A man stood at his window and watched his neighbor
walk by. He walked, not as a man should, enjoying
triumph, but with a slow step, sagging shoulders,
like a man with a great burden on his soul. And
John Burroughs knew why. The man had no work
that he loved. Nothing to keep him busy. Nothing
to make him content. To give his days purpose
and direction. And the man who watched said this
to himself. An idle man is a wretched man. An
idle man is an unhappy man. And as he said those
words to himself, listening to the singing of
the birds, to the soft whispering of the trees,
he knew that no man knew better than himself
the blessedness of work, of life -giving and
life -sustaining work, that work could give man
real happiness and real contentment. For had
he not been idle himself once, and one of the
most utterly dejected of God's creatures, life
had lost its savor for him, had become empty,
stagnant. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep,
he couldn't think, he couldn't dream. He was
discontented. And work, hard work, had saved
him. Good hard work on a farm. with his hands,
raking, hoeing, ploughing, planting, feeling
the good earth between his fingers, feeling his
oneness with the universe. The plough had done
its perfect work on him as on his fields. The
bitterness, the boredom had ploughed under. The
stagnant pools of discontent drained off. The
planting, the pruning had shaped his life. as
surely as they had shaped his fruit trees. For
seeing the river shine, watching the birds arrive,
hearing their excited laughter, looking up from
his work and seeing the skies and the distant
hills bathed in the magic of sudden beauty, he
had found renewal. He had found inspiration.
He had found his life's work. And John Burroughs
turned from the window, walked slowly to his
desk. And the book entitled Wake Robin had been
the first of a series of books about birds, about
trees, about flowers. rural scenes that had brought
him worldwide recognition. If only he could make
others realize that happiness was no will of
the wisp. That real happiness was the simplest
thing in the world and within the reach of everybody.
Oh, sure. It seems so simple that most folk couldn't
believe that one could really be happy in one's
work. You know, there's a condition or circumstance
that has a greater bearing upon the happiness
of life than any other. What is it? It's one
of the simplest things in the world. It's within
the reach of all. If this secret were something
that I could put up for auction, there would
be some mighty high bidders, believe me. Only
the wise ones can guess what it is. Some might
say it's in health. Others will say it's money,
friends, or the possession of things. But you
may have all these things and not be happy. Sometimes
I think that money is the cheapest thing in the
whole world. Possessions sometimes can bring
you the greatest unhappiness if you only realized
it. But most folk are too stupid to realize it.
You may have fame, you may have power, and still
be the most unhappy person in the whole world.
I still maintain that there is one thing more
necessary to a happy life than anything else
that I know anything about. Though health and
money and friends and home and possessions, all
of these may lend some importance. But that one
thing that I'm talking about, what is it? The
sick man will say it's health. The poor man will
say... is wealth. The ambitious man will say
it's power. The scholar will say it's knowledge.
And the overworked man will say it's rest. But
without the one thing that I have in mind, none
of these things would long help their possessors
to be happy. We could not long be happy without
food or drink or clothes or shelter. But we may
have all these things to perfection and still
want the prime condition of happiness. It's often
said that a contented mind is the first condition
of happiness. But what is the first condition
of a contented mind? You'll be disappointed when
I tell you what this all -important thing is.
It's so common, it's so near at hand, and so
many people have so much of it and yet are not
happy. They have too much of it, or else the
kind that's not best suited to them. What's the
best thing for a stream? It's to keep moving
if it stops. It stagnates. And so the best thing
for a man is that which keeps the currents going.
The physical, the moral, the intellectual currents.
Keep them moving. Keep them going. Hence the
secret of happiness is something to do. Work.
Somebody is saying, if I thought. that everything
that you were saying was going to lead up to
the one word work, I wouldn't have taken the
time to have listened. That's exactly what's
wrong with the world today. That's one thing
that people do not want to talk about. The palm
is turned up. The hand is outstretched. And the
mind says, give me. Give me. How much can I get
without working for it? Take away the occupation
of all men and what a wretched world it would
be. And that's one thing that is causing so much
unhappiness and distress in the world at this
very hour. That's one thing that's wrong with
the younger generation. They feel it is disgraceful
to work. To do an honest day's work. Few persons
realize how much of their happiness is dependent
upon their work, upon the fact that they are
kept busy, and not left to feed upon themselves.
Happiness comes most to people who seek her least
and think least about it. It's not an object
to be sought. It's a state to be induced. It
must follow and not lead. It must overtake you
and not you overtake it. How important is health
to happiness? And yet the best promoter of health
is something to do. I can always remember Mama
saying, if there's anybody in the family who's
complaining a little bit about a... headache
or a stomachache. She would just smile, and in
her soft, spoken way, she would say, Well, just
work it off. And the amazing thing is, in 5,
10, 15 minutes, it was soon worked off. We didn't
take aspirins in those days. When there was a
little headache or a little pain or something
in your body, you didn't run for the aspirin
bottle in those days. We didn't run for a little
peel in those days. We didn't make a beeline
for some strong coffee and take a coffee break
in those days. Nobody thought of taking the day
off from work in those days. The only thing we
ever had in our house was turpentine for the
cuts and a bottle of castor oil. And it's just
like that. If it didn't feel well, you worked
it off. Yeah. Few persons realize how much of
their happiness is dependent upon their work.
upon the fact that they are kept busy and not
left to feed upon themselves. If all of our young
men and women who are causing the riots and spending
the hours picketing were given some good manual
labor to do, we'd very quickly solve some of
the greatest problems in America this very hour.
And it's just like that. Blessed is a man who
has some work to do, some good old -fashioned
congenial work. some occupation in which he can
put his heart which affords a complete outlet
to all the forces that are in him work and thou
canst not escape the reward and the reward of
a thing well done is to have oh to awaken each
morning with a smile brightening my face to greet
the day with reverence for the opportunities
that it contains to approach my work with a clean
mind to hold ever before me even in doing the
little things, the ultimate purpose toward which
I am working, to meet men and women with laughter
on my lips and love in my heart, to be gentle
and kind and courteous through all the hours,
to approach the night with weariness that ever
woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well.
This is how I desire to waste wisely my days.
Thank God every morning when you get up that
you have something to do which must be done,
whether you like it or not. I'm not telling you
that you're always going to like what you're
doing. Being forced to work and forced to do
your best will breed in you temperance, self
-control, diligence, the strength of will, content,
and a hundred other virtues which the idled never
know. You'll learn discipline. And that's something
that's so necessary today. That's something that
our young people know nothing about. When you
use the word self -discipline, it isn't in their
vocabulary. It's one of those old -fashioned
words that's outmoded and not for their generation.
Talking to you right now, looking back over my
own life, I thank my God that I learned self
-discipline at an early age. And being forced
to work and forced to do your best will breed
self -discipline. And you'll really never know
real success. And you'll not... be a real person
until, first of all, you have learned self -discipline.
And you'll never learn it without doing something
you don't especially want to do. Life requires
that we work. work being simply the opposite
of rusting away. And nature requires that we
work at something. Such activity is interesting,
exhilarating. It begets energy, health, happiness.
It defeats tensions. Instead of taking all those
little white pills for nervous tensions. I'll
tell you the best thing in the world that will
defeat those tensions. Work. The hour has come
when we must get rid of the extraordinary notion
that manual work is degrading. There is nothing
more innoble than manual work and nothing better
for physical and mental health than work. And
God's word says, the sleep of a laboring man
is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but
the abundance of the rich. will not suffer him
to sleep. This is practical, but needed this
hour.