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Essay On One Of The Sources Of Human Happiness.
ESSAY ON ONE OF THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS .
" Vanity of vanities , all is vanity . "—Ecc / c * .-THUS saith the preacher , Solomon the wise , the son of David ; but though I may go part of the way , I cannot go all with his venerable sageship . You will say , Mr . Editor , this is the reflection of green youth , and there would be some justice in your say , did not the experience , which riper age has seldom enjoyed in my course of years , shed
some authority over the secession of youthful presumption from such an ancient observer of men and things . But not to cavil the point with you at the very threshold of my theory , I will essay to methodize the chaos of ideas which Aurora ' s beams this bright morn has warmed into action on this subject ; though , beshrew me , when I consider how oft it has been treated by abler and more experienced , hands , both in
prose and verse ( with what success I leave it to their own feelings to decide ) , I am almost tempted to throw down my pen in despair , ancl eschew , in the solitary quiet of my study , the disappointment which mig ht otherwise attend my presumption . Yet that vanity , against which the preacher so constantly exclaimeth , urges me to suppose that I might elicit some new and original idea in a theme that has well-nigh exhausted its interest , and I will e ' en make the plunge , though the
depth should sink me into obscurity and neglect . On second reflection , it is a question whether so important a theme can be exhausted , or if it is not like the widow ' s cruise , endless , and ever open to fresh speculations on its sources and consequences . This latter sentiment is more agreeable to my design , and I shall therefore avail myself of it , to enter immediately on the exordium of my essay .
From the ciadle to infancy , from infancy to boyhood , from boyhood to adolescence , and thence to manhood , how varied , how chequered , and , withal , how fleeting the causes which afford us happiness . Our immortal poet , Shakspeare , has succinctly traced human nature from infancy , " mewling and puling in its nurse ' s arms , " upwards to the last stage of all , when the " lean and slippered pantaloon" plays his part ,
and then disappears off the stage of life ; and I think our eminent philosopher , Bacon , has somewhere a fragment on this all-stirring topic , but I bave him not by me at this moment to refer to . Others , before and after these great men , have severally written on it with their respective talent and ingenuity , but few have bequeathed us any solid data to pilot their successors in the pursuit of human happiness .
Perhaps , after all , it is a thing of mere chance ; yet , when I look around , and cast a thought into eternity , I cannot think so . From VOL . ll , E
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essay On One Of The Sources Of Human Happiness.
ESSAY ON ONE OF THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS .
" Vanity of vanities , all is vanity . "—Ecc / c * .-THUS saith the preacher , Solomon the wise , the son of David ; but though I may go part of the way , I cannot go all with his venerable sageship . You will say , Mr . Editor , this is the reflection of green youth , and there would be some justice in your say , did not the experience , which riper age has seldom enjoyed in my course of years , shed
some authority over the secession of youthful presumption from such an ancient observer of men and things . But not to cavil the point with you at the very threshold of my theory , I will essay to methodize the chaos of ideas which Aurora ' s beams this bright morn has warmed into action on this subject ; though , beshrew me , when I consider how oft it has been treated by abler and more experienced , hands , both in
prose and verse ( with what success I leave it to their own feelings to decide ) , I am almost tempted to throw down my pen in despair , ancl eschew , in the solitary quiet of my study , the disappointment which mig ht otherwise attend my presumption . Yet that vanity , against which the preacher so constantly exclaimeth , urges me to suppose that I might elicit some new and original idea in a theme that has well-nigh exhausted its interest , and I will e ' en make the plunge , though the
depth should sink me into obscurity and neglect . On second reflection , it is a question whether so important a theme can be exhausted , or if it is not like the widow ' s cruise , endless , and ever open to fresh speculations on its sources and consequences . This latter sentiment is more agreeable to my design , and I shall therefore avail myself of it , to enter immediately on the exordium of my essay .
From the ciadle to infancy , from infancy to boyhood , from boyhood to adolescence , and thence to manhood , how varied , how chequered , and , withal , how fleeting the causes which afford us happiness . Our immortal poet , Shakspeare , has succinctly traced human nature from infancy , " mewling and puling in its nurse ' s arms , " upwards to the last stage of all , when the " lean and slippered pantaloon" plays his part ,
and then disappears off the stage of life ; and I think our eminent philosopher , Bacon , has somewhere a fragment on this all-stirring topic , but I bave him not by me at this moment to refer to . Others , before and after these great men , have severally written on it with their respective talent and ingenuity , but few have bequeathed us any solid data to pilot their successors in the pursuit of human happiness .
Perhaps , after all , it is a thing of mere chance ; yet , when I look around , and cast a thought into eternity , I cannot think so . From VOL . ll , E