A prescription for low spirits

 The Rev. Sydney Smith said he suffered from low spirits. In 1820, he wrote one of the great letters on how to keep your spirits up.

Maybe it’s just the endless display of bad behavior by the tyrant trying to pass as president, but my spirits aren’t exactly soaring. I found Smith’s letter useful.

The letter was a reminder that the world is filled with things that do, in fact, lift my spirits: books, friends, coffee, the natural world.

It’s a reminder that I need to pay more attention to the room where I “commonly sit” — my study. I’m indifferent to décor, but it could be tidier.

I also think Smith is right that low spirits are “always made worse by dignified concealment.”

• “Letter from Rev Sydney Smith to Lady Georgiana Cavendish, daughter of the Duke of Devonshire”; Irish Independent, Oct. 7, 2013. It’s here:

https://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/letter-from-rev-sydney-smith-to-lady-georgiana-cavendish-daughter-of-the-duke-of-devonshire/29637570.html