With the swiftness of lightning all the details of my interesting but terrible dream passed through my mind. I weighed all the arguments of Dr. Leete and Mr. Forest carefully again, and felt delighted that I was living in the nineteenth century instead of in the communistic state that appeared to me now like a large penitentiary on the eve of a rebellion of the convicts.
“I would rather work harder at liberty than remain idle for a number of hours every day in a prison-like life”, I said reflectively, “for work is not an evil. And I would rather work a few years longer and miss some commodities of life than submit to communistic slavery. Most of the luxuries for which we are struggling appear most desirable so long as we do not possess them, and we do not care much for them when they are ours”.
I resolved to use hereafter my best ability for the advancement of all desirable reforms for the benefit of mankind, and to preach contentment, the only solid basis of happiness. Felicity is so independent of wealth, in fact glory and opulence are almost stumbling blocks in the way of happiness. Happiness depends largely on our acceptance of our lot. In Victor Von Scheffel’s famous poem “The Trumpeter of Säckingen” young Werner when he parts from his beloved Margaret, as he supposes forever, sings:
To life belongs this most unpleasant feature:
That not a rose without sharp thorns does grow.
Though love eternal stirs our human nature
Through pangs of parting we at last must go.
But Margaret is at last reunited to young Werner, she becomes his wife, and it would have been much more in consonance with the final result, if young Werner, when departing from Margaret, had sung thus:
To life belongs this very pleasant feature
That next to thorns the blooming roses bend,