IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I US 2.5 2.2 1.25 Photographic Sciences Corporation - lis 10 18 i^ III 1.6 \ 4^^ :1>^ \\ % V °:*es □ Showthrough/ Transparence □ Quality of print varies/ Qualite inegale ^ MONTREAL: J. Starke & Co., Book and Job Phikters, St. Francois Xavikr Street. 1870. A J. THE LAW OF HAPPINESS. AN ESSAY. By ROBERT W. PEARSON, AUTHOR OP THE K DALTON PRIZE "DISSERTATION ON THE ATMOSPHERE CONSIDERED IN ITS CHEMICAL, PHYSIOLOGIAL AND METEOROLOGICAL RELATIONS," &c. MONTREAL: J. Starke & Co., Book and Job Printebs, St. Francois Xavikr Street. 1870, INSCRIBED TO Rev. JOHN ALEXANDER, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Montreal, AND TO T. JAMES CLAXTON, Esq., President of the IMontreal Young Men's Christian Association, Chairmen of the respoctive Societies, at whose request the following thoughts were put together and for circulation amongst whose Members they arc at the like request, now issued. . \ . THE LAW OF HAITINESS. Man is the measure of the universe. According as lie is so do all thinjis appear. On earth there is nothinfj; great but man, and in man there is nothing great but soul. Man is a perpetual seeker. What is the object of that search ? " Ilappini'ss in our being's end and aim." Essay on Man. — PorB. " Say to all manner of happiness, I can do without thee." Sartor Kesartus. — C'aulylk, Whether wc endorse the Poet or the Philosopher, or neither, the theme is confessedly of interest, and its discussion may be of im- mediate advantage. The conjunction of terms frequently deemed so opposite and conflicting as " Law " and " Happiness," may at first seem an incongruous association, and suggestive of anything but happiness. Yet reflection will furnish reasons for such a combination, and the progress of our discussion may make its appropriateness manifest. What we are to undcrst.tad by the term law, when applied in such a connection as that of the present, has been characterised by the profound and biilliant Erskino in a celebrated argument "as that " which God the Sovereign of the universe, has prescribed to all " men, not (observe) by any formal promulgation, but by the internal " dictate of rea.>;ou alone. It is to be discovered by a just considera. " tion of the agreeableness or disagreeableness of human actions to " the nature of man." It is that inner law of which Cicero speaks so often, and to which he made his ardent appeals. It has ever been a conviction with us, that spiritual laws and operations have their analogies, tyjios and symbols n\oro largely and truly exhibited in the material universe thau is commonly acknow- '<^«J«otl, and Unit iimcl, of *l, . . • ^Vill u. acti„„, „,,. ^ j; "" "'•.';« /''o tra„,seript of o„o ,.roat -Jl^-de„of-n.ein, : ,^,-":^'"^,'^'-«; that the i.^,.; °«-rUin. to ,1.0 pattern «h„w ^ L ^ "' *'"'" '""'^^ "" ^'"'"Kh 7 'o us, or reeeivo fro,„ u s ' , '" '"T."^'" ''^ ''"''-•d 'o co^. ;7«t-;.atiseJ its deduction 't:^:;''^^V'"*'^"'' '" ^^»-' "-' "- '■'-• when, and the pi , ' Y"'''''; r"'"^'"" "'^ ^« «- ••Tl--'tly erratic oon.et.s which W V "■'^''''" '^'■"''''^■"^ "-« ^•'-«". and then dart on their nil" "". ""'""^ "" "'« fi^'U of ^"-^^ void. 8ul,Iin.e are th roS ^'"^T 1 ""^""" ^'"-"^'^ the ' " -t '-citato, hcvever, to " ' ^''>"^'^"' plulosophcrs. I rl'JMes hath also her burden of n , "^ "^""^ '''''''''''"' t*-"* mcta- « f t.n.Iy tenned :e.2 afte ' I.t ^ ' ''^'"''" indifferently or ««7t.on. I „,„ j3,,suadcd 1 t t 'nr "" '" '"' "«" ^""'^^ *« ^vet ""^'ht with certainty be forotdd f o .f If "• "'""^'^ '' ^''^PP^-.s ; '? -"oundings, of persons a d th = rr"r*'""««^-'"dand '"«cry are no n.ere peradventur bu'l '" ''"* ''»PP'"-« and "oeessary laws as silent and invWbl b,^ ""^ ^"^^""'-d by «« that by which n.atter is h d to ; . T '""^"'"^^ """^ P-V"'*^"^ "'asnet. While these pri e p,. ' ' "' ''"' ''''^ «'- ^^ the spirit, affected as they are bv H P^'^'''"'"^''^ i» the region of -rarate and se.ui-ereaievin' «;::'''"" ""' '^^•^'^P'"-* of a *" '^-overy, and the applL . Tucir"' '' l'"" ^"P'^^'"^' ^^'J- -ny provisos and quleat I If ::;;^^'';T '^"''"^^'' ^^^i"'- onmn.an conduct to bo coveted TudlZ h ' ""'^ «« a criterion laudable ambition. ' ^ "'^ attainment is a subject of r7'7 h.vo shown a i.r.i^^ztz,r.:f''''- "■"' *« >he Aadow of „„ i„,feit,„ I "J'-''^ >'«-' v,„blo world us but •"""t, «f n„t,or so called „, E °, . r»wors, and the ,„ov„. "■« occult force, Jt i : „ ° ;:'■;-""" °f the prescoce of "'opt .n, most illogie,,,, ^„ ''°" 7 *". 'I'oy >'«rk- (h,l ,hcr„ h., "■" '•-""»' ^v"? • ;;:^ L :: r,r -^^ ^'-^"^ «'. "nuojs ..IJ. Unquestionably tliose tonus were scattered, nrnl their projierties or forces imparted to coiiMtitute a great iiiu.-euni for man,— a vast schooliiouHe of tlmnglit. The cartli lias not been made in vain. " He made it to he iidiahited." A prepared abode raises the presumption of adaptati((n to an« veil of '',» """ "'• ""*'■"» of Ji °"° «° "" f«-- » «Ji''ll Plav 1 ,n. • *''*'*^ «^en in fufuro ., experiences ? 1st. To be In constituent prerogative is the ri-^ht^ir "'"'* ^''^'" something tn ^ . conceive L 1 . T'^ '"'^^^"'■^'^ i'.'' j ;, ,-' ^^r^*''' Commission '-'n ' aniono- a]] thp ■ j j •'^ on their own •,v;« ,• T f '''^'^ 'nJieritance Ti.nn '"' ^^^e P'^'ces, blild,; I ''''^'''•^■' ^^''««e souJs i "'■ !^^^««r« spinning J«/ ns c^uostion as in oth^r T^""' '' '''^^ destiny - "••w-., ™«^,, »e„o..:,! :« r;''^ ■"<- °f **.« °"' " r°"o« Jtao«.rd of. 'tliin- of tJio ^ go so far as but through cxpeiieiicos ? •6'";?, matter ;' I would '« COIIscioiis- ifi'es. constituent 'o. Man's oinmission fivilege to ^- Every 's «inother inesa that '■ederitial luse they ly world ddenino ' "I've s waste pinning gh dry ; who 'J pro. foam, i'lipet nown inter- sion. sible the 3S111 rhe !SS. of, of their own nature have persistently sought in something tangible ; with approaching manhood the race having tried and tired in the bootless chase will discern that the happiness so fondly yet fruitlessly delved for is neither in this thing nor that thing, is neither there nor yonder, but within, and simply lies in the consciousness of a right relation to time and its concomitants ; in the consciousness of being fully occupied in harmony with our capacities. A solution of the question clearly involves that of the ministry of labor. "We are all in quest of happiness, and yet how diversified our occupations and how dissimilar our conditions. No two pebbles taken from the resounding shore arc mottled and rounded exactly alike, though wrought upon by the touch of the self-same laving ocean, and no two souls have been placed in precisely the same con- junction of mind and things, and tl uman will— great architect of circumstances— has never the same materials to deal with in dif- ferent persons. Yet through all the din of City life and from the quietude of rural haunts, rises the self same cry uttered or unex- pressed.—" Kind heaven, Grant us happiness ! " Take but one illustration from the daily habits of some present. The interests of the Merchant arc commonly supposed or said to be iu his money and to bo measured by his proBts. But every Merchant was a Man before he was a Merchant, and ho will be a man still when the :edger and day-book, with all trace of merchandise shall have been dissolved in flame— aye somewhere and somehow when a new heavens shall bend over a world responsive and reflective in its newness. The changes of life, the fluctuations of commerce or the incident of death, may at any moment remove riches from the merchant or the merchant from his riches ; but the relation that has subsisted between them, and the vice or virtue consequent thereon have gone to the -aoulding of a deathless character. Inside of every Merchant there is a Man. Back of all the distinctions of life and the isms of trade lies essential manhood. Man may not at any time separate himself from what he does or is. An ancient Philosopher thanked God for his wealth ; and when his property was destroyed by fire and shipwreck, he thanked God (it is recorded), yet more because he had been taught the wisc'om which left him as well off as before. The possibility of such a boon being ours may not be wisely disregarded. For the end of our com- mercial, industrial or professional life is not money— you are with * B 10 mc thai i( b thai to rtioi, :,., „„ . »» much of these ft„„, „„„ ,J, ™ ™"M be taught ,o Jl ! As contributions to the f„n,^ .f , -;o in dollars and cents the til oV"'"" '^^P'"^'^'^' -'^o ^^all esti to the dauntless espousal of 1 1^ /'"^"'^'^ ^« »"«*^Jfi«h char^^^ '«!>o«ence in its struggle w th thl f ''^"'^^^ ^'^^ error o^^o^ «P'"t of submission to Ch w "'"'"« ''^ ^'^^^^ and ^f the !"bjoct, and not its LordT t 'hos'"'". "' """^^^ ou;selvlI t ^-^toKightinandf.;!'::;:,:' "* ^^^ ^^^^-^ - ^^ eot 1 can starve but not li. " IV ".an-, eacutchcon. None b„T!/ """"' «"» «» «n?»ve on l^.c.b. diaparitj,, majhapIatM '' """'"^-^ ha^, in ■"„ t obsc™, bea , J, 4rr;tv„7d "™ ■« '- -' «- 'bo one ■„ the thing ZVhi^ ^-gbt-that ,ve eontond pT° °er?:r:rr'^"*-~-ob::rr ^« rests upon the effort and ho iu - ^^^ ^»»J« of Benefi '' b<^l'«ved that God blesses 11 to load— it is ^Sl't to extract se obtain from most brijiiant 't advantiige. *»t such and of us by in. mirations and :ed with liap- ' return and 10 shall esti- ish charity; error, or of and of the 3Jves as its or of con- ingrave on completely home is a e dwelling from the 1 its inex- st times h. Tho e. It is through Place i useful. Benefi- what it calling is the all our posses- slesses those who earn the most : that the best soaty in tho Kin-doni are reserved for sueli as can ])ay tiio highest price for tlieni. We came into being with tlicsc habits of thought and customs of commercial life surrounding us like swad.lling clotlics. We dare not shirk our placoin their midst. But we protect against the idea tliat dominates therein. The Book says, take Imman nature at its best, be liberal • the commercial world says, take human nature at its worst, be sus- pici.ms, The l}.;ok says give, sometimes perhaps unwisely,' but let your purpose be pure; the commercial world says, consider it a shame to be ever over-reached ; and so the stru-ole goes on until the finer feelings arc blunted ; the charitable instincts are uprooted, and the man upon the theatre of whose heart these forces are at war becomes a far different creature from what he would were he -ov' crned by the law of his higher, better and truer nature, and norby the idea that permeates the world of gain. TIw amount handled and the magnitude of the transactions is of httle moment. Would we be happy ? There is as much call for obedience to principle in planing a board, using the yard stick visiting the patient, as in directing a warehouse ; interchan-in-Mhe product of nations, or guiding the destiny of a people. All activity IS a failure as to results whose spiritual asscssmejit reveals first and only sc//: Among our great cities passes, one on whmn were men labelled according to their true history miglit be road,—'- Sold for a quarter of a miUion dollars, and a stone country seat;" and upon another moral bankrupt, by the selfsame rule, might be seen : " Sold for a counterfeit si.x-pence, and the reversion of a stone jail." Truly God made the earth, but man has made the world. _ A numerous class and as many-hued as the rainbow they would taui imitate, are the subjects of another realin,-the world of fashion A world where the •- cut," the " style," is everything ; where brain and nobihty of nature, vigor of purpose, and energy of pursuit, are nothing; a world of scis.sors and broadcloth, and ribbons and laces It, too, sets up its standard of happiness. It is sought in t!,e fashion of things. Poverty is a shame, according to its notion ; to be found doing anything useful is to be lessened in its estimation ; idleness .mikI frippery are its components ; inertia its paradise, and its aristocracy IS the shabbiest and meanest known among men. There are many who make pleasure avowedly the end and aim -of their lives. They are uear of kin to the last named family. 12 They have various (on,,. • ., . »Wr"iil,loga,„o." tL "' ™"'"'"i«r wLrcwill, , j • wild oats •■ .. „ . . ,'"',>' »"■» " liavii,™ ,T,..-, «. """ '" draignat, '» "know a .lr„'"! "'" "»'■'''." ™ P»filitics, a„di,s buJdi 1 i^""^ "' '"■'S'-' '.»i«l b„ >"" '" ftc first few year, ,kp' *-n °~ "'^ """'Prised a„,! ""'""« '«est and b,«est in 1 ," '"""'''' •"''"'^L 1 ,f ""°'' "P *»t *erHno,v life; „ f '°;' "^ ";-> "-non about, „"'",'7' thus, and hav. ! ? ^^' P''*'^'^^ «ie vanitv nf ,'" ^'""'""'^^'^ •'J^^^^ ? Guilt! "^''^'^ ^■*- What Shan we f''^''"-" '^'^PP^'''^^^ two kinds "hi " "f '" ^f^^"^«»r bu notT "^ *^''" '^ "^^^ other the glow .'nd h r ''" P'^^^P'-rosenco of deJ^^'T • ^""^ - of ■■"■"oonfe, of purity °d ;." "«'■ The Aoeted 5170^.1 T ""''' f u,Klor.tan^nt^3:;:^;;r^i:/"T ^^" *'■- -'^ ^ ration aiHl interro,,ato'tf,e a^es It T '^'' ^^"'"'"^ ^^""^Pi- "'"JWtj of ,Hen ? We k,K.w 1 . '.""^,r'''""' '^'"<^'^''"' "f the o,.ent -n Le di^.ti«fied with :^'T.:^:!^r -' ''''-'' '''' -^ ;;"d are 1 ke the pondulun. ever p^ iZ^"" ^>'^^- *J-» t'-J are, tlic wise ,uca„. Consider the J "^'^ '^"* "^^^•^'•' ■'^^idi"- in tJicrcforo Yot ih. quc.'tiou with all proncr -.lln let the answer must be in tl, """.P'orcr allowances t^'^re IS not. How poor' n,cJ1^- ' "'-''^'^.-cn-phaticallv .sceptical view of exisL ^ ?"' ,^,7"'"'"r ""'^ -"^-"Ptible is Z -»j It is ,.u who little ^^fr^^'^^ "^^^^ ^--"^ ^tsolf-by n.akin, subluna.,- evitnj^ H "^ ^ ^•^^'" '^^' -^ i„ --t. of life by accident and di": e ^f '" "' " ''^^ *"'^- "^ the and sacrificed by faniinn • fi , ' '^'"'^^ ^^''P arc slain bv u-nr battle field starti t ^ ^ ^^ f '^^ ^^'^^ ''^^ ^^^^ ^f*^ and soul and stren^^Ih.t • • "' '"'" ^'"^^ ^« *'>« ^vaste of Tlu-nk of the thousands of hon OS !l^'""^'^ «" "" ''-^^-J every day. trotted out by the carking ^a fl^?^^ ^'^ ^"^^^ -'ay a'd and scarcely a season for^. n,ed tl„ o '' "' '""^^'-'^^ '^^or, 7'-n who pine „.ore sadly for ;" " ' P^'^^^ '" «r those othe '- weary n.otion of a needle o-a dX to"'": r'^" "'^^''^^^ «'«» perpetual n.otion has been discovered iJ 117" ™; '" '''''''' ''^"'^^ of the great nmltitude of u.e„ wl ' and 7 ^'''- , '''''''' '' «- '"'es noon and evening; this openin J L!rr-^Tr^"" '^S'^'"' '"^^^^^ ;n and ..ek out, with no refrelh.t t'";! t'' °' ^''^ ^'^^' ^^'^^k '"'« 'f body, no aspiration, no "^ , , 'r'"'^* '''"<^ ^^tentin.es but terest larger than the busings nn P *^"^J"^"^«" i "o '^phere of in- -til they eoa.e to do their worr^? ''' ^''"^^ ^^^^' ^-" « P- 1 - by a blind instinct ; and all t^ -fo ! /"IT""" "^ *'-"^-bt'and 15 bulent waters, whether life and its toils, in and of themselves, apart from their clicitive character meet man's capacities and harmonise with his being ? The indignant protest of humanity will proclaim the negative. There is nothing to be desired in toil for its own sake ; Yet it is not for their toil that sympathy is to be given, but for the consequences of their labors, not necessary, but oh ! so common, and showing themselves not only in the moral coldness, the intellectual listlessness or the intellect intensified at a point and associated with cynical criticism, but in the darker vices into winch so many plunge headlong for the coveted happiness — precipitating themselves into the vortex of licentiousness, the whirl of intomperaucc and the mad- ness of gambling. Or grant that the subject of the world's wear and tear is kept back by prudential motives, or blessed prejudices (for there are such), or other spells from these overt acts, these spasmodic tilts with misciy and duels with despair, still its fell influences operate and their ten- dency unrelieved, mark you, is evil and that continually. No, no ; Light and Immortality alone make it possible for all men to be happy here ard now. The Cross of Christ uplifted, shall act as the lightning conductor of all time and bury the furies at its feet beneath the affluence of Divine grace. The professional man, the scholar and the perfunctory divine, if >juch there be, discover that there is no more healing virtue in what a man thinks than what a man does. The brain regarded as an end in itself is as powerless as the hand to secure happiness. Much study is a weariness to the flesh. Education divorced from Religion is power without corresponding guidance. I may be mistaken, but my conscience would not sufier me to vote for the expulsion ot the Bible from the Common school. Knowledge is power, but with bared and trembling hand the sceptre is to be wielded. The Poet Laureate sings wisely — " Our little systems have their day. They have their day and cease to be ; They are but broken lights of Thee And Thou, Lord ! i rt more than they." Our first parents proved that knowledge and happiness are not necessarily one, but ofttimes far removed. The Professiontl man is not less than the Trader exposed to belittleing conceptions of the dig- nity of labor ; and the sacredness of sorrow and the mission of life. 10 The scholar who comes unrJnr i^ -n,so,„o verse; or is capt.>r;4 , fporf 'V'"'""^^ «^ "«--'« or explores the rich bequests of I^'s 1 " '" ""'"•^^''•^ '' ^«-"«•-^ •^^'lult, but he is a^sailid and tha r ' ^. '"' ''"^"'- «" violent a, II -y. The betrayal is wiU, « I ll' ';:^'^-^ P^-^, be that what «0"'">' peril ; no torches flash in the dart ^"' "' P"'''"* '^"^'^^ of •»e" invades the silence of the soul 'n''' ' "" ^•'""^P of armed or the U„i,,, One is betra'c "t L ^7'/ ■'^^ "^ '" ^'^« ^^ «««a.led and undermined i„\he n'htC ''''""• ^"«'^'«»«ly »^ore torpid ; as if our veins had to "' "" ^"""^ ^««ker an J we know not that the warm curre tn^ "^"'"^ '" «"^ «'««P ""d yet vital strength slippiu, frol Z'^^ Z " "'^ f ^^^'"» '-^' -^ o-ve ring. The oft repeated petk oVf irff ' ""''"^ ^«^«« '»« -- bear U to within sound'of theCve„lv ', ^"'^ "^ ^^''^ ««»' "«d "JJ%«unn:. Kcason sways no lonrr"^^ '''.'''■• ^^"^cience ha. its band of the affections are i/vei! ed £ T ""^"'''^ ^^"^P*^"" One %al ty. The harmony of the £, !' ;'^'"Pr°"^J;^e, if „ot into dis- happiness is unknown. From time /. ''* ^""*^«^ ^^^^ highest but we have no reserved p^werrdl "^^ '"'""«" "P ^- «tren"t "lease of our breath. V^Ies eall to V'"."^ ""« '"^'^ -^ ^ ^rr but they are" more and mo aiL^v i '"/ ""' " ^^^ »P of tongues. Stories that once had aZen ol^ beard an.ong the Babel faii upon a closed ear ; objects of piC th J "f '''''^''"^ "'e soul «re now passed by with the indiffeJ 1 1^^' Tf '^' '""^'^'^^ once a Joss of feeling far more to be d 1'^ Tf^ beart-disclosing OSS of a gift by the destitute one Oc ' ''' ^^"^"^^ «-" th^ arouse and stir the great heart nf\ ''""' ""'^ enterprises that -pulses that once^,:^,^rit^\^^^^^ l^^.ve us unstirred. The souris Ld a! "^^'^^ ^^ «^«»- "^d Jtnpes; to bear many wound Lm T" "^"" *« ^^^^ -any faculties; to endure many indiJ^ 1 '' ^^ *be inharmonious Piness. We came to measure ^aLe f"'^' '"' ^^^ ^-b ha" ^rth ; by the load a man bea ral 7 { ^'^^^^^'^^^ «"d not by tbe pack of the camel remarwhtr f ^' ^'' ^•^'"^^"'"g thai -think that we n^ust Trg'^^h 7^' '"'" '^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ noble impulses and live ffr othfr ! .T V^''^ ^^"« bigh thought fynbol is Home becomes 1^^^: f ' ^^'''"^ "^^ ^bose hilS •^« feHcity is Aspiration dSS^ ^^^ «ttitu3et ^oung man I Young woman IT 1 '' ^''"^'°^- S woman Us the process even nowgoing on? of Homer's '« of science, '0 violent an 'e that what «t warns of P of armed »n like that Insidiously iveaker and ep and yet away, and Mes its in- B soul and ice has its re. One into dis- J highest strength we have ^onie up le Babel the soul 'ns once 'closine lan the es that J and er and many )nious I hap- ot by r that ; and ghts, jhest lein on? Has the dust of the journey already settled on your pnrnients? Is your ideal less lofty than of old time,— your standard of excellence lowered ? Do the clarion notes of duty sound less distinctly ? With experience are you losing the rich dower of youthful emotions ? Hold on to the bright vision ! On peril of your happiness let it not go. Joy is on the wing. It may not come again for any tears. The intangible, if suffered to depart, may refuse at last to be bought with a price, or wooed with a prayer. Seize the hour and say, " I will not let thee go except thou b'css me — even me." Has it not been so in the life-drama of more than one ? Have not we revived the old story of the Sibyl, and books of Ancient Rome, and also discovered that the valuable thing is dearer each time it is offered, though there be less and less bounteous store of it? And when the season of visitation has come and been suffered to depart, with its cloud of dewy mercies undropped, has there not followed or come at the hour of awakening to contemplate the toil and chart of a wasted life, a dull aching void ; and we have been tempted to give up the battle for dead nothingness, and have said, mayhap, there's nothing for it but to bid the fair and entrancing dream adieu for ever, and go bac' wearily to the aimless and unhappy existence of the many around us. I say with consideration, that if I had nothing to do but pour the power of my endless life into these surroundings, be they books, pictures, or goods of whatsoever kind, life would indeed become a tangled skein ; it would be a huge farce were it not that the very grandeur of our capacities made it a tragedy. Activity alone is not blessed. But that laborer who goes forth at the time of the singing of birds, and at twilight wends his way home to minister to the wants of wife and child, or to beatify the relation of parent and child, brother and sister ;— ah ! affection gilds that life, be it ever so humble ; the beaded sweat becomes a hero's gem, and the lines ploughed over the wrinkled brow mark the victor's march. He has his opportunity,— it is the opportunity of being ^wor,— honestly, grandly, nobly poor, and by his thankful happiness he preaches the kingdom of Heaven within us indeed. Verily in the breaking of bread he sees God. And that other man, moving in more exalted sphere, whence the secret of his tranquility ? His labor is carried on with the calm- ness and dignity of one whose happiness is not bound up in the bales of merchandise, he gathers and scatters at will. He accomplishes so much because he has discovered the secret of repose , the repose which 18 surely flow,s from the coiisciouHncsy ofk.in.r fullv vimAnv..] ; i rustle at a leather is by comparison «s a thundcr-clan /"•'^''''"PPy. contented and blessed."— Life immt >,.. i ;» «> n... f r:;„. - ;:';t':f i/sr:ts "deign to tender me the one I mi-ht prefer in ,.ll\ r/ u ' without hesitation, I should request Wra^Tt t V v'd '' T Ban.e spirit said Malebranehe, " If I held Tru h eti' "I . I should open it and let it fly in o der tw T T" '".'"^ '"""^ a^ ea^ure it.-. . The inte^t.^" J^llJl ^ i^Xs^ "" cinred th.. a man s knowledge is measured by the amount of 11 n.onta aet.vity t.ntum scit homo, ,nantum ojLZ TltnZ he wh i ':i ' ;:r '^^ ^" r ^-^ ^^-^-^ ^^etafes :::„: ne Whole truth. To be ever seeking and never comin^ to a know ofaif t r V'^ '' "'^'•''^^'""' ^ '-- ""^ ^« the^ei:„t„ :; mind Tl . . '»7;5"t»tion, but progress that marks the happy m.nd. The unrest and disquietude that is the outeome of unsetS ness as to the primary truths of Knowledge ,nd Destiny isan. tion ft-om whieh delivoranee should be deoutly prater rnrth" «oul that in its intellectual excursions acquires and ays 'up wolf t sted principles, that like the bird of passage.lhen prepared ^'rhe w « flight, across the ocean, plun.es for departure without a feather rTffio!! iiidTar- ' "" '' ^-^^ - '- ''- -' p-:^-a7t:r that ttt^^Thl*''''" ^- "' "'''''*•'" ^ ^' ^««* ^ If ^« i-^terpret hefrtu e rlwl !7"""r "■"*'" " Pr^^Phetically descriptive of the future (wh.eh I do not), and anticipate that it« felicity proceeds from Its inertness we err-for there they rest not night or dJy^ The! cease not in the fulfilment of imperious, yet gradous, Zj^l r \ 10 I. c. Thoro is a morbid and tlospcriite crjiviiij; abroad for rtwt, — only rest ; and foeliimH indulucd as if all tliat wan wanted was to lie down in tlie dark and sleep. " Give us sleep " cried the distant Africs to the immortal Livingstone. Pathetic cry ! for under the ima{.'c of sleep they pictured the stajriuition of the grave. Yet lluposo is the com- plement of activity and needful to beauty. And it is precisely this element of llepose which proceeds from the harmony of the faculties upon which we have insisted as an integral element of happiness and of its Law. Repose, as opposed to strain, pass^ion, turmoil, not to consciousness, activity, being. Repose and activity met in the Second Man— the Lord. And were not our conceptions of the truly beautiful obscured, the primary significance of "0'A«/o.s" rendered by us " Good " might be freely used and Jesus would be our " Beautiful Shepherd." Living in ourselves is as miserable a thing as living/or ourselves. We are constituted to need something else. " It is not good for man to be alone." The uplifting of my hand communicates a movement to the invisible air felt at the remotest bounds of space, and appre- ciable to the Infinite Eye. Not an isolated atom exists, and strange as it may sound God never made an imlcpeudvnt man. The harmo- nious exercise of our faculties implies a legitimate place for, and an appropriate development of the Afteetions. 2° — To be happy we must have something to love. Without the emotional part, our intellectual activity becomes that of wasps sucking from many flowers, but making no honey. Of the pure Intellect unhallowed by emotion the Devil is a type— Satan is Intellect intensified to a point. " Get out of yourself," says a wise philosophy of happiness. Pride whispers "not if I know it," and then comes that desperate struggle of which misery is one running commentary. Think you it is without design that we breathe an atmosphere of mystic and suggestive relationships— That we traverse the regions of Child and Parent, of Youth and Sweetheart, of Husband and Wife, or sustain the positions of Master and Apprentice, of Counsellor and Client ; of Principal and Agent ; of Physician and Patient, of Merchant and Trader, or take part in the broader inter-dependencies of ignorance and knowledge, of inexperience and judgment ? Not one but is educational ; not one but calls out the soul. The perfect One hath clothed the truth in fittest words and the text I now quote is like so much of what Jesus said.—" All mine are thine and thine 20 lhf#e but a 1 erptal.zed ,„t., the ,u...st ,HM-tVot beauty, " Uum " cr ,t.s H,K=ech Our cry ,.s to tl.o earth, but the earth rolls on a loni grave; to the heavens but they are an of bras.; we int .""uo ^^^ but theuee proceeds a voice, '' Yo have Mos s Id M Jl ^ the.e T ' . 7/^ ^ "■'''' '"'■' '''''' utterances as -e- I me ye shall have peace, and n.y joy shall be lu you. The J<'> of tlie Lord is your strength." ^°~ '^,""^'' '''""^'' '''""''' '" "^° '""nan l^rcast Man never in but always to bo blust " '' I backward cast my eyes on prospects drear • And forward, though I cannot see, I guess and/.ar I " thre/!rf "'''/'"'•'''*'"'' ^'••''^''^' ^'""^^' ^^t''^"^'' --d Love and ree shadows dog Us steps, Scepticisn, Despair and Hate ; itr ieais lis presence m the three realms of Memory, Experience and A„t Psalin .. T.„ , ""8'ltof l»od, and its possossioa vii.dicalw tl,o r.al,„ Tl,e good ,„a„ .h.ll bo ,„t»6ed from himself" W„ and e™ 1^' """''' '"'."■° ">•" '" ">»-»- -,,Je,s de lop,,.!! and everl ,t„,j. p„g,,« in truth, puri.j,, |„ve a„d happines,. '■♦. i. 21 from the depths ol' iniJ-occaii caHttnj< its docp shaded shadow of f,'looin athwart the waterH, until Htruck with bars «f uiiHhino and tlaHhcMof f^lory into a thing of grandeur. So tho life that U needs tho niaiitlitig radiance of the life that is to aunc, tho gladdening of its hope at prcset\t and the assurance of its blissful fruition hereafter, to tunc th*^ beats of (he heart to a hapj)y psalm of life. Then life beconiii: sucred. To sweep a crossing may be to serve God. and he that i',p|low4 ' plough with honest toil may hear a voice out of the burning bush of Revelation, and the lowly place where the si.irit worships is a Holy Jerusaletn of the Church. The common round, tho trivial task, furnish steps to tho skies. Daily life rises into the significance of daily sacrifice. lie that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet is to receive a Prophet's reward— nothing less. "They also serve who only stand and wait" Having something to do, something to love, something to hope for in happy unison, the whole man will expand. He will energise freely, and, consequently, with pleasure —for pleasure is the reflex of unforced anu unimpeded energy. All tho products of this state of mind bear tho stamp of some excellence and prophecy perfection. Genius is enthroned in this domain. Persistent effort is its conspic- uous attribute, and that surely is a prayer of the intellect. Men 7nay become happier and stronger if they will. There is nothing more beautiful in creation than each man's private soul when fairly dealt with and elicited. Helen, when she explored Nature for a model of a golden cup that she could fitly offer on the altar of Oraua as per- fectly beautiful, found nothing more exquisite than her own fair bosom.