here, what justice, what
beauty or love? It may be urged, it is true, that it were best, first
of all, to consider the most pressing needs, yet is this not always
wisest; it is often of better avail from the start to seek that which
is highest. When the waters beleaguer the home of the peasant in
Holland, the sea or the neighbouring river having swept down the dyke
that protected the country, most pressing is it then for the peasant to
safeguard his cattle, his grain, his effects; but wisest to fly to the
top of the dyke, summoning those who live with him, and from thence
meet the flood, and do battle. Humanity up to this day has been like an
invalid tossing and turning on his couch in search of repose; but
therefore none the less have words of true consolation come only from
those who spoke as though man were freed from all pain. For, as man was
created for health, so was mankind created for happiness; and to speak
of its misery only, though that misery be everywhere and seem
everlasting, is only to say words that fall lightly and soon are
forgotten. Why not speak as though mankind were always on the eve of
great certitude, of great joy? Thither, in truth, is man led by his
instinct, though he never may live to behold the long-wished-for
to-morrow. It is well to believe that there needs but a little more
thought, a little more courage, more love, more devotion to life, a
little more eagerness, one day to fling open wide the portals of joy
and of truth. And this thing may still come to pass. Let us hope that
one day all mankind will be happy and wise; and though this day never
should dawn, to have hoped for it cannot be wrong. And in any event, it
is helpful to speak of happiness to those who are sad, that thus at
least they may learn what it is that happiness means. They are ever
inclined to regard it as something beyond them, extraordinary, out of
their reach. But if all who may count themselves happy were to tell,
very simply, what it was that brought happiness to them, the others
would see that between sorrow and joy the difference is but as between
a gladsome, enlightened acceptance of life and a hostile, gloomy
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