y

END IN HIS EARLY DEATH,

and in his hatred of the whole world. Those noble men of wealth who gain
the plaudits of their fellows, have earned those plaudits just as poor
men would earn them--by service to their fellow-creatures. Man is not
constituted so that he can "take his ease" and be happy. The prisoner in
solitary confinement is forced to take his ease, and we are told that he
suffers terribly under the ordeal. Of course you have heard of

THE PRISONER IN THE DARK DUNGEON

who had three pins, and who gave himself employment by throwing them
into the air and then beginning the long search which should finally
secure them. Sometimes a pin would be hidden for years in a crevice. In
this way the prisoner preserved his mind from utter decay, and was
almost happy--nay, was really happy when his arduous labor would result
in the discovery of all three of the objects of his pitiful quest.
Instances like this should impress upon us the fact that the principal
sum of our happiness is inalienable. We cannot, in health, possibly lose
it. The hale pauper is far better off than the invalid Duke. We breathe
and eat and see and hear with ease. All of those offices of the body are
unquestionably delightful, as is proven by the relative view we get when
we are ill and can neither breathe nor eat nor see nor hear without
great suffering. "There is scarce any lot so low," says Sterne, "but
there is something in it to satisfy the man whom it has befallen." The
reason of this lies in this same fact that when the tree of happiness
loses superfluous wealth, it but loses its foliage.

THE POOR MAN CARRIES INTO HIS COTTAGE

all the great and marvelous blessings of life. He leaves outside only a
lot of artificialities, the most of which are so-called pleasures, but
are really miseries. If we cannot be contented without these
artificialities, we certainly would not be satisfied with an addition so
unimportant. "A tub was large enough for Diogenes," says Colton; "but a
world was too little for Alexander." Alexander valued the true blessings
of life as nothing, and the power of life and death over others as
everything. His disappointment and the contentment of Diogenes, who
viewed things more correctly, are matters of tradition. "Contentment,"
says Fuller, "consisteth not in adding more fuel, but

IN TAKING AWAY SOME FIRE."

Therefore, if you are spending so much money that you need more income,
take away some of the fire. I