ate for a time;
we can not prevent it, nor would it be best if we could. Sorrow has its
useful lessons when it is legitimate, and death is the gate that opens
out of earth toward the house "eternal in the heavens." If we lose them,
heaven gains them. If we mourn, they rejoice. If we hang our harps on
the willows, they tune theirs in the eternal orchestra above, rejoicing
that we shall soon be with them. Shall we not drown our sorrow in the
flood of light let through the rent vail of the skies which Jesus
entered, and, to cure our loneliness, gather to us other friends to walk
life's way, knowing that every step brings us nearer the departed, and
their sweet, eternal home, which death never enters, and where partings
are never known? We may still love the departed. They are ours as ever,
and we are theirs. The ties that unite us are not broken. They are too
strong for death's stroke. They are made for the joys of eternal
friendship. Other friendships on earth will not disturb these bonds that
link with dear ones on high. Nor will our duties below interfere with
the sacredness of our relations with them. They wish not to see us in
sorrow. They doubtless sympathize with us; and could we hear their sweet
voices, they would tell us to dry our tears, and bind ourselves to other
friends, and joyfully perform all duties on earth till our time to
ascend shall come.

Every lesson of life, wisely read, tells us that we should be happy;
that we should seek to be happy from principle, not simply from impulse;
that we should make Happiness a great object in life; that our duties,
our varied relations to our fellows as friends, as lovers, as
companions, as parents, as children; our avocations, our labors,
sacrifices, hopes, trials, struggles, should administer to our
Happiness. And it is our business to see that they do. Is it a duty to
be good? It is just as much a duty to be happy, to train our minds to
pleasant moods, and our hearts to cheerful feelings. There is no duty
more sanctioned by every moral obligation than the duty to be happy. We
have no moral right to make others miserable, or to permit them to
remain so when we can help it. No more right have we to torment our own
souls, or to permit habitual sadness and despondency to weigh down our
spirits. It is well for every young person to seek true moral light upon
this subject; and especially for young women, for their peculiarly
sensitive and affectionate nature, their confin