Charles Frederic Goss

The Optimist Charles Frederic Goss

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... LI. a "yOU are discharged, sir," thundered the.. Boss to old Grumpy. "What for?" he snapped. "For standing in your own light! You are like a man who has been given a lantern to do his work by on a dark night, and who fastens it to the nape of his neck, instead of on his forehead. You are perpetually working in the s shadow of your own miserable, egotistical, unhappy self. Here are your wages. Goodby." Have you ever noticed that the most of the people who live in darkness are standing in their own light? There is a true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Is that too sweeping? Well, let us, with a tear of sympathy, drop out of our consideration to-day those pitiful creatures who enter life without the God-like gift of reason. For all the rest of us there is light enough in the world to help us make our journey safely through it. Even the goose finds light enough in the world to help her paddle and quack her way through life. The poor snail, the blind mole, the feeblest creature that swims in the sea, floats in the air, or walks upon or burrows in the ground, finds light enough to solve the problems of existence. And yet men like old Grumpy, curse the world and the whole system of things for being a dark and tangled labyrinth, in which everybody is bound to be bruised and wrecked and lost. For one, I discovered long ago that when I found myself in any darkness, it was of my own making. This life is full of insoluble mysteries, and I know as little about them as anybody. But when it comes to the practical problem of living a cheerful, useful, contented, and satisfying existence, I know that when men fail, it is not because the world is full of darkness; but because they stand in their own light and grovel in shadows of their own casting...