circumstances, to improve the hilarity and the buoyancy of any given
person. Many of our countrymen are as joyous themselves, and as much the
cause of joy in others, as the most light-hearted Irishman, or the
gayest Frenchman or Italian. How shall we increase the number of such,
so as to make them the rule rather than the exception?

[SOLE MEANS OF ATTAINING CHEERFULLNESS.]

The only answer not at variance with the laws of the human constitution
is--_Increase the supports and diminish the burdens of life_.

For example, if by any means you can raise the standard of health and
longevity, you will at once effect a stride in the direction sought. But
what an undertaking is this! It is not merely setting up what we call
sanitary arrangements, to which, in our crowded populations, there must
soon be a limit reached (for how can you secure to the mass of men even
the one condition of sufficient breathing-space?), it is that health
cannot be attained, in any high general standard, without worldly means
far above the average at the disposal of the existing population; while
the most abundant resources are often neutralised by ineradicable
hereditary taint. To which it is to be added, that mankind can hardly as
yet be said to be in earnest in the matter of health.

Farther: it is especially necessary to cheerfulness, that a man should
not be overworked, as many of us are, whether from choice or from
necessity. Much, I believe, turns upon this circumstance. Severe toil
consumes the forces of the constitution, without leaving the remainder
requisite for hilarity of tone. The Irishman fed upon three meals of
potatoes a day, the lazy Highlander, the Lazaroni of Naples living upon
sixpence a week, are very poorly supported; but then their vitality is
so little drawn upon by work, that they may exceed in buoyancy of
spirits the well-fed but hard-worked labourer. We, the English people,
would not change places with them, notwithstanding: our _ideal_ is
industry with abundance; but then our industry sobers our temperament,
and inclines us to the dulness that Helps regrets. Possibly, we may one
day hit a happier mean; but to the human mind extremes have generally
been found easiest.

Once more: the light-hearted races trouble themselves little about their
political constitution, about despotism or liberty; they enjoy the
passing moments of a despot's smiles, and if he turns round and crushes
them, they quietly submit. We live in dre