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But to prove our philosophy we must "make good"
ourselves. We must believe, pray, aspire, work and
climb. We must look in, up, about and beyond. We
must learn to analyze, discriminate and choose. We
must weed out the garden of our souls, and each
become a Burbank in his own domain, casting away
pernicious and poor material and perfecting the good
and valuable, making it better and more valuable by
our use of it.
I believe all our troubles, burdens and obstacles
are sent us for the best good of our souls, if we turn
them to that end by mental and physical effort. That
is my understanding of optimism.
I do not believe all these things will "turn out for
the best" if we go carelessly and cheerfully along the
way with no focused thought, no well-directed energy.
Cheerfulness, and faith, and self-reliance are great
factors in life, but alone they do not make the optimism
which builds character, alters human destiny or turns
seeming evil to good unless the ingredient of well directed, persistent work enters into the composition.
Better an occasional mood that is not optimistic ---
a night of tears and anxiety, followed by resolution
grown from despair, and effort that calls into play all
the latent energies --- than this eternal drifting down
an idle sea of cheerful optimism in a ship of hope to
the shores of Nowhere.
I have seen a woman of talent and ability drifting
for years on this sea. She knows she is gifted; she
believes in herself; but she postpones from day to day,
from month to month, from year to year, all positive
effort, so confident is she that "everything will come
out all right for her by and by."
Well for her were an overwhelming tidal wave of
