(2389)
PLEASANT LOOKS
If one does not believe that his countenance adds to or detracts anything from the lives or expressions of others, let him pause for a moment before that now celebrated “Billiken.” It is almost impossible to look at the little imp and not smile. The Japanese teach their maids in the hotels, and those also in higher walks of life, the art of smiling. They are compelled to practise before a mirror. One can not stay long in Japan without being inoculated with the disposition to “look pleasant.” The “look pleasant, please,” of the photographer goes deeper than the photograph plate.
No one wants to associate long with an animated vinegar cruet. A disposition is easily guessed from the angle of the corners of the mouth; a disposition is molded by compelling those angles to turn up or down. If a merry heart maketh a glad countenance, it is also true that a glad countenance maketh a merry heart—in the one who has it and in the one who beholds it. “Iron sharpeneth iron. So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”—Baptist Commonwealth.
(2390)
Pleasure a Deceiver—See [Slaves of Pleasure].
PLEASURE, ETHICS OF
Mrs. Wesley discusses with exquisite good sense the whole ethics of pleasure:
“Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure take this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things—in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”
The wisest of casuists might find it difficult to better that interpretation of human duty!—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”