Positive and negative go hand in hand through the world. Victory and
defeat, hope and despair, pleasure and pain. Man is positive, woman is
negative in comparison. The day is positive, the night is negative.
But it is a pleasure to remember that it is always day in the
universe.
The shadow of the earth does not extend very far, nor the shadow of
any other planet. Day is the great cosmic fact. The masses of men are
negative to the few master and compelling minds. Cold is negative,
heat is positive, though the difference is only one of degree. The
negative side of life, the side of meditation, reflection, and
reverie, is no less important than the side of action and performance.
Youth is positive, age is negative. Age says No where it used to say
Yes. It takes in sail. Life's hurry and heat are over, the judgment is
calm, the passions subdued, the stress of effort relaxed. Our temper
is less aggressive, events seem less imminent.
The morning is positive; in the evening we muse and dream and take our
ease, we see our friends, we unstring the bow, we indulge our social
instincts.
Optimism is positive, pessimism is negative. Fear, suspicion,
distrust--are all negative.
On the seashore where I write[4] I see the ebbing tide, the exposed
sand and rocks, the receding waves; and I know the sea is showing us
its negative side; there is a lull in the battle. But wait a little
and the mad assault of the waves upon the land will be renewed.
[Footnote 4: La Jolla, California.]