A rule for living happily with others is to avoid having stock subjects for disputation. It mostly happens, when people live much together, they have come to have certain set topics, around which, from frequent dispute, there is such a growth of angry words, mor- tified vanity, and the like, that the original subject of difference becomes a standing sub- ject for quarrel, and there is a tendency in all minor disputes to drift down to it. Again, if people wish to live well together, they must not hold too much to logic, and suppose that everything is to be settled by sufficient reason. Dr. Johnson saw this clearly with regard to married people when he said: "Wretched would be the pair, above all names of wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason, every morning, all the min- ute detail of the domestic day." But the application should be much more general than he made it. There is no time for such reasonings, and nothing that is worth them. And when we recollect how two lawyers or two politicians can go on contending, and that there is no end of one-sided reasoning on any subject, we shall not be sure that such con- tention is the best mode of arriving at truth. But certainly it is not the way to arrive at good temper. " How a stray sentence, a popular saying, the maxim of some wise man, a line accident- ally fallen upon and remembered, will sometimes help one when he is all ready to be vexed and indignant," says Dr. Holmes in his preface to the new edition of "The Professor at the Breakfast Table." "One day in the time when I was young or youngish, I happened to open a small copy of ' Tom Jones ' and glanced at the title-page. There was .one of those little engravings opposite which bore the familiar name of ' T. Nevins ' as I remem- ber it, and under it the words ' Mr. Partridge bore all this patiently.' How many times when, after rough usage from ill-mannered critics, my own vocabulary of vituperation was simmering in such a lively way that it threatened to boil and lift its lid, and so boil over, those words have calmed the small internal effervescence! There is very little in them and very little of them, and so there is not much in a linch-pin considered by itself, but it often keeps a wheel from coming off and prevents what might be a catastrophe." Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from heaven at our very doors, or rather within them. All cannot be beautiful, but they can be sweet-tempered, and a sweet temper gives a 40 HOME DISSERTATIONS. loveliness to the face more attractive in the long run than beauty. Have a sm-ile and a kind word for all. A sweet temper is to the household what sunshine is to the trees and flowers. What a stimulant kindness is to the most stubborn or dull disposition ! Walter Besants' interesting suggestion for making people good by making them happy, is commendable.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

A rule for living happily with others is to avoid having stock subjects for disputation. It mostly happens, when people live much together, they have come to have certain set topics, around which, from frequent dispute, there is such a growth of angry words, mortified vanity, and the like, that the original subject of difference becomes a standing subject for quarrel, and there is a tendency in all minor disputes to drift down to it. Again, if people wish to live well together, they must not hold too much to logic, and suppose that everything is to be settled by sufficient reason. Dr. Johnson saw this clearly with regard to married people when he said: "Wretched would be the pair, above all names of wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason, every morning, all the minute detail of the domestic day." But the application should be much more general than he made it. There is no time for such reasonings, and nothing that is worth them. And when we recollect how two lawyers or two politicians can go on contending, and that there is no end of one-sided reasoning on any subject, we shall not be sure that such contention is the best mode of arriving at truth. But certainly it is not the way to arrive at good temper. " How a stray sentence, a popular saying, the maxim of some wise man, a line accidentally fallen upon and remembered, will sometimes help one when he is all ready to be vexed and indignant," says Dr. Holmes in his preface to the new edition of "The Professor at the Breakfast Table." "One day in the time when I was young or youngish, I happened to open a small copy of ' Tom Jones ' and glanced at the title-page. There was .one of those little engravings opposite which bore the familiar name of ' T. Nevins ' as I remember it, and under it the words ' Mr. Partridge bore all this patiently.' How many times when, after rough usage from ill-mannered critics, my own vocabulary of vituperation was simmering in such a lively way that it threatened to boil and lift its lid, and so boil over, those words have calmed the small internal effervescence! There is very little in them and very little of them, and so there is not much in a lynch-pin considered by itself, but it often keeps a wheel from coming off and prevents what might be a catastrophe." Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from heaven at our very doors, or rather within them. All cannot be beautiful, but they can be sweet-tempered, and a sweet temper gives a loveliness to the face more attractive in the long run than beauty. Have a sm-ile and a kind word for all. A sweet temper is to the household what sunshine is to the trees and flowers. What a stimulant kindness is to the most stubborn or dull disposition ! Walter Besants' interesting suggestion for making people good by making them happy, is commendable.

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