HAPPINESS is a subject which has engaged the pen of moralists, historians, and poets, in every country and in every age; and yet there are few works which are expressly devoted to the regulation of human conduct for the purpose of producing enjoyment. Happiness is that sensation of pleasure or delight by which we are satisfied with ourselves and with all around us. It is a tranquillity; a sweet serenity; an assemblage of enchanting imagery, through which the imagination ranges: it is fairer than the visions of Eastern skies, and more. delightful than the perennial glories of a Mahometan paradise. But happiness, pure and unalloyed, is seldom to be found. The sun of enjoyment is frequently clouded; the ocean of life is agitated by storms.

Life without happiness is useless it is a dreary vacuity of good; an accumulation of evil. We were brought into existence for the purpose of enjoyment. All animated beings, from the insect to the archangel, are pursuing felicity. The fly which buzzes drowsily on a summer's day; the bee which melodiously murmurs among the flowers; the lark which cheerfully greets the sun at his rising; the eagle which soars above the fleecy clouds; the goat that gambols on the precipice; and the fierce animals that roam the forests, are all in the pursuit of happiness.

But what is happiness? And how is it attained? -These are interesting questions; the answers, however, have been exceedingly numerous :

"Some place the bliss in action, some in ease;
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these:
Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain,
Some, swell'd to gods, confess e'en virtue vain."

POPE.

One person fancies he shall possess happiness when he has increased his possessions; when his wealth is doubled or trebled; and thus he goes onward, toiling and fretting himself with the cares of this life. Another supposes that the pleasures of the world the routs, the balls, and the endless amusements; the fashion, the folly, and the dissipation, — will exhilarate his mind. The epicure thinks he shall obtain happiness by indulging his palate; by exciting and then gratifying it with dainty food. The intemperate looks for enjoymen. in the bottle. The lover of science seeks

for felicity in learning. The man of ambition endeavours to obtain happiness by climbing the ladder of power and honour: he subjects himself to mortifications and difficulties for the attainment of the perishable crown which sparkles in his view. But we must enquire whether these anxious pursuers of happiness obtain the object of their wishes; or, whether they are like the deluded man who would grasp the rainbow!

A person may possess houses and lands; he may boast of an elegant mansion for his residence; he may rapidly increase in wealth; and yet he may be hopeless and joyless. Happiness," as Hooker observes, "is the contentment of our desires." But the rich man may be discontented; he may be anxiously desirous of more. Happiness is present enjoyment. If a man be dissatisfied with his advantages, and pleased only with the anticipations of the future, he sacrifices possession for reversion; he tramples on the substance, and seeks for the shadow. Riches may roll around him like a flood, and the world may foolishly exclaim-"How happy is that man! He obtains easily what we cannot procure with all our toil!" But if gold were as plentiful as sand, we should treat it with similar contempt. A curious bird, or a rare and costly plant or mineral, excites our attention; but if either of these became plentiful, we should view it without interest. The value of money is relative: it supplies the wants, and improves the comforts, of those who properly use it; but it affords no benefit to those who hoard it since whatever exceeds the actual or

probable demands of life, occasions anxiety and unhappiness. He that receives a rapid accumulation of property, is more to be pitied than envied. A person who is famishing with thirst, would value a cup of water as an inestimable blessing; but he would judge erroneously, if he fancied the owner of a well rich and happy in the same proportion. Dr. Southey has philosophically confessed, that "rather than have been born and bred to a great fortune," he would esteem it better for himself "always to live precariously, and to die poor at last,"

By the same rule, pleasure and gaiety—as they are sometimes termed, but more properly dissipation, are a convulsive grasp for happiness where happiness cannot be found. Enjoyment is not to be gained by vanity or vice, otherwise the same stream would flow from opposite sources: if happiness is the pure and grateful fountain which bursts forth from the throne of Omnipotence, and flows in the channel of virtue and innocence to the extremest parts of creation, then the same waters of bliss cannot spring forth from evil and impiety. It does not follow, that a man must obtain an object because he endeavours to pursue it. Dr. Young has said, with much beauty and force,

"Pleasures are few, and fewer we enjoy ;
Pleasure, like quicksilver, is bright and coy;
We strive to grasp it with our utmost skill,
Still it eludes us, and it glitters still.”

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A circle of dissipation does not possess peace of mind as a centre to which all who enter its bound

ary may tend. Routs by night and weariness by day, great excitation and great depression, are not the constituents of health or happiness. There may be revelling without pleasure, and splendour without cheerfulness.

"The music, and the banquet, and the wine,
The garlands, the sweet odours, and the roses,"

may, like the beautiful flowers, which are used in some countries to deck a corpse, indicate the absence of life and felicity. The poor labourer sometimes looks to the man of gaiety and leisure as one who is highly endowed with advantages. But it is with amusement as it is with labour; —

"Business is pleasure; and man's weakness such,
Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much."

Any pursuit is a source of enjoyment when it is felt as a relaxation; but it is not a relaxation when it becomes the usual engagement.

The epicure is almost sure to be deceived. What! shall a man who is gifted with an immortal soul, who is favoured with the capability of opening the storehouse of knowledge, and feasting himself on intellectual dainties; shall he degrade himself to the disposition of a brute, and seek his chief happiness in eating? Such a person sacrifices his mind to his body; and not only that, he injures both. A plain and simple diet is much more nutritious, and more contributive to health and cheerful spirits. A man who fares sumptuously every day, returns to his table with a sensation of