a manner disposed so as to give
pleasure."

But it is when his strain passes to directly moral subjects that his
delicacy and sweetness lend to it the greatest charm. Let those who can
feel the beauty of spiritual refinement read this, the reflection of an
emperor who prized mental superiority highly:--

"Thou sayest, 'Men cannot admire the sharpness of thy wits.' Be it so; but
there are many other things of which thou canst not say, 'I am not formed
for them by nature.' Show those qualities, then, which are altogether in
thy power--sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, aversion to pleasure,
contentment with thy portion and with few things, benevolence, frankness,
no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, magnanimity. Dost thou not
see how many qualities thou art at once able to exhibit, as to which there
is no excuse of natural incapacity and unfitness, and yet thou still
remainest voluntarily below the mark? Or art thou compelled, through being
defectively furnished by nature, to murmur, and to be mean, and to
flatter, and to find fault with thy poor body, and to try to please men,
and to make great display, and to be so restless in thy mind? No, indeed;
but thou mightest have been delivered from these things long ago. Only, if
in truth thou canst be charged with being rather slow and dull of
comprehension, thou must exert thyself about this also, not neglecting nor
yet taking pleasure in thy dulness."

The same sweetness enables him to fix his mind, when he sees the isolation
and moral death caused by sin, not on the cheerless thought of the misery
of this condition, but on the inspiriting thought that man is blest with
the power to escape from it:--

"Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity,--for thou
wast made by nature a part, but now thou hast cut thyself off,--yet here
is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite
thyself. God has allowed this to no other part--after it has been
separated and cut asunder, to come together again. But consider the
goodness with which he has privileged man; for he has put it in his power,
when he has been separated, to return and to be united and to resume his
place."

It enables him to control even the passion for retreat and solitude, so
strong in a soul like his, to which the world could offer no abiding
city.

"Men seek retreat for themselves, houses in the country, seashores, and
mountains; and thou, too, art wont to