e more vast? There is not a thought or a feeling, not
an act of beauty or nobility, whereof man is capable, but can find
complete expression in the simplest, most ordinary life; and all that
cannot be expressed therein must of necessity belong to the falsehoods
of vanity, ignorance, or sloth.

89. Does this mean that the wise man should expect no more from life
than other men; that he should love mediocrity and limit his desires;
content himself with little and restrict the horizon of his happiness,
because of the fear lest happiness escape him? By no means; for the
wisdom is halting and sickly that can too freely renounce a legitimate
human hope. Many desires in man may be legitimate still,
notwithstanding the disapproval of reason, sometimes unduly severe. But
the fact that our happiness does not seem extraordinary to those about
us by no means warrants our thinking that we are not happy. The wiser
we are, the more readily do we perceive that happiness lies in our
grasp; that it has no more enviable gift than the uneventful moments it
brings. The sage has learnt to quicken and love the silent substance of
life. In this silent substance only can faithful joys be found, for
abnormal happiness never ventures to go with us to the tomb. The day
that comes and goes without special whisper of hope or happiness should
be as dear to us, and as welcome, as any one of its brothers. On its
way to us it has traversed the same worlds and the self-same space as
the day that finds us on a throne or enthralled by a mighty love. The
hours are less dazzling, perhaps, that its mantle conceals; but at
least we may rely more fully on their humble devotion. There are as
many eternal minutes in the week that goes by in silence, as in the one
that tomes boldly towards us with mighty shout and clamour. And indeed
it is we who tell ourselves all that the hour would seem to say; for
the hour that abides with us is ever a timid and nervous guest, that
will smile if its host be smiling, or weep if his eyes be wet. It has
been charged with no mission to bring happiness to us; it is we who
should comfort the hour that has sought refuge within our soul. And he
is wise who always finds words of peace that he can whisper low to his
guest on the threshold. We should let no opportunity for happiness
escape us, and the simplest causes of happiness should be ever stored
in our soul. It is well, at first, to know happiness as men conceive
it, so that, later