The Joyful Heart | Page 6

now hopefully,
now despairingly, to port, and the joys of the same soul which has at
last found a perfect haven in the heart of God?
And still the writers go on talking of joy as if it were a pottle of hay--a
flimsy fraud--and of the satisfaction of attainment as if it were
unattainable. Why do they not realize, at least, that their every thrill of
response to a beautiful melody, their every laugh of delighted
comprehension of Hazlitt or Crothers, is in itself attainment? The
creative appreciator of art is always at his goal. And the
much-maligned present is the only time at our disposal in which to
enjoy the much-advertised future.
Too bad that our literary friends should have gone to extremes on this
point! If Robert Louis Stevenson had noted that "to travel hopefully is
an easier thing than to arrive," he would undoubtedly have hit the truth.
If Mr. Benson had said, "If you attain, God help you bountifully to
exuberance," etc., that would have been unexceptionable. It would even
have been a more useful--though slightly supererogatory--service, to
point out for the million-and-first time that achievement is not all that it
seems to be from a considerable distance. In other words, that the laws
of perspective will not budge. These writers would thus quite
sufficiently have played dentist to Disappointment and extracted his
venomous fangs for us in advance. What the gentlemen really should
have done was to perform the dentistry first, reminding us once again
that a part of attainment is illusory and consists of such stuff as
dreams--good and bad--are made of. Then, on the other hand, they

should have demonstrated attainment's good points, finally leading up
to its supreme advantage. This advantage is--its strategic position.
Arriving beats hoping to arrive, in this: that while the hoper is so
keenly hopeful that he has little attention to spare for anything besides
the future, the arriver may take a broader, more leisurely survey of
things. The hoper's eyes are glued to the distant peak. The attainer of
that peak may recover his breath and enjoy a complete panorama of his
present achievement and may amuse himself moreover by re-climbing
the mountain in retrospect. He has also yonder farther and loftier peak
in his eye, which he may now look forward to attacking the week after
next; for this little preliminary jaunt is giving him his mountain legs.
Hence, while the hoper enjoys only the future, the achiever, if his
joy-digesting apparatus be working properly, rejoices with exceeding
great joy in past, present, and future alike. He has an advantage of three
to one over the merely hopeful traveler. And when they meet this is the
song he sings:--
Mistress Joy is at your side Waiting to become a bride.
Soft! Restrain your jubilation. That ripe mouth may not be kissed Ere
you stand examination. Mistress Joy's a eugenist.
Is your crony Moderation? Do your senses say you sooth? Are your
veins the kind that tingle? Is your soul awake in truth?
If these traits in you commingle Joy no more shall leave you single.

II
THE BRIMMING CUP
Exuberance is the income yielded by a wise investment of one's vitality.
On this income, so long as it flows in regularly, the moderate man may
live in the Land of the Joyful Heart, incased in triple steel against any
arrows of outrageous fortune that happen to stray in across the frontier.
Immigrants to this land who have no such income are denied admission.

They may steam into the country's principal port, past the great statue
of the goddess Joy who holds aloft a brimming cup in the act of
pledging the world. But they are put ashore upon a small island for
inspection. And so soon as the inferior character of their investments
becomes known, or their recklessness in eating into their principal, they
are deported.
The contrast between those within the well-guarded gates and those
without is an affecting one. The latter often squander vast fortunes in
futile attempts to gain a foothold in the country. And they have a
miserable time of it. Many of the natives, on the other hand, are so poor
that they have constantly to fight down the temptation to touch their
principal. But every time they resist, the old miracle happens for them
once more: the sheer act of living turns out to be "paradise enow."
Now no mere fullness of life will qualify a man for admission to the
Land of the Joyful Heart. One must have overflowingness of life. In his
book "The Science of Happiness" Jean Finot declares, that the
"disenchantment and the sadness which degenerate into a sort of
pessimistic melancholy are frequently due to the diminution of the vital
energy. And as pain and