ABSTRACT
BE not too careful about many things. " Ever remember this," said Marcus Aurelius, " that a happy life depends not on many things." Take to heart also the words of another great man, Alexis de Tocqueville: "La vie n'est pas un plaisir ni une douleur, mais une affaire grave dont nous sommes chargés, qu'il faut conduire et terminer à notre honneur." Remember also that you, as compared with your sisters and with men in simpler states of society, are peculiarly liable to an error which Lecky rightly calls one of the most common of all errors: " that of confusing happiness with the means of happiness, sacrificing the first for the attainment of the second." The same author adds: " It is still sadder to observe how large a proportion of the failures of life may be ultimately traced to the most insignificant causes and might have been avoided without any serious effort of intellect or will." All of which is to say: Fix your purpose on the essential; if you succeed in progressing steadily towards that goal, all minor goods will be added unto you so far as they are necessary. And the essential is the ideal. Here it is necessary to recognize that, as with all goals we seek, the goal defines itself and the road becomes clearer, as we progress towards it.
