There is no cure for individual or
social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation. "Let us
eat, drink and be merry," says the pessimist, "for to-morrow we die."
If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I
should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not
visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should
beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful
solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty
to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any
physical deprivation.

Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope or goodness cast a shadow
upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were
privileges? The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter; for he knows
his neighbor will be hindered by his failure to keep in line. He will
therefore hold his place fearlessly and remember the duty of silence.
Sufficient unto each heart is its own sorrow. He will take the iron
claws of circumstance in his hand and use them as tools to break away
the obstacles that block his path. He will work as if upon him alone
depended the establishment of heaven on earth.

We have seen that the world's philosophers--the Sayers of the
Word--were optimists; so also are the men of action and
achievement--the Doers of the Word. Dr. Howe found his way to Laura
Bridgman's soul because he began with the belief that he could reach
it. English jurists had said that the deaf-blind were idiots in the
eyes of the law. Behold what the optimist does. He controverts a hard
legal axiom; he looks behind the dull impassive clay and sees a human
soul in bondage, and quietly, resolutely sets about its deliverance.
His efforts are victorious. He creates intelligence out of idiocy and
proves to the law that the deaf-blind man is a responsible being.

When Hauey offered to teach the blind to read, he was met by pessimism
that laughed at his folly. Had he not believed that the soul of man is
mightier than the ignorance that fetters it, had he not been an
optimist, he would not have turned the fingers of the blind into new
instruments. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or
sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human
spirit. St. Bernard was so deeply an optimist that he believed two
hundred and fifty enlightened men could illuminate the darkness which
overwhelmed the period of the Crusade