Cheerfulness
was organised not long ago in New
York; it is, however, just as well suited to other latitudes and longitudes. It
is intended for people who "cannot help worrying".
If really you can't help it, you are in an abnormal condition, you have
lost self-control, - it is a mild type of mental derangement. You must attack
your bad habit of worrying as you would a disease. It is definitely something to
be overcome, an infirmity that you are to get rid of.
"Be good and you will be happy," is a very old piece of advice.
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore now proposes to reverse it, - "Be happy and you will
be good." If unhappiness is a bad habit, you are to turn about by sheer
force of will and practice cheerfulness. "Happiness is a thing to be
practised like a violin."
Not work, but worry, fretfulness, friction, - these are our fouls in
America. You should not go here and there, making prominent either your bad
manners or a gloomy face. Who has a right to rob other people of their
happiness? "Do not," says Emerson, "hang a dismal picture on your
wall; and do not deal with sables and glooms in your conversation.'
If you are not at the moment cheerful, - look, speak, act, as if you
were, "You know I had no money, I had nothing to give but myself,"
said a woman who had great sorrows to bear, but who bore them cheerfully.
"I formed a resolution never to sadden any one else with my troubles. I
have laughed and told jokes when I could have wept. I have always smiled in the
face of every misfortune. I have tried never to let any one go from my presence
with out a happy word or a bright thought to carry away. And happiness makes
happiness. I myself am happier than I should have been had I sat down and
bemoaned my fate."