Such happy natures are to be envied. They have a beam in the eye
--a beam of pleasure, gladness, religious cheerfulness,
philosophy, call it what you will. Sunshine is about their
hearts, and their mind gilds with its own hues all that it looks
upon. When they have burdens to bear, they bear them cheerfully--
not repining, nor fretting, nor wasting their energies in useless
lamentation, but struggling onward manfully, gathering up such
flowers as lie along their path.
Let it not for a moment be supposed that men such as those we
speak of are weak and unreflective. The largest and most
comprehensive natures are generally also the most cheerful, the
most loving, the most hopeful, the most trustful. It is the wise
man, of large vision, who is the quickest to discern the moral
sunshine gleaming through the darkest cloud. In present evil he
sees prospective good; in pain, he recognises the effort of nature
to restore health; in trials, he finds correction and discipline;
and in sorrow and suffering, he gathers courage, knowledge, and
the best practical wisdom.
When Jeremy Taylor had lost all--when his house had been
plundered, and his family driven out-of-doors, and all his worldly
estate had been sequestrated--he could still write thus: "I am
fallen into the hands of publicans and sequestrators, and they
have taken all from me; what now? Let me look about me.
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