West Night High School - Echo Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Class Essay MISS ROSE DUCKEN OPTIMISM HE mind is a monarch, and it can make its kingdom either a heaven of happiness or a hades of torture. Happiness is within us, if we respond to its call, and it is ever importuning us, no matter what our circumstances. It visits the hovel as well as the mansion, and abides with the poor as well as the rich, We ran be happy if we will. The world, after all, is just as we make it. A man when asked for a definition of an optimist said, An optimist is one who is happy when he is miserable, and he added by way of a contrast, HA pessimist is one who is miserable when he is happy. Certainly by most of us, happiness is regarded as the proper end of all earthly enterprises. No matter how dull, or how wise. or how mean a man may be, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right. How can we learn to be optimistic if we are not 50? Only by contrast with evil can we learn to feel the beauty of truth, of love and of goodness. A man must understand evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith that is in him. For the reason that we come in contact with evil, we should be stronger in our optimism? In his uGoblet of Life, the poet, Longfellow, brings out the idea that he whose life has not been overflowing with sorrow has not learned to live, The struggle Which evil necessitates is one of the greatest of our blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women It lets us. into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. One's optimism then, does not rest on absence of evil, but in a glad belief in the preponderance of good and that it will prevail. We should try to increase the power God has given to us to see the best in everything and everyone and to make that BEST a part of our life. One should not be discouraged by the absence of good and never be persuaded into yielding to hopelessness. Doubt and mistrust are the mere panics 0f timid imaginations, which the steadfast heart will conquer and the large mind transcend. We should look forward with quickening heart and bright anticipation to what the future holds in store for us. Even if our share of work is limited by some cause which cannot be remedied, the fact that it is work makes it precious. The desire and will to work is optimism itself If we long to accomplish a great and noble task and it is beyond our limit, our chief dutyandjoy should be to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The doing of humble things 0ft ennobles the thing done. 29

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We all know what Samuel Morse accomplished, but how many know of his twelve years of labor; 0f the scorn of his fellow men; of his fruitless journey to Europe; of his poverty, his efforts to prevent the theft of his invention; of his oft repeated and oft denied prayer of Congress for aid; of the appropriation of $30,000 given largely to stop his begging; of his almost failure and thenethen the splendid triumph. A similar story could be told of Cyrus W. Field, and a thousand others. And what do these achieve- ments prove? They prove the truth of the old saying that, Where there is a will, there is a way. In tense desire transforms possibility into reality. It is related of Napoleon that when a young officer, he used to walk about in his room exclaiming, 'tI will be a marshal of France and a great general. He be- came both. He regarded nothing as impUSSible. His marvelous victories were due not more to his vast military genius than to his almost superhuman strength of will. ttlmpossible, said he, l'is a Word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. And again he said, K The truest wisdom is a resolute determination. HWhen William Lloyd Garrison commenced the publication of the Liberator, he began with these oft quoted words, til am in earnestul will not equivocate-I will not excuse-iand I will be heard. He has been heardiyou know the result, In the vocabularies of great men there is no such word as Hfail. lmpossibilities sovcalled are laughed to scorn ttlmpossible exclaimed Mirabeau, Htallz. not to me of that block-head of a word 5 Impossible. exclaimed the elder Pitt. I trample upon impossibilities. It is this solid faith in one's mission that marks the heroic spirit, tiPeople do not lack strength, they lack will, said Victor Hugo. Every man stamps his own value upon himself, and We are great or little according to our own will. l'I canlt, it is impossible, said a lieutenant t0 Alexandra, after failing to take a stronghold. Begone, thundered the great Macedonian, itthere is nothing impossible to him Who will try.H At fifty years of age, Sir Walter Scott owed more than $600,000. He determined that every dollar should be paid. Every nerve and fibre said, The debt must be paid, and it was. t'Nothing is impossible to the man Who can will,H said Mirabeau. HThe iron will of one strong heart. Shall make a thousand quail said the poet. The education of the will is the object of our existence, said Emerson. ttInvincible determination is one of the levers that move the world.H Let us not be understood as saying that there are no limits to the power of will. 0n the contrary we must admit that there are limitations which no amount of industry Can overcome. But nearly all great men, those who have towered high above their fellows, have been remarkable above all things else for their strength of will. So, my Classmates, dream on. You dream n0 idle dreams. Say with Burns: ttCome, fair Resolve, take thou the van, Thou stalk of earle-hemp in man. And you, my friends, chide not these fair visionaries. You will be proud of them in thecomingyears, They have resolutions; who shall place limits to their careers? 28

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In literature, philosophy, religion and history we hnd the mighty witnesses of optimism. All the world's great philosophers have been lovers of God and believers in marfs inner goodness The highest thinkers of the ages. the prophets of the tribes and nations have been optimists. 4 , - The story of man's slow ascent from savagery through harbarism and self-mastery t0 Ciwhzatlon is the embodiment of the spirit of optimism! HAmerica and Optimism are synonyms. . Behold what America has done to lesson the suffering and restore the aincted to society, given slght t0 the fingers of the blind, language to the lips of the dumb. Take for example, Helen Keller, stricken deaf, dumb and blind. With that indefmable quality called grit and invincible determination, she has made herself one of the best educated Women in America and her optimism is cheering millions. ttIf you strike a thorn or rose, Keep aegoing; If it rains or if it snou'h. Keep a-going; ,Taint no use to sit and whine If the fish aint on your line, Bait your hook and try again; Keep aegoing. But where shall we find optimism? Where is it? Where is it? It is about us. It is a part of us. We see daily displays of it, Some of us even possess it and yet do not put it to the proper use. It is so easy to obtain, 50 easy to acquire, but still so few own it and still fewer use it. What does it mean? Let it be repeated that it means the desire to labor, it means unswerving diligence, it means steady and persistent toil. Without application, without arduous labor, what man has become great, what man has succeeded? Uneontroilable ambition was the cause which led Caesar t0 the foot of Pompey's statue and Napoleon to St, Helena. 'tAmbition is the embodiment of the devil and angel in one Thus we might discuss other forces that operate upon human conduct, Love, Fear, Hope, but high above and overtopping all, is Optimismgthe mainspring Of them all. It is to the rest as printing is to the arts, the art preservative of all arts. Optimism is that condition of mind which impels one to seek the bust and minimize that box! when such is attained, It might well be epitomized into the following: HGood, better, best, Let us never rest. Till our good is Pll'ttt'l', And our brttcr, best. 30