cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

This description of the grief and sorrrow which accompany the labours of those who make extensive acquirements in human wisdom is not exaggerated, when we consider the fatigue of body and mind with which every acquisition of this kind is made;-the disappointments and mortifications to which we are liable in this as well as in all other pursuits;-the scenes of misery, moral and physical, which our knowledge of the world will place before us;-the want of satisfaction which must be felt in the review of many subjects, arising from the very limited nature of our faculties;-and above all, the bitter reflection in the hour of death, or the moment the spirit passes beyond it, of talents perverted and abused, and of having lived without God in the world. The pursuit of this, like all earthly good, is attended with labour, and the attainment with uncertainty. The pain issuing from disappointment, or the disquietude which the envy of others occasions us, impairs, if it does not outweigh the pleasure arising from manifold successes. We cannot by the greatest extent of human knowledge bend the course of human affairs to our own wishes; alter the perverseness of those on whose conduct we depend in some degree for our usefulness and happiness; divest events of their untowardness; and ensure the most benevolent plans from being frustrated by unforseen accidents. Nor can we by any attainments of wisdom make up that which, in every case, is required to

constitute happiness; nor transform this wilderness of sin and sorrow into a paradise in which nothing will be wanting.

II. If the chief and abiding good of man cannot arise from the exercise of the understanding, and the attainment of human wisdom, neither does it proceed from the gratification of the social affections as united with knowledge. Much enjoyment, doubtless, flows to mankind from this source. The love of country and of kindred, and of all the objects that are endeared to our hearts, is pleasurable in its very exercise. This pleasure is enjoyed by all, because the affection which gives rise to it is universally operative. Never does man, till the heart is lost to virtuous feeling, become indifferent to the land which gave him birth, or forsake its shores without regret and emotion. After he has passed many years in other climes, and wandered over the globe, by an affecting species of instinct, he likes to return, and sit for a moment on the borders of his grave, under the trees which overshadowed his youth. Even the conqueror, before whose power the hosts of kingdoms melted away, and who carried the eagle in triumph over territories in which the name of Rome was before unknown, could not view the rocky coasts of his native land unmoved; and he who at Pharsalia contended for the sovereignty of the world, shewed himself true to the emotions of the human heart, as he pensively gazed in his flight on the receding hills of the country from which he had derived his being *.

* See the passages on Patriotism in a former part of this Work.

Nor can we, on this subject, forget the large share of enjoyment which is flowing almost every moment, and to almost every human being, from the pleasures of hope. He who has consulted our happiness in the constitution of our frame has made us prone to anticipate good and good alone. Hope leads us, indeed, to anticipate far higher degrees of happiness than experience ever realizes; but its design in this is, not only to conceal from our view those ills, the knowledge of which would impair our peace without adding to our virtue, but to make us the occasional inhabitants of regions of ideal beauty and loveliness, where the nobler affections of our nature are exercised on objects and scenes by which they are still more refined and exalted. It is hope that gives rapture to the emotions of the mother, as she gazes on her infant, and sees in the bright career which he is to run, all that will constitute him her honour and happiness: but how kindly does Providence conceal from her all the ills of the future, and the thousand entanglements by which her child may be ensnared to vice, and terminate, in the darkness of guilt and crime, that being which she gave him. Anticipating only good, she looks forward to the sunshine of his days, and in her parental fondness forgets that many a cloud may rise to darken them, and that the source from which she promises herself so much happiness may be the occasion of bringing her down with sorrow to the grave.

But while there are enjoyments to a large amount, issuing to man from the exercise of the kindly affections, these cannot form his chief and permanent

good, because they are liable to be interrupted by painful disappointments, and by the operation of affections of a different kind. The cheerfulness which is conducive to the happiness of all, is often counteracted by a peevish and morose temper, and a prevailing discontentedness of mind. Hope, which is one of the most operative of our active principles, and which after a thousand disappointments continues its influence, is often suspended by its opposites, depression and despair; and as if to convince us of the instability of all human happiness, it is the most deserving of the species who are subjected to this calamity. How often do the sensibilities of woman, without any apparent cause, give rise to a feeling in her heart bordering on the poignancy of anguish and despair-a feeling which wastes and undermines the frame, and darkens the scene of enjoyment, which till then had shone around her.

How often are the pleasures of the kindly affections counteracted by bitter disappointment, the painful consciousness that the objects of our friendly regard, of our esteem and love, are base, selfish, and unworthy! The history of our race, besides, gives too ample evidence of the extent to which the malevolent feelings of envy, malice, hatred, jealousy and revenge, have predominated in the human breast, and of the powerful, though pernicious, influence which they have exerted on society. When we consider the crimes of public and private life which have directly proceeded from deliberate malevolence, the long and desolating wars, to which revenge, or some other passion equally base, has given rise, the

propensity to detraction and slander which has been the subject of complaint to moralists in every age, we cannot regard the description as coloured, which characterizes mankind, as serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Whatever, then, might be said of the pleasures attending the exercise of the kindly affections, as making up the substantial and ultimate good of man, in a world in which there were no affections of a different kind, and in which there was neither sorrow nor disappointment, they are obviously and utterly inadequate in the circumstances in which we are placed.-Neither can the real and abiding happiness of man,—

This

III. Consist in the pleasures of the senses. was another of Solomon's experiments in the pursuit of happiness. "I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore, enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.-I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine; yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.-I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I got me men singers, and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour.-Then I looked on all