Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus FearthoughtFletcher, Horace
Philosophy
Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought
Fletcher, Horace
Fear; Happiness
The foregoing are but glimpses of the opportunities for observation
out of which I draw my deductions relative to profitable living.
Four complete trips around the world--two of them before the time
of ocean steamship lines and continental railroads; thirty-six trips
across the American Continent by various rail, water and stage routes;
sixteen voyages across the Pacific Ocean, and many across the Atlantic;
intermittent periods of residence in many different countries of
Europe, in China, in India, in Japan and in different localities in the
Americas; as well as visits to parts remote from the lines of travel,
such as South Africa, Yucatan and the mountain regions of Mexico
and Central America, that are the type of all of the South American
countries; and all of which residences and visits have been chosen
at times of greatest interest in each locality; in response to the
invitation of the Spirit-of-Adventure by which I have been led--these,
together with no less than thirty-eight distinct occupations, embrace
the sum of my opportunities.
Fortune has always been kind to me when I have trusted her; when my
aims and ambitions were worthy, and when I have been sufficiently
appreciative and grateful for the things I already possessed to merit
and invite continued favors; but, she has always passed me by whenever
I have doubted her goodness or questioned her intentions. And so
consistent has been the course of Fortune, as viewed in the retrospect,
that I can assert, with all the assurance of firm belief, that "Unto
him who hath (appreciation and gratitude) shall be given; but unto him
who hath not (appreciation and gratitude) shall be taken away even that
which he hath."
Until I began to collect my remembrances into groups, form them into
classes for review and deduct from them suggestions for profitable
living, I had thought that my chronic restlessness was aimless as
measured by the common estimate of usefulness; but the sympathy
aroused by the publication of my little volume--first, privately
printed,--_Menticulture, or the A-B-C of True Living_--revealed the
possibility of utilizing my varied experiences and observations to
good advantage in calling attention to uses-of-energy, points-of-view,
habits-of-thought and habits-of-action, that made for happiness in some
persons in some parts of the world, while they were entirely unknown to
others as well fitted to enjoy them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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