PAGE 5
A Way To Be Happy
by
“I am not sure of that.”
“I am, then. Why, Parker, when I met you last you had a cheerful air about you. Whenever I came into your shop, I found you singing as cheerfully as a bird. But now you do not even smile; your brows have fallen half an inch lower than they were then. In fact, the whole expression of your face has changed. I will lay a wager that you have grown captious, fretful, and disposed to take trouble on interest. Every thing about you declares this. A year has changed you for the worse, and me for the better.”
“How you for the better, Mr. Steele!”
“I have gone into business.”
“I hope no misfortune has overtaken you?”
“I have lost more than half my property, but I trust this will not prove in the end a misfortune.”
“Really, Mr. Steele, I am pained to hear that reverses have driven you to the necessity of going into business.”
“While I am more than half inclined to say that I am glad of it. I led for years a useless life, most of the time a burden to myself. I was a drone in the social hive; I added nothing to the common stock; I was of no use to any one. But now my labours not only benefit myself, but the community at large. My mind is interested all the day; I no longer feel listlessness; the time never hangs heavy upon my hands. I have, as a German writer has said, ‘fire-proof perennial enjoyments, called employments.'”
“You speak warmly, Mr. Steele.”
“It is because I feel warmly on this subject. Long before a large failure in the city deprived me of at least half of my fortune, I saw clearly enough that there was but one way to find happiness in this life, and that was to engage diligently in some useful employment, from right ends. I shut my eyes to this conviction over and over again, and acted in accordance with it only when necessity compelled me to do so. I should have found much more pleasure in the pursuit of business, had I acted from the higher motive of use to my fellows, which was presented so clearly to my mind, than I do now, having entered its walks from something like compulsion.”
“And you really think yourself happier than you were before, Mr. Steele?”
“I know it, friend Parker.”
“And you think I would be happier than I am now, if I were to open my shop again?”
“I do–much happier. Don’t you think the same?”
“I hardly know what to think. The way I live now is not very satisfactory. I cannot find enough to keep my mind employed.”
“And never will, except in some useful business, depend upon it. So take my advice, and re-open your shop before you are compelled to do it.”
“Why do you think I will be compelled to do it?”
“Because, it is very strongly impressed upon my mind that the laws of Divine Providence are so arranged that every man’s ability to serve the general good is brought into activity in some way or other, no matter how selfish he may be, nor how much he may seek to withdraw himself from the common uses of society. Misfortunes are some of the means by which many persons are compelled to become usefully employed. Poverty is another means.”
“Then you think if I do not go into business again, I am in danger of losing my property?”
“I should think you were; but I may be mistaken. Man can never foresee what will be the operations of Providence. If you should ever recommence business, however, it ought not to be from this fear. You should act from a higher and better motive. You should reflect that it is every man’s duty to engage in some business or calling by which the whole community will be benefited, and, for this reason, and this alone, resolve that while you have the ability, you will be a working bee, and not a drone in the hive. It is not only wrong, but a disgrace for any man to be idle when there is so much to do.”