sullied by it. It is worthy only of the mind of an ignorant savage.

V

IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD BE HAPPY

By this I imply that any one can be happy if he will. Happiness does
not depend on circumstances, but upon Me.

This is perhaps the greatest truth in the world, and the one most
persistently disbelieved.

Happiness, said Carlyle, is as the value of a common fraction, which
results from dividing the numerator by the denominator. The
numerator, in life, is What We Have. The denominator is What We
Think We Ought to Have. Mankind may be divided into two classes:
Fools and Wise. The fools are eternally trying to get happiness by
multiplying the numerator, the wise divide the denominator. They
both come to the same--only one you can do and the other is
impossible.

If you have only one thousand dollars and think you ought to have
two thousand dollars, the answer is one thousand divided by two
thousand, which is one half. Go and get another thousand and you
have two thousand divided by two thousand, which is one; you have
doubled your contentment. But the trouble is that in human affairs
as you multiply your numerator you unconsciously multiply your
denominator at the same time, and you get nowhere. By the time your
supply reaches two thousand dollars your wants have risen to
twenty-five hundred dollars.

How much easier simply to reduce your Notion of What You Ought to
Have. Get your idea down to one thousand, which you can easily do if
you know the art of self-mastery, and you have one thousand divided
by one thousand, which is one, and a much simpler and more sensible
process than that of trying to get another one thousand dollars.

This is the most valuable secret of life. Nothing is of more worth
to the youth than to awake to the truth that he can change his
wants.

Not only all happiness, but all culture, all spiritual growth, all
real, inward success, is a process of changing one's wants.

So if I were twenty-one I would make up my mind to be happy. You get
about what is coming to you, in any event, in this world, and
happiness and misery depend on how you take it; why not be happy?

VI

IF I WERE TWENTY-ONE I WOULD GET MARRIED

I would not wait until I became able to support a wife. I would
marry while poor, and marry a poor girl. I have seen all kinds of
wives, and by far the greatest number of successful ones were those
that married poor.

Any man of twenty-one has a bette