There is certainly enough sorrow in the world, but I sometimes think we should enjoy life more if we had more of the divine gift of appreciation, if we were not so unappreciative. When Addison thanked God for the various pleasures of life, he thanked Him most of all for a cheerful heart.
More than two hundred years ago he wrote in the Spectator:
Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart
That tastes these gifts with joy.
XIX
AMBITION
What do we really mean when we say of a man, “He is too good for this world?” Do we mean exactly that, do we mean he is so far loftier in character than the average person that he seems almost out of place in a world like this? Don’t we rather mean that he lacks human sympathy and understanding, and therefore can be of no real use to anybody?
If you remember the character of Hilda in Hawthorne’s novel, The Marble Faun, you may remember that she used to be held up as an ideal of the religious life. “Her soul was like a star and dwelt apart.” But from the selfish sanctity of its seclusion, no real good resulted; no one was aided or cheered in the struggle of life. No one could confide in her, for she could not even confide in herself. Her nature may have had the purity of an angel, but it lacked the purity of a noble woman. She was no help to sinners; she was their despair. Her purity was like that of one who hesitates to rescue a drowning man, for fear of soiling his clothes.
Hilda gave up the world and worldly pleasure; easily enough, for she abhorred it, and felt ill at ease in society. But though she gave up many things precious to the average person, she had no conception of the meaning of the word self-denial.