In the same way, the first word that one writes on New Year’s Day gives its character to the whole year, good or bad. So, to make sure, people always begin their letters on that day with such words as, Happiness, Wealth, Felicity, Long-Life, and so on.
This manner of ensuring a happy New Year has inspired a woman philosopher with the four following lines:
“Everybody to-day dips the brush into ink,
To write the words Happiness, Wealth, Felicity.
If I might give wise advice to the ambitious,
It is to bear the life that is laid upon us, and not to ask for things which Providence cannot possibly accord to all.”
I may add, that in spite of this excellent advice everybody continues to ask for what is unobtainable—the pauper for a little wealth, the rich man for more than he can have.
Fables which take something from superstition know how to mingle with it a certain amount of wisdom. I will give in proof the following story:—