From the Introduction.I suspect that certain readers may complain of this book, that it is too boldly optimistic. It seems therefore fair to say something in advance about the personal point of view from which I approach the subjects here considered. I am not in any way an optimist by temperament, but quite the reverse. I am accustomed to think of the sad and sterner aspects of life. I know by experience the facts and the moods that tend to make men pessimists and even cynics. If I am an optimist, my optimism has not come to me easily; it is not one-sided, or negligent of facts. It is not the product of fortunate and exceptional circumstances. It has been bought with a price; it has been urged upon me through all the varied lessons of life. It is not merely the outcome and summary of my religion, but it is the net result of the questioning and the thought of a naturally skeptical mind. I have endeavored to test and try it. I have never feared to bring strain and pressure upon it. In my case it is no mere ardor of buoyant youth, but the growth of years.I have watched the working of this bold optimism in a considerable number of other men's lives, under different forms of faith, and in some instances even where its possessors, being somewhat shy of religious terms and pious phraseology, have hardly been aware that in their habitual attitude of good temper, friendliness, unwavering honesty, disinterested and unselfish activity, they have been living precisely as intelligent men would live in a good universe, and have been illustrating in their lives what veritable religion is, more than their words would allow.I have also tried other ways of thought, and found them to fail altogether. I have observed that, while optimism is always challenging and urging us to be consistent and thorough-going in our faith in it, pessimism, on the contrary, can never be consistently applied; but in all the highest moments of life the pessimist must act like an optimist, must face the way of hope and progress, must trust in truth, in duty, in love, and in goodness, as if they were indeed eternal. I have observed that the agnostic cannot remain evenly balanced on the narrow fence of hesitating doubt. He must act and live on one side or the other, toward evil or toward good. Is it not evident that his best and most successful action is at those times when, like the boldest optimist, he goes heartily over to the side of good?...Harriet E. Paine (ca. 1822-1917) was a Texas storyteller and oral historian. She was born a slave and was also known as "Aunt Harriet." After Juneteenth, 1865, when slaves were freed, Paine continued to work for the Hardins, most likely having "signed a Freedmen's contract with Franklin Hardin. She worked at Seven Pines until 1916, when there was a fire that nearly destroyed the house. Paine rescued the Hardin family's letters and documents. Her stories and oral histories have been preserved by the Hardin family and are housed in the Hardin Collection at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center.