If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health and good-humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent man hunting for his hat, while it is on his head, or in his hand.

Though sometimes small evils, like invisible insects, inflict great pain, yet the chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an under-growth of small pleasures, since very few great ones, alas! are let on long leases.

I cannot help seeing that you are dissatisfied with your occupation, and that you think yourself unlucky in having been destined to take it up, before you were old enough to chuse for yourself. Do not be too sure that you would have chosen well. I somewhere met with an observation, which, being true, is important-that in a masquerade, where people assume what characters they like, "how ill they often play them!" Many parts are probably preferred for the sake of the dress; and do not many young men enter into the navy or army, that they may wear a sword and a handsome uniform, and be acceptable partners at a ball? Vanity is hard-hearted, and insists upon wealth, rank, and admiration. Even so great a

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man as Prince Eugene owned (after gaining a useless victory), that "on travaille trop pour la Gazette." Such objects or pursuits are losing their value every day, and you must have observed that rank gives now but little precedence, except in a procession.

But I am really ashamed even to hint at such endless and obvious commonplaces, and I shall only repeat the remark, which seems to have struck you that in all the professions, high stations seem to come down to us, rather than that we have got up to them.

But you, forsooth, are too sensible to be ambitious; and you are, perhaps, only disheartened by some unforeseen obtacles to reasonable desires. Be it so! but this will not justify, nor even excuse, dejection. Untoward accidents will sometimes happen; but, after many many years of thoughtful experience, I can truly say, that nearly all those, who began life with me, have succeeded, or failed

as they deserved. "Faber quisque fortunæ propriæ."

Ill fortune at your age is often good for us, both in teaching and in bracing the mind; and even in our later days it may often be turned to advantage, or overcome. Besides, trifling precautions will often prevent great mischiefs; as a slight turn of the wrist parries a mortal thrust.

Forgive me for talking in this lecturing manner. Am I doing you wrong? Am I, unawares, increasing the uneasiness that I am most anxious to dispel? I am not without some fear that I am galling the wound which I wish to heal. Once more, forgive me; and be assured that I am, &c. &c.

TO THE SAME.

January 7, 1818.

I CERTAINLY did not wish that you should starve yourself, or run about, like a penny postman, either on foot, or on horseback; for moderation is not only the law of enjoyment, but of wholesome labour too.

You have begun to adopt new habits with the zeal of a repentant convert, and, as you have great speed, it is of consequence that you should travel in the right

road.

I rejoice to hear that you have already subdued and cast out the blue devils that beset you. Some men are possessed by another, and a more dangerous kind, E 2

which enter the voluptuous, the vain, the idle, and the unprincipled; but they must be exorcised by stronger forms of incantation, and you are not likely to be assaulted by such evil spirits. A German says, that "Luther knew what he was about when he threw his "ink-stand at Satan's head, for there is nothing the "Devil hates like ink."

You are luckily not framed for idleness, and you are therefore in no danger of being led aside from the shortest, the safest, and the pleasantest path to happiness, which, you may be sure, is soonest found by those that live a life of action and of duty. This is almost preaching, I know, "mais c'est jour de sermon," -for you have teased me into mounting the pulpit. Sit down, therefore, and hear me patiently. The discourse shall be very short, and you must not attribute my advice to self-sufficiency, for it is often founded on my own past mistakes.

It would be needless to repeat what I wrote, long since, to a friend of yours and mine, since you have read those letters recommending industry and perseverance; yet I ought to confess that though you may look to your understanding for amusement, it is to

the affections that we must trust for happiness. These imply a spirit of self-sacrifice; and often our virtues, like our children, are endeared to us by what we suffer for them. Conscience, even when it fails to govern our conduct, can disturb our peace of mind. Yes! it is neither paradoxical, nor merely poetical,

to say

"That seeking others' good, we find our own."

This solid, yet romantic maxim, is found in no less a writer than Plato; who, sometimes, in his moral lessons, as well as in his theological, is almost, though not altogether, a Christian.

But this truth does not stand in need of support from authority. The days and nights of every tender mother abound with instances of this encouraging fact. She will not only endure any toil, but brave any danger, for the sake of her helpless child—

"Oh! femmes c'est à tort qu'on vous nomme timides,
“A la voix de vos cœurs vous êtes intrepides."

No! human nature is not so wholly selfish as it is represented by Rochefoucault and by Swift.

Satirical writers and talkers are not half so clever as they think themselves, nor as they are thought to be.