f such a
religion, so that he never knows, for an hour, what these religious or
irreligious struggles are. I always knew God loved me, and I was
always grateful to him for the world he placed me in. I always liked
to tell him so, and was always glad to receive his suggestions to
me.... I can remember perfectly that when I was coming to manhood, the
half-philosophical novels of the time had a deal to say about the young
men and maidens who were facing the 'problem of life.' I had no idea
whatever what the problem of life was. To live with all my might
seemed to me easy; to learn where there was so much to learn seemed
pleasant and almost of course; to lend a hand, if one had a chance,
natural; and if one did this, why, he enjoyed life because he could not
help it, and without proving to himself that he ought to enjoy it.... A
child who is early taught that he is God's child, that he may live and
move and have his being in God, and that he has, therefore, infinite
strength at hand for the conquering of any difficulty, will take life
more easily, and probably will make more of it, than one who is told
that he is born the child of wrath and wholly incapable of good."[35]

[35] Starbuck: Psychology of Religion, pp. 305, 306.

One can but recognize in such writers as these the presence of a
temperament organically weighted on the side of cheer and fatally
forbidden to linger, as those of opposite temperament linger, over the
darker aspects of the universe. In some individuals optimism may become
quasi-pathological. The capacity for even a transient sadness or a
momentary humility seems cut off from them as by a kind of congenital
anaesthesia.[36]

[36] "I know not to what physical laws philosophers will some day refer
the feelings of melancholy. For myself, I find that they are the most
voluptuous of all sensations," writes Saint Pierre, and accordingly he
devotes a series of sections of his work on Nature to the Plaisirs de
la Ruine, Plaisirs des Tombeaux, Ruines de la Nature, Plaisirs de la
Solitude--each of them more optimistic than the last.

This finding of a luxury in woe is very common during adolescence. The
truth-telling Marie Bashkirtseff expresses it well:--

"In his depression and dreadful uninterrupted suffering, I don't
condemn life. On the contrary, I like it and find it good. Can you
believe it? I find everything good and pleasant, even my tears, my
grief. I enjoy weeping, I enjoy my despair.