Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus FearthoughtFletcher, Horace
Philosophy
Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought
Fletcher, Horace
Fear; Happiness
In these times of license, which are sometime mistaken for times of
unusual liberty, it is not for anyone to define what is altogether
bad, nor to confine good, nor good taste, within too narrow limits;
neither is it generous to prescribe anything that shall be universally
eaten or worn; and, above all liberties, the liberty to wear a smile
or a frown should prevail; but it is within the province of organized
society to put its stamp of approval or disapproval on the time and
place for appropriate use of them. Certain costumes are suitable in
certain places and not suitable in others. For example, the bathing
suit and the night-robe have uses that are appropriate for their
special purposes, but they would not be tolerated on the street by the
police, and it would be no greater curtailment of liberty to order that
frowns shall be worn only in dark places and not be permitted to cloud
the sunlight, than that undue levity should be tabooed on occasions
considered to be serious. If such prescription were to be imposed, it
would be necessary, of course, to furnish dark places at appropriate,
or, rather, convenient intervals, for the use of the miserably
inclined, in the same way that spittoons are provided for the use of
those who must expectorate sputum.
Liberty is so precious a thing that it must be protected as the holiest
of our possessions, and even if it lap over into the debatable ground
sometimes called license, it should yet be protected, and therefore
the permission to wear frowns in appropriate places and to enjoy being
miserable in the privacy of one's own chamber should be respected;
on the street, or anywhere in public, however, they should not be
tolerated, for they are harmful generally, and particularly injurious
to children.
As individuals, those of us who accept God's promises as truths, who
prefer to live in the sunlight rather than in a cave, who glorify
Appreciation as the first and best suggestion in the language, who
believe that growth is the object of life, that its fallow field is
harmony, and that its fruit is happiness, and also those of us who, by
comparison of conditions have learned to believe that our pessimistic
friends can be happier than they are, and can become better companions
and citizens by a change of attitude towards life, although we may
not pass laws of restriction against the frown-habit or against the
misery-habit, can use the gentle method of counter-suggestion to good
effect, and even go so far as to laugh at and otherwise ridicule the
misery-habit, if by thus doing we may possibly correct that which logic
has failed to cure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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