depend on a thoufand accidental things that are without us; yet happiness and unhappiness depend on our own choice, on our own will and endeavour, purely on things that belong to ourselves, and over which we have at leaft more power than over any thing else.

Another confequence, flowing no lefs naturally from it, is this: The profperous man is not always happy, and the unhappy not always unprofperous. If the nature of the thing itself did not inform us of this, history and experience would not allow us to doubt it. Or is then every rich, every powerful, every titled, every healthy and ftrong man happy? Is on the other hand every poor, every indigent, every low, every fick and weak man, every man-fervant, every maid-fervant, all of thofe called the vulgar, unhappy? Are then the former always contented and pleased, always brifk and merry; and the latter always difpleafed and diffatisfied, always fad and dejected? How frequently do the former envy the better lot of the latter. How often do they wish to exchange their fplendid mifery, their glittering burdens for the feeming penury and the unnoticed obfcurity of the latter! How frequently does the gaiety, the tranquillity of mind, the unfolicitous contentment of thefe, put to fhame the corroding care and difquietude, the anxious folicitude, that prey upon the others. No, here femblance and reality, form and substance, are not always, perhaps but rarely, found together. So easily do prof

eyes.

perity and adverfity blind and deceive us, fo easily do happiness and unhappiness lie concealed from our The former attract and affect obfervation and noife: the latter love and feek filence and retreat, and are wont to withdraw from every prying obferver.

A third confequence from our foregoing remarks is this: The prosperous man may indeed be at the fame time happy, but he will not be fo and is not fo merely by the poffeffion of his good fortune; whereas the happy man is not neceffarily in want of prof perity in order to his happiness: he can be happy without it. Indeed the rich, the powerful, the great man, may be alfo happy, he may be pleafed and contented. But he is not and will not be fo, at leaft he is not and will not be fo for any long time, not in a lasting and substantial manner, merely because he is rich, because he is powerful, because he is great. In order to be and to become thus happy, he must be alfo intelligent and wife, virtuous and pious, he must understand, poffefs and enjoy nobler, more durable privileges and endowments, he must make the best, the worthieft ufe of his outward profperity. Whereas, if the man, by a juft, noble way of thinking and acting, by well regulated affections and appetites, by an innocent, virtuous life, by true, christian piety, has brought peace and ferenity within, and opened all the avenues of his heart tö the influences of the love of God and man: he needs neither be rich, nor powerful, nor great, nor healthy

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healthy and strong, nor to poffefs other outward diftinctions, in order to be happy and to be ever becoming happier. He can difpenfe with all thofe things, can be divested of them all, and yet be eafy and cheerful, and yet be contented and gay.

Not profperity therefore, this is a fourth confequence, not profperity, but happiness is the object for which we fhould ftrive; not adverfity, but unhappiness is the evil that we fhould with all diligence fhun and avoid. Unless we obferve this distinction, and regulate our conduct accordingly, we fhall wafte our powers to no purpofe, we fhall mifs of our aim, and fhall fooner or later repent of our error. Thus it frequently happens, that we strive with unwearied efforts to obtain riches and abundance, as the fovereign good of man. But are then riches and abundance one and the fame thing with happiness? Can we then tell before hand, whether riches and abun dance will be profitable or pernicious to us, whether we can and fhall with them be happy, pleafed and contented? Thus we frequently exert all our faculties to raise ourselves from obfcurity and humblenefs of ftation into eminence, as though we could only live and be happy in that eminence. But is then eminence and happiness one and the fame thing? Do we then previously know whether eminence or lowness of station be better for us, whether we fhould not turn giddy on the pinacle of profperity, and tumble headlong down into disgrace and wretchednefs?

No,

make the proper

No, my dear friends, would ye use of these confiderations; never confound the means with the end, the object with the way to the object. Strive more for happiness than for profperity. Seek the former as your ultimate object, the latter as means. At no time facrifice the former to the latter. Be more afraid of unhappiness than of adverfity. Never confider that as a neceffary confequence of this, and never this as a neceffary cause of that. Therefore do not immediately think yourfelf unhappy, when adverfity meets you; fancy not that you have loft all, not the principal, by the lofs of outward privileges and endowments; do not refuse yourself to all the fources of pleasure, if by chance fome of them are drained or troubled. Neither however rejoice at every profperous event, as you would have reafon to rejoice at true and lafting happiness. Carefully difcriminate between profperity and happiness, adverfity and unhappiness, in your reflections and judgments, as well as in your efforts. This is the foundation of all true wifdom, of all genuine virtue, of all permanent fatisfaction.

Do the fame alfo in the judgments you form concerning others. Efteem, if ye will, the rich, the powerful, the great as profperous; but efteem them not happy. With all their advantages, they may as probably be wretched as happy, if they are deficient in wisdom and virtue and piety. So, on the other hand, pity the poor, the indigent, the low-conditioned man as unprofperous, as a man to whom outward

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outward circumstances are not favourable. But pity him not as unhappy. With all thefe deficiences, he may still be pleafed and contented, may be happy, if h have widom and virtue and piety for his companions on the journey of life. Oh may they accompany and guide us all on our plain or rugged, our obfcure or fhining path! How totally otherwife, how much more juftly fhall we then contemplate riches and poverty, elevation and lownefs, health and fickness, life and death; how differently fhall we learn to judge of them, to defire or to dread, to feek and to use them! How certainly and fafely attain to the goal of happiness!