it, the life above this life to be obtained from constant
presence with the sunlight and the stars."

So let us cultivate the fine habit of finding joy and of shouting it
to our friends and neighbors. Life seems bright to us when we are
really glad of anything and we let gladness have voice to express
itself. George MacDonald says "a poet is a man who is glad of
something and tries to make other people glad of it, too." In the
possession of this kindly spirit, at least, we must all strive to be
poets.

Emerson tells us that "there is one topic positively forbidden to all
well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you
have not slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or
thunder stroke, I beseech you, by all the angels, to hold your peace,
and not pollute the morning, to which all the housemates bring serene
and pleasant thoughts, by corruption and groans."

The fine tonic effect of a bright, happy face smiling across the
breakfast table is known to all the world. Better a feast of corn
bread and a cheerful countenance than fruit cake and a sour
temperament.

So I feel very sure that you, my dear young lady, for whom these lines
are written, are never going to appear at the breakfast table with
aught other than a bright cheery face and a pleasant word for all
about you. Some one has said that the first hour of the day is the
critical one. Happy is the person who can wake with a song, or who can
at least hold back the fears and the grumbles until a thought of
gladness has established itself as the keynote of the day.

"Assume a virtue, if you have it not," says Shakespeare. While as a
rule it is deemed wrong to assume to possess any virtue that we do not
possess, we may and no doubt should, at times, appear to be happy even
though we may feel more like indulging in lamentations. To come to the
breakfast table enumerating a list of real or imaginary ailments is a
most ill-advised thing to do. We should endeavor to forget our
troubles and above all we should be slow to give voice to them so that
thereby they will be multiplied in the minds of others. It has been
truly said that most people who are unhappy are really miserable and
bring their misery to others because they allow the failures and
discomforts to speak the first word in their souls. For misery is
voluble and the little discomforts will turn us into their continual
mouthpieces if we will give them a chance. But the trul