E-text prepared by Larry B. Harrison, Julia Neufeld,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by the
Google Books Library Project
(http://books.google.com)
The Optimist's
Good Morning
Compiled by
Florence Hobart Perin
Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1911
Copyright, 1907,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.
TO
My Mother and father
Acknowledgments
The compiler desires to make her grateful acknowledgments
to the publishers and authors who have so
generously given their permission to use selections
from their copyrighted publications. She is especially
indebted to Dodd, Mead & Co., Houghton, Mifflin
& Co., The Century Co., The Outlook Co., Small,
Maynard & Co., McClure, Phillips & Co., for extracts
from "The Simple Life" by Charles Wagner and
from "The Angelus" by Edwin Markham; G. P.
Putnam's Sons for selections from "Christus Victor"
by Henry Nehemiah Dodge; to Doubleday, Page &
Co. for extracts from "The Story of My Life" by
Helen Keller, copyright 1902, 1903; also for selections
from "Afterwhiles," copyright 1887, "Riley
Farm Rhymes," copyright 1885, "Riley Songs o'
Cheer," copyright 1883, "Pipes o' Pan," copyright
1888, used by special permission of the publishers,
The Bobbs-Merrill Co., to Charles Scribner's Sons
for selections from "Fisherman's Luck," "The Lost
Word," "Little Rivers," "The Story of the Psalms,"
"The Toiling of Felix and Other Poems," by Henry
Van Dyke, and a selection from "El Dorado" by
Robert Louis Stevenson.
Preface
Once family devotions were general, now they
are rare. There are reasons for the change. One
reason is that the simplicity of the old family life
is gone. It is not easy to get all the members of the
family together at any one time in the day. A part
of this is due to less leisure now than formerly.
Men must catch trains in the morning. In the
evening they are distracted by manifold social engagements.
Yet the need of spiritual adjustment is ever the
same. Rapid transit, the telephone, the telegraph,
do not take the place of God. Indeed the more
rapid pace involved in these modern pace-makers,
renders the more necessary some pause in the day
for prayer, some upward look, when for a moment
the soul may find an open way between itself and
God. But how and when? Why not the breakfast
table? Surely one or two minutes may be spared.
Thirty seconds of silence, then the reading of a
noble sentiment from some one who has been thinking
for us,—another pause,—and a few words of
prayer, framed by some one with more leisure than
we have, but who puts us in the mood of prayer
and so starts us right upon the duties of the day,—this
will bring the needed readjustment.
Such is the plan and purpose of this little book.
It is made for busy men and women, who need to
begin the day with God. The quotations for each
day are brief, but they are gleaned from the great
Masters of thought. The prayers are from devout
men of all the denominations.
As the title will have suggested, both quotations
and prayers are generally in the spirit of a truly
optimistic faith. However life may look in the
middle of the night, it is a good thing to start out
to do the work of the day with hope and courage.
I shall be glad if I can feel that this little book has
helped some busy people to begin the day in this
spirit. I shall be particularly glad if I can feel that
it has helped a little to keep the candles lighted on
the family altar.
Florence Hobart Perin.
List of Authors of Selections
Abbott, Lyman,
234,
296.
Albee, John,
348.
Alden, Marion,
263.
Ambrosius, Johanna,
254.
Ames, Charles G.,
51,
68.
Amiel, Henri-Frédéric,
305,
340,
350.
Anonymous,
16,
33,
52,
91,
93,
129,
181,
198,
213,
268,
354.
Arnold, Edwin,
39.
Arnold, George,
249.
Aughey,
315.
Aurelius, Marcus,
216.
Babcock, Maltbie Davenport,
279.
Baldwin, Mary,
72.
Banks, G. L.,
135.
Bashford, H. H.,
9.
Beecher, Henry Ward,
120,
141,
144,
192,
317,
333.
Bisbee, Frederick A.,
248.
Bolton, Sarah Knowles,
211.
Boyd, A. H. K.,
78.
Bridges, Madeline S.,
304.
Brooke, Stopford A.,
27,
115,
289.
Brooks, Phillips,
17,
24,
36,
75,
137,
212,
235,
240,
264,
271,
288,
362.
Brown, Alice,
218.
Brown, Anna Robertson,
51.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,
29,
104,
148,
232,
331.
Browning, Robert,
28,
64,
69,
79,
90,
109,
130,
179,
201,
221,
243.
Bryant, William Cullen,
249,
338.
Bulkeley, Benjamin R.,
347.
Burton, Richard,
59.
Carlisle, J. H.,
220.
Carlyle, Thomas,
37,
61,
85,
107,
164,
183,
209,
219,
269,
331.
Carman, Bliss,
156.
Carpenter, Edward,
147.
Carruth, William H.,
252.
Cary, Alice,
123,
138,
366.
Chadwick, John White,
134.
Child, Lydia Maria,
364.
Clarke, James Freeman,
267.
Cleaves, Charles P.,
214.
Coates, Florence E.,
189.
Coleridge, Hartley,
245.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
217.
Collyer, Robert,
77,
287.
Confucius,
191.
Coolidge, Susan,
150,
157,
207,
339.
Cowper, William,
335.
Cox, Francis Augustus,
276.
Craig, Dinah Mulock,
143.
Crashaw, Richard,
151.
Danforth, Abbie E.,
357.
Davis, Ozora Stearns,
82.
DeVere, Aubrey,
71.
Dix, William F.,
261.
Dodge, Henry Nehemiah,
49,
300,
371,
372.
Donaldson, Alfred L.,
244.
Dowd, Emma C.,
169.
Drummond, Henry,
91,
203,
323.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence,
88,
186,
256.
Earle, Mabel,
278.
Eliot, George,
48,
241.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo,
19,
42,
57,
87,
108,
124,
127,
151,
158,
185,
210,
228,
271,
281,
344.
Epictetus,
56,
284.
Faunce, W. H. P.,
153.
Fiske, John,
11.
Ford, Mary Hanaford,
8.
Foss, Sam Walter,
99,
341.
Fox, George,
104.
Franklin, Benjamin,
158.
Gannett, William C.,
116,
132,
239,
302.
Garland, Hamlin A.,
196.
Gilder, Richard Watson,
168,
367.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins,
4,
146.
Goethe,
360.
Gordon, Anna A.,
247.
Gotthold,
23.
Gray, John,
378.
Green, J. R.,
199.
Grover, Edwin Osgood,
155.
Hale, Edward Everett,
65,
188,
219,
280,
281.
Harraden, Beatrice,
80.
Hart, Estelle M.,
337.
Havergal, Frances Ridley,
282.
Hawkes, Clarence,
97.
Hay, John,
67.
Hoar, George F.,
83.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell,
29,
55,
172,
188,
253,
286,
297,
311,
352.
Homer,
341.
Hopkins, Ellice,
265.
Hovey, Richard,
292.
Hughes, Thomas,
194.
Humboldt, Alexander von,
306.
Hunt, Leigh,
143.
Huntington, Bishop,
70.
Huxley, Thomas Henry,
202.
Hyde, William DeWitt,
118.
Ibsen, Henrik,
312.
Ingelow, Jean,
221,
327.
Jackson, J. S.,
7.
James, Henry, Sr.,
165.
Johnson, Samuel,
66.
Jones, T. Edgar,
224.
Karr, Alphonse,
264.
Keats, John,
295.
Keller, Helen,
93,
128,
145.
King, T. Starr,
275.
Kingsley, Charles,
85.
Kiser, S. E.,
318.
Klingle, George,
106.
Larcom, Lucy,
32,
161.
Leonard, Priscilla,
60,
299,
312,
329,
336.
Livermore, Mary A.,
119.
Longfellow, Henry W.,
30,
52,
162,
308.
Lowell, James Russell,
54,
92,
174,
242,
291.
Luther, Martin,
43.
Mabie, Hamilton W.,
173.
MacDonald, George,
159,
177,
179,
200,
272,
326,
374.
Maeterlinck,
170,
193.
Marius,
35.
Markham, Edwin,
14,
257.
Markwell, Mary,
126.
Martin, Theodore,
96.
Mason, Caroline Atwater,
152.
Massey, Gerald,
66.
Meredith, Owen,
89.
Merriam, George S.,
112.
Miller, James Russell,
293.
Milton, John,
62,
125,
136,
262,
307.
Montaigne,
69.
Moodie, William,
44,
178,
195,
226,
237.
Moore, Henry Hoyt,
238.
Moore, Thomas,
229,
309.
Moxom, Philip S.,
149.
Murray, Ada Foster,
246.
O'Reilly, John Boyle,
314.
Parker, Theodore,
34.
Partridge, William Ordway,
18.
Payne, J. Howard,
361.
Peabody, Francis G.,
332,
334.
Perin, George L.,
3,
12,
153,
163,
176,
215,
290,
322,
368,
379.
Perry, Carlotta,
231.
Perry, Nora,
101.
Plutarch,
298.
Procter, Adelaide A.,
10.
Procter, Bryan Waller,
166.
Pullman, James M.,
21,
56,
225.
Rankin, Isaac Ogden,
25.
Ravenscroft, James,
255.
Realf, Richard,
223.
Reimer, Edward F.,
227.
Rexford, Eben E.,
94.
Richter,
285.
Riley, James Whitcomb,
182,
230,
266,
283,
310.
Robertson, Frederick W.,
250.
Rollins, Alice Wellington,
26.
Roosevelt, Theodore,
65,
74,
197.
Rosetti, Christina,
171.
Ruskin, John,
23,
58,
83,
139,
190,
206.
Russell, Bessie L.,
259.
Sangster, Margaret,
117,
205.
Savage, Minot J.,
47.
Schiller,
363.
Scollard, Clinton,
84.
Scott, Walter,
235.
Shafer, Sara Andrew,
184,
260.
Shakespeare,
38,
107,
113,
258,
345,
351.
Shelley,
100,
111.
Shipman, George W.,
277.
Sill, Edward Rowland,
98,
274.
Smiles, Samuel,
236,
320.
Smyth, Julian K.,
73.
Spofford, Harriet P.,
101.
Spurgeon,
197.
Stanton, Frank L.,
160,
343.
St. Bernard,
269.
Stebbins, Horatio,
280.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence,
95.
Stevenson, Robert Louis,
180,
353.
Stoddard, Richard H.,
45.
Story, William Wetmore,
6,
321.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher,
230.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles,
53,
167.
Swing, David,
46.
Symonds, John Addington,
175,
346.
Taylor, Bayard,
240,
321.
Taylor, Jeremy E.,
59.
Tennyson, Alfred,
232,
326.
Thaxter, Celia,
95.
Tholuck,
357.
Thompson, Maurice,
110.
Thoreau, Henry David,
50,
335.
Townsend, Mary Ashley,
81.
Trowbridge, Robertson,
273.
Urmy, Clarence,
268.
Van Dyke, Henry,
142,
154,
294,
313,
324,
328,
355,
365,
377.
Vinci, Leonardo da,
74.
Wagner, Charles,
20,
63,
114,
204,
356.
Waterman, Nixon,
173.
Whitman, Walt,
22,
40,
102,
270,
349,
358.
Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T.,
31,
86,
122,
127,
147,
167,
298,
301,
303,
348.
Whittier, John Greenleaf,
15,
41,
103,
140,
289,
359,
376.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler,
5,
13,
87,
121,
222,
231,
325.
Willard, Frances E.,
105.
Wordsworth, William,
76,
131,
251,
319.
Wright, Mary Frances,
233.
List of Authors of Prayers