nothing can be of consequence to mankind, or any creature, but happiness.' But we English are taunted with our proneness to an unworthy eudæmonism, and an Anglican bishop may perhaps be a suspected witness. Let us call, then, a glorious father of the Catholic Church, the great Augustine himself. Says St. Augustine: 'Act we must in pursuance of what gives us most delight; quod amplius nos delectat, secundum id operemur necesse est.'
And now let us see how exactly Israel's perceptions about God follow and confirm this simple line, which we have here reached quite independently. First: 'It is joy to the just to do judgment.'[1] Then: 'It becometh well the just to be thankful.'[2] Finally: 'A pleasant thing it is to be thankful.'[3] What can be simpler than this, and at the same time more solid? But again: 'The statutes of the Eternal rejoice the heart.'[4] And then: 'I will give thanks unto thee, O Eternal, with my whole heart; at midnight will I rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments!'[5] And lastly: 'It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Eternal; it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God!'[6] Why, these are the very same propositions as the preceding, only with a power and depth of emotion added! Emotion has been applied to morality.
God or Eternal is here really, at bottom, nothing but a deeply moved way of saying 'the power that makes for conduct or righteousness.' 'Trust in God' is, in a deeply moved way of expression, the trust in the law of conduct; 'delight in the Eternal' is, in a deeply moved way of expression, the happiness we all feel to spring from conduct. Attending to conduct, to judgment, makes the attender feel that it is joy to do it. Attending to it more still, makes him feel that it is
