Making the Best of Things [pp. 375-377]

MAKING THE BEST OF THINGS.
before the dregs of the cups were emptied, we
had other divinations to perform with the grounds,
that raised us in our own estimation almost to
the dignity of magicians.
The Chinese, it is now well known, do not
use the flowers of the tea-plant, fragrant though
the yellow blossoms are. The different sorts of
tea are easily discriminated. The Pekoe consists of the first downy leaflets, picked from
young trees in the earliest Spring. In May,
the growth succeeding these forms the Souchong. The third gathering is the strong-flavored Congou. Bohea is a late leaf from a
special district. In green teas, the HIlyson is a
gathering of tender leaflets. The Gunpowder
is a selection of Hyson; the coarser and yellower leaves are the Hyson Skin. The Twankay is the last-gathered crop.
The tea-drinker must not think that he is any
surer of a pure, unadulterated article than is
the wine-drinker. Tea in its finest state never
reaches, never can reach, England. It is overdried for our market, and the over-drying destroys the aroma, which is still further impaired
by the sea voyage. Canton Bohea is composed
of last year's refuse mixed with fresh inferior
sorts, all over-dried to fit them for transportation. The Chinese not only adulterate tea with
other leaves, but they give the leaf an artificial
bloom with indigo and gypsum, and scent it with
resinous gums and buds of fragrant plants.
They turn damaged black leaves into green by
drying them over charcoal fires and coloring
them with turmeric and indigo. Then comes
the English cheat. In I828 a manufactory was
discovered where ash, sloe, and elder-leaves
were dried to imitate tea, and then coated with
white-lead and verdigris to give color and
bloom.
If tea can only be grown in Assam, there may
be soon found a remedy for all this cheating.
In I835 tea was found growing wild in Upper
Assam-a country which we took from the Burmese. The climate is like that of China. At
present, the tea from Assam rather resembles a
coarse, strong Congo, and is better for dilution
with inferior growths that have more flavor,
than to be used by itself.
We can only blame the use of tea when car ried to excess. Tea is but an infusion of an herb
in warm water, and half a pint of warm water
at one meal is enough for any one.
THE progress of knowledge is slow. Like
the sun, we can not see it moving; but after
awhile we perceive that it has moved; nay, that
it has moved onward.
MAKING THE BEST OF THINGS.
EOPLE who habitually make the best of
things may be subdivided into several
classes, the members of which may be totally
unlike in all other respects. There are the people who make the best of their own concerns,
and there are those who make the best of other
people's; while some are consistently cheerful
on all subjects. Or they may be divided according to their motives; some people make the
best of things upon principle, some from timidity, some from want of feeling, and some
from natural lightness of heart. But the most
important distinction is, that the habit of making
the best of things arises in some cases from genuine cheerfulness, and in others from the very
opposite cause. There is a large class of people, commonly called cheerful, who behave in a
cheerful manner, not because they see no reason
to the contrary, but because they see so much
that they feel it necessary to interpose to redress the balance by an effort of will. In their
case cheerfulness is only a sort of inverted gloom,
and its effect upon other people is apt to be any
thing but cheering. A resolute determination to
make the best of every thing may take the form of
heroism, of sternness, of severity, of pride, or
of pathlos, according to the temperament in
which it occurs, and the occasions on which it
is exercised; but it can scarcely ever, except
upon the most undiscriminating observers, produce the effect of genuine sunshine. It is, however, often combined with natural cheerfulness,
and may serve admirably as a sort of backlbone
to it. Without natural cheerfulness it is about
as pleasing as a skeleton without its covering of
flesh and blood. There is nothing more grimi
and repelling than an unbending refusal to acknowledge pain which nevertheless can not be
concealed, and people who have strength enough
to endure much pain of body or mind often miscalculate their power of concealment.
To persist in making the best of things, if it
does not deceive anxious friends, can only malke
them feel that they are kept at arm's length.
People who have much to endure are of course
entitled to any alleviations which they can inno cently obtain. Their friends would not grudge
such alleviations, even if obtained at the cost of
pain to themselves; but if the erection of a bar rier round the sufferer by a resolute denial of
his pain be an alleviation to him, he ought to
use and accept it as such, and not to confound
the protection which his own weakness may re quire with a protection to his friends from the
pain of seeing him suffer. It is so only if it re ally deceives them, which it does much less
375
I
I
I
I