s represented by the sum of
ten thousand francs, which was awaiting his claim at the Rothschild
office.

This illustrates well the art of cheerful amusement even if one has
great business cares,--the entertainment of the artist, the personation
of a beggar, and an act of beneficence toward a worthy student.

It illustrates, too, what was said by Wilhelm von Humboldt, that "it is
worthy of special remark that when we are not too anxious about
happiness and unhappiness, but devote ourselves to the strict and
unsparing performance of duty, then happiness comes of itself." We carry
each day nobly, doing the duty or enjoying the privilege of the moment,
without thinking whether or not it will make us happy. This is quite in
accord with the saying of George Herbert, "The consciousness of duty
performed gives us music at midnight."

Are not buoyant spirits like water sparkling when it runs? "_I have
found my greatest happiness in labor_," said Gladstone. "I early formed
a habit of industry, and it has been its own reward. The young are apt
to think that rest means a cessation from all effort, but I have found
the most perfect rest in changing effort. If brain-weary over books and
study, go out into the blessed sunlight and the pure air, and give
heartfelt exercise to the body. The brain will soon become calm and
rested. The efforts of Nature are ceaseless. Even in our sleep the heart
throbs on. I try to live close to Nature, and to imitate her in my
labors. The compensation is sound sleep, a wholesome digestion, and
powers that are kept at their best; and this, I take it, is the chief
reward of industry."

"Owing to ingrained habits," said Horace Mann, "work has always been to
me what water is to a fish. I have wondered a thousand times to hear
people say, 'I don't like this business,' or 'I wish I could exchange it
for that;' for with me, when I have had anything to do, I do not
remember ever to have demurred, but have always set about it like a
fatalist, and it was as sure to be done as the sun was to set."

"_One's personal enjoyment is a very small thing, but one's personal
usefulness is a very important thing." Those only are happy who have
their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness_. "The
most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures," says La Bruyere,
"consists in promoting the pleasures of others." And Hawthorne has said
that the inward pleasure of imparting pleasure is the choicest of all