ANALOGY — TRUE AND FALSE 43 



he begins to lose interest, and the appetite for gold, 

 as for other things, declines. 



When the same philosopher says that to measure 

 a man's happiness only by what he gets, and not 

 also by what he expects to get, is as futile as to 

 try to express a fraction which shall have a numera- 

 tor but no denominator, he uses a figure that con- 

 veys the truth much more fully. It may be open 

 to the objection of being too technical, but it ex- 

 presses a real relation for all that. When you in- 

 crease your expectations, you increase your denom- 

 inator ; and as most men expect or want more than 

 they have, human happiness is nearly always a frac- 

 tion — rarely is it a whole number. With many it 

 is a very small fraction indeed. Blessed is he who 

 expects little. The man who expects ten and gets 

 but five is more to be envied than he who expects 

 a thousand and gets but fifty. He is nearer the sum of 

 his wishes. Hence the truth of the old saying that 

 it is our wants that make us poor. When a piece 

 of good fortune that he did not expect comes to a 

 man, his happiness or satisfaction is no longer a 

 fraction ; it is. more than a unit. 



Quintilian says that the early blossom of talent is 

 rarely followed by the fruit of great achievement, but 

 the early works of a man or a youth are just as 

 much fruit as his later ones. There is really no 

 analogy between the early works of an author and 

 the blossoms of a tree. The dreams, the visions, 

 the aspirations of youth are more like blossoms. 

 Probably no great man has been without them ; but 



