ist of Bliss. An intimate and anxious examination of his career,
has taught me to understand that, in general, from the violation of a
few simple laws of Humanity, arises the Wretchedness of mankind; that,
as a species, we have in our possession the as yet unwrought elements
of Content,--and that even now, in the present blindness and darkness
of all idea on the great question of the Social Condition, it is not
impossible that Man, the individual, under certain unusual and highly
fortuitous conditions, may be happy.

With opinions such as these was my young friend fully imbued; and thus
is it especially worthy of observation that the uninterrupted enjoyment
which distinguished his life was in great part the result of preconcert.
It is, indeed evident, that with less of the instinctive philosophy
which, now and then, stands so well in the stead of experience, Mr.
Ellison would have found himself precipitated, by the very extraordinary
successes of his life, into the common vortex of Unhappiness which yawns
for those of preeminent endowments. But it is by no means my present
object to pen an essay on Happiness. The ideas of my friend may be
summed up in a few words. He admitted but four unvarying laws, or rather
elementary principles, of Bliss. That which he considered chief, was
(strange to say!) the simple and purely physical one of free exercise
in the open air. "The health," he said, "attainable by other means
than this is scarcely worth the name." He pointed to the tillers of the
earth--the only people who, as a class, are proverbially more happy than
others--and then he instanced the high ecstasies of the fox-hunter. His
second principle was the love of woman. His third was the contempt of
ambition. His fourth was an object of unceasing pursuit; and he held
that, other things being equal, the extent of happiness was proportioned
to the spirituality of this object.

I have said that Ellison was remarkable in the continuous profusion of
good gifts lavished upon him by Fortune. In personal grace and beauty
he exceeded all men. His intellect was of that order to which the
attainment of knowledge is less a labor than a necessity and an
intuition. His family was one of the most illustrious of the empire. His
bride was the loveliest and most devoted of women. His possessions had
been always ample; but, upon the attainment of his one and twentieth
year, it was discovered that one of those extraordinary freaks of Fate
had b