The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from
the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is
right from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is
the determining factor in the life of each. It determines as to
whether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, of
success or of failure.
The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in
their right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and a
one-sided point of view. The one has his understanding illumined by
wisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each
is building his world from within, and the result of the building is
determined by the point of view of each. The optimist, by his superior
wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he
makes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world
beside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own
hell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to
make one for all mankind.
You and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the
predominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, hour
by hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are
making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for
all the world beside.
The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English
_hell_, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be _helled_ was
to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony there
must be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be in
right relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if
there is such a thing as being _helled_, shut off, separated from,
there must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or
separated.