Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1915 — REAL SECRET OF HAPPINESS [ARTICLE]

REAL SECRET OF HAPPINESS

Many Things Contribute to Condition Which It Was Meant All Bhould Enjoy. It would be well with us all if we could.learn that happiness is an ascetic thing. It is the science of sacrifice. It is the art of denial. It la the gospel of simplicity. Try to accustom yourself to the great, grand, grave realities of being, and Joy will roll over you in billows. The greatest, grandest, and gravest reality in life of man is that old, sweet splendor called love. It has a thousand forms, but in every form love is an asceticthing. It is a giving up and a giving out. It is the enduring harmony of life for man in the mass and for man as an adventurer in search of Joy. If we had the courage to solve all our political and social and domestic problems by resorting fearlessly to the touchstone of love, there would be very little suffering left in the state and in the separate soul. But we have not the courage, cowards that we are. Yet we need not be cowards all our lives long. We can attain the valiant peace that love confers if we resolve to live in single and separate moments dominated by its law. Our soul can be set like an Aeolian harp, ready to be breathed upon by the wind of hope that blows across the good salt sea. The things that corrode our hearts are easily abandoned. The rapture that is born of stem denial costs nothing. It is free to all. It is not to be bought with gold. All that we need is the strength of will to make our lives clear and clean and sane in the service and adoration of selfless love. Can we do it as nations? Can we do it as men? —James Douglas.