- surely that is the part of wisdom
and of true manliness. The ugly things in life seem much less formidable
when thus boldly faced than when we try to shut our eyes to them,
with the consequent disillusion at their continual reappearance.
Confess frankly the faults of life and it becomes tolerable, is even
in a fair way to become lovable. For after all, when its obvious
imperfections do not blind us to its good points, it is a dear old
world we live in, and the healthy minded man loves it, as he
loves his friends in spite of their faults loves it, and finds it a