OH! never wear a brow of care, or frown with rueful gravity,
For wit's the child of wisdom, and good humor is the twir;
No need to play the Pharisee, or groan at man's depravity,
Let one man be a good man, and let all be fair within.
Speak sober truths with smiling lips; the bitter wrap in sweetness-
Sound sense in seeming nonsense, as the grain is hid in chaff;
And fear not that the lesson e'er may seem to lack completeness—
A man may say a wise thing, though he say it with a laugh.
"A soft word oft turns wrath aside," (so says the great instructor. A smile disarms resentment, and a jest drives gloom away; A cheerful laugh to anger is a magical conductor,
The deadly flash averting, quickly changing night to day. Then, is not he the wisest man who rids his brow of wrinkles, Who bears his load with merry heart, and lightens it by halfWhose pleasant tones ring in the ear, as mirthful music tinkles, And whose words are true and telling, though they echo in a laugh?
So temper life's work-weariness with timely relaxation;
Most witless wight of all is he who never plays the fool;
The heart grows gray before the head, when sunk in sad prostration;
Its winter knows no Christmas, with its glowing log of Yule.
Why weep, faint-hearted and forlorn, when evil comes to try us?
The fount of hope wells ever nigh-'t will cheer us if we quaff;
And, when the gloomy phantom of despondency stands by us,
Let us, in calm defiance, exorcise it with a laugh!