WOR1S OF COMFORT ' ;
To the Pessimist 1
By Samuel Gardiner Ayres . . . . Illustrated by R. Tandler,
Cheer up! -Get a lit tie optimism and mix it with your pessimism.
The pessimist serves a real purpose in the world. First j
of all, he helps us to appreciate many of the bright things 'oil
the world by arousing in us the opposite emotion from that !
which he experiences. We examine more closely tfrat which5
he declares bad, and eat the doughnut and pronounce it good.
We come to appreciate more highly the bright, good, and
wholesome things of life.
Then he has another mission. He causes us to pause and
think when we might be rash and unduly venturesome. At
times he may save the day for a nation when his pessimism
rises to a higher plane and becomes caution.
rlj
Are you a pessimist 'and do you recognize that you are inV
some stage of pessimism? Cheer up! Get a little optimism r
and mix it with your pessimism. You will be surprised to see j;
what it will do with you;, .It will make you over inside, and !
will change your entire relations. -H.
Now you appreciate respect when given you. Some day !
there may come to you the knowledge that your wall of pes
simism is broken down, and you will find yourself loved for
your kindly thought and deed. Then shall you find a new emo
tion, and you shall drink deep from the well of joy, and the
long, long ache of your heart shall be satisfied. ri- ?
ANY are the distinctions which have been made
between the optimist and the pessimist. Some
are humorous and others wise. One of the
more recent discriminates very clearly. The
optimist sees the doughnut and eats it and en
joys it, never thinking of the hole; on the other
fyand, the pessimist sees the hole and refuses to eat the dough
glut because he feels that he has been defrauded. The first
pian misses the hole and the second man misses the doughnut,
i Another humorous explanation of the attitude of the
pessimist is often quoted. The pessimist is a man who, when
offered the choice of two evils, takes both.
The pessimist thinks he sees life only in the real, and
joints to many facts that seem to his mind to justify his be
lief. But he is mistaken. He is like a man looking at a great
picture he sees only the background which -was pnt on be
j(pre the picture was paiijted. The perspective, which is so fine
that the picture looks miles deep, is forgotten, and the high
lights, which make the life and joy of the picture, are entirely
overlooked. - . ,
. The pessimist is found in various degrees of develop
ment, beginning with a mild "knocker" and ending with a
grouchy, disagreeable, unlovely old man. '
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