THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



But the application is found in the fact that all your 

 observances toward your fellows react upon yourself. 

 Your attitude of mind toward your fellows is reflected in 

 their joint attitude of mind toward you. The pessi- 

 mist finds his neighbor always a disagreeable man; 

 and rest assured the neighbor reciprocates the courtesy. 

 The optimist finds agreeable traits in his neighbor. 

 He likes the people with whom he comes in contact, even 

 when habited in a community or amongst a people whose 

 traits as a whole he does not approve. 



Nor can the pessimist find safe refuge from the antip- 

 athy with which the community regards him, behind 

 contempt for popular opinions; for nothing is surer than 

 that, in general, the popular estimate of a man's char- 

 acter in the community in which he lives is a correct 

 estimate. In Lincoln's famous phrase, "you cannot 

 fool all the people all the time," and if the popular 

 verdict of your community condemns you as a disagree- 

 able person, you may well take the lesson to heart, and 

 mend your ways. Assuredly if you do not, your name 

 will not be a pleasant memory to posterity. For pos- 

 terity accepts the verdicts of contemporaries, and 

 rarely reverses unfavorable judgments. 



There is no more deluded mortal in any field of en- 

 deavor than one who despises the estimates of his fel- 

 lows, and falls back on the hope of posthumous fame. 

 History tells us that there is rarely such a thing as 

 posthumous fame for any one who did not have con- 

 temporary fame. Your contemporaries may do you more 

 than justice, and posterity may refuse to accept at par 

 their flattering verdict; but if your own generation 



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