To rise in life means that our fellow man believes in us and wishes us to do so. Without his co-operation it would be futile to arouse our own ambitions. We could not hope to win a victory all alone and against the great majority who believe in certain standards and conditions. We might fool ourselves into thinking that because of some stroke of fortune we had established an immunity for ourselves. But some day our consciences would tell us how feebly we had succeeded.
There is only one method, only one way ... rise through honesty and an optimistic belief in self. And let us not plume ourselves because of our virtue. Personal honesty is our due to ourselves and our fellow man.
One of the distinctive elements in the honest man's make-up is that of laughter. The ones who live up to their ideals, do not feel that life is such a dark place, after all. It may mean hard work, little play and often delayed rewards but the fact that there is a world, and that it is filled with other honest souls is reward enough to give us courage to laugh as we go along. We can always afford to laugh—when we're honest.
The man who is innately honest has no reason to fear the snares of fortune. He knows that he can win the trust of men; he knows that he already has it. He has no dread of looking into the other fellow's eye. He knows where he stands in life. He has won that which he has through struggle, and he does not intend to lose it. He does not intend to fail. He cannot fail—he cannot lose. No matter how things might go at this moment or that the next will find him on the rising tide of new opportunities—-new chances. His reputation travels before him like the advance agent. His coming is heralded and he is welcomed into any community.
It isn't as though there were only a few honest men. This welcome, this "glad hand," is always extended by society to the honest man as a token of approval. The world's work is a tremendous matter. There is always room for another worker to handle some part of it. And only the true, the sincere, are capable of doing this in the proper way. The leaders of society in the broader sense are those who win the faith of the average man. We look up to Lincoln because we know that he was the one man in a million to accomplish the greatest task ever set before a human being. We realize that he was honest—honest in the huge sense so necessary to the accomplishment of big ideals. And we know that in order to win some part of that great trust we must obey the standards of honesty and decency that lie below the surface and only need to be called to life and action in order to be used.
And laughter will arouse that sense as quickly as anything else. The man who is capable of laughing heartily is not apt to be the one who carries some conscience-stricken thought around with him. It is the easiest thing in the world to detect an untrue laugh. The real laugh springs out of the depths of being and comes with a ringing sense of security and faith in one's self. It goes with the workman in the early morning when he swings along the road to the factory. It accompanies the soldier into battle. It arouses the clerk from lethargy. It brightens the sick room. It raises us all to unexplored heights, and as evidence of our state of mind it can only mean one thing—honesty and sincerity. No character can exist without this outward exhibition of an inward honesty. The mere cultivation of laughter would eventually lead to honesty. The fact that you are laughing, enjoying life, awakens you to a spirit of security and a feeling of the joy of living. Gloomy men are the ones whose tendency is toward crime and trouble. Laughing men are the ones who stir the world with new desires and make life worth living. Therefore we say—laugh and live!
