Good and friendly conduct may meet with an unworthy and ungrateful
return, but the absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver cannot
destroy the self-approbation which compensates the giver, and we can
scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindliness around us at so little
expense. Some of them will inevitably fall on good ground and grow up
into benevolence in the minds of others, and all of them will bear
fruits of happiness in the bosom whence they sprang.
Bentham says that “a man becomes rich in his own stock of pleasures in
proportion to the amount he distributes to others. Kind words cost no
more than unkind words. Kind words produce kind actions, not only on the
part of him to whom they are addressed, but on the part of him by whom
they are employed; and this not incidentally only, but habitually, in
virtue of the principle of association. It may indeed happen that the
effort of beneficence may not benefit those for whom it was intended,
but when wisely directed it must benefit the person from whom it
emanates.”
A well-known author tells a story of a little girl, a great favorite
with every one who knew her. “Why does everybody love you so much?” She
answered, “I think it is because I love everybody so much.” This little
story is capable of a very wide application; for our happiness as human
beings, generally speaking, will be found to be very much in proportion
to the number of things we love, and the number of things that love us.
The greatest worldly success, however honestly achieved, will contribute
comparatively little to happiness unless it be accompanied by a lively
benevolence toward every human being.