and bubble up even under the menace of irreparable calamity, so gloom of spirit is a very contagious thing, very difficult to dissimulate.  Perhaps the best practical thing for a naturally melancholy person to try and do, is to treat his own low spirits, as Charles Lamb did, ironically and humorously; and if he must spin conversation incessantly, as Dr. Johnson said, out of his own bowels, to make sure that it is the best thread possible, and of a gossamer quality.

The temperamental fact upon which the possibility of such a philosophical cheerfulness is based is after all an ultimate hopefulness.  Some people have a remarkable staying power, a power of looking through and over present troubles, and consoling themselves with pleasant visions of futurity.  This is commoner with women than with men, because women derive a greater happiness from the happiness of those about them than men do.  A woman as a rule would prefer that the people who surround her should be cheerful, even if she were not cheerful herself; whereas a man is often not ill-pleased that his moods should be felt by his circle, and regards it as rather an insult that other people should be joyful when he is ill-at-ease.  Some people, too, have a stronger dramatic sense than others, and take an artistic pleasure in playing a part.  I knew a man who was a great invalid and a frequent sufferer, who took a great pleasure in appearing in public functions.  He would drag himself from his bed to make a public appearance of any kind.  I think that he consoled himself by believing that he did so from a strong and sustaining sense of duty; but I believe that the pleasure of the thing was really at the root of his effort, as it is at the root of most of the duties we faithfully perform.  I do not mean that he had a strong natural vanity, though his enemies accused him of it.  But publicity was naturally congenial to him, and the only sign, as a rule, that he was suffering, when he made such an appearance, was a greater deliberation of movement, and a ghastly fixity of smile.  As to the latter phenomenon, a man with the dramatic sense strongly developed, will no doubt take a positive pleasure in trying to obliterate from his face and manner all traces of his private discomfort.  Such stoicism is a fine quality in its way, but the quality that I am in search of is an even finer one than that.  My friend’s efforts were ultimately based on a sort of egotism, a profound conviction that a public part suited him, and that he performed it well.  What one rather desires to attain is a more sympathetic quality, an interest in other people so vital and inspiring that one’s own personal sufferings are light in the scale when weighed against the enjoyment of others.  It is not impossible to develop this in the face of considerable bodily suffering.  One of the most inveterately cheerful people I have ever known was a man who suffered from a painful and irritating complaint, but whose geniality and good-will were so strong that they not only overpowered