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A Cheerful Outlook.

A Cheerful outlook in the individual is usually based on good health and courage. It is, of course, possible to be courageous when ill—but much easier when well! Hence the emphasis laid, in modern times, on a sound regimen of health is justified by the desire to improve the outlook of the individual, with happier results on those with whom he makes contact.

Fear is a constant factor fighting good health. But almost all fear is due to want of knowledge. Knowledge gives confidence, confidence drives out fear, good health follows confidence and from that a cheerful outlook is achieved.

“Courage,” said Emerson, “is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.” It is the aim of all wise laws to maintain this necessary constitutional freedom for the individual.

It has also been said that courage consists in equality to the problem before us. That equality can be gained by self-confidence. Much has been said and written about the importance of heredity, and many learned tomes have been prepared to trace back the ancestry of this or that family into some period of the dark ages. In America there have been people who have built up very lucrative incomes out of the business of providing lengthy family trees for people with more money than good sense. It is of course clear that the actual length of the family tree of every person must be about the same whether we believe in descent from Adam or in the development of human life from some fortunate condition of natural forces.

In any case everyone living to-day is descended from people who have survived through countless generations every kind of hard luck or good fortune, every climatic change, every political upheaval, and every chance or change of every other sort that may have occurred since the dawn of human time. With this common ancestry behind us all, we can at least believe that there is some powerful toughness in us that should fit us to carry on, and with this knowledge we should be ready to face whatever is ahead with courage and cheerfulness. To do otherwise is, in a sense, to let down your ancestors, who, whatever they may have been, had the courage to play their part in the battle of life, and to give you the opportunity to be alive in this, the most interesting time in the world's history.

A cheerful outlook in the individual tends to develop a cheerful outlook both in the family circle, and also amongst industrial associates—above, below or on the same level. When it infects a nation nothing can prevent that nation progressing. Experience of life and the deepest researches of psychologists, clearly indicate that there are mental and physical reserves in the individual that are seldom fully called upon, and particularly that the mental reserves are sufficient for any emergency if properly applied. Here again, knowledge of the facts gives confidence for the occasion, and from this confidence wells up the cheerful outlook so necessary for human well-being.

The Railways have good reason for a cheerful outlook at the present time. Traffic is plentiful, the service given is appreciated, the prospects for further improvement are good. The customers of the Railways have also good reason to be of good heart. They know that the Department is prepared to meet any reasonable demand for transport and to perform the work capably.

The country has every reason to have a cheerful outlook as all the trade returns show a useful upward tendency. And incidentally, this Magazine has no reason to be downhearted—for the financial year just ended the Magazine sales were threefold those of the previous year.