Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/459

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or humiliation is this: "Let it go!" "Forget it!" An optimist writes: "If you had an unfortunate experience this last year, forget it. If you have made a failure in your speech, your song, your book, or your article, if you have been placed in an embarrassing position, if you have been deceived and hurt by one whom you looked upon as a friend, if you have been slandered and abused, do not dwell upon it, do not brood over it; forget it! There is not a single redeeming feature in these memories. Do not make yourself unhappy by keeping on the walls of your heart the pictures of vanished joys and faded hopes. Forget them. Count your blessings. Be of good cheer."

As regards those faults of our neighbors that irritate us, it will help us to be more cheerful and amiable if we remember our own shortcomings, which they have to endure. St. Paul admonishes us: "Bear ye one another's burdens and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ' ' (Gal. vi. 2). Do not look for mistakes or faults to censure in others; let us rather look for an excuse for our brethren; let us admire their virtues and imitate them.

The author of "The Art of Being Happy" says: "There is a word which can not be said too often to every Christian whom God has destined to live, converse, and labor in the society of his fellow-creatures: Be indulgent. Yes, be indulgent; it is necessary for others,