Queer Things About Happiness 



BY THE MAN WITH HIS EYES OPEN 



Something queer about happiness. Those 

 who seek it most earnestly find it not, while 

 to those who seek it not it comes unsought. 



He who is always seeking for happiness wears 

 himself out in the search and makes happiness 

 impossible. 



'jfi 



He who seeks happiness for himself is seeking 

 selfishly, and selfishness is unhappiness. 



Queer about this thing of happiness. The 

 more of it you give to others the more you have. 



And the more happiness you take from others 

 the less you have. 



often fill his little soul witli happiness, and 

 the trouble will be for the time at least forgot. 



A greeting to a friend given with cheery 

 voice and manner costs nothing at all. but will 

 often add to that friend's happiness. 



A simple expression of sympathy for one in 

 .trouble, a kindly pressure of the hand, will often 

 cause the sunlight of happiness to break tlireugh 

 the clouds of despondency. 



A word of encouragement and hope to one 

 who is struggling against disappointment and 

 adversity will often pour in a whole flood of 

 happiness. 



^lore than this, for if you give happiness to 

 others you have more yourself, and if you take 

 from others you have less yourself. 



Queer about this thing of happiness. Some 

 people seem not to want it. They nurse their 

 sorrows and cultivate them and make them ten 

 times larger than they were, and if happiness 

 peeps in at the windows they close the shutters 

 and pull down the blinds. 



A little expression of praise and appreciation 

 to one who is trying to do right and be of some 

 use in the world will often fill his heart with 

 happiness of the kind which will make him, 

 though discouraged, take heart again. 



Queer about this thing happiness, for while 

 we all count it the greatest thing in life, and 

 while it can be given so easily, we so often try, 

 or seem to try, to take it away from tiiose we 

 love the best. 



And some people seem ashamed of happiness. 

 They never mention in a whisper the happy 

 things that come into their lives, but they pro- 

 claim their sorrows and their troubles from the 

 housetop with a megaphone. 



Some do not seem even to like to think about 

 it, for they will not waste a moment thinking 

 about the happiness that came to them yester- 

 day, but will ransack their mental autobiog- 

 raphy and read over and over in their minds 

 the record of some trouble they had years ago. 



We say unkind things to them, which do no 

 good, add nothing to our own happiness, and 

 take happiness aAvay from them. 



We hunt for things to criticize, instead of 

 for things we might commend, and thns give 

 pain instead of happiness. 



We- pass unheeded the things they <], " i? us, 

 and remind them vrith wearisome iteration of 

 every little thing we have done for them. 



Queer about this thing happiness. WhiJe 

 it is the greatest thing in the world and worth 

 more than all else, the least things and the least 

 costly will produce it. 



We laugh at their little failures, and taunt 

 them with their mistakes, and so put briars and 

 nettles in their lives where might be roses. 



A pleasant smile given to a little child whose 

 soul is vexed with some yonthfu] trouble will 



The best epitaph that any man can have is. 

 "This mail w?s happy because he was al\\ - - 

 makir.o- others haunv." 



