I conclude therefore and say, there is no happiness under the sun; there is no felicity in that the world adores. That wherein God himself is happy, the holy angels are happy, in whose defect the devils are unhappy, that dare I call happiness. Whatsoever conduceth unto this, may, with an easy metaphor, deserve that name. Whatsoever else the world terms happiness is to me a story out of Pliny, a tale of Boccace or Malizspini, an apparition or neat delusion, wherein there is no more of happiness than the name. Bless me in this life with but peace of my conscience, command of my affections, the love of thyself and my dearest friends, and I shall be happy enough to pity Cæsar. These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my most reasonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth; wherein I set no rule or limit to thy hand of providence. Dispose of me according to the wisdom of thy pleasure. Thy will be done, though in my undoing. Sir Thomas Browne.

Happiness is a road-side flower growing on the highways of usefulness; plucked it shall wither in thy hand, passed by it is fragrance to thy spirit. Trample the thyme beneath thy feet-be useful be happy. Tupper.

Often and often to me, and instinctively, has an innocent pleasure felt like a foretaste of infinite delight, an antepast of heaven. Nor can I believe otherwise than that pure happiness is of a purifying effect; like Jewish.

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bread from Heaven, no doubt it is meant to invigorate as well as to gratify. Mountford.

Pleasures which involve no duties are to be suspected. We must not buy the right to enjoy, by fidelity to duty, but find our real happiness in duty, though we may seek refreshment elsewhere. Milton says,

"Sense of Pleasure

We may well spare out of life, and live content;
Which is the happiest life."

But, I imagine, few young persons would agree with him. A stream always among woods or in the sunshine is pleasant to all and happy in itself. Another, forced through rocks and choked with sand, under ground, cold, dark, comes up able to heal the world.

The definition of happiness is not easy, if we understand by it, not merely certain fortunate accidents, but rather that feeling through which the interior man receives his deepest sensations of pleasure or pain; for it is very possible to suffer many and great griefs, and yet not to feel thoroughly unhappy in consequence; but rather to find our moral and intellectual nature so purified and exalted thereby, that we would not wish to change this feeling for any other. On the other hand, we may be in the possession of much peace and enjoyment in the things granted us, we may have absolutely no grief,and yet find within ourselves an insupportable void. To

be happy, we require a proper employment for the mind. and the feelings, certainly a varied one, and one that shall be suitable to the general character, and so much so as to satisfy every need of existence.

What is needed to make life really valuable and happy is a mind thoroughly alive, rich in the power of reproducing all that it gains inwardly from its own deep communings with itself, or externally from its observations on men and things; or else the steady working out of a series of ideas, begun early, and embracing in their course perhaps the greater portion of a life.

It is my firm conviction that man has only himself to blame, if his life appears to him at any time void of interest and of pleasure. Man may make life what he pleases, and give it as much worth, both for himself and others, as he has energy for. Over his moral and intellectual being his sway is complete. Wm. Von Humboldt.

To doubt God's will to make us happy, is to show a callousness which no benefits can win. Yet we are not happy, though the Almighty could so easily fill our little cups to the brim, if not to overflowing! We must find some clew to the anomaly, some other end at which His benevolent will is aiming, while He withholds the joys we crave so beseechingly. An Essay on Intuitive Morals.

It was true in old times, it is infinitely more true now, that what is called virtue in the common sense of the word, still more that nobleness, godliness, or heroism of

character in any form whatsoever, have nothing to do with this or that man's prosperity, or even happiness. The thoroughly vicious man is no doubt wretched enough; but the worldly prudent, self-restraining man, with his five senses, which he understands how to gratify with tempered indulgence, with a conscience satisfied with the hack routine of what is called respectability, such a man feels no wretchedness; no inward uneasiness disturbs him, no desires which he cannot gratify; and this though he be the basest and most contemptible slave of his own selfishness. Providence will not interfere to punish him. Let him obey the laws under which prosperity is obtainable, and he will obtain it; let him never fear. He will obtain it, be he base or noble. Nature is indifferent; the famine, and the earthquake, and the blight, or the accident, will not discriminate to strike him.

And again, it is not true, as optimists would persuade us, that such prosperity brings no real pleasure. A man with no high aspirations, who thrives and makes money and envelops himself in comforts, is as happy as such a nature can be. If unbroken satisfaction be the most blessed state for a man, he is the happiest of men. Nor are those idle phrases any truer, that the good man's goodness is a neverceasing sunshine; that virtue is its own reward.

Job was learning to see that it was not in the possession of enjoyment, no, nor of happiness itself, that the difference lies between the good and the bad. True it might be that God sometimes, even generally, gives such happiness in, but it is no part of the terms on which He

admits us to His service, still less is it the end which we may propose to ourselves on entering His service. Happiness He gives to whom He will, or leaves to the angel of nature to distribute among those who fulfil the laws upon which it depends. But to serve God and to love Him is higher and better than happiness, though it be with wounded feet, and bleeding brow, and hearts loaded with sorrow.

Prosperity, enjoyment, happiness, comfort, peace, whatever be the name by which we designate that state in which life is to our own selves pleasant and delightful, as long as they are sought or prized as things essential, so far have a tendency to disennoble our nature, and are a sign that we are still in servitude and selfishness. Only when they lie outside us, as ornaments merely to be worn or laid aside as God pleases, only then may such things be possessed with impunity.

Westminster Review.

Most men gamble with Fortune, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God. In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance, and shalt always drag her after thee. A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. It can never be so. Nothing can bring