" Alexander valued the true blessings
of life as nothing, and the power of life and death over others as
everything. His disappointment and the contentment of Diogenes, who
viewed things more correctly, are matters of tradition. "Contentment,"
says Fuller, "consisteth not in adding more fuel, but
IN TAKING AWAY SOME FIRE."
Therefore, if you are spending so much money that you need more income,
take away some of the fire. If you reduce your expenses two dollars a
week, you have added nearly eighteen hundred dollars to your account in
fifteen years. If you wear your boots one month after you could well
persuade yourself to have a new pair, your new ones will not wear out a
month sooner for that reason!
GOOD FORTUNE OF OUR LITTLE EGOTISMS.
We are all, fortunately, greatly disposed to contentment with our lot.
We do not seem to realize it, but the importance of the pleasures of
life which cannot be bartered in, has its noticeable effect on the mind.
Horace remarked this ages ago, and Dr. Johnson has thus translated the
thoughts hinging upon it: "Howsoever every man may complain
occasionally," says he, "of the hardships of his condition, he is
seldom willing to change it for any other on the same level.
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