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Essay On One Of The Sources Of Human Happiness.
minded woman . ' I hear some misogynist—some libertine—some croaking , superannuated bachelor exclaiming , with a supercilious smile , " is this his source of human happiness—this the Q . E . D . * of his theory ?—pshaw ! " But restrain your surprise and ribaldry , and patiently read the summing-up of my proposition . You have onl y heard the charge ; the proofs in evidence are to follow .
At an age when many are at school pursuing the dull routine of alpha , beta , gamma , delta , and various other edifying adjuncts in the system of modern education , I was , like a spoiled boy , lounging myself at home , buried almost daily , and I may say nightly , in threading the Mysteries of Udolpho , and other classical ivorks of that description . The effect of such reading wasas may be anticipatedthat I became
, , an enthusiast , lived only in imagination , ruined my head for sober reading , and nearly lost my senses in the labyrinth of fiction . I tried to fall in love . —Did ; but the object fell far short of the images I had drawn in my romantic fancy . I grew disgusted , and abandoned this cursory object , as one fertile only in disappointment and folly : afterwards I became a sceptic in religion and a hater of women . The first
ivas occasioned by reading the works of Paine , and falling into the society of Freethinkers ; the second was the result of a haughty opinion of the fortitude of man , and a scornful contempt of the weak and inconstant character of woman . But not to dwell on recollections painful to me now , I will hastily pass over that period of vanity and mortification . There happiness abode not
. M y heart was desolate , and I became a cynic and a monk . I sought , at last , this boon in books of a more solid and instructive class ; read hard , and matriculated myself at the university . Both here , more than ever , disgust and disappointment attended my progress . In the wild regions of canny Cumberland I had pursued my studies with some degree of complacency , and had often found respite from thought and wounded feeling among its romantic vales and lakes . But , alas ! all was vanity . I was hannv when saunter-ino- a \ ma „ ,-, ti , „
margin of some unfrequented water , amid the wildest scenery , but dejected and bowed down , even to tears , when compelled again to mix ivith the busy world . On the subject of religion , too , I was , by my peculiar reading , enlightened , and I began to cast aside with horror the shroud of scepticism which had previously benighted my understanding and degraded my soul The works of GrotitisPaleywith other emi
, , - nent divines , besides the aid of able commentators on the Testament in its original tongue , threw a gleam of light into my mind , ivhich , I thank God , lias now entirel y dissipated ail former incertitude ami blasphemy . But still my heart yearned for something else whereon to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essay On One Of The Sources Of Human Happiness.
minded woman . ' I hear some misogynist—some libertine—some croaking , superannuated bachelor exclaiming , with a supercilious smile , " is this his source of human happiness—this the Q . E . D . * of his theory ?—pshaw ! " But restrain your surprise and ribaldry , and patiently read the summing-up of my proposition . You have onl y heard the charge ; the proofs in evidence are to follow .
At an age when many are at school pursuing the dull routine of alpha , beta , gamma , delta , and various other edifying adjuncts in the system of modern education , I was , like a spoiled boy , lounging myself at home , buried almost daily , and I may say nightly , in threading the Mysteries of Udolpho , and other classical ivorks of that description . The effect of such reading wasas may be anticipatedthat I became
, , an enthusiast , lived only in imagination , ruined my head for sober reading , and nearly lost my senses in the labyrinth of fiction . I tried to fall in love . —Did ; but the object fell far short of the images I had drawn in my romantic fancy . I grew disgusted , and abandoned this cursory object , as one fertile only in disappointment and folly : afterwards I became a sceptic in religion and a hater of women . The first
ivas occasioned by reading the works of Paine , and falling into the society of Freethinkers ; the second was the result of a haughty opinion of the fortitude of man , and a scornful contempt of the weak and inconstant character of woman . But not to dwell on recollections painful to me now , I will hastily pass over that period of vanity and mortification . There happiness abode not
. M y heart was desolate , and I became a cynic and a monk . I sought , at last , this boon in books of a more solid and instructive class ; read hard , and matriculated myself at the university . Both here , more than ever , disgust and disappointment attended my progress . In the wild regions of canny Cumberland I had pursued my studies with some degree of complacency , and had often found respite from thought and wounded feeling among its romantic vales and lakes . But , alas ! all was vanity . I was hannv when saunter-ino- a \ ma „ ,-, ti , „
margin of some unfrequented water , amid the wildest scenery , but dejected and bowed down , even to tears , when compelled again to mix ivith the busy world . On the subject of religion , too , I was , by my peculiar reading , enlightened , and I began to cast aside with horror the shroud of scepticism which had previously benighted my understanding and degraded my soul The works of GrotitisPaleywith other emi
, , - nent divines , besides the aid of able commentators on the Testament in its original tongue , threw a gleam of light into my mind , ivhich , I thank God , lias now entirel y dissipated ail former incertitude ami blasphemy . But still my heart yearned for something else whereon to