refine the feelings of nature, and advance the happines of society, which adorn the father in the circle of his family, and dignify the statesman at the helm of affairs.*

Mankind, at all times, readily sympathize with those common joys which flow from common causes. It is decent, for instance, to be humble amid great prosperity; but, we can scarcely express too much satisfaction in all the little occurrences of every day's life, in the company with which we spent the evening last night; in the entertainment we partook of; in what was said, and what was done; in all the little incidents of the present conversation; and in all those frivolous nothings, which fill up the void of human life. Nothing is more graceful, than that habitual cheerfulness which is always founded upon a peculiar relish for all the little pleasures which common occurrences afford. We readily sympathize with it. It inspires us with the same joy, and makes every trifle offer itself to us under the same agreeable aspect, with which it appears to another person, endowed with the same happy disposition.

Hence it is that youth, the season of gaity, so instantaneously engages our affections. That propensity to joy, which seems to animate the bloom, and to sparkle from the eyes of youth and beauty, though in a person of the same sex, exalts even the aged to a more joyous mood than ordinary. They forget for a time, their infirmities, and give themselves up to those agreeable ideas and emotions, to which they have long been strangers; but which, when the presence of so much happiness recalls them to their breast, take their place there, like old acquaintance, from whom they are sorry to have ever been parted, and whom they embrace more heartily upon account of this long separation. *

Nor think me poetical in this painting. Nothing, you cannot but allow, is more certain, than that even in regard to the body, those who pass cheerfully through life, have in general the most healthy appearance. "Videmus eos qui animo læto et hilari sunt, cibum facilius et celerius concoquere." The action of the heart being invigorated, the extreme vessels become completely filled, and the countenance receives that glow and animation, which are so indicative of good health. A joyous A joyous state of mind, therefore, by thus contributing to support the general vigour of the body, may tend not only to preserve it from the attack of particular diseases, but also to prolong life.

*

A late writer, in his Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, observes, that the men in France, in all periods of life, even in the most advanced age, never associate exclusively with one another, but spend all the hours they can spare from business or study, with the female sex; with the young, the gay, and the happy; and that they live longer, and what is of much greater con sequence, live more happily, and enjoy their faculties of body and mind more entire in old age, than any other people in Europe. This observation is certainly a just one. The French had always good humour, cheerfulness, and vivacity; and they owed much of it, most undoubledly, to the lively and sweet society of those, who alone are capable of unknitting the clouded brow, and of chasing away by the little endearments of affection, the crosses and vexations of a jarring world.'

But, dare I ask of you, who are constantly mixing with them, is it so still? I trust it may. But, the monster politics, I fear, generates baneful distempers. Man no longer is himself, when

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drawn

drawn into the interested vortex. Bound up in visionary ways and means; preyed upon by the devouring hunger of friends; and pelted, hooted, and followed by merciless or disappointed enemies, the kind dispositions soon succumb under the selfish conflict. Was it in nature for Prometheus to experience tranquility and comfort, while chained on the rock of Caucasus? As the vulture gnawed, the wretched frame quivered in agonizing unison. And hence let our mirthful neighbours pardon the admonition, and be guardedly on the watch against that sombre, phlegmatic, taciturnity, which, whether deservedly or not, they have so expressively identified, comme la maladie Angloise. I may be mistaken, (pardon the digression) but, I scarce, ly think, you will now find it an easy matter, to detect even an inoffensive Abbé at a French lady's toilette. Do not the wise ones all huddle together into a detached corner of the room, and there settle the affairs of the nation; while the poor women are left comfortlessly to mope over leurs ennuyeuse, et tristes occupations? Too much thought, too much mental anxiety, is unquestionably pernicious to the human constitution. We all know how injuriously excesses of passion operate. To instance, particularly in anger: this one irrational impulse alone, is capable

capable of producing incalculable mischief. Even in the milk of the mother or the nurse, such a change has been occasioned by anger, as to destroy its nutritive quality, and to render it bane ful in the highest degree to the infant. On this account, physicians have gone so far as to lay it down as a principle, that those who are forced, from ill health, or other circumstances, to employ nurses, ought not merely to make choice of those who possess an healthy and vigorous state of body, but such whose minds, at the same time, are least liable to be disturbed by the influence of passion. For although they do not suppose (what is, perhaps, not altogether improbable) that the child can imbibe the virtues or dispositions of the persons who suckle it, yet they do not doubt, that the nutritious property of the milk may be destroyed by the operation of any violent or excessive emotion.*

The source of anxiety, however, the most insupportable (to recur to our former subject) is that of mistaken religion. This, in persons of weak minds, has led to the most fatal extremes. In any perturbation of spirit, the first thing, you will perceive, is, that the appetite for food is uncertain, and the pulse irregular; being at one time

* Dr. Corp's Essay on Body and Mind.