LAUGH AND LIVE

      CHAPTER XIX

      LAUGH AND LIVE

      Again I find it expedient to resort to the per-
      sonal pronoun and therefore this final chapter is
      to be devoted to "you and me." There are facts
      you may want to know for sure and one of them
      is whether or not I live up to my own prescrip-
      tion.

      I do—and it's easy!

      I have kept myself happy and well through
      keeping my physical department in first class
      order. If that had been left to take care of itself
      I would surely have fallen by the wayside in
      other departments. Once we sit down in secur-
      ity the world seems to hand us things we do not
      need.

      Fresh air is my intoxicant—and it keeps me
      in high spirits. My system doesn't crave arti-
      ficial stimulation because my daily exercise
      quickens the blood sufficiently. Then, too, I [156]
      manage to keep busy. That's the real elixir—
      activity! Not always physical activity, either,
      for I must read good books in order to exercise
      my mind in other channels than just my daily
      routine—and add to my store of knowledge as
      well.

      Then there is my inner-self which must have
      attention now and then. For this a little solitude
      is helpful. We have only to sense the phenom-
      ena surrounding us to know that we must have a
      working faith—something practical to live by,
      which automatically keeps us on our course.
      The mystery of life somehow loses its density
      if we retain our spark of hope.

      All of my life since childhood I have held
      Shakespeare in constant companionship. Aside
      from the Bible—which is entirely apart from all
      other books—Shakespeare has no equal. My
      father, partly from his love for the great poet,
      and partly for the purpose of aiding me to mem-
      orize accurately, taught me to recite Shake-
      speare before I was old enough to know the
      meaning of the words. I remembered them, [157]
      however, and in later years I grew to know their
      full significance. Then I became an ardent fol-
      lower of the Master Philosopher, than whom no
      greater interpreter of human emotions ever lived.
      In the matter of sage advice there has never been
      his equal. In "Hamlet" we find the wonderful
      words of admonition from Polonius in his fare-
      well speech to his son Laertes—as good today as
      four hundred years ago, and they will continue
      to be so until the end of time.

      It matters not how familiar we may be with
      these lines it is no waste of time to read them
      over again once in awhile. They seem to fit the
      practical side of life perfectly. If we have any
      complaint by reason of their brusqueness we have
      only to temper our interpretation according to
      our own sense of justice. In other words if we
      wanted to loan a "ten-spot" now and then
      we would just go ahead and do it—meanwhile,
      to save you the trouble of looking up these lines,
      here they are in "Laugh and Live"—

      And these few precepts in thy memory [158]

      See thou character—Give thy thoughts no
      tongue,

      Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
      Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
      The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
      Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
      But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
      Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Be-
      ware

      Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
      Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
      Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
      Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg-
      ment.

      Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
      But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
      For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
      And they in France of the best rank and station
      Are of a most select and generous sheaf in that.
      Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
      For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
      And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry,
      This above all—to thine ownself be true;
      And it must follow, as the night the day,
      Thou canst not then be false to any man.

      The time has come to close this little book. It [159]
      has been a great pleasure to write it and a
      greater pleasure to hope that it will be received
      in the same spirit it has been written. These are
      busy days for all of us. We go in a gallop most
      of the time, but there comes the quiet hour when
      we must sit still and "take stock." I know this
      from the letters that come to me asking my
      opinion on all sorts of subjects. People be-
      lieve I am happy because my laughing pic-
      tures seem to denote this fact—and it is a fact!
      In the foregoing chapters I have told why. If,
      in the telling I shall have been instrumental in
      adding to the world's store of happiness I shall
      ever thank my "lucky stars."