ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author likes to speak about making the best of things. Both are aspects of the same optimistic temper. By making the best of things the author mean not making the best of bad things—or what we usually think of as bad things—though that is a virtue and a duty. What he mean is making the best of good things. There has been a revival in recent years of the old idea which establishes an intimate connexion between mental and physical wellbeing. Cultivate purity of mind, cheerfulness, an even temper, contentment, and all the rest of these simple, but not very common virtues, for our life’s sake. There are people, to be sure, who would like to be optimists, only they don’t know how to set about it. Making the best of things—of the good things—it is the secret of happiness.
