Sketcher. Cheer.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1866, 21 June 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sketcher. Cheer.

To movb through life with a cheerful baaring does not present itself to our minds sufficiently often and clearly in the light of a duty. At times of fe^tinty, at the incoming of the New Year, at ft wedding, at a birthday feast, It is true we feel it is < out duty to take a happy face among our friends, or else to stay away; but when we fall back on the lower level of the ordinary week-day and work-day, we take no shame to ourselves for carrying about with us a brow of gloom or a countenanco of dl«contout. Wo are too apt to Ascribe to our innate temperaments the praise attaching to a blithe comportment, and tho blame due to a sad demeanor. But, indeod, save in the hour of bereavement or of humiliation, when aught but a Ead aspect would appear to bespeak frivolity, we are all capable of so schooling ourselves that onr presonce shall bo gladdening instead of saddening, and our arrival shall bring with it a senso of comfort, and not of depression ; and undoubtedly it is a part of onr duty to onr neighbor, and ono that will react most favorably on our own happiness, so to bear ourselves. It is recorded of John Keats that his face T\asso radiant with brightness that it bore tho expression of one who has just looked on some glorious sight ; and it is related of Henry Lord Holland that he came down to breakfast with the air of a man who has ju3t met with some signal good fortune. Snch men communicate happiness and rebuke dejection as a sunny spring morning does, and Btand to us for an example of how to tako life. For those who hare eyes to sco, there 13 always some glorious sight to look on, and to Jill the gaze with radiance ; for those who have the heart to feel it, every morning that brings with it tho power to lise from sleep and descend to breakfast, brings a signal good f ortnno. To meet the morning Tvith a dark face is an affront to tho sun ; and to mope for one's own sorrows in the presence of another's mirth is unquestionably as bad in taste a» to give the rom to hilarity in the presence of another's grief j yet the latter sin against good manners is ono we would not lightly allow ourselves to be charged with. Cheer and mirth are by no moans synonymous. They are as different as a smilo and a laugh. The latter may often be ill-timed ; tho former can hardly over be so. We may bring a smile of comfort to the mourner bv the bed of death, where » laugh would bo sacrilege and desecration; for smiles and tears aro no enemies, and no strangers. And so with cheer. Where mirth would be resented, cheer is welcomed. A man of an evil habit of life may be a loud and frequent laugher, but ho will rarely bring with him an atmosphere of cheer. The stern Christian moralist, who was also the greatest poet of tho middle ages, felt that to live sunken in gloom of spirit was not only to make misorable this life, but to earn punishment in the next ; for, when picturing the various sufferings imposed upon the lost souls for the various sins committed during lifo, he describes those '' who in the sweet air that is cheered by the sun had lived sullenly," as condemned to abide infixed m a pool of slime, accusing themselves, too late, of having always carried within their own hearts the sluggish "smoke that darkened their days. In homely language, "to make the best of things," or, "to look on tho bright side," is the habit of life that we approve in others ; and the approval wo give those who act in that temper implies our belief that tho opposite mood is culpable. It has been said that the best of life is conversation ; and to conversation, society is requisite. Certainly, therefore, it is much to our advantage to cultivate that side of our character which will make our company desirable ; and we may iebt assured that no brilliance of speech, no attractiveness of manner, no rare attainments or acquisitions that we may possess, will render our society so welcome and so beloved os a cheery temper. Pride itself might well como to our aid, and bid us keep a countenance of cheer ; for what is a dejected bearing but a confession that we have not been able to hold our own in the battle of life — that we have been worsted, and that 110 efforts we can make are sufficient to restore to us that which we have lost, or can satisfy those desires which we have nourished ? This is an arowal which we should bo ashamed to mike in words. Why, then, should we publish it in our demeanor ? The self-reliant man, tho man who is able to help himself and others, and is conscious of bravo effort and high endeavor, will, despite reverses, have the spirit and the fortitudo to comfort himself cheerily, among his fellow-men ; aud will find that this very cheer is a key to open to lum men's hearts and homes at once— is a magic powor that finds him a chair at every table and a place by every hearthside. He will find this ; and he will recognise that it is Cheer that ho himself socks in tho intimacy and converse of friends — Cheer that he seeks in his favorite pleasures — Cheer that is offered to him by the lessons of roligion ; that it is this that makes the live and rippling brook the darling of the glooming woodland — it is this that makes the glowworm the darling of the moonless August night — it is this that makes the robin the darling of the silent winter morning, when tho trees are leafless, and the snow is abroad, and no other bird has heart to sing.' — Chamho 'i Jow mil.