that his risks may cease, where are his resources against weariness? Not all his gold can purchase back the lost capacity for enjoyment.
Do not imagine that by enjoyment we mean the frittering away of life in the pursuit of trivialities commonly termed pleasure, but the recognition, the appreciation, of the thousand daily blessings that are spread before our careless eyes. Work itself, and the performance of every-day duties, are allied to enjoyment in a cheerful nature—or at least they give to enjoyment the zest that hunger imparts to the simplest food. No man loses the capacity to enjoy sooner than the luxurious idler. Listless inactivity is an incubus upon the soul, that gradually deadens its powers, until at last a pleasant emotion becomes an unhoped-for though much coveted event, a positive thrill of rapture, an occurrence barely possible. Thus the mind of the world-worn blasé is involuntarily closed up against the influent heavens, from whence all pure enjoyment descends.
The selfish man impairs this faculty not less inevitably. He substitutes a cold and spurious gratification for the genuine emotion, and too surely discovers that the retributive pang and penalty united to the former, can never be escaped.
True happiness must be communicated. It is intensified and increased in proportion to its participation with others. The greater the number
