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kept in a healthy and vigorous state.

Regnard,

the French poet, used to observe, "that a happy state of mind is to be found only in some business or profession, which arrests the mind in the same way as an anchor does a ship." We should also cultivate charity. There are many reasons for the indulgence of this disposition. By the constitution of the mind and the nature of things, we ourselves are continually liable to error. By the exercise of illiberality, we do not improve our happiness or the condition of our fellow-creatures. He that is most acute and most severe in discovering failings, is not the most successful in preventing them; therefore Bishop Taylor advises that we "use all reasonable means to excuse the faults of others." But many persons are so perversely inclined, that they would rather condemn a man in twenty instances, than suffer a faulty act to pass unnoticed; and they would rather anathematise every human being, than allow a few unworthy men to escape reproof. They possess a taste for censuring; and they run about to seek for food. "Go not out,"

observes the excellent writer from whom I have just quoted, "to gather sticks to kindle a fire to burn thine own house." But these people not only find defects, but they magnify them; "and this," as Lord Bacon remarks, "doth irritate contradiction, and produce envy and scorn." It has been recommended to choleric persons that they should keep their tongues quiet, or retire, or repeat the letters of the alphabet, or count one hundred, or keep water in the mouth, all of which would

prevent the exercise of undue severity towards others, as well as ungrateful reflections for themselves.

A man that is good-humoured and charitable in one part of his life may afterwards become surly and illiberal; and he that is irritable and harsh may, by a little discipline, and the exercise of reason, become cheerful, kind, and happy.

CHAP. XII.

ON CONTENTMENT AND DISSATISFACTION.

CONTENTMENT is calmness and serenity, which avoids, on the one hand, joy or hilarity; and on the other, gloom or depression. It adapts itself to the circumstances in which it may be placed: it is like the majestic oak of the valley, or the cedar of the mountain, or the pine among the snows in Norway, or the mahogany tree on the burning rocks of the West Indian islands, or the chesnut on the margin of volcanoes, which thrives amidst all its disadvantages, and delights itself in its vigour and its foliage. With contentment a person cannot fail of being happy; without it he must be miserable. "Contentedness," observes the excellent Jeremy Taylor, "produces great peace of spirit. It is the great and only instrument of temporal felicity." It depends not on rank or riches, for the poor man may be pleased; his wishes being small may be gratified, while the monarch may be fretting himself with disappointments. A labourer may feel as much enjoyment in cultivating a rood of ground for his own subsistence, as an emperor would in governing his wide dominions; for the peasant, bred

-"in ignorance and toil,

but the monarch may be ambitious, envious, revengeful, and discontented; he may be unbounded in his desires, while the sphere in which he acts must necessarily be bounded.

The Almighty has made men dependent for their comfort, in some degree, on food and raiment, In civilised society money is needful for providing these things; labour is necessary for procuring money; mental ability is required for the proper direction of labour; and health is necessary for the full enjoyment of all other blessings; - but with these, in a moderate degree (and most men enjoy them) a person may be contented and happy. Xenophon thought there was more unhappiness than enjoyment in the world; but Seneca says, "If we consider the bounties of Providence, we may conclude that the Governor of the world has not only supplied men with what may be necessary, but he has allowed him to enjoy many of the sweets and delicacies of life." If a little will not please a person, a larger sum will not supply his wants. Why is a man displeased with one hundred pounds, and desirous of obtaining a thousand? Is it because the latter sum would gratify his wishes? By no means; for if he had one hundred thousand pounds, he would look with a longing eye on many elegant mansions and delightful estates, which could not be purchased with this amount. Let the sum be increased to a million, and the difficulty of producing satisfaction would still remain. If the whole world were possessed by one person, there is no reason why he should not wish to have Venus, or Mars, or Jupiter. Besides, gratification increases

desire; it satisfies for a moment, but it produces a stimulus for the acquirement of more. Supply the demands of avarice, therefore, and you will make it doubly avaricious. If happiness can only be attained by possessing greater wealth, gratify the first demand, and you will make the person doubly miserable. "No person," observes Jeremy Taylor, "is poor that does not think himself so; but if, in a full fortune, with impatience he desires more, he proclaims his wants and his beggarly condition." The mountaineer, with health and a humble maintenance, may be contented and happy. Thomson says of the Laplanders, —

"They ask no more than simple nature gives;

They love their mountains, and enjoy their storms."

The savage is attached to his forests and his hut, to his dogs and his gun, to his wives and his children. The African delights in the elephant and lion hunt; the Arab is charmed with deserts; the Egyptian admires his Nile-covered country; the Indian delights in his residence of palm-leaves, his temperate food, his temples, and sacred rivers; the Esquimaux loves his snows, his icy dwelling, and his spear. Every man possesses something which attracts and retains his affection; and every nation is influenced by some sacred tie which binds it to its native soil. Bayle supposes that the persons who possess the greatest degree of contentment are not the rich and luxurious, but peasants, and those who occupy the lower conditions of life. Socrates, when he searched for happiness,

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