oan at
what we call the limitations of circumstances.

If we were quickly alert to see where circumstances had placed the gate
of opportunity, and then steadily persisted in going through it, it
would save the loss of energy and happiness which results from
obstinately beating our heads against a stone wall where there is no
gate, and where there never can be a gate.

Probably there is hardly a reader who will not recall a number of cases
in which circumstances appear to have been only limitations to him or
to his friends; but if he will try with a willing mind to find the gate
of opportunity which was not used, he will be surprised to learn that
it was wide open all the time, and might have led him into a new and
better country.

The other day a little urchin playing in the street got in the way of a
horse, and just saved himself from being run over by a quick jump; he
threw up his arms and in a most cheerful voice called out, "It's all
right, only different!" If the horse had run over him, he might have
said the same thing and found his opportunity to more that was good and
useful in life through steady patience on his bed. The trouble is that
we are not willing to call it _"all right"_ unless it is _the
same,_--the same in this case meaning whatever may be identical with
our own personal ideas of what is "all right." That expressive little
bit of slang is full of humor and full of common sense.

If, for instance, when we expect something and are disappointed, we
could at once yield out of our resistance and heartily exclaim, "it is
all right, only different," how much sooner we should discover the good
use in its being different, and how soon we should settle into the
sense of its being "all right!" When a circumstance that has seemed to
us _all wrong_ can be made, through our quiet way of meeting it, to
appear all right, only different, it very soon leads to a wholesome
content in the new state of affairs or to a change of circumstances to
which we can more readily and happily adjust ourselves.

A strong sense of something's being "all right" means a strong sense of
willingness that it should be just as it is. With that clear
willingness in our hearts in general, we can adjust ourselves to
anything in particular,--even to very sudden and unexpected changes. It
is carrying along with us a background of powerful non-resistance which
we can bring to the front and use actively at a moment's notice.

It seems odd