LITTLE THINGS BY Charles Robert Morrison

Some people will respect and admire you, when you show respect and
admiration for them. Some will be your best friends when, by a
dignified and noble independence, you thereby demand of them
rightful consideration.
Concessions must always be made in non-essential matters, in order to
secure amity; but concession ought not to be one-sided. The best of
blending is in mutual adjustment. A sincere, unselfish, steadfast course in
life--administering praise wherever deserved, sympathy when
needed, reproof seldom, then, in utmost kindness, lending a helping
hand to the helpless--is in general a fair rule for multiplying friends
and strengthening the ties of friendship.
In conclusion:
(a) be content with your present possessions, even while engaged in
adding to them;
(b) have a fixed and definite purpose in life and diligently adhere to it,
even in the dreary details of ever-recurring duty;
(c) make friends, multiply friendships and deserve them; but first of all
and most of all, though coming last in the list, note that the one thing
most essential to a happy life is:
(d) Sincere religion.
This is by no means a little thing. It is all-embracing and alltranscending.
Dr. Johnson said: "The fountain of contentment must
spring up in the mind; and he who has so little knowledge of human
nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own
disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the
griefs which he purposes to remove."
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